Notice: Conference Paper Abstract Writing Workshop

Workshop Date: May 9th, from 3:00pm to 6:00pm, with breaks

Location: 4th floor of the Language Education Institute (LEI), Seoul National University

Registration: You must register for this workshop. This can be done through the LEI website.

This workshop will examine the structure of the conference paper abstract. Because this workshop is open to the general Seoul National University community, it will cover both typical humanities conference abstracts as well as those for the natural sciences.

Some of the specific skills to be covered include:

• Strong and Weak abstracts: What features make make some abstracts better than others
• Strategies for writing attractive abstracts: How to increase the chances of ensuring your abstract is selected for the conference as well as attracting attendees to your presentation
• Structure of abstracts (Based on the CARS model, by Swales and Feake): We will look at how an abstract can be fitted to this model, and some of the related strategies that a writer needs to use in order to draw attention to their work
• Academic Language skills: We will look at some basic academic writing skills that ESL writers may need to consider when writing a conference paper abstract.

I look forward to seeing some of you there at the workshop.

KOTESOL Workshop Wrap-up

Thank you all for the valuable feedback during my presentation on teaching Academic Presentation Skills. This workshop covered some of the areas that I have been addressing in my AP class over the past year.  The handout from the workshop is available in .pdf format here.

Some ideas that came about from our discussion included extended the concept of chunking to grammar.  I think this might help presenters focus more easily on specific components of a data commentary, for instance.  I’m definitely going to investigate this idea further and see how it can be incorporated into my teaching practice.

Regarding interestingness there was some discussion about how to have students better address the lack of it in a presentation.  One example that was mentioned described an activity from a drama class whereby the actor describes a rock in their hand – drawing the audience’s attention to the features or significance of the rock.  This is another activity that I think could be extended to the AP class; students could bring in the most unusual object or item from their field of research and attempt to generate interest in it.

This was my first time presenting at a KOTESOL monthly workshop and it was a good experience.  I would like to thank everyone who attended and shared their valuable advice, experiences and ideas.  Thank you

Handouts and resources for KOTESOL Wksp (04.21)

The following following resources were referred to during the workshop. Links and online/offline references are also included below.

Download:

• Workshop Handout
  • This is a copy of the workshop handout – 4 pages of notes and summaries of the presentation.
• Final speech critique sheet
  • Use this form for critiquing and evaluating presentations. The structure of this form can be modified to be used in group evaluations or critiquing sessions.
• Presentation planning sheet
  • Use this worksheet to organize and plan your presentation. Break your presentation down into sections and add more detail to each section as needed.

Online Resources

• www.ted.com/tedtalks/
  • TED:Excellent collection of presenters from a variety of fields presenting on topics that they are passionate about. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to find the link to Hans Rosling’s excellent data commentary presentation.
• http://www.efcats.org/pages/presentation/oralpresentation.html
  • EFCATS: Successful Oral Presentations:A useful description of the basics skills necessary to give a successful scientific presentation
• http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/
  • Presentation Zen: Excellent and comprehensive collection of comments and ideas about presenting, design, and speaking.
• http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/%7Ewilkins/writing/Supp/dazzle.html
  • The Art of the Oral Scientific Presentation: Another well written and comprehensive resource for scientific presenters.
• www.freerangestock.com
  • Free Range Stock Photos: A good collection of royalty-free photos that can be used for presentations.

Text Resources:

Edward Tufte

• These three books by Edward Tufte were mentioned in the workshop as good resources for learning more about information design and communicating qualitative and quantitative data effectively in a graphic/visual format.

• • Tufte, E. (1990). Envisioning information. Cheshire: Graphics Press.
  • Tufte, E. (1997). Visual explanations. Cheshire: Graphics Press.
  • Tufte, E. (2001). The visual display of quantitative information Cheshire: Graphics Press.
    

• Tufte also has a website where there is an ongoing discussion about all things related to information design -very informative with lots of examples and descriptions

Other book resources for academic presenting and presenting in general

Atkinson, C. (2005). Beyond bullet points. Redmond: Microsoft Press.

Beer, D. F. (Ed.). (2003). Writing and speaking in the technology professions: A practical guide (2nd Edition ed.). Hoboken: IEEE Press.

Hahn, Laura D. (1999) Speechcraft: Discourse Pronunciation for Advanced Learners. (Michigan Series in English for Academic and Professional Purposes). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Powell, Mark (2002) Presenting in English, How to give successful presentations. Boston: Thomson Heinle.

