This page summarizes the presentation tips based on comments for past presentations in Chao Lab.
Basic rules
- Grammar and spelling checks for slides
- Rehearse at least once
- Stick to the time limit
- All contents in slides are subject to be questioned
🎤 Delivery & Presentation Style
👀 Eye Contact & Engagement
- Do not look at the slides all the time, have eye contact with audience from time to time
- When a table/figure contains much info, point to the mentioned part to assist explanation
- Do not read from the script; talk naturally
- Explain plots in detail, convey messages properly
⏱️ Pacing & Clarity
- Use animation to show bullet points one by one, instead of showing all points in one go
- Avoid too many words on slides, shorten or split content
- Do not simply read through table row names, explain properly
- State one sentence to highlight motivation of comparisons
🧩 Slide Content & Structure
Background & Definitions
- Must have research background
- Main concepts and terms should be explained very clearly in the start
- Motivations should be highlighted at the beginning
- Write out full forms when introducing acronyms the first time
- You may recall the full form later in the presentation, in case the audience forgets
Visual Improvements
- Plots can be helpful in demonstrating complex idea vividly
- Frame titles can serve as the key messages of plots/tables
- Increase font sizes (text, legends, labels) in figures
- Adjust dot sizes for better visibility
- Merge legends where possible
- Ensure the y-axis shows complete data ranges
🧑💻 Technical Content & Explanations
Model & Methodology
- Highlight each contribution clearly
- Notations should be consistent throughout the whole presentation
- Explain the key indices at least once, e.g.
- $c$: country
- $t$: year or time
- State clearly what are known values vs what are unknown parameters in the model
Results Interpretation
- Highlight important results using red boxes in tables
✅ Specific Terms Needed
Structural Improvements
- Use bullet points in short terms instead of long sentences
- Table of contents is not always necessary
- This is especially so when you give a flash presentation
- In the overview slide, mention that they are overviews - details to follow in later slides
Contributors of this page
- Qiqi Qiang, last updated on 2025 Dec 3.
- Fengqing Chao, last updated on 2025 Nov 28th.
Chao Lab Documentations