MINE 434 Project Report Course Notes

MINE 434 Department of Mining Engineering Queen’s University

PROJECT REPORT COURSE NOTES

© James F. Archibald, 2009

TABLE OF CONTENTS COURSE REQUIREMENTS Dates of Completion

……………………………………………………. 3 ……………………………………………………. 3

Thesis Topics, Approval Format ……………………………………………. 3 Grading and Presentations…………………………………………................. 4

GENERAL WRITING FORMAT FOR THESES …………………………………

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GENERAL PRESENTATION GUIDELINES FOR PAPERS, REPORTS AND THESIS DOCUMENTS ………………………………………………………………22 General Comments ………………………………………………………………23 Presentation Process

………………………………………………………28

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Course Requirements - MINE 434 (Project Report) A) Dates of Completion For those fourth year students registered in MINE 434 for the Winter term, 2010, the following target dates for submissions and completion are to be strictly adhered to: - Last day to voluntarily withdraw from course - Dates for public presentations (conference format) - Thesis copy submitted to Academic Advisor - Completed final thesis submitted to course supervisor (and last day of Winter term classes) -

February 27, 2010 March 27 & 28, 2010 April 2, 2010 April 9, 2009

NOTE: If you fail to submit your thesis copy to the course supervisor by the April 9, 2010 deadline date, you will receive a grade less than 50% and will not be permitted to graduate in the May convocation.

B) Thesis Topics, Approval Format and Grading B1) Topics and Supervision: Your topic must be related, in some way, to the fields of mining, mineral processing or mine/mechanical engineering. Topics may be selected in consultation with an Academic Advisor who must be an employee of Queen's University and a member of the Faculty of Applied Science.

Your Advisor need not be an academic member of the Department of Mining Engineering, but must be approached by you and be willing to act as a technical advisor for your work prior to commencing your thesis effort.

The Course Supervisor (Dr. J. F. Archibald) will maintain contact with all Academic Advisors and students throughout the course to ensure that projects are being developed in timely fashion according to the course schedule that has been outlined in Section (A) above. Validation of scheduled work will be made by submission of approval forms, and both draft and final versions of your thesis report.

B2) Approval Format: You will be provided with a supervisory approval form (Form #1) that you must get signed and dated by your chosen Academic Advisor early during the Winter term.

These forms must be returned to the Course Supervisor no later than January 18, 2010 (one week after the start of term).

A second approval form (Form #2) will also be given to you for presentation to and acknowledgement by your Academic Advisor when you submit your draft thesis copy to him/her for review (deadline for submission is April 2, 2010). This second form must be signed by your advisor upon completion of his/her review, and will include their suggested project technical grading (see Section (B3) following).

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B3) Grading: Grading of your thesis will be done in three parts: •Your Academic Advisor will submit one mark on the basis of his/her technical review of your submission. •The Course Supervisor will review each draft thesis document for overall style, formatting and presentation layout, and will submit a project mark on this basis. •An additional grading will be made on the basis of a presentation that you will be required to make at the end of Week #10 of term (March 27 and 28, 2010) to both staff of the Department of Mining Engineering and to your student peers.

Each grading component will be worth 1/3 of your total mark. Marks that you receive from your Academic Advisor and Course Supervisor will reflect the technical aspects of your thesis project. Presentation grading will reflect your ability to properly communicate concepts and information developed in your thesis to other students and staff and to appropriately utilize presentation media for these purposes.

C) Presentations (1) Presentations will be made using a conference/symposium format that is commonly used within the mining industry as a venue for information sharing between engineers, managers and others who seek information about a variety of industry-related topics and themes.

(2) All presentations will be made in a classroom setting through delivery of multiple sessions of six presentations each. Each student presentation, to be accomplished using PowerPoint or other approved style, will be a maximum of twenty (20) minutes in length. For each, 15 minutes of the time should be allocated for thesis delivery and 5 minutes for audience questions. Time limits will be strictly enforced.

(3) Each presentation session will have six (6) speakers, will be approximately 120 minutes in length, and will be presided over by academic staff (Session Chairs).

(4) Between sessions there will be a fifteen (15) minute break, during which juice, water of coffee will be made available to presenters and audience members. The initial session will begin at 8:00 a.m. on the morning of March 27. After the first two sessions have been completed (at approximately 12:15 p.m.), there will be a 50 minute break for lunch during which food will be made available to all attendees. Afternoon sessions will begin immediately following lunch at 1:00 p.m.

Format of Presentations Written Document One form of presentation will consist of a written thesis document that will have been reviewed by both your Academic Advisor and by the Course Supervisor before being accepted. This document must be written in a specific manner, as outlined in notes that 4

will be appended and/or made available on the Departmental public server (MINE 434 folder). Should you need additional information concerning the manner in which thesis documents are to be prepared, you may wish to review previous thesis copies (either in paper or electronic formats) that are held within the Departmental library, located within the General Office on the third floor of Goodwin Hall.

Please note that the final written submission must be in WORD format.

When final approval of your thesis report has been granted by both the Academic Advisor and Course Supervisor, and the final copy has been viewed to conform to the approved document format, an electronic copy of your thesis must be submitted to the Departmental Assistant (Mrs. Badger) for archival storage. NO copies need be submitted in hard (paper) form. You are personally responsible for making any bound copies that you may wish to keep for yourself. Regular updates on Departmental requirements for thesis binding will be posted in the General Office - it is your responsibility to keep informed concerning these requirements.

PowerPoint Format (or other delivery format) The second form of presentation will consist of an audio-visual summary of your thesis work. You will be personally responsible for all preparation work and visual aid development.

