How to Give a Good Presentation?

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How to Give a Good Presentation?

• Cliff C. Zou
• CDA6938
• 02/06/07

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Outline

• How to Read a Research Paper
• Prepare Presentation Slides
• Give a Presentation
• Follow up
• Online Resource

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How to Read a Research Paper

• Find papers in good quality conferences/journals
• There are too many conferences/workshops!!
• Security IEEE Security Privacy, ACM CCS,
  Usenix Security
• Glance through abstracts to find interesting ones
• Read introduction and one more section to get the
  big picture
• Understand the novel idea(s) provided by a paper
• Read related work and glance over several
  related papers if not familiar with the topic
• Read the whole paper if the paper is worth it

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How to Read a Research Paper

• Ask questions when reading
• What is the novel idea(s)?
• Can I do this research, too?
• Some research are not doable by yourself
• A bit frustrating ?
• What are the weaknesses of the paper?
• Which point(s) can I do further research on?
• Important to conduct your own research

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Outline

• How to Read a Research Paper
• Prepare Presentation Slides
• Give a Presentation
• Follow up
• Online Resource

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Prepare Presentation Slides

• Create examples/figures/animations to explain
• May not in paper, create by yourself
• Animations or step-by-step figures are best in
  explaining a system, architecture, algorithm
• Do not only put words in slides
• Boring, too abstract
• Good acknowledgement
• For others papers, put author names, publication
  place, time in the first page
• Then, presented by your name
• Copying others slides must have acknowledgement

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Prepare Presentation Slides

• Be focused
• Success if you pass ONE single central idea of a
  paper
• Audience cannot understand everything in 30
  minutes!
• If you cannot explain a point clearly, skip it
• Some ideas/algorithms are complicated to explain
• Only use a sentence to say the name, and results
• In most case, a complicated idea is not the novel
  point of a paper
• Not too colorful Powerpoint template
• Readable text big font, clear color
• e.g., no green/yellow text on white background
• Readable figures
• A project usually has fewer color, smaller
  resolution than a computer screen!

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Prepare Presentation Slides

• Concise, self-explanation text
• Not too abstract, contain concrete information
• No need for complete sentences
• Some people prefer to read slides than listen!

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Outline

• How to Read a Research Paper
• Prepare Presentation Slides
• Give a Presentation
• Follow up
• Online Resource

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Give a Presentation

• Dry run before presentation
• Test timing
• Get familiar (bad impression if you do not know
  what you talk!!)
• Remember important words to say, be concise
• But do not recite every word in speech!
• Monotone, no personal attachment to what you say
• Especially important to non-English speaker
• Less grammar error, fluent, clear and concise
• Intense dry run for important presentation
• Write down talk notes for each page and remember
  them
• Video tape yourself body language, wasted words
  (tag)
• Ask friends to listen your dry run, get feedback

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Give a Presentation

• Speak loud
• Force you to speak slow, looks confident
• Force you to remove murmur, be clear concise
• Most murmur are wasted words, not confident words
• Audience cannot hear your murmur
• Emphasize
• Pause after an important point
• Even slower, louder on important point
• Do not read slides
• Slides are for audience to read

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Give a Presentation

• Figures
• Need to explain X/Y-axis Dont rush
• Timing
• Pay attention to time (put a clear clock in
  front)
• Prepare to jump slides for timing
• Dont be frustrated for questions or your
  mistakes
• Be friendly, confident
• Your mood affects audiences mood!

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Outline

• How to Read a Research Paper
• Prepare Presentation Slides
• Give a Presentation
• Follow up
• Online Resource

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Follow Up

• In job interview, always send thank-you notes
  to interviewers
• A brief email is good
• Online tutorial google thank-you notes
• Thank, acknowledgement
• Explain unanswered questions
• Provide paper, reference information promised by
  you
• For this class, send your ppt file to me!

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Online Resource

• How To Give A Great Presentation
• http//www.to-done.com/2005/07/how-to-give-a-great
  -presentation/
• Presentation Skills
• http//lorien.ncl.ac.uk/ming/dept/Tips/present/pre
  sent.htm
• Advice on Research and Writing
• http//www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/mleone/w
  eb/how-to.html
• Western New England Editorial Freelancers'
  Network
• http//www.editorsplus.com/members.html
• For copyediting your thesis, paper
• Google resume, job hunting, give
  presentation,
• You can find tutorials, samples for any topics
  through web search