PREPARING AND MAKING

SCIENTIFIC PRESENTATION

Omar Yaakob

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 Synopsis
The objective of this presentation is to share with you some important points to bear in mind while
preparing and giving a presentation. The first part is about preparing the slides, what should be
incorporated in a good slides. The second part is about giving an interesting and convincing
presentation. The most important tip is to be really prepared. You will never prepare a good
presentation if you are not prepared.
A good slide is one that can help the audience understand what you are talking about. So it must be
clear and easy to read and follow . Also, you must remember that during presentation, you are
expected to to explain your stuff, not read it to the audience like what I am doing right now…

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 Part 1:

Guidelines for creating effective

slides

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 Goals

A presentation is a reflection of you and

your work. You want to make the best
possible impression in the short amount of
time given you.

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 The Slides should..

• Enhance Understanding
• Add Variety
• Support Claims
• Lasting Impact

Used Poorly…A Distraction…Ineffective

Presentation
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 Slides Should…

• Supplement presentation
• Outline of main points
• Serve audience’s needs, not speaker’s
• Simple and clear

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 Slides helps to:

 Improve comprehension

 Add variety

 Illustrate complex ideas

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 Guiding Principles

 Make it simple.
 Make it clear.
 Don’t let the technology dominate the
presentation. You want the audience to
remember the quality of your research, not
your PowerPoint wizardry.

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 Preparation

• What are the key points you want to

make?
• Who is your audience?
• What are they interested in hearing and
• How familiar are they with your topic?
• Do they expect data or concepts?

Remember: A presentation is different than a

paper. Don’t try to cover everything.
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 Gather Resources

• What will you cover, what can be eliminated?

• How much detail do you need?
• Remember, your time and your audience’s
attention are limited.

For any part of your presentation, ask

yourself “So what?”

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 Background
There are over 28 000 species of fish which have expressed
astonishing evolutionary diversity in propulsion system for maneuvering in
aquatic environment. Inspired by the capabilities of fish to hold its body
stable and maneuver in the water, researches have showed great interest
in studying functions of fish in locomotion, so as to design and develop
underwater vehicles (Lauder, 2006). Fishes have numerous control
surfaces such as fins which are used during locomotion to maintain body
position when maneuvering, hovering or during propulsion. These control
surfaces in fish are used simultaneously to transfer momentum to the
surrounding water during locomotion. In other words fish swim by exerting
force against the surrounding water. There are exceptions, but this is
normally achieved by the fish contracting muscles on either side of its
body in order to generate waves of flexion that travel the length of the
body from nose to tail, generally getting larger as they go along. The
vector forces exerted on the water by such motion cancel out laterally, but
generate a net force backwards which in turn pushes the fish forward
through the water (Brackenbury, 2001).
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 Introduction

• Time to sell your idea or research.

• Answer the question, “Why should I
listen to you?”

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 Body

• Make sure you cover your main points.

• Ensure smooth flow of argument, storyline
• Be concrete. Use examples, statistics,
• Reiteration, comparison.

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 Conclusion

• Give a summary
• Emphasize the most
important/significant points/findings.

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 Format

• When making slides, use a light

background and dark letters, or light text
on a dark background.

• Use a big enough font. This is 32 points.

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Format for Scientific Presentations

• Stick to plain backgrounds. Fancy

formats are more appropriate for
business presentations.

• Avoid cute clip arts

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 General Format Rules
• Stick to a maximum of two READABLE
typefaces.
• Do not use fancy fonts like Comic sans or
Lucida
• Limit the use of color.
• Pick a style and stick with it.
• Keep it short, especially titles.
• Leave empty space.

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 General Format Rules (cont)

• Be brief, straight to the point

• Don’t include every word you will say.
• Limit to one idea per slide.
• Rule of six! Preferably, No more than six
words per line and six lines per slide.

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 Presenting Data

• Make data/results the focus of your

presentation.
• Don’t try to include all data—use handouts
for detailed information or refer audience
to a Web site.
• Use color or special effects sparingly and
consistently.