Each student will be assigned a time of presentation approximately two weeks prior to the actual day of presentations (March 15, 2010). It is your responsibility to prepare all audio-visual aids well in advance of the day on which you are to present.

This presentation will be judged on the basis of the quality of verbal and visual communication, your ability to summarize your topic adequately, in terms of technical language and conceptualization, and your capability to present all pertinent information within the limited time available. One or more awards will be made for best presentations as judged by conference attendees and technical reviewers.

All PowerPoint modules for each presenter must be downloaded onto a secure laptop two days prior to the presentation sessions, and all students must make sure that their presentation is supplied to and listed with Mr. Auchincloss before the conference starts. No time will be provided during the conference for late students to download their presentations – this is necessary to avoid disrupting other presenters during the conference.

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Please Note: •

The MINE 434 thesis is YOUR responsibility

•

You are responsible for finding a suitable topic on which to base your thesis

•

You must be sure to meet all deadline requirements for submission and be capable of finishing it on time

•

Final submission of the written document to the course supervisor must occur on or before April 9, 2010.

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General Writing Format for Theses

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THESIS TITLE

by

Your Name

A thesis submitted to the Department of Mining Engineering in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science

Queen's University Kingston, Ontario, Canada Month, Year

Copyright Š Your Name, Year

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ABSTRACT

(Text to be single spaced, approximately 300-400 words maximum, right and left justified)

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

(Text to be double spaced, right and left justified - this page is optional)

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Chapter 1.

INTRODUCTION 1.1

1.2 2.

3.

Title of First Section ..................................

1

1.1.1

1

Title of First Sub-section ………………………………

Title of Second Section ..............................................................

3

2.1

Title of First Section ....................

12

2.2

Section Titles Longer Than One Line Are Handled in This Fashion ................................

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PROCEDURE .............................................

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ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS 4.1

5

1

SOME RELATED READINGS

3.1 4.

…………………………………………………….

........................................

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SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 5.1

Summary ...................................

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5.2

Conclusions ............................

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5.2

Recommendations ……………………

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REFERENCES Appendix A.

32 TITLE OF FIRST APPENDIX

A.1

Title of First Section .......................

36

A.2

Title of Second Section ......................

42

Appendix B. B.1

TITLE OF SECOND APPENDIX Title of First Section ................................

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LIST OF TABLES Page Table 1.

First table title ...........................

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2.

Second table title ...........................

25

3.

Third table title .............................

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(capitalize only the initial letter of the first title word; all other words are in lower case lettering)

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LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1.

First figure title ...........................

12

2.

Second figure title ...........................

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3.

Third figure title .............................

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(capitalize only the initial letter of the first title word; all other words are in lower case lettering)

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CHAPTER 1 (centred and bolded, all capitals)

1. INTRODUCTION (left justified, as shown, and bold, all capitals) 1.1

Title of First Section (indented, first letter of each word capitalized) 1.1.1

Title of Sub-section (double indent, first letter of each word capitalized)

Typing of text starts here, one space down from the title, indented five spaces. Text is always double spaced; quotations are indented five spaces from each of the right and left margins and are single spaced. When making reference to a paper, book or other source, it should be referred to within the text in the following fashion using the example: “ .. as demonstrated by (Rielo, 2007) and by (Rielo et al., 2006).” For the first reference, only one author exists; for the second reference, more than one author is listed for the reference, with detailed names for all being presented in the Reference section. References are provided using the author’s name(s) and year of publication.

When introducing figures (graphs, charts, drawings or photographs) or tables into the text, reference must be made to them first, then the figures or tables must be added into the text body as close as possible following the reference.

Figure titles (see Figure 1) are always placed below the figure, while table titles (see Table 1) always appear above the table, as shown.

Fig. 1. Variation in sample strength response.

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Table 1. Sample tables with values.

Year 2001 2002 2003 2004

Production (tonnes) 57,000 107,000 113,000 161,000

1.1.2

Capacity (tonnes) 86,000 140,000 150,000 190,000

Title of Second Sub-section

Add text as written and shown in the previous section.

1.2

Title of Second Section 1.2.1

Title of First Sub-section

1.2.2

Title of Second Sub-section

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CHAPTER 2 2. HEADING TITLE 2.1

Title of First Section 2.1.1

Title of First Sub-section

Typing of text starts here, one double space down from the title, indented five spaces. Text is always double spaced; long quotations are indented five spaces from each of the right and left margins and are single spaced.

2.1.2

Title of Second Sub-section

Text as above .....................

2.2

Title of Second Section 2.2.1

Title of First Sub-section

.......................

(continue in similar fashion for all remaining chapters of the text)

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5. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Typing of text starts here, one double space down from the title, indented five spaces. Text is always double spaced; long quotations are indented five spaces from each of the right and left margins and are single spaced.

5.1

Summary

Typing of text starts here, one double space down from the title, indented five spaces. Text is always double spaced; long quotations are indented five spaces from each of the right and left margins and are single spaced.

5.1

Conclusions

5.3

Recommendations

Typing of text starts here, one double space down from the title, indented five spaces. Text is always double spaced; long quotations are indented five spaces from each of the right and left margins and are single spaced.

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REFERENCES Anderson, C. R., 1970. An experiment on mining applications of cut-and-fill stoping techniques. Journal of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, 695(3), pp. 75-86.

Anderson, C. R. and Read, C. M., 1976.

Contemporary mining techniques. In E. B. Wilson (Ed.), Mining Issues and Technology (pp. 765-789). Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Canadian Mining Association.

