Giving effective presentations

Doug Loy

MSE 460/560

Presentations tell a story

Beginning: tell audience what they should take home

Middle: convince them

End: Reinforce message

People like to hear a logical sequence of events leading to a satisfying conclusion

Story telling tools• Visual-graphics• Slide title is a thesis for slide• Reinforced with bullets of information• Finish with conclusion or

transition

Together these grab your audience’s attention and deliver your message more effectively

Applying the KISS Principle

• One concept or theme per slide• Try to keep it to 4 or 5 bullets max per slide• Simple, easy to understand graphics• Font greater than 18.

Simple, easy to understand slides that focus will leave your audience with your message more effectively

No outlines

• Absolutely useless for short talks (& most long ones)

• Waste of time at best, Insulting at worst• If you must, make it a map for complicated

presentations

Talks can be “outlined” on the first slideBut don’t waste your time or the audience with a special outline slide Borin

g!!!

For historical background, use a time line graphic

1860 20101900

1920 1940 1960 1980

1990

20001950

1880

1930 1970

Surfactant templated

Bridged polysilsesquioxane sol-gel

Eugene Rochow (GE)

F. S. Kipping

Solid state NMR

Don’t go overboard with details• Leave fine details for audience questions• Do not set yourself up for questions you can’t

answer• Keep presentation at higher level (not the

dreaded “graduate student seminar”)

The corollary is that you should be identifying potential questions and organizing your answers before you present

Keep your talk length under control

• Start with one slide per minute• Practice and determine how many you will

actually will need

If you have too many your audience will not remember your message only your lack of preparation

Conclusion slide is where you revisit key points

• Do not save important points until conclusion• Paraphrase those points after introducing

them earlier.• Can be the conclusion bullets from slides

You can often end your summarizing the talks take home points by speculating about the future.