Astm mnl 54 2006

Preparing and Delivering Technical Presentations K e n n e t h G B u d i n s k i tNI~RtIATIOtr Standards Worldwide ASTM International 100 B a r r H a r b o r Drive PO Box C700 West Conshohocken, PA 19428-2959 Printed in U.S.A L i b r a r y o f Congress C a t a l o g i n g - i n - P u b l i c a t i o n D a t a Copyright 2005 ASTM International, West Conshohocken, PA All rights reserved This material may not be reproduced or copied, in whole or in part, in any printed, mechanical, electronic, film, or other distribution and storage media, without the written consent of the publisher Photocopy Rights A u t h o r i z a t i o n to p h o t o c o p y i t e m s for i n t e r n a l , p e r s o n a l , o r e d u c a t i o n a l c l a s s r o o m use, o r t h e i n t e r n a l , p e r s o n a l , o r e d u c a t i o n a l c l a s s r o o m use o f specific clients, is g r a n t e d by ASTM I n t e r n a t i o n a l (ASTM) p r o v i d e d t h a t t h e a p p r o p r i a t e fee is p a i d to t h e Copyright C l e a r a n c e Center, 222 R o s e w o o d Drive, Danvers, MA 01923; Tel: 978-750-8400; online: http:llwww.copyright.coml The Society is not responsible, as a body, for the statements and opinions advanced in this publication Printed in Mayfield, PA January 2006 Foreword THIS PUBLICATION, Preparing and Delivering Technical Presentations, was sponsored by the ASTM International Committee on Publications The author is Kenneth G Budinski, Technical Director of Bud Labs in Rochester, NY This is the first edition of Manual 54 in ASTM's manual series Contents Preface vii Cha ~ter 1: Message Strategy Cha ~ter 2: Audience Accommodation Cha ~ter 3: Researching Your Subject Cha ~ter 4: Preparing an Oral Presentation 13 Cha ~ter 5: Intellectual Property Considerations 18 Cha ~ter 6: Selecting and Preparing Visual Aids 22 Chapter 7: Delivering Your Message 33 A p p e n d i x I: Guide for Preparation of Slides 40 Appendix Ih Sample Presentation 42 A p p e n d i x Uh Presentation Checklist Things to Consider in Preparing and Delivering a Technical Presentation 56 A p p e n d i x IV: Suggestions from AV Professionals on Slide Preparation 58 Preface This manual guides students, technologists, engineers, and scientists through the process of making an oral presentation It can be used as a personal reference or as a text to teach students or employees how to make oral technical presentations It is a companion to a previous book dealing with technical writing That book devotes one chapter to oral presentations This book is completely about oral presentations It is almost certain, if you work in a technical field, that making oral presentations will be a job requirement You may only this once a year, month, or week, but whatever the frequency, your job success will be tied in some way to how well you make oral presentations An oral technical presentation "sells" your technical work, as well as yourself The problem addressed by this book is poor technical presentations I have worked in U.S industry as an engineer for more than forty years, and I cannot begin to estimate the number of "poor" technical presentations that I have squirmed through, the number of unreadable slides I have attempted to decipher, and the number of talks that have wasted my time Most of the time, the speakers had useable knowledge and information to communicate; they just "botched" the communication step The audience received little return for their time investment, and the organization received little return from the speaker's preparation time This book is written by a still-practicing engineer, and the suggestions (called rules in the text) come from personal experiences (italicized anecdotes) in giving technical presentations I have presented more than 100 papers at conferences and countless presentations in the workplace Just about all of the problems that can occur have happened to me My speaking situations range from the hallowed halls of Cambridge University to alongside an incredibly noisy factory floor tubing mill The audiences that I have encountered range from one to one thousand All of these experiences are distilled into a step-by-step procedure on how to make successful oral presentations-presentations that get your message across and achieve your objective successfully There are seven chapters in this manual, which begins with commitment and ends with the evaluation of your presentation The book addresses formal and informal presentations, including common meeting situations It starts with how to develop a presentation strategy that accommodates your message and offers something of value to the audience It tells you how to research a subject, how to prepare a presentation, how to protect intellectual property, and then how to prepare and use visual aids It ends with a chapter on delivering your message and speaking successfully in front of any size group I fervently believe this book will help anyone who reads it to become a better communicator K e n n e t h G B u d i n s k