Preparation to Presentation

Preparation to Presentation

If you ask me whether I like public speaking, my answer is “I like public speaking but I do not like preparing for it.”

Growing up, I did not like studying for tests, not because I do dislike the subject material or do not want to do well in the class, but because I like preparation less than presentation. I enjoy taking the test, but do not enjoy studying for it. However, preparation enables us to perform better on presentation. The balance between preparation and presentation is something I struggle with often, especially when it comes to oral presentations. 

  
For oral presentations, the relationship between preparation and presentation is more nuanced. There are three components: making the presentation (visual aid), rehearsing the presentation, and delivering the presentation. Since there is a set date for delivering the presentation, the balance between making the presentation and rehearsing it needs to be optimized for best delivery.

Due to my preference of presentation over preparation, I would rather spend more time on making the slides than rehearsing it, because the audience see the slides I made, but not the time I spent rehearsing the presentation. For journal club presentation, I made the mistake to spending all the time I had making the presentation and revising it, and not leaving any time to practice going through the slides and giving the presentation. I feared that it was going to be hard to make each slide contain one message, but after understanding the main conclusions drawn in the article, making each slide communicate a single message seems natural. Since each slide contained one message, I thought ten minutes was enough time to communicate a dozen messages. However, my presentation went overtime because I did not take into account the transitions between each slide or practice transition sentences to make the presentation flow coherently. I learned that practicing giving the presentation is as important as making the presentation.

I think the most surprising part of delivering the presentation was during the Q&A part, when I could not confidently give an answer to the question related to the key findings of the paper. I felt familiar with the paper by reading its entirety. However, I did not even remember the gene functions of the transcription signatures the researchers found! This was my first time presenting research performed by someone else. I learned that a big difference between presenting original research and someone else’s research is that you cannot come-up with answers on the spot because you have not done the research yourself: you either remember how the article addresses the question, or you do not.

Overall, making each slide communicate one message was easier than I expected, but transition sentences and Q&A were harder than I expected. Preparing to give the presentation is just as important as making the presentation.

- Ning (Alexa) Guan

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Presentation

The presentation went well. I think it was super helpful to fake present to classmates and instructors. Getting feedback from people who didn't know very much about our topic was really important for overcoming the bias of information. That’s when you know more than your audience and because of this assume a certain level of literacy with your topic that your audience doesn’t necessarily have. We practiced a lot to different people and I think that paid off and turned a presentation that was initially inscrutable and complex to something that was logical and understandable. 
Read more

Mod 3 experience

I was initially worried after reading the introduction of Mod 3. I didn't necessarily understand what was going on at first and I did not want to work with batteries as I thought this was not what I signed up for. However, as time went on and we continued to learn what was going on, this was a really fun module. I genuinely enjoyed working on the lab, seeing the TEM results, and constructing our batteries. To think we can use our skills as biological engineers to make batteries is quite interesting. Also, the fact that the paper is roughly 3 papers makes it so much easier to do. Our presentations were also really interesting and I really like all of the ideas that I've heard from my peers. It really taught me that we're not that far away from writing our own papers in the future and coming up with ideas for research projects. Overall, 20.109 has equipped me with the essentials to be a biological engineer but most importantly, how to communicate with others in our field.
Read more

Don’t judge a module by first sight!

Different from Module 1 and Module 2, Module 3 is less molecular biology focused and not directly related to medicine. At the beginning of Module 3, I thought that I would enjoy this module less as it seemed less relevant to my primary interest in medicine and cancer research. However, I was wrong. I truly enjoyed this module, from TEM to making batteries, from brainstorming research ideas to presenting our research proposal. It was my second time seeing TEM samples, but it was just as fascinating as the first time. The phage nanowires were intertwined with evenly distributed gold nanoparticles, and the gold atomic planes were so regular and amazingly beautiful. On the last day of Module 3, it was so exciting to see batteries being made, and to light up LEDs using batteries with the cathodes we made! The unimaginable beauty in the order, simplicity, and complexity of nature, from atoms to nanoparticles, from proteins to cells to organisms, is what drew me to biology in the...
Read more