Hints for Making a Good Presentation in CS210

By Anthony Cozzie

Intro

This is a quick guide to avoiding the common presentation errors I observed after being a TA for CS210. The intention is to be short and sweet with a high bang for the buck. Of course, no one is forcing you to do a Quality presentation, but I think that CS210 is an excellent chance to practice public speaking skills. It is quite likely you will give a presentation at some point in the future, and that most probably you will be presenting to MBAs who are technically incompetent but nonetheless control your finances. They won't be able to understand the difference between Java references and C++ pointers and the tradeoffs involved, but they will be able to judge your public speaking skills. Most of the mistakes I have seen fall under five categories: poor or missing introductions, bad topics, choppy talks, obscene slides, or basic public speaking errors.

Have a good introduction

Your introduction should accomplish three things: explain the relevance of the topic, be humorous and grab the attention of the audience, and give an overview of what is to come, not necessarily in that order.

Bad: I'm John Q. Nerd and I'm going to talk about addiction to computer games. World of Warcraft is one of the most addicting computer games. Another one is Everquest ...

Good: I'm John Q. Nerd and I'm here to talk about addiction to computer games. Some of you may laugh, but in the throes of computer game addiction people do a lot of crazy things, from going to class without a shower to dying on the spot after a 72 hour Starcraft orgy. I'm going to go over why these games are so addictive, some of the more interesting examples of computer game addiction, and wrap up with the ethics: what, if anything, should be done about this. Now exhibit A is World of Warcraft, which has the dubious honor of setting a new bar for addictive computer games ...

Choose a reasonable topic

Generally speaking you want to choose a small topic rather than a broad one. 10 minutes is not enough time to talk about "Computer Ethics" or "Intellectual Property". In addition, if you focus on depth rather than breadth you are more likely to say something your listeners have not heard before, thus making you interesting. There is a reason liberal arts PhD candidates write theses like "The effects of railway development on late 19th century suburban Chicago theatre". Many topics that seem small become more complicated on further examination. Try to pick something you are interested in. CS210 has a fairly broad scope; you should be able to find something close to home, and your audience can tell whether or not you think your topic is interesting. Lastly, make sure you give a good general description of your topic. There are almost certainly at least a few people in the class that have never heard of this before, and that group might very well include your professor or TA.

Make your talk flow smoothly

This means including transitions, editing your talk so that the subtopics come up the right order, and making sure to keep subtopics together. Your talk should be a discussion on a theme, and you should make us see how each subpoint relates to the whole.

Bad: Amazon's 1-click patent is just an example of the outrageous patents granted by the USPTO. Patents have a chilling effect on new development: it costs a great deal of money to check the patent literature and make sure new code does not infringe on thousands of vague, poorly written patents.

Good: Amazon's 1-click patent is just an example of the outrageous patents granted by the USPTO. Making the situation even worse, the high cost of patent applications and checks means that most patents are owned by corporations rather than individuals. This has a chilling effect on small companies and individuals; it costs a great deal of money to check the patent literature and make sure new code does not infringe on thousands of vague, poorly written patents.

The first jumps from one topic to another; the second flows smoothly and relates both topics to a theme: that software patents hurt individuals more than large companies (whether or not this is actually true is beside the point).

Slides

Be professional. You know what professional is. You want the message of the talk to get through, and not have your listeners distracted by 20 square feet of flashing neon green.

No ugly colors. When in doubt, don't use mauve
No random color changes, e.g. a blue background for slide 5 and a red one for slide 6
No massive enumeration slides, e.g. the 10 parts of the ACM code of ethics--use one slide to highlight three of the parts.
No empty slides, with 2 lines of tiny text
No crazy fonts or random font size changes
Pictures and clip are are always good
When you give statistics, give references, e.g. see Wikipedia
When in doubt, be boring in the slide department. Boring is professional. Or elegant.

Public Speaking

The key to speaking well in public is to rehearse. Rehearsal conditions you to do the right things even when your conscious mind is freaking out. LeBron James has to practice his 3-point shot; you have to practice your talk. Once is more or less mandatory, and two or three times is probably better. Time your rehearsal so you know your talk won't be too short (the number one way to lose points).

If you rehearse properly, you shouldn't need notecards or, worse, a fully typed out speech. Knowing your talk will make you seem more natural.

Try to avoid the classic presentation errors like fidgeting, reading off the slides, chewing gum, etc.