CS6604 Presentations

Remember to:

• Work with your moderator well in advance.
• Bring 25 copies of the best related article 1 week ahead.

Please try to improve your presentation by considering:

• Coverage guidelines
  • Be sure to clearly define the problem you are addressing, state your hypotheses, mention crucial facts, and explain key principles.
  • Clearly identify what are opinions or assumptions.
  • Organize your talk so people know key ideas and terminology by the time they are needed.
  • Have an introduction and a conclusion, as well as the other parts (see Timing).
• Moderator guidelines
  • Introduce the presentations briefly, motivating the class.
  • Give a concise summary of the presentation.
  • Give thorough, constructive and fair criticism of the presentation.
  • Be polite but firm in handling questions, making sure the discussion does not digress or stop being constructive or become argumentative.
• Question handling guidelines
  • State at the beginning if you want questions at the end only.
  • Defer answering questions you will cover later in your normal flow of presentation.
  • Repeat each question to help you and the class understand it.
  • Address what is presupposed and implied by questions too.
• Speech guidelines
  • Speak slowly and loudly enough to be easily understood.
  • Vary your pitch and loudness to keep people's attention.
  • Use proper grammar, good rhetorical skills, suitable word choice.
  • Make eye contact as much as possible.
• Timing guidelines
  • Presentation should take about 30 minutes.
  • Limit to about 10 minutes: background, literature review, problem statement.
  • Limit to about 10 minutes: approach, methods.
  • Limit to about 10 minutes: plans, unknowns, holes, concerns.
• Visual guidelines
  • Be sure people in back of room can easily read what you show.
  • Have the minimum amount of material on each slide to make your point clearly.
  • Use figures, diagrams, tables or other graphic or visual devices as much as possible.
  • Pick colors to ensure adequate contrast, reader comfort.

Rating Presentations

• Coverage
• Question handling
• Speech quality
• Visual quality