The presentation should include an outline at the introduction of the presentation. Throughout the presentation, the speaker should reference the outline to remind the audience where they are in the presentation narrative. For example, when presenting on a clinical research study, provide a recurrent slide that presents whether you are discussing the background of the project, methods, results, or conclusions. An outline of the presentation describes the general objectives of the talk while serving as a structure on which to build throughout the presentation.
Each presentation slide should have a headline that describes the topic discussed. A headline decreases the cognitive load placed on the audience by identifying the main point. Alley et al. compared the effects of a short phrase headline to a succinct sentence-structured headline on audience retention of a presentation. 10 The authors found that the average score for students viewing the succinct sentence-structured headline was significantly higher. 10 Specifically, a headline should be in a “subject-verb-object” structure using fewer than 140 characters. When presenting a graph or a table that contains a complex topic, the slide’s headline should summarize the take-home point. For example, when presenting a graph on the economic benefit of plastic and reconstructive global surgical trips, the headline could read “Substantial Economic Benefit for Global Surgery Interventions.” The actual economics may be a complex topic for the average audience if they are not economists themselves, but the main point resides in the simple headline.
There should be consistency of formatting throughout the presentation and among the different mediums used to present the same information (e.g., slideshow, poster, oral presentation). One simple font should be used throughout the presentation. In addition, the presenter should keep the font size consistent across all headlines, bullet points, diagrams, and tables. Furthermore, background color and design elements, such as the color of the diagrams, should be the same throughout. 11 Color palettes found online can be used to create a theme in the design of the presentation. Margins to the slides should also be aesthetically consistent, as demonstrated in Figure 1 . If the titles or headlines are of varying sizes, an example of inconsistency, the reader may not recognize that sections are related or exhaust time connecting the key points. Consistency decreases distraction and polishes the delivery of the information.
Aspects that influence a presentation’s appeal include font, background color, contrast between color of content and background, symmetry, consistency, and more. Goodhand et al. studied the value of posters at medical meetings and found that audience perception of scientific merit correlates with visual appeal. 12 They found that factors increasing visual appeal included their scientific content, pictures/graphs, and limited use of words. 12 Visual appeal consists of many different aspects, which makes it difficult to discuss specifically each detail. Complex concepts can be simplified by creating visual representations, flow charts, and vector diagrams. Resources to consider may be graphics available in Microsoft Word (Microsoft Corp.), The Noun Project (The Noun Project, Inc., Los Angeles, Calif.), Lucidchart (Lucid Software, Inc., South Jordan, Utah), or FlatIcon (Freepik Company, Malaga, Spain). Figure 2 demonstrates the use of a SmartArt graphic in Microsoft Word to organize information. However, cartoons or videos could distract the audience from the main purpose of the slide and should be weighed carefully. Spending extra time on aesthetic details such as font, background, symmetry, and consistency will improve the slideshow’s visual appeal and professional tone.
A presenter should limit each major concept to no more than four main ideas. In 2001, Cowan studied the mental storage capacity for short-term memory and found that humans are able to remember approximately four main points. 13 If there are more than four key ideas, the presenter should separate the information, so it is not all included on the same slides. For example, when introducing a research study, the four main points may consist of briefly naming the author(s), methods, findings, and the study’s impact on the current topic. Other noteworthy aspects of the study could be expanded upon in the next slide(s). Keeping within four main points aims to maximize the efficiency and overall effectiveness of each slide for the presenter and audience.
Word choice.
Word choice is the specific vocabulary used by the speaker to convey a message. Text in the presentation should be kept simple, using as few words as possible. Using complicated, lofty words increases lexical density and inflicts a strain on the audience to decipher the meaning of the message while requiring additional work to follow along. Sainsbury examined the effect of lexical density and visual clarity of slides on presentation interpretations. 14 The study found that the presentations with less lexical density, despite worse visual clarity, led to greater audience fluency. 14 Considering word choice and using less dense language is a strategy to improve audience comprehension.
In 2007, Todd Bishop, a reporter for the Seattle Post Intelligencer , compared word choice between Apple’s Steve Jobs and Microsoft’s Bill Gates by running their presentation transcripts through UsingEnglish.com, a language analyzer. 15 The tool examines the average number of words per sentence, lexical density, average number of words with more than three syllables, and the level of education theoretically needed to understand the text. It was found that across all four categories, Jobs scored better than Gates. 15 He spoke more simply, was less abstract, and used fewer words per sentence. For example, where Jobs would say “improved quality,” Gates would say “discoverability of the richness.” If a message is confusing, abstract, or convoluted, the presenter will lose an opportunity to share his or her knowledge. Similar language analyzers are offered online and through Microsoft Word. Specifically, Microsoft Word will provide readability statistics, a feature found within its Spelling and Grammar tool. Based on readability statistics, a presenter can adjust his or her language to ensure it resonates better with the audience.
Effective scientific presentations show the topic’s relevance to the audience. In surgical and medical education, numbers are often used to describe the efficacy of a treatment or epidemiology of a condition. In breaking down the meaning of data and placing it into a familiar context, greater meaning is provided to the audience. For example, when conducting an economic analysis of plastic and reconstructive surgical efforts in the developing world, Nasser et al. found that the lose of approximately 1720 disability-adjusted life years was averted. 16 However, they went further to explain that 1720 disability-adjusted life years were equal to a total economic benefit of $9,795,384, the same as $12,957 per patient. 16 As a listener, it may be difficult to comprehend the impact of 1720 disability-adjusted life years without further context, but each audience member can visualize what an extra $13,000 could amount to in their own lives. People are more familiar with the concept of currency than disability-adjusted life years; therefore, placing the numbers in a tangible context enhances understanding and creates a greater impact on the audience.
The 10-Minute Rule states that after 10 minutes, the audience will begin to mentally “check out” or naturally lose focus and interest. Thus, every 10 minutes the presenter should change the pace, welcome questions, or add an energizing moment. This can be in the form of sharing a joke or anecdote (these should be relevant, brief, and appropriate), posing a question to the audience, playing a video (which should always be embedded within the presentation to avoid wasting time and creating distractions), or introducing a demonstration. Tanveer et al. studied how narrative trajectories influence audience perception by analyzing the transcripts of more than 2000 TED talks. 17 They found that variations in the narratives were important to hold the motivation and attention of the audience, and presentations without variations were more likely to receive lower ratings. 17 It is common for a presenter to begin and end a presentation without a break or change in pace, but the 10-minute rule is an objective marker presenters can use to avoid delivering a monologue presentation.
Using demonstrations and props, such as sharing a video of an operative technique, using an anatomical model to discuss specific physiology, or bringing a tool or technology relevant to the topic, is a way to increase engagement in a presentation. For example, Atherton et al. described the use of the Aurasma application, formerly available in the iTunes App Store and Google Play Store, which connected anyone with the app to three-dimensional medical models via QR code. 18 The presenter could create a demonstration of a surgical technique via Aurasma, and the audience was able to view the demonstration from a presentation on their personal smart devices. 18 Demonstrations and props are strategies to keep in mind for the 10-minute rule. Scientific presentations rely heavily on auditory and visual learning, so props offer an alternative way of learning, kinesthetic learning. Although it may be difficult to incorporate props into every presentation, especially as online-based presentations become more popular, apps such as Aurasma may be a useful tool.
