Improving Your Presentations

One goal of the new student pop-up sessions at the AGU Fall Meeting is to give students an opportunity to practice their presentation skills in a low-pressure environment. I think we all know, however, that presentations and presentation skills don't just improve themselves. While any practice can certainly be helpful, practicing with an audience that's willing to give you constructive criticism and feedback is even more worth your time.

The week before major conferences, our department replaces the weekly seminar with practice presentations for students (and sometimes professors) to test out their presentations. This can be very helpful since not only do we have a small department with diverse research, but we also have everyone from undergraduates to professors attend the practice talks. This allows for a wider range of comments and perspectives. Perhaps the best comment I received last year was from an undergraduate. She liked the summary sentence that I put at the end of each slide because it allowed her to get the main points and follow along even if she didn't understand the details.

Here are a couple of my favorite presentation tips:

1) Keep it simple! - Science is already complex, try not to make it even more difficult by using unnecessarily complex words or long explanations. Of course, some of these are unavoidable - that's the nature of science. Also, keep in mind that your ability to explain concepts to someone who doesn't know them is a good measure of how well you understand those concepts yourself.

2) Less is more - When considering time limits, it's not the number of slides that matter but the amount of information contained in those slides. Instead of having 5 slides crammed with information and figures, spread it out over 10 slides (or as many as necessary). This is analogous to paragraphs in writing - they break up large amounts of text into smaller pieces, each with its own main point. Unlike writing, however, good presentation slides should have minimal text.


If you want some more tips on how to improve your presentations, take a look at this great IRIS webinar by Scott St. George at the University of Minnesota:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V10W_PZVCos&index=14&list=PLD4D607C2FA317E6D

I look forward to seeing your presentations at AGU!