Backgrounds

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Presenting Professional Talks
J. Ellen Marsden Rubenstein School of
Environment and Natural Resources University of
Vermont
http//www.uvm.edu/rsenr/nr385proskills/
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Preparing for the talk

• Know your audience
• - public, or scientists?
• - what type of introductory material is needed?
• - context, context, context!!

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Preparing for the talk

• Know your audience
• Know your venue (time limit, facilities)
• - leave time for questions, discussion
• - how big is the room (size of screen)?
• - what tools will you need (computer,
  pointer?)
• - is there a clock available?

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Preparing for the talk

• Know your audience
• Know your venue
• Know your message
• - keep it simple
• - have the flow and story by heart

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Preparing for the talk

• Know your audience
• Know your venue
• Know your message
• Know yourself
• - dress appropriately, look confident
• (balance professional dress with comfort)

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General tips for giving talks

• Use slides as your cue-cards to remember what
  to say next, BUT
• anticipate your slides
• do not read or describe slides
• slides illustrate points, they are not THE point

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General tips for giving talks

• Avoid jargon, acronyms
• Use useful names
• not Orconectes virilis or green crayfish if
  first invader is relevant point

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The point of slides

• To emphasize, not provide, the message
• To convey visually what words cannot do
  effectively
• - get away from slides to refocus attention on
  you
• (dont hide behind your slides)
• - try giving the talk with no slides

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The seven deadly sins of giving talks

• Reading from a script/reciting your talk

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The seven deadly sins of giving talks

• Reading from a script/reciting your talk
• Talking to the screen, not the audience

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The seven deadly sins of giving talks

• Reading from a script/reciting your talk
• Talking to the screen, not the audience
• Typographical erors in your Slides

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The seven deadly sins of giving talks

• Reading from a script/reciting your talk
• Talking to the screen, not the audience
• Typographical erors in your Slides
• Being surprised by a slide when it appears (not
  knowing all your slides by heart)

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The seven deadly sins of giving talks

• Reading from a script/reciting your talk
• Talking to the screen, not the audience
• Typographical erors in your Slides
• Being surprised by a slide when it appears (not
  knowing all your slides by heart)
• Too much text or unreadable text on a slide

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TheUNIVERSITYof VERMONT

• The Rubenstein School
• of Environment and Natural Resources

Water and Lake Studies Forest Ecosystems
Health Landscape Ecology and Biodiversity
Ecology and Environmental Science Ecosystem Su
stainability and Planning
Ecological Economics and Design Sustainable
Forestry Ecological Planning Watershed Science
and Planning
Spatial Analysis and Modeling
Landscape Mapping Land Use Change
Analysis Dynamic Simulation Modeling
Human Dimensions
c
Environmental Policy Tourism and
Recreation Environmental Thought
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The seven deadly sins of giving talks

• Reading from a script/reciting your talk
• Talking to the screen, not the audience
• Typographical erors in your Slides
• Being surprised by a slide when it appears (not
  knowing all your slides by heart)
• Too much text or unreadable text on a slide
• Apologizing

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The seven deadly sins of giving talks

• Reading from a script/reciting your talk
• Talking to the screen, not the audience
• Typographical erors in your Slides
• Being surprised by a slide when it appears (not
  knowing all your slides by heart)
• Too much text or unreadable text on a slide
• Apologizing
• Too much content for the allotted time

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Slide content

• Any time you use a text slide with complete
  sentences the audience attention is distracted
  from speaker as people read all of the words
  while the speaker is talking and trying to convey
  something useful

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Slide content

• attention focuses first on a new visual

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Slide content

• attention focuses first on a new visual
• complex visuals distract from verbal message

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Slide content

• attention focuses first on a new visual
• complex visuals distract from verbal message
• guide audience attention by highlighting the
  focal point(s)

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Slide content

• attention focuses first on a new visual
• complex visuals distract from verbal message
• guide audience attention by highlighting the
  focal point(s)
• or by reducing emphasis on previous points

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Content

• attention focused on new visuals
• avoid complex visuals
• guide audience attention
• highlight focal point(s)
• .fewer words is better!!

