MODULE 5: Disseminating Your Academic Work: Oral Presentations for International Audiences PAPERS POWER POINT PRESENTATIONS
FACULTY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM Workshop Series: Research and Research Training DEPARTMENT OF RESEARCH AND INNOVATION | MONGOLIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF DEFENSE
INTRODUCTION This document provides information on disseminating your academic work via oral presentations, for international audiences, primarily at conference venues. The focus is on the preparation and delivery, including logistics, of both paper presentations and power point presentations. Throughout, emphasis is placed on: 1) how the strategic purpose of your presentation affects preparation, and 2) the differences in delivery, beyond language, at international vs national conferences. There is a separate module on Presentation Skills for delivering oral presentations, in English, to international audiences.
TOPICS Strategic Purpose Venue and Audience Preparation
Deadlines Writing Power Point Slides Practicing
Delivery
Presenting Handling the Q and A Maximizing Informal Engagement
Strategic Purpose 
Presenting your scholarly work to others provides an opportunity to achieve one or more of your strategic academic goals, which will vary based on your academic rank and/or on the stage of the scholarly work to be presented. What do you want to get out of this talk you have offered/been asked/are required to present?

The primary consideration when preparing to present your academic work is to identify the purpose of your talk. Examples presented in the table below are for illustrative purposes only; many permutations of these factors exist. Each time you prepare to present your work, keep the answers to these questions in mind as you shape the content and focus of your oral presentation: Table I: Some Case Examples of Why Scholars Present their Academic Work Academic Rank/Career Stage Magistrant/Doctor ant/Axlax Bagsh
Researcher
Ded Professor
Professor
Objective/Scholarship Type/ Stage of the Work?
Who do I want to hear my scholarly work?
To present portions of thesis or dissertation in progress; if stuck in the research, to obtain fresh perspectives, ideas, directions
Future employers and disciplinary peers. If stuck, experts in the field, more senior graduate students
To present applied research, as an experienced professional in the field Summary of the research I have conducted in my career to date To present a new chapter of a book that is in progress
Policy makers; government decision-makers; working groups Promotions committee; university search committee
Desired Outcome? To generate interest in my research topic/my career; feedback; networking; renewal of interest in the research topic To persuade, update, provide state-of-the-topic Academic promotion; new job
Experts in my field; graduate Feedback on the students; audience for my approach, reasoning; book improved accuracy and completeness; omissions
Academic Rank/Career Stage
Junior Researcher
Senior Researcher
Senior Researcher
Objective/Scholarship Type/ Stage of the Work?
Who do I Want to Hear My Scholarly Work?
To share preliminary findings or data/sources that may lead to a new direction in the field
Peers working in the same discipline; experts in the field
To present newly published findings that builds on previous work and makes significant contribution to the literature To put forth initial ideas for a new theory, concept, policy, or approach to a problem
My peers, leaders in my field, decision-makers
Junior researchers with fresh perspectives; peers; experts in tangential disciplines
Desired Outcome? New ideas to further examine/refute the findings; information or research-inprogress that affects findings Improved scholarly and university reputation; to advance the state of knowledge in my field Receive feedback on soundness of this new approach, omissions
Venue and Audience
To achieve your presentation goals, the information you transmit has to be received. Some barriers to effective communication are beyond your control, but being an effective speaker lowers the barriers significantly. Thus, the parallel consideration when preparing your presentation is to find out who the audience is likely to be, and identify the person or group you would like to specifically target.
Sometimes, your interest in giving the talk and the audience’s interest may not match. In these cases, prepare your presentation to match the audience’s interests and expectations; otherwise, you won’t be able to hold their attention.
Table II presents the most likely scenarios for venue and audience, and their likely interest in hearing about your scholarly work.
Table II: Audience Characteristics, by Venue Potential Venues Invited Public Lecture Classroom Enrichment Lecture Keynote Speech
Job Talk
Likely Audience Educated laymen, academic audience at various academic ranks, students Students
Highly trained academic specialists in your field Direct supervisor, key heads of collaborating departments For specialists in your field
Conference Panel or Paper
Policy/Working Group
Decision-makers, government heads, lawyers, agency administrators
Why Might They Want to Hear your Presentation? To hear about interesting (usually new) scholarship on a subject, presented at a level understandable by a broad levels of background and training. To supplement their learning on the topic; gain state-of-the art knowledge on the subject from and expert in the field; to consider To hear about cutting edge scholarship their discipline; to obtain high-level perspective of, or inspirational leadership in their field Hiring decision; to find out who they might have to work with on a routine basis as a colleague Your particular aspect of the panel or conference theme; to learn if or how it might influence their own thinking on the topic; to keep up to date in the field/learn about new results; to learn about works-in-progress To hear fact-based, research-based, information-driven arguments for maintaining, modifying, updating, or deleting existing or planned policies or activities on a specific topic in your field of (proven) expertise.
