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This Saturday I have to give a presentation on my dissertation to a panel of Doctors and Professors.

Now this presentation will last 20 minutes followed by ten minutes of questons from the panel.

I have a few questions on the presentation. I will tell you what I think, you tell me whether its a good idea or not.

I plan to use powerpoint, not much more than 8 Slides (1 slide for each chapter and an introductary slide) Now for a 20 minute presentation you might think "Thats not many" I counter this with the argument that in my experience of giving presentations less is more. If you throw loads of slides at people they wont listen to what your saying and instead read the slides, this has always been what happens when im viewing presentations.

I will try and speak for 20 minutes, with some notes in front of me however in general I will know what im talking about so I can just keep eye contact with the audience. I might crack a joke or two but this can be done on the spot.

Secondly I plan to where a suit. Now this might be a bit too formal, however the panel may appreciate my "proffesionalism" on the day so I doubt it would get me many marks but would be a change from looking a scruff.

Finally im not looking forward to it at all. They have been very vague on what I have to say however im sure I can pull it off.

For those who are interested my dissertation is on the conflict between Russia and Japan over the Kurile Islands. The tile is "Kurile Islands: A conflict with no resolution?"

Anyway advice/ideas/tips?

<3

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make sure you have good coffee for them.

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Tons varying from job interviews through to seminar/lecture presentations mainly in the field of Politics and Law

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Don't just read out stuff, graphs and pictures are good if you can explain them

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They all sound like reasonably good ideas. Make sure everything is correctly typed and so forth, and ignore making mistakes like when you "where" a suit.

I'd also try and enjoy the experience. Nothing is more unpleasant than watching someone give a presentation where the speaker clearly doesn't want to be there. If you're relaxed then your audience will relax and even if you make mistakes it won't matter as much.

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yep all good advice, ill get someone else to proof read it so i dont make twatish mistakes like the one you pointed out ;o

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u shld txt ppl more & gd luk

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Turn up wearing a Soviet military uniform.



edit: powerpoint is for worthless corporate faggots so good job on keeping the slides to a minimum. Make sure not to include any animations or transitions though.

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You have to do a presentation on your dissertation?

Pray tell why?

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Some people do.

shrug.

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Yeah don't have any wooshing in animations or anything. Keep it to "Appear on mouseclick" - although I'd hope you know that already.

Another obvious point would be to practice through again and again until you can get it word perfect. It'll make you a lot more confident on the day.

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If I wanted them to read 30 slides about my disseration I might as well hand them my dissertation to read. Its a known fact that the more slides you have the less people concentrate. Next time you go to a lecture be at university or somewhere else go to one where there is powerpoint and one where there is none. I always get the most out of the ones where there is none as im actually listening to what is being said rather than c/p and reading the powerpoint.

My feelings exactly, the slides themselves wont consist of much more than 5 bullet points a page and will be nice and simple.

Gay animations are shite and ye appear on mouseclick ftw

Im going to try and sneak into the lecture theatre on friday night and practice it there, first of all to get a feel for the place and to feel comfortable, also to make sure my voice is loud enough.

Well each student has to give a presentation on there specialist dissertation to a panel of academia and in the know people. Im kind of buggered here because my panel is somewhat of a tough cookie though on it is...

- The Head of the Department of Politics at the University of Kent (Professor) - His Speciality is Russian and Eastern European Politics
- Lecturer at the University of Kent (DR) - Her Speciality is Japanese Politics
- Lecturer at the University of Kent (DR) - Her Speciality is European Politics
- Lecturer at the University of Kent (Professor) - His Speciality is Conflict Studies

Then just to throw in a whole more probelms for me, they have invited someone from the Russian Embassy and someone from the Japanese Embassy. So should be an interesting Presentation, either I highly offend someone with my views or Russia phones up Putin, Japan phones up Koizumi and im rushed off to Tokyo and Moscow for diplomatic talks.

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give then some money and everything will be smooth
:D

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Heh, I doubt that.

On your printed notes : I suggest a 2.5 spacing between lines with very short paragraphs. This is the 'style' people use for press conferences or speeches; it is much easier to read for you and you may take pauses whenever you wish and still make it sound very coherent.

