Making A Scientific Presentation:
Basic Principles
Peter W. F. Wilson, MD
Emory University
Atlanta, GA, USA
1
General Outline
• Format for a short scientific talk
• Examples of slide materials
• Speaking when not using slides
2
Outline
Scientific Oral Presentation
• Title slide (1 slide)
Title of presentation
Your name
Collaborators for project
Institutions represented
• Conflict of interest disclosure (1 slide)
• Background (1-2 slides)
• Population and Methods (2-3 slides)
• Images/Photos (0-3 slides)
Equipment, lab, environment, subjects
• Results (2-3 slides)
• Summary (1 slide)
• Limitations (1 slide)
• Backup slides (0 to 3 slides)
3
Background
History of Oration
• Public forum
• Speaker on an elevated platform
• Need to project to entire audience
• Effective speakers told stories
• Importance of repetition
4
Modern Scientific Oral Presentations
• Starting point
Accepted scientific abstract
Review of topic—no abstract
• Speaking in a conference room
Blackboard (chalk needed)
Flip Chart (markers needed)
Overhead projector (often need help)
Videoconference (often need help)
Powerpoint on own computer
• Video presentation (always need help)
5
Speaker Aids
• Podium
• Microphone
Fixed
Portable
• Pointer (or chalk or markers)
Mouse
Laser pointer
• Computer used for powerpoint
• Your personal notes
• Water available to drink
6
General Rules for Giving a Scientific Talk
•Slides
Keep slide format uniform
Usually less than 1 slide per minute
Keep visual content simple
Try to avoid too many lines of text
Do not “read” the slides
Use high contrast background color
Arial (or similar) text is preferred
Animation not usually needed
7
“Backup Plan”
for Your Presentation
• Extra copies of the Powerpoint
Email to yourself
Extra memory stick
Upload to meeting server
• Print and carry your Powerpoint
Miniature slides (6 to a page)
Notes
• Use 3 ring binder to present your talk
• Have print copy of your slides with you
8
Speaking with Style (1)
You
•
•
•
•
Clothing
Jewelry
Makeup
Awareness of the total “you”
Head
Eyes
Torso
Hands
Feet
9
Speaking with Style (2)
At the Podium
• Walk slowly to the podium
• Thank moderator(s) and sponsor(s)
• Talk to the different sections of the audience
• Talk slowly
• Vary your rhythm
• Use pauses for emphasis
• Don’t use jargon
• Be careful with use of humor and jokes
• Define uncommon words at time of first use
• Repeat your important findings
• Signal when close to finishing
• Finish within allotted time
10
Speaking with Style (3)
Emphasizing Key Findings
• Repetition Approach
Tell audience what you are going to say
State the finding
Repeat the finding
• Socratic Approach
Ask a question
Answer the question with your study data
Repeat findings with different phrasing
11
Speaking with Style (4)
Questions
• Questions from the audience
Thank person for asking the question
Briefly repeat or paraphrase the question
-- Ensures you understand the question
-- Gives you time to think about the answer
Provide “short” answer
Potentially show an “extra” slide
12
Speaking with Video
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Personal appearance is very important
Face makeup and skin powder if available
Usually you are talking to an interviewer
Don’t worry about making mistakes
Speak slowly—usually slower than usual
Know what the camera is viewing
Behave as though camera is always “on”
Be aware of
– Facial expression(s)
– Body language
13
Fluent Communication
•
•
•
•
Speak at average speed
Vary speed and pitch
Use pauses effectively
Avoid filler expressions
Examples: “um” , “uh” ,“you know”
• Use appropriate vocabulary
• Pronounce words correctly
14
Behaviors and Communication
• Stuttering
Focus on smoothness, rate and tone
• Physical movements
Key areas: eyes, forehead, breathing,
frowning
• Large muscle movements
• Verbal repetition
15
Basic Components of a Table
Column Spanner
Stub Head
Column
A
Column
B
Column
C
Stub 1
Stub 2
*Other major risk factors (beyond lipids) include smoking, hypertension, and family history of premature CAD
Nicol and Pexman: Presenting your findings (2010), p 5
16
Brunzell JACC 2008; 51: 1512
Table Composition
• Title
Should be meaningful
Keep it short
Can use abbreviations
• Column and Row Heads
Avoid repeating words
Make the order logical
Keep text short
Try to have columns with equal spacing
• Column Spanner
Use spanners if you can
• Numbers
Fewer decimals is generally preferred
Standard Deviation vs Standard Error of Mean
• Abbreviations
Explain in text or in a footnote
Nicol and Pexman: Presenting your findings (2010), p 7
17
Examples of Slides
18