Preparation Participation in international academic meetings can contribute to your continuing education and career development. However, attaining its benefits requires investing equivalent effort before and during the meeting. This investment involves careful preparation, practice, critique, then refinement of the oral presentation of your
scholarship. This preparation ensures not only that you have thought carefully though the messages you want/need to communicate in you presentation, but also helps boost self-confidence.
Deadlines In order to complete the steps described below, the ideal time to begin writing the conference paper and/or preparing slides is at least two months prior to the required deadline. Some conference organizers will require the final version of your presentation paper before the conference. Possible reasons for this requirement include:
to share with other panel presenters for discussants to prepare their remarks to budget the printing costs for publishing the proceedings to ensure that the presentation adheres to guidelines and meets the professional requirements of the organization
Conference organizers who require the final version of the paper presentation after the conference need to meet their publication deadlines. The expectation of conference organizers is that those who voluntarily submit an on-time abstract to present at a conference, will exhibit the same professional ethics once the conference has ended, and submit the required paper to meet publication deadlines. N.B. - Missing a deadline for a conference in your field damages your professional reputation and that of the University, on whose behalf you are presenting
Writing In addition to providing deadlines, almost all conference organizers will provide instructions for the paper presentation and/or for the final conference paper that will be published. Nevertheless, there are some general guidelines that apply to preparing oral presentations of your scholarship:
Approach
There is a difference between writing a paper for publication vs writing a paper for oral presentation. Since presentations are spoken, choose accessible and easily-understood words (such as those you would use in a conversation) rather than technical or obscure words.
Eliminate long sentences. You will be talking through your ideas and the audience will be listening rather than reading. Therefore keep sentences short, and their structure simple to help the audience understand and follow your train of thought.
Give the audience a map of how your oral presentation is going to unfold. Tell them what you are about to present (in a sentence), then present your scholarly work. After stating your conclusion(s), summarize the presentation, using the past tense, in a sentence.
Structure your presentation around 3-4 key points for a 20- minute presentation. What do you absolutely want the audience to remember when they walk out of the room?
Use repetition, strategically, as a source of emphasis, to communicate your main results or main point(s). In addition to including this information in the results, discussion and summary sections of your oral presentation, include it in the title as well.
Use quotations and examples carefully. Listeners have difficulty absorbing abstraction after abstraction; the audience needs to be given concrete ideas or information to ground them, so they can follow you.
Ensure that the language you use is appropriate for the audience. Are there any terms they may not be familiar with? If so use more familiar terms or explain the meaning. N.B. - Write for the audience in front of you. A paper written for the ears to hear is substantially different from a paper written for the eyes to read.
Format Text and Spacing: Print out your paper in large type (try 14-point or even 16-point), double-spaced, so that easier to see it when you are standing at a podium. Length: Generally, you will have 20 minutes for your presentation. It takes a minimum of two minutes to say 250 words (the average number of typewritten words per page of double-spaced text). Therefore, prepare a typewritten paper to present that is no longer than 10 to 12 pages. The guideline is 3,000 words total, as the maximum limit. Page Numbering: Don’t staple the pages; paper clip them. See the section on Delivery>Presenting as to why. It means that you need to number the pages, in case you drop them. Power Point Presentation (alone or with paper presentation) 1) Title/author/affiliation/e-mail address (1 slide). Prepare a title slide that contains your contact information on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn so people can add you to their networks while they wait for your presentation to begin (ie- while you are being introduced). 2) Outline of the presentation (1 slide). To give the audience a roadmap of your talk. Draw from the headings of your power point slides and/or from the headings in your paper presentation. Tell them what you plan to present, using this slide. 3) Rationale (2-3 slides). Similar to the first few paragraphs of a paper’s introduction. For a scientific presentation, devote a sentence or two to explaining -- briefly -- the research base that sustains your arguments. For an applied, policy, or theoretical presentations, describe the problem and limitations of current approaches. 4) Methods and Analysis (1-2 slides). For a scientific presentation, describe research design and methodological approaches. For applied, policy, or theoretical presentations, present approaches used to gather the information (data sets, surveys, paradigms, etc) and why they were selected. Describe how the analysis was conducted.
