Tips for effective oral
presentations
Justin R Minder
University At Albany
Atmospheric & Environmental Science
Atm 425
Other authors would be listed here
Make sure it is clear who is presenting, but also give
credit to collaborators
perhaps
acknowledge
funding here
Dominica's Downslope Winds:
Morphology & Dynamics of a Plunging Downslope Flow in the Tropics
Justin Minder
University at Albany
Ron Smith
Yale University
Also:
A. Nugent (Yale), R. Warren (Reading),
J.French, UWKA crew, S. Haimov, T. Parish (UWyo)
Wind
2
Outline
 Background
 Outlines are usually unnecessary for short talks
 Can often just say with words on title slide
 Make it punchy and non-trivial if you use one
 Overarching principles
 Tips for slide construction
 Tips for oral presentation
 Tips on logistics
 Conclusions
 Of course you will have conclusions
Overarching principles
A TITLE SLIDE FOR EACH SECTION CAN BE
NICE FOR BREAKING THINGS UP
Principles from Schultz (2009)
 Writing & speaking are different
 Focus your message
 Know why you are speaking
 Address your audience
 Use correct “baude rate”
 Understand audience distractions
 Address everyone
Principles from Schultz (2009)
 Writing & speaking are different
 Focus your message
 Know why you are speaking
 Address your audience
 Use correct “baude rate”
 Understand audience distractions
 Address everyone
Decide on and focus your message
 Time is limited, particularly for conference talks
 You can probably only make 1-3(at most) points
effectively in a 12 min talk


Don’t be overambitious!!
A few points made clearly is almost always best
 Eliminate all material that doesn’t contribute to your
focused goals
Decide on and focus your message
 Decide on your main points FIRST (before you start
making any slides)
 Use your abstract for a guide
 …although you are not chained to the abstract
Address your (whole) audience
 Consider background and interests of your audience:
tailor your talk to them


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Don’t insult them by presenting trivial info
Don’t lose them by shooting over their heads
Make your material relevant to them!!
 Try to balance your material so everyone finds worth
in your talk

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Be sure everyone gets the main point(s)
Can vary the target audience throughout the talk…
Address your (whole) audience
Use the correct “baud rate”
 Deliver material at a proper rate
 Slow enough that the audience has time to process and absorb
 Fast enough that the audience isn’t bored
 Techniques
 Need to consider the audience’s background, circumstances
audience level of education? interest?
 how exhausted is audience’s attention? end of day/conference?

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Don’t overwhelm with complex slides (use builds if needed)
Slow down for (even repeat!) difficult points
Tips for slide construction
A TITLE SLIDE FOR EACH SECTION CAN BE
NICE FOR BREAKING THINGS UP
Start by planning the overall structure
 Think about the whole flow of the talk first, before
making your first slide
 Make sure everything serves your main points
 “storyboard” out your talk before getting into details
Draw your audience in with first slides
 Outline is a dull way to start

Usually wastes time and
 Ideas for first slides:


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
Engaging image
Lead with the result!
Counter-intuitive observation
Surprising motivating statistic
Pose a question
 Give background, but don’t get bogged down


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Can be woven into other parts
No time for laundry list of previous work
Get to your research ASAP
Slide formatting
 Consistent format across slides looks professional
 Can use preset formats from software (like this) or
make your own

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Different templates for title, figure, text slides
Usually good color combos & contrasts
 Avoid: busy / distracting / cheesy formats
 Seek: simple / un-cluttered / easy to look at formats
(Photos can looks slick, but be
careful, they can get in the way)
Color Schemes
 Make sure contrast is good
 Avoid light colors that don’t project well
 Avoid painful contrasts
 Be considerate of the colorblind
 7-10 % of males are red-green colorblind
Light on dark is usually easier on eyes…
…than dark on light.
Fonts
 Make sure text is large enough (18 pt. is probably absolute
minimum)
 Non-serif fonts are often easier to read
 Sometimes serif fonts are preferred for longer strings of text
with multiple lines
 Don’t get too creative, avoid looking unprofessional
 Comic Sans MS
 Rockwell Extra Bold
 Arial & Helvetica are standards
Fonts
 Do make effective use of variations in fonts
(including color) to make a point
Minimize text!!!
 I have probably been using too much text for most of this
presentation
 When you have too much text on your slide a couple of
things can happen:


Audience’s eyes glaze over and they stop paying attention
They are focused on reading the text and miss important things that
you are saying
 DO NOT put text on a slide and then just read it
 The text should emphasize the main points, illuminate
the figure, and give you queues
 Writing out complete sentences is unnecessary, since a
quick phrase makes the point better

