Presentation Tips

Dear Diary,

Raphael gave a practice talk at today's meeting.  Professor Burke has decided to hood Lucas at the coming graduation, so Raphael will be substituting for Professor Burke at the conference.

Or will Raphael be at the Graduation and Professor Burke at the conference?!

Professor Burke called on me afterwards to give constructive criticism and pitted me against Raphael Hunger Games style.  The odds were certainly not in my favor, but I had fortunately been taking notes and had a few comments:

1.  Avoid acronyms
2.  Make sure items are large enough to be seen from the background
3.  Use a sans seriff font to avoid curly characters
4.  Don't shift around
5.  Have a sense of humor, but don't be funny (no xkcd cartoons)
6.  Practice the first few slides a lot of time to avoid hiccuping in the beginning
7.  Practice often
8.  Smile!

and that was about it.  Number 5 was controversial because while xkcd cartoons are amateurish, putting Spock and evil Spock onto a slide in a careful way is classy.

Raphael managed to avoid all of these and gave a great presentation.  Hopefully I can sharpen my skills up to his level quickly!