Oral Presentations   6

	Viewgraphs - Some General Rules
	Format
		Mostly, the "landscape" format is preferable - it makes better use of available space. It also leaves more room for comparisons, which are much better in the left-right visualization than in the top-bottom format
		There are, however, many exceptions where the "portrait" format is better. Think about it before you start writing.
	Make it lively!
		Work with your viewgraph! Add something; underline, circle,..
		But be careful with "striptease", i.e. covering parts which you uncover bit by bit. It is usually not a good idea - your audience feels patronized.
	Use flip-overs
		It is often a very good idea to develop a point by putting a second viewgraph on top (a flip-over) while developing an idea. Use at most two flip-overs.
		Very important: Put them firmly together with scotch tape, so the flip-over will be exactly in place. Be aware of free standing projectors! Your flip-over foil will hang down and the whole viewgraph may slide off! Have a roll of scotch tape with you!
	Take your viewgraphs out of their jackets! After all, you put a lot of work into them. Why obscuring the brilliance of your colors and so on by adding unnecessary absorption by a jacket?

9. Using Media

Presenting Viewgraphs for Illustrations - The 5 Step Procedure

	1. Announce
		Get your audience in the mood by announcing the next step without preempting the information
		Example: "How would that look in the new system?
	2. Show
		Make a small pause while presenting the viewgraph
		This gives the audience time to look at the viewgraph and it gives you time to think about what you are going to say.
	3. Explain
		Go through everything on the viewgraph in telegram style, and alway, always!!! name the axis' and, in micrographs, the scale!
		But never, never!!! just read what is written on the viewgraph. This is the deepest insult you can hurl at your audience. They all can read it much faster themselves than you can spell it out! And if your viewgraph is clear, they will even understand it.
		If you believe you have to read it because the print is so small that the audience can not read it - don't worry, your audience after the second viewgraph of this kind, will neither read it nor listen to you, and your boss is going to fire you anyway. So the impression you left with that presentation doesn't matter anymore.
	4. Meaning
		When the audience starts looking at you again, they are asking you a question: What does it mean?
		Answer that question! If this question does not come up, you must have presented your last and finishing viewgraph (for the whole presentation or for a main chapter), or you presented a meaningless viewgraph.
	5. Resumée
		Give a short conclusion
	You must at least allow 1 minute per viewgraph! However, for complicated scientific stuff (formulas, several graphs, ...) 3 minutes are more like it.
		There are exceptions, of course. You may insert a quicky just to illustrate one point ("The fundamental difference between the materials silicone and silicon, though unknown to the media professions, is best illustrated by the major application of silicone, which has nothing to do with the silicon used for microelectronics, but with rather macroscopic applications leading to soft products not easily confused with hard and brittle chips."). In this case your illustration needs only 20 seconds to get the point across.
	Keep the room as bright as possible! Don't turn off all lights - the ones next to the screen should be enough.. In a dark room, people get v e r y    t i r e d!

How to Explain Visualized Topics

Wrong		Good
	"I have prepared a foil for this..."		"What is the situation now?" (present the foil)
	"This is meant to explain how the space charge region.."		"The space charge region in this case..."
	"I hope you recognize that the symbol with the .... means..."		(Pointing at the symbol) "This symbol means..."
	On the x-axis I have inserted the times from 1968 to ..		(Pointing at the axis) " the years from 1968"
	"As you can see immedately..."		You can see from this that..."
	The differences seem to be rather small - because we are talking the emotional channel here! And in this part of the communication channel, the perception can be very different depending on how you explain your visualization. Don't insult your audience by pointing out the obvious or implicitly assuming that everybody already knows everything!

Previous page

Next page

With frame

Oral presentations 2: 3. How to Prepare a Presentation; 4. The Introduction

Pecularities of Hyperscripts

Pecularities of Hyperscripts

Oral presentations 7: 10. The Talk; 11 Remember

Oral presentations 5: 8.1 Tips for Visualization

Silicone vs. Silicon

© H. Föll (Electronic Materials - Script)