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Preparing a Scientific Presentation

IDENTIFY YOUR AUDIENCE During an election year, it is not uncommon for a presiden- tial candidate, dressed in jeans and a safety helmet, to spend the morning addressing construction workers in a Michigan suburb and then later, dressed in formal attire, to spend the afternoon discussing the state of the economy with a group of investment bankers. It would be difficult to imagine the politi- cian wearing the construction helmet during the meeting with the bankers. However unlikely it is that a brick would drop on the candidate’s head in the union headquarters during the meeting with the construction workers, the candidate’s attire enables the audience to identify and feel comfortable with him or her. Politicians are very conscious of the audience they are scheduled to address and do their homework before their scheduled arrangements.

Although scientists do not experience the same pressures, it is nonetheless a good idea, when planning a scientific pres- entation, to investigate what type of audience is expected. It

1 Anholt, Robert RH. Dazzle 'Em With Style : The Art of Oral Scientific Presentation, Elsevier Science, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uneedu/detail.action?docID=270284. Created from uneedu on 2017-09-20 10:03:38.

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makes a difference whether the audience consists of special- ists who all share a common interest with the speaker—as is often the case at specialized symposia—or whether the audi- ence shares only a peripheral interest with the speaker— common in presenting departmental seminars at academic institutions, where it is often only the host who is interested in the details of the speaker’s work. Does the audience consist of scientifically active Ph.D.s or educated laymen? Does the audience consist primarily of professionals interested in a focused account of accomplished work or of students inter- ested in learning about the speaker’s achievements within a wider context? A scientific presentation should always be pre- pared with the audience in mind. To blindly offer a showcase of your own accomplishments, reflecting only your interests, is a sure recipe for miscommunication and results in a poor performance from the perspective of the audience.

Communication is the key. Look upon your presentation as a dialogue with the audience not a monologue. Be sensitive to the needs and interests of your audience, and reflect on the questions: What do they expect to learn from my presenta- tion? How can my presentation be useful to them? A presen- tation prepared with these questions in mind is more likely to succeed with the audience than a presentation intended to impress the listeners by glorifying the speaker’s self-perceived accomplishments.

A key concept in the art of oral scientific presentation is acceptance of the speaker by the audience. The speaker’s atti- tude with respect to the audience often determines whether the presentation will be clouded by an atmosphere of skepti- cism or received in a welcoming ambiance of motivated inter- est. Establishing comfortable contact with the audience should be the first concern of any speaker. Starting off with an anec- dote, a good-humored reference to the local football team, or

2 C h a p t e r 1 Preparing a Scientific Presentation

Anholt, Robert RH. Dazzle 'Em With Style : The Art of Oral Scientific Presentation, Elsevier Science, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uneedu/detail.action?docID=270284. Created from uneedu on 2017-09-20 10:03:38.

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a witty comment that draws smiles from the audience often sets the mood for the remainder of the presentation. Although it may seem a cliché, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the speaker thanking the host for the invitation and the oppor- tunity to present a seminar “in front of such a distinguished audience at this prestigious institution.” Flattery works. Most students and professionals identify strongly and proudly with their institution, and a display of respect by a visiting speaker immediately forges a bond with the audience. A gracious expression of appreciation to the host and the institution, fol- lowed by a brief anecdote or joke (in good taste), hardly ever fails to break the ice.

Try to find out beforehand who might be in attendance during the presentation. Often it is possible to give credit to a specific member of the audience during the talk. Always greatly appreciated are statements such as “After we learned about the elegant experiments of Dr. Smith [in the audience], we decided to . . .” or “Since the approach developed by Dr. Jones worked so well in her system, we adopted a similar strategy,” or “Our results agree closely with previous obser- vations by Dr. Doe, who showed. . . .”

I remember two incidents in which speakers presented a cartoon published in several of my review articles. In one case, the speaker, unaware that I was in the audience, did not give any credit at all. In the other case, the speaker suddenly real- ized, while looking at his slide, which credited “Anholt et al.,” that I was the Anholt in question. I once heard a speaker present data on calcium influx in synaptic terminals; he was unfamiliar with the most recent publications of one of the pio- neers of his field, who happened to be in the audience! Such embarrassing instances can do irreparable damage to an oth- erwise excellent presentation and are entirely preventable. In these examples, speakers had simply not taken the time to find

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out who belonged to the departments where they would be speaking and thus were likely to attend their seminars. Invited speakers should always browse through the departmental website to learn a little about the organization and history of the host institution before arriving on the scene.

Knowing your audience facilitates communication and helps create a comfortable and favorable relationship. In pre- paring for a scientific presentation, always be concerned with uninformed members of the audience and consider these questions: What do I seek to communicate? Will they be able to follow me? What will they learn and retain from my presentation?