Procedures in surgical education can be described through text and pictures, but utilizing a short video clip to demonstrate a procedure enhances the presentation and further reinforces the prior information. Vara et al. described their experiences using the GoPro HERO systems (GoPro, Inc., San Mateo, Calif.) to record video of hand and upper extremity procedures as a technique to capture, analyze, and share surgical experiences. 19 Video clips incorporate motion into a presentation and may help convey complex visual-spatial topics while offering the presenter a moment to share the spotlight and an opportunity to take a break. Nonetheless, it is important to ensure that videos are of reasonable length, as this can influence likability of a video or presentation. 20 Embedding the video into your presentation, rather than switching applications, may save time and make the transition more comfortable for the audience.
Sharing the spotlight means incorporating others into a presentation rather than a speaker delivering a monologue. Sharing the spotlight can take the form of simply acknowledging and thanking other team members, or presenters may include guest speakers or specialists in a lecture to share their knowledge. Steve Jobs would often share the spotlight by inviting famous people, such as musician John Mayer, or even a doppelgänger to lead a demonstration. 1 A benefit of online meeting platforms, such as Zoom (Zoom Video Communications, San Jose, Calif.) or Webex (Cisco Systems, Inc., Milpitas, Calif.), is that they make it is easier for special guest speakers to join remotely for a portion of the talk. In addition, testimonials from experts or patients are a way of sharing the spotlight in scientific presentations and offer an engaging opportunity to create a memorable moment.
After the presentation has been physically created, rehearsal is critical. As in a theatre rehearsal, there should be a script, costume, and many practices. A script should direct the presenter in how to discuss the information on the slide. Ultimately, with practice, the presenter should not rely on the script during the presentation but should keep a copy in a pocket only to use as a last resort. The comfort of having this security blanket invariably puts the speaker at rest. A presenter should not read every single word on the slide verbatim, but rather explain and verbally bring the information to life. It is essential that the presenter practice the entire presentation, preferably recording the rehearsal to assess body language, verbal fillers, and subconscious nervous habits. Feelings of nervousness and anxiety about public speaking are common.
Hansen et al. provide information on techniques for delivering effective lectures to ensure that surgeons speak as well as they operate. 21 The authors describe the importance of understanding and acknowledging that everyone experiences a level of anxiety when presenting. 21 Physicians are taught to anticipate complications related to a procedure or condition, thus an effective presenter will also learn to anticipate certain traits, such as speaking too fast, anxiety, and nervousness. Acknowledging the humanity in those emotions and practicing using the techniques described will decrease nervousness, boost confidence, and enhance the effectiveness of the presentation.
The presenter should dress to match the expected professional role he or she is representing. Some say dress for success, but perhaps a better takeaway is to never be underdressed. This is not to say that every presenter should wear the most formal attire, but rather to consider the conscious and subconscious effect a speaker’s outfit may have on the audience’s perception of the presenter. As in scientific posters, those who look sharp are taken more seriously. Feeling confident in an outfit may also translate to greater self-assuredness on the stage. Ruetzler et al. performed a conjoint analysis of personal presentation attributes and found that grooming and professional attire were most notable in shaping favorable perceptions. 22 Furthermore, Keegan and Bannister studied the effect of color-coordinated attire with poster presentation popularity. 23 They found a significantly higher number of visitors for posters of presenters with coordinated rather than clashing attire. 23 The two studies suggest that there are benefits to dressing professionally, and that attire does affect how the presentation is received.
After the hard work of preparing, constructing, and refining a presentation, the final ingredient for delivering an effective presentation is personality: sprinkle in jokes and anecdotes while demonstrating both confidence and humility throughout to make the presentation representative of the presenter. Creating the presentation should be fun; if the presenter does not enjoy the presentation, there is no way the audience will either. Humor and stories should be kept professional relative to the level of the presentation but should still aim to keep the audience engaged with light and relatable moments. The skills highlighted in this article will help presenters create effective scientific presentations. Furthermore, future research identifying the strengths and weaknesses in plastic surgery presentations can help improve the quality of the presentations in the field.
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Creating an effective scientific presentation requires developing clear talking points and slide designs that highlight your most important research results..
Scientific presentations are detailed talks that showcase a research project or analysis results. This comprehensive guide reviews everything you need to know to give an engaging presentation for scientific conferences, lab meetings, and PhD thesis talks. From creating your presentation outline to designing effective slides, the tips in this article will give you the tools you need to impress your scientific peers and superiors.
The first step to giving a good scientific talk is to create a presentation outline that engages the audience at the start of the talk, highlights only 3-5 main points of your research, and then ends with a clear take-home message. Creating an outline ensures that the overall talk storyline is clear and will save you time when you start to design your slides.
The first part of your presentation outline should contain slide ideas that will gain your audience's attention. Below are a few recommendations for slides that engage your audience at the start of the talk:
After writing down your engagement ideas, the next step is to list the main points that will become the outline slide for your presentation. A great way to accomplish this is to set a timer for five minutes and write down all of the main points and results or your research that you want to discuss in the talk. When the time is up, review the points and select no more than three to five main points that create your talk outline. Limiting the amount of information you share goes a long way in maintaining audience engagement and understanding.
And finally, you should brainstorm a single take-home message that makes the most important main point stand out. This is the one idea that you want people to remember or to take action on after your talk. This can be your core research discovery or the next steps that will move the project forward.
After you have a good presentation outline, the next step is to choose your slide colors and create a theme. Good slide themes use between two to four main colors that are accessible to people with color vision deficiencies. Read this article to learn more about choosing the best scientific color palettes .
You can also choose templates that already have an accessible color scheme. However, be aware that many PowerPoint templates that are available online are too cheesy for a scientific audience. Below options to download professional scientific slide templates that are designed specifically for academic conferences, research talks, and graduate thesis defenses.
Designing good slides is essential to maintaining audience interest during your scientific talk. Follow these four best practices for designing your slides:
All of the examples and tips described in this article will help you create impressive scientific presentations. Below is the summary of how to give an engaging talk that will earn respect from your scientific community.
Step 1. Draft Presentation Outline. Create a presentation outline that clearly highlights the main point of your research. Make sure to start your talk outline with ideas to engage your audience and end your talk with a clear take-home message.
Step 2. Choose Slide Theme. Use a slide template or theme that looks professional, best represents your data, and matches your audience's expectations. Do not use slides that are too plain or too cheesy.
Step 3. Design Engaging Slides. Effective presentation slide designs use clear data visualizations and limits the amount of information that is added to each slide.
And a final tip is to practice your presentation so that you can refine your talking points. This way you will also know how long it will take you to cover the most essential information on your slides. Thank you for choosing Simplified Science Publishing as your science communication resource and good luck with your presentations!
Explore scientific illustration templates and courses by creating a Simplified Science Publishing Log In. Whether you are new to data visualization design or have some experience, these resources will improve your ability to use both basic and advanced design tools.
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Putting together a scientific presentation might be a pretty challenging undertaking. However, with careful preparation and planning, it can turn into a rewarding experience.
In this article, we’ll discuss the purpose, presentation methods, and structure of an excellent scientific ppt, as well as share essential tips on how to introduce a scientific presentation, so dive in!
