Format for Senior Seminar Presentations

In carrying out this assignment you will gain experience in both making a verbal presentation and in preparing a web site. This site makes suggestions about how to do both most effectively.

 

Seminar Presentation:

• Your goal in both forms of presentation is to persuade you listener or reader that your viewpoint is valid, or, if presenting a balanced viewpoint, that it is based on reliable facts and can be trusted. It is not to impress the audience with the cleverness or originality of your presentation. (We are assuming your audience is either a scientific one or the general public. If you end up in an advertising agency this may not apply.)

• You will have 15 minutes for your presentation. Under no circumstances should you exceed this by as much as 15 seconds. A question period following your presentation will be limited to 10 minutes. Questions beyond this point should be met with "I will be happy to discuss that with you after the class".

• Your team will probably decide that 15 minutes is not long enough to make your point. Think again and refine your talk to 15 min. Learning to get your ideas and information across in a restricted time is a major lesson of this seminar.

• Keep your audience informed of your line of reasoning. Do not spend your first 5 minutes building up background, while leaving your listeners wondering why they should be interested in paying attention.

• Speak clearly, projecting your voice to the back of the room. It is surprising how many good presentations are spoiled because the audience could not hear the arguments.

• Slides carry information and headings to help the audience follow the presentation. DO NOT put your text on the slides, and then read them.

• You can make your presentation from notes which you glance at, but practice keeping your head up, and your words directed to the audience, not to your notes.

• Use 8x11 in. overhead transparencies.

• Too much color, and use of graphics, can be distracting to the viewers unless very well done and clearly relevant to the message.

• Keep the message of each slide coherent.

• A useful approximate rule is to use 10 slides for a ten minute talk.

• Use graphs rather than tables whenever possible.

• Keep the font size appropriate for the room.

• For this Seminar, keep the slides simple. Time put into elegant slides will be wasted, and is better put into improving your message. Use images only if they help make your point.

• Do not break copyright laws by using other's images or text.

Web Site:

Your presentation will be placed in a local web site where it can be reviewed by other members of the Senior Seminar. The URL of the site is http://www.udel.edu/panar/senior. When you have set up your team's site, please immediately email the URL to panar@udel.edu. It will be linked to the home page of this site.

Quality presentations of the societal issues proposed for this Senior Seminar will be of value to others. Good presentations will be placed on a public web site and made available to lecturers to insert into their courses.

The following ground rules should be followed.

• The first page of your presentation should be a brief synopsis (about 50 words) explaining the point of the contribution, and for what type of class it would be appropriate (e.g., general chemistry, public affairs, physical chemistry, etc.). Include the names of all authors (team members).

• The second page may be the text of your presentation, with the content of the slides interspersed as appropriate, and set off by horizontal lines. This will make the module easy to read without having to follow links. Links to the slides in downloadable form (.pdf format) will then be placed with each slide. (The appearance of the slides in .html format will vary with the users browser. The use of .pdf will allow the user to download the slide exactly as you designed it.)

• Other formats are acceptable. The only criterion is that they be easy to read and to use. Keep in mind that the goal is to make it as simple as possible for someone else to use your slides.

The Council for Chemical Research web site into which suitable presentations will be placed can be found at www.udel.edu/ccr. This is a prototype site in development. For example, the author of the risk assessment module, is now working on supporting text for each slide. The site includes several different types of modules. We are still learning what works best.

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