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Improving Academic Presentation Style
Matt | Oct 1 2007
I give a lot of talks, and I've been trying to improve my presentation style, but I'm not sure how to do it in the context of my field. I am in a fairly quantitative science. I have to give presentations where I present results; I am 'selling' the result to the audience, but not in the same way, I think, that one would sell a product, or an idea, or a concept. I'm attempting to convince them that it's right, and that I was diligent in pursuing the result. One common technique is to simply overwhelm the audience with lots of facts and charts and bullet points. Obviously this is a bad idea -- but on the other hand, if you don't give enough 'serious-looking' plots, you run the risk of being dismissed by members of the audience. So how do I strike a balance? How do I keep my presentations in the manner of a good narrative, with appropriate display methods, when constrained by an audience that has a certain expectation of a larger number of quantitative figures and numbers? 31 Comments
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 Variation on PaperSubmitted by pihp on October 2, 2007 - 9:41am.
I present in public health and law with academic audiences, and they can be a real challenge. I agree about creating paper as a way to balance needs/expectations. I have also learned to do two presentations. One that I give, and one that I make available for download giving the URL on my last presentation slide. The downloaded presentation incorporates data and, for law, detailed citations, etc. People like it. I have also found that if you do the non-traditional 'academic' presentation, people will notice yours out of the sea of bad slides that academics normally use. » POSTED IN:
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