A scientific presentation is a formal way to share an observation, propose a hypothesis, show and explain the findings of a study, or summarize what has been discovered or is still to be studied on the subject.
Professional scientific presentations aid in disseminating research and raise peers’ awareness of novel approaches, findings, or issues. They make conferences memorable for both the audience and the presenter.
The three major presentation methods that are frequently used at large conferences include platform (oral), poster, and lecture presentations. Although appearing seemingly different at times, they all have the same requirements and difficulties for successful execution, and their main prerequisite is you, the presenter.
An effective presenter should have led the research, taken part in the analysis, and written the abstract and manuscript, which means the presenter should be fully knowledgeable about the topic at hand.
For the majority of scientific presentations, it is advisable to follow the traditional structure:
Title → Introduction/Background → Methods → Results → Discussion → Conclusion → Acknowledgements.
The main elements that make up the introduction include the background of the study, the research problem, the significance of the research, the research objectives, research questions, and/or hypotheses.
The background is the premise upon which the study’s problem is built. It usually consists of one or two sentences.
After the background usually comes the research problem, which is made up of one or two sentences with clear statements. These can be anything from conflicting findings to a knowledge gap your scientific presentation PowerPoint addresses.
The justification part should briefly outline how the findings will contribute to the problem’s solution. It can also discuss the possible implications of the study in not more than two sentences.
Next comes the purpose of the study, which has to outline your goals and relate to the study’s title.
You may wrap up the introduction by listing the objectives of your study, research questions, or hypotheses. The study’s objectives describe the specific steps that must be taken to accomplish the goal. Please note that the objective can be turned into a research question and a research question, in turn, into a hypothesis.
This section of your presentation should include a relevant study area map. It is recommended that you adequately describe the research design and use diagrams like flowcharts whenever possible.
Additionally, explain the procedures for obtaining the data for each objective, research question, and hypothesis. Finally, state the statistical analysis procedures used.
An oral presentation will always include both the results and the discussion. However, the slides will only contain the results.
You can use tables and figures together, but they shouldn’t be applied to the same data set.
The results of your scientific PowerPoint presentation have to be organized in the same order as the objectives, research questions, and hypotheses. Still, describing and discussing the obtained results should be done off-head.
During your presentation, explain the findings in the tables and figures, pointing out any patterns. Also, discuss the results by assigning reasons to patterns, comparing the results with earlier research, and offering interpretations and implications for your findings.
Your presentation’s final section should offer closing remarks on the study’s key findings, not restate the results. Discuss the findings and their implications and make recommendations for additional research briefly and concisely.
If you include in-text references in your slides, always provide external references on a separate slide.
Prepare your title slide before beginning the research’s introduction section. Your name, your institution or department, the title of the presentation, and its date should all be included on the title slide.
Last but not least, your second slide should include the scientific presentation outline.
Color is a powerful tool for setting a pattern. It can make it easier for the reader or the audience to follow you and comprehend the connection between the subjects you are presenting.
According to our design experts, you have to create a natural flow of information and emphasize information that the reader has to see first (e.g., title or main image). Secondary data has to be less prominent, not to take priority. This all can be achieved through colors. Striking colors will quickly grab the audience’s attention. Meanwhile, a grayscale will be more discreet, making it ideal for secondary information.
Pro tip: Select one or two primary colors for your presentation, then use them repeatedly on the slides.
Font selection is crucial for the overall success of your presentation. Therefore, make sure your text is simple to see and read even if the person is sitting a considerable distance from the screen. Separate paragraphs and headings and stick with three different fonts at most (e.g., Helvetica, Gotham).
Remember that your audience will be looking at the slides while you are speaking, so avoid putting too much text on them.
Pro tip: Use a different font for your headline but ensure it doesn’t create the “comic sans” effect.
Visual aids such as charts, graphs, and images are indispensable for effectively conveying information and grabbing the audience’s attention, but you must choose them carefully.
Make sure to move from this to this:
Pro tip: If there’s a diagram, chart, or other visual that you don’t plan to walk your audience through, cut it.
Here’s a good scientific presentation example to follow:
Now that you know how to make a scientific presentation and what to pay attention to when creating one, let’s move on to the scientific presentation tips from the best designers of our professional presentation services .
Tip #1: Know your audience
View the presentation as a dialogue with the audience rather than a monologue, and always consider the interests and expertise of your audience. This will help you tailor your scientific presentation to their level of knowledge and interests.
Tip #2: Make use of PowerPoint
PowerPoint is an excellent tool for presenting scientific research if appropriately used. Generally, this involves inserting a lot of relevant visuals and minimum words with a font size of 24 points and above.
Tip #3: Tell your audience about your research rather than its background
Focus on discussing the research that you are directly contributing to. The background information should only include the bare minimum. People don’t attend conferences to hear a review of previous work. They do so to learn about new and intriguing research, so use the allotted time to your advantage.
Tip #4: Practice and rehearse
Always practice your presentation of science thoroughly before giving it to anyone. By doing so, you’ll gain a better understanding of the material and make sure your presentation flows smoothly.
Tip #5: Keep to the time limit
A basic rule of thumb is to keep your presentation to 80% of the allotted time. If you are given 55 minutes to deliver your presentation, prepare 45 minutes worth of information: 15 minutes for introduction, 25 for the main aspects of your presentation, 5 to summarize and conclude, and leave the last ten for a Q&A session.
A well-done abstract, a set of carefully chosen viewgraphs, a brief “cheat sheet,” and an outline (perhaps placed in the corner of each viewgraph) should all help you stay on track throughout your presentation.
Tip #6: Don’t read from the slides
Reading from slides is commonplace in various fields, but do you really find it interesting to hear someone read their conference presentation? If reading is an absolute must, then our experts advise you to do it in such a way that no one in the audience notices it. Writing your text in a conversational tone and reading with emotion, conviction, and variations in tone is a great trick to achieve that.
Tip #7: Summarize the key points
Reiterate your main message and briefly touch on your main points in your conclusion. By doing so, you can ensure that your audience will remember the most crucial details of your presentation.
Tip #8: Use effective communication techniques
When delivering your presentation, use appropriate body language and effective communication techniques. These include maintaining eye contact with the audience, speaking clearly and at a reasonable volume, and conveying enthusiasm about your work. Remember, genuine enthusiasm accounts for 90% of a speaker’s success.
Tip #9: Engage the audience
Always ask questions and use polls or other interactive tools to interact with your audience and encourage discussion.
Tip #10: Dress for success
When preparing to give a scientific presentation, dress up professionally. This will help convey two crucial messages: you respect your audience and are willing to conform.
Following the above science presentation structure and tips, you can create clear, informative, and engaging slides that effectively communicate your message to the audience. However, if you’re still wondering how to start a scientific presentation or need a PowerPoint makeover , don’t hesitate to contact our dedicated design experts!
At SlidePeak, we know that building a visually captivating presentation may be a real challenge for researchers and scientists. That’s why we’ve developed several services, including presentation redesign and creation from scratch by qualified scientific, technical, and medical designers who can make your work stand out both in science and creativity.
With over a decade of experience in presentation design, SlidePeak is trusted by thousands of researchers and scientists worldwide. So, submit your scientific presentation order today, and let dedicated experts turn your ideas into professional slides that will help you make an impact!
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Bruce Kirchoff is a botanist and storyteller at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in North Carolina, USA. His new book is Presenting Science Concisely .
