How to present a Paper Orally

How to Present a Paper Orally¹

Talk slow, talk slow, and don’t say too much.

—John Wayne

ORGANISATION OF THE PAPER

The best way (in my opinion) to organise a paper for an oral presentation is to proceed in the same logical pathway that one usually does in writing a paper, starting with "what was the problem?" and ending with "what is the solution?" However, it is important to remember that oral presentation of a paper does not constitute publication, and therefore different ruels apply. The greatest distinction is that the published paper must contain the full experimental protocol, so that the experiments can be repeated. The oral presentation, however, need not and should not contain all of the experimental detail, unless by chance you have been called upon to administer a soporific at a meeting of insomniacs. Extensive citation of literature also is undesirable in an oral presentation.

PRESENTATION OF THE PAPER

Most oral presentations are short (with a limit of 10 minutes at many meetings). Thus, even the theoretical content must be trimmed down relative to that of a written paper. No matter how well organised, too many ideas too quickly presented will be confusing. You should stick to your most important point or result and stress that. There will not be time for you to present all your other neat ideas.

There are, of course, other and longer types of oral presentations. A typical time alloted for symposium presentations is 20 minutes. A few are longer. A seminar normally is one hour. Obviously, you can present more material if you have time. Even so, you should go slowly, carefully presenting a few main points or themes. If you proceed too fast, especially at the beginning, your audience will lose the thread; the daydreams will begin, and your message will be lost.

SLIDES

At all, informal, scientific meetings, various types of visual aids may be used. Overhead projectors, flip charts, and even blackboards, can be used effectively. At most scientific meetings, however, 35 mm slides are the lingua franca. Every scientist should know how to prepare effective slides, yet attendance at almost any meeting quickly indicates that many do not.

Here are a few of the considerations that are important. First, slides should be designed specifically for use with oral presentations. Slides prepared from graphs that were drawn for journal publication are seldom effective and often are not even legible. Slides prepared from a typewritten manuscript or from a printed journal or book are almost never effective. It should also be remembered that slides should be wider rather than high, which is just the opposite of the preferred dimensions for printed illustrations. Even though 35 mm slides are square (outside measurements of 2 X 2 inches, or 50 X 50 mm), the conventional 35 mm camera produces an image area that is 36.2 mm wide and 24.5 mm high; in addition, screens are normally wider than they are high. Thus, horizontally oriented slides are usually preferable.

Second, slides should be prepared by professionals or at least by use of professional equipment. Slides prepared with standard typewriters are almost never effective; the lettering is simply too small. Word processing is fine if a large type is selected. A sans serif type such as Helvetica tends to be well syuited for slides. Your graphs will no doubt be generated by computer.

Third, it should be remembered that the lighting in meeting rooms is seldom optimum for slides. Contrast is therefore important.

Fourth, slides should not be crowded. Each slide should be designed to illustrate a particular point or perhaps summarise a few. If a slide cannot be understood in 4 seconds, it is a bad slide.

Fifth, get to the hall ahead of the audience. Check the projector, the advance mechanism, and the lights. Make sure that all your slides are inserted in the proper order and in the proper orientation. There is no need for, and no excuse for, slides that appear out of sequence, upside down, or out of focus.

Normally, each slide should make one simple, easily understood, visual statement. The slide should supplement what you are saying at the time the slide is on the screen; the slide should not simply repeat what you are saying. And you should never read the slide to the audience; to do so would be an insult to your audience, unless you are addressing a group of illiterates.

Slides that are well designed and well prepared can greatly enhance the value of a scientific presentation. Poor slides would have ruined Cicero.

THE AUDIENCE

The presentation of a paper at a scientific meeting is a two–way process. Because the material being communicated at a scientific conference is likely to be the newest available information in that field, both the speakers and the audience should accept certain obligations. As indicated above, speakers should present their material clearly and effectively so that the audience can understand and learn from the information being communicated.

Almost certainly, the audience for an oral presentation will be more diverse than the readership of a scientific paper. Therefore, the oral presentation should be pitched at a more general level than would be a written paper. Avoid technical details. Define terms. Explain difficult concepts. A bit of redundancy can be very helpful.

For communication to be effective, the audience also has various reposnsibilities. These start with simple courtesy. The audience should be quiet and attentive. Speakers respond well to an interested, attentive audience, whereas the communication process can be virtually destroyed when an audience is noisy or, worse, asleep.

The best part of an oral presentation is often the question and answer period. During this time, members of the audience have the option, if not the obligation, of raising questions not covered by the speakers, and of briefly presenting ideas or data that confirm or contrast with those presented by the speaker. Such questions and comments should be stated courteously and professionally. This is not the time (although we have all seen it) for some windbag to vent spleen or to describe his or her own erudition in infinite detail. It is all right to disagree, but not to be disagreeable. In short, the speaker has an obligation to be considerate to the audience, and the audience has an obligation to be considerate to the speaker.

¹ From: Pp. 144–147 in: © Day, R. A. 1994. How to write and publish a scientific paper. Oryx Press, Phoenix, Arizona, 223 pp.

© Collections IAB Sarawak 2006. Materials for training purposes only.