Wen-Sen Lee, Ph.D.

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How to give a seminar presentation in English
Wen-Sen Lee, Ph.D. Taipei Medical University
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Learning how to give an effective seminar is a
skill that is required in many careers not just
science. If you plan to stay in science and
academia you will definitely have to give
seminars and teach.
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Remember science is not just doing the research,
but it is also about disseminating your knowledge
that stems from your research.
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Oral presentation is different from writing
How to attract the audiences attention and
clearly express yourself are the main issues
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Written language is usually more formal and
complicated than language used in everyday
conversations.
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Two basic principles
1. What is the message I want to convey?
2. How does the audience understand this message
best?
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Language is not the key point for making a good
presentation
Content is more important
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Nobody in the audience will blame you for a
couple of mistakes in the language
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You should not just describe what have been done
in the paper
You should try to make a good story
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How to make a good story?
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Opening
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It is good to start with "Chairman, Ladies and
Gentlemen " followed by a few seconds of
silence, in which you look around to see if
people are paying attention.
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For a presentation in the seminar class, You may
start with Good morning everyone or good
morning my dear professors and classmates "
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Do not repeat to introduce yourself and the title
of the article will be presented if the moderator
already did it.
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Introduction
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Who is the audience?
Know who you're going to be speaking to. This
will help you to prepare your presentation
interesting.
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Since you are presenting to your classmates, keep
it on their level and make it interesting.
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Introduction is not to define the terminology
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Introduction section of your talk is to help the
audience to understand the literature background
of the study.
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What do the scientists concern in the research
area you will introduce?
What have been done?
What does the main issue remain to be
investigated?
What is the strategy (secret weapon) of this
study?
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All scientific reports follow the generally
adopted structure of Abstract Introduction
Experimental Methods Results Discussion
Conclusions References
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This structure is totally unsuitable for an oral
presentation because the listener will have to
remember details about the experimental methods
until the results are presented, and she/he must
recall the various results when the speaker deals
with the discussion.
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The reader of an article can skip parts, go back
to the materials section, take a preview at the
conclusions when he reads the results.
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Details that should be combined (the why, how,
what and what does it mean of a particular
experiment) are treated separately. Grouping
together what belongs together is a much better
way to organize your talk.
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Five important issues should be addressed in the
results section

• What experiment was conducted
• The rationale of this study
• How was the experiment designed and performed
• The experimental results
• The implications of these results

