Oral Presentations Made Easy or
How to put an audience to sleep in five minutes
W. Hallett Dept. of Mechanical Engineering University of Ottawa How to put an audience to sleep
1. Organization/Preparation
Outline: Introduction Main body (divide into topics) Conclusions Acknowledgements - develop outline in terms of slides How to put an audience to sleep
1. Organization/Preparation Selection of material: - concentrate on important points (learning objectives!), avoid minor details - more content Â… more learning - graphs or data - give representative samples - each graph must have a purpose - equations - essential ones only - avoid derivations How to put an audience to sleep
1. Organization/Preparation Amount of material: - average 1 - 2 slides . 1 minute, longer for slides requiring more discussion - to shorten presentation, prioritize topics and slides, delete or combine lower priority ones
Plan slides so that they can also be your notes for speaking. You should be able to speak without hand-held notes How to put an audience to sleep
2. Graphics
40 pt. title
heading Layout: - uncluttered 32 pt. text - max. 12 lines or pieces of information per slide 6 minimum font . 24 pt. - put a title on each slide - number titles to indicate organization of talk blank space
- leave some blank space between sections or major points, figures, etc.
How to put an audience to sleep
2. Graphics Font: - plain Roman or Gothic (e.g. Arial) - use lower case: CAPITALS ARE HARDER TO READ - letter size $ 6% of slide size, thickness $ 1/6 of letter height - avoid bizarre fonts - you may think they look cool, but your audience won’t! How to put an audience to sleep
2. Graphics Graph imported directly from Quattro or Excel: How fast can you read legend and graph?
0.06
alcohol 0.04
acid
(do you like twisting your neck?)
aldehyde
0.02 0
100 200 300 molecular mass
How to put an audience to sleep
400
Can you distinguish these colours?
2. Graphics all titles horizontal 0.06
alcohols
thermal conductivity W/mK
acids aldehydes
0.04
paraffins (take out grid lines)
0.02
label curves directly no legend
0
How to put an audience to sleep
(lines thicker)
100 200 300 molecular mass
400
smaller font - 24 pt.
2. Graphics Graph conventions: - measured data = points (Q, O, L, Â , Â?, etc.) - exception: trace produced by continuously recording instrument (e.g. tensile test) - theory or calculations = lines or curves, not points (unless they are really only single points) - do not connect measured points by lines - if curves are drawn to show trends (use only if necessary) they should not join all the points How to put an audience to sleep
2. Graphics Graph imported directly from Quattro or Excel: theory - don’t show points
60 50 40 30
exp’t - take out lines
20 10 0 0
10
How to put an audience to sleep
20 30 radius (mm)
40
50
2. Graphics Graph cleaned up for presentation: 60 velocity (m/s) 40
theory line only measurements points only take out grid lines but leave ticks on axes title horizontal
20
measurements
0 0 How to put an audience to sleep
10
20 30 radius (mm)
40
50
always give UNITS
Experimental Apparatus exhaust gas chromatograph
gas sampling probe
secondary air jets (8)
refractory grate
fuel bed
plenum and grate can be lowered to sample bed
flow straightener
primary air How to put an audience to sleep
thermocouples (Type B, ceramic coated)
2. Graphics Problem slide: the microscopic fuzzy JPEG downloaded from the web - re-draw or omit.
Source: garbage JPEG from Hallett (2004)
Source: Mechanical Engineering
- credit source of figures copied from others as you would in a written report How to put an audience to sleep
2. Graphics Tables x
Title of Table 2x + 2 x^2
f(x)
A
1
4
1
1
B
2
6
4
3
C
3
8
9
7
D
4
10
16
13
E
5
12
25
21
- use tables only if you must - keep simple - can easily become too much information How to put an audience to sleep
2. Graphics Equations - use the minimum number of equations necessary to make your points - use adequate font size - use proper equation editor and notation - no “spreadsheet” equations (e.g. y = 2x^2 + a/b*x) - define any variables that are not likely to be familiar to your audience (this takes space don’t use more equations than necessary!) How to put an audience to sleep
Pyrolysis Model Gas-phase transport equation for tar:
blank space
Notation: YT = tar mass fraction, DT eff = tar diffusivity rT = tar reaction rate, g = void fraction Solid-phase conservation equation for mass fraction YW of unpyrolyzed wood:
How to put an audience to sleep
2. Graphics Colours: - avoid combinations with low contrast. - avoid red on green (colour-blindness) - avoid fluorescents
Bad choice - low contrast. Red on green - can you read this? Fluorescents are hard on the eyes Good contrast - easily readable How to put an audience to sleep
2. Graphics Animation -avoid unless essential to make your point otherwise it is just a silly gimmick that wastes time and makes your audience doubt your sanity or want to stuff you into your CD drive How to put an audience to sleep
2. Graphics Test for Slides: All slides should be readable from a distance from the computer screen of 6 times the screen diagonal (2 - 3 m) Plan your slides so that they can also be your notes for speaking
How to put an audience to sleep
3. Delivery - speak loudly, clearly, slowly - make eye contact with audience - don’t stand in front of the screen - if possible, speak without notes, using slides as outline/guide, but don't memorize your talk - don’t read your slides - introduce each graph and figure ( “this graph shows v plotted against time...”) How to put an audience to sleep
3. Delivery - if possible, try out room and equipment beforehand - show interest and enthusiasm! - acknowledge other contributors Questions - be polite, brief, to the point - don’t get into arguments - be honest - if you don’t know something, don’t stonewall How to put an audience to sleep