i Technical Director, B u d Labs Rochester, N e w York MNL54-EB/Jan 2005 Message Strategy Goals: To understand how to develop a message strategy To understand how to use this strategy to develop a presentation There are many situations that lead to an oral presentation, but once you commit to making a presentation, the first step that you need to take is to develop your presentation strategy The presentation situation sometimes can serve as the foundation of your presentation strategy For example, if you were asked by your supervisor to give a talk to the department on the proper use of material safety data sheets, you immediately know the objective (proper use of these sheets by department members), and you know the audience All talks start with the five "Ws": what, who, why, where, when The "what" is safety data sheets; the "who" is the department; the "why" is because the boss asked you; and the "where" and "when" can be arranged If the situation is that you agreed to make a presentation to a technical society in your field of expertise, the five "Ws" are quite different You need to determine the "whom." You must ask the person who invited you to speak to estimate the size of the audience, their probable backgrounds (e.g., mostly engineers, mostly students, mostly government employees, mostly factory workers, etc.) You must know to whom you will be talking You must decide what information you want to convey You must have a goal for your talk to this group (why), and of course, you must learn the date, time, and location of the talk as well as the audio/visual (AV) facilities that are available On the other extreme is a talk to your work/school team The who, where, and when are known, and you only need to develop what and why In summary, a strategy needs to be developed for a talk It sets the scope and provides the focus It is as necessary as the strategy of a general going into battle This chapter will discuss the five "Ws" and other elements of strategy, such as expectations, scope, length, follow-up, acknowledgments, and other talk details that need to be addressed early in the development stage If you are making a presentation to concerned citizens on a highway relocation, you need to define every technical term that you use and slant the talk to answer perceived concerns A technical talk at a technical society meeting requires research to determine the background of the audience If many attendees work in the steel industry, your talk should be a topic that will interest "steel people." If you are talking to co-workers, you will know what needs to be explained and what does not Talking with managers is like talking to the general public Many technical managers in the U.S have no technical training Human Resource (HR) or financial people head most hospitals in the U.S., and similarly, engineers no longer call the shots in manufacturing You must explain everything in terms that even those without technical training will understand RULE: Establish the "composition" o f your audience Why Some public speaking texts may have a different order for their "Ws," but I suggest you establish "why" very clearly, maybe even before "who." All of our actions have motivations We eat to stay alive; we exercise to make our bodies attractive; we study to gain knowledge, and knowledge leads to wealth, at least theoretically Ask yourself why you agreed to give a talk Will you get paid? Will it help your career in some way? Are you doing it to make sales contacts? Are you trying to mentor young engineers? Think about your motives why you are giving a talk and make sure that the talk addresses this motivation [I agreed to give a talk to a chapter of a technical society in a nearby city because it would help publicize my company in that city I gave a talk at a European Community Conference in Portugal last month to assess market conditions for my company in Europe.] Who RULE: Just as knowing the readership of a document determines how it is written, the intended audience determines what the talk will look and sound like Audiences for talks fall into different categories Decide what y o u expect to h a p p e n as the result of your talkmthis is the "why." What Audience General public Peers Co-workers Managers Speaking Approach Only need to explain parochial terms Explain all in simple terms Do not need to explain most terms Explain all in simple terms Copyright9 2005 by ASTM International Now that you know to whom you are talking and why, you must decide on what you are going to say I will have a later chapter on how to write a talk, but at this point you at least need to establish the subject and possibly the title It is usually mutually beneficial to discuss subjects and titles with the person requiring a talk You need to select a subject that will www.astm.org be of interest to the p e o p l e w h o are likely to a t t e n d y o u r presentation W h e n you are asked to give a status r e p o r t to m a n a g e r s on y o u r m a j o r p r o g r a m , the subject is