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“Writing” and “Speaking”

Written and Oral Presentations


Writing Papers and Giving Talks

Part of the Block Course „Working Techniques“ in the Frame of the


International Master‘s Program for Informatics
Johannes Kepler University, Campus Hagenberg, Austria
September 2008

Copyright Bruno Buchberger 2008 1


Copyright Bruno Buchberger 2008:
No parts of this file may be copied or stored without written
permission.

Storing and printed granted for the students of the International


Master’s Program in Informatics, JKU, Campus Hagenberg,
September 2008 under the condition that the file is kept
unchanged and complete including this copyright note.

Copyright Bruno Buchberger 2008 2


Contents:

• The Role of Written and Oral Presentations

• The Parameters on Which Presentations Depend

• Structure of Written and Oral Presentations

• Technicalities of Written and Oral Presentations

Copyright Bruno Buchberger 2008 3


The Role of
Written and Oral Presentations

Copyright Bruno Buchberger 2008 4


Situations for Presentations: Examples

• a seminar paper with talk


• an interview at a company
• product presentation at a costumer
• teaching users of a software system
• explaining your parents what you are doing
• a master’s thesis
• a paper for a journal
• a paper for a conference with talk
• writing a proposal for a fellowship
• writing a project proposal
• meeting a politician
• a radio interview
• writing a press release
• “talk to yourself”
•…

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Lots Little
of Work Work

Presen-
tation

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• Reading (listening) should be less work than re-invention.

• Good work is lost by bad presentation.

• Bad presentation is also bad for the author: The readers will
prefer to re-invent rather than to read (or to listen to others).

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The Golden Rule for Presentations:

Spend your time as an author


for saving the time of the reader!

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The Myth on Mathematical Intelligence:

“He has got the right idea


but he is just not able to express it.”

Copyright Bruno Buchberger 2008 9


Contents:

 The Role of Written and Oral Presentations

• The Parameters on Which Presentations Depend

• Structure of Written and Oral Presentations

• Technicalities

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The Parameters
on which Presentations Depend

A Common Misunderstanding:

A
The
“topic”
presentation

oral / written

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Rather:

A
“Topic”

The
addressees
The
presentation
Chosen
media

Size
constraints

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Also: The Process of Presentation is a Spiral

The
A
presentation
“topic”

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Also: The Presentation Spiral is the Crucial Method of Research

A
“topic”

“Ideas do not come from Kami but from Kami”

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Some Consequences:

Never give the same talk twice!

Don’t present a paper


by presenting the paper!

Much of your writing


is only for yourself.

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Rather:

- contents (the “topic”)


A - goals
“topic” - point of emphasis

- profession
- training
The
- motivation
addressees - age
- relationship The
- no media presentation
- paper
Chosen
- blackboard
media - slides
- interactive media
- space
Size - time
constraints

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Some Consequences:

Learn to express one content for

• many different addressees

• using arbitrary media

• under arbitrary constraints

Force yourself to adjust to the addressee,


don’t force the addressee to adjust to you.

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Goals:

• Goal /= “topic”

• Same topic, different goals  different presentation !

• Goals should be “operational”.

• Clear goals are the best motivation for the addressees.

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An operational specification of a goal:

• Describes the operation the reader / listener should be able to


perform after reading / hearing the presentation.

• Non-operational: The reader should “understand”.

• Of course, all this has to be taken “cum grano salis” !!

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Example: Paper by B. Buchberger, Towards the Automated Synthesis of a Gröbner
Bases Algorithm

• The “topic” is clear.

• However, many different operational goals possible: The reader should be


able

– to explain the main idea in examples


 write a “tutorial”
– to develop all details of the algorithm so that he can program it
 write a “program specification”