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General organization
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Title slide

• J. Ellen Marsden
• University of Vermont
• Additional authors
• other institutions

Funded by (in cooperation with)
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Format
FONTS Minimum font sizes
Title Font (36 pt) Subtitle font (28
pt) Text font (24 pt) Sans
Serif fonts are recommended Examples
Tahoma Arial Serif fonts are not
recommended Examples Palatino Times New
Roman
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Organization of my talk

• Introduction
• Methods
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusions

(yawn!)
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Introduction
Include enough information so the audience
understands why this study is important
context!
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Objectives

• short list of bulleted objectives, each with an
  action verb
• identify lake trout spawning locations
• quantify egg density
• determine fate of post-emergent fry

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Methods

• Statolith preparation
• sagittal otoliths dissected in a Class-100 clean
  room
• sonicated for 5 min in Milli-Q ultrapure water in
  ULTRAsonik cleaner
• transferred to clean Petri dish, rinsed three
  times in Milli-Q water
• mounted with double-sided tape on a petrographic
  microscope slide
• dried under laminar-flow hood for 24-48 h
• analyzed using laser ablation inductively coupled
  plasma-mass spectrometer (LA-ICPMS)
• laser power set to 1.10 Kvolts

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Methods

• Statolith microchemistry analyzed with laser
  ablation ICPMS

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Methods

• Statolith microchemistry laser ablation ICPMS

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Results

• Know the rules for graphing data
• Keep the graphs clean
• focus on data
• reduce stray ink
• avoid fancy stuff (e.g., 3-D graphs)
• Describe the axes before discussing data

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Mortality
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Mortality
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Comparison
Lethal Removal Preparation Cost Data quality
Scales No Easy Easy Cheap Low
Otoliths Yes Difficult Difficult High
Spines Could be Easy Difficult High
Fin rays No Easy Difficult Moderate
Opercles Yes Easy Easy Cheap ???
Vertebrae Yes Difficult Difficult Moderate
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Comparison
Lethal Removal Preparation Cost Data quality
Scales No Easy Easy Cheap Low
Otoliths Yes Difficult Difficult High
Spines No Easy Difficult High
Fin rays No Easy Difficult Moderate
Opercles Yes Easy Easy Cheap ???
Vertebrae Yes Difficult Difficult Moderate
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Summary

• summarize major points, conclusions, or findings
  bullets will generally echo your objectives
• lake trout spawn lake-wide
• egg density is sufficient for population
  stability
• post-emergent fry sampling unsuccessful

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Conclusions

• a summing-up of your study (optional often
  combined with summary)
• Lake trout spawning is sufficient for
  restoration,
• BUT
• Fate of post-emergent fry is unknown

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Acknowledgements

• Funding Cooperators
• - Great Lakes Fishery Trust - USFWS
• - VTDFW
• Assistants
• Joel Brown - Anne Warwick
• Mary OConnor - John Smith
• Pete Swashbuckler - Susan Spey
• Fred Black - many others

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Acknowledgements

• Funding Cooperators

and the field crews!
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Questions?
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Format tips and ideas
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• Slide space is under-used (graph should be
  bigger)
• Graph space is under-used (legend should be
  moved)
• Remove outline
• Remove gridlines (distracting)
• Y-axis numbers are too long remove decimals,
  add commas
• Add axis label

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Commercial harvest of salmonids in Lake Superior
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Format

• Use visuals to illustrate points (a picture DOES
  say a thousand words)
• but be sure to include credits on photos

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Format

• Many options exist for transitions between slides

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Format

• Many options exist for transitions between slides
• some can be cute

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Format

• Many options exist for transitions between slides
• some can be cute
• too much can be distracting

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Format

• Many options exist for transitions between slides
• some can be cute
• too much can be distracting
• or they can be really annoying!

