Presentation Skills For Scientists A Practical Guide Edward Zanders

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Presentation Skills for Scientists
A Practical Guide
Second edition
It is now widely recognised that professional presentation skills are an
indispensable cornerstone of a successful scientific career. This updated
second edition provides a concise and accessible guide to preparing and
delivering scientific presentations. Its highly practical ‘how-to’ style
focuses on the issues that are of immediate concern to the busy sci-
entist. The text covers all of the important aspects of scientific pres-
entations, including knowing your audience, producing visual material,
controlling nerves and handling questions. It also includes advice on
presenting in English for non-native speakers, helping them to improve
the clarity and effectiveness of their presentations. Links are included
throughout the text to the accompanying website, which contains anno-
tated video clips of speakers delivering a talk and demonstrates the com-
mon problems encountered, as well as exercises designed to overcome
them. It also contains image files to demonstrate the design issues to
consider when creating visual material.
Edward Zanders has spent a career in biomedical research in academia
and industry and has many years of experience in delivering and attend-
ing scientific presentations in the UK and abroad. Along with Lindsay
MacLeod, he provides courses in scientific presentation skills for clients
of his company PharmaGuide Ltd, including the UK Medical Research
Council, the John Innes Institute and biotechnology organisations based
in Oxford and Cambridge.
Lindsay MacLeod taught English in secondary schools before becoming
a London Blue Badge guide, the industry’s recognised symbol of pro-
fessionalism. She qualified as Guide of the Year. Lindsay has guided for
many decades and been a specialist guide in The British Museum, The
Houses of Parliament and Spencer House. She has been involved in both
guide training and examining.

Presentation Skills for Scientists
A Practical Guide
Second edition
Edward Zanders
PharmaGuide Ltd
Lindsay MacLeod

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education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence.
www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781108469425
DOI: 10.1017/9781108567640
© Edward Zanders and Lindsay MacLeod 2010, 2018
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2010
Second edition 2018
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, Elcograf S.p.A.
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Zanders, Edward D., author. | MacLeod, Lindsay, author.
Title: Presentation skills for scientists : a practical guide / Edward
Zanders (PharmaGuide Ltd.), Lindsay MacLeod.
Description: Second edition. | Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2018.
| Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018018105 | ISBN 9781108469425 (alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Communication in science. | Public speaking. |
Science – Vocational guidance.
Classification: LCC Q223 .Z36 2018 | DDC 808.06/65–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018018105
ISBN 978-1-108-46942-5 Paperback
Additional resources for this publication at www.cambridge.org/PSS.
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy
of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication
and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain,
accurate or appropriate.

Contents
Acknowledgements page vi
Preface vii
Introduction ix
The presentation flowchart xii
1 Audience 1
2 Planning the talk 7
3 Selection and assembly of visual material 16
4 Controlling nerves 31
5 Voice 40
6 Delivery 48
7 Science and the English language 58
8 Handling questions 67
9 How did it go? 73
Conference checklist 76
Further reading 77
Index 78

Acknowledgements
Thanks are due to Sian Deciantis and her colleagues at Nexus TV in
Cambridge UK for filming and editing the DVD-ROM material. We also
thank the three presenters David Evans, Adrian Kastrati and Jennifer
MacLeod for their cheerful willingness to devote time to the project and
to deal with unfamiliar technical material.
We acknowledge cartoonbank.com for the use of the New Yorker
Cartoons in the book.
The Y chromosome figure for the slide theme example is reproduced by
kind permission of Nature Publications.
Professor Jane Gitschier (University of California San Francisco) inspired
the idea of creating an example talk around a fictitious gene on the Y
chromosome, the OOPS gene.
We also thank Katrina Halliday at Cambridge University Press for her
help and encouragement in preparing this new edition.
Finally, we thank our families for their support and encouragement.

Preface
If surveys are to be believed, for most people formal public speaking is
worse than bereavement, literally a fate worse than death. Pity then the
practising scientists who must plan and execute complex experiments,
interpret the results, write them up for publication, and then talk about
them and answer questions in front of their peers. There is no choice in
the matter, so they must be able to plan a presentation, design their own
visual material, speak clearly and confidently, and be in control. Some
people enjoy this challenge and have an instinctive ability to commu-
nicate information to audiences. Others find this particularly daunting
and let themselves down through nervousness, poor voice control or by
producing confusing slides that fail to convey a clear message. Most sci-
entists know if they belong to the second group of people and most do
want to improve their performance. This improvement can be achieved
by every speaker, regardless of personality, but requires practice and
attention to detail. The result will be a more confident speaker who can
convey enthusiasm and authority without necessarily having an extro-
vert personality.
This book and associated online content is designed as a practical guide
to scientific presentation that busy scientists can refer to without having
to absorb copious amounts of theory and background to verbal commu-
nication. It is based on a course that we have delivered to technicians,
PhD students, postdoctoral fellows and business development managers
in Cambridge and elsewhere in the UK. Apart from receiving instruc-
tion in preparing and delivering scientific talks, each delegate is filmed
delivering a short technical presentation and the recording is played
back to them. Over the years, we have learnt a great deal about the spe-
cific problems with scientific presentation and how these problems can
be addressed. We therefore decided to pass this knowledge on to others
in the form of this book and the website, which contains realistic pres-
entation scenarios and helpful exercises.
The authors have used their different professional backgrounds in a
complementary way. Lindsay MacLeod covers the ‘soft skills’ required
for all public speaking, drawing on her many years of experience in

viii Preface
training Blue Badge guides in London, and over 25 years of regular
presenting. Ed Zanders covers the skills required to process and deliver
scientific data to an audience over a short period of time. He brings over
30 years’ experience as a practising scientist and has studied many hun-
dreds of presentations from junior scientists up to Nobel Laureates; he
has also delivered many of his own talks in the UK and abroad.
The book is presented in a compact format, enabling the speaker to carry
it in a pocket or handbag, perhaps en route to a conference or seminar
venue; the website can be accessed on the road or at the conference. We
envisage this being particularly useful for last-minute practice of the
exercises to control nerves and enhance vocal modulation.
The chapters are laid out as components of a flowchart to systematically
cover the most important aspects of scientific presentation, ranging
from audience awareness through to handling questions. Although the
text can be referred to on its own, the material on the website provides
detailed practical help in the form of slides and video clips and is a
critical part of the publication. The web material includes a PowerPoint
presentation on a biomedical topic to illustrate effective and poor deliv-
ery styles for native and non-native English speakers. It also includes
demonstrations of exercises designed to assist in developing a clear
modulated speaking style. Finally, we have included a checklist at the
end of the book covering the key points that must be addressed before
giving a presentation.

Introduction
Background to scientific presentation
A scientific presentation is normally a formal communication of infor-
mation to an audience at a conference, seminar or laboratory meeting.
The majority of talks describe the background and design of exper-
iments to increase knowledge of a particular scientific phenomenon.
Then the results of these experiments are delivered, as well as the con-
clusions that can be drawn from them. The conclusions drawn from
these experiments and the data that support them are almost always the
most important pieces of information that can be communicated to an
audience of fellow scientists. Presentations are therefore a showcase for
your work, or that of your institution. How well you deliver scientific
information depends on several factors: these include control of nerves
and voice, as well as creating visual media that convey information
clearly in as short a time as possible.
As a scientist, you are often too busy to think about the deep-seated
motivations that drive your work and the way that you present it to the
outside world. Maybe you are too tied up with the exhilaration of mak-
ing new discoveries; alternatively (and more frequently for most scien-
tists), you suffer from the frustrations of failed experiments or having
to deal with non-scientific issues such as raising money and dealing
with laboratory politics. Success, when it comes, however, makes these
frustrations irrelevant; the only feeling now is one of wanting to pub-
lish the results and present them at meetings. The main reward for
this success is one of appreciation by one’s scientific peers, be they
colleagues or competitors. This is one of the main motivators of the
practising scientist and must not be underestimated. It is true that other
motivations exist, for example to help humanity by discovering new
medicines to cure disease, but these drivers often take second place to
simple curiosity and interest in solving problems. A consequence of all
this is that you as a scientist are primarily interested in hard data. If you
read a published paper, you want to examine the results in fine detail.
If you hear a talk on a subject that is relevant to your work, you want
to see the data.

