1、How to Give a Good Talk,Arnaud LegoutINRIA, Sophia Antipolis EPI Plante,Focus of This Talk,Broadly applicable advices for any kind of talks Some specifics for Scientific talks Talk at a conference Invited talk Variations not addressed here for Courses Non-scientific talks,2,Arnaud Legout 2010,Credit
2、,How to give a bad talk? Credit: David A. Patterson, Rolf Riedi, John Ousterhout, Tom Anderson Browse google for an instance of the presentation http:/www.nanog.org/talkpointers.html How to give a good research talk Simon Peyton Jones, Microsoft Research, Cambridge,3,Arnaud Legout 2010,Credit,Collea
3、gues Much better to be ashamed in front of a colleague than in front of 300 peers The wonderful and awful presentations I attended,4,Arnaud Legout 2010,Can You Trust Me?,Make your own opinion Attend presentations Mimic presentations you understand/like Big plus if it is not your field Never ever con
4、sider simplicity and clarity as a proof of weakness Never forget that you can violate the rules if you have a very good reason to do so,5,Arnaud Legout 2010,Outline,Why should you bother doing talks? How to structure your talk? How to make your slides? How to give your talk? Great talks examples,6,A
5、rnaud Legout 2010,Presentations are a fundamental part of research excellence,7,Arnaud Legout 2010,Research and Marketing,The best researchers in the world learned how to sell they work To the community Visibility, impact To students Attract graduate students To commissions Funding, promotion To the
6、 public Increase attraction of your field, Fame,8,Arnaud Legout 2010,Goals of a Presentation,Give the audience the intuition of your idea Make the audience eager To read your paper To ask you questions To discuss with you Build relationship Create a reputation Get feedback,9,Arnaud Legout 2010,Goals
7、 of a Presentation,Show you can make great presentations Big plus in a career Conversely, a poor presentation can kill an application to a new position,10,Arnaud Legout 2010,Outline,Why should you bother doing talks? How to structure your talk? How to make your slides? How to give your talk? Great t
8、alks examples,11,Arnaud Legout 2010,Adapt to the Audience,The entire audience must understand your talk It is better to explain notions a part of the audience already knows than to lose another part of the audience during the talk Do not overestimate the knowledge of the audience in your field,12,Ar
9、naud Legout 2010,Do Not Present Too Much,Common pitfall “I did a lot and I will present every single bit of my work. They will be impressed” That shows you are unable to deliver a message Do not hesitate to cut your results It is better to present 10% of your work that the audience understand than 9
10、0% that nobody understand,13,Arnaud Legout 2010,Do Not Present Too Much,The audience will remember at most one single message Dont sell more, but sell it wellYes, it is marketing Useless to do a great research if nobody knows it,14,Arnaud Legout 2010,Give a Structure to Your Talk,Give a background A
11、dapt to the audience Also adapt the technical granularity of your presentation Motivate your work Why the subject is important and interesting? Focus of your work What is this presentation/work about in a single sentence What is the problem?,15,Arnaud Legout 2010,Give a Structure to Your Talk,Give m
12、ethodology and tools Give results Clearly show your contributions Conclude with a summary of contributions Impact of this work Future work rarely makes sense unless you are really planning future work,16,Arnaud Legout 2010,Give a Structure to Your Talk,Give an outline You can give it first before or
13、 after (better) the background Repeat the outline before each new part Use color to show where you are Make clear the structure of your talk to the audience No suspense,17,Arnaud Legout 2010,Give a Structure to Your Talk,No need to go deep into related work (unless it is a survey) Your contributions
14、 must be the core But, be prepared to discuss related work,18,Arnaud Legout 2010,Alternate Structures,You need to know what you are doing More original means more risksAlternate questions and answers Gerard Berrys way Appropriate for tutorials, general talks Less appropriate for technical talks,19,A
15、rnaud Legout 2010,Alternate Structures,No slides Need to be a very strong speaker Need a very well structured presentation Need a very high effort from the audience You must transmit energy Some (lazy) people dont like such presentation,20,Arnaud Legout 2010,Make Summaries,For each important result
16、At the end of each part of your talk,21,Clearly show the take home messages,Arnaud Legout 2010,Anticipate Q&A,Prepare backup slides Very impressive when it works You can put technical details or results you did not have time to address in them Be prepared to questions Rehearsal with colleagues Be pr