SCHEDULING YOUR PRESENTATION In most cases, the exact day and time of the seminar are not under the speaker’s control, but are determined by the organ- izer. Given a choice, offer your presentation at the normal day and time set aside for seminars at the host institution; sched- uling a presentation outside the routine of the regular audi- ence usually results in lower attendance. When given options about a seminar date at an academic institution, choose to be scheduled neither at the beginning nor at the end of a semes- ter. The audience needs a few weeks to establish its routine at the beginning of each semester; and near the end of the semes- ter, especially when the winter or summer recess is approach- ing, many people start to suffer from seminar burn-out.

The largest and most attentive audiences can be expected in the middle of the semester, when academic life is in full swing. Avoid dates that conflict with student breaks or major professional conventions. Immediately following the national neuroscience meeting, for example, few members of neurobi- ology or pharmacology departments are interested in listen-

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ing to yet another seminar. When a regular weekly day for seminars has not been set aside by the host institution, it is wise to choose the middle of the week rather than Monday (when members of the audience are struggling to get back in the mood for work) or Friday (when they are preoccupied with the forthcoming weekend).

When given an option regarding the time of day, schedule your presentation in the late morning or at noon, if possible. Unfortunately, institutions often schedule seminars at the end of the working day to avoid disrupting other activities. However, many people in their daily cycle experience a natural dip in attentiveness around that time, and it is not sur- prising to see people fall asleep at afternoon seminars. Per- sonally, I have to struggle to stay awake at 4:00 pm. No matter how interesting the topic, I find myself dozing off around 4:20 and waking up again about 15 minutes later. In contrast, most people are at the peak of their alertness at around 11:00 am; noon seminars are therefore preferable, and because lunch constitutes a routine, daily break from work, noon seminars usually do not interfere with other activities at the host insti- tution. (When speaking at lunch time, I always make sure to have a snack before so I will not be distracted by hunger during my presentation.)

STRUCTURE YOUR MATERIAL After having obtained as much information as possible about the audience and its interests, the next step in preparing the presentation is outlining the talk. A presentation is usually preceded by a brief introduction by the host and is followed by a discussion period. Normally, there is a predetermined time allotted for the event. It is crucial for the speaker to stay within the boundaries of this time. Nothing is more

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destructive to a presentation than exceeding the allocated time. Like hikers who go into the wilderness with a food supply just sufficient for the intended duration of the trip, people who attend a seminar anticipate the predetermined period and come equipped with an amount of listener energy just sufficient to cover this period. As soon as the speaker goes over time, the audience becomes impatient and restless. They feel as if they are stuck in a traffic jam, not able to reach their destination on time. The speaker will sense their anxiousness and mounting impatience. As a result, the speaker will be forced to rush through the most important part of the presen- tation, namely the conclusion and take-home message.

When the presentation is part of a symposium, the chair- person and subsequent speakers will be greatly irritated if a speaker exceeds the allotted time, because this interferes with the next speaker and delays the entire schedule of the sympo- sium. It is also essential to leave enough time for questions. By doing so, you provide yourself the opportunity to engage in a direct discussion with the audience, which is essential when trying to communicate information effectively. If a 60-minute presentation is scheduled, prepare a 45- to 50-minute talk, thereby leaving ample time for the introduction and to answer questions at the end. A good rule of thumb is to keep the pres- entation at a length that is 80 percent of the allotted time.

The graduate students I taught were required to prepare carefully written abstracts of two or three sentences to be printed below the titles on their seminar announcements. Each abstract had to be concise and adequately cover the contents of the talk. The first sentence of the abstract usually introduced the basic question and the perspective of the presentation; the last sentence stated the overall conclusion. Sometimes a sen- tence in the middle briefly summarized the major experimen- tal findings.

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Every speaker, before preparing a scientific presentation, should be able to summarize its content in no more than two or three well-constructed sentences. This is important for two reasons. First, it ensures that you are clearly focused on the major issue and the take-home message of your presentation. If the main issue cannot be explained clearly in a few sen- tences, a presentation will be most likely diffuse and incoher- ent. Second, it often happens that one important faculty or group member at a host institution is unable to attend the seminar. Often the speaker has the opportunity to meet with this person individually before or after the lecture, but often only for a short time. During this brief period you should be able to summarize your presentation in a few concise sentences.

I visited once a multinational flavor and fragrance company that had expressed a potential interest in sponsor- ing olfactory research in my laboratory. The most influential person was the director of research, whose busy schedule did not allow him to attend my seminar. I was scheduled to meet with him for only 15 minutes later that afternoon. When the time came, he was running behind schedule, and in a few minutes he would have to drive to the airport. My total meeting with him was cut to barely 5 minutes, in which he asked me to summarize my major research findings and the future direction of work in my laboratory. Hardly prepared for this situation, I gave a rushed and incomplete overview of my research endeavor. Ever since this embarrassing and unsuc- cessful experience, I have made sure that I can summarize my seminar on the spur of the moment in two or three sentences.

