So after handing in my Canadian Politics term paper, I got an email from the prof. He said the paper was well-researched, balanced and effectively written, so he’d like me to present it at an annual multi-disciplinary student conference on the topic.
How do these things generally work? Will I just be reading and defending the paper? Are the presented papers generally bound? What should I know about presenting?
Simply reading papers is rarely done (and somewhat frowned upon, I believe.) It’s sort of like having a teacher simply read from a textbook rather than doing an actual lecture.
Speakers usually prepare a lecture based on the paper, adjusting it to the time slot alotted or perhaps fighting for more or less time as needed. The overwhelming majority of talks I’ve seen in the sciences used an overhead projector w/prepared graphics or photos along with the lecture, or perhaps a tray of slides. In recent years Powerpoint (etc.) has taken over, so occasionally people add crude animation or video clips to the standard “overhead projectorlike” fare.
Of course this may be different at a non-science conference where there are no appropriate graphs, equations, photos, etc.
If you were a teacher and had to give an undergraduate lecture in a big hall, with the lecture based on your paper, what would you present? If you would usually use a whiteboard, you might want to use an overhead with colored markers instead.
Ask the professor. Every profession has its own standards. Philosophers read their papers; mathematicians give an informal presentation accompanied by either the blackboard (best) overheads (ok) or power point (invariably a disaster); linguists use overheads and hand out copies of them to the audience; and computer scientists use transparencies or power point. These are the four kinds I have seen, so for poly sci you should find out.
Since it’s a multi-disciplinary conference, the organizers may well have their own set of rules that differ from the standard political science conference (and your prof may not know about it). See if you can find information about the conference on the web. There ought to be posted all the information you need about submitting an abstract or paper, the length of the presentation, and what audiovisual equipment is available for the speakers’ use.
Based upon my experiences at a variety of professional conferences (geology and archaeology), I can tell you that expectations for the speakers can vary considerably. Some general suggestions I’d have about how to frame your presentation:
[ul]
[li] If at all possible, AVOID the use of overhead projectors. All too often the equipment has been much abused and the projection onto a large screen can be distorted or difficult to view from the back of a large-ish room.[/li]
[li] If you must use an overheard projector, use dark text and lines on a light-colored background (not white) - it will be easier to read. Conversely, if you are preparing slides or a PowerPoint presentation, use a darker background and light colored text for ease of viewing. [/li]
[li] Please do not use transparencies with hand-written notes - it looks like you were unprepared for your talk and working on it till the last minute. (Yes I have seen distinguished profs do it but you shouldn’t pick up their bad habits.)[/li]
[li] For text slides, list only key points that you can then explain further to the audience. Do this for two reasons: 1) Less text makes it easier for the audience to absorb, and you can make the type larger for better visibility; and 2) There is nothing more annoying than a speaker who is constantly twisted around at the podium, simply reading text off the slide - it adds nothing to the audience experience, and makes you look unsure of what you’re discussing.[/li]
[li] Try not to go through more than an average of 1 slide (or pair of slides for a double-screen presentation) per 45 seconds (e.g., a 12-minute talk should have about 16 slides). Give the audience time to absorb what you’re showing them.[/li]
[li] Do try to look around the audience while you speak (if you’re a nervous speaker, try looking just above people’s heads). Looking at the audience rather than constantly at your slides, or down at notes, projects a sense of confidence in your subject matter.[/li]
[li] It’s good to practice your talk beforehand, especially in front of your fellow students - they can point out any potential problems with your presentation in a friendly setting.[/li][/ul]
Conferences can be a lot of fun if you’re prepared. Congrats and enjoy the experience!
You might want to open with a joke…
County, I personally prefer to end with a joke instead. Well, not really a joke, like “2 rabbis and a unicorn go into a bar,” just a closing laugh related to the subject matter. It also helps to inject a little humor/levity throughout. The obligation to successfully pull off an opening “joke” ratchets up the nervousness, IMO.
If you want to observe a variety of presentation styles to learn good (steal 'em) and bad (avoid 'em) practices, watch the C-SPAN channel(s) every now and then.