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Structuring your presentations with care can help you to clearly communicate to your audience. Credit: Getty
Scientific presentations are too often boring and ineffective. Their focus on techniques and data do not make it easy for the audience to understand the main point of the research.
If you want to reach beyond the narrow group of scientists who work in your specific area, you need to tell your audience members why they should be interested. Three things can help you to be engaging and convey the importance of your research to a wide audience. I had been teaching scientific communication for several years when I was approached to write a book about improving scientific presentations 1 . These are my three most important tips.
The best titles get straight to the point. They tell the audience what you found, and they let them know what your talk will be about. Throughout this article, I will use titles from Nature papers published in the past two years as examples that will stand in for presentation titles. This is because Nature articles have a similar goal of attempting to make discipline-specific research available to a broader audience of scientists. Take, for example: ‘Supply chain diversity buffers cities against food shocks’ 2 .
A great title tells the reader exactly what’s new and precisely conveys the main result, as this one demonstrates. A more conventional title would have been ‘Effect of supply chain diversity on food shocks’, which omits the direction of the effect — so mainly scientists who are interested in your research area will be attracted to the talk. Others will wonder whether the talk will be a waste of time: maybe there was no effect at all.
Collection: Careers toolkit
Another example of a good title is: ‘Organic management promotes natural pest control through altered plant resistance to insects’ 3 .
This title ensures that the audience members know that the talk will be about the beneficial effects of organic crop management before they hear it. They also know that organic management increases plant resistance to insects. This title is much better than one such as: ‘Effects of organic pest management on plant insect resistance’. This title tells the audience the general area of the talk but does not give them the main result.
Finally, look at: ‘A highly magnetized and rapidly rotating white dwarf as small as the Moon’ 4 .
Good titles can just as easily be written for descriptive work as for experimental results. All you need to do is tell your audience what you found. Be as specific as possible. Compare this title with a more conventional one for the same work: ‘Use of the Zwicky Transient Facility to search for short period objects below the main white dwarf cooling sequence’. This title might be of interest to astronomers interested in using this facility, but is unlikely to attract anyone beyond them.
The contradiction implied by the word ‘but’ is one of the most powerful tools a scientist can use 5 . Contradictions introduce problems and provide dramatic effect, tension and a reason to keep listening.
Without such contradictions, the talk will consist of a bunch of results strung together in a seemingly endless and mind-numbing list. We can think of this list as a series of ‘and’ statements: “We did this and this and ran this experiment and found this result and . . . and . . . and.”
Contrast this with a structure that begins with a few important facts, tethered by ands, and then introduces the problem to be solved. Finally, ‘therefore’ can introduce results or subsequent actions. That structure would look like this: ‘X is the current state of knowledge, and we know Y. But Z problem remains. Therefore, we carried out ABC research.’ The introduction of even one contradiction wakes up people in the audience and helps them to focus on the results.
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A paper published earlier this year on SARS-CoV-2 and host protein synthesis provides an excellent example of the narrative form using ‘and’, ‘but’ and ‘therefore’ 6 . In the example below, I have shortened the abstract and simplified the transitions, but maintained the authors’ original structure 6 . Although they did not use ‘but’ or ‘therefore’ in their abstract, the existence of these terms is clearly implied. I have made them explicit in the following rendition.
“Coronaviruses have developed a variety of mechanisms to repress host messenger RNA translation and to allow the translation of viral mRNA and block the cellular immune response. But a comprehensive picture of the effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection on cellular gene expression is lacking. Therefore, we combine RNA sequencing, ribosome profiling and metabolic labelling of newly synthesized RNA to comprehensively define the mechanisms that are used by SARS-CoV-2 to shut off cellular protein synthesis.”
In this example, background information is given in the first sentence, linked by a series of conjunctions. Then the problem is introduced — this is the contradiction that comes with ‘but’. The solution to this problem is given in the next sentence (and introduced by using ‘therefore’). This structure makes the text interesting. It will do the same for your presentations.
Use the power of contradiction to maintain audience engagement throughout your talk. You can string together a series of problems and solutions (buts and therefores) to create a story that leads to your main result. The result highlighted in your title will help you to focus your talk so that the solutions you present lead to this overarching result.
Here is the general pattern:
1. Present the first part of your results.
2. Introduce a problem that remains.
3. Provide a solution to this problem by presenting more results.
4. Introduce the next problem.
5. Present the results that address this problem.
6. Continue this ‘problem and solution’ process through your presentation.
7. End by restating your main finding and summarize how it arises from your intermediate results.
The SARS-CoV-2 abstract 6 uses this pattern of repeated problems (buts) and solutions (therefores). I have modified the wording to clarify these sections.
1. Result 1: SARS-CoV-2 infection leads to a global reduction in translation, but we found that viral transcripts are not preferentially translated.
2. Problem 1: How then does viral mRNA comes to dominate the mRNA pool?
3. Solution 1: Accelerated degradation of cytosolic cellular mRNAs facilitates viral takeover of the mRNA pool in infected cells.
4. Problem 2: How is the translation of induced transcripts affected by SARS-CoV-2 infection?
5. Solution 2: The translation of induced transcripts (including innate immune genes) is impaired.
6. Problem 3: How is translation impaired? What is the mechanism?
7. Solution 3: Impairment is probably mediated by inhibiting the export of nuclear mRNA from the nucleus, which prevents newly transcribed cellular mRNA from accessing ribosomes.
8. Final summary: Our results demonstrate a multipronged strategy used by SARS-CoV-2 to take over the translation machinery and suppress host defences.
Using these three basic tips, you can create engaging presentations that will hold the attention of your audience and help them to remember you. For young scientists, especially, that is the most important thing the audience can take away from your talk.
Nature 600 , S88-S89 (2021)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-03603-2
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This is an article from the Nature Careers Community, a place for Nature readers to share their professional experiences and advice. Guest posts are encouraged .
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August 4, 2015 | 12 min read
By Marilynn Larkin
Convey your ideas and enthusiasm – and avoid the pitfalls that put audiences to sleep
Joann Halpern, PhD, moderates a panel at the German Center for Research and Innovation in New York. (Photo by Nathalie Schueller)
Giving presentations is an important part of sharing your work and achieving recognition in the larger medical and scientific communities. The ability to do so effectively can contribute to career success.
However, instead of engaging audiences and conveying enthusiasm, many presentations fall flat. Pitfalls include overly complicated content, monotone delivery and focusing on what you want to say rather than what the audience is interested in hearing.
Effective presentations appeal to a wide range of audiences — those who work in your area of interest or in related fields, as well as potential funders, the media and others who may find your work interesting or useful.
There are two major facets to a presentation: the content and how you present it. Let’s face it, no matter how great the content, no one will get it if they stop paying attention. Here are some pointers on how to create clear, concise content for scientific presentations – and how to deliver your message in a dynamic way.
Here are five tips for developing effective content for your presentation:
Gear your presentation to the knowledge level and needs of the audience members. Are they colleagues? Researchers in a related field? Consumers who want to understand the value of your work for the clinic (for example, stem cell research that could open up a new avenue to treat a neurological disease)?
What problem will your work help solve? Is it a diagnostic test strategy that reduces false positives? A new technology that will help them to do their own work faster, better and less expensively? Will it help them get a new job or bring new skills to their present job?
