Tips for presentations

Here you can get back to the main page of the course "Algorithms for Computational Biology".

• Do not simply copy examples or slides from the web or from books. Use your own examples.
• Do not copy figures (pictures) from books or the web. Make your own figures, either with a program, or by hand and scan them. You will understand much more this way!
• This is an algorithms course. You should explain the algorithms in detail, as if you were a lecturer in a class. Use an example. Go into detail. When talking about running time or space, don't just state them, but explain why your claims hold.
• You should be able to explain everything you put on your slides. (You cannot say "I found this somewhere on the web." or "I found this is the book XYZ.")
• You are supposed to explain an algorithm. Use the books to help you understand what you have to explain. You can use examples from the books, even cite literally from them. But do not simply summarize the text I gave you. And do make your own examples: this helps you in understanding. (Then you may end up using the example from the book during your presentation, but you will not understand the algorithm if you haven't tried it on your own example!)

• Do not put too much text. You should probably not have more than 8 lines on a slide, better 5. (Less is more!)
  Why? Because (a) the audience otherwise has too much to read, and cannot pay attention to you, and (b) you have nothing interesting to say because you are only reading from the slide. It is better to have less text, only a few words, and then elaborate, explain more in detail while you are talking.
• Use only sans serif fonts (e.g. Arial is good, Times New Roman not). These are fonts made for being projected. Also, do not use very small fonts. The text should be legible from the last row.
• Do not have too many slides. You should probably not have more than 20 slides for 20-30 minutes, but 15 is better. (Less is more!)
• Do not use complete sentences. E.g. instead of
  "The simplest construction method is to use any comparison-based sorting algorithm and apply it to the suffixes of s."
  write "simplest: apply comparison-based sorting algorithm to suffixes of s"
• Do use pictures. A picture is worth a thousand words.
• Do use bullets or numbers to structure your text (i.e. numbered lists or unnumbered lists).
• Do use colours. But better to use only strong colours and few, and better check them beforehand (careful with yellow, green, and light blue). The colours may come out different on the wall than on your screen, and different on different projectors. Best are red, blue and green.
• Use a simple background, best monochromatic. Do not use negative characters (e.g. white characters on black background). These are usually hard to read.
• Do use examples. An example usually explains an idea, an algorithm, a problem, better than text.
• Do use page numbers, best in form x/y (x'th page of a total of y). (But if y is big, e.g. because of overlays, then don't put it, it will only scare off the audience.) This way people can refer back to a page more easily when asking a question.
• Your first slide should have the title of the talk and your name.
• Often a "Summary" slide is a nice last slide, maybe followed by a "Thank you for your attention" slide.