Correlation Table
Measure
Factor 1
Factor 2
Factor 1
--
Factor 2
0.24
--
Factor 3
0.30
0.55
Factor 3
--
19
Correlation* Table
Measure
Factor 1
Factor 1
--
Factor 2
0.24
--
Factor 3
0.30
0.55
* Values shown are r-squared
Factor 2
Factor 3
--
20
Correlation* Table
Measure
Factor 1
Factor 2
Factor 3
Factor 1
--
0.28
0.35
Factor 2
0.24
--
0.60
Factor 3
0.30
0.55
--
Group A
* Values shown are r-squared
Group B
21
BP Trial Results
ABC Study*
BP
Measurement
Men
Women
Drug
Placebo
Drug
Placebo
Initial
145
145
142
142
End
140
142
139
140
Change
-5**
-3
-3
-2
*Other major risk factors (beyond lipids) include smoking, hypertension, and family history of premature CAD
•Mean results in mm Hg
22
Brunzell JACC 2008; 51: 1512
•** P<0.05 vs Men on placebo
Blood Pressure
Levels in the ABC Trial
160
Mean BP systolic
(mm Hg)
140
120
Drug
Placebo
100
80
60
40
20
0
Initial
End
Men
Initial
End
Women
23
Blood Pressure
Levels in the ABC Trial
Mean BP systolic (mm Hg)
150
Drug
Placebo
P<0.05
140
130
Initial
End
Men
Initial
End
Women
24
Blood Pressure
Change in the ABC Trial
Mean BP systolic reduction
(mm Hg)
10
Drug
Placebo
8
P<0.05
6
4
2
0
Men
Women
25
Blood Pressure
Change in the ABC Trial
Mean BP systolic change
(mm Hg)
2
0
-2
-4
-6
P<0.05
-8
Drug
Placebo
-10
Men
Women
26
Considerations with Figures
•
•
•
•
Simple figures often very effective
Consider effects if printed in grayscale
Use bars, symbols, lines with care
Beware of the “moiré effect”
27
Blood Pressure
Change in the ABC Trial
Mean BP systolic change
(mm Hg)
2
0
-2
-4
-6
P<0.05
-8
Drug
Placebo
-10
Men
Women
28
Graphing Data Over an Interval (1)
Powerpoint Vertical Bar Plot
400
U.S. 300
Population 200
(millions) 100
0
1980
1990
2000
2010
Year
29
Graphing Data Over an Interval (2)
Powerpoint Vertical Bar Plot
360
350
340
U.S.
330
Population
(millions) 320
310
300
290
1980
1990
2000
Year
2010
30
Graphing Data Over an Interval (3)
Powerpoint Vertical Bar Plot
400
350
U.S.
Population 300
(millions)
250
200
1980
1990
2000
Year
2010
31
Graphing Data Over an Interval (4)
400
380
U.S.
360
Population
(millions) 340
320
300
1980
1990
2000
Year
2010
32
Graphing Data Over an Interval (5)
400
380
Population 360
(millions)
340
320
300
1980
1990
2000
Year
2010
33
Graphing Data Over an Interval (6)
Powerpoint Vertical Bar Plot
400
380
If you show a line…
Arrange graph so that the slope of this line
through the data is approximately 45o
360
Population 360
(millions)
340
320
345
328
315
300
1980
1990
2000
2010
Year
34
Summary
Speaker Tips from Toastmaster’s International
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Know your material
Practice, Practice, Practice!
Know the audience
Know the room
Relax
Visualize yourself giving your speech
Realize that people want you to succeed
Don’t apologize
Concentrate on the message
Gain experience
Try to keep your visual aids simple
Toastmaster International Website
35
Final Summary
Scientific Oral Presentation
•Title slide (1 slide)
Title of presentation
Your name
Collaborators for project
Institutions represented
•Conflict of interest disclosure (1 slide)
•Background (1-2 slides)
•Population and Methods (2-3 slides)
•Images/Photos (0-3 slides)
Equipment, lab, environment, subjects
•Results (2-3 slides)
•Summary (1 slide)
•Limitations (1 slide)
•Backup slides (0 to 3 slides)
36
Limitations and Caveats
• This approach does not always work
• You might not be able to “see your slides”
• “Stuff happens”
You get sick and might not be able to present
The projector could fail
Your slide format did not “transfer”
• Have a backup plan
• Extra slides after the conclusion
To explain key point(s)
To answer expected questions
37
Speaking Without Slides
38
10 Steps to a Great Speech
(William Safire)
1. Shake hands with the audience
2. Structure and shape of the talk
3. Rhythm
4. Special occasion
5. Focus
6. Purpose
7. Using a new phrase
8. Theme and context
9. Delivery
10. Vocabulary
Safire, W Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History (Cobbett Press, 1992)
39
10 Steps to a Great Speech
(William Safire)
1. Shake hands with the audience
2. Structure and shape of the talk
3. Rhythm
4. Special occasion
5. Focus
6. Purpose
7. Using a new phrase
8. Theme and context
9. Delivery
10. Vocabulary
11. Cross the audience up now and then
Safire, W Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History (Cobbett Press, 1992)
40
Shake hands with the audience
“ I am very glad, indeed, to come to Westminister College this
afternoon, and I am complimented that you should give me a degree
from an institution whose reputation has been so solidly accepted.