essentially assigned Similarly, the w h a t is "assigned" in a talk to allay fears of the general p u b l i c to a highway's relocation Talks to co-workers are often assigned, b u t if, for example, you are asked to share w h a t y o u are w o r k i n g on with y o u r co-workers, y o u will have to t h i n k a b o u t w h a t w o u l d p r o d u c e the m o s t value in sharing RULE: vest significant effort You m a y b e talking to a s c a n t audience Similarly, a c o l l o q u i u m to g r a d u a t e students on a Monday after s p r i n g b r e a k is likely to be p o o r l y attended This does n o t m e a n that the talk can be sloppily p r e p a r e d , b u t you m a y w a n t to be less f o r m a l for a small group A small g r o u p even opens the possibility of using d e m o n s t r a t i o n s a n d s a m p l e s that are difficult with big groups [I once gave a talk in a city that I had never visited before and was surprised to learn that this city had a festival that started the day o f my talk The festival drew over a million people, and all roads out o f the d o w n t o w n area where I was staying were closed to traffic for a parade Needless to say, I had to stay over and change my travel plans ] What you say should reflect value to the audience RULE: You n o t w a n t to tell y o u r co-workers o r a n y b o d y else s o m e t h i n g that they a l r e a d y know All a u d i e n c e s w a n t n e w stuff Re-runs will b o r e y o u r a u d i e n c e a n d reflect negatively on you a n d y o u r talk objective Consider all of the ramifications of w h e n a talk is scheduled Expectations Where There is n o t h i n g w o r s e t h a n having fifty p e o p l e s h o w u p for a talk in a m e e t i n g r o o m t h a t holds twenty (except m a y b e showing u p w i t h a tray full of slides o r CDs for a technical talk w h e r e the a u d i e n c e is at three tables in a huge restaur a n t hall c o n t a i n i n g fifty tables of couples eating o u t a n d groups celebrating occasions) Equally unnerving is giving a talk in a cavernous r o o m that seats 500, with only six p e o p l e showing u p for the conference If you k n o w w h e r e the talk will be, y o u can design it to fit the situation If I h a d k n o w n that I w o u l d be giving a talk to three tables of p e o p l e in a noisy public restaurant, I certainly w o u l d n o t have p r e p a r e d slides I w o u l d have given a talk w i t h o u t the use of visual aids There is not m u c h that you c a n a b o u t i n a p p r o p r i a t e r o o m sizes at a conference They are a l r e a d y assigned, a n d size is b a s e d u p o n the organizers' p e r c e p t i o n of relative interest in a p a r t i c u l a r subject However, you often c a n c o n t r o l "where" in y o u r organization Make sure that the r o o m is adequate, a n d k n o w w h a t AV facilities will be available to you Most technical talks need visual aids By t h e i r nature, they convey i n f o r m a t i o n , data, a n d ideas Your talk strategy s h o u l d include the type of visual aids that you will use We m e n t i o n e d y o u r "why." This is y o u r expectation You expect to get a "reward" in s o m e fashion from y o u r p r e s e n t a tion, b u t there is a n o t h e r a s p e c t to the expectations associated with a p r e s e n t a t i o n W h a t y o u expect y o u r a u d i e n c e to get from y o u r p r e s e n t a t i o n ? If y o u r p r e s e n t a t i o n is to a technical society, you m a y have an expectation that the audience walks a w a y with the three key factors that control w e a r of steel m e t a l f o r m i n g tools If y o u are talking to y o u r c o m p a n y m a n a g e r s a b o u t a p r o p o s e d r e s e a r c h project, y o u r expectation m a y be approval of $110,000 to fund the work The expectation of a status r e p o r t to t e a m m e m b e r s m a y be that they realize that y o u r p a r t of the project is suffering b e c a u s e of p r o c r a s t i n a t i o n on the p a r t of o t h e r t e a m m e m bers a n d y o u w a n t t h e m to "get o n the stick" a n d develop a proactive role W h a t e v e r the situation, you need to establish the e x p e c t a t i o n t h a t y o u have for the a u d i e n c e as well as yourself RULE: Establish your presentation expectations What will they walk away with? What you want to happen? Presentation Length RULE: Know as m u c h as possible about the location and AV capability o f the talk location before you start talk preparation When The time of a p r e s e n t a t i o n is always a strategy factor S o m e times y o u m a y be asked to give a l u n c h t i m e p r e s e n t a t i o n This m e a n s a s h o r t talk of l i m i t e d scope If you are talking to the general p u b l i c a b o u t the h i g h w a y r e l o c a t i o n at a high school at 3:00 in the afternoon, the a u d i e n c e is likely to be m u c h different t h a n the a u d i e n c e at the s a m e high school at 8:00 in the evening Technical m e e t i