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Scientific Presentations

Guidelines for scientific presentations that Chih-Horng Kuo (chk@gate.sinica.edu.tw) developed for our group members. Suggestions are welcome.
Also see:
- File Management
- Scientific Writing

General

Presenting your work, either through oral or poster presentations, provides excellent opportunities for you to think about your work critically, to examine the logic, to establish the context and a story line, and to prepare for writing. Also, such opportunities allow others to know your work and to provide feedback.
Lots (and lots) of preparation and practice are required to do this well. Do not get frustrated if you feel like you did not do well. Just note the points that you can improve the next time, and use that knowledge and experience to improve.

Who are your audience?
- Homogeneous or heterogeneous?
- Background?
- How to make them interested?
- How to make them understand?

The “hourglass” principle in terms of the breadth
- Start from something broad enough for all target audience at the start of Introduction, then zoom in to focus on your key question at the end of Introduction.
- The Methods and Results sessions can be more focused on your field of study.
- For Discussion, provide a “big picture” as the context to highlight the importance and implication of the key findings. End by linking back to the start of Introduction. Did you deliver what you promised?
Number of slides: plan to use one slide per minute as a general guideline. Once you become familiar with the pace, this also helps with time control.
Slide design: aim for a clear and simple design

Can people understand the key points by browsing without your presence?
Are the text/figures/tables easy to read?
- Common mistakes: the text of figure legend or axis labels are difficult to read