x Introduction
Most scientists do not have the time or inclination to think about how
the features that make a talk effective or irritating may be identified
and used to advantage in their own presentations. It is, however, worth
making the effort to identify your key behaviours that can be enhanced
or reduced as appropriate. Such insight will lead to improvements in
your own delivery and avoid you being lost in the crowd of speakers
who deliver indifferent talks.
The main components of any verbal communication are delivery, speaker
appearance and content. According to surveys, content makes by far the
least impact on an audience. Can this really be the case for scientific
presentations as well? After all, experimental data are the currency with
which science operates. Perhaps it depends on the relationship between
the speaker and audience. If a competitor is showing results from experi-
ments that you have done, or were planning to do, then poor delivery
and speaker appearance might not be so important; this is because all
that matters now is the data. This is a familiar situation, particularly for
the younger scientist who is under pressure to publish original experi-
mental work. The adrenaline flows, not just in the speaker, but in the
recipient who is anxious not to be scooped, or has been given exciting
new ideas to explore. This is not, however, a recommendation to ignore
delivery and presentation. A seminar describing a major new finding in
immunology comes to mind; the data kept the audience engrossed, but
also agitated, as the speaker was monotonous and boring. In fact, these
last aspects remain in the memory for nearly three decades, long after
the data were forgotten!
What makes a great talk?
This thought-provoking question appeared on a feedback form handed
in after one of our courses. At first glance, the qualities that make a
scientific talk ‘great’ are hard to pin down, similar to those relating to
music or painting, or other human activities. Understanding the qualities
of the great orators of history is one thing, but luckily most seminars or
conferences do not involve stirring speeches, otherwise their delegates
would rapidly be exhausted. However, a little reflection after hearing a
very good (or even great) scientific presentation is, in our view, due to
very specific qualities of the speaker.

xi
What makes a great talk?
The first is confidence, conveying to the audience that the speaker knows
what they are talking about while hiding any signs of nervousness (even
if they feel it inside). Secondly, their style is often conversational, the
very opposite of speechifying. This means that, however big the audi-
ence, each member is made to feel that the speaker is communicating
to them alone. This is very much like the ‘fireside chats’ of US President
Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s and ’40s in which he managed to
achieve a personal touch despite addressing millions of radio listeners.
Some speakers deviate from their original material in a verbal ‘aside’
that almost comes over like a whispered confidence and can be very
effective. Some examples of speakers that convey these qualities are
available via the weblinks sheet available at www.cambridge.org/PSS.

The presentation flowchart
The following flowchart covers the key elements of a scientific presenta-
tion, most of which are the subject of an individual chapter.
If you want to deliver a successful talk you need to thoroughly review each
chapter (and the online material) so you can answer the following questions:
Is the material:
Tailored to the right audience?
Well-constructed with a clear theme and take-home message?
Supported with clear visual material?
Delivered clearly without nervous distractions?
Are the questions handled professionally?
A note on using the online material
The following chapters contain background material and basic guide-
lines for preparation and delivery of scientific talks. Video, text and
images designed to illustrate specific topics and to provide exercises for
controlling nerves and enhancing delivery, as well as weblinks to further
resources are available at www.cambridge.org/PSS.
Audience
Planning the talk
Selection and assembly of visual material
Controlling nerves
Voice
Delivery
Practice and final preparation
Handling questions
How did it go?

1 Audience
© The New Yorker Collection 2003 Jack Ziegler from cartoonbank.com.
All Rights Reserved.
This chapter highlights key points about the audience that need
to be considered before you attempt to plan the presentation in
detail; it also gives guidance on how to overcome the first sign of
nervousness resulting from anticipation of who might be coming
to hear you speak.

2 Audience
Understanding what audiences expect
When planning a scientific presentation, it is worth thinking about
audience expectations from the outset. If you empathise with them, you
will ensure that the way you construct and deliver your talk will satisfy
their needs and avoid creating antagonism towards you.
Although we do not normally think of the financial implications for our
audience, this point has been raised forcefully in a piece of correspond-
ence to Nature magazine by Judy Ford from the University of South
Australia [1]:
Speakers, it is likely that my registration fees have contributed to
your travel, so I expect you to demonstrate that you have given a
lot of thought to your talk and prepared each slide carefully rather
than simply recycling it. I have come to listen to you, the expert, so
I expect to enjoy a well-organised, possibly brilliant, presentation,
in which creative visuals amplify your words and enhance my
understanding.
To which we would say, ‘Amen.’
Audiences have a fixed idea of the time allotted to a talk and will
rarely tolerate a time overrun.
Plan to keep within a specified time by controlling the number of slides
used and by rehearsing the talk.
Imagine yourself listening to your own talk
This introduces the idea of a presentation as a selling exercise. Successful
marketing is based on finding out what the customer wants and identi-
fying benefits for them. Just trying to sell what you think the customer
ought to want rarely works. So, if you put yourself in the shoes of the
audience, you will be able to tune your talk to their needs and inter-
ests. This requires some research beforehand. If you are invited to give
a seminar at another institution, you should find out something about
the department or company that you will be visiting and tailor your talk
accordingly. Similarly, for conferences, a review of the programme will
help you to present your talk in the correct context for the audience.
For example, there may be several presentations that cover the same
subject material, so there is a danger of the introductions from each
!

3
Your target audience
different speaker saying the same thing. In this case, a different way of
looking at the subject background would break the monotony and keep
the audience alert.
Your target audience
Who will be in the audience for your talk – in other words, who is the
talk aimed at?
Most scientists give their first presentation to colleagues as part of
their graduate education, and then move on to reporting the results
of their work at internal laboratory meetings. Over the course of their
subsequent careers, they will be asked to speak at short conference or
workshop sessions, and formal seminars, and to contribute keynote con-
ference speeches (generally in that order).
Each of the above stages forms part of an apprenticeship in public
speaking requiring, among other things, a sense of the particular needs
of each audience. Most of your audiences will be scientists working
on similar problems to you; a significant number will have a specialist
interest in your work as colleagues or competitors. You may occasion-
ally need to deliver a talk to scientists from totally different disciplines
or to an audience without any science training at all. Although every
one of the above scenarios requires a common standard of presenta-
tion and clarity of content, there will obviously need to be a change in
emphasis between background material and the research findings.
A specialist audience does not want a long introduction to what they
know already and will be eagerly awaiting the data. Since the special-
ists are likely to be well acquainted with the experimental techniques
under discussion, they will probably have strong views about the con-
clusions drawn from the findings presented. All of these points drive
some speakers to make their talks as complex as possible in order to
impress their peers, as well as to build a defensive shield against attack.
They fire off an unstructured barrage of figures and complex diagrams
and often overrun the allotted time for their talk. The result is a talk
whose message cannot be properly evaluated, even by the experts whom
the speaker is trying to impress.
Good speakers can introduce a subject, even to a specialist audience,
without any sense of being patronising or ‘dumbing down’. They do not,

4 Audience
however, commit the cardinal error in their introduction of using up too
much of the time reserved for presentation of the more complex data
and their interpretation.
A single exception to this comes to mind: a prestigious biochemist
giving a 1-hour seminar in a major US Medical Centre managed to
get away with spending the first 20 minutes telling a slightly off-
colour joke (something to do with his wife and photographs) totally
unrelated to his subject. He then proceeded to dazzle the audience
for the remainder of the time with a well-crafted presentation.
Although entertaining, we would most certainly not recommend this
approach!
Increase the complexity of your material seamlessly as you move into
the main body of the talk, allowing everyone to keep up. As with all
presentations, variety adds interest, so there will be situations in which
a more dramatic introduction may be more appropriate to capture and
hold the attention of the audience.
If you scan the audience and find some looking bored, distracted or
even asleep, you and your talk may not be at fault.
Some may have personal problems that take their mind off science, have
suffered from lack of sleep (after a conference social event perhaps) or
may simply look that way even when they’re interested. Ignore these
intrusions into your train of thought and don’t let them distract you
from your talk.
One department head used to sit in the front row and feign sleep
during seminars to deliberately play games with the speaker. He
would then ‘wake up’ at the end and ask some highly effective
questions – luckily, most speakers were aware of this beforehand.
Delivering scientific talks that are comprehensible to lay audiences can
be particularly challenging. People may simply have no idea of the basic
terminology, which may be obvious to many scientists; it is very import-
ant never to assume prior knowledge. Equally, there may also be some
technically literate people in the audience. It can help to satisfy both
sides by providing an introduction, explaining that you are aware of
the issue and ask the technical people to bear with you while you cover
basic material. Unlike our recommendation for most presentations, we
!

