Outline and Transitions

12.1 Consider not having an “Outline” slide

Scientific presentations tend to follow the same structure—introduction, method, results, discussion. Unless you intend to radically deviate from this structure then you do not necessarily need to use an outline slide as a transition into the main part of the presentation.

A poor outline slide like the ones below is a signal to the audience that they will hear the same old things again.

OUTLINE

Introduction

Methodology

Results

Conclusions

AGENDA

Overview

Aims and purposes

Theoretical framework

Research methods

Empirical analysis

The slides above simply tell the audience that your presentation follows the standard procedure and that surprises are highly unlikely. They are a series of abstract words that act as an invitation for the audience to go to sleep—the slides give no information to the audience that they could not have imagined or guessed for themselves. It also encourages the presenter to say things that add no information for the audience (see original version below which refers to the first outline slide above). However although you do not need to show the audience a slide like this, you do need to tell your audience verbally what you plan to do, i.e., your main messages. But you need to do this in a way that really gives them useful information that will help them to understand the context and structure of your presentation (as in revised version).

12.2Use an “Outline” slide for longer presentations and for arts, humanities, and social sciences

An outline may be more useful when you are giving a longer presentation (20 minutes, 45 minutes) or for topics outside physical and life sciences. In this case the audience may need a slide showing the conceptual framework to help them understand the rest of your presentation. Keep it down to a maximum of four points, otherwise the audience may think that the presentation will be covering too much for them to readily assimilate. As always, you should focus on your main messages.

An outline is also useful when you are not describing some research project, but are talking more generally about a certain issue. In this case, the sequence of your presentation may not be immediately obvious and an outline might help to orient the audience.

In some disciplines, presenters begin with a slide containing a question. This question encapsulates the reason for their research, it is the question that they hope their research will answer. For example,

To what extent does Iran’s foreign policy include realism?

Would online voting solve election fixing?

How has the Internet affected parent/child relationships?

The presenter then needs to have another slide in which he/she indicates the approach or context used to answer this question. This helps to give a structure to the presentation and to alert the audience to what they can expect to hear.

The outline slide for the last question could thus be

The Internet has

replaced time previously dedicated to family interactions

replaced educational role of parents

given parents a mass of info on good parenting

provided opportunities for shared entertainment

The presenter’s commentary on the above slide could be

When I posed the question “How has the Internet affected parent/child relationships?” I began by focusing on the negative factors, such as how families spend less time together given that most kids today have their PC in their bedroom. And, as a mother myself, I also thought about how parents are being used less and less as a source of information to help kids with school work. But then I realised that parents today can use the Internet to learn about the behaviour of their children and how they can improve their relationships with them—there is so much useful information out there. So that was one positive factor. Another positive factor is that there is a lot of fun stuff on the Internet, particularly videos on YouTube that families can actually share together, in the same way as they might watch a TV show together. So these are the four factors that I have been studying, and today I would like to focus on the first and fourth points.

Note how the presenter

•does not read the four bullets but comments on them using different words

•involves the audience in the story of her decision-making process

•uses an informal but nevertheless professional style

•tells the audience that she is only going to talk about two of the points—she wouldn’t have time to talk about all four, and this enables her to talk about two in more detail

12.3 Use transitions to guide your audience

You know two very important things that the audience does not know:

•what you did and found in your research

•the sequence of your slides and why they follow a particular structure

You need to help the audience follow your presentation. You cannot jump from one slide to the next at great speed. If the audience misses one particular point, they may lose the thread (i.e., the links, logical flow) of the rest of the presentation.

The way of moving from one slide to another, and from topic to topic, is crucial. For the audience it should be like following a map, and you need to make it very clear to them whenever you make a turn. Also, at each turn it is helpful if you summarize for them what you have told them so far. Those in the audience who missed a previous turn now have an opportunity to get back on the right road. This is a different from a paper, where readers can, if necessary, just retrace their steps.

In a presentation, these moves or turns are called transitions. Before you move to the next section or group of slides

1.pause for two seconds. This signals to the audience that you are going to say something important

2.look at the audience and give a quick summary of the most important things you have said so far. Repetition may seem boring to you because you know the subject so well, but it gives the audience a chance to check their understanding

3.move on to the next section explaining how it relates to the previous one

This whole process should take about 20 seconds, so don’t think it is unnecessarily increasing the length of your presentation.

12.4 Exploit your transitions

A transition is a good opportunity for

•you to slow down or change the pace of the presentation

•the audience (and you) to relax a little—remember that the audience cannot assimilate vast quantities of information in quick succession

•you to regain the audience’s attention by making them curious about what is coming next.