Dr. Marius Stan with Vince Gilligan, creator, producer and head writer for Breaking Bad.
Tell a brief anecdote or describe the “aha” moment that convinced you to get involved in your field of expertise. For example, Dr. Marius Stan opens in new tab/window , a physicist and chemist known to the wider world as the carwash owner on Breaking Bad opens in new tab/window , explained that mathematics has always been his passion, and the “explosion” of computer hardware and software early in his career drove his interest to computational science, which involves the use of mathematical models to solve scientific problems. Personalizing makes your work come alive and helps audience members relate to it on an emotional level.
A presentation is your story. It needs a beginning, a middle and an end. For example, you could begin with the problem you set out to solve. What did you discover by serendipity? What gap did you think your work could fill? For the middle, you could describe what you did, succinctly and logically, and ideally building to your most recent results. And the end could focus on where you are today and where you hope to go.
Donald Ingber, MD, PhD, Director of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, gives a keynote address at the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening’s 2015 conference and exhibition in Washington, DC.
Start with context . Cite research — by you and others — that brought you to this point. Where does your work fit within this context? What is unique about it? While presenting on organs-on-chips technology at a recent conference, Dr. Donald Ingber, Director of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard, described the pioneering work of others in the field, touched on its impact, then went on to show his unique contributions to the field. He did not
present his work out of context, as though his group were the only one achieving results.
Frame the problem : “We couldn’t understand why our experiment wasn’t working so we investigated further”; “We saw an opportunity to cut costs and speed things up.”
Prof. Doris Rusch, PhD, talks about creating games to mimic the struggles of anorexia and the anxiety of OCD, at the 12th Annual Games for Change Festival in New York City. (Photo by Gabi Porter)
Provide highlights of what you did, tied to the audience’s expertise and/or reasons for attending your presentation. Present the highlights in a logical order. Avoid going into excruciating detail. If people are interested in steps you don’t cover, they’ll ask and you can expand during the Q&A period. A meeting I covered on educational gaming
gave presenters just 10 minutes each to talk about their work. Most used three to five slides, making sure to include a website address for more information on each slide. Because these speakers were well prepared, they were able to identify and communicate their key points in the short timeframe. They also made sure attendees who wanted more information would be able to find it easily on their websites. So don’t get bogged down in details — the what is often more important than the how .
Conclude by summing up key points and acknowledging collaborators and mentors. Give a peek into your next steps, especially if you’re interested in recruiting partners. Include your contact details and Twitter handle.
Every field has its jargon and acronyms, and science and medicine are no exceptions. However, you don’t want audience members to get stuck on a particular term and lose the thread of your talk. Even your fellow scientists will appreciate brief definitions and explanations of terminology and processes, especially if you’re working in a field like microfluidics, which includes collaborators in diverse disciplines, such as engineering, biomedical research and computational biology.
I’ve interviewed Nobel laureates who know how to have a conversation about their work that most anyone can understand – even if it involves complex areas such as brain chemistry or genomics. That’s because they’ve distilled their work to its essence, and can then talk about it at the most basic level as well as the most complicated. Regardless of the level of your talk, the goal should be to communicate, not obfuscate.
Here are 10 tips to help you present your scientific work and leave the audience wanting more.
Get your equipment ready and run through your slides if possible (use the “speaker ready” room if one is available). If you’ve never been in the venue, try getting there early and walk the room. Make sure you have water available.
Every presentation is a performance. The most important part is to know your lines and subject. Some people advocate memorizing your presentation, but if you do so, you can end up sounding stilted or getting derailed by an interruption. When you practice, focus on the key points you want to make (note them down if it helps) and improvise different ways of communicating them.
It’s well known that a majority of people fear public speaking — and even those who enjoy it may get stage fright. Fear of public speaking will diminish with experience. I’ve been presenting and performing for many years but still get stage fright. Try these strategies to manage the fear:
Breathe slowly and deeply for a few minutes before your talk.
Visualize yourself giving a relaxed talk to a receptive audience. This works best if you can close your eyes for a few minutes. If you’re sitting in the audience waiting to be introduced and can’t close your eyes, look up at the ceiling and try visualizing that way.
Do affirmations. Tell yourself you are relaxed, confident — whatever works for you. Whether affirmations are effective is a matter of debate, but you won’t know unless you try.
Assume one or more “power poses,” developed by social psychologist and dancer Dr. Amy Cuddy opens in new tab/window of the Harvard Business School, before giving your presentation. She demonstrates them in this TED talk opens in new tab/window . Power poses are part of the emerging field of embodiment research (see a comprehensive collection of articles opens in new tab/window related to this research in the journal Frontiers in Psychology ). Research on power poses has yielded mixed results to date, but they’re worth a try.
Seeing you walk energetically energizes the audience. They expect you to engage them and you have their attention.
It’s more difficult to breathe and speak when your shoulders are rolled forward and your chest caves in. Standing tall is also a way of conveying authority. If you’re presenting from a sitting position, sit up in your seat, keep your arms relaxed and away from your sides (i.e., don’t box yourself in by clasping your arms or clasping your hands in your lap).
Not only will you appear more relaxed if you smile, but research has shown that smiling — even when forced — reduces stress. Plus the audience enjoys watching and listening to someone who’s smiling rather than being stern or overly serious, especially if your topic is complicated.
One of the most enjoyable presentations I’ve covered was on animal versus human cognition. It dealt with the evolution and activation of different parts of the brain. By inserting anecdotes in with complex didactic information, presenter Dr. Onur Güntürkün, Professor of Biological Psychology at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum in Germany, made the topic accessible and compelling.
The audience came to your talk so they really do want to hear what you have to say. If a microphone is available, use it. I’ve seen countless presenters stand in front of a microphone yet somehow manage not to talk into it. Talk from your diaphragm, not your throat, to give your voice authority and resonance.
A moment or two of silence as you gather your thoughts or move to a new topic can actually make the audience pay attention. Don’t feel you have to talk continuously, and avoid filler phrases, such as “you know.”
Making eye contact with one or more friendly faces can relax you and help you connect to the audience. It will also prevent you from reading your slides, which you don’t want to do unless absolutely necessary (for example, if you forget the statistics supporting a particular point).
We’ve all done it, but it’s not fun to have to cycle rapidly through your last 10 slides because the moderator has given you a two-minute warning and you’re nowhere near the end. Try to pace yourself. When preparing your slides and practicing (i.e., rehearsing for your performance), make a note on the slide you think you should be discussing when you’re about midway through your talk. This gives you a benchmark and lets you know if you need to speed up or slow down the rest of the presentation.
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1. Less is more. Although there are no “rules,” I’ve found that 20-25 slides work well for a one hour presentation. You’ll have a better idea what works for you if you time yourself during a practice session.
2. Create sections. Use a title slide to start a new section or change the subject. This will also help you organize your presentation and make sure it flows logically.
3. Avoid clutter. Stick to three to five bullet points per slide at most . Bullet points should contain key words — not complete sentences. For examples of what not to do, see this recent editorial in the Washington Post , which urges a ban on PowerPoint presentations opens in new tab/window .
