Peter Puschner, TU Wien [with contributions from M. Függer, R. Kirner, U. Schmid]
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Aims
• Motivation
• Presentation
• Preparation
• Your seminar talks
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Rhetoric …
Sophists:
“… the art of being able to dominate others”
“… makes the weaker matter the stronger
one”
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Rhetoric in Science
• Empirical evaluation
• Formal-mathematical proof
(X-1)² = (X-1)(X-1) = (X-1)X - (X-1)1 = … =
= X² - 2X + 1
... only a convincing speech act?
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Scientific “Problem-Solution”
Cycle
• Inspiration:
reading papers, listening to talks
• Solution process:
oral communication with colleagues
• Presentation at conference:
talk to convince the audience
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The Purpose of your talk …
… is not:
• To impress your audience with your
brainpower
• To tell them all you know about your topic
• To present all the technical details
[Simon Peyton Jones, Microsoft Research, Cambridge, “How to give a good research talk”]
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The Purpose of your talk …
… but is:
• To give the audience an intuitive feel for
your idea
• To sufficiently raise their interest to read
your paper
• To engage, excite, provoke them
[Simon Peyton Jones, Microsoft Research, Cambridge, “How to give a good research talk”]
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Subject
Presentation Triad
Presenter
Audience
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Your Audience
The audience you would like:
• Have read all your earlier papers
• Thoroughly understand all the relevant
theory of cartesian-closed endomorphic
bifunctors
• Are all agog to hear about the latest
developments in your work
• Are fresh, alert, and ready for action
[Simon Peyton Jones, Microsoft Research, Cambridge, “How to give a good research talk”]
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Your Actual Audience
The audience you get:
• Have never heard of you
• Have heard of bifunctors but wish they hadn’t
• Have just had lunch and are ready for a doze
[Simon Peyton Jones, Microsoft Research, Cambridge, “How to give a good research talk”]
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The Audience
Relationship: Presenter – Audience
• Contents
– What does the audience know?
– What is the audience interested in?
• Language and style of presentation
• Eye contact
– Do not read
– Handouts after presentation
• Interaction Scientific Presentation WS2019 11
Connecting to the Audience
• Get in touch before presentation
• The first 30-90 seconds
– Begin with a hook
– Explain topic / problem and aim
• Establish eye contact (crowds: ”M”)
• Relate to the audience
• Show you enjoy (be authentic)
• Smile
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Keeping the Audience Awake
• Action, variation
• Different media
• Rhetoric elements
– Voice
– Pause
– Rhetorical question
• Humor (80:20 = information:humor)
• Surprise
• Lists
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Questions from the Audience
• Allow for questions (during talk / at end)
• No questions = problem
• Take a positive view
– no stupid questions
– no malicious questions
• Answering questions
– Don’t create losers
– Acknowledge suggestions / ideas
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The Presenter
• Dress code
• Adequate style and language
• And most important:
[Simon Peyton Jones, Microsoft Research, Cambridge, “How to give a good research talk”]
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Aim and Key Message
• Know your aim and key message
• Show applicability of material
Is this useful for my
own work?
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Aristotle’s Presentation Structure
1. Prolog: state the aim
– Quick and exciting
– Explanation of problem
2. Facts and proof
– Objective and well-founded
– Solution of the problem
3. Epilog: rephrase
– Emphasize important points
– Conclusions and appeal
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Presentation Structure
Attention – hook
Interest – aim
Definition – main part
Appeal
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Structure of Main Part
Item by item
• Situation
– What are the facts? What‘s the problem?
• Direction
– New (view)point
– Supporting arguments for new point
• Solution
– Solution to the problem
• Next Step
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Time Budget and Structure
• 5 minutes
Problem statement + coarse solution
idea + pros & cons (limits)
• 7 minutes
+ some detail on solution strategy
• 10 minutes
+ proof sketch(es) and extra details
• 3 minutes
+ cool down, conclusions & outlook
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Slides
• Slide = simple visual statement
• Plain, large font
• Text colours: black, blue
• max. 6 items per slide
• Graphics preferable to text
• Not too many slides (15 for 30 minutes)
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”Accuracy”
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”Precision”
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”Accuracy and Precision”
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Proofs and Formulas
• Proofs: use graphics to show
– the proof assumptions (system model)
– the proof idea
• Fomulas
– Try to avoid formulas
– If necessary: show final result, nicely typeset
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Preparation
• Content
• Technical preparation
– Slides, program, handouts
• Timing rehearse
• Local arrangements
– Test presentation on local beamer
• Nervousness
– Don‘t announce
– Visualization, focus on opening sentences
– Breathing
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Content Preparation – Drivers
• Know why I‘m doing this
• Know who my audience is
• Know what I‘m going to say
• Know how I‘m going to structure it
• Know how to immediately connect with
the audience
[John Waterman, avocets consulting, “Electric Public Speaking”]
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Don’ts
Talking
• Too quiet
• Inarticulate speech
• Too fast
• Reading from slides
• „There are only a few more slides ...“
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Don’ts
Slides
• Mixing different slide designs
• Too many (slide 1/136 …)
• Moving back and forth
• Lots of content slides
• Hosts of summary slides
• Progress bar use slide numbers
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Don’ts
Slides
• Complete sentences or paragraphs
• Too much detail
• Too many formulas
• Wrong use of color (meaning)
• Graphics: too much detail, pixelated
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Further Don’ts
Presenter
• Showing up too late to your talk
• Extravagant appearance
PC
• Omit beamer check (don‘t forget adapter!)
• Antivirus/Skype/alarm on
Time
• Exceeding the time budget
watch the chairperson
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Before Your Presentation
• Rehearse in front of colleagues / mirror
• Keep your time budget
• Get feedback
• Avoid relying on notepads
• Rehearse the opening sentence
– Chairmen often read name and title don‘t
repeat this in this case, rather say e.g.
„thanks XXX for your kind introduction“
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Recall: The Goal of your Talk
... is not
that the others know as much as you
know
but
to make them ask for your paper after
your presentation
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Summary
• Rhetoric is important for scientists
• Convince audience to read your paper
• Know your aim / message
• Prepare
– Audience, content, structure
• Keep things simple
• BE ENTHUSIASTIC!
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