How to present a conference paper.

Speaking aloud.

Academic conferences always tell you how long you will be expected to speak. Never exceed that limit. If you do, you will look as if you are so fascinated by yourself that you are happy to take up other people’s time and grab all the attention that should be shared with other scholars. How can you avoid going over the stated time? Decide what you will say in your presentation and go over it a couple of times, speaking aloud. Time yourself while delivering the presentation in English to your grandmother or a family pet. If you go over the required time, eliminate some material. If you are asked to speak for fifteen minutes, you can speak for fourteen minutes and no one will hate you. They will only hate you if you speak for twenty or twenty-five minutes, since conference days are very long and every minute counts.

How many power point slides?

Usually you can allot about one minute or so to discussing each power point slide, so if you have a fifteen minute speech to give, you do not need more than about 15 or 17 power point slides. Some students appear for a fifteen minute presentation with 35 slides, panic when they realize they have run out of time, and look completely disorganized. No one cares if you worked a lot, all that matters is your results, presented clearly and concisely. Much of the rest of this advice is intended for students rather than ajarns.

You are not expected to be Picasso.

Some students take badly conceived elective courses in graphic design and decide to use power point slides as an occasion to express their visual creativity. Power point slides are sometimes choked with all kinds of irrelevant images, such as pictures of money if the subject of the paper is the Bank of Thailand. Rest assured that if your listeners are attending a seminar about the Bank of Thailand, they know what money looks like and they do not need to be reminded by you. For legibility, slides should be in clear, big enough black type on a white background. Times New Roman typeface is a good readable typeface. Avoid cursive or thin typefaces as they are less legible, even if you think they look more elegant. Especially avoid the temptation to use letters in pretty pastel colors which are difficult to read at the back of a room. Worst of all is to use white type on a dark background for a slide, which is almost impossible to read at the back of a room. Presenters who make this kind of graphic design error look as if they are so bored with their subject and think it must bore their listeners too, so frantic decorations might keep people awake. Illustrations are acceptable in a book or a blog to add visual interest, but not in a power point slide, where the only goal is to convey essential information. For that, it must be readable from a distance.

Keep things in scale.

Make sure you are not squeezing too much information onto each slide, in too small type. Each slide must be readable from a good distance away. Diagrams and statistical tables are a particular problem for many presenters. Sometimes they are too tiny to be read or partly cut off the screen by the projector. Instead, hand out printed and photocopied diagrams and statistical tables to your audience on the day of the presentation rather than waste power point slides on them, especially if they contain small print.

A public presentation is not a text message to your friends.

Students are sometimes too informal in their presentations, and include smiley faces, cute bunnies, or other such images on power point slides. Remember that the point of giving presentations at an international event is to interact with the outside world. This means you are no longer among your family and friends who love you. Your audience will not know you, so you should be polite and respectful but not overfamiliar with them. This is so even if students are giving papers to other students in their own age group, but especially if ajarns are present.

A public presentation is not a day at the beach.

While many departments at TU do not require students to wear uniform, it is probably a good idea to dress formally if you must stand in front of others to give a paper, to show that you respect them, the subject, and the hallowed grounds of your university or other institution of learning. If you wear a T-shirt and sandals, listeners may think that you spent as little time thinking about your academic subject as you did your clothes. Some brilliant, hard-working students prefer to dress informally, but Thailand is a developing country and in any international setting, you are representing the Kingdom as well as TU. It is better to overdress and show too much respect than to seem too casual and possibly offend your hosts or others in your audience.

Pronunciation tips.

Do not just ignore the fact that you will have to pronounce words in English. Take a little extra time and make sure that you have some idea of how they should be pronounced. Thai English style can often be misleading or even wrong about how English words are pronounced. For an idea of standard English pronunciation, look up words which you know you will have to pronounce, even simple words, online at a site such as the Merriam-Webster’s dictionary. Click the little speaker icon next to any word which you have looked up. That will give you two alternative ways to hear a computer voice give the correct pronunciation of the word. You can listen to each word as many times as you wish, until you have a clear idea of how it should sound. This should help when you have to pronounce it yourself. Say the word slowly and exaggerate the consonants, just to make sure you are sounding out the full word correctly. Quite often Thai English pronunciation leaves out important consonants when English words are pronounced, Avoid this common error by making a special effort to pronounce all the sounds in each word, as heard in the standard pronunciation guide. If you have farang friends, you can also ask them how to pronounce a word in English, but they may sometimes be wrong themselves.  Also, friends are not always available, but an online pronunciation device is a 24/7 convenience. As important as correctly pronouncing words is the task of correctly pronouncing names of experts in your field. This is especially difficult for Thai speakers of English. If you know that you will have to say the name of an authority in your field, look on YouTube to see if either that person or someone else has taped a lecture or other presentation which will give you an idea of how the name should be pronounced in English. Do a Google search for videos to get further examples. It is not always best to ask fellow students or even ajarns about the pronunciation of names, as they may have a sketchy or incorrect idea themselves. The worst-case scenario is that you mispronounce the name of an eminent authority many times in your presentation, and then it turns out he or she is actually present in the room where you are speaking.

Don’t speak too fast to save time.

In order to fit lots of information in a reduced time limit, some students gabble at high speed. The combination of bad pronunciation and excessive speed means that almost nothing they say is understood by the audience. Slow down, take the time to pronounce words carefully to get your message across. Ask your audience if they can hear you, if they are following you, and otherwise make it possible for someone to ask you to repeat something if it has not been expressed clearly enough.The only important thing is whether your research is communicating to your listeners.

Take criticism politely.

Most people who comment on your paper will genuinely want to be helpful and assist you in improving your work. Be sure to take notes about what every commenter says. Even if you plan to throw the notes out the minute you are alone, it is essential to give the appearance that you plan to follow up on each and every suggestion and that you appreciate the advice. All comments can be useful, especially if the reaction is negative. You do not have to agree with all critical comments, but hearing expert advice develops your work more than if your audience just sits quietly or says “very nice.”

(all images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)