n g s on M o n d a y night in the U.S d u r i n g football season need to be brief Do not in- All p r e s e n t a t i o n s need a n end The U.S Congress is the only o r g a n i z a t i o n I k n o w t h a t allows speakers to talk until the a u d i e n c e d i s a p p e a r s o r forgets w h a t they were a b o u t to vote o n - - a filibuster S o m e very wise person, m a y b e m a n y centuries ago, invented the bell to e n d a teacher's lecture [Thank you.] Everyone has e n c o u n t e r e d teachers that w o u l d go on for an eternity if allowed Lecture timelines stop filibusters in college Even if you are the b e s t s p e a k e r in the w o r l d a n d the u l t i m a t e a u t h o r i t y on a subject, p e o p l e can only a b s o r b w h a t the seat can endure Oral p r e s e n t a t i o n s n e e d to be concise They are n o t i n t e n d e d to s h o w h o w m u c h you k n o w a b o u t a subject o r h o w m u c h you did They s h o u l d be a n a b s t r a c t of w h a t you k n o w o r did a n d be i n t e n d e d to give the a u d i e n c e s o m e useful nuggets to walk a w a y with S o m e r e a s o n a b l e p r e s e n t a t i o n lengths are: Situation Audience Course lecture Technical society dinner meeting Project proposal Students Other technical Status report Team people Managers Safety talk Co-workers Conference Peers Appropriate Length hour 30 minutes plus 10 minutes for questions 20 minutes plus 10 minutes for questions 10 minutes plus minutes for questions 10 minutes including questions Set by conference-usually 20 Project public meeting General public minutes plus minutes for questions 30 minutes and time to answer all questions P r e s e n t a t i o n length is a key p a r t of the p r e s e n t a t i o n strategy One of the m o s t c o m m o n failures in p u b l i c speaking is exceeding a r e a s o n a b l e o r allotted time If y o u exceed thirty m i n u t e s in a d i n n e r m e e t i n g talk, the a u d i e n c e m a y leave o r fall asleep If y o u exceed y o u r t i m e limit at a conference, y o u will convey a negative i m p r e s s i o n of yourself You k n o w t h a t y o u were given twenty m i n u t e s to speak; the a u d i e n c e w a n t s y o u to keep to y o u r allotted t i m e b e c a u s e they often have c o n c u r r e n t sessions, a n d this only w o r k s if everybody observes the schedule There is a negative effect of talking too long for all of the p r e c e d i n g situations Too s h o r t a p r e s e n t a t i o n c a n also have a negative effect We have all b e e n in situations w h e r e a p e r s o n d i d n o t adequately cover the a d v e r t i s e d subject We w a l k a w a y m u m bling that we d i d not l e a r n anything RULE: An oral presentation must have the right length for the situation: not too brief, not a tome Media Usually, the s i t u a t i o n of a n oral p r e s e n t a t i o n will d e t e r m i n e what, if any, visual aids you c a n use If y o u are giving a c o m m e n c e m e n t speech, it is t r a d i t i o n a l to it u n a i d e d You p r o b a b l y c a n only use voice inflections, h a n d gestures, a n d b o d y l a n g u a g e to s u p p o r t y o u r t h e s i s - - n o g r a p h s a n d tables M o s t technical p e o p l e [myself included] rely heavily on overh e a d a n d video projectors, c h a l k b o a r d s a n d the like in m a k ing oral presentations Technical fields subsist on facts a n d data It is n a t u r a l a n d p r o p e r to use visual aids in a presentation However, y o u need to m a k e visual aids a c o n s i d e r a tion in y o u r talk strategy Can y o u use visual aids? Are there s o m e that c a n n o t be used? Will they b e n e e d e d ? We m e n t i o n e d that visual aids are n o t u s e d for a c o m m e n c e m e n t talk o r a w a r d ceremony They are u s u a l l y n o t a p p r o p r i a t e for a face-to-face p r e s e n t a t i o n to the d i r e c t o r of engineering A p r o t o t y p e p a r t w o u l d be a p p r o p r i a t e , b u t n o t a slide talk S o m e s i t u a t i o n s p r e c l u d e the use of s o m e visual aids If the r o o m w h e r e the p r e s e n t a t i o n will be given does n o t have a video projector, a n d you n o t have access to one, a c o m p u t e r - g e n e r a t e d slide s h o w w o u l d be e l i m i n a t e d for use in m a k i n g visual aids [When I taught college evening courses, I knew that the only media available were a chalkboard and an overhead projector All lectures were prepared with this in mind.] Finally, y o u need visual aids? Do n o t use t h e m unless they a d d value That is the a n s w e r to the above questions If you claim that seal failures o n h y d r a u l i c a s s e m b l y m a c h i n e s are the biggest cause of m a c h i n e downs, y o u s h o u l d have d a t a to s u p p o r t this claim Your a u d i e n c e will w a n t to see a g r a p h o r a n o t h e r g r a p h i c that shows t h a t seal failures a r e w o r s e t h a n all o t h e r p r o