Presentations & You – @TimLockridge // March 7, 2015

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Presentations & You – @TimLockridge // March 7, 2015

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Presentations & You

@TimLockridge // March 7, 2015

Just a heads up: There are a lot of animated gifs in this presentation. If the motion causes discomfort, feel free to step out. These are all taken from an animated gif search engine that I'll show you later, which means they are of dubious or unknown origin. Forgive the lack of attribution--we'll talk about the pros & cons of this later.

Opinions Ahead.

What follows is simply my stance on/bias about presentations. It's not doctrine. Take what's helpful; leave what isn't. I will also switch between the terms "presentation" and "talk". I like both of these--but "talk" especially. It reminds me that we're not just "presenting" another genre; a talk is a genre unto itself.

Presentations & Me

First, a bit of my personal history with presentations.
I went to grad school at Virginia Tech. During my first year in the MFA program, I also took coursework in Composition and attended the Composition speakers series.
Being new to the field and entering an unfamiliar conversation, I found I had to find new ways to listen to speakers--to pull apart their talks, the conversation, etc. So I became a student of the presentation
Lessig was a hepful model.

Five Key Areas

So today I want to suggest five key areas that you can focus on to improve your presentations.

1. Narrative

2. Genres

3. Visuals

4. Practice

5. Technologies

1. Narrative

Planning

How does audience find a way in? Consider this as you plan. Your audience is listening--not reading--and they need a point of entry. I find it helpful to first think of a talk via this structure.

Research Story

Can you shape your research into a story?

Arrival

How did you arrive at your research question?

Artifacts

Do you have artifacts you can share?

2. Genres

Conference Presentation

Work in progress. Prompt conversation. Receive feedback. Lead to publication. Not an end product.

Job Talk

Share your research. Demonstrate scholarly skills. Evidence of teacher self. Affect. Who you are.

Stakeholder Presentation

Communicate data. Goals, plans, outcomes. Motivate/call to action.

Audience

Always begins with audience and their expectations. What I'm doing for this presentation, for example, I might be less willing to do for a job talk--problems with image attribution, for example.

Genre Conventions

The other problem with talks is that people misunderstand the genre--or the conventions. They try to shove an essay or a report into a talk.
I find this following excerpt from Nancy Duarte to be quite helpful.

Your talk is not an essay. It's a talk.

You can write it out. You can read it. But write it like it should be spoken, not closely read.

Within reason, Minimize the lit review.

You can write it out. You can read it. But write it like it should be spoken, not closely read.
Signpost as much as possible

Design

...this leads us to consider slide design.

3. Visuals

30 Seconds

New slide every 30 seconds. You can go faster/slower when you talk, but I find this to be a helpful guideline for planning.

(Yes, that's a lot of slides)

The sweet spot: Five words.

Images should anchor the idea for the audience. Consider the most important word/idea and find a way to communicate it.
Images should fill the screen when possible
Let's talk about places to find images. Creative Commons is one option.
Giphy. (attribution?)
Unsplash.com. Sign up for free images.
Dissolve offers a few HQ vids each week.
LiceCap. DIY animated gifs.

(Nope) Don't use the built-in themes.

  • Lose the ordered lists.
  • These are your notes.
  • They're not for the audience.
  • They're for you.
  • We don't want to sit through them.
  • Stop it.

If you show a block quote, read it.

Study: Duarte
Study: Reynolds
Study: Mike Rohde's Sketchnotes

4. Practice

Practice as you compose.

Time yourself. Again & again.

Seriously. Don't go over time.

Practice for an expert.

Practice for a non-expert.

Practice the night before & morning of.

5. Technologies

PowerPoint & Friends

Speaker Notes

I'd encourage you to buy a clicker, especially if you're doing job talks. It helps you be a bit more mobile.

Access

Backups: Remotely Available

Backup Formats

Tell story about job talk & old browser
Technology: Each new pres is an opportunity to learn new tech

To conclude: A question.

Which brings to me a conclusion. I'll leave you with a question, or a call-to-action.
Pres should be about sharing knowledge
About conversation & collab w/an audience

Magic

That's a magic opportunity, and a privilege.

Ask To Meet

So if you're asking your audience to stretch, to meet your ideas...

Stretch

How can you stretch your work--both what you're what presenting and how you present it--with them?

Thank You

View this presentation at:

http://www.timlockridge.com/talks/presentations-and-you

View the source files at:

http://www.github.com/timlockridge/presentations-and-you

Presentations & You @TimLockridge // March 7, 2015 Just a heads up: There are a lot of animated gifs in this presentation. If the motion causes discomfort, feel free to step out. These are all taken from an animated gif search engine that I'll show you later, which means they are of dubious or unknown origin. Forgive the lack of attribution--we'll talk about the pros & cons of this later.