Statistics 4540/6571: Project Presentations

``The Three Rules of Public Speaking: Be forthright. Be brief. Be seated.'' S. Dressel and J. Chew, Authenticity Beats Eloquence, 1987.

When, Where: Wed., April 7 (Undergraduate Talks); Thurs., April 8, 1:30-3pm (Graduate Talks).
All presentations to be held in HH-3013.

Time for each Talk: 15 minutes.

Grading: 10% of course grade.

Order of Talks: Wed.: Lauren, Jeff, Wai, Jonathan
Order of Talks: Thurs.: Sean, Karelyn, Taslim, Tariqul, Jiajia

Suggestions

• The aim of these talks is not to have you give perfect presentations. Rather, I want you to gain some experience in presenting results clearly to an audience. Since some of you have given statistical presentations before, my expectations will be higher for you.

• GO SLOWLY!!! The temptation is to race through your material. It's better to take things slowly: speak slowly, expand a bit on what's on your slides or on the board. If you don't have time to breathe, you're going too quickly.

• 15 minutes should be enough time for you to discuss your most important results. If you don't think you will have enough time to discuss all of your results, then choose a few of the results from your analysis, and deal with those in detail.

  For the graduate students, this will mean highlighting the most important results from your paper, emphasizing the procedures that you will use in analyzing your data.

• Overheads: I will require that you make some use of overheads. They help a lot when presenting material, especially graphs. Handwritten ones are fine. The graduate students can obtain overheads and markers from the main office.

  For the undergraduates, I will supply overheads to write on, as well as markers, for anyone that asks. I'll want the markers back.

• For a 15 minute talk, 7-10 overheads will probably be enough. That can allow a title page, 2-3 summary overheads on your paper (for grad students), some important plots, a few plots on results (don't include much, if any, actual computer output), and a concluding slide.

• Do not put more than 12 lines on an overhead. Write large.

• Point form (like I'm using here) is usually best on overheads.

• PRACTICE!!! It is essential that you practice beforehand, so you can pace yourself, and get used to hearing your own voice for 20 minutes. You could do this in front of others in the class, or to entertain your friends, or in front of a mirror in your basement :-) If you practice in the classroom, you also get to practice using the overhead projector, which is helpful.

Some other important points are attached.

In conclusion, you will do fine in your talk as long as you are prepared. It's quite natural to be nervous. But the better prepared you are, the more control you'll have over your nervousness.