Baker, T. D. and Smith, R. S., 1987. Elements of Mining (3rd ed.). Toronto: J. S. Wiley and Sons.

Rielo, O. 2007. A study of contemplative behaviour of students during blasting laboratory sessions. Queen’s University Mining Engineering Press. Internal Course Document, April, 2007.

Rielo, O. and Archibald, J. F., 2006. Methods of initiating positive study behaviour in students through aggressive management practices – two by four technology development. Journal of the International Society of Applied Psychiatry. Vol. 3, No. 124. April, 2006. pp. 127-135.

All references are listed alphabetically, using the author’s surname first, followed by the author’s initials and year of publication etc. Titles of papers have only the first word of the title capitalized, with all other words being in lower case. Titles of books may have initial letters of all words capitalize, as shown in the third reference.

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APPENDIX A

TITLE OF FIRST APPENDIX

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A.1

Title of First Appendix Section

Typing of text starts here, one double space down from the title, indented five spaces. Text is always double spaced; long quotations are indented five spaces from each of the right and left margins and are single spaced.

A.2

Title of Second Appendix Section

.................................... (continue in similar fashion)

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VITA

Name: Place and Year of Birth:

A. Burley Miner Toronto, Canada, 1985

Education:

Queen's University, 2004-2008: B.Sc. (Distinction) 2008.

Experience:

Researcher for Underground Support Systems (Queen's Environmental Research Engineer (Queen's University), 2006-07.

Continue here ……..

Awards:

Canadian Mining Industry Education Foundation Scholarship, 2005.

Continue here ….

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U

General Presentation Guidelines for Papers, Reports or Thesis Documents

Department of Mining Engineering Queen's University at Kingston (2008)

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Presenting a Professional Paper, Report or Thesis Document TIPS and GUIDELINES* * - Adapted from "Presenting a Professional Paper at a Scientific Meeting - Authors Tips and Guidelines"; 37th U.S. Rock Mechanics Symposium - Rock Mechanics for Industry, Vail, Colorado, June, 1999.

GENERAL COMMENTS: - A good presentation will not conceal poor scholarship, but a poor presentation can negate even a very good job of research.

- A presentation consists of two parts: the things you tell your audience and the things you show them.

Generally, you will tell your audience your findings and why they are important, and show them photographs, charts and diagrams to reinforce what you are telling them.

- Since your formal paper may be read in various proceedings, you should use your presentation as a "discussion" rather than a "reading". Verbal presentations read from technical papers come across as dull and monotonous. Consequently, you need to prepare a separate script for your talk.

Things You Tell Your Audience: - You must provide that context and framework yourself. Give your colleagues a brief outline of what you intend to cover before you launch into the main topic of your work. The overall outline of your presentation should be an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. The topic is more colourfully expressed this may.

- Tell them what you are going to tell them - Tell them again - Tell them what you told them.

- Rehearse your presentation preferably at the location where you will give it. Monitor timing. Check sequence and orientation of visuals. Practice the use of projectors, remote control, pointers, microphones, and light switches, even if audiovisual assistance is available. Recheck your visuals shortly before your presentation.

- Plan to rehearse several times - alone, with a friend, with coworkers, with your boss, or with your department colleagues (and practice with a microphone whenever possible).

- In rehearsal, the primary task is to find out how you sound. If possible, record and play back your talk.

Listen for words with fugitive sounds that are hard to say or difficult to comprehend and replace them with words that come through loud and clear. Keep in mind that you are speaking to an audience. If you are a member of that audience you would appreciate a presentation that is clearly communicated to you in conversational language.

- Also, practice varying your speaking level and intonation. Instead of speaking in a monotone, let your voice emphasize key points. Rehearse your talk with your slides until you can practically ignore your notes.

- Remember that your talk is a combined verbal/visual presentation. Let the slides carry the message visually at points throughout your presentation but do not completely rely on the visuals. After the audience has had time to comprehend a slide and you are elaborating on a subject, it is most effective if you do not have the competition of the projected image. Use a blank slide at those times.

- Look in a mirror to observe your gestures, stance, and facial expressions. Use your hands only when you want to emphasize specific points. Pace your rate of speaking according to the familiarity of your subject. When introducing something new, slow down.

- After rehearsing alone, practice in front of your associates at a formal session. Rehearsals with an audience will help you discover how listeners will react. They can tell you where to polish, where to put

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in another visual, and when to offer more explanation. Have someone help you time your rehearsals, and then trim or extend the material as required to keep your presentation within the time limits. Ask your rehearsal audience to think of questions that may come up. Make a list of probable questions the conference audience might ask, as this will help you during the discussion period after your talk.

- The audience at the symposium will be a group of professionals, all of them interested as proven by their presence. But remember that many of them may not be well versed in your particular topic. They came to learn from you. Address your talk to them, not to colleagues familiar with your work!

- You should go through it at least three or four times, including once the day it is to be given. Get a colleague to listen to the presentation and note any awkwardness so that you can make corrections. This is also the way to be sure your presentation fits in the allotted time and that the things you say match the things you show.

- As you practice your presentation, pay attention to what your voice is doing, perhaps even taperecording yourself. Even the best notes won't save a paper delivered in a monotone or a whisper. A little attention beforehand will let you avoid those fatal flaws.

- Talk to your colleagues, not over their heads or at them. The easiest way to do this is to pick four or five interested-looking people in various parts of the room and talk directly to each of them for a part of the presentation.

- You will have a limited amount of time to present your paper. If you go over your allotted time, you will be wasting the time of your colleagues, and they will resent it. If you go more than a minute or two over time the session chair will ask you to stop speaking. If that happens, the only thing the audience will remember is that you had to be told to quit.