17、epared to hard questions,22,Arnaud Legout 2010,Outline,Why should you bother doing talks? How to structure your talk? How to make your slides? How to give your talk? Great talks examples,23,Arnaud Legout 2010,Use Slide Numbers,How do you know which slide it is over 30? “The slide whose title is Use
18、Slide Numbers” “The slide after Presentation Guidelines” “I dont remember, go back, again, again, again, again, stop yes this one!” Used to ask questions and to practice At least 20 pt Even at the back someone may ask a question,Arnaud Legout 2010,Use non-serif fonts (times),Serif fonts are hard to
19、read Line width is not uniform Thin lines may not render well with all projector types Hard to read from the back Use Comics: looks modern Arial: looks formal, but might be boring,25,Arnaud Legout 2010,Use non-serif fonts (comics),Serif fonts hard to read Line width is not uniform Thin lines may not
20、 render well with all projector types Hard to read from the back Use Comics: looks modern Arial: looks formal, but might be boring,26,Arnaud Legout 2010,Use non-serif fonts (Arial),Serif fonts hard to read Line width is not uniform Thin lines may not render well with all projector types Hard to read
21、 from the back Use Comics: looks modern Arial: looks formal, but might be boring,27,Arnaud Legout 2010,Use Large Fonts,Font must be larger than 20pt (here it is 32pt) Font must be larger than 20pt (here it is 24pt) Font must be larger than 20pt (here it is 20pt) Font must be larger than 20pt (here i
22、t is 18pt) Font must be larger than 20pt (here it is 16pt) Font must be larger than 20pt (here it is 14pt) Where do you stop to read it from the back? Consider poor projectors, poor screens, poor eyes,28,Arnaud Legout 2010,Show Readable Figures,Use large symbols,29,Arnaud Legout 2010,Show Readable F
23、igures,Use thick solid lines and colors,30,Arnaud Legout 2010,Show Readable Figures,31,Do not use the camera ready figures Often unreadable on slides,Arnaud Legout 2010,Be Concise,Do not write complete sentences as they make your message obfuscated in long lines of text Never forget that nobody can
24、read your slides and listen to you at the same time unless you are reading what is in your slides. But, you must not read your slides, this is boring Omit technical details, there is no chance to explain everything in a single presentation. Instead, you should make the audience eager to read your wo
25、rk Do not believe complexity will impress your audience, it will simply make you look unable to express your idea,32,Arnaud Legout 2010,Be Concise,Write small sentences Do not compete with your slides You give the message, the slides support it Do not dig into details Just deliver a message Give a p
26、review of your work/paper Be simple in your explanations,33,Arnaud Legout 2010,Use Illustrations,Make your point clear and simple Give a mental image people are more likely to rememberAlways use a figure instead of a table,34,Arnaud Legout 2010,Use Illustrations,Prior to distribution Content split m
27、ultiple pieces Metainfo file created by the content provider To join a torrent Peer P retrieves metainfo file from a well-known website P contacts the tracker The tracker responds back with a peer set of randomly selected peers P contacts peers in this set and start requesting different pieces of th
28、e content,35,Arnaud Legout 2010,36,Use Illustrations,Web server,Tracker,coolContent.torrent,random peer set,coolContent.xvid,Arnaud Legout 2010,Use Colors,No more than three colors on a slide Here I have four Use easy to distinguish colors like dark Blue, Red, and Green Use colors to emphasize an im
29、portant word May be used to remind you to develop keypoints,37,Arnaud Legout 2010,Use Colors,No more than three colors on a slide Here I have three Use easy to distinguish colors like dark Blue, Red, and Black Use colors to emphasize an important word May be used to remind you to develop keypoints,3
30、8,Arnaud Legout 2010,Use Colors,Never use light colors or low contrast They may not render well,39,Never use light colors or low contrast They may not render well,Never use light colors or low contrast They may not render well,Never use light colors or low contrast They may not render well,No,No,Yes
31、,Yes,Arnaud Legout 2010,Do Not Over Illustrate,Do not use Irrelevant illustrationsWeak metaphorsAnimated images,40,Arnaud Legout 2010,Do Not Over Animate,It is disturbing AnnoyingUseless,41,You cannot keep the audience focused,Arnaud Legout 2010,Use Semantic Animations,42,Use with caution,Arnaud Leg
