Giving an Academic Talk

I can count the number of really good (i.e. memorable) academic presentations I've seen on one hand. If I lower the bar to "pretty good", there's still only a limited list.

If you want to improve your presentation skills, here's a very good collection of advice on how to give an academic presentation from Jonathan Shewchuck, a Computer Science professor at Berkeley. Even if you're not a CS guy, read it anyway - most of what he discusses is relevent to almost any presentation. He breaks down just about everything you need to know:

• How to make sure your slides are clean and crisp (less is more)
• How to organize the presentation (more time on motivation and less on technical details)
• Helpful advice on actually giving the talk (be aware of nonverbal communication).

I'd argue that even most experienced presenters can pick up a tip or two from his piece. Once a given bit of research is completed, it's very hard to improve its quality without significant cost. On the other hand, it's relatively easy to improve your ability to present your research. And the marginal payoff to increased presentation skills is pretty big -- conference presentations are a critical part of building your academic and professional reputation, and if you're on a campus visit, your research presentation is one of the most important factors in determining whether you'll get an offer.

So read Shewchuck's list here before your next presentation.

Brain Rules

I just came across a book called "Brain Rules", written by John Medina, who is (from his website):

...a developmental molecular biologist focused on the genes involved in human brain development and the genetics of psychiatric disorders. He has spent most of his professional life as a private research consultant, working primarily in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries on research related to mental health. Medina holds joint affiliate faculty appointments at the University of Washington School of Medicine, in its Department of Bioengineering, and at Seattle Pacific University, where he is the director of the Brain Center for Applied Learning Research.

His book unpacks a great deal of research on how our brains work best (or worst), and touches on things like the effect of exercise on brain function (it's phenomenally good), how long we can hold attention (very short), how short term memory can be enhanced (a lot of repetition and saying things out loud), the effects of sleep deficiency on brain function (a lot, and it's not good), and the role of vision in learning.

The book seems to have a great deal of info that's relevent to teachers and presenters, and if he writes anything like he talks, it should be a fun read. You can see a video of him talking at Google here, and see his website here.

I'm putting the book at the top of my post-CFA reading list

HT: Presentation Zen

How NOT To Do A PowerPoint Presentation

I've linked to this Youtube clip before, but it bears repeating. My students are starting presentations this week for my Financial Strategy course. Since learning how to effectively present material is one of the things they should get out of the class, I point them to a couple of sites. One is Presentation Zen, which should be a must-read fo all undergraduate (and graduate) students. Here's another, titled "Life After Death By PowerPoint." It hits most of the high (and low) points in a pretty memorable (and humorous) manner:

If you have any others, let me know.

How Do You Choose The Right Chart For Your Information?

Now this is a cool flowchart - it works you through the decision process in deciding the rigth chart to best display your data. It's from The Extreme Presentation Method, which is a pretty good resource for those who regularly have to do these things,

Here's another diagram from the same site - it lays out process you go through in designing a presentation
:
HT: The Big Picture