- Prevent this by ruthlessly paring your material until you can deliver your talk in the allotted time in front of the mirror at home. Then cut out another minute. If all goes well, you can use that minute for questions. If you have to start late or have projector trouble you'll be thankful for that minute's grace.

- You have the options of presenting your paper as a slide or computer presentation. For slide projector presentations, horizontal formats are recommended for best viewing. For computer presentations. speakers are asked to bring their own computers. Overhead transparency presentations are allowed, but they are not encouraged.

Speakers' Instructions: - Please attend any authors' pre-presentation meeting prior to your session to meet your session chair and/or co-chair. Provide them with a brief biographical sketch that will be used to introduce you.

- Please cooperate with your session chair in keeping your presentation to the time limit for regular sessions. This includes a presentation and discussion period following the formal presentation of your paper.

- Please do not ask the session chair to reschedule your paper within the session. Many attenders schedule their attendance at various sessions in accordance with the printed times listed in the official program. Session chairs can't re-schedule.

- Be sure that your presentation is easy to understand for the entire audience, including non-native English speaking attenders.

Some tips on delivery: - Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.

- Visit the presentation room ahead of time to become familiar with the area where you will be speaking and any equipment that you will be using.

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- You should know what you are going to say before you actually present, but you don't need to memorize your paper or presentation. Don't read your paper to the audience.

- Give the audience a moment to become oriented with each slide before continuing.

- Choose a natural comfortable pose when speaking. Keep your body "open" to the audience (i.e.,- do not put your hands in your pockets or fold your arms across your body; don't lean on the podium).

- Establish eye contact with the audience before you start and maintain it throughout your presentation.

- Avoid nervous or annoying mannerisms and expressions. Rehearsing the presentation will help reveal these.

- Breathe deeply, and project your voice to the back of the room.

- Enunciate - don't mumble.

- Speak enthusiastically.

- Stay within your time limit - be courteous to fellow speakers and the audience.

- Try to speak slowly - most presenters speak more quickly than they realize.

- Face your audience. Never speak towards the screen. Overhead projectors especially help you to face the audience. If you want to point to a place, do it directly on the overhead transparency, not on the screen.

- Dress appropriately. If you are not sure what is appropriate then find out ahead of time. It's possible to be over-dressed and it's possible to be under-dressed.

- Check out the room ahead of time. Make sure you know how to operate any equipment you'll be using and make sure it's working properly.

- Avoid technical jargon unless you're sure it is familiar to the audience. Use simple straightforward sentences. Explain clearly the real meaning of any statistics, numbers, charts or graphs that you use.

- Make the message of each visual aid clear. Beware of including too much. Keep them simple.

- DO NOT READ the visual aids. Use them to focus attention on key points.

- When using an overhead projector, guide your audience through the transparency by uncovering portion by portion with a sheet of paper. Uncovering prevents your audience from reading the whole overhead transparency instead of listening to you.

- Vary your presentation by including photographs (colour slides) of real-life situations.

- If you have to use both slide and overhead projectors, present your visuals in portions of slides and portions of overhead transparencies. Do not switch back and forth between slide and overhead projectors.

- Use pointers only when you need them, for example, when the audience cannot easily see what you are talking about. Do not use pointers routinely throughout a presentation.

- After each use, return the pointer to its place. If you are nervous, hold the pointer close to your body.

- If you use an electrical pointer, don't distract your audience by uncontrolled illumination of the screen, wall, ceiling or people. Switch the pointer off after each use.

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- If you use an overhead projector, place a small pointer, such as a pen or pencil, directly over the transparency. Leave it at places where you want to give emphasis.

- If you have a fixed microphone, keep at a uniform distance from it and face it as you speak. With a lapel mike, you have more freedom of movement but you must remember to face your body in the same direction as your head when you speak. Normally, of course, this is towards the audience. If you talk while looking back at the screen, the mike pickup will be poor, and if you then look down at your notes and speak you will "blast" the mike. Face the audience and speak distinctly with normal volume.

Furthermore, do not use the optical pointer if you are nervous. When you use a pointer, point to an object when first mentioning it, then turn the pointer off. Otherwise, it causes too much of a distraction.

Guidelines for Making Group Presentations - Recognize the special challenges of presenting as a team.

- Team presentations pose some tough problems, particularly if the presentation lasts 20 minutes or less.

Too often, each presenter develops his or her segment without sufficient attention to the whole. As a result the audience sees four or five "mini" presentations rather than one effectively focused one. For a group presentation to be successful, the participants must carefully orchestrate the process from concept through delivery.

- Team members should meet to develop strategy, set objectives, and decide on the best arrangement before anyone begins to develop a particular segment.

- Choose your best speakers to present.

- Remember: the more speakers you have, the more carefully you need to rehearse.

- Carefully, orchestrate the logistics.

-Decide how long each speaker will speak, how the presentation will move from one speaker to another, how presenters will dress, and where presenters will sit or stand when not speaking.

- Spend extra time on transitions from one speaker to another.

- Check to see that each speaker connects his or her content to the previous speaker's material, and preview the next speaker's material.

- Pay close attention to time.

- If one or more speakers runs long, team members need to adjust their own material to remain within the proper time frame.

- Make visuals consistent in format, tone and appearance.

- Create a unified look in visuals: same font and type size, same colour scheme, and same graphical style.

- Ensure that the visuals on display match what the speaker is discussing, especially if one team member manages the visuals for all speakers.

- Decide who will moderate the questions and who will answer them.

- Rephrase or restate questions to the audience.

- Provide succinct but complete answers.

