Oral presentations: preparation of slides, preparation of the talk, delivery…
Questions tagged [presentation]
567 questions
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Why do most people think it's a bad idea to read from slides?
As many of you probably know, almost all advice regarding doing better academic talks includes universal advice to not put too many words in any one slide, and to not read straight from slides (this is always thought to be a sign of a bad talk).
I…
Lentes
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How can I tell if I have simplified my talk too much?
My experience listening to talks (of all kinds - seminars, conference talks, even Masters/PhD defenses) is that they tend to be very difficult to understand. This happens even if they're within my own field or even subfield. Occasionally there are…
Allure
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Tongue slip problem in presentation even after a good amount of practice
How can I overcome the tongue-slip problem in conferences, meetings and seminars? I have read many discussions regarding conference presentation, such as delivering a good presentation, staying confident during presentation, avoiding nervousness,…
Kay
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Should I reveal my slides bit-by-bit when giving a presentation/lecture?
In the comments on this question, there were a two opposing opinions (anti, pro) on the technique of revealing slides bit-by-bit, rather than all at once. The argument against doing so was that revealing slides bit-by-bit is "micromanaging" viewers'…
Stephen Powell
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How to structure presentation to avoid getting questions that will be answered later in the presentation?
In the past when I've given presentations at my lab and conferences, I've not had to deal with this problem. But at my new institution I'm constantly dealing with the following phenomena.
I'm constantly being asked questions that will be answered…
user84735
42
votes
7 answers
I screwed up a talk - how to move on
I recently messed up my presentation in front of the audience because I couldn't answer or understand their questions well enough (even after I asked them to clarify their question). I keep ruminating about the moment and can't focus on work. I'm…
May
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How to do a flawless and natural presentation?
I have been attending a number of academic / professional conferences recently and one thing that really awed me was the flawless and natural way in which the speakers presented on their topics.
Sure, they had the occasional mispronunciations or…
Javeer Baker
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What attitude should a speaker have to going over time?
From John Baez's Advice for a Young Scientist:
Your talks should be clear, concise, fun, exciting, and never ever run over time. For each extra minute your talk runs over, 10% more of the audience will decide you are a jerk and start fantasizing…
Anonymous
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How to pronounce 'et al' in presentation speech?
For giving a research presentation, I will need to refer to papers with multiple authors. When citing in the slides, I use the convention (as does everyone else) of 'et al.' How should I pronounce this when speaking during the presentation? I don't…
Jake Clawson
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Should I assume that attendees have read my papers when I give a talk?
On occasion during talks, presenters will say, "as you know from reading my papers" or during a Q&A someone will say "you should know from my papers".
The above clearly seems inappropriate for most settings outside of a group meeting. However, to…
bobthejoe
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Are religious invocations in academic presentations appropriate?
One thing that I have noted come up a few times in presentations in the US in the last few years has been that some speakers—usually graduate students and postdocs, rather than more established career professionals—have included religious…
aeismail
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What are some bad effects of bullets in presentations?
I get confused with some comments of JeffE on this question. Those are:
...avoid bullets entirely.
Powerpoint doesn't kill people. Bullets kill people.
The comments got a lot of upvotes, so there are many people agree with them. And I don't…
sean
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Is it okay to keep a "Thank you" slide before references?
I am preparing a presentation in LaTeX and got at least seven pages for references only.
In general, as far as I know, a "thank you" slide of a presentation is the termination slide of the presentation, i.e., it comes at the end after…
hanugm
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Why do national laboratory presentations contain so much info per slide?
I've seen many, many examples of scientific presentations from the National Laboratories in which virtually every slide is oversaturated with information. If this were an isolated event, I wouldn't have given it any thought. But I've noticed this…
Paul
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Inspiration for great presentations
I enjoy creating presentations a lot and I think I have an eye for nice design, however, I tend to always have the same layout/colour scheme/etc. and I'd like to try something new for my defence.
So I've been googling great presentations for hours,…
user34927
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