Presentations are an integral part of working in science and industry. A good portion of an engineer's day is spent either preparing for or listening to presentations of technical information (whether results of research, proposals, status reports of projects, etc.). The formats for a technical presentation vary greatly, but no matter what the format (length, formality, location, etc.), you must inform your audience as efficiently as possible without skimping on the information your audience needs to really understand what you are saying and why. As with much technical writing, the trick is to figure out ahead of time how much detail and explanation your audience needs.

In making a technical presentation, you've got three trump cards: the words you show, the words you speak, and the images you show. Each has a time and occasion to be played. You also have a constant that can be entirely under your control: your delivery. Delivery includes your appearance, voice, gestures, composure, your interaction with the audience and with your visuals.

We will make a distinction between presentations and orally delivered "papers" sometimes given at professional society meetings. No matter how nervous you are, when giving a presentation, you should never simply read what you've written down. Your audience will become restive and bored, figuring rightly that they could always read your paper at their own convenience so why should they be sitting and listening. You want to sound as extemporaneous as possible, using note cards if you wish. Don't try to memorize a "speech." Build your presentation around an outline, instead.

In this class, you will have a number of opportunities to give presentations. On the first day of lab, you will introduce a classmate to the lab group. A couple of weeks later, you will make a relatively short Informal Project Presentation. Then, you will give an Oral Briefing , and, finally, you will give a 15-minute Final Oral Presentation on your findings and recommendations. (Links to details about these two presentations are in the previous sentence and in the navigation at left.) For these last two presentations, we will assume that your client is in the audience.

I suggest that you prepare for your talk in four stages: planning, creating visuals, rehearsing, and relaxing. See the rest of this Web site for information on planning and delivering technical presentations (there are links in the navigation and off the schedule/syllabus). We will discuss this information in class, especially the importance of adequate rehearsal and techniques for overcoming nervousness.