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- Make eye contact with the entire audience.

- Treat the audience with patience and respect.

- Time is not available for a paper to be read in full and, even if it were, word-for-word presentation is not effective.

Giving Your Talk: - Oral communication depends largely on what listeners receive through their eyes. If you are alert, enthusiastic and confident, your audience will sense it. Be eager to share information and you will convince your audience. Do not read your paper. Instead, converse with your audience as you might talk in a conversation.

-With a well-prepared, well-rehearsed talk, supported by clear, readable visual aids, you can be confident of giving an excellent technical presentation that may enlighten and educate your audience. Your presentation and your paper will enhance your professional reputation and bring credit to your company, university, or yourself.

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PRESENTATION PROCESS Introduction The success of any lecture session is largely a function of the quality of the professional papers presented.

As with all professional meetings, there is usually variability in the quality of the visual aids used in the talks. This is especially frustrating when someone has good material but has poor graphics and a poor presentation. The following tips and guidelines are provided to help you produce and present the highest quality talk.

Choice of Visual Aids Presentation rooms are usually equipped with a podium, slide projectors, screens, high density overhead projectors and/or LCD computer projectors, plus light pointers and possibly microphones.

You have the options of presenting your session as a slide or computer presentation. For slide projector presentations, horizontal formats are recommended for best viewing. For computer presentations. speakers are asked to bring their own laptop computers. Overhead transparency presentations are allowed, however, they are not encouraged.

Selecting the Type of Visual Aids 35 mm Slides Suited for small to very large audiences. dim to no light preferable, podium-style presentation, and minimal question and answer needs.

35mm slides are best suited for use in venues with controlled lighting. They allow the speaker clean, smooth-flowing presentation visuals. High-resolution film recorders give colours that are rich and vibrant and text that is crisp, even in the corners! With a remote slide advance control, the speaker presents virtually hands-free. Audiences give their full attention to the presenter's words and visuals.

35mm slides are the easiest to use and have a highly professional look.

Presenters using slides are perceived as "more professional" than those using overhead transparencies.

Typical problems with slide presentations include: out of focused slides; going backwards instead of forwards on remote; trying to use two slide projectors and changing the slide on the wrong projector; out of order slides; upside down or backward slides; slides sticking in the projector; and, the dumped upside down or lost slide carousel.

Computer Presentation Software (like MS Power Point) Modem computer presentation software (like MS Power Point or Corel Draw Presentation) allows for the rapid generation of professional quality visuals.

Computer presentations allow for incorporation of short film clips and other special effects that can add to the quality of the presentation.

These presentations also overcome many of the problems associated with slides. It is more difficult to have electronic slides upside down or backwards, out of order, sticking in the projector etc.

Electronic Presentation Delivery:

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Suited for most audience sizes but lower clarity of the visuals will dictate larger text sizes for legibility, dim light, podium-style presentations.

Drawbacks include expensive rental and timely set-up of projection devices if given to large audiences and more technically challenging built-in safeguards.

It may take longer to change presentations between speakers than with slides.

You should bring your own notebook computer and run data projection directly from it. Bring both a licensed copy of the application and the file containing your slides.

Typical problems with computer presentations include: unfamiliarity with presentation software; unreadable or lost presentation files; and lengthy LCD panel warm-up time.

Overhead Transparencies Overhead transparencies are suited for small to medium-sized audiences (classroom-sized areas) and hands-on presentation style, where the audience will be asked to take notes or participate during the presentation. They are preferable to slides when you have to give your presentation under daylight conditions or when your presentation contains massive volumes of data.

Overhead transparencies are the most effective visual medium for classroom-sized areas. For larger rooms, you may want to use slides.

Overhead transparencies are more suitable than slides when the presenter has no control over the level of light in the room.

Overheads are still quite commonly used, since they are effective (particularly, when they are in colour), relatively inexpensive. reliable, and easy to produce (particularly when they are created using a computer-based presentation package like PowerPoint).

Colours on overheads are typically not as vibrant and text is not as crisp due to the lower resolution available on a colour printer.

There is a tendency to speak longer than the time allowed using overhead transparencies than with other visual aids.

If the presenter is familiar with overhead projectors, there are traditionally fewer problems with overhead transparencies than other visual aids. Additionally, it is a good idea to back up other visual aids with a set of transparencies, should problems develop.

GENERAL - Good visuals reinforce the spoken message - they do not convey the entire message.

- Have a presentation plan.

Suggested Slides/Transparency Options - Title Slide - Purpose Slide - Outline Slide - Conclusion Slide -

The first slide in your presentation must contain the title of the paper and the The second slide should state the purpose of the work you will describe (ie. - the problem you have addressed).

The third slide should present a concise outline of your presentation.

The last slide in your presentation should state your major conclusions.

- Keep it simple, clean, and concise - Keep it large and legible

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a

- Don't overwhelm your audience with unnecessary detail - Words and graphics on visual aids should be kept simple - complex ideas belong in a paper.

- Stick to the auto layouts when you can - Avoid overcrowding.

- Use (but don't abuse) available technology to produce visuals.

- Use spell checking and then proofread - Keep to one or two major points per visual aid - Limit the use of sub-topic text to a few phrases per subject - Use duplicates when you need to refer to a visual more than once - When you digress from the topic of the slide on the screen, use a blank, coloured or shaded slide, not a white one, to darken the screen - Make visuals really visual. Don't rely on numbers and words. Use charts, graphs, pictures and colour - Remember, if a picture is worth a thousand words, don't give your audience the thousand words as well.

