Doctoral Days 2018

Tips & Tricks for a good presentation

The following list gives the recommendations we consider important and very appropriate for a good presentation. Obviously, you can sometimes violate some of them, however, we believe that then you should have a reason for.

• A good presentation has a clear structure.
• Do not undervalue the introduction. The motivation of your work should be clarified thoroughly.
• In the presentation, original and cited results should be clearly distinguished.
• Be careful that all axis descriptions, legend, etc. are legible. Graphs should be plotted in thick lines. Avoid using colors that could get invisible or undistinguishable on overhead projector.
• All maths on a slide should be legible and readable during the time that is given to that slide.
• Prefer an easy and clean presentation format. No Comic Sans font, no fancy colorful background.
• The time given to your talk (here 20 minutes) must not be exceeded.
• You should speak loudly and clearly, rather to the audience than to the screen.
• Go forward. Returning back makes your presentation chaotic.
• Do not read the slides. Voice & screen should be used fully as two channels for transmitting information.
• Admitting not knowing the answer to a question is not a failure.

Some tips we were not able to agree on, but we find interesting to mention

We will be happy to discuss them in a meantime.

• Number of slides should not exceed the number of minutes given to your talk.
• Slides should be balanced – amount of information should be approximately equal on each slide.
• Avoid numbering of slides in the style 3/36. Otherwise everybody is checking your time, estimating (or betting) if you will make it on time or not.

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