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Format
use slide space well
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Large, bold text can be too overwhelming (and
margins need to be used efficiently)
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Framing images can be effective
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Backgrounds

• White or yellow on blue provides high contrast

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Backgrounds

• White or yellow on blue provides high contrast
• use different colors to highlight different
  levels of slide (title, bullets)

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Backgrounds

• A change of pace can be refreshing

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Backgrounds

• White on black is useful in well-lit room but
  can be hard on the eyes in a dark room

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Backgrounds

• Fade-out backgrounds are attractive
• but the text can get hard to see
• . as you go down the slide

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Backgrounds

• Be careful of low-contrast colors
• and jarring contrasts

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Backgrounds

• Remember that 20 of males have some degree of
  color blindness!

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Backgrounds
readability is reduced, audience is distracted,
information transfer is damaged
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Attractive but unreadable with background
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Better use of background
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Even better use of background
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Interesting background effect in a dark room,
slide content appears alone, without apparent
framing of slide
In Excel, set back-ground and border of graph to
none
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Interesting background effect in a dark room,
slide content appears alone, without apparent
framing of slide
In Excel, set back-ground and border of graph to
none
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Take the data a piece at a time.
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The problem of too much data.
Year Habitat Survival Migration Return Breeding
1990 Juvenile 30,089 4,147 0.14 1.28
Sub-adult 374 150 0.40 0.02
Adult 42,279 871 0.02 1.84
1999 Juvenile 54,075 1,311 0.024 5.02
Sub-adult 24,503 1,427 0.058 1.93
Adult 78,578 2,738 0.035 3.35
2000 Juvenile 74,865 3,500 0.047 6.95
Sub-adult 41,897 1,499 0.036 3.30
Adult 116,762 4,999 0.043 4.98
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Maximize size (within reason) .
Year Habitat Survival Migration Return Breeding
1990 Juvenile 30,089 4,147 0.14 1.28
Sub-adult 374 150 0.40 0.02
Adult 42,279 871 0.02 1.84
1999 Juvenile 54,075 1,311 0.024 5.02
Sub-adult 24,503 1,427 0.058 1.93
Adult 78,578 2,738 0.035 3.35
2000 Juvenile 74,865 3,500 0.047 6.95
Sub-adult 41,897 1,499 0.036 3.30
Adullt 116,762 4,999 0.043 4.98
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Emphasize focal data points.
Year Habitat Survival Migration Return Breeding
1990 Juvenile 30,089 4,147 0.14 1.28
Sub-adult 374 150 0.40 0.02
Adult 42,279 871 0.02 1.84
1999 Juvenile 54,075 1,311 0.024 5.02
Sub-adult 24,503 1,427 0.058 1.93
Adult 78,578 2,738 0.035 3.35
2000 Juvenile 74,865 3,500 0.047 6.95
Sub-adult 41,897 1,499 0.036 3.30
Adult 116,762 4,999 0.043 4.98
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Or highlight important data.
Year Habitat Survival Migration Return Breeding
1990 Juvenile 30,089 4,147 0.14 1.28
Sub-adult 374 150 0.40 0.02
Adult 42,279 871 0.02 1.84
1999 Juvenile 54,075 1,311 0.024 5.02
Sub-adult 24,503 1,427 0.058 1.93
Adult 78,578 2,738 0.035 3.35
2000 Juvenile 74,865 3,500 0.047 6.95
Sub-adult 41,897 1,499 0.036 3.30
Adult 116,762 4,999 0.043 4.98
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Or highlight important data.
Year Habitat Survival Migration Return Breeding
1990 Juvenile 30,089 4,147 0.14 1.28
Sub-adult 374 150 0.40 0.02
Adult 42,279 871 0.02 1.84
1999 Juvenile 54,075 1,311 0.024 5.02
Sub-adult 24,503 1,427 0.058 1.93
Adult 78,578 2,738 0.035 3.35
2000 Juvenile 74,865 3,500 0.047 6.95
Sub-adult 41,897 1,499 0.036 3.30
Adult 116,762 4,999 0.043 4.98