New Media Working Group April 21, 2023//

Coye Cheshirecoye@ischool.berkeley.edu

Interdisciplinary/Multidisciplinary Research Talks:Tips, Tricks, and Suggestions for Graduate Students

Why do we care about giving inter(multi)disciplinary talks?

What is different or special about an inter(multi)disciplinary talk? Appealing to non-experts

relative to your area of expertise

…while also appealing to experts in your area

…while emphasizing the broad application of your results/outcomes that would be applicable to many

Giving an Interdisciplinary/Multidisciplinary talk

Consider using a story or a narrative to carry the audience through your research. Use images that help you tell that story.

Create examples that appeal to people from diverse areas of interest

When you build out your first outline, pretend that you have to give the talk to a truly diverse audience including your advisor, your family, the guy from the coffee shop… etc.

Structuring a talk for an interdisciplinary audience

You should have a few key components designed to draw everyone in during your opening:

Context for the talk (the “attention getter that includes the non-expert”)

Outline/structure/scaffolding of the talk (the “preview”)

A clear statement about the main purpose or message for the entire talk (what are we going to learn by the end?)

The Body of your talkThe body of the talk is the logical plan that you intend to take. Think of it as a tree.

Closing the talkAny good research talk should end with review, conclusion and closure.

Review: recap of the main points as they relate to experts and non-experts

Conclusion: the primary message of the talk in greater detail (now the audience knows a lot more than they did the first time you told them the main message)

Close: quite simply, make it clear that the talk is over (e.g., an acknowledgement of collaborators, a “thank you” slide with your contact info, etc).

A few general tips and suggestions on presentation slides

“Don’t worry about your slide count. Just make your slides count.”

“to have or place confidence in; depend on”

“to place in the care of another; entrust”

“reliance on something in the future; hope”

“one in which confidence is placed”

“dependence on something future or contingent”

Tips on Slides: Using Quotes and TextTry to avoid long quotes; when possible, focus the

key part of the quote, or provide shorter quotes

Example: Quotes about “Trust”

Example of using full quotes: focusing a long quote

Since all models are wrong the scientist cannot obtain a “correct” one by excessive elaboration. On the contrary following William of Occam he should seek an economical description of natural phenomena. Just as the ability to devise simple but evocative models is the signature of the great scientist so overelaboration and overparameterization is often the mark of mediocrity.

“

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Keep Bullet Points to a Minimum, and Use Images to Supplement or Enhance Boring Lists

Use images that enhance a specific point that you are going to be talking about.

Do not clutter the slide with many images: focus on 1-2 key ideas per slide

When possible, consider an image that fills the entire slide so that your audience can focus on what you are saying.

This is great for a paper, but this is not an ideal way to present statistical results in a presentation…

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= Higher InternetDiscretion

Example: Explaining Your Results and/or Concepts with Images

“I gave him a little cash for coffee so that also made me feel good that I at least somehow paid the favor back to him. So then; I did not feel at all that I would have been a burden.”

Lessening the Discomforts of Indebtedness:Offering small tokens of appreciation

Kthxbye! Discuss!

Coye Cheshirecoye@ischool.berkeley.edu