32、out 2010,Use Enlightening Animations,Animations must make complex idea simple to grasp No magic, it is a lot of work to makeHere are two examples,43,Arnaud Legout 2010,44,Use Enlightening Animations: P2P case,P2P,Client-server,Arnaud Legout 2010,Credit: G. Berry, Collge de France, 25/01/08,45,2 3 4
33、5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71,Use Enlightening Animations: Sieve of Eratosthenes,A number is prime if it can only be divided by 1 or b
34、y itself,46,2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71,Use Enlightening Animations: Sieve of Eratosthenes,Credit: G. Berry, Collge de France,
35、 25/01/08,47,2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71,Use Enlightening Animations: Sieve of Eratosthenes,Credit: G. Berry, Collge de France
36、, 25/01/08,48,2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71,Use Enlightening Animations: Sieve of Eratosthenes,Credit: G. Berry, Collge de Franc
37、e, 25/01/08,49,2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71,Use Enlightening Animations: Sieve of Eratosthenes,Credit: G. Berry, Collge de Fran
38、ce, 25/01/08,Be neaT,Do YOU like slides with sppell check erorsInconsistant: Capitalisation Bullet. Struture, font;Ugly slides poor use of symbol ! Poor layout,50,Arnaud Legout 2010,Be Neat,Do you like Slides with spell check errors Inconsistent Capitalization Bullets Structure Font Ugly slides Poor
39、 use of symbols Poor layout,51,Arnaud Legout 2010,No Punctuation Mark.,No punctuation mark: At the end of sentences: Period (.) , Colon (:), Semi-colon (;), Comma (,). Apart from: Question marks (?), Exclamation marks (!).,52,Arnaud Legout 2010,No Punctuation Mark,No punctuation mark At the end of s
40、entences Period (.) Colon (:) Semi-colon (;) Comma (,) Apart from Question marks (?) Exclamation marks (!),53,Arnaud Legout 2010,Use Meaningful Titles,The title should summarize the slide content Do not use a same title with an increasing number Introduction 1/5 Introduction 2/5 Etc. Poor variant “c
41、ont.”,54,Arnaud Legout 2010,Outline,Why should you bother doing talks? How to structure your talk? How to make your slides? How to give your talk? Great talks examples,55,Arnaud Legout 2010,Never Use Laser Pointer,Always disturbing Arent you shaking? Show you are lazy Use neat animations Works in an
42、y case Safe side Use colors, shapes Use your hand if you can touch the screen in last resort (not always possible),56,Arnaud Legout 2010,57,Never Use Laser Pointer,Arnaud Legout 2010,58,Never Use Laser Pointer,Three-class scenario, averaged over all 13 runs Seed max upload speed: 200kB/s We see clus
43、ters per class Two artifacts Slow class squares are darker since peers take longer to complete Peer 27 slower than other peers in its class (problem with a PlanetLab node): Reciprocates mainly with the slow leechers,Arnaud Legout 2010,Explain All Slides,Never present a slide you do not explain in de
44、tails Always drop a slide if you present it for less than 30 seconds Spend time on complex figures or drop them Spend time on equations or drop them Talk on transition slides (e.g., outline reminders) or drop them Use transition to summarize the previous part and introduce the next one,59,Arnaud Leg
45、out 2010,Minimum Explanation,For each figure you must Give the x-axis Give the y-axis Give the legend Explain all symbols For each equation you must Explain all variables and parameters If you cannot Drop the figure or the equation, otherwise is will be useless,60,Arnaud Legout 2010,61,Example for a
46、 Figure,Arnaud Legout 2010,Example for an Equation,62,Arnaud Legout 2010,But, Prefer the Figure to the Equation,63,Arnaud Legout 2010,Be Redundant,Repeat several times Im going to explain My explanation is I just explained Never too much redundancy,64,Arnaud Legout 2010,Never Go Back,It is bad habit
47、 to go back to a previous slide If you forgot something, just tell it If you need a previously shown image, add it again Navigating within slides will lose your audience,65,Arnaud Legout 2010,Never Exceed Your Allocated Time,This is a lack of respect for the audience and the next speakers Not admiss
48、ible, not professional Should never happen if you are well prepared,66,Arnaud Legout 2010,Never Exceed Your Allocated Time,In case you feel you will exceed Drop slides No problem to drop a full part Never drop summary of contributions Never stop in the middle of somewhere,67,Arnaud Legout 2010,One S
49、lide Every Two Minutes,Usually everybody agrees Now count 10 minutes means 5 slides 20 minutes means 10 slides How many slides do you have for a 20 minutes talk?,68,Arnaud Legout 2010,One Slide Every Two Minutes,You can violate this rule if You have time to explain in details all slides You will not exceed your allocated time You will not speak much faster Hard to spend on average per slide less than 1 minute (really short) more than 3 minutes (start to be boring),