- Refine your images to show off the most important points - anything else is a distraction - If appropriate, reveal the image in stages, focusing on what you want your audience to consider - If you are using an overhead projector, put a pointer on the glass, leave it, and move away - Use less textual input and more graphics - If you are presenting more than one talk, please prepare and submit a visual aid set for each.

- Use as few types of visual aids as you can - don't switch back and forth between types of visual aids - Visuals must be free of any grammatical, typographic or spelling errors - use your spell checker.

- Neatness counts - Prepare a separate copy for slides or transparencies - Good visuals are rarely possible from material included in the report or paper upon which it is based - Printed or typed illustrations tend to contain too much and are generally too small - Limit each slide or overhead to one idea and a maximum of 15 words - you want the audience listening, not reading - Give your figures credibility by discreetly identifying their source - Make visuals big, bold and brilliant - fill the screen or chart - Make your main points stand out and use colour to emphasize them - Use consistent format - wording, capitalization, colour scheme and type styles

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- Most of all - when presenting a paper, DO NOT READ IT! Format - Use a horizontal 35mm slide format for slide and computer presentations. Horizontal slides make maximum use of the upper part of the screen.

- Vertical slides should be avoided.

- Width of the visual should be about 1.5 times the height. Note that this is the shape of most screens.

- Have the text of your visual aids set flush left, ragged right (ie.- non- justified).

- Use short, bulleted points, not paragraphs - Sub-titles and bullets - five bullets maximum and use only two levels of bullets Text Size - Avoid small text - use large fonts from 18 to 24 points minimum - Bold text is preferable to underlined text.

- TEXT WHICH IS ALL IN CAPITALS IS HARD TO READ - use upper and lower case - Be sure that all lines on drawings are dark and wide enough to be seen.

- As a rule-of-thumb, if you can read a 35-mm slide when held at arm's length in front of you, it will be readable by the audience in a normal-sized room.

- A type size rule-of-thumb: Make headings 20% larger than text.

- Consider using all bold type so that it will more easily stand out from a dark background.

Colour - Use colour carefully.

- Black backgrounds cause problems and dark blue works best for slides or computer presentations - Red and blue appear to 'jump' when used together.

- Blue or red type is difficult to read (the most readable combination is yellow type on a dark background).

- Red text on a dark background is very hard to read for a slide or on screen presentation.

- Avoid red letters completely.

- The best readability comes from high contrast of intensity rather than by clashes of colour.

- A dark background with light lettering generally works best for 35mm slides.

- Limit the number of colours to three or four per slide.

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- Do not use combinations of red/green or brown/grey.

- The foreground should contrast sharply with the background.

- Choose and stick with one colour palette throughout the presentation.

- Use coloured backgrounds rather than white or clear (black is very effective as a background colour).

- Use a dull colour such as grey to display axes, tick marks and grids to avoid distracting from charted data itself.

- To highlight text on a dark background use either a bolder font or a bright yellow, yellow/orange or white colour.

Background - Keep the background simple Fonts/Symbols/Tables - Use readable fonts and stay away from the fancy stuff - Recommend fonts are Bookman, Futura, Century Schoolbook, Palatino, Helvetica, Book Antiqua, Courier, Times New Roman (serif) or Arial (sans serif).

- Vary typefaces with restraint - use them only to emphasize.

- Choose a type style for the main textual elements including title, subtitle, bulleted text and text for labelling graphics or charts. If you are giving this presentation electronically, make sure the fonts you select are highly legible in the smallest size you will be using.

- Symbolic diagrams and flow charts are useful if not too detailed. Use standard symbols if possible.

- Tables are generally not effective.

- Do not use detailed tables. Tabular data is more legible and more easily compared on graphs or charts, if you must use a table. Keep it simple and include only items that you will mention.

- Remember: no more than 3-4 columns and no more than 5-6 rows.

- Do not use more than 10 - 15 words on a table.

- If you must use a table in a visual aid, show only those figures you specifically mention in your table (don't photocopy or photograph entire tables from reports).

- Metric units are preferred. Use colour, italics or bold face to highlight numbers of importance, especially if you want to draw the audience's attention to them while you are talking.

- The table should not fill the whole display area. Leave large gaps at the edges to allow for low screens and obstructed views.

- If you cannot understand your graphic neither will your audience. Keep it simple and sparse. If necessary use two simple tables or two slides rather than one complex one.

- Perhaps the data could be better presented as a chart or graph.

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Photographs - If photographs are to be used, be sure they are uncluttered and close-up views.

Schematics - Schematic drawings are often too detailed. You can modify and simplify the drawings to illustrate only the point you are making, leaving out unnecessary details.

- Simple schematic diagrams effectively convey the structure of systems or relationships of objects. Show only what is necessary to explain how a thing works.

Equations - Equations, by themselves, are not an effective visual aid. You can make an equation more visually appealing by adding pictorial elements.

Charts and Graphs - Bar, pie, and line charts that are too busy can confuse the audience.

- Organizational charts cannot be read - simplify the chart to show only the segments you are discussing.

- Graphs or charts should be read from the bottom.

- Show a few grid lines to aid in reading a graph or chart.

Pie Charts - Pie charts are good for showing relative parts of the whole.

- Limit pie charts to no more than 6 slices.

- Avoid showing slices of less than 10% of the total. Combine all these into an "other" category.

- When possible, use colour rather than hatching to distinguish pieces of the pie.

Bar Charts - Bar graphs are best for comparing magnitudes.

- Keep multiple bars and stacked bars to a minimum since they are harder to understand - the audience should be able to read and understand your chart in less than 30 seconds.

- Provide a legend or label the bars directly.