Relax, either drink a lot of coffee or don't drink some at all (to wake you up and make sure you don't yawn). Seem awake and interested in the subject. Walk around slowly, look confident. Use your hands. Go to the bathroom prior.

Speak loudly but do not yell. Emphasis on keywords with jestures. You are the medium, make it interesting for other people to get this information from this medium.

If anything, know it's important, but don't be intimidated. Who cares who's there. Just be like they're normal people interested in hearing what you think. Honestly, strip them down of their Ph.D and that's all they are.

Best of luck.

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Definitivly stick with the dressing nice plan then.

Russians, and afaik Japanse, don't have the same innate distrust of people trying to appear professional (ie; suck-ups) as alot of people here do.

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I don't have an issue with public speaking at all - I find it a bit weird when people give tips and stuff on it. It's all stuff I just do naturally :confused:

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I find it quite easy, but others get really nervous. Or they just stumble on every other word saying 'uh... uhh...'
Depends on the person.

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Why hello there Captain Arrogant!

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Make sure you do not have too much text on your slides. You want them to listen to what you say, not have to concentrate on reading slides. If you have statistics, do not go into too much details, it gets boring. a nice graph makes up for that 10x.

you should have more slides, 8 slides will most likely mean there will be too much on them. 15ish or so would be normal

Do not have a bunch of a4 paper with your notes, you will end up rustling them + you hands will appear to be shaking alot. have small cards 1/4 of an a4 sheet in size or smaller and make sure u have a font size you can read easily (talking from personal experience here, hehe).

Good luck:)

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iirc, that's his reason for not having too many slides.

I might be wrong, however.

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Having a fair amount of slides is usually ok, as long as there isnt huge chunks of text on them. huge chunks of text means they have to concentrate on reading it, which prevents them from listening to you. having a few more slides, but less text on them is better imho and is what Ive been told by all my psych professors

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Listen to them, and you will be indoctrinated, baha.

Power point is for sissies though. Nothing beats chalk and a black board.

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hehe, do not see that happening. I have certain "authority problems" :p

No can do, as even I have problems reading my handwriting:D

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Whats the title of your disseratation?

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you're an asset to this forum

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pigs going to start ww3 \o/

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There's two letters in that sentence that you could have left out.

He who finds and quotes accordingly gets a personalised Millie's cookie.

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I recall giving you advice on this ages ago. I hope you listened to me. If you didn't your presentation is probably terrible and you should kill yourself now and avoid the embarrassment of turning up tomorrow dressed like a twat with a mind-numbingly boring dissertation on a mind-numbingly boring topic. On the plus side you could try throwing in some sanskrit catchphrases to distract from your appallingly dull efforts. That's always a good move. Do you know what another good move is? Leaving Birmingham. Anyways good luck and I hope the whole judging committee catches cancer tomorrow before your presentation.











For their sake, not yours.

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Wear a blue suit, and only one piece of jewelry.

Whatever you do, DON'T wear brown. It's considered dishonest by employers.

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Put together a cheat sheet that you can use during your presentation so you don't forget any important info, have a good night's sleep, shower, shave, have some breakfast and a cup of strong, black coffee (or tea, whatever you prefer), and most importantly, pump and dump in the bathroom first before you start.

For your PP show, only post quantitative facts, stats, graphs, etc. on your slides. Minimal slides are a good idea, and like everyone's saying, stay away from animated slides. If you have time, have hard copies of your slides, staple them together and give them away to your audience. By doing this, they become psychologically obligated to "participate" in your presentation by having something to look at, even if they are the exact copies of your slides.

Finally, repeat to your audience every question that's asked by anybody on your Q&A portion of your presentation.

Good luck!

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1. Make sure you know why your there
2. Make sure you know why they are there

3. Make sure they know why you are there
4. Make sure they know why they are there

5. Make sure you know your topic

As long as your not wasting anyones time, and you know your stuff, you'll be fine. Powerpoint, sharp suits and all that are all fine and good, but without the above points you'll just be turd polishing.

Every bad presentation I've been to has been lacking in some way in one of the above points. Get them things right and most other stuff will fall into place from there.