4. Make it readable. Rule of thumb for fonts: 28-40 point for headlines; 18-28 for text; 12-14 for references. Use sans serif fonts, and make sure you have a strong contrast between the background and text (e.g., black or dark blue text on a white background; white text on a blue background). Don’t use ALL CAPS; underscore a point by putting it in italics or bold (underlining can make the text more difficult to read).
5. Use visuals. In a recent talk, presenters explained why biological image processing and analysis is a hot field in laboratory R&D. The reason is simple: you can tell a lot more about cells with an image versus a cell count. The same is true of your presentation: a single image of something particularly relevant to your work is more engaging and has the potential to convey more information than words.
That said, it’s important to keep the visual simple — an image of a single cell or pathway, for example. If you use graphs to show comparisons or results, indicate what the axes represent and which variables (ideally, not more than two or three) you’re displaying.
Generally, steer clear of videos. One of the few effective videos I’ve seen was of a Caledonian crow creating a tool to obtain food, which Dr. Güntürkün included in the presentation referred to above. Videos of in vitro experiments and imaging results rarely help support a point because the low resolution makes everything look grainy.
6. Check your spelling. Nothing takes away from credibility like misspelled words, especially if they’re up on large screen for a minute or more — or worse, repeated throughout your presentation. After you use spell check, proof your presentation yourself. Let a day go by if possible; it’s easier to pick up errors after a break.
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Affiliation Biomedical Engineering and the Center for Public Health Genomics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, United States of America
Published: December 2, 2021
Citation: Naegle KM (2021) Ten simple rules for effective presentation slides. PLoS Comput Biol 17(12): e1009554. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009554
Copyright: © 2021 Kristen M. Naegle. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Funding: The author received no specific funding for this work.
Competing interests: The author has declared no competing interests exist.
The “presentation slide” is the building block of all academic presentations, whether they are journal clubs, thesis committee meetings, short conference talks, or hour-long seminars. A slide is a single page projected on a screen, usually built on the premise of a title, body, and figures or tables and includes both what is shown and what is spoken about that slide. Multiple slides are strung together to tell the larger story of the presentation. While there have been excellent 10 simple rules on giving entire presentations [ 1 , 2 ], there was an absence in the fine details of how to design a slide for optimal effect—such as the design elements that allow slides to convey meaningful information, to keep the audience engaged and informed, and to deliver the information intended and in the time frame allowed. As all research presentations seek to teach, effective slide design borrows from the same principles as effective teaching, including the consideration of cognitive processing your audience is relying on to organize, process, and retain information. This is written for anyone who needs to prepare slides from any length scale and for most purposes of conveying research to broad audiences. The rules are broken into 3 primary areas. Rules 1 to 5 are about optimizing the scope of each slide. Rules 6 to 8 are about principles around designing elements of the slide. Rules 9 to 10 are about preparing for your presentation, with the slides as the central focus of that preparation.
Each slide should have one central objective to deliver—the main idea or question [ 3 – 5 ]. Often, this means breaking complex ideas down into manageable pieces (see Fig 1 , where “background” information has been split into 2 key concepts). In another example, if you are presenting a complex computational approach in a large flow diagram, introduce it in smaller units, building it up until you finish with the entire diagram. The progressive buildup of complex information means that audiences are prepared to understand the whole picture, once you have dedicated time to each of the parts. You can accomplish the buildup of components in several ways—for example, using presentation software to cover/uncover information. Personally, I choose to create separate slides for each piece of information content I introduce—where the final slide has the entire diagram, and I use cropping or a cover on duplicated slides that come before to hide what I’m not yet ready to include. I use this method in order to ensure that each slide in my deck truly presents one specific idea (the new content) and the amount of the new information on that slide can be described in 1 minute (Rule 2), but it comes with the trade-off—a change to the format of one of the slides in the series often means changes to all slides.
Top left: A background slide that describes the background material on a project from my lab. The slide was created using a PowerPoint Design Template, which had to be modified to increase default text sizes for this figure (i.e., the default text sizes are even worse than shown here). Bottom row: The 2 new slides that break up the content into 2 explicit ideas about the background, using a central graphic. In the first slide, the graphic is an explicit example of the SH2 domain of PI3-kinase interacting with a phosphorylation site (Y754) on the PDGFR to describe the important details of what an SH2 domain and phosphotyrosine ligand are and how they interact. I use that same graphic in the second slide to generalize all binding events and include redundant text to drive home the central message (a lot of possible interactions might occur in the human proteome, more than we can currently measure). Top right highlights which rules were used to move from the original slide to the new slide. Specific changes as highlighted by Rule 7 include increasing contrast by changing the background color, increasing font size, changing to sans serif fonts, and removing all capital text and underlining (using bold to draw attention). PDGFR, platelet-derived growth factor receptor.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009554.g001
When you present your slide in the talk, it should take 1 minute or less to discuss. This rule is really helpful for planning purposes—a 20-minute presentation should have somewhere around 20 slides. Also, frequently giving your audience new information to feast on helps keep them engaged. During practice, if you find yourself spending more than a minute on a slide, there’s too much for that one slide—it’s time to break up the content into multiple slides or even remove information that is not wholly central to the story you are trying to tell. Reduce, reduce, reduce, until you get to a single message, clearly described, which takes less than 1 minute to present.
When each slide conveys only one message, use the heading of that slide to write exactly the message you are trying to deliver. Instead of titling the slide “Results,” try “CTNND1 is central to metastasis” or “False-positive rates are highly sample specific.” Use this landmark signpost to ensure that all the content on that slide is related exactly to the heading and only the heading. Think of the slide heading as the introductory or concluding sentence of a paragraph and the slide content the rest of the paragraph that supports the main point of the paragraph. An audience member should be able to follow along with you in the “paragraph” and come to the same conclusion sentence as your header at the end of the slide.
While you are speaking, audience members’ eyes and minds will be wandering over your slide. If you have a comment, detail, or figure on a slide, have a plan to explicitly identify and talk about it. If you don’t think it’s important enough to spend time on, then don’t have it on your slide. This is especially important when faculty are present. I often tell students that thesis committee members are like cats: If you put a shiny bauble in front of them, they’ll go after it. Be sure to only put the shiny baubles on slides that you want them to focus on. Putting together a thesis meeting for only faculty is really an exercise in herding cats (if you have cats, you know this is no easy feat). Clear and concise slide design will go a long way in helping you corral those easily distracted faculty members.
An exception to Rule 4 is to include proper citations or references to work on your slide. When adding citations, names of other researchers, or other types of credit, use a consistent style and method for adding this information to your slides. Your audience will then be able to easily partition this information from the other content. A common mistake people make is to think “I’ll add that reference later,” but I highly recommend you put the proper reference on the slide at the time you make it, before you forget where it came from. Finally, in certain kinds of presentations, credits can make it clear who did the work. For the faculty members heading labs, it is an effective way to connect your audience with the personnel in the lab who did the work, which is a great career booster for that person. For graduate students, it is an effective way to delineate your contribution to the work, especially in meetings where the goal is to establish your credentials for meeting the rigors of a PhD checkpoint.
