The Craft of Scientific Presentations: Critical Steps to Succeed and Critical Errors to Avoid

Alley, Michael

ISBN 10: 0387955550 / ISBN 13: 9780387955551

Published by Springer Verlag, 2007

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 0387955550-3-34716342

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Craft of Scientific Presentations: Critical Steps to Succeed and Critical Errors to Avoid
• Publisher: Springer Verlag
• Publication Date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0387955550
• ISBN 13: 9780387955551
• Binding: paperback
• Edition: 3rd Edition
• Condition: Good
• Weight: 37 ounces

About this title

Synopsis

This timely and hugely practical work provides a score of examples from contemporary and historical scientific presentations to show clearly what makes an oral presentation effective. It considers presentations made to persuade an audience to adopt some course of action (such as funding a proposal) as well as presentations made to communicate information, and it considers these from four perspectives: speech, structure, visual aids, and delivery. It also discusses computer-based projections and slide shows as well as overhead projections. In particular, it looks at ways of organizing graphics and text in projected images and of using layout and design to present the information efficiently and effectively.

From the Author

A revolution is occurring in the way that scientists and engineers are making presentations. The revolution is small, but many of the scientists and engineers breaking away from PowerPoint's default structure of a topic-phrase headline supported by bulleted points are making names for themselves: Janine Benyus, Brian Cox, Jill Bolte Taylor. This book tries to present the essence of that revolution by showing you what distinguishes the excellent scientific talks on TED.com as well as excellent presentations at scientific conferences and in technical meetings. After reading this book, you will know when to blank the screen during a scientific talk and how to empower that part of the presentation. Also, for those occasions in which you do use slides, you will create scenes that are truly for the audience, rather than the sad practice of projecting slides that simply present the speaker's notes. If you want to give a mediocre presentation, do what everybody else does. If you want to communicate your science and engineering in an understandable, memorable, and persuasive way, consider this book.