EQUALITY GUIdE - KU Leuven

Chapter 4 ! Scientific communication 215
4.1.3.1. The contents and structure of a presentation
Your presentation is as good as your preparation. Study your presentation so that you
know the contents by heart. The difference between a text and a speech is the speaker.
For this reason, you can add personal information to your story. Give the impression
that you like giving presentations. Avoid negative things because your speaking time is
very limited. Be yourself but know that you perform. ‘You are not an actor but a performer’.
The beginning and end of a statement are crucial. During the introduction, which can
take 15% of the allotted time, you tell everyone what you are going to talk about and
you repeat that. You formulate your core ideas and explain the structure. You make
contact, create expectations and ensure a reward (e.g. at the end of the presentation,
you will know who ...). In general, listeners remember about 85% of your introduction.
Conclude your presentation, summarize and repeat your core idea. In general, people
remember about 75% of the conclusion.
Build your story around a core idea. Work with this core idea by using pictures, metaphors
and examples. Do not try to tell too much. The more specific you are, the better.
True anecdotes make a story and gradually open the listeners’ eyes. Sow images to
harvest imagination.
Try to make a point by telling one story after the other. Then try some storytelling to
convey the meanings and facts. Some listeners remember logical, rational facts while
others need emotions, associations, intuition, etc. For a female audience, the latter will
probably work better. The way you bring the story determines whether the message
gets across.
Pay attention to your language. People who speak well have less difficulty in holding
the attention of the listeners. Standard Dutch has to belong to the register of the scientist.
Dialects can undermine your authority and status. A captivating speaker, who has
the gift of the gab, is nice to listen to. However, be careful it does not turn against you.
Do not be afraid of silences. They help people to comprehend what you are saying. In
one minute’s time, you pronounce an average of 125 words, but listeners experience
this as 800 words. Give them a break from time to time and respect their thinking
space. Allow them to think with you: involve them by asking rhetorical questions on a
regular basis.
Presentations by research scientists mainly consist of informative sentences. They hardly
use any structure or comment sentences. Go for an ‘enlarged conversation’: avoid
being pedantic and keep your presentation fresh and colourful. Before starting your
presentation, try to answer the following questions: what does my audience know already?
What does it want to know? What does it have to know? How do I communicate
it?
Stopgaps can be useful in a presentation, but stay away from the meaningless ‘euhm’.
If you use stopgaps, only use meaningful ones, such as reflecting, not finishing an as-