Giving Good Presentations
Jonathan I Maletic, Ph.D.
Department of Computer Science
Kent State University
Goals of a Presentation
• Why are you presenting?
– To communicate some idea, concept, or
method to an audience
• Communication is two way
– Speaker (giver)
– Audience (receiver)
• Goal: Communicate a message
Importance of the Skill
• We make presentations for:
– Thesis and Dissertation defense
– Conference talks
– Course lectures
– Interview talks
– Presentations to employer
• You will be judged by your ability to
communicate
– If they don’t get it – it’s not their fault!
1
The Basics
• Know your audience
• Prepare well
• Define your message
The Audience
• Listening is difficult
• Your job is to make it easier by continually
asking yourself if they get it.
• As such
– Give the audience time to think
– Don’t talk nonstop
– The don’t know the material as well as you
– Figures and equations need time to digest
– New terminology and definition need to be repeated
– Remind the audience of key facts, definitions, etc.
Know the Audience
• Expert, knowledgeable, novice, student,
general public?
• A talk to your peers should be different
then talking to a more general audience
• Find out who will be in the audience
• However, do not under estimate
• An audience may have very preconceived
notions about the topic (or terminology)
2
Engage the Audience
• Ask real and rhetorical questions to keep
people’s minds active and engaged
– This is a clue to their understanding
– What if they don’t respond?
• Make eye contact
• Don’t just talk to one person
• Walk towards a person who asks, or response,
to a question – look at them directly
• Try to make examples interesting and
compelling
Verbal Presentation Style
• Speak clearly
• Slowly and loud enough to be heard
• This is especially needed for non-native
speakers
• Speak to the audience not to the screen,
white board, or computer!!
• Point to the screen (NOT to the computer)
• Walk over, emphasize, and point
Slides
• Do NOT over do PowerPoint!
• Slides should be simple without distractions
• Moderate use of color
• High contrast between lettering and background
• Appropriate font size
• Each slide should be:
– Terse (i.e., not verbose)
– Highlight key points
– Have a meaningful title - not Introduction(5)
– Be focused
3
The Good
• Large simple font
• Very simple animation
Good colors
The Ugly
• Small odd font
Odd Colors
Message
• What do you want to communicate?
– Use a top-down approach
– Give big picture first – the what and why
– Then go into detail – referring back to the big
picture
• State the message in three levels:
– One or two sentences
– One or two paragraphs
– The complete details
4
General Organization
1. Tell them what you are going to tell them
2. Tell them
3. Tell them what you told them
• Summarize at the beginning and end
• Use this for each major section of the
presentation
Emphasize the Important
• Typically, much of the material you
present is well known or obvious
• As such, the new and important material
can get lost
• Clearly highlight the important part by:
– Physical – Tone of voice, body language
– Visual – Good sides
– Verbal - Tell them!
– Mental - Related it to what they already know
Repetition
• Repeat the important parts:
– 20% or more of the audience are thinking
about something else at any given time
– Again, they have not thought about this as
much as you (hopefully)
• Emphasize main message repeatedly
• Remind audience each time a new term is
seen
• Again, listening is difficult
5
Know Your Material
• There may be someone who knows the
material as well (or better) as you in the
audience
• Do not includes slides/material that you
can’t explain
• Anticipate questions (give them leads)
Practice
• Practice
• Practice
• Practice
• In the mirror
• To friends
• To your advisor
General Outline
• Introduction
• Body
• Technicalities/evaluation/experiment
• Conclusion
6
Introduction
• Define problem
• Motivate the audience
• Introduce terminology
• Discuss prior work
• Emphasize contributions
• Provide a roadmap
• Outline slide (bad or good?)
Body
• Abstract the major results
• Explain the significance of the results
• Sketch the evaluation method, experiment,
proof, supporting argument for your results
Technicalities
• Present methods of evaluation,
experimental setup, or lemmas
• Present details
7
Conclusion
• Refer back to previous sections and
results by summarizing
• Emphasize contribution or major result
• Give open problems and future work
• Questions?
Summary
• Presentations are about communication – not just talking
• Listening is hard work and your job is to make it easier
• Give the audience a chance to think and digest the
material
• Speak clearly and TO the audience
• Use a top-down approach – what is the message
• Repeat, repeat, repeat
• Engage the audience
• Summarize
• Practice, practice, practice
Resources
• Google “giving presentations computer
science”
• Frank Kschischang at:
www.comm.utoronto.ca/frank/guide/guide0
.html
• Adapted from slides of Matthew Turk at
UCSB