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FY 98-99

Resource median Jul-1999 Aug-1999 Sep-1999 Oct-1999 Nov-1999 Dec-1999 Jan-2000 Feb-2000

51 77 76 43 69 70 466 480 530

SAM: Scientific Amer. Medicine

African Health Anthology 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 17

AMED 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6
Bioethicsline 20 19 10 23 23 30 5 5 23
Cancernet 23 11 11 17 36 36 15 19 25

Cochrane (Complete)* 45 47 34 49 39 163 163 263 344

Diagnostic Imaging 15 39 21 15 12 22 4 4 7
Practical Approach to Infect. Dis. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 15 19

PubMed (NCBI) 128 153 113 237 205 125 689 1,143 1,736
Medical Letter on Drugs and
50 40 38 47 38 43 5 6 9
Therap.
Merck Manual (StatRef)** 74 80 90 281 299 141 122 94 111
Sabiston 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 22 36

Textbook of Internal Medicine 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 20 9

Williams-Obstetrics 28 26 35 31 31 26 8 8 16
Williams Textbook of Endocrin. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 11 32

Allergy: Principles and Practice 0 0 0 0 0 0 25 18 48

Brenner 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 21 16
Clinical Dermatology 0 0 0 0 0 0 15 33 20
40
Clinical Laboratory 18 12 13 10 13 16 3 12 19
• East Malaysia (Wind & Wave)

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 What was wrong?

• Too many lines. Limit to six or seven

rows of data. If you want to give more
details, use a handout.
• Use effective headings with the table.
• Test the table for readability in a real-
world setting, e.g., a large lecture hall.

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 Graphs helps

• You need to get your audience’s

attention.
• Many people respond better to visual
cues than to straight text or lists of
numbers.
• An effective graph can help drive home
your point.

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 When Presenting Graphs or Tables

1. Tell where it comes from.

2. Tell what is it about
3. Explain the collumn and rows or x and y
axes and legend
4. Describe briefly the curves or data
5. What are the main/significant/relevant
finding/information/results/data/trend

Give time for your audience to absorb

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 10

Vc=1.5 m/s
8
Vc=3.0 m/s
Motion (deg)

0
0 500 1000 1500 2000

Time (sec)

Figure 16: Yaw Motion at Different Current Velocity

(H=5m, T=15s) [Ref 5}
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 Final Steps

• Practice! Recruit a friendly and

constructively critical audience.
• Recruit a grammar expert.
• Show your presentation to someone
who knows nothing about your field. Do
they get what you want to say?

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 Logistics

• How big is the hall where you will be

speaking?
• How much time will you be given?
• What time of day is your talk?
• This will determine your slides
numbers, font size, colours, etc.

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 Equipment Needs

• Ask what you will be given and what you

must bring with you.
• Consider all equipment you will need—
• Internet connection
• Computer
• Microphone
• Software
• Pointer

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 Disaster Planning
• Consider what could go wrong and plan
accordingly.
• Always have a backup.
• Bring a handout that covers all of your
slides.
• Make sure they are readable.
• Arrive early, load and test

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 Remember!

• Keep it simple.
• Don’t let the technology dominate your
message.
• Rule of six.
• Cover your important points.

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 Part 2:
The Presentation

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 #1: Show Passion
You are doing the presentation not because:
• Your boss asks you to do it
• It is part of the job
• It is part of the education/research exercise
• Etc.
But it is because you like the subject and you want
to share the interesting materials with the audience
and you wish to bring the audience to your side.

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 #2: Build Rapport

• … relation marked by harmony or affinity

– Audience members who trust you and feel that
you care
• Start Before You Begin
– Mingle; Learn Names
– Opportunity to reinforce or correct audience
assessment
– Good First Impression
• People Listen To People They Like
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 #3: Opening Your Presentation
• Introduce Yourself – Why Should They
Listen
• Clearly Defining Topic
• Briely explain what the audience can
expect
• Overview

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 #4: Presenting Main
Points (Solution)

• Main Point-Transition-Main Point-

Transition-MainPoint…..
• Supporting Evidence
• Examples
• Attention to, and Focus on, Audience
(Listening)

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 #5: Concluding Your
Presentation
Goal
• Inform audience that you’re about to close
• Summarize main points
• Something to remember or call-to-action
• Answer questions

“Tell ’em What You Told ‘em.”

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Some Presentation
Techniques

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 Presentation Style

3 Elements
1. Vocal Techniques
– Loudness
– Pitch
– Rate
– Pause

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 Presentation Style (con’t)
3 Elements
2. Body Language
 Eye Contact, Gestures, Posture

3. Use of Space
 Can Everyone See You?
 Movement
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 Common Problems

• Verbal fillers
– “Um”, “uh”, “like”
– Any unrelated word or phrase
• Swaying, rocking, and pacing
• Hands in pockets
• Lip smacking
• Fidgeting
• Failure to be audience-centered 40
 5 Presentation Tips

1. Smile
2. Breathe
3. Water
4. Notes
5. Finish On or Under Time

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Thank You

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