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Evaluation of the article   
- strong points/other points - things you agree
with /disagree with
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Ending
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In summary
In conclusion
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Conclusions should be properly announced to
regain full attention. Present your conclusions
in relation to the questions you raised in the
Introduction. Avoid all irrelevant details.
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I would like to close my talk here and open for
discussion.
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I am going to finish my talk here and take
comments and questions from the audience.
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The key to giving a good seminar is through
preparation beforehand.
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Create a check sheet of all the questions with
the appropriate responses
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Tips for giving a great seminar in English
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Using proper grammar and right words
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Right words mean to say the right thing in just
the right way.
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Cells were transfected with scrambled and RhoB
siRNA and then treated with ..
Cells were transfected with either scrambled or
RhoB siRNA and then treated with..
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Epinephrine improved the blood pressure.
Epinephrine increased the blood pressure.
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The thyroid hormone was not expressed in the
kidney.
The expression of thyroid hormone was not
detected in the kidney.
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Hydrogen peroxide was produced as a by-product of
LOX activity, which mediated LOX-induced invasive
and metastatic properties in breast tumor
epithelial cells.
Hydrogen peroxide, a by-product of LOX
activation, mediated the LOX-induced invasive and
metastatic properties in breast tumor epithelial
cells.
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To test whether specific targeting of LOX
expression could attenuate the invasiveness of
highly malignant breast cancer (MDA-MB-231)
cells, we established a MDA-MB-231 cell line.
To test whether specific knock-down of LOX
expression could attenuate the invasiveness of
malignant breast cancer (MDA-MB-231) cells, we
established a MDA-MB-231 cell line.
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For the purpose of evaluating neuronal apoptosis
induced after blocking NMDA receptor in GT1-7
cells, the apoptotic incidence was determined
after TUNEL staining.
To study whether blockade of NMDA receptor can
induce the occurrence of apoptosis in GT1-7
cells, the TUNEL staining assay was performed.
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Our data found that TB-mediated apoptosis could
not be completely attenuated in the Bcl-2
over-expressed (HL60/Bcl-2) cells.
Our data showed that TB-mediated apoptosis could
not be completely prevented in the Bcl-2
over-expressed (HL60/Bcl-2) cells.
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YC-1-induced inhibition of HUVEC proliferation
was reversed by removal of YC-1
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Transfection of the HUVEC with p53 siRNA
prevented the progesterone-induced decrease of
thymidine
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Using proper pronunciation
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Mechanism
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Using proper intonation
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Monotonous sentences, spoken either too fast or
too slowly, lack of emphasis, unclear
pronunciation, all make it difficult for the
listeners to stay attentive.
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Changing meaning through word stress
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I don't think he should get that job.
I don't think he should get that job.
Meaning Somebody else thinks he should get that
job.
I don't think he should get that job.
Meaning It's not true that I think he should
get that job.
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I don't think he should get that job.
Meaning I'm not sure he'll get that job
I don't think he should get that job.
Meaning Somebody else should get that job.
I don't think he should get that job.
Meaning In my opinion it's wrong that
he's going to get that job.
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I don't think he should get that job.
Meaning He should have to work hard for that
job.
I don't think he should get that job.
Meaning He should get another job.
I don't think he should get that job.
Meaning Maybe he should get something else
instead.
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If you want your audience to understand your
message, your language must be simple and clear.
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Your presentation will be most effective if you
use the same everyday language in which you
explain things to a fellow student in the lab.
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There is absolutely no need to use a more formal
language. In fact, formal language is not
desirable at all as it is more difficult to
understand for the audience.
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Therefore, in this study, brain injury caused by
iron accumulation and related oxidative stress
following ICH was simulated by intrastriatal
infusion of ferrous citrate.
Accordingly, we established the rat animal model
to mimic the ICH-induced iron accumulation and
oxidative stress by intrastiatal infusion of
ferrous citrate.
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Using short sentences and short words
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Therefore, in the next phase of this research,
firstly, it is of interest to see
Several issues need to be further addressed
including
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Lesion ratio did not significantly differ between
castrated and intact male rats while rats had
received ovariectomy had significantly more
iron-induced lesions than that had not received
ovariectomy.
Castration increased the iron-induced lesion
ratio in female rats, but not males.
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The result showed that the level of constitutive
LC3 aggregation in the CN was lower in female
rats compared to males and FC also induced a
higher level of LC3 aggregation in the CN of male
rats than that in females as shown in Fig. 1 (A).
The protein level of LC3-II as shown in Fig. 1
(B) showed a similar trend to the result of LC3
aggregation. After FC infusion, a higher level of
beclin-1 immunoreactive TUNEL positive cells was
also observed in the CN of male rat than in
female as shown in Fig. 2.
The results demonstrated that the level of
constitutive LC3 aggregation in the CN (Fig. 1A),
LC3-II (Fig. 1B), and bectin-1immunoreactive
TUNEL positive cells (Fig. 2) were lower in
female rats than males in both vehicle- and
FC-treated groups.
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The anti-angiogenic effect of progesterone was
further confirmed by using Matrigel angiogenesis
assay in vivo. Figure 3C demonstrates that
progesterone at a concentration of 500 nM
decreased the apparent plasma volume of the
Matrigel plug. According to these in vitro and in
vivo results, it may suggest the potential of
anti-proliferation activity of progesterone in
HUVEC.
Using functional matrigel assay, we demonstrated
that progesterone decreased the hemoglobin
concentration in the matrigel plug, suggesting
the anti-angiogenesis activity of progesterone in
vivo.
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Learn signposting
Unless you tell them, your audience will not know
where they are
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For example
Lets begin with
To begin with
Lets move on to
Let me deal with that later
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Do not try to impress the audience with fancy
words, formal constructions, subject-specific
jargon, or unnecessary abbreviations.
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Do not use jargon, unless you are certain that
your audience understands it.
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Try to speak slowly
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Try to lower your voice
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Look at the audience
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Some speakers turn their back to the audience and
watch the projection screen while they are
talking, in stead of trying to make visual
contact with the audience.
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How to prevent getting stuck during your talk?
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Try to memorize the story instead of the words
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You might need the script with you
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Remember to look at your audience instead of
reading a "script", and to interact with them
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If you are well prepared, you will be confident,
and your audience will feel it, putting you in
control of the room and making everyone listen
attentively.
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Good slide presentation does help
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Give each slide a title and try to include a
brief conclusion at the top of each slide
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Progesterone-induced inhibition of DNA synthesis
in rat aortic smooth muscle cells is through
activation of the progesterone receptor
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80
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Thymidine incorporation (percentage of control)
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20
0
RU486 100 0 100
(nM)
Progesterone 0 200
200 (nM)
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Remove all information from figures that is not
absolutely necessary, but do provide clear
understandable labels on curves and spectra, so
that they become self explanatory to the
audience.
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The pointer serves to keep your audience oriented
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Don't draw circles on the floor with the laser
pointer or shoot it at the ceiling and wave it
about as you speak--this is very distracting to
the audience.
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Make sure that you do understand the questions
raised by the audience.
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How to improve your presentation to make it more
attractive?
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Remember! Your job is telling a story to your
audiences instead of making a report to your
professors
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Practice!
Practice!
Practice!
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You might need some help for improving your
English pronunciation
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More practice
Thinking in English
Take a record and listen to your own talk
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When you study the seminar paper, you should
learn not only the knowledge, but also the
authors logic thinking and English writing
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Enjoy your presentation in English