“Writing” and “Speaking”
Written and Oral Presentations
Writing Papers and Giving Talks
Part of the Block Course „Working Techniques“ in the Frame of the
International Master‘s Program for Informatics
Johannes Kepler University, Campus Hagenberg, Austria
September 2008
Copyright Bruno Buchberger 2008
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Copyright Bruno Buchberger 2008:
No parts of this file may be copied or stored without written
permission.
Storing and printed granted for the students of the International
Master’s Program in Informatics, JKU, Campus Hagenberg,
September 2008 under the condition that the file is kept
unchanged and complete including this copyright note.
Copyright Bruno Buchberger 2008
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Contents:
• The Role of Written and Oral Presentations
• The Parameters on Which Presentations Depend
• Structure of Written and Oral Presentations
• Technicalities of Written and Oral Presentations
Copyright Bruno Buchberger 2008
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The Role of
Written and Oral Presentations
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Situations for Presentations: Examples
• a seminar paper with talk
• an interview at a company
• product presentation at a costumer
• teaching users of a software system
• explaining your parents what you are doing
• a master’s thesis
• a paper for a journal
• a paper for a conference with talk
• writing a proposal for a fellowship
• writing a project proposal
• meeting a politician
• a radio interview
• writing a press release
• “talk to yourself”
•…
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Lots
of Work
Little
Work
Presentation
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• Reading (listening) should be less work than re-invention.
• Good work is lost by bad presentation.
• Bad presentation is also bad for the author: The readers will
prefer to re-invent rather than to read (or to listen to others).
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The Golden Rule for Presentations:
Spend your time as an author
for saving the time of the reader!
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The Myth on Mathematical Intelligence:
“He has got the right idea
but he is just not able to express it.”
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Contents:
 The Role of Written and Oral Presentations
• The Parameters on Which Presentations Depend
• Structure of Written and Oral Presentations
• Technicalities
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The Parameters
on which Presentations Depend
A Common Misunderstanding:
A
“topic”
The
presentation
oral / written
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Rather:
A
“Topic”
The
addressees
The
presentation
Chosen
media
Size
constraints
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Also: The Process of Presentation is a Spiral
A
“topic”
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The
presentation
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Also: The Presentation Spiral is the Crucial Method of Research
A
“topic”
“Ideas do not come from Kami but from Kami”
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Some Consequences:
Never give the same talk twice!
Don’t present a paper
by presenting the paper!
Much of your writing
is only for yourself.
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Rather:
A
“topic”
The
addressees
Chosen
media
Size
constraints
- contents (the “topic”)
- goals
- point of emphasis
- profession
- training
- motivation
- age
- relationship
- no media
- paper
- blackboard
- slides
- interactive media
The
presentation
- space
- time
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Some Consequences:
Learn to express one content for
• many different addressees
• using arbitrary media
• under arbitrary constraints
Force yourself to adjust to the addressee,
don’t force the addressee to adjust to you.
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Goals:
• Goal /= “topic”
• Same topic, different goals  different presentation !
• Goals should be “operational”.
• Clear goals are the best motivation for the addressees.
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An operational specification of a goal:
• Describes the operation the reader / listener should be able to
perform after reading / hearing the presentation.
• Non-operational: The reader should “understand”.
•
Of course, all this has to be taken “cum grano salis” !!
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Example: Paper by B. Buchberger, Towards the Automated Synthesis of a Gröbner
Bases Algorithm
• The “topic” is clear.
• However, many different operational goals possible: The reader should be
able
– to explain the main idea in examples
 write a “tutorial”
– to develop all details of the algorithm so that he can program it
 write a “program specification”
– to fill in all the details of the proof
write a “mathematical foundations paper”
– to use the program and apply it as a black box
write a “user’s manual”
– to change the program
 write a “documentation”
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Exercise: What are (should / could be) the operational goals behind
Buchberger’s paper?
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The point(s) of emphasis:
• One or very few points of emphasis.
• Should be clear to the author, should be clear to the addressee.
• Napoleon: “Only chase one rabbit at a time!”
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Exercise: What is (should / could be) the point of emphasis in Buchberger’s
paper?
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Contents:
 The Role of Written and Oral Presentations
 The Parameters on Which Presentations Depend
• Structure of Written and Oral Presentations
• Technicalities of Written and Oral Presentations
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The Structure of Presentations
• Some structural considerations are common to oral and written
presentations (talks and papers).
• Some other structural considerations depend on the “media”
used.
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Three psychologic facts behind the art of presentation:
-
Good motivation facilitates understanding.
-
Well associated contents can more easily be kept in brain.
-
Consecutive learning blocks may disturb each other.
As a consequence, the following “presentation curve” is fundamental.