5) Results and Conclusions (3-4 slides). Present only the key findings. Conclusions must be drawn from the data, or from data-driven arguments. 6) Summary (1 slide). Briefly review what was just presented, in a sentence. This is a good opportunity to reinforce your main points, so the audience can take away the key points of your scholarship just presented. 7) Future Work (1 slide) If applicable: state the problems that this scholarship opens up; related policies that now need to be addressed; or logical next questions to be focused on, as a consequence of your findings. 8) Acknowledgements (1 slide). Most scholarly work is conducted and/or supported by more than one person. Before asking for questions, transition from the Future Directions section, to thanking your colleagues, whether at your university or abroad. This can include groups such as: research teams, departments, centers, mentors, and/or funding agencies. Include only those who provided significant input into or support for the scholarly work you just presented. If using a power point presentation, include a photo if possible. N.B. – Tell them what you WILL tell them; TELL them; tell them what you TOLD them
Power Point Slides The Content Make your 1st or 2nd slide an outline of your presentation. Follow the order of your outline for the rest of the presentation. Only place the main points on the slide, using key words and phrases. Do not write in complete sentences Prepare 1-2 slides for each minute of your presentation. Show one point at a time on a slide. Helps audience concentrate on what you are saying. Prevents audience from reading ahead. Helps keep your presentation focused. Reserve your last slide for acknowledgements, with a photo if possible
Design of Slides, Text Design the background of the slides with plenty of contrast. Minimum font size for main body and bullets: 18 points; preferred font size: 24 points Preferred font size for headers or titles: 36 to 44 points Avoid: all caps, italics, script fonts, distracting animation. There is nothing more distracting than spinning, pointless PowerPoint animations in an oral presentation of scholarly work. N.B. – Present ideas, not details
Practicing Nobody is born knowing how to give presentations of their scholarship to an academic audience. It takes practice. And oral presentations of your scholarship is much more difficult when presenting in a foreign language. The 2 best ways to gain expertise presenting for international audiences are: 1) Practicing your presentation; and 2) Seeking out opportunities to give presentations to an international audience (gain experience by doing). It will be assumed by an international audience that most of the following elements of your scholarly presentation have been practiced beforehand: Table III: Categories of Practice for Presenting to an International Audience No. To Achieve This 1 Being Heard Clearly
2
Understandability and Required Length
Do This Rehearse your talk by watching yourself in a mirror or by reading your copy aloud to a colleague. Find a room approximately the size of the room you think you will use at the conference and position your colleague at the back of the room. Stand up at the front with a lectern and read the paper out loud; your colleague should be able to hear you clearly. They will also be able to tell you whether you are talking too fast -- or, in rare cases, too slowly. Ask Departmental colleagues to: sit through a full, dry run, of your presentation; time it; then give you their specific feedback -- positive and negative. For example: “You went much too quickly through slide 3 for me to follow – perhaps you could make two slides at this point to slow yourself
3
Clarity of Delivery
4
Fluency
5
Effective use of Technology Presentation Experience
6
down,” or “You tend to drop your voice at the end of sentences and we lose your train of thought.” Keep to the prepared text; don't improvise too much. The better you know what you are going to say, the less dependent you will be on your written text, and the more your planned talk will give the impression of communicating directly to the audience. The more you improvise during a formal presentation, the greater the dangers of rambling. Save your improvisational skill for the question period, when you will need it. Have your written presentation script reviewed by a native speaker. Then present the revised script orally to the native speaker, to go over pronunciation, intonation, and emphasis, so that the delivery is smooth and can be understood by the international audience. If you are using any technology (video clips, web apps), practice your talk with it to time transitions and identify potential problems Formally present your scholarship, research results, or preliminary findings to an international audience at least once per academic year. To accomplish this, develop and maintain a network to learn about relevant upcoming national, international conferences. N.B. – Always practice out loud and on the clock.
Delivery A major difference when participating in an international conference is audience expectation. For many in attendance, this is their major venue/opportunity for their continuing education, so they make the most of it. This means that they want to engage maximally with the information presented in each session they choose to attend. Thus, there is a heavy emphasis on discussion and interaction with the presenter during the Q and A portion of the lecture, and in informal settings. The following points are suggestions on ways to engage effectively with an international audience during your presentation, and during informal conference times.
Presenting If there is an option, it is best to stand to read your paper. The advantage of standing at a lectern is that you do not need to move your head much to read the paper and then look out at the audience. The difference in movement is much greater when you are sitting down. (Try it). When you are reading a paper aloud from a sitting position, it is almost impossible to have eye contact with the audience unless you interrupt the flow of what you are saying. Nor can you take as deep a breath, or project your voice as powerfully, as when you are standing. Speak loud enough that the person in the back row can hear you Do not pick up each page of the paper and turn it over so that you end with a stack in the order in which you began. Instead, slide the pages across so the audience won’t see them and you end with a stack in reverse order. The advantage is that you also have two pages in front of you at all times and you can see where you are headed. Make eye contact as much as possible, and not only with one person. Use a laser pointer sparingly Be prepared for a "2-minute warning" from the moderator. Sometimes you may get the ‘time’ signal earlier than you expected through no fault of your own (for example, if one of the earlier speakers ran over time or if the entire panel got started late). At that point, you must stop where you are, and finish up. At the two-minute warning, skip to your topic sentences and then to your conclusion. Then stop at the time directed.