- Limit the number of bars shown on a bar chart and provide adequate spacing between them.

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Line and Area Charts - Line graphs show trends or correlation effectively.

- Limit line charts to no more than 5 lines for readability.

- Whenever possible, differentiate lines by colour and thickness rather than by symbols to avoid clutter.

- Include only those data that illustrate the point you want to make - don't overdo it in one chart.

- Position labels horizontally rather than vertically.

- Whenever possible, label bars and lines directly rather than using legends for faster understanding.

- Keep "decorations" such as tick marks, grids and labels to a minimum.

- Divide the axis into units that are multiples of two, five or ten for ease of interpretation.

- Make sure that charts are simple and readable. Axes should be labelled and units should be included.

- Use the 3D effect included with many presentation graphics packages sparingly.

- Even if the chart makes a clear point, repeat the point in clear English on the graphic. A little overstatement never hurt.

- Place no more than four simultaneous symbols, values or lines on a graph.

- Make each line or symbol clearly distinguishable from the rest and label it prominently.

- Label axes, include an appropriate number of reference ticks, and label their values in a logical manner. e.g.- 0, 10, 20, 30, not 0. 00, 1. 5, 3.97, 6.256. etc.

- Make the lines sufficiently bold as to be visible from a distance. Use colour if possible. Avoid cross hatching and diagonal shading on graphs. Too little shading always works better than too much shading.

Maps - If a map exists that meets your specifications, use it! Do not use home drawn graphics if superior professional maps already exist. You can still add emphasis or highlight a feature with colour. Do not violate map copy-rights. However, many government maps are public domain and may be copied freely.

How Many Slides?

- Use the minimum number of slides that will allow you to convey the essence of your paper to your audience.

- Allow 2-3 minutes of viewing time per slide, so that everyone in the audience has a chance to appreciate slide contents and the presenter has enough time to get through the materials.

Specifics for Preparing 35mm Slides - As a rule-of-thumb, if you can read a 35mm slide when held at arm's length in front of you, it will be readable by the audience in a normal-sized room.

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- Limit the information on each slide to a single point or idea.

- Keep slides simple with plenty of open space. Space between lines should be at least the height of capital letters.

- Limit messages to seven lines or less - do not use more than seven words per line.

- Do not crowd the slide - two or more simple slides are better than seven words per line.

- If you must use illustrative materials, try to use simple graphs with a limited number of captions.

- Simplify - Simplify - Simplify: Your entire presentation should not be on the slides. The slides should support your talk and add emphasis to your important points.

- Arrive for your session early enough to check the room size and the slide projector or overhead projector. Make sure you understand how to focus the projector and advance the slides.

- Plan on a forward only sequence - do not go backwards - duplicate a slide you wish to refer back to and place the copy in sequence in the presentation.

- Several software applications provide pre-formatted slide templates for creating 35mm slides for the non-designer. All the difficult decisions regarding fonts, colours and page layout have been made so an end user need only add their text and graphics to create a custom slide presentation.

- When designing a presentation from scratch, be sure to use background and text colours that have a great deal of contrast from one another. Dark background colours with bright text and graphics make dramatic presentation visuals. Lighter background colours with dark text and graphics are suited for rooms where the presentation invites audience participation. A light background colour adds to the ambient light in the room.

- Avoid using bright, vibrant colours such as red, gold, bright blue or bright green as background colours.

While these might look acceptable on a computer screen, projected up to 6 metres wide they can be quite overwhelming to the eyes of an audience. Dark blue or black are by far the most popular slide background colours. These colours complement almost all other colours and bright text and graphics really "pop" off of them.

- It is tempting to use a variety of fonts and colours to make a presentation more appealing to an audience, but changing fonts and colours from slide to slide is actually quite distracting. Developing page layouts and a colour scheme and adhering to them throughout the presentation will keep the audience focused on the speaker's message, not on what font the next title will be in or what background colour might next appear.

- A good rule of thumb for fonts is to keep sizes, colours and placement consistent. Try to use no more than three complementary fonts in a presentation, ie.- one for titles, one for subtitles and one for text and graph labels.

- Slides should be duplicates not originals. Originals should be kept in a safe place in case of loss or damage.

- Thumb spot slides: Hold slide as it reads correctly to you, write sequence number on lower left corner of the mount. This gives the projectionist the correct corner to hold when placing the slide in the carousel tray (upper right). Similarly, placing a red dot in the upper right-hand corner on the back (lampside) helps avoid mixups during presentation.

- Keep slides simple with plenty of open space. An uncluttered appearance is essential.

- Space between lines should be a minimum of the height of a capital letter.

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- Limit message to seven lines or less.

- Legibility will be increased if there are contrasts in brightness and tone between illustrations and background. Colour combinations that increase visibility include white on medium blue and black on yellow. Never use black on a dark background.

- Avoid using red and green next to each other.

- Avoid garish colours, cold colours (e.g.- blue), disappearing colours (e.g.- yellow) and colours at opposite ends of the spectrum which 'jump' (e.g.- red on green). Also, be aware that a portion of the audience may have red/green/brown colour blindness. These colours should not be placed on top of each other because they will not stand out, but depending on their intensity, will blend into each other (e.g.- a red dot on a green background will not be seen).

- If a graphic is important enough to use, leave it on the screen long enough for the audience to read it. Do not remove the graphic and talk to a blank screen.

- Text on each slide should reflect the main points of your presentation. Bulleted items are intended to introduce or summarize key points. Keep them 4-6 words long.

- It is best to leave approximately 5 cm margin around the top, bottom, and sides of your page. This invisible border will allow for film slippage within a plastic slide mount, cut-off area on an overhead mount, and assure you that titles, text and graphics won't be cut off.