Thats my thoughts on presentations

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So what will your point be, your conclusion?

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One assumes that it'll be:

"... and so Ladies and Gentlemen in conclusion both Japanese birds and Russian birds are easy."

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Oh the Japanese will be there. I change what I said....

1. Make sure you mutter a lot, profusely apologise about ever even being there, and say sorry a lot
2. Make sure theres nameplates at every seat
3. Don't really come to any conclusion, but make sure you have a strong schedule! Even if this schedule is nonsense, you must have it, and it must be carried out and not deviated from
4. Don't interact with the audience, and avoid any situation that may require some kind of spontaneous thought
5. Go out and get pissed afterwards and talk about the stuff that most people would be capable of discussing sober....

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My conclusion will be that while japan has a strong claim to the islands it would be rediculous for russia to give them up for several reasons:

Firstly russia occupies them and japan doesnt.
Secondly if russia gives in to japan other places in Russia will start seeking independence politcally for russia it could be disaster.
Japan has no natural resources, russia has a job lot, its in japans interest to build strong ties with russia as then russia can pipe oil/gas to japan.
Japan already milks the kuriles (ie fishing) having the kuriles is not going to add anything to japan apart from pride.
Finally japan is supposed to be a pacifist country, pursuing agressive diplomatic foreign policy over a group of worthless islands is not in its interest, if it wants to truly become a leader of Asia it doesnt need just the EU and USA on its side, it needs Russia, with Russia on its side it can compete at the highest level with china.

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This is the finest of your arguments. A truly good and rational one.

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As long as you fit one slide in the middle of them all that flashes up for one second, of your head superimposed on a naked woman's body, your presenatation will go swimmingly.

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I never time talks beforehand, but a good rule of thumb is 2 minutes per slide, and make one main point, or at the most two, per slide. don't bother with any flashy crap. things whipping round the screen wastes time and is not informative. It can be useful if you are presenting to a bunch of venture capitalists whose money you want, since they are impressed by that sort of thing, but it won't cut any ice with professors.

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And we all know where you got that idea from ;)

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"you're an ass to this forum" ?

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no you are


Everyone knows skiddy meant "you're an asset to his form"

Duh

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**************Update*******************

So I took your advice with the presentation, I was on at 3:30pm. So I arrived at about 2:45pm. I sat down, had a cup of tea and listened to my music. I then went out had a couple of cigarettes and came in at about 3:10 to wait to be called.

3.30pm on the dot I went in and gave my presentation.

The presentation went as follows. A brief introduction by the chair of the panel and then I was up.

My powerpoint slides were classy yet simple. Easy on the eye and no stupid backgrounds/animations.

I introduced myself and thanked them for coming I then made a joke ;o

The joke was

"I know what you are thinking as far as my presnetation is concerned, its the tie isnt it....*pause*....My girlfriend picked it for me, sorry!"

Everyone chuckled and smiled, apart from the Russian bloke who appeared to piss himself in laughter, really heavy laughs.

It was quite interesting the rest of the presentation, I was quite free flowing, didnt look at my notes too much, smiled, eye contact etc, and suprisingly I knew my lines. I made a few comments and kept within my time limit.

I then had questions and in one of them I was asked "how important are the islands to the japanese" I talked about the sovereign state of Japan etc, Japanese pride blah blah blah. I then said plus I hear the Japanese people are partial to some fish" I then turned to the guy from the embassy and said "is that true?" he laughed and said "oh yes, we love our fish" followed by some laughter in the audience.

The guy who was marking it had a beaming smile by the end of the presentation and shook my hand and said well done.

Also everyone asked for a copy of my notes which is :up:

So I think it went ok (apart from the corny jokes)

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Well done mate - glad it went well :)

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bloody impressive.

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Well done dude.

I knew you had it in you.

EDIT: You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to pig again.


Bugger. Here's some love <3

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I would have given you some advice, except that a) you'd already done the presentation by the time I read this, and b) my experience is limited to science-based presentations, for which I can only assume the 'rules' are very different, cos not a lot of the stuff people have said makes a lot of sense.

In conclusion, glad to hear it went well. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside to see someone actually caring this much about their study.

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JCIC?