Handling the Q and A At international conferences, it is more common for questions from the audience to be scheduled after each presentation, although in some cases, questions may be held until the end of panel presentations. As the interactive element of your presentation, questioners will focus directly on your findings. One of the best markers of a successful presentation of your scholarly work is the quality and quantity of good questions generated, and the fruitfulness of the discussion.
Listen to the entire question BEFORE you begin to answer. Too often, presenters start responding to a question before the entire question is even asked. Not waiting to hear the entire questions can result in you providing a response which had nothing to do with the question.
Pause before you answer, by repeating the question. This allows the entire audience to hear it; otherwise, the answer you provide may not make sense to some of the people. Also, repeating the question allows you some additional time to evaluate the question and formulate a response.
Transition to taking the next question by asking "Does that answer your question?", "Is that the kind of information you were looking for?". Once they respond "YES," you can now go on to the next person. This also gives them one more opportunity to say, "No" and allow them to clarify their question more by asking it again. Take Notes on the especially long, very detailed, or multi-part questions. Have a pencil and paper available before you begin your presentation.
Be Available after your presentation and after the session for continued discussion. Plan to be outside of the venue for your presentation after your talk, so people have the chance to come up to you to ask additional questions or discuss a point you made.
Difficult Questions can be handled by several methods: Think of responding to questions as part of your presentation. In reality, you're still presenting. Hold eye focus with your questioner. Listen closely. Don't interrupt. Maintain a neutral stance. Refrain from nodding as if indicating that you hear or understand the question. That can be taken as a sign that you agree with what is stated in the question. Pause before answering, keeping your focus on the questioner. During your answer, move your eyes to include others in the room. End your answer with your eyes focused on someone else. If you return your focus to the questioner, that can invite another question from that same person.
Table IV: Difficult Questions and some Responses Situation Getting diverted or off topic by a question, whether it is interesting or not If you don’t know the answer to the question
If there are not any questions
Some Response(s) “I think we’re getting a bit off topic. Let’s put that aside and we can talk about it after the session.” “We need to get on with the session, otherwise we may not finish on time, but let’s talk about this later.” Be straightforward: If you don't know the answer, don't guess. Admit you don't know: “I don’t know, but I’ll find out and get back to you.” Involve your audience: if you are speaking to a well-informed audience, such as a professional society, there may be an expert on that subject in the audience who would be delighted to share their expertise. If you have noticed someone in particular, you can even say: “My colleague over there is more familiar with that area than I am so, while I don’t want to put him/her on the spot, maybe he/she would be willilng to shed some light on this?” Most people will be fine with that approach, especially if they really do know more about it than you, and it will mean that the room gets a much better response. Although you are the one standing at the front, you don’t, and can’t, know everything. Turn it around: Go to a specific point you made in your presentation—one that's likely to stimulate discussion. Ask your audience what they think about the issue or conclusion. Do they agree with you? Do they have other opinions? Invitation: Some in the audience may have questions they would rather not ask in an open setting. Allow for that possibility by offering to take questions one-on-one at the end of the session. “No questions then? If you think of any, please come ask me at the end of the session.”
Maximizing Informal Engagement Presenting your scholarly work to an international audience, from the podium or on a panel, offers several opportunities to foster collegial interaction. Below are some ways to take advantage of these opportunities:
Prior to the international conference or presentation to an international audience, familiarize yourself with the background, training, publications, and current scholarly interests of the others co-presenting on your panel, in your session, or expected to be attending. This will give you something in common to discuss, and a way to connect with someone from abroad who is in your field, or adjacent to your field. Focus on expanding your international network of colleagues in the field, whether they are beginners or firmly established scholars. Sit with new people at international conferences, rather than your university or country contacts, to gain exposure for you, your university, and for Mongolia. Ask good questions after you hear a talk. It provides an opportunity for people in the audience to seek you out afterward, for further discussion. Follow up: share your international presentation experience with colleagues at your home institution; follow up on promises to send papers or bibliographic references; keep in contact by sending a paper you think they would find interesting, to encourage the same. Learn about different areas of related research, often via general lectures by prominent scholars Mechanism to gain the most current information about your own area of research. People present their latest results because it can be a year or two before this appears in print. Get feedback on work. Learn about funding opportunities, meet Officers of funding agencies, academic publishers At international conferences, sign up to be on mailing lists for relevant publications, resources