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Presentation Guidelines |
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Presentation Guidelines
- Ask authors to summarize their papers, focusing on central issues and findings rather than attempting to read their papers in their entirety, and to make effective use of visual aids. Emphasize to authors the importance of distinguishing between the submitted paper and the presented version. Though some circumstances may necessitate reading texts (e.g., novices or persons with extreme “stage fright” may need to read prepared summaries), straight reading should be discouraged to the extent possible.
- Limit sessions to three (rather than four) presented papers and a discussant, which allows more time for questions from the audience and general discussion. It is especially important to allow time for true exchange, so that the discussant does not have “the last word.”
- Encourage the discussant to note points of similarity and, especially, difference in the papers or approaches to the topic. The authors are then given time to debate/discuss the differences and to defend their own positions.
- Encourage the discussant to ask questions or raise issues directly relevant to the presenters in order to keep the session on point and to stimulate exchange between authors and the discussant.
- Request presenters to circulate their papers to one another, asking each author to specify key issues or questions they would like to consider during a discussion among authors (perhaps eliminating the need for a discussant) following brief summaries of papers.
- Be specific and concrete in your directions to presenters. For example, tell them exactly how much time is allowed, instruct them to use an outline rather than reading their texts, to use overheads or slides, and to avoid having visual presentations that have too many numbers or print that is too small to read from a distance.
- Make sure that participants are all strongly committed to attending the meeting, especially when there are fewer than four presentations. A withdrawal or cancellation of a presentation will cause a considerable gap in the impact of a session, particularly if a replacement is unobtainable.
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