Using a Slide Projector - If bringing your own slide tray, make sure the tray fits the projector. Don't leave anything to chance try it out ahead of time to be sure.

- Make sure all slides are oriented correctly.

- If using a remote control, check ahead of time to make sure it works.

- Talk to your audience, not to the screen - Avoid reading your slides. Slides supplement your talk, not the other way around.

- Use a pointer. Never stand in front of the screen to point at something with your finger.

Specifics for Preparing a Computer Presentation - Use PowerPoint or Presentation automatic formats whenever possible.

- Keep all images and text away from the edge of the slide, or they may be cropped by the slide mount.

Recommend keeping 3 cm margins (when viewed on a 4 m screen) - All slides should be part of a single PowerPoint or Presentation file.

- Follow guidelines for 35mm slides Text Slides - For readability, adhere to the following formatting standards: - Slide title -- 28 point or larger, Bold or extra Bold

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- Main bullets -- 24 point or larger - The lowest level of subtopic should be no smaller than 18 point - Font -- A simple sans serif font such as Helvetica works best for slides.

Audio-Visual Elements Make sure that sounds and video clips are relevant. If you overload the audience with sensory "candy" viewers may not retain the message. Most sound special effects like 'chirps' when slides are changed are inappropriate for a professional presentation. Hide sound objects until they play. Keep all objects visible, even when they are not playing. If a video object is hidden, it will distract the audience when it pops up on screen to play.

Specifics for Producing Overhead Transparencies - To use slide artwork (produced at these specs) for overhead transparencies, enlarge to 170%. This size enlarges the 14-pt. type to 24-pt. type.

Suggested Overhead Transparency Layout - Overheads with text Title - 36/36 pt. (point size/leading). Helvetica Bold. The baseline of the title is 2 cm from the top.

Subtitles - 24/36 pt. (point size leading), Helvetica Bold. The baseline of the subtitle is 5 cm from the top with a one line title and 6 cm from the top with a two line title.

Text - 24/36 pt. (point size leading), Helvetica Regular. The baseline of the text begins 5 cm from the top with a one line title and 6 cm from the top with a two line title.

- If the bulleted information is more than one line, use 24/24 pt. (point size leading) with 36 pts. leading to the baseline of the next line of text.

- Use a 8.3 pt. (cap height of 10 pt. text) solid round bullet to highlight text. The bullet hangs in the left margin with one character space between the bullet and the first letter of the text.

- Use a hyphen to further subdivide text. Align the hyphen flush left with the text, leaving one character space between the hyphen and the subtext.

Charts: Type sizes within charts will vary depending on the size of the chart. All text within the chart is upper and lower case, flush left, ragged right.

- Regardless of how they are produced, some of your overheads should be text or a mixture of text and graphics. These would include a visual title page (which gives introductory information like the title of your presentation and your name), and an overview page which previews your presentation's structure and main sections. The latter can be used several times during the course of a longer presentation to reorient your audience.

- Other overheads will likely be charts, graphs, tables, photos, or other image-based material. Regardless of the specific type you are using, make sure that each illustrates or underscores a main point within your presentation.

- Finally, do not crowd material onto visual aids - keep them free of visual clutter.

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Using an Overhead Projector - Layer your overheads with tissue or paper between each transparency to keep them from sticking to each other.

- Number transparencies sequentially.

- To point out specific items in your overheads, lay a pencil on the transparency. Avoid using your finger to point.

- Turn off the overhead projector once the audience has read and understood the chart - you want the audience to focus on you, not the overhead.

- Tiny hand movements become enormous by the time they reach the screen, so follow the sequence: on with the visual; on with the pointer; deal with the topic; off with the pointer; off with the visual.

Visual Aids Do's and Don'ts Do...

1. Do keep your text to a minimum. Your audience should be able to read your visual fast, as if they were passing a billboard at 100 kph.

2. Do always rehearse your presentation with your visuals. Handle them smoothly like they have special value. Mark your notes indicating where to show each one and where to remove it.

3. Do use large letters on all visuals from flip charts to computer projections - space is good, being legible is better.

4. Do use your company's logo on the title slide only 5. Do check your visuals for correct spelling, correct facts and correct numbers.

6. Do make your graphics simple. Whether a pie, bar or line chart, any should be easy to see and a fast read.

7. Do number your transparencies when using an overhead projector, and number your slides when using a 35mm projector.

8. Do refer to notes, not your visual, when delivering your presentation. Refer to index cards, refer to post-it notes that you can also use to bookmark your flip chart page, refer to hard copies of an overhead, or refer to the paper that is included in the conference proceedings. Do refer. Don't read.

9. Do learn about new technology, and what equipment is out there that you should use to accommodate the audiences you face.

Don't...

1. Don't use visuals as a crutch to take the eyes of the audience away from you - use each visual for a good reason.

2. Don't use visuals as your script. That means don't read. Face your audience and maintain eye contact as they look at you and the screen.

3. Don't switch from horizontal to vertical slide formats and back. Be consistent throughout each presentation.

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4. Don't put too much information on your slide. Less is more.

5. Don't stand in the way of the audience's line of vision to the screen. Read their body language and move if you are in their way.

6. Don't blind your audience with an empty white screen. If using an overhead projector, turn off or block the light until your next visual. Turn off the projector or blank the screen with the overhead's own movable shade or make a cardboard curtain to tape over the light.

7. Don't leave a visual in front of your audience if you are not talking about its content. Remove it. If using a computer, create a blank, black screen until you are ready to project your next visual.

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