b l e m s In this case, a visual a i d gives credibility to y o u r thesis On the o t h e r hand, if you are talking with c o - w o r k e r s a n d they all k n o w w h a t the seals look like, it is a w a s t e of their t i m e to show t h e m a slide of one o r to p a s s one a r o u n d I RULE: Determine whether it is possible to use visual aids RULE: D e c i d e on appropriate v i s u a l a i d s a s part of a t a l k strategy RULE: Do n o t u s e ~suM ~ d s u n l e s s ~ e y a d d v M u e Handouts S o m e conferences r e q u i r e that you h a n d o u t a copy of y o u r paper, a b s t r a c t o r even copies o f y o u r slides at a talk [Avoid handing out material before a talk because people tend to read the handout rather than pay attention to you.] E v a l u a t i o n f o r m s are s o m e t i m e s r e q u i r e d after a talk S o m e t e c h n i c a l societies h a n d o u t question forms, a n d only w r i t t e n questions are fielded b y the speaker In a n y case, h a n d o u t s s h o u l d be a c o n s i d e r a t i o n in establishing a p r e s e n t a t i o n strategy If you were m a k i n g a p r e s e n t a t i o n to m a n a g e m e n t for p r o j e c t funding, a n a p p r o p r i a t e h a n d o u t (after the talk) w o u l d be a c o p y of the w r i t t e n p r o p o s a l Of course, this m e a n s that you m u s t have a w r i t t e n p r o p o s a l on hand If y o u not, then the p r e s e n t a t i o n strategy m u s t include a w a y to d i s t r i b u t e the a p p r o p r i a t e h a n d o u t RULE: [ Make "handout or not" part of presentation strategy Summary Before you get into any of the specific details of an oral presentation, you need to develop a presentation strategy You need to ask the five "Ws": "Who," "Why," "What," "Where," "When." You need to establish the talk expectations for yourself and the audience, and you need to start thinking about details like talk length, visual aids, and handouts As an example, the following is a strategy on a talk that I want to present at an international conference that is held every few years at a university in England I just received the call for papers, and I only know at this point that I would like to write a paper to lay to rest negative comments that I received on an abrasion test that I developed and proposed as an international standard I have used the test for more than ten years on hundreds of abrasion problems, and I know that it works Who The audience will be international researchers in friction and wear Based upon two previous conferences that I attended, the makeup will be mostly European, between 100 and 200 people, with a significant student attendance, because it is held at a very large university with technical activity in subject areas Why I want to establish the credibility of the test, get the standard approved, and possibly sell some test machines or testing for others in this area My primary motivation is test acceptance The business aspects are secondary What I not know the title of the talk, but I want to answer the following questions: Is abrasion by less than virgin sandpaper still abrasion, or is it something else? I received negative votes on my test proposal from researchers who claimed that abrasion no longer exists once sandpaper is rubbed This study will resolve the issue Where A small college within the university will be the conference site The lecture room, the last time that I attended, was a well-equipped amphitheater with tiered seats for about 300 people When The conference is scheduled for October of next year with abstracts due in three months This means that I have less than three months to obtain the test data Expectation I expect to convince the international community that an abrasion test using sandpaper that is run over more than one time still abrades The conference proceedings will be published and archived Ultimately, I want the test standard to be approved Length The last conference in this series limited the oral presentations to fifteen minutes, plus five minutes for questions I will plan according to this Media I will use a computer slide show I will only need to carry a CD I will also bring overheads in case there are computer compatibility glitches Handouts I hope that they will not ask for one If they do, I will give them an abstract or extended abstract General Since I sent my abrasion test machine to another laboratory for evaluation, I may ask them to collaborate on this paper I will send an e-mail and assess their feelings about collaboration This is the strategy that I developed for a yet-to-be written paper on yet-to-be completed work This is my proposed way of developing a strategy for a message that ! want to deliver to others P u r ose of P r o ' e c t Develop a test to screen ball bearings for low friction Bud LBbs~ Fig Purpose slide O b ' e c t i v e of Pa er To promote an international standard for friction testing of rolling element bearings Bud LabsS Fig Objective slide Tested only small diameter bearings (