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Oral Communications: Preparing, Designing, and Delivering Effective Technical Presentations

Dr. Nhut Tan HoMechanical Engineering ProfessorMechanical Engineering DepartmentCalifornia State University, Northridge

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Lecture Objectives and Activities Introduce the process of preparing, designing,

and delivering technical presentations Introduce techniques for handling questions

and answers

Activities: Evaluate presentations and present comments to class

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Adults Recall … 10% of what one reads 20% of what one hears 30% of what one sees 50% of what one sees and hears 80% of what one says 90% of what one says while doing

Source: Sharpe, C. (Ed.). (1998). The New basic training for trainers. Alexandria, VA: American Society for Training and Development.

Typical Lecture!

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Advance Preparation

Learn the core reason for the presentation and your sponsor’s expectations

Understand your audience and their expectations

Know your material Inspect the room, your equipment,

and other logistics

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What is Expected of You?

Time limits? Purpose and scope of your

presentation? Focus of program, if more than one

speaker?

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Who is Your Audience? What does your audience expect from

you? Number of people? Their background? Who are your supporters and

adversaries? What questions would you expect to

be asked?

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Know Your Material No other person knows your work

better than you Anticipate questions and prepare

answers Read current work of

prominent/powerful audience members and understand its connection to your work

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Practice, Practice, Practice

Practice out loud in front of a mirror and use a timer

Practice without notes Practice in front of colleagues Practice in the actual presentation room

with all equipment or in one as similar as possible

What would you delete if time was shortened by 1, 5, or 10 minutes? Practice doing so

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Room and Equipment What presentation equipment and technical

support is available? Computer, CD-ROM, floppy, Zip Disk, overhead,

microphone, pointer, VHS video …? Is it compatible to yours?

Arrange to practice with the equipment well before your presentation

Find out who can help with equipment, information, and administrative tasks – manners matter!

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Room and Equipment - continued

Bring cables, adapters, and power supplies Turn off screen saver Plan for problems

Bring electronic copies of your presentation in multiple formats, e.g., CD-ROM and floppy diskette

Post presentation on your website for downloading

Bring low tech backups, e.g., transparencies and a paper copy of your presentation

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Other Logistics Carry a card inscribed with key points

of presentation Know where to point audience to

sources of supplementary information, e.g., website URLs and your business card

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Your Appearance

You could be making your first impression – be clean and neat and control unmanageable hair

Find out what clothing is appropriate Do not wear dirty, crumpled, or distracting

clothing – revealing, torn, or loud Practice in the clothing you intend to wear -

is it easy to move in and comfortable? If you will wear a microphone you will need

pockets or belt and a place to pin it

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Organizing Your Presentation

Organize your talk around a story What questions will you answer? Why are you interested? Why should your audience care? What is the context of your work?

Describe the big picture, reduce it to smaller parts, expand each part, and reconstruct the big picture

Focus on content not cliché phrases, graphics, and animation

Remember the three Bs – Be brief, be brilliant, & be gone!

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A Typical Technical Talk

• Introduction Motivate and define your problem Describe your research contribution Discuss outline of your talk

• Body Outline results and their significance Provide a high-level explanation or

justification of results

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A Typical Technical Talk - continued

• Technicalities Present one or two important

equations/proofs/data Discuss it in detail and show its depth and

importance• Conclusion

Summarize key points Discuss future research and its

significance

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Designing Slides

Rule of thumb – 1 slide per minute Keep it simple

Complex concept less dense slide 20 to 50 words per slide Use 20 point font or larger, 12 point is too small

Give attribution to work by others, i.e., quotations and citations

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Slides Enhance Your Presentation

Start with a title slide with your name, title, and institution

If presentation more than 10 – 15 minutes include an outline slide 3 to 5 major points of presentation Keep each topic to 3 – 12 words

End with a summary slide 1 to 3 take home messages, one sentence

each Assume that this is all that audience will

remember

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Presenting Your Slides

Do not read from slides Point to important parts with a

pointing device and turn back to face audience

Do not speak more than 1 – 2 minutes without a slide

If a colleague is turning your slides – practice with that person

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Presenting Data

Include slides with primary data Data gives you credibility Show representative samples of

your data In general, make one point per

data slide Define graph axis’ and units

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Presentation Basics

Establish credibility – identify your organization Face the audience and make eye contact Speak slowly, loudly, and clearly Try not to “um” and “ah” – practice helps Maintain relaxed body language

No pacing Do not do nervous things with your hands

Define specialized vocabulary Avoid last minute changes

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Presentation Basics - continued

Speak with conviction and confidence Hydrate but… Use technology sensibly Indicate quotations with voice not fingers Respect your audience and the clock Do not apologize Anticipate and prepare for questions Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse, rehearse, …

rehearse

Germano, W. (2003, November 28). The Scholarly Lecture: How to stand and deliver. The Chronicle of Higher Education, p. B15

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The Q & A

Always repeat the question It ensures everyone has heard it It ensures that you understand it It gives you time to think

Take the opportunity to delve deeper into the topic

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If You Do Not Know the Answer

Do not freeze, apologize, lie, or act flustered Try one of these responses

“That’s an excellent question. We haven’t had the resources to investigate that yet.”

“I don’t have that information here, but I can look it up and get back to you.”

“One possibility might be … (insert your speculation)” “We didn’t address that question, but we did do …

(insert something relevant that you did)” “I am not familiar with that study, but I do know …

(insert something relevant that you do know)”

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The Hostile Question

Your goal is to disarm loaded questions Do not take it personally Remain calm Disagree but do not disrespect If your answer is challenged, be polite and

maintain your position and control, ask questioner to explain the question and its relevancy to your topic

If questioner continues to push, state that it would be better to continue the discussion after the presentation

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The Audience Wants to Learn from You!

You are in control and confident You prepare and practice You anticipate problems and mitigate

them

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Active Learning Activity

Examine the presentation provided in your team folder and make two lists The areas in the presentation that were well

done The areas that need improvement

Present your lists/comments to the class

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Lecture Recap and Assignment

Preparing, designing, and delivering an effective presentation require Understanding of many logistics: audience,

environment, expectations, equipment, appearance

Careful planning for contents, questions and answers, disruptions

Effective delivery techniques

Assignment: Problem 14.1 for presentation to class