David Ronayne

General Presentation Advice
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Constraints
Time limit – 30 minutes
Continuity of discussion
Ability of audience – assume no-one will have read the paper
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Aims
Show understanding
Teach us something
Explain why it is important (if you think it is)
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Efficiency
Constraints vs Aims  Trade-off

General Presentation Advice
Public Speaking
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Practice the presentation before doing it for real – make sure you get the timings for each speaker correct
Be confident and enthusiastic
Be loud enough
If you need them, use prompt cards, but do not stare at them the whole time!
Do not just read us the paper directly
Do not put too much information on a slide. Include a diagram or main bullet point or equation if illustrative, but you should be able to discuss and explain the concepts verbally.

Specific EC301/341 Advice
Nature of Academic Papers
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Often many theorems and proofs
Normally only 1 or 2 aims and main ideas of a paper
Use your knowledge of EC220/1 and EC301/341 to estimate what the audience should know. Anything on top of this knowledge required to make your point, needs explaining.
Papers you are choosing from are famous, they made a significant contribution at the time of publication

Specific EC301/341 Advice
Your Presentation
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Choose selectively what to present
Explanatory motivating example
A graph or diagram which conveys main message etc.
Main theorem
What you think are the next steps for further research
Do not mechanically copy out proofs. If you discuss proofs, then give the main intuition and/or any novel techniques they use.
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Explain in your own words what you are presenting
Think of interesting questions i.e. if you think an assumption is unrealistic, what would happen if it were relaxed?
If one of us asks a question or makes a point it is absolutely ok to disagree!
Try to answer any questions from the audience

Specific EC301/341 Advice
Your Group
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Heterogeneity of ability in public speaking and academic ability  delegate well
Report free-riding to the lecturer – Free-riders get 0.
Good Luck and have fun!