You are always there to explain the slides, unlike a poster, so no need
to make your talk completely “speak for itself”
Minimize text!!!
 I’ve been using too much text
 Too much text causes:
 Loss of interest
 Competition with speaker
 DON’T read your slides
 Use brief phrases that:
 Emphasize
 Annotate
 Provide you queues
Include relevant and clear graphics
 All graphics should contribute to your goals
 Graphics need to be:
 FULLY LABELED!!!!!!
 Legible
 Explained
 Adequate resolution
 Cited if not yours
Include relevant and clear graphics
 Graphics from publications often don’t transfer well
 Often text is too small
 May require annotation
Using figure from a paper (un-modified)
Using figure from a paper (modified)
5
Aircraft-measured temperatures
Altitude (km)
N. Sierra Nevada
contours: T (oC)
Z0C
0
Marwitz (1987)
-20
0
E-W Distance (km)
110
Fully explain complex figures
 Audiences can get lost on a hard to understand figure
 Take time to explain new figures clearly
 Especially for a challenging figure
 Complex figures & slides can benefit from “builds”…
 Introduce pieces in a logical order
 Avoid overwhelming the audience
The atmospheric
snowline
The elevation in the atmosphere where falling snow melts into rain
z
Z0C
ZS
ZBB
z
zero-degree line
Z0C
z
snow line
Z0C
Melting
layer
ZS
T
0ºC
z
(q s,g)o/2
(q s,g)o
q s,g
Z0C
ZBB
bright-band heigh
Bright
band
dbZ
WRF cross – section
1hr rainfall (shading)
500m winds (barbs)
Snow & graupel mix. ratio (shading)
y(km)
Z0C
wind
x(km)
• Full drop in Z0C & ZS is more like 500-600m
(underestimated by profilers)
• Most of ZS drop is due to drop in Z0C
• ~60 % pseudo-adiabatic,
• ~30 % cooling from melting
~60
%
~30
%
Concluding
 Best done in a single slide
 Leave the slide up when you finish talking
 Punchy
 Make sure everyone walks away with the main points!!
 Can use little figures as visual reminders
 Can try to summarize with a conceptual diagram
Conclusions
A mesoscale lowering of the snowline over terrain
appears to be a common feature of mid-latitude
mountain climates
A range of pseudo-adiabatic, diabatic, &
microphysical processes may explain this
behavior
These processes may be simulated and
diagnosed in mesoscale numerical models,
which suggest important roles for several
mechanisms
The dependence of these mechanisms on climate
may result in modulations of large-scale climate
impacts
Conclusions:
Mechanical and thermal forcing regimes exist,
depending on wind speed
Weak winds:
• Vigorous convection
• Little rain
• No wake
• Diverging flow aloft
• Lofted island tracers
Strong winds:
• Vigorous convection
• Heavy rain
• Pronounced wake
• Plunging flow aloft
• No island tracers
Transition between convective modes is also apparent in numerical
simulations (Nugent, Smith, & Minder (in revision))
Smith et al. (2012)
Tips for oral presentation
Rehearse
 Essential for getting timing right
 Rehearse out loud
 Note: Pace usually picks up when you get nervous
 Rehearse in front of colleagues for feedback!
 …or videotape yourself!
 Amount of rehearsal needed increases for:
 Shorter talk
 Less experienced speaker
 New talk
 …
Start strong
 Your first few minutes are key
 Audience will decide if you are worth listening to
 Move quickly into something interesting
 Don’t get bogged down in acknowledgements
 Show enthusiasm
Delivery style
 Talking points
 Scripting
 Reading
 Off the cuff
 Can use queue cards… “presenter mode” is usually
better
Presenter mode
Not available for AMS meetings!
Important basic speaking skills
 Proper volume level
 Be careful with microphones!
 Vary your tone and rhythm
 Use this to emphasize points, etc.
 Involve the audience
 Ask them a multiple choice or yes/no question
 Tell a story?
 Bring a prop?
 Add some humor (but be VERY careful with this)
 Look at audience, not at computer or screen
Important basic speaking skills
 Eliminate filler words!
 Umm, you know, like, basically, my point is, …
 Move and gesture
 … but don’t overdo it
 Use pointer effectively
 Use for indication, but don’t fidget or swing all over!
Manage your time!
 No excuse for running over
 Watch your time and know if you are running fast or
slow
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Can have goals for timing associated with certain slides or
sections
Adjust or skip if need be
Don’t say:
 “I won’t be able to present everything”
 “You can’t read this on the figure, but…”
 “I’m over time, but I’m going to show you…”
 Redundant / empty words:


“still remains”, “pooled together”, …
“as a matter of fact”, “I want to point out that”
Don’t say:
 Cliches
 “Tip of the iceberg”, “avoided like the plague”
 Misused words
 “Literally”, “constantly”, “relatively”
 Excessive superlatives
 “Extremely”, “totally”,
Answering questions
 Session chair will usually moderate
 Answer the question that was asked
 Better to admit ignorance than overstretch
 Acknowledge the questioner
 Can encourage questions during the talk
Some tips on logistics
Logistics
 Keep an extra copy of your talk on a CD, cloud

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service, USB stick
Upload your talk ahead of time
Check that your slides work on the presenting
computer
Learn how the lights, remote, pointer work
Be prepared for the unexpected
Logistics
 Use the restroom first
 Hydrate
 Have water available during the talk?
 Be careful with caffeine !
 Stick around after the session to speak with people