5
Should I worry about who will be in the audience?
suggest that questions during these talks are acceptable, even desirable;
once a listener has lost the thread, it is very difficult to catch up unless
a point of difficulty can be quickly clarified by the speaker.
Another point to consider is the age of the audience when referring to
political, social or other events in your talk. These comments may be
included to make a specific point that you hope your audience can relate
to. As time marches on, however, the events of the twentieth century
(apart from the obvious ones) may have mostly escaped an audience of
young scientists. One example is reference to the British Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher, who left office in 1990, before many young scien-
tists were even born. Of course, the converse is true, so that references
to modern pop culture may be lost on an older audience!
Should I worry about who will be in the audience?
A major source of anticipatory nervousness in a speaker is the thought
of who might be in the audience for their talk. One of the most com-
mon fears arises from having to present in front of friends and work
colleagues, as opposed to complete strangers. Presumably, they fear the
stigma of self-humiliation in front of people who will be around them
for a long time after the talk has ended. At least they will probably never
see the strangers again. The techniques described in detail in Chapter 4
on ‘Controlling nerves’ and on the website will help to control this com-
mon problem with audiences.
One particular fear (raised frequently by delegates attending our courses)
is that of speaking in front of distinguished experts in the audience. This
‘seniority perception’ anxiety is largely due to lack of confidence in the
speaker’s own knowledge and ability and the fear of being exposed by
ruthless questioning. Although the latter point is covered in Chapter 8
on ‘Handling questions’ and on the website, ‘seniority perception’ anx-
iety as a specific problem is discussed in the following paragraphs.
Presenting can be daunting to scientists at the beginning of their careers.
One reason is because they are afraid of making a bad impression on
senior people in the audience who may have a direct influence on their
future employment. This is a natural response, particularly if you are
faced with a Nobel Laureate, or equivalent, in the seminar audience.
Even the accomplished physicist Richard Feynman was taken aback

6 Audience
before delivering a seminar at Princeton as a young man, when Albert
Einstein arrived quietly and sat down in the front row.
Nervousness of this type is, of course, all in the mind. It follows that
a change in thinking from negative to positive is required to control it
from the outset.
Realise that you should know more about your own data
than anyone else
Senior people might be more interested in the science than in you in
particular. They will judge the material by the same standards as every-
one else, so it is up to you to be as rigorous as possible in your coverage
of new data and its interpretation.
Sometimes the presence of audience members with a political agenda
can create problems. They may be scientists who are using you as a
proxy to fight a war with your supervisor and will be deliberately critical
of your talk. The only way to deal with this and ‘seniority perception’
anxiety is to adhere to the following:
Make sure the talk is interesting, informative and runs to time.
Make sure that you know your material.
In this way, you will bring most of the audience on to your side, prob-
ably including the senior people, and in doing so will isolate any indi-
vidual with a different agenda.
Preparation is all!
A colleague once told the story of how a relatively junior scientist
gave a sloppy presentation at an international conference and was
humiliated by a major scientific figure with the words: ‘My dear boy,
this field is hard enough for the professionals, let alone amateurs.’ This
nightmare scenario was brought about (although the response was
unnecessarily harsh) by not caring about the audience and its needs.
Reference
1. J. Ford, Presentations: keynote speakers must try harder. Nature 542 (2017):
165.
!
!

2 Planning the talk
This chapter covers the process of scoping out a presentation using
a set of logical guidelines. If these are followed, along with those
highlighted in subsequent chapters, the end result should be a
coherent story that is delivered within the time period available for the
talk (e.g. 1-hour seminar or 15-minute conference talk).
© The New Yorker Collection 1996 Charles Barsotti from cartoonbank.com.

8 Planning the talk
The time constraint: cutting the cloth to fit
Before getting into detail about the preparation of the talk itself, we
must stress the need to keep it within a defined time limit. This (and
many other points raised in this book) may seem obvious and almost
unworthy of comment, but it still amazes us how so many of our course
delegates give their prepared talk with far more slides than could ever
be presented within the allotted time. This of course applies to speakers
doing a talk for real, including many who should be experienced enough
to know better.
For the purposes of this chapter and the next on selection of material,
we define ‘slides’ as units of visual material displayed to the audience.
These will be mainly digital slides created using PowerPoint software,
but there will be circumstances where a chalkboard, flipchart or over-
head projector will be used instead. In these cases, the time taken to
draw on the board/chart (or even laying out the overhead by hand) will
slow the talk down compared with when digital slides are used.
Determine the maximum number of slides that can be comfortably
delivered within the allotted time.
The following table gives a rough guide for distinct types of presenta-
tion based on an average slide rate of slightly less than one per minute.
These figures do not have to be adhered to exactly, of course. Some
slides can be lingered over for most of the talk, so the actual number
used might be very low. Alternatively, filler slides may be used to break
the talk into logical sections and may last for much less than a minute,
so the final number may even exceed the maximum quoted. Common
sense must prevail – the number must realistically match the time avail-
able for the talk.
Type of talk Duration
(minutes)
Time for
questions
(minutes)
Suggested
working number
of slides
Conference/workshop
session
10 5 7–9
Formal seminar 45–50 10–15 30–40
Keynote speech 30 0–10 20–25
Business presentationa
60 maximum Ad hoc <20
!

9
Turning your material into a story
a
The business presentation may involve a description of the presenter’s company, key
personnel and technology. These meetings nearly always stimulate questions throughout
the talk, thus derailing any plans for keeping to time. Since time is in short supply for
busy executives, it pays to keep the presentation as succinct as possible. A solution is to
incorporate fewer slides than would normally be the case for a conference or seminar
session of this length.
This thinking also applies to internal laboratory meetings, where the
data will be subjected to detailed probing by the laboratory head and
rest of the group. Time overruns annoy these people because the labora-
tory meetings are normally held first thing in the morning, or at lunch-
time, so they get anxious to return to their experiments while there is
enough time left in the day.
Turning your material into a story
A dry recitation of facts does not make a good talk. Since science deals
with facts, there is a real danger that presenters will fall into this trap.
It also occurs in areas outside science, including tourism. Who has not
been bored by a poorly trained guide who just lists dates and places
without any context or human interest? This is why crafting the talk
into a story is of fundamental importance. We don’t, of course, expect
scientific talks to be works of fiction (despite some high-profile cases of
just that in the last few years). The story format conveys the key message
(or messages) in a way that human beings can absorb. Many speakers
do not think in this way from the outset, so the resulting talk can be
formulaic and boring.
One way of enhancing a presentation is to draw upon relevant historical
allusions or asides that may help to put your work in context or just pro-
vide a bit of general interest. The possibilities are endless, but you must
have an in-depth understanding of the bigger picture of which your
specific research is only a part. It also helps to be aware of items in the
scientific or lay media that could be filed away for later use in a talk. It
is just a matter of thinking laterally to soften a hard, technical narrative.
An example of historical allusion concerns the science of
personalised medicine. The first indication that there might be a
genetic basis to individual differences in the responses to certain
drug molecules was published in a 1932 paper by Arthur Fox [1].
In this, he showed that some, but not all, members of his laboratory
could taste the chemical phenylthiocarbamide, which flew around