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Motivation
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Presentation
Association
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The most natural way
of presenting mathematics / informatics:
Problem
Beyond the
capabilities
of addressee !
Copyright Bruno Buchberger 2008
Solution Method
Solution
Now within
the capabilities
of addressee!
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For many mathematical papers and talks,
a well chosen example can / should be the center of the paper.
The basic rule for good examples:
- as simple as possible
- as complicated as necessary.
This rule also applies to everything else in mathematics:
drawings, definitions, proofs, algorithms, …
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Set
(operational)
goal
Copyright Bruno Buchberger 2008
Work hard
Enjoy
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The presentation curve is a fractal:
- an entire study
- an entire course
- a lecture
- part of a lecture
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Don’t do this:
Why not?
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Another rule for presentations:
The complete contents should be presented
in a couple of rounds of increasing detail.
• in the title
• in the abstract
• in the introduction
• in the technical part for the “user”
• in the technical part for the “developer”
• (in the conclusions for those who have read the paper)
Note: the addressee changes in the different parts of a paper!
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A typical structure of papers:
• Title
• Author, affiliation, bibliographic data
• Abstract
• Introduction / literature review
• Technical part for the “users”
• Technical part for the “developers”
• Conclusion
• References
• Appendices
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Title:
A good structure: according to
problem type,
data type,
method type.
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problem types
SOLUTION OF
BOOLEAN
EQUATIONS
BY ELIMINATION
Mathematics as
a 3-D space
method types
EQUATIONS
ELIMINATION
BOOLEAN ALGEBRAS
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data types
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Author, Affiliation, Bibliographic Information:
• Should enable the reader to get in contact with the author.
• Should enable the reader to cite the paper or to search for
citations.
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Abstract:
• Note that the addressees are readers who do not have the paper!
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Introduction / Literature Review:
• The place for motivation!
• The place for the main example!
• The place that convinces the referees about
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
scope
clarity
importance
difficulty (non-triviality)
originality (difference to other work, “statement of originality”)
completeness of literature survey
presentation
• The place for “reading instructions”
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The Technical Parts of the Paper:
– The main prerequisite is thorough mastery of the formal aspect of
the mathematical methodology, see Chapter “Thinking”.
– Only things that are correct can also be presented well!
– If one masters the formal aspect of mathematics then one can
play with “styles” in dependence of the input parameters of the
presentation.
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Differences between the structure of papers and talks:
• Talks: Interaction with the addressees possible and desirable.
• Talks: A variety of different media is available (blackboards, data
projector, speech)
• Talks: Proceed in real-time (with the same speed for all people in the
audience)
• Talks need an extra written preparation, which is different from the
paper!
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Written Preparation for a Talk:
Technicalities
Psycho
Goal
M
Media
Time
Blackbd.
The actual text of the presentation
P
A
……
……
…...
Data
Proj.
P
A
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Exercise:
• Analyze the structure of Buchberger’s paper.
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Contents:
 The Role of Written and Oral Presentations
 The Parameters on Which Presentations Depend
 Structur of Written and Oral Presentations
• Technicalities of Written and Oral Presentations
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Technicalities
Technicalities of Talks: see lecture notes.
-
Blackboards and slides:
- On slides we “present” facts. (Don’t overload!)
- On blackboards we develop ideas.
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Technicalities of Writing Papers:
• The interplay between text and formulae: syntactical
correctness!
• Easy readability.
• Uniformity in style.
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Some Difficulties in English:
•
The use of passive, “one”, “we”, “I”.
•
“which” and “that”
•
“don’t” and “do not”, “it’s” and “its”.
•
“the”, “a”, “an” and “ “: The have logical meaning!
“a”
….
“existential quantifier”
“the” …
instead of a constant
(Advice: collect 100 sample phrases from good papers!)
•
British and American English.
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Contents:
 The Role of Written and Oral Presentations
 The Parameters on Which Presentations Depend
 Structure of Written and Oral Presentations
 Technicalities of Written and Oral Presentations
Copyright Bruno Buchberger 2008
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Exercise:
• Choose (a very limited) topic and prepare three versions of a
paper and a talk on the topic in dependence on various settings
of the “input parameters” for the presentation.
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Conclusion (Points of Emphasis of this Lecture)
• The dependence of presentations on the input parameters:
A
“Topic”
The
addressees
Chosen
media
Size
constraints
The
presentation
• The “presentation curve”:
• Formal mastery of mathematics is the basis for good style.
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Another Summary:
The 5 aspects and criteria for good talks and papers
• „Facto“ (math / comp scie contents): goal oriented
• „ Logo“: mastering the logical aspect of math / comp scie
• „ Socio“: directed to a particular audience / readership
• „ Psycho“: respecting the psychologic fact of learning
• „Techno“: the technicalities of talks and papers
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Additional Details
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