It is the name Westminister, somehow or other, which seems
familiar to me. I feel as if I’d heard of it before....”
Winston Churchill
“Iron Curtain Speech”
Fulton, Missouri
March 5, 1946
Safire, W Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History (Cobbett Press, 1992)
41
Structure and Shape
• Tell them what you will say
• Tell them
• Tell them what you have said
Safire, W Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History (Cobbett Press, 1992)
42
Rhythm and Pulse (1)
• Repeat beginning phrases (anaphora)
“I have a dream…” ML King
• Repeat ending phrases (epiphora, epistrophe)
"There is no Negro problem.
There is no Southern problem.
There is no Northern problem.
There is only an American problem.“
Lyndon B. Johnson
“We Shall Overcome”
• Short words and short sentences
• Alliteration (similar sounds for syllables)
Safire, W Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History (Cobbett Press, 1992)
43
Rhythm and Pulse (2)
“ So let us begin anew…
Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.
Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems
which divide us.
Let both sides, for the first time, formulate serious and precise proposals for the
inspection and control of arms,
and bring the absolute power to destroy other nations under the absolute
control of all nations.
Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors.
Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts,
eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths, and encourage the arts and commerce.
Let both sides unite to heed in all corners of the earth …”
John F. Kennedy
“Inaugural Address”
Washington, DC
January 20, 1961
Safire, W Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History (Cobbett Press, 1992)
44
Occasion and Focus
• Special Occasions
Eulogy
Honoring a person or group
Critical time for action
• Focus
Introduction
Development
Key points
Closing
Safire, W Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History (Cobbett Press, 1992)
45
Memorable Phrasing
• Invert and repeat (contrapuntal turnaround)
“Ask not what your country can
do for you, ask what you can do
for your country.”
John F Kennedy
• Identify with a viewpoint or position
“All free men, wherever they may live, are
citizens of Berlin, and therefore, as a free man,
I take pride in the words "Ich bin ein Berliner!”
John F Kennedy
• Put “New” in front of a noun
Safire, W Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History (Cobbett Press, 1992)
46
Delivery and Vocabulary
• Avoid words you can not say
• Avoid words with several syllables
• Keep general vocabulary simple
Safire, W Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History (Cobbett Press, 1992)
47
Gettysburg Address
(Analysis of the Speech)
• Structure
Birth
Death
Resurrection
• Great use of words with one syllable
• Iambic Pentameter
• Repeated use of words
The word “dedicate”
At beginning of sentences
At end of sentences
Lincoln November 19, 1863
48
Gettysburg Address
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent
a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that
all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing
whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long
endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate
a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives
that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate,
we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled
here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.
The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can
never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated
here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly
advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining
before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that
cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here
highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation,
under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government
of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Lincoln November 19, 1863
49
Gettysburg Address
Birth
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent
a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that
all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing
whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long
endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate
a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives
that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate,
Death
we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled
here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.
The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can
never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated
here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly
advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining
before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that
cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here
highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation,
Resurrection
under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government
of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Lincoln November 19, 1863
50
Gettysburg Address
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent
a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that
all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing
whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long
endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate
a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives
that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate,
we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled
here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.
The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can
never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated
here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly
advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining
before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that
cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here
highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation,
under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government
of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Lincoln November 19, 1863
51
Gettysburg Address
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent
a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that
all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing
Anaphora
whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long
endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate
a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives
that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate,
we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled
here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.
The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can
never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated
here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly
advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining
before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that
cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here
highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation,
under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government
Epiphora
of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Lincoln November 19, 1863
52
Thank You
53
54