Presentations 1
Presentations 1
Presentations 1
How to Give Highly Effective Lecturesand Job Talks and Conference Presentations
Over the course of your academic career, you will give countless oral presentations: lectures, conference presentations, and, most important of all, job talks. Many of us find it excruciatingly painful to speak publicly. We feel nauseous. We can barely breathe. Our bodies tremble. We lose track of time, find it difficult to concentrate, and babble. Public speaking is the worlds most common phobia. Forty percent of Americans say that public speaking is their biggest fear. Many of us are more afraid of public speaking than we are of snakes, heights, spiders, the dark, enclosed spaces, or a root canal. As Jerry Seinfeld put it, at a funeral, most of us would prefer to be in the coffin than at the lectern delivering the eulogy. Remember: Help is around the corner (in 302 Philosophy Hall) Id be happy to meet with you to brainstorm and help you organize and practice your talk. I will gladly offer feedback and advice.
Columbia University
Graduate School of Arts & Sciences Teaching Center
Advancing teaching and learning The Teaching Center is the go-to place for practical advice about teaching. We can help you: Successfully market your teaching Deal with anxiety, challenges to your authority, and other classroom issues Design innovative courses, deliver scintillating, substantive lectures, and lead stimulating discussions and labs. Respond appropriately to shy, withdrawn, or disruptive students. Use technology more effectively.
A catalyst for innovation, The Teaching Center Promotes interdisciplinary Sponsors research in the science of learning Supports improvements in the assessment of learning outcomes Works collaboratively to improve public education through community and school partnerships
7 Rules of Thumb
It is better to: 1. Talk than read 2. Stand than sit 3. Move than stand still 4. Vary your voices pitch than speak in a monotone 5. Speak loudly facing your audience rather than mumble and speak into your notes or blackboard 6. Use an outline and visual aids than present without them 7. Provide your listeners with a roadmap than start without an overview
Listeners cant process as much information as readers. Listeners have difficulty sustaining attention or retaining information. In short, you need to translate your written text into an oral presentation. 2. The first 30 seconds have the most impact. Begin with a bang. Listeners tend to remember what they hear first and last. During the first 30 seconds, you need to connect with your audience, arouse their interest, place your work in a larger context, and preview what is to follow. Begin with a surprising statistic, a startling statement, a vivid anecdote, a rhetorical question, or a provocative quotation. Or explain to them why they need to know about your topic. And present your argument in a nutshell. 3. Address the So What Question Explain why listeners need to know about your topicwhy they should care 4. Offer a roadmap. Share the structure of your talk with your listeners Direct your audiences attention to the most important points you are making Use verbal and visual cues to highlight major points and steps in your argument 5. Maintain eye contact. Eye contact binds you to your audience. Dont go more than 10 seconds without making eye contact with your audience 6. An effective talk has: Signposts: Have explicit transitions, internal summaries, and words that mark your progressfirst, next, finally. Reminders of your central argument. Let your audience know where you are going. Breaks: Break up your talk every 10-15 minutes to revitalize the audiences attention. 7. Use concrete examples and simple syntax. Its difficult to listen to abstractions for very long. Avoid long, complicated sentences and technical jargon and acronyms. 8. Sustain audience engagement Dont simply read your talk. Engage and involve your audience. Do not render your audience passive. Integrate active learning into your lecture. 1. Organize your presentation with a high-order question that you will answer Ask: Initiating questions: Questions designed to provoke your listeners. Probing questions: Questions that encourage listeners to probe the material more deeply. Divergent questions: Questions that have more than one correct answer. 2. Make the material relevant Use examples from real life, current events, or popular culture Show how the information can be applied to real-world problems 3. Pepper your talk with challenging questions. 4. In a classroom lecture, consider using a cooperative learning strategy known as turn to your partner. Stop lecturing and have students briefly discuss an issue. 5. Consider making your lecture interactive.
You might ask your audience to make a prediction or to comment on a controversy, a case study, or an illustration. 6. Use a visual or audio resource or a demonstration that the audience can respond to.
Visuals
Visuals can greatly enliven your talk and effectively and efficiently communicate complex information. Indeed, search committees often expect visuals. But if poorly done, your visuals can weaken your talk. Weve all sat through presentations that consist of endless screens of boring text. A speaker simply places his or her lecture notes on slides.The phrase death by PowerPoint comes to mind.
1. PowerPoint is not a teleprompter. Dont read your slides. Instead, talk from your notes. 2. Put the visual into visuals. Avoid text-heavy slides. Ask yourself: How can listeners benefit from visuals? Are there ways that I can illustrate key concepts or arguments with images, graphs, charts, or video clips? 3. Remember the Zen of Presentation Less is more Limit the number of words on each slide Dont show complete sentences and paragraphs Use a bold, simple, and large font Avoid busy backgrounds Dump the bulleted lists The presentation mantra is: Simplicity, clarity, brevity, elegance One slide, one idea Avoid extraneous information 4. Dont hand control over to PowerPoint The B Key allows you to block out the screen. Keep the lights on. 5. You dont have to be linear With ctrl + K you can add a hyperlink to another slide or another presentation or a website 6. Crunch your numbers Consider their implications and sum up the conclusions on each slide.