Giving an Oral Presentation
These workshops are for students giving papers at conferences or to fellow-students; they assume familiarity with basic PowerPoint, and will focus on how to use this tool effectively. We will cover planning and writing a talk, slide planning, fonts and readability, use of images, judicious animation, and tricks for controlling a presentation in progress. Students will be expected to get up and deliver a very short talk on their own research to the rest of the group.
Tutor: Mike Dickison
Dates and times
- Wednesday, 16 November and Friday, 18 November, from 10.30 am to 12.00 pm: passed
- Wednesday, 29 February and Wednesday, 7 March 2012, from 10.00 am to 10.50 am: enrolment and venue>>
- Tuesday 20 March and Tuesday 27 March, 2012, from 2.10 pm to 3.00 pm: enrolment and venue>>
Even if these workshops are fully booked, it is likely there will be space on the day, so feel free to turn up. If you would like to be notified when they are next scheduled, request them at a different time or day, or just find out more, email Mike.
Resources
Those enrolled should read through at least some of the sites in this list before the first workshop.
- Colin Purrington's Gratuitous Advice on Giving a Talk
- Presentation Zen, a companion to the book which argues strongly for less text and more pictures
- Presentation advice from Doc Searls
- Presentation advice from Merlin Mann
- A PowerPoint FAQ
- Seth Godin's little e-book on Really Bad Powerpoint
- David Winter’s post at NZ SciBlogs on giving a talk
- Booklet: Communicating Science, Giving Talks. (Burroughs Wellcome Fund, 48 pp, 4.7 MB)
- Duarte, Nancy. 2008. Slide:ology: the Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations. O’Reilly Media.
- Reynolds, Garr. 2008. Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery. New Riders Press.
- Williams, Robin. 2009. The Non-Designer’s Presentation Book. Peachpit Press.
Workshop Handout: Tips for Giving a Talk.