Reinhart, Susan M. (2002) Giving Academic Presentations. (Michigan Series in English for Academic and Professional Purposes). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Improving .ppt templates

Templates have the advantage of allowing the user a quick and efficient approach to producing a slide presentation. The presenter does not need to make decisions about layout, organization or even colour. But therein lies the problem; the decision-making process is left up to the template which disconnects the presenter from their presentation. Templates make a presentation with a unique message and content conform to a standard presentation strategy. The unique presentation is now presented in a generic manner. The audience recognizes the generic nature of the presentation and ‘switches off.’ The presenter is giving up a valuable opportunity to act as an intermediary between their content and the audience.

A better strategy is to organize and prepare the presentation before employing a template. Carefully consider the message and the content to be presented, and the best method for doing so. The presenter should be asking these questions:

1. What is my take-home message?
2. What is the audience expecting from me?
3. What do content do I need to present to the audience in order for them to understand the purpose of the presentation?

Once these goals have been defined, the presenter can then proceed to organize the presentation. This is where a template can be employed, but the presenter should by no means use the slide templates as the sole means for organizing the presentation.

Modifying Templates

Templates have the advantage of bringing visual unity to a presentation: the title slides, colours and fonts all work together to do this. Here are some tips that can be used to modify existing templates to suit your needs and the needs of the audience.

In order to carry out most of these changes you need to be familiar with editing slide masters. If you are unfamiliar with this aspect of PowerPoint, follow this link:

• Write a Meaningful Menu Slide
  • Do not use the standard headings (introduction, body, conclusion, summary, etc.). A more effective and engaging choice is the use of descriptive titles that actually communicate a message (Background to nano-films in semiconductors, manufacturing processes, future research possibilities; or Key terms, Pronunciation Skills, Presenting Skills, Handling Q and A). In longer presentations (over 15 minutes) repeat the menu slide at important transition points to aid the audience in following the talk.
• Remove Slide Headings and Numbers
  • Many templates have some graphic element that occupies a considerable portion (25% or more) of the design. Sometimes this is a space for slide headings, or just a running header with a picture or image. Remove these from the template when not absolutely necessary. The entire description of ‘Results’ does not need the word ‘Results’ occupying the screen. If your presentation is well organized and the menu slide(s) used effectively, you should not need to label every slide with the section of the presentation it belongs to. Instead, use the space on the slide to convey content and meaning, not meaningless terms.
  • Also, there is some debate as to whether it is necessary to take up space on every slide with your institutional logo (university or lab name).
• Remove the Date, Number from the template
  • Slide numbers can be helpful to help the audience if they need to ask you to refer back to a particular slide. But they are generally discouraged because they serve as a kind of countdown (especially the page x of y format). Remove them. Instead, place duplicates of important slides that the audience may have questions about at the end of your presentation. You can then refer to these during your Question and Answer session instead of flipping through series of slides and reverse animations looking for the appropriate slide. This is much more professional.
• Ensure chart styles are appropriate
  
  • Much information is available on how to design effective (and honest) charts and graphics. This link will take you to page that discusses these issues in depth. But to emphasize one point, it is important that you consider the kind and type of chart/graph that you are using to represent the information. Simplicity and conciseness is always better.

Making these small changes can make a subtle but important impression on the audience. They communicate that you have invested some time and consideration into how you present your message.

Rhetorical Questions in Introductions

Rhetorical questions are oft cited techniques for starting a presentation – they can be engaging and thought provoking for the audience to consider, as well as a relatively easy strategy to allow the presenter to being speaking. But the major problem, however, with this technique in an academic context is that the questions asked can sometimes be uninteresting, too open-ended, or even insulting:

• “Do you know about semi-conductor manufacturing?
  • Often just rephrasing these kinds of questions into a statement is a much better strategy: e.g. The current manufacturing technologies for semi-conductors will be out of date in 5 years.
• “Have you heard about globalization?”
  • This kind of question needs to be avoided or made more specific.
• “Have you ever been to a bank?”
  • A simple question like this, asked in an academic context makes the speaker seem amateurish and the audience may feel their intelligence insulted.

Rhetorical questions that can be answered with a yes or no response, or require an answer from the audience should usually be avoided. Remember that audiences usually do not know what to do if a question is addressed to them at the beginning of a presentation – many prefer to hear the speaker talk, and not be asked to participate in a dialogue at the beginning. In an academic context, a thought-provoking rhetorical question serves the speaker’s purpose better.

Tips for using rhetorical question

• Make the question thought-provoking
• Avoid questions that evoke a Yes/No response
• Be specific in what you are asking
• Do not insult the audience’s intelligence – ask an intelligent question
• Do not wait for a response from the audience – do not pause after asking the question.

Like any component of a good introduction, the use of a rhetorical question needs some consideration before being employed. With some practice and consideration, this technique can be effective – but it is not the only technique available to the academic presenter.