As a rule, you should almost never have slides that only contain text. Build your slides around good visualizations. It is a visual presentation after all, and as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. However, on the flip side, don’t muddy the point of the slide by putting too many complex graphics on a single slide. A multipanel figure that you might include in a manuscript should often be broken into 1 panel per slide (see Rule 1 ). One way to ensure that you use the graphics effectively is to make a point to introduce the figure and its elements to the audience verbally, especially for data figures. For example, you might say the following: “This graph here shows the measured false-positive rate for an experiment and each point is a replicate of the experiment, the graph demonstrates …” If you have put too much on one slide to present in 1 minute (see Rule 2 ), then the complexity or number of the visualizations is too much for just one slide.
The type of slide elements, the number of them, and how you present them all impact the ability for the audience to intake, organize, and remember the content. For example, a frequent mistake in slide design is to include full sentences, but reading and verbal processing use the same cognitive channels—therefore, an audience member can either read the slide, listen to you, or do some part of both (each poorly), as a result of cognitive overload [ 4 ]. The visual channel is separate, allowing images/videos to be processed with auditory information without cognitive overload [ 6 ] (Rule 6). As presentations are an exercise in listening, and not reading, do what you can to optimize the ability of the audience to listen. Use words sparingly as “guide posts” to you and the audience about major points of the slide. In fact, you can add short text fragments, redundant with the verbal component of the presentation, which has been shown to improve retention [ 7 ] (see Fig 1 for an example of redundant text that avoids cognitive overload). Be careful in the selection of a slide template to minimize accidentally adding elements that the audience must process, but are unimportant. David JP Phillips argues (and effectively demonstrates in his TEDx talk [ 5 ]) that the human brain can easily interpret 6 elements and more than that requires a 500% increase in human cognition load—so keep the total number of elements on the slide to 6 or less. Finally, in addition to the use of short text, white space, and the effective use of graphics/images, you can improve ease of cognitive processing further by considering color choices and font type and size. Here are a few suggestions for improving the experience for your audience, highlighting the importance of these elements for some specific groups:
It is very difficult to stay focused on a presentation, especially if it is long or if it is part of a longer series of talks at a conference. Audience members may get distracted by an important email, or they may start dreaming of lunch. So, it’s important to look at your slide and ask “If they heard nothing I said, will they understand the key concept of this slide?” The other rules are set up to help with this, including clarity of the single point of the slide (Rule 1), titling it with a major conclusion (Rule 3), and the use of figures (Rule 6) and short text redundant to your verbal description (Rule 7). However, with each slide, step back and ask whether its main conclusion is conveyed, even if someone didn’t hear your accompanying dialog. Importantly, ask if the information on the slide is at the right level of abstraction. For example, do you have too many details about the experiment, which hides the conclusion of the experiment (i.e., breaking Rule 1)? If you are worried about not having enough details, keep a slide at the end of your slide deck (after your conclusions and acknowledgments) with the more detailed information that you can refer to during a question and answer period.
Well-designed slides that follow the first 8 rules are intended to help you deliver the message you intend and in the amount of time you intend to deliver it in. The best way to ensure that you nailed slide design for your presentation is to practice, typically a lot. The most important aspects of practicing a new presentation, with an eye toward slide design, are the following 2 key points: (1) practice to ensure that you hit, each time through, the most important points (for example, the text guide posts you left yourself and the title of the slide); and (2) practice to ensure that as you conclude the end of one slide, it leads directly to the next slide. Slide transitions, what you say as you end one slide and begin the next, are important to keeping the flow of the “story.” Practice is when I discover that the order of my presentation is poor or that I left myself too few guideposts to remember what was coming next. Additionally, during practice, the most frequent things I have to improve relate to Rule 2 (the slide takes too long to present, usually because I broke Rule 1, and I’m delivering too much information for one slide), Rule 4 (I have a nonessential detail on the slide), and Rule 5 (I forgot to give a key reference). The very best type of practice is in front of an audience (for example, your lab or peers), where, with fresh perspectives, they can help you identify places for improving slide content, design, and connections across the entirety of your talk.
The real presentation almost never goes as we planned in our heads or during our practice. Maybe the speaker before you went over time and now you need to adjust. Maybe the computer the organizer is having you use won’t show your video. Maybe your internet is poor on the day you are giving a virtual presentation at a conference. Technical problems are routinely part of the practice of sharing your work through presentations. Hence, you can design your slides to limit the impact certain kinds of technical disasters create and also prepare alternate approaches. Here are just a few examples of the preparation you can do that will take you a long way toward avoiding a complete fiasco:
These rules are just a start in creating more engaging presentations that increase audience retention of your material. However, there are wonderful resources on continuing on the journey of becoming an amazing public speaker, which includes understanding the psychology and neuroscience behind human perception and learning. For example, as highlighted in Rule 7, David JP Phillips has a wonderful TEDx talk on the subject [ 5 ], and “PowerPoint presentation flaws and failures: A psychological analysis,” by Kosslyn and colleagues is deeply detailed about a number of aspects of human cognition and presentation style [ 4 ]. There are many books on the topic, including the popular “Presentation Zen” by Garr Reynolds [ 11 ]. Finally, although briefly touched on here, the visualization of data is an entire topic of its own that is worth perfecting for both written and oral presentations of work, with fantastic resources like Edward Tufte’s “The Visual Display of Quantitative Information” [ 12 ] or the article “Visualization of Biomedical Data” by O’Donoghue and colleagues [ 13 ].
I would like to thank the countless presenters, colleagues, students, and mentors from which I have learned a great deal from on effective presentations. Also, a thank you to the wonderful resources published by organizations on how to increase inclusivity. A special thanks to Dr. Jason Papin and Dr. Michael Guertin on early feedback of this editorial.
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Purpose: Few guidelines exist regarding the most effective approach to scientific oral presentations. Our purpose is to (1) develop a standardized instrument to evaluate scientific presentations based on a comprehensive review of the available literature regarding the components and organization of scientific presentations and (2) describe the optimal characteristics of scientific presentations.
Methods: At the Sixty-sixth (2011) Annual Meeting of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand, 69 presentations were evaluated by at least 2 independent observers. A rating instrument was developed a priori to examine presentation content (background, methods, results, and conclusions), presentation style (speech, structure, delivery, slide aesthetics), and overall quality. We examined correlations between reviewers' ratings of each component as well as overall perceived quality of the presentation using regression analysis. Intraclass correlation coefficients were calculated to measure the degree of variation because of reviewer disagreement and identify the aspects of presentations that contribute to overall quality.
Results: Reviewer agreement was high for presentation content, and less than 1% of variation was caused by reviewer disagreement for background, methods, and conclusions. With respect to presentation style, reviewers agreed most frequently regarding speech and slide appearance, and only 9% and 13%, respectively, of the variation was caused by reviewer disagreement. Disagreement was higher for delivery and presentation structure, and 21% of the variation was attributable to reviewer disagreement. Speaker delivery and slide appearance were the most important predictors of presentation quality, followed by the quality of the presentation of conclusions and background information. Presentation of methods and results were not associated with overall presentation quality.
Conclusions: Distinct aspects of presentation content and style correlate with quality, which can be reliably and objectively measured. By focusing on selected concepts with visually simple slides, speakers can enhance their delivery and may potentially improve the audience's comprehension of the study findings.
Copyright © 2012 American Society for Surgery of the Hand. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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For many young scientists, the hardest part of a presentation is the introduction. How do you set the stage for your talk so your audience knows exactly where you're going?