10 Planning the talk
after a somewhat careless bit of weighing out. Further investigation
eventually led after many years to the identification of a mutation in
a specific taste receptor protein present in ‘non-tasters’. Now known
as pharmacogenetics, this field is of great practical importance and
can be introduced with this story, which is relevant, while at the
same time providing a bit of light relief in its description of the state
of 1930s health and safety.
When discussing the contribution of the German pharmacologist and
clinician Paul Ehrlich to medical research, one of us (EZ) mentions
the fact that Ehrlich was a great fan of Sherlock Holmes and
corresponded with the fictional detective’s creator, Arthur Conan
Doyle. This comment is of no scientific consequence, but it does
generate a positive response from the audience every time.
Identify the key message you want to convey and build the talk
around it.
The ability to abstract the key message from a collection of research
material is directly related to the degree of understanding of the research
itself and why it was performed in the first place. A presenter should
be able to summarise the essence of their work in one or two sentences.
Obviously, this process will exclude subtle nuances and complexities,
but it is not designed for that. It is a thinking exercise that forces the
speaker to move away from the fine detail to a higher-level view of the
material. Employ this at the planning phase to create a framework on
which to build your talk.
The elevator pitch
Could you identify the essential meaning of your work and convey it
succinctly in the time it takes for an elevator (lift) to travel a few floors,
say up to 3 minutes? This is the ‘elevator pitch’ that is now so prevalent
in management training and related activities. Regardless of how the
term originated, and there are se veral accounts online, the concept is a
useful one, particularly so for planning a longer formal presentation. The
practice of ‘speed dating’ is a similar way of focusing on the essentials,
but perhaps this is taking interaction with the audience a bit too far.
The details of Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity can
only be understood by experts with a thorough grounding in
mathematics, but the great man managed to convey its essence to
!

11
Structuring the talk
journalists as follows: ‘It was formerly believed that if all material
things disappeared out of the universe, time and space would be left.
According to relativity theory, however, time and space disappear
together with the things’ [2].
Structuring the talk
The basic structure of the talk needs boundaries so that you can guide
the audience in whatever direction you want. The route and destin-
ation must be planned carefully, otherwise the audience will be lost and
the talk will be a failure. Once you have defined the limits of the talk
(e.g. number of slides) and articulated the key message, the next stage
involves establishing a logical sequence.
There seems to be a good consensus among writers on scientific presenta-
tion about just what that logical sequence should be. We like the succinct
version offered by the late Vernon Booth in his book Communicating in
Science [3]:
Why you did this work
How you did it
What you found
What you think it means
WHY YOU DID THIS WORK
Scientists have a habit of asking questions; it’s fundamental to their
profession: ‘How does this work?’, ‘What is the nature of this phenom-
enon?’ and ‘Why does X operate and Y doesn’t?’ This habit lends itself
naturally to scientific presentations, where a question (or series of ques-
tions) is used to guide the audience towards the key conclusions that
they can take away from the talk.
Formulate a question(s) to set the talk in the right direction.
The question is normally posed after an introduction to the topic to be
presented. This will be a high-level view to start with, perhaps with a
historical background, or an analogy with everyday experience. If you
are speaking in a conference, you could briefly relate your talk to the
theme for your session to put it in context. Keep the review of the con-
ference theme clear and brief and try to minimise the inevitable repeti-
tion that will occur with the other speakers in that session.
!

One of our delegates introduced his work on stereo effects in the
auditory nervous system by highlighting the need for stereo hearing
when crossing a busy road. This simple everyday analogy is a good
example of lateral thinking that allowed the audience to immediately
place his work in the right context.
This example relates to mirror image forms of chemical molecules
(chiral molecules) and was used in a business presentation. Many
pharmaceutical compounds are produced as chiral molecules, only
one of which has drug activity. The company Chiroscience was
founded to produce these active molecules as pure enantiomers
(chiral forms), but it was necessary to convey the science behind this
to non-technical investors. They were given two bottles of liquid, one
smelling of oranges, the other of lemons. Both contained the single
compound limonene but in a different chiral form, which stimulates
the sense of smell according to its three-dimensional structure.
Thus, the concept of two mirror image forms having quite distinct
properties was conveyed in a clear and memorable way.
The same idea can be conveyed without props, namely in the case
of thalidomide, the drug with one chiral form responsible for the
desired sedative effect and the other for the terrible teratogenic
effects that give rise to stunted limbs.
HOW YOU DID IT
This is obviously similar in concept to the Materials and Methods section
of a publication but must be treated carefully. Unless the experimental
approach is the subject of the talk, this section should not be dwelt upon
for too long. This is an area where it is tempting to list every aspect of
the experimental procedure in great detail. Resist the temptation and
only go into further detail if asked, either during questions or outside
the session.
WHAT YOU FOUND
This results section can prove the most challenging since there is often
a need to distil a large amount of data into a form that can be presented
in an intelligible form over the time available. This is possible through
the use of appropriate graphics, overlays and animations. These are dis-
cussed in Chapter 3 and in the associated website material.
You need to use some judgement about which data are essential to
support your argument; do not show every piece of data you can find

13
Acknowledgements
because it only tires or confuses the audience. Many speakers are anx-
ious about finishing the talk too early, or not appearing to have done
enough work and fill out the talk with totally unrealistic numbers of
slides. If the maximum number of slides available is established at the
outset, this should not be a problem. Of course, there may not actually
be much data available, so there is more room for the introduction and
conclusions, particularly a discussion of what needs to be done next.
WHAT YOU THINK IT MEANS
This concluding section must be punchy and succinct, as it could be
the one thing that the audience remembers and takes away with them.
This section is also the one where Summary and Conclusions often get
mixed up together. The Summary lists the experimental findings that the
speaker thinks are important to support the key message of the talk. This
section is then followed immediately by the Conclusions section where
an interpretation of the findings is presented on a single slide.
The relative proportion of the talk that should be devoted to each of the
above sections (with exceptions mentioned in the text) is summarised in
the figure below:
Acknowledgements
In the collaborative world of scientific research, it is very rare for a
speaker to have nobody to acknowledge, so colleagues should be thanked
during the talk. This seems to occur most commonly at the end, after
the conclusion slide has been presented, but can obscure a punchy and
memorable take-home message. You could try placing acknowledge-
ments at the beginning of the talk instead. It is common practice to show
literature citations on slides, but they are often illegible. If a reference
is needed to support the content of a slide, make the font legible. This,

however, can distract from the rest of the slide, so it may be better to
show a separate (but not too extensive) reference list.
Handling multiple themes
A short conference presentation is not long enough to cover more than
one theme, so the path from question to conclusion is linear and con-
tinuous. A longer seminar or keynote speech is a different matter. The
speaker may still have a single key message, but this time it can be
reached by a number of paths using data that have been generated by
a number of collaborators. There may also be more than one group of
conclusions, so the most ‘punchy’ should be left for the end.
The challenge with this type of presentation is to keep the key message
(or messages) in focus without excessive side tracking or stalling. The
basic principles of storytelling must still be adhered to, but this time
with added subplots.
One example, taken from biomedical research, is the study of an experi-
mental drug developed to treat a specific disease. This can be clearly
divided into two parts. The first covers the development of the drug
with reference to its target and the biology of the disease it is designed
to treat. The second part describes the testing of that drug in patients
and the results obtained. Both sections will have their own terminology
and experimental approaches but can be made to integrate smoothly to
create a coherent story (in this case with human interest, as the audience
will be eagerly waiting to see if the experimental treatment works).
Natural breaks
Even if the audience is hanging on your every word during a seminar or
longer talk, they will (even subconsciously) respond to a series of breaks
in the flow of information. These can be brief summaries of what has
been delivered already, or visual cues to introduce the next theme. There
is definitely a place for appropriate humour as well, a device that is used
in many thrillers to ‘break the ice’. An amusing (but relevant) cartoon
can quickly lighten the mood of the audience and relax them prior to
moving on to the next phase of the talk. It can also have the effect of
priming the audience to your style and make them expect more of the
same – even if it never arrives.

15
References
There are ways not to break up presentations. One of us (EZ) gave
a seminar at a prestigious Boston laboratory (Nobel Laureate in
audience, etc.). The theme, on lymphocyte signalling, was neatly
divided into two sections that could have been joined together
without difficulty. He asked for questions from the audience after the
first part, instead of at the end, and thus completely destroyed the
momentum of the talk – a mistake he has never repeated.
References
1. A. L. Fox, The relationship between chemical constitution and taste. Proc
Natl Acad Sci U S A 18 (1932): 115–120.
2. R. W. Clark, Einstein: the Life and Times. (New York: HarperCollins, 2011).
3. V. Booth, Communicating in Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1993).

