Final Year Project Workshop on Presentations 1 How to Give a Presentation -Why At several points in your degree course, you will have to give a presentation to staff and fellow students. This can be nerve-wracking if you have not had any experience of it beforehand. However, whatever profession you enter after graduation, you will have to stand on your feet regularly and present material to an audience. Now is the time to gain some experience.

Final Year Project Workshop on Presentations 2 Various Presentation Formats We stipulate that PowerPoint be used in the preparation and delivery of your Project presentation in January. A PC and projector will be provided. Further details will be provided nearer the time. The bench test presentation to your supervisor is less formal. The presentation you give as part of your project oral examination must concentrate on demonstrating your deliverables.

Final Year Project Workshop on Presentations 3 Presentation Tips - How The basic strategy is good planning followed by practice. Here are some suggestions: The old IBM style of 'say what you are going to say; say it; and then say what you have just said' is still useful advice in structuring a talk. Think carefully about your audience. For example, if you are going to give a talk on a Haskell project, will all the audience have a suitable knowledge? Will you have to spend a little time presenting the background? In general, it is much better to assume that an audience know too little than too much.

Final Year Project Workshop on Presentations 4 More Tips - 1 Try to avoid reading from notes. This can be a useful technique to start off and get over initial nerves. After that, use summary cards or key notes. About 9 lines of 24 point type is about as much as you can get on a slide. Make the most of diagrams and visuals ("a picture is worth 1000 words"). DON'T simply put normal A4 typescript onto a slide. If you run out of time, do not try to speak twice as fast. Produce a brief, succinct summary of what you were going to say and invite those interested in the detail to contact you later.

Final Year Project Workshop on Presentations 5 More Tips -2 Time is allocated for questions, so you should prepare for the obvious ones. If you can not answer the question asked, answer one you can (politicians are good at this). The talk is intended to be a stand-alone presentation, and therefore should be regarded as independent of any preceding talks. If, for example, a preceding talk is on the same project as yours, you must nonetheless give (your version of) the same background material. Practice your talk beforehand, if necessary with your friendly bathroom mirror.

Final Year Project Workshop on Presentations 6 Format of Project Presentation Introduction - What and Why - Background, Objectives, and Motivation Existing work and how your work fits in What you have already done What you are planning to do How you plan to evaluate whether or not your work has achieved the objectives

Final Year Project Workshop on Presentations 7 Further Reading There are a number of papers available on giving talks: S.L. Peyton-Jones, J. Hughes & J. Launchbury, How to give a good research talk, ACM SIGPLAN Notices, Vol 28, No 11, Nov 1993, pp Ian Parberry, How to Present a Paper in Theoretical Computer Science, revised version of an earlier paper with the same title in Bulletin of the EATCS, (37), pp , 1989.

Final Year Project Workshop on Presentations 8 WSE Speaker Tips - Tilley Use 24 point for body text and at least 28 for titles. Use at most 1-3 typefaces. Use colours effectively. Use animation sparingly. Always speak to the audience, not the screen. Speak slowly and clearly. Pause occasionally. Keep to time as this will be strictly enforced.

Final Year Project Workshop on Presentations 9 Other Resources from WSE /403/visdesign/w3s2.html

Final Year Project Workshop on Presentations 10 Final Word Experience has shown that these simple tips and guidelines do help and can greatly improve your presentations, so plan your presentation in good time, practice at every opportunity and revise if necessary. Remember this is your chance to shine! An enthusiastic presenter will gain a better audience that an unenthusiastic one!