In designing the structure of the presentation, remember the interests and expectations of the audience and put the presentation into context accordingly. Using the same set of data, for example, you can often shift the focus of a

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presentation from molecular aspects to cellular or behavioral aspects or from the nature and generation of a stimulus to the response of the target tissue. A strong presentation on the effects of bronchodilators delivered via inhalation as aerosols would not be structured identically for a group of physiolo- gists interested in the effects of the drug on pulmonary func- tion as for an audience of biomedical engineers concerned mainly with the design of the inhaler and its mechanism of drug delivery.

Imagine that you present a seminar on the discovery of a new gene that predisposes to hypertension. When talking to a group of geneticists, the presentation would focus on the methodology of how the gene was discovered with a detailed discussion of phenotyping, choice of molecular markers, and statistical details of association analysis. However, an audi- ence of clinicians could not care less how the gene was found. They would like to know how it affects hypertension and how it would help them diagnose, prevent, or treat the condition. Similarly, the focus of a presentation on the preservation of tropical rain forests should differ for an audience of zoo- logists, one of foresters, one of geographers, and one of meteorologists.

Whereas it is important to design your presentation accord- ing to the interests of the audience, it is essential to make the audience aware of your focus from the outset. Suspense and mystery are excellent tools for playwrights and movie direc- tors, but they are the nemeses of scientific presentations. To communicate scientific information effectively and maintain the attention of your audience, adhere to the old rule: “Tell ¢em what you’re gonna tell ¢em, then tell ¢em, then tell ¢em what you’ve told ¢em.”

Consider yourself a waiter in a fine restaurant serving sci- entific information as different courses to an audience about

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to enjoy a gourmet meal. They would like to see the menu beforehand and know what to look forward to. An outline on the first slide goes a long way toward keeping the audience aware of the central line of thought of the presentation. Dif- ferent bulleted topics of such an outline can be highlighted as the outline slide recurs at strategic moments in the presenta- tion. A verbal description that outlines the seminar early in the talk also guarantees that the speaker and the audience march to the beat of the same drummer—and in the same direction. “First I will describe to you how this enzyme was discovered. I will then show you evidence demonstrating that this enzyme represents the rate-limiting step in the metabolic pathway under discussion and that it is regulated by calcium. Finally, I will argue that altered activity of this enzyme as a result of changes in calcium concentration results in abnormalities in bone structure.” Such a statement establishes a line of thought that enables the audience to comfortably make an organized mental inventory of the information that is about to follow and to apportion their total listener energy in installments that correspond to the announced segments of the presentation.

Each presentation consists of three segments. (1) The intro- duction provides the background and perspective necessary to appreciate the remainder of the presentation. (2) The body of the presentation, usually the largest section, conveys new information to the audience; this section can often be divided into distinct, interrelated subsections. (3) The conclusion sum- marizes the presentation and should provide the audience with a clear take-home message. When preparing a structure for your presentation, divide the allotted time and assign a defined number of minutes to each section of the presenta- tion—for instance, 10 minutes for the introduction, 30 minutes for the main body of the presentation, and 5 minutes to sum- marize and conclude. This provides balance between the

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different segments of your talk and ensures that the presenta- tion stays within a restricted time frame.

In many cases, the visual aids will help structure your pres- entation by providing landmarks along which the lecture can be organized. In a later chapter, we discuss visual aids in detail; suffice it to mention that the number of images should be kept within reason. A good rule of thumb is to allot approx- imately 1 minute of presentation for each PowerPoint image, making 45, or at most 50, PowerPoint slides a good number to aim for when preparing a 45-minute presentation. A single sheet of paper with titles or key words for each slide or a print- out of the slides and perhaps a few small reminder notes can provide a convenient “cheat-sheet” to which you can refer during your presentation. A well-prepared abstract, an organ- ized set of well-chosen slides, a concise “cheat-sheet,” and an introductory outline should all help keep you on track during your seminar.

KNOW YOUR STUFF It happens often, especially in cases of novice speakers, that unjustified self-confidence leads to the belief that eloquence and style will make up for lack of knowledge, incomplete understanding, or absence of crucial data. A false sense of intellectual superiority to the audience, instilled by the assumption that no one else knows more about the topic than the speaker, frequently leads to the illusion that he or she will be able to “wing it” yet give the impression of being on solid ground. More often than not the speaker discovers too late that the audience consists of highly intelligent and insightful individuals. It takes only one knowledgeable listener to expose a lack of knowledge or data that the speaker has tried to hide behind a cloak of superficial information.

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