3 Selection and assembly
of visual material
© The New Yorker Collection 2004 Glen LeLievre from cartoonbank.com.
Visual displays are powerful tools for communicating scientific data
but can be misused and cause more confusion than enlightenment.
This chapter is supported by the website section on slide
construction and covers the main aspects of design and layout. It
also describes the all-important process of presenting experimental
data in a form that can be visualised and understood within a short
period of time.

17
Presenting without visual aids
The speaker is the centre of attention, but should be able to direct the
audience to and from the slides at will.
The slides must deliver the message that the speaker is trying to
convey without confusing the audience.
It follows from these points that you, as a speaker, must have full con-
trol over an audience through your ability to communicate (covered in
subsequent chapters), as well as control over the actual content of your
presentation.
Very rarely, this latter control is taken away. A seminar speaker had
his 35mm slides in a projector carousel all ready to start his talk
(in the prehistoric times before computers and digital projectors).
The person who had invited him (a well-known eccentric biologist of
the time) noticed a slight fault with the projector. He then proceeded
to harangue the audience and eventually confiscate the projector
plus slides, so the hapless speaker had no prepared material at all.
Luckily, this speaker knew enough about presenting his work to be
able to write the key elements on a chalkboard and save the day.
Presenting without visual aids
Sudden loss of visual aids, whether deliberate, like the above example,
or more likely through computer or projector malfunction, can leave
the speaker very exposed. Is this necessarily a bad thing? Would you,
as the speaker, communicate with the audience more effectively by
just standing up and talking without looking at a screen? You would
certainly have to think more carefully about your material and how to
describe it. You might adopt a more conversational style and possibly
have a two-way dialogue with the audience. Behaving as though the
talk is the sort of relaxed conversation that occurs in everyday life
does have its attractions for both speaker and audience. Frankly, in the
authors’ view, some of the most memorable presentations have been
delivered by non-scientists without any visual material, or with just a
few slides at most.
The problem, of course, is that most scientific talks are useless with-
out some visual material such as graphs, microscope images and so
on. A compromise therefore needs to be made between a natural
!
!

18 Selection and assembly of visual material
conversational delivery and the need to show and highlight images
on a screen. In our view, the best speakers manage to achieve this,
but it requires self-awareness, the development of self-confidence and
plenty of practice. As a practical exercise, we would encourage you to
deliver a short talk without slides in an informal environment. This will
help you to confront and overcome any anxieties you may have about
speaking without visual aids in preparation for incorporating them in
a talk for real.
Visual aids: presentation software
Science operates through the worldwide dissemination of experimen-
tal data, largely through the written word in peer-reviewed publica-
tions. These papers contain figures and tables that can be studied at
leisure over as long a period as the reader can spare. This luxury is
clearly not available to the audience listening to an oral communi-
cation, so a different approach must be taken when preparing visual
material. The data must be clearly visible to the whole audience and
held just long enough (because time is at a premium) to let the infor-
mation sink in.
We assume that most readers will be using digital slides based on the
PowerPoint® software produced by Microsoft Corporation. Other soft-
ware is available, however, such as Keynote® from Apple and Prezi®
from the company of the same name. These and other programmes are
useful only if the presenter has understood how to maximise their use as
communication tools without creating unnecessary distractions. Before
discussing PowerPoint in more detail, we understand that there will
be circumstances (an internal laboratory meeting for example) where
data will be presented on a whiteboard (or chalkboard) or on physical
handouts. These, like speaking without slides, require clarity of thought
to focus on the essentials of what you are trying to convey to your
audience.
We have encountered situations with our training courses where dele-
gates must prepare slides with much more text than would normally be
expected for an oral presentation. This is because the slides are shown as
part of a video conference in which interested parties (in a multinational
company, for example) are communicating information to be discussed
line by line, almost as though reviewing a publication. The result is a

19
Visual aids: presentation software
sort of hybrid between a verbal presentation and written publication,
which is challenging to get right. As with all communication, this can
only be achieved by making sure that you convey the key parts of your
work to your audience with the maximum clarity.
BACKGROUND TO POWERPOINT
The PowerPoint software was invented by Robert Gaskins and others in
the 1980s while part of a company called Forethought Inc. Ironically
the original intention was to provide an easier way of preparing 35mm
slides and sheets for overhead projectors, both of which are now
museum pieces. Originally called ‘Presenter’, PowerPoint got its name
because a company sales Vice President noticed a sign reading POWER
POINT while looking out of his plane, which was about to take off. The
software was then developed by Apple and finally sold to Microsoft for
14 million dollars in 1990, quite a bargain given its subsequent success.
A detailed description of the PowerPoint story is given in Gaskins’ rem-
iniscences [1].
Much criticism has been levelled at the presentation software, summar-
ised by the phrase ‘death by PowerPoint’ [2]. This was certainly the case
in the early days, perhaps as a result of users playing around with the
many features that are engineered into the software, thus allowing the
lazy presenter to cover up a lack of real communication with a dazzling
display of visual effects. Another concern is the ubiquity of PowerPoint
and the boredom engendered by having too many talks using the same
style. Couldn’t the same be said of the earlier use of overhead projectors
and 35mm Diazo slides?
Earlier in this book, we have stressed that we do not cover the detailed
psychology of scientific presentation. Having said this, it is worth not-
ing that some studies have been published that show how PowerPoint
is used in a business and scientific environment. They make some good
points about the pros and cons of the software and are worth looking
at [3, 4].
Given that most scientists want tools to make their lives easier and more
efficient (and not spend precious time worrying about which visual for-
mat to use) it seems that PowerPoint (or equivalent) media are here to
stay. This means that the software must be tamed from its wild state and
the many features that it offers used selectively and appropriately.

Another aspect of visual communication in science is the sheer com-
plexity of the material. The simplification of what were once huge
technical obstacles has raised the bar for scientific publication, since
more and more experiments are required by editors and referees to
support a particular hypothesis and get the paper accepted. This spills
over into oral communication where the speaker and audience often
have far too much material to deal with. Even the most prepared and
organised speaker can struggle with the problem of how to get the key
message across without oversimplification. Electronic media can help
by providing builds and animations to present complex information at
a rate that audiences can follow. One day, PowerPoint will, like 35mm
slides, be just a quaint anachronism, but since that time has not yet
come, the remainder of this chapter covers some of the techniques
that can be used to create an effective visual presentation with the
software.
Storyboarding
© The New Yorker Collection 2001 Leo Cullum from cartoonbank.com. All Rights Reserved.

21
Storyboarding
We assume that you have prepared the foundations for the talk accord-
ing to the guidelines laid out in Chapters 1 and 2, summarised briefly
below:
You have tailored the amount of background material and the level of
complexity of the talk to the needs of the projected audience.
You have put a limit on the number of slides that can realistically be
used in the available time.
You have established the key message that you are trying to convey as
a story with flow and momentum.
You have laid out the sections from Introduction to Conclusions (at
least in your mind).
Turning these concepts into a talk with script and a sequence of slides is
not unlike the process of making a film (or perhaps a criminal investiga-
tion in which pictures are attached to a board by detectives). The whole
talk (film) is laid out on a storyboard so that slides (scenes) can easily be
added, removed or reordered. The storyboard itself could be written by
hand on a sheet of paper or adhesive notes, or assembled electronically
in the slide sorter view of PowerPoint. There is much to recommend the
last method, including the ability to rapidly manipulate slides in a clear,
uncluttered layout. It is also useful to be able to bring in slides from
previous talks that have been archived electronically.
Set up the storyboard and bring in slides to mark out the individual
elements of the story line, i.e. Introduction, Methods, Results, Summary
and Conclusions. Constrain the number of slides to fit the planned length
of the talk (the storyboard will fill up very quickly for a short conference
presentation). The slides do not have to be complete at this stage as the
idea is just to establish the flow and rhythm of the talk. Decide on the
design theme for the slides and keep them the same throughout to avoid
a jarring effect.
Once the core layout has been established, you can start to fill in detail,
regularly checking the slides in full view using the Slide show facility.
!
!
!
!