Here's how: follow the the CCQH pattern -- C ontext, C omplication, Q uestion, H ypothesis. Fit your research into this pattern, and you will be able to introduce your work in just a few minutes, using just 1 or 2 slides.
The video below show how to use the CCQH pattern using an example of published scientific research. You will see how powerful -- and how adapatable -- the CCQH pattern is.
Make sure you select 720p HD on the video (bottom right corner) for best resolution and so scientific illustrations and figures are clear.
You can also find this video, and others related to scientific communication, at the CLIMB youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/climbprogram
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The main aim of any research endeavor is to disseminate research findings among the scientific community and enrich scientific knowledge. The two most common scientific dissemination modes are journal articles and conference proceedings. Whichever route you decide to follow, the scientific writing that needs to be partaken typically follows the IMRaD format, i.e., Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion-Conclusion. This format is applicable for abstracts (unless an unstructured abstract is specifically required), scientific research articles, and conference poster or oral presentations. Understanding the importance of each IMRaD section along with the role of a clear and informative title is your road to success. This also applies to proper citation of other people’s work, ideas, and thoughts. This chapter will guide you, through a stepwise approach, to understand the various elements that make up a successful scientific article, an abstract, a conference poster, and an oral presentation.
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Cuschieri, S. (2022). How to Structure a Scientific Article, Conference Poster and Presentation. In: A Roadmap to Successful Scientific Publishing. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99295-8_3
DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99295-8_3
Published : 22 April 2022
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Related Articles. This guide provides a 4-step process for making a good scientific presentation: outlining the scientific narrative, preparing slide outlines, constructing slides, and practicing the talk. We give advice on how to make effective slides, including tips for text, graphics, and equations, and how to use rehearsals of your talk to ...
Oral Presentation Structure. Like scientific papers, oral presentations at a conference or internal seminar are for sharing your research work with other scientists. They, too, must convince the ...
We have put together a series of short videos to help you organize and deliver a crisp 10-15 minute scientific presentation. First is a two part set of videos that walks you through organizing a presentation. Part 1 - Creating an Introduction for a 10-15 Minute Scientfic Presentation. Part 2 - Creating the Body of a 10-15 Minute Presentation ...
1. Open with a Research Question. Here's how to start a scientific presentation with ease: share your research question. On the first slide, briefly recap how your thought process went. Briefly state what was the underlying aim of your research: Share your main hypothesis, mention if you could prove or disprove them.
Delivery. It is important to dress appropriately, stand up straight, and project your voice towards the back of the room. Practise using a microphone, or any other presentation aids, in advance. If you don't have your own presenting style, think of the style of inspirational scientific speakers you have seen and imitate it.
For original presentations follow a structure: Introduction, Methods, Results, Conclusions. Invest a sufficient amount of time or poster space in describing the study methods. Clearly organize and deliver the results or synopsis of relevant studies. ... Scientific presentation is a professional way of sharing your observation, introducing a ...
Construct a fluid, narrative-like structure to the presentation if possible. An analogy or metaphor to the complex topic. ... Scientific presentations rely heavily on auditory and visual learning, so props offer an alternative way of learning, kinesthetic learning. Although it may be difficult to incorporate props into every presentation ...
Below is the summary of how to give an engaging talk that will earn respect from your scientific community. Step 1. Draft Presentation Outline. Create a presentation outline that clearly highlights the main point of your research. Make sure to start your talk outline with ideas to engage your audience and end your talk with a clear take-home ...
In the video below, we show you the key principles for designing effective PowerPoint slides for a scientific presentation. Using examples from actual science presentations, we illustrate the following principles: Create each slide as a single message unit. Explicitly state that single message on the slide. Avoid bullet points-opt for word tables.
About this book. This book is a comprehensive guidebook designed specifically for researchers. Drawing from over 25 years of practical experience in presentation training and lecture coaching, combined with the latest findings from brain research, this book equips you with the essential tools to excel in scientific communication.
In this video, we show you how to shape the body of your 10-15 minute scientific presentation. Here the focus is on presenting your experimental design/methods, the data/results, and the conclusions that can be drawn. The video continues using the same example of published scientific research used to illustrate how to organize an introducion.
Step 1: Identify your audience: this will control the level of your presentation and the amount of background material you need to orient everyone in the audience. Step 2: Determine how much time you have for your presentation: this will control how much time you have to talk about each part of your outline (see below) Step 3: Identify the main ...
Tip #1: Know your audience. View the presentation as a dialogue with the audience rather than a monologue, and always consider the interests and expertise of your audience. This will help you tailor your scientific presentation to their level of knowledge and interests. Tip #2: Make use of PowerPoint.
Layout. Keep the layout and style as consistent as possible. Every slide should have a heading. Try to limit bullets to no more than 7 lines. The reason for limiting text blocks to two lines is that when the text block goes on and on forever, people in the audience are going to have to make a huge effort to read the text, which will preclude ...
The result highlighted in your title will help you to focus your talk so that the solutions you present lead to this overarching result. Here is the general pattern: 1. Present the first part of ...
Here are 10 tips to help you present your scientific work and leave the audience wanting more. 1. Set the stage. Get your equipment ready and run through your slides if possible (use the "speaker ready" room if one is available). If you've never been in the venue, try getting there early and walk the room.
Basics of Scientific Presentation . 2 ... § Written presentations Content, structure, style, citations, and plagiarism Outline Basics of Scientific Presentation, Henning Wachsmuth . 3 Literature research Basics of Scientific Presentation, Henning Wachsmuth . 4
The "presentation slide" is the building block of all academic presentations, whether they are journal clubs, thesis committee meetings, short conference talks, or hour-long seminars. A slide is a single page projected on a screen, usually built on the premise of a title, body, and figures or tables and includes both what is shown and what ...
This video provides concise and effective tips spanning all relevant areas to deliver engaging scientific presentations. You will strengthen your skills in preparing, practicing and delivering presentations at both physical and virtual conferences and seminars. Best practices for structuring presentations and elements to include and those to ...
Our purpose is to (1) develop a standardized instrument to evaluate scientific presentations based on a comprehensive review of the available literature regarding the components and organization of scientific presentations and (2) describe the optimal characteristics of scientific presentations. Methods: At the Sixty-sixth (2011) Annual Meeting ...
A 10-15 Minute Scientific Presentation, Part 1: Creating an Introduction. For many young scientists, the hardest part of a presentation is the introduction. How do you set the stage for your talk so your audience knows exactly where you're going? Here's how: follow the the CCQH pattern -- C ontext, C omplication, Q uestion, H ypothesis. Fit ...
The presentation of your research work can take the form of a scientific publication in a journal and/or presentation of your work in a scientific conference as a poster or as an oral presentation. Submitting an abstract of your research results, even in preliminary phases, to a conference does not necessarily mean that you cannot publish your ...
The Structure of an Academic Paper www.communicate.gse.harvard.edu Academic papers are like hourglasses. The paper opens at its widest point; the introduction makes broad connections to the reader's interests, hoping they will be persuaded to follow along, then gradually narrows to a tight, focused, thesis statement.
In addition to combination with ICB, cDC1 reprogramming in situ could potentially synergize with other modalities, e.g., adoptive T cells, by enhancing target antigen presentation and supporting infiltration of engineered T cells into solid tumors, or agonistic CD40 antibodies given the critical role of CD4 + T cells that might depend on CD40 ...