Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the fourth edition
- 1 Start with a plan
- 2 Conduct a comprehensive literature search
- 3 Prepare for the challenge
- 4 Begin well
- 5 Compose the IMRAD core of a strong first draft
- 6 Assemble the rest of the first draft
- 7 Compile tables to develop, clarify, and support your story
- 8 Include figures for evidence, efficiency, or emphasis
- 9 Report numbers clearly and responsibly
- 10 Revise for coherence
- 11 Improve style and syntax
- 12 Improve word choice
- 13 Attend to punctuation, capitalization, and other mechanics
- 14 Address your ethical and legal responsibilities
- 15 Oral presentations: adapt the text and visuals
- 16 Share your story in public: presenting talks and posters
- 17 Publication: the rest of the story
- Thirty exercises to improve anyone’s scientific writing skills
- Selected resources
- Index
15 - Oral presentations: adapt the text and visuals
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the fourth edition
- 1 Start with a plan
- 2 Conduct a comprehensive literature search
- 3 Prepare for the challenge
- 4 Begin well
- 5 Compose the IMRAD core of a strong first draft
- 6 Assemble the rest of the first draft
- 7 Compile tables to develop, clarify, and support your story
- 8 Include figures for evidence, efficiency, or emphasis
- 9 Report numbers clearly and responsibly
- 10 Revise for coherence
- 11 Improve style and syntax
- 12 Improve word choice
- 13 Attend to punctuation, capitalization, and other mechanics
- 14 Address your ethical and legal responsibilities
- 15 Oral presentations: adapt the text and visuals
- 16 Share your story in public: presenting talks and posters
- 17 Publication: the rest of the story
- Thirty exercises to improve anyone’s scientific writing skills
- Selected resources
- Index
Summary
Since the days of the cave man carving stuff on the cave walls, people have wanted stories, and storytellers have wanted an audience.
That is still the case. The changes are really a matter of format.
susan wiggsAt some point in time, and perhaps sooner than you realize, you almost certainly will be called upon to make an oral presentation to colleagues, administrators, or a general audience whose background lies outside your specialized area of expertise. The opportunity may appear in the guise of a dissertation defense, a job interview, or as a speaker to a community group.
Nearly every such presentation has two basic components – text and illustrations. Although both elements have long received attention in the context of the primary research article, scientific writing instruction has tended to treat these other communication channels as a relatively minor afterthought. The implicit assumption has been that oral presentations involve only minor repackaging of a written document.
In recent years, however, this assumption has been challenged by new developments that have increased the status of visual communication and given it a surprisingly powerful role to play in modern scientific exchanges. Visual materials have become easy and inexpensive to produce, and in response, people are tending to use them more. Presentation software makes it relatively straightforward to generate materials that once took hours or days to create. As a consequence, visual communication has become a basic part of almost all effective scientific presentations.
In some ways, written and spoken communications are quite similar. In other ways, they differ markedly. However, for both, the content of your message must be king and graphics must be but court attendants.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Successful Scientific WritingA Step-by-Step Guide for the Biological and Medical Sciences, pp. 204 - 220Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014