Review each slide for relevance, legibility and clarity of message. This
is the time to get rid of that slide with a terrific image but no relevance,
or one that is too complex to be read at all. Equally, you might be able
to bring in some fresh ideas to support your message – it’s all part of
the creative process. The sheer abundance of presentation material on
display at conferences and seminars will help to give you the necessary
inspiration (and critical judgement).
The final task is to ensure that the slides transition smoothly from start
to finish without breaking the flow, unless you have inserted slides that
deliberately create a pause or change of emphasis.
Scripting
Good presenters don’t read from notes just as actors don’t read from
their scripts. Effective communication arises from within the person-
ality of the speaker and their authority to present specialist infor-
mation. Some of the presenters who attend our courses like to have
their talks written out on paper in case their words dry up. We try
to discourage this because it limits their freedom of action, rather
like being so reliant on the training wheels of a bicycle that they are
unable to ride without them. However, there is nothing wrong with
having visual cues on the slides to help you keep on track so long as
they don’t distract the audience. In fact, this can be very useful if you
are presenting in a language that is not your own and where pronun-
ciation and other issues may confuse the audience. This is covered
further in Chapter 7.
Suggestions for slide construction
The following guide will help you to think about the most common
issues arising in slide design. They are obvious points but are so often
missed by scientists who don’t take the time to critically review their
visual material in advance of presenting it. We hope that the clear
guidelines and examples on the website will help to make this process
as simple as possible.
The contents of the slide must be legible; otherwise, what is the point
in showing it?
!

23
Slide background
The contents should be relevant to what the speaker is discussing, and
free of distracting features.
The key objective is to provide comprehensible information in the
shortest possible time.
Slide background
Most colour schemes
use dark lines/text on a
light background or vice versa. White backgrounds seem to be the most
commonly used for slideshows. The background colour doesn’t have to
be uniform; a slight gradient of intensity can work quite well. The idea
is to keep the audience alert by using crisp, easy-to-read slides that
don’t depress by being gloomy (avoid mud-coloured backgrounds) or
dazzle by being too flashy. PowerPoint offers many design themes that
are attractive in an artistic sense but are generally unsuitable for scien-
tific presentations. This is because they draw attention away from the
information being presented. Background themes that sit behind the
text and graphics can be a major distraction and should generally, but
not always, be avoided. It is possible to use a background image to fill
the whole screen to act as a theme. Text boxes and graphics can then
be overlaid and removed as the talk progresses. This has been used for
very effective talks on cosmology and particle physics; the background
is mostly black, but dotted with dozens of colourful galaxies imaged by
the Hubble Space Telescope. The speaker can then begin the presenta-
tion by immediately placing the subject matter (galaxy formation or
the nature of elementary particles) within the context of the universe
and its origins. The detailed material (e.g. equations) is then added and
removed as the talk progresses. Because this example has a mainly
dark background, the material is presented on a pale background for
maximum contrast.
Institutional or company design themes can intrude significantly,
either as borders, or as logos displayed at the bottom right-hand cor-
ner of each slide. The safest option is to avoid borders altogether and
to keep the bottom logo at a size that is just legible. Alternatively, the
logo could be prominently displayed on the first slide and absent in
the rest.
!
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Website
Content: Slide background and themes

Colour contrast
Technical presentations
often have text, charts
and diagrams with different-coloured lines. Use colours that give a high
contrast against the slide background and avoid examples such as yel-
low lines on white (these happen). Some examples are shown on the
website, but it is important to experiment for yourself and review the
result when projected. Red is a very powerful colour, but you should be
aware that an estimated 5–8 per cent of men are red/green colour blind
(the percentage for women is much lower at about 0.5 per cent); there-
fore, there is a need to use these particular colours carefully.
Text
Text and graphics must be clearly visible
from the back of a large hall – size and
contrast are important.
Use a sans serif typeface such as Arial or Verdana, the latter being used
extensively on web pages. Serif fonts (such as Times New Roman) with
small projections from the lettering are used extensively for publication,
but do not work well when projected on a slide. Interestingly, the lack of
clarity in enlarged serif fonts was recognised in the early twentieth century
by London Transport who were trying to reduce the confusing clutter of
text on their underground (subway) stations. They hired a graphic designer,
Edward Johnston, to design a clean typeface for the station names. He came
up with a sans serif font that, along with that of his colleague, the artist
Eric Gill, has set the agenda for lettering on posters and other signs ever
since. The modern sans serif typefaces were designed to be used with inkjet
or laser printers hence their prominence in collections of computer fonts.
The font size (point) is usually a minimum of 24 for maximum impact
in the largest conference rooms, but some legends to graphs or literature
references may be smaller. Adjustments to text size can be made during
final editing and review.
Graphics
Complex information is often better conveyed using graphics rather
than text – remember the saying ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’.
Unfortunately, many presentations seem to consist of those thousand
Website
Content: Slide background and themes
Website
Content: Fonts

25
Graphics
words written onto slides in long lists that the audience cannot possibly
read in the available time. One study found that scholars from a variety
of disciplines use 55 words per slide on average, exceeding the highest
proposed maximum number of 36 by 50 per cent [3].
Text is often little more than a written cue to help you to speak without
notes. Dealing with this to the satisfaction of both speaker and audience
is one of the greatest challenges that you will have to meet during the
preparation of your talk.
Learn to précis sentences that would normally be written out in full,
if necessary adding them sequentially as builds (see Slide transitions,
below).
Even if the bullet-pointed text is kept to a minimum, there is a bland
‘sameness’ to such presentation material. The SmartArt graphics feature
in PowerPoint allows you to group and highlight text in a clear attract-
ive manner, thus enhancing your visual material. An example of how
this works is shown on the website.
Graphics offer an immediate solution to the problem of conveying infor-
mation over a brief period of time, but, as with slide design, there must
be a balance between legibility, impact and avoidance of annoying dis-
tractions. A highly complex diagram can make a point about the phys-
ical complexity of a system, but avoid the words: ‘You won’t be able to
read this, so I’ll move onto the next slide’; it makes the inclusion of the
slide seem pointless.
Use a title on each slide to summarise the information presented.
The images used in PowerPoint presentations (and publications) are
often generated by computer software, such as spreadsheet pro-
grammes (e.g. Microsoft Excel®), instrument software, or image editing
programmes such as Adobe Photoshop®. Most of the scientists on our
courses are very familiar with the first two, but are often unfamiliar
with editing their own images. This is most definitely not to say that
images from experiments should be ‘doctored’ in order to deceive the
audience (or journal editor). Instead, the software allows you to create
effective graphics based on your own ideas, so we recommend that
you try it.
!
!

Sometimes non-scientific graphics can make a point, or just provide a
planned break in the flow of the talk. Acknowledgement slides that have
a picture of the speaker’s institution or his/her co-workers are effective
in this way, as is a humorous (but relevant) cartoon, but in this case,
allow plenty of time for the punch line to sink in!
One of our delegates used a cartoon to introduce some technical
aspects of microscopy. The picture showed a caveman looking
through a huge microscope-like contraption with a mammoth
directly underneath – the caption read, ‘I think it’s a mammoth!’
This neatly provided an introduction to the main theme along with a
bit of light relief for the audience.
GRAPHS AND CHARTS
Most scientific talks are
concerned with research
data obtained from labora-
tory experiments. The audience is not reading (or refereeing) a paper and
hasn’t the time to absorb anything other than the key points. Tables can
be effective, but only if the text is easily legible and the key informa-
tion highlighted, perhaps in a different colour. Long tables are not useful
except in publications – process the data as graphs or charts instead. The
latter must be clearly legible, with all axes and legends clearly marked.
The type of graph used will depend on the data and experimental design,
but histograms and pie charts are often highly informative. Resist the
temptation to show too many graphs at once on the same slide if each is
illegible and the view too cluttered; it may be necessary to redesign the
plots to accommodate this and consider showing the graphs on separate
slides, unless there is a need to compare results from separate graphs. As
with all the visual material, clarity of presentation is key. Avoid ‘chart-
junk’, a term coined by Edward Tufte, a statistician and author of The
Visual Display of Quantitative Information [4].
Sometimes, there are so many variables in the experimental data that
it is difficult to work out how to display the results diagrammatically.
Of the many examples of data plotting shown in Tufte’s book, one of
his favourites is the Minard diagram (available on the website link).
Charles Joseph Minard was a French engineer who, in 1861, plotted out
a data and time series of the fate of Napoleon’s army during the Russian
Website
Content: Figures, tables and graphs

