Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
to be teaching the discipline (as most likely you will be at some point), you need to be aware
of the current trends in areas beyond which you are specifically working.
I have seenmanydifferent paper presentations over the years andhave come to a fewconclu-
sions about what does and does not work. There are a handful of papers that stand out in my
mind to this day as the best I have ever seen (due to both the science and the presentation style),
and unfortunately a handful that fall into the category of among the worst I have ever seen.
However, most presentations fall into the middle, average category. Your goal should be to
bring your paper presentation into the realm of “excellent.” Youmight argue that you are terri-
fied of public speaking. In that case, I recommend joining an organization such as Toastmas-
ters
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members give speeches every week and you will learn tips on becoming a better
speaker. Otherwise, all you need to do is practice in front of others to build your confidence
and believe in yourself. Practice in front of the mirror, in front of your dog, in front of anyone
who will listen
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until it comes just as naturally to you as anything else. Yes, you will get
nervous
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but you can harness that energy and use it positively during your presentation.
Your first step will be to find out how long you will have for your presentation. For many
conferences it is 10 or 15 minutes. Golden Rule #1 of paper presentations is DO NOT go over
the allotted time. The papers are scheduled in such a way so that different sessions move
along simultaneously and attendees can easily move back and forth between sessions to
see other papers. If even just one person goes over their time, the entire system is disrupted.
In addition, it is very distracting to the audience when someone goes over their time because
the session moderator will stand up near the presenter, and the presenter acknowledges this
but keeps on going. At that point, everyone stops listening. You can avoid this situation by
practicing in advance using a timer. However, if you ever do find yourself in this situation,
just stop talking and say you are out of time, or skip ahead to your conclusions when you
receive the two-minute warning.
You will need to write an abridged version of your study for your presentation. Alterna-
tively, if you already have a fair amount written (if your presentation is from your thesis or
dissertation for example) then will you need to edit what you already have so that it will fit
within the time allotted and be appropriate. Remember that the language you use in a written
publication, thesis, or dissertation is not necessarily the same type of language you will use in
an oral presentation. For example, the phrase, “as discussed above” is appropriate only for
a written paper. If you wish to say something similar to this phrase, use instead, “as I just
mentioned.” In addition, sentences with a complex structure work well when written, but
are harder for an audience to understand if read aloud.
Further, language that is too technical, even if you are giving your presentation to an audi-
ence that understands the terminology, may not work because you will lose people's focus. I
once attended a presentation by a primatologist about baboons. I am not a primatologist and
do not know much about baboons beyond the basics, but the presenter had geared his talk
towards a general biological anthropology audience. He avoided technical language and
spoke in plain English. The result was that his presentation had much more of an impact
than if he had spent the time trying to impress the audience with his knowledge of profes-
sional jargon. I therefore walked away from that presentation having really learned some-
thing
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which is the ultimate goal of presentations to begin with.
As you come up with the final pages of what you wish to say during your presentation,
make sure that you adhere to the basics of introduction, materials and methods, results,