Find a professional speech-coach. Seriously. This ain’t the Freshman Speech-Comp that many people took in college. It’s worth a session or two. Additionally, there will be a media component and you need to think about that.
You will be wearing a wireless mike, or speaking into a podium with fixed mike. Either way, find a way to do your presentation beforehand in rehearsal WITH that equipment on hand. You will sound different, you need to know what’s coming.
If you can rehearse the presentation, just as it will occur that night, then you will get past performance jitters, and people will listen to your words, not listen to you phumpher, stammer and halt your way through your well-written piece.
Good luck !
Cartooniverse
Make sure you don’t run over the alloted time. Practice to make sure you can get the talk done in the time they give you. They will not let you go over by even 1 minute in most cases. If they let everyone go over the limit the conference would go on way too long so they are strict about time.
I would like to point out that many of sunfish’s points are the exact opposite of what someone in my field would do. Exact opposite.
As earlier posters made clear, it really does depend on the field, etc.
Ask the prof, ask the prof, ask the prof.
Just out of curiosity, ftg, what field are you in? I did say that Ace309 should check the rules for the conference - and frankly, these may well supercede anything the prof has to say, given that it isn’t just a poli-sci meeting.
Apart from that, most of my points (outside of the overhead vs. slide business) have to do with the graphics style of presentation, and how to best convey info to the audience. What exactly opposite things would you do? 
It is not just a question of reading the rules of the conference; the unwritten rules that everyone in the discipline already knows are the important ones, as I tried to explain in my earlier reply.
And for me, I totally disagree about handwritten notes on overheads. In fact, the best overheads I have ever seen are hand-drawn, with arrows and comments in varied colors. And 16 slides in 12 minutes would have my head spinning. More like 6 slides or even fewer. I have given 50 minute talks with no more than 10 slides.
Don’t put too much on one slide. Make your main points on the slides and use your talk to amplify them. Although it may vary with discipline, don’t attempt to put everything you say on your slides.
The most important advice I think is to avoid trying to cram too much into a short presentation. Make a few points, make them clearly and perhaps reiterated.
Most first time presenters struggle with the requirement to present in the nude - check the A/C.
Yes there are unwritten rules for every discipline, and they are important; I’m not arguing that point. For example, no one I know at a geology conference would ever dream of reading from prepared notes, because of the attitude that doing so makes you look ill-prepared and amateurish. On the other hand, virtually everyone at the archaeology conferences I’ve attended reads their entire presentation off paper, and no one thinks anything of it. Ace309 should surely talk to his/her prof about these sorts of things.
However, when it comes to the method of presentation, Ace309 really needs to check with the conference organizers as well; THEY are the final word on what AV facilities are available. I’m suggesting this based upon my own experience. Of the four kinds of professional conferences I’ve attended, three of them revolve through different venues on an annual basis, and the AV equipment available isn’t the same in every location. You can be in hot water if you do not read the conference guidelines beforehand. For example, I was just checking the guidelines for a regional geology conference coming up and discovered that all speakers MUST have their presentations prepared for Powerpoint, burned to a CD-ROM and submitted to the convention AV people the day before the session. That is the first time I have ever seen that requirement. If I had blithely gone about my usual practice (making images into 35mm slides for a dual screen presentation), I would be screwed.
And again, since this is a multi-disciplinary conference, the usual practice among poli-sci presenters may not be possible. Just for grins, Google “presentation guidelines” and see how many conference-specific sites come up.
So we can agree to disagree on the handwritten overheads. You were apparently blessed with people that had good handwriting and had planned how they would write things out in advance. I have had the opposite experience, and it was awful.
And please note that I said “no more than” 16 slides in 12 minutes. I’m talking from the perspective of disciplines that may have photographs to show briefly as illustrations; obviously if you have only text you don’t need so many and can talk longer off a given slide.
Anyway… Ace309, please do us a favor and let us know whether you intend to use transparencies/slides/Powerpoint/semaphore/etc. Then we can start arguing about the merits of various color combinations, font size, serif vs. sans serif type, and so on. 
don’t ask - the best trick is to get the right body make-up for covering the goose bumps. 