27
Final editing and revision
campaign of 1812. The picture of 422,000 men being reduced to 10,000
after the retreat from Moscow is shown with great clarity because of the
clever way in which the data are organised. Not surprisingly, this creates
some bemusement in the French delegates when this example is shown
during our courses. Multiple variables are plotted: the size of the army,
its geographical location in two dimensions, the direction of movement
and the temperature at various locations. To quote Tufte: ‘It may well be
the best statistical graphic ever drawn.’
Bear this in mind when you are trying to present complex datasets in a
comprehensible form. Other tools are available, such as builds and tran-
sitions, and these are discussed in the next section.
ANIMATION
Scientific concepts
can be very diffi-
cult to convey rapidly, even to a specialist audience; animated graphics
or movies can be a very powerful way of achieving this as long as
they are not gratuitous or overdone. Animation using graphic objects
to progressively build up complex systems or pathways is particularly
useful. The diagram can be built up on the click of a mouse, or set to
run automatically. Be careful to check that animations and similar files
will run on the computer provided for the conference or seminar, and be
prepared to do without them if there are technical problems.
SLIDE TRANSITIONS
These provide a
smooth transition
from one slide to another. Many transitions are available (the dissolve
transition works quite well), but only a few really seem to work without
creating a jarring effect. On balance, it is probably best to leave them
out altogether. However, transition effects are very useful for progres-
sively introducing text or graphics that would be too much to take in
all at once.
Final editing and revision
The final edits and revision can be done on any computer using the full
screen page to run the slide show. If desired, you can see the full display
as a window while still being able to edit the slide by pressing the Alt
Website
Content: Builds, transitions and animations
Website
Content: Builds, transitions and animations

key (on a Windows® PC) at the same time as starting the full screen
page. Normally, there will be minor text and layout changes, as well as
checks for working animations and transitions.
Timing the talk is critical to avoid having to rush at the end, or not even
complete the talk. PowerPoint has a facility for setting a fixed time for
each slide so that the talk can be synchronised accordingly. It is also
possible to use the Rehearse Timings feature to display the duration of
each slide transition, as well as the total time of the presentation.
It is very helpful to have access to a digital projector, since the slide
show can look unfamiliar when enlarged. Colours can also be pro-
jected in a slightly different hue, so adjustments to these may need to
be made by trial and error on the computer. When a presentation is
projected in a large conference hall, the perspective of the slide con-
tent changes depending on the height and distance of the screen from
the speaker. This can be very disorientating, so you should quickly
run through the slides in the hall itself (perhaps in a break prior to the
session) if possible.
A note about graphing and statistics
Statistical analysis of scientific data is used extensively in many research
areas, and must be employed and displayed in a way that is acceptable
to the scientific community. Unfortunately, there is a reproducibility
problem, particularly in the biomedical sciences, that is forcing journal
editors and others to be much more rigorous in enforcing the ways in
which these data are processed and analysed. While much of this is
outside the scope of this book, we do feel a need to alert readers to the
issue that is fundamental to your presentation, namely the quality of the
material you are delivering.
It is worth taking note of the ‘rules for effective statistical practice’
[5]. We also recommend the Points of View features from Nature
Methods that cover many aspects of graphing and statistics that may
not be familiar to many laboratory scientists. Bar charts are used
extensively to summarise data in ways that are readily understood by
the viewer. Unfortunately, these often obscure the real result of the
experiment, as described by Weissgerber et al. [6]:

29
A note about graphing and statistics
Bar graphs are designed for categorical variables; yet they are commonly
used to present continuous data in laboratory research, animal studies,
and human studies with small sample sizes. Bar and line graphs of
continuous data are “visual tables” that typically show the mean and
standard error (SE) or standard deviation (SD). This is problematic for
three reasons. First, many different data distributions can lead to the
same bar or line graph. The full data may suggest different conclusions
from the summary statistics.
Second, additional problems arise when bar graphs are used to show
paired or non-independent data. Figures should ideally convey the design
of the study. Bar graphs of paired data erroneously suggest that the
groups being compared are independent and provide no information
about whether changes are consistent across individuals. Third, sum-
marising the data as the mean and SE or SD often causes readers to
wrongly infer that the data are normally distributed with no outliers.
These statistics can distort data for small sample size studies, in which
outliers are common and there is not enough data to assess the sample
distribution.
A major point of contention in the literature is the P value, as first
described by Ronald Fisher in the 1920s. This is commonly used as a
measure of the significance of one set of results being different from
another, for example, a control group of cells compared with the same
cell type treated with a drug. The lower the P value, the more likely it
is that the effect, if any, is real. A short background to this issue is pro-
vided by R. Nuzzo who, like many statisticians, cautions against overin-
terpreting the significance of experimental data using the P value alone
[7]. Many studies are considered significant if the P value falls below
0.05, but this is being challenged, with suggestions that the value must
be below 0.005 [8]. You should be aware of this when analysing and
presenting your data.
Finally, a warning about the dangers of confusing correlation with
causation. We like to give examples of spurious correlations taken from
the Spurious correlations website (see weblinks). It really gives pause for
thought when considering any aspect of life, not just science. Some of
the magnificent examples of strong correlations include: ‘per capita con-
sumption of mozzarella cheese with civil engineering doctorates’, ‘age of

Miss America with murders by steam, hot vapours and hot objects’ and
‘divorce rate in Maine with per capita consumption of margarine’.
These examples are clearly ridiculous, but perhaps similarly spurious
correlations can be found in science. The technical discussion of the
statistics given by Altman and Krzywinski [9] may help you think about
your data while bearing this in mind.
References
1. R. Gaskins, Sweating Bullets – Notes about Inventing PowerPoint (San
Francisco/London: Vinland Books, 2012).
2. S. M. Kosslyn, R. A. Kievit, A. G. Russell and J. M. Shephard, PowerPoint®
presentation flaws and failures: a psychological analysis. Frontiers in
Psychology, 3 (2012): 230.
3. B. Hertz, C. van Woerkum and P. Kerkhof, Why do scholars use PowerPoint
the way they do? Business and Professional Communication Quarterly, 78
(2015): 273–291.
4. E. R. Tufte, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information (Cheshire, CT:
Graphics Press, 1983).
5. R. E. Kass, B. S. Caffo, M. Davidian, X. L. Meng, B. Yu and N. Reid. Ten
simple rules for effective statistical practice. PLoS Computational Biology
12 (2016): e1004961.
6. T. L. Weissgerber, N. M. Milic, S. J. Winham and V. D. Garovic. Beyond bar
and line graphs: time for a new data presentation paradigm. PLoS Biology
13 (2015): e1002128.
7. R. Nuzzo, Statistical errors. Nature 506 (2014): 150–152.
8. D. Singh Chawla, P-value shake-up proposed. Nature 548 (2017): 16–17.
9. N. Altman and M. Krzywinski, Association, correlation and causation.
Nature Methods, 12 (2015): 899–900.

4 Controlling nerves
Many readers will refer to this chapter first. Nervousness before a talk
is almost universal, and is a problem that not only causes misery for
the speaker but can also ruin even a well-constructed presentation.
This chapter will cover how nervousness shows and how to conceal it,
using the adrenaline produced productively and not negatively.
© The New Yorker Collection 2001 William Haefeli from cartoonbank.com.