Familiarization vs. Memorization

One of the first things that we try to do when working with academic presenters is encourage them to move away from the written speech format and towards a more extemporaneous presentation. Academic presentations are usually under 25 minutes and most presenters find it easy, once they learn how, to accomplish this sort of presentation with out the aid of notes. The payoffs are important: the presenter conveys confidence, the audience is more interested, and the whole tone of the presentation shifts towards a relaxed but professional tone.

Faced with the anxiety of presenting in an academic context in their second language, most presenters naturally fall back on the strategy of reading a written speech. While this is understandable, the presenter is setting them selves up for a more involved task that has few positive returns. Reading from a written speech does not reproduce the natural rhythms of spoken speech, nor does it really allow the presenter to connect with the audience in any meaningful way. It’s one thing if people have paid to see and hear you talk for an hour; quite another if they have dropped in to hear one of many short presentation presentations at an academic conference.

Reciting a prepared speech from memory is also fraught with difficulties. The investment of time in this sort of practice is often 10 times the length of the presentation. The cognitive load on the speaker, as they try to remember pieces of the presentation verbatim is also demanding – the consequence is that they are not able to devote their attention to the content or the audience. The speaker is solely focused on reproducing what they have practiced.

Move away from memorization and towards familiarization

The thought of speaking in front of an audience without notes is a frightening one for many. But if we focus on this strategy of familiarization, we can accomplish this task in a confident and professional manner. The basic idea is that the more we practice this in an extemporaneous manner, the more familiar the speaker becomes with verbally discussing the topic, and the easier it is to confidently present. There are three steps to this approach:

1. Organization
2. Practicing pieces of the presentation
3. Whole practice

• Organization
  • This primary step is key. The presenter needs to have a clear idea of what the goals and purpose of the presentation are, as well as the essential components and content that needs to be communicated. Once this has been clearly delineated and organized, then the presenter can proceed with practice.
  • Try using this presentation planning sheet to organize your presentation.
• Practicing in pieces
  • The idea here is that the presenter focuses their attention and effort on small chunks of the presentation: the two minute introduction and background, for instance. Say this section out loud several times, each time listening carefully to the flow and the content. The goal with this exercise should be conciseness and clarity in the delivery. Repeat this practice until these goals have been accomplished, move on to the next section of the presentation, and repeat.
• Whole Practice
  • Once each section has been practiced a few times, move on to practicing the whole presentation. Some sections will naturally be easier to present than others – focus on the difficult areas and then move on. Finally, practice in front of a colleague or peer that can be trusted to give honest advice about the presentation.

The result of this kind of practice is that the presenter will now be much more familiar with the structure and flow of their presentation.Combined with a well designed slide presentation, the presenter should be able to present confidently and professionally to an academic audience. There is some relation between this practice and theories of cognitive chunking and sight reading. It is worth reading up on these areas if you are going to be teaching these skills to a class.

Humans love repetition

Images are powerful devices that can be used by the presenter to reinforce concepts and connections. In my own presentation I use images in two ways:

1. to visually reinforce a concept
2. to place an image/object into context and remind the view of that context

Visually reinforce a concept through repetition

In long presentations try to tie concepts to images. When repeated, the effect is much stronger than if I had just repeated the words. So in a presentation on writing a statement of purpose, one might have the following images:

…which serve as speaking points on A) being distinct, b) using strategies in your writing, and b) the idea that you need to show how you fit. Later in the presentation when the speaker revisits these ideas, or when summing up a particular concept, re-showing the relevant slide, along with brief commentary, serves to remind the audience of the original content or message – this can be much more powerful than simply orally repeating the same message. In this way, images like this can be used to unite andreinforce connections across the whole presentation.

Placing into context

It is important to create a context for your presentation in order for the audience to understand clearly the content and message of your presentation. A description of an object, particularly an unusual or uncommon one, needs to have a context created for it before the audience can fully understand and appreciate it.

One method that I encourage presenters to use is the repetition of images or parts of images. Through the repetition of images the audience can better understand the relationship and context of the displayed image. The series of slides below illustrate this relationship. The first slide shows the image in situ, giving the viewer the context for the image; the second slide builds upon and expands on this context by providing a definition of the Korean phrases and referencing the icon on the flag to a historical monument.

The Menu Slide as an image
Something similar to this is done with menu slides. The first menu slide shows the whole organization of the talk. The second and subsequent graphics indicate the position of the presentation. For long presentations (1 hour or more) I’ve developed a template that I use that allows me to indicate in a visual way the components and progress of a presentation.

For long presentations like this one (almost 3 hours), this kind of visual device is helpful for the audience. The lengths of the bars can be varied to proportionally represent the length of each section. When one section is complete, the slide is reintroduced with the contents for the next section.