32 Controlling nerves
Nervousness
‘It’s positive to be nervous, because it shows you’re focused and ready,
but you have to control the nerves rather than allow them to control
you.’ Pierluigi Collina, Soccer World Cup Final Referee
We’ve all been there: the heart pounding, the ribcage barely able to con-
tain it, the mouth dry, the palms sweaty and the head feeling like it will
explode. This is all about performing in front of others, and scientific
presentation is no exception. The reality is that you will always be ner-
vous before presenting, whether it is a speech at a wedding or a seminar
to fellow scientists.
Nerves indicate that what you are about to do is important. For example,
you don’t (normally) get into such a state when talking to friends on the
telephone or ordering a meal in a restaurant. Nerves can be used to your
advantage, the resulting adrenaline rush propelling you forward. It’s all
a question of knowing how to conceal and control them.
Why are we nervous?
Understanding why you are nervous is the first step towards getting
this state of mind under control. Almost all of the reasons given by our
course participants are linked to judgement by others. People do not
want to look stupid and make a fool of themselves, or fail to answer
questions at the end of the talk. There is a real fear of being judged by
one’s peers and seniors. The other reasons given for nervousness are
linked to the act of presenting: worrying about drying up, not having
enough information to fill the allotted time, feeling inadequate for the
task and disliking being in the spotlight. Add on fear of failure and fear
of the unknown and it’s no wonder that the heart races faster!
How does nervousness show?
Nervousness shows in many ways, and often you are not aware of how
it is affecting your voice and body. Most people are not so good at spot-
ting the flaws in their own presentation. This is revealed at our practical
sessions where talks are videoed and the speakers can actually see how
they come across when the video recording is replayed. Many have never
realised that they have, for example, a nervous giggle or a tendency to
look up, but having seen the evidence they can do something about it.
!

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—M. Gilder.—Arrivée à Yakoutsk.—L’état des routes en Sibérie au moment du
départ des voyageurs.
CHAPITRE X.
D’IRKOUSTK A YAKOUTSK.
Les dangers d’un voyage en traîneau sur la Léna.—Un exemple de rapidité
extraordinaire sur cette route.—Voyages d’aujourd’hui et voyages d’autrefois sur
ce fleuve.—Voyage de John Dundas Cochrane.—Autres voyages remarquables
sur la Léna.—Les habitants des rives de la Léna.—Descendants des criminels
exilés sur les bords de ce fleuve.—Châtiments des récidivistes.—Les Yakoutes.—
Nombre considérable de goîtreux.—Cause de cette infirmité.—Les Mammouths.
—Nous sommes obligés de prendre la route d’été.—Voyage dans la forêt.—
Charme d’un pareil voyage.—Un accident.—Vitimsk, tête de station de bateaux à
vapeur.—Avenir du commerce de la Léna.—Essais infructueux du professeur
Nordenskjold avec le vapeur Léna.—Thèse de M. Nordenskjold, sur la possibilité
d’établir des relations commerciales avec la Sibérie.—Les véritables chemins
commerciaux de l’avenir.—Les Skopzi sur la Léna.—Yakoutsk. 265
CINQUIÈME PARTIE.
La catastrophe.
CHAPITRE XI.
DÉCOUVERTE DE LA TROUPE DE DE LONG.
M. Melville arrive à Boulouni.—Sa première dépêche.—Arrivée à Cath Cartha.—
Voyage de Melville au cap Bykoff pour s’y procurer des chiens et du poisson.—
Quelques détails sur Cath Cartha.—Un hiver extraordinairement rigoureux.—Des
indigènes morts de froid.—Dépêche du 24 mars.—Premiers détails sur la
découverte des cadavres de de Long et de ses compagnons.—Liste des hommes
retrouvés.—Lettre de M. Jackson.—Nouveaux détails sur la découverte de de
Long et de ses hommes.—Sépulture.—Description du mausolée.—Premiers
détails sur les recherches faites pour retrouver le lieutenant Chipp et les
hommes du canot no 2. 293
CHAPITRE XII.
LES DERNIERS JOURS DE DE LONG ET DE SON PARTI.
Le samedi, 1er octobre, 111e jour de la retraite.—Erickson subit l’amputation des
doigts de pied.—Passage de la rivière.—Record laissé sur la rive orientale.—Une
route glacée et des rations pour un jour encore.—Quatre quatorzièmes de livre
315

de pemmican par homme et un chien mourant de faim pour provisions.—On
trouve des empreintes de pas d’homme.—Alexis prend une butte de terre pour
une hutte.—Conséquences de cette erreur.—Le lieutenant de Long, M. Collins et
Gortz, passent à travers la glace.—Le dernier chien est tué et mangé.—
Effroyable nuit.—L’état d’Erickson s’aggrave.—Il a les mains gelées.—La troupe
cherche un abri dans une hutte.—Une ration de thé et une demi-livre de chien.
—Mort d’Erickson.—Ses funérailles.—Dernière demi-livre de chien.—Départ.—
Record laissé dans la hutte.—Alexis rapporte un ptarmigan.—Départ de
Ninderman et de Noros.—Des morceaux de peau de renne pour nourriture.—
Plus de thé.—Une cuillerée de glycérine pour nourriture.—La glycérine fait
défaut.—L’infusion de saule arctique la remplace.—Lee supplie ses compagnons
de l’abandonner.—Une demi-cuillerée à thé d’huile douce par homme et par
jour.—Du thé de saule et deux vieilles bottes.—Alexis meurt.—Knack et Lee
meurent.—Iverson meurt.—Dressler meurt.—Boyd et Gortz meurent.—M. Collins
mourant.—Plus rien.—Jusqu’à quel point la fatalité s’est acharnée sur de Long et
ses compagnons.
SIXIÈME PARTIE.
Le retour.
CHAPITRE XIII
RETOUR
Position du lieu où furent retrouvés les corps du capitaine de Long et de ses
compagnons.—Erreur du premier sur le chemin qu’il avait parcouru et sur sa
véritable position.—Stolboï.—M. Jackson reprend la route suivie par Ninderman
et Noros.—Il arrive à Boulouni.—Son départ pour Verschoyansk où il espère
rattraper M. Melville.—En route il apprend qu’il est précédé de deux officiers
américains.—Quand il arrive à Verschoyansk, Melville est parti, ainsi que les
deux officiers américains.—Qui sont ces derniers.—Le capitaine Berry,
commandant du Rodgers.—Après plusieurs jours de marche forcée, M. Jackson
rejoint le capitaine Berry et le lieutenant Hunt, son compagnon.—Nouvelles qu’il
en reçoit.—Le lieutenant Putnam emporté par les glaces.—Récit du voyage du
capitaine Berry.—Les trois voyageurs rejoignent M. Melville, retenu à Kengurack
par les neiges. 345
CHAPITRE XIV.
Nouveaux détails fournis par l’ingénieur Melville à M. Jackson sur les difficultés de
la retraite à travers les glaces de l’Océan Glacial.—Héroïsme de l’équipage.—Où
la Jeannette a péri, tout autre navire eût péri.—A l’île Semenowski.—Choix d’un
point de débarquement sur la côte de la Sibérie.—Pourquoi on choisit le cap
373

Barkin comme point de ralliement.—La séparation des trois canots.—Recherche
du lieutenant Chipp et de son parti.—Où il aurait dû aborder s’il eût atteint la
côte.—Instructions données à Ninderman et à Bartlett pour les recherches.—
Explorations de Ninderman.—Exploration de Bartlett.—L’ingénieur Melville visite
la côte nord-ouest jusqu’à l’Oleneck.—Il visite ensuite la baie Barkhaya et va
jusqu’à Ustyansk.—Des localités du delta habitées pendant l’hiver.—Voies pour
entrer dans la Léna.
CHAPITRE XV.
M. GILDER.—RETOUR DE L’EXPÉDITION.
M. Gilder apprend la nouvelle du désastre de la Jeannette à Nishne Kolymsk.—Il
part pour Verschoyansk.—A Yakoutsk.—Le capitaine Jurgens.—Les bords de la
Léna.—Voyage à la remorque.—A Irkoutsk.—La soupe froide et le quass.—Le
général Anoutchine.—Arrivée à Paris. 389
FIN DU TOME II.
PARIS.—Imp. Tolmer et Cie, Succursale à Poitiers.—(157).

NOTES
[1] Voir le plan du camp aux gravures.
[2] Voir aux gravures.
[3] Cette station est désignée sous le
nom de Burulak un peu plus loin.
[4] Fragment du carnet du lieutenant de
Long.
[5] Cette expression est intraduisible en
français; mot à mot: brisé à terre.
[6] Voir aux gravures le fac-simile de
l’autographe.

Au lecteur.
Note sur la transcription: Les erreurs clairement introduites
par le typographe ont été corrigées. L'orthographe d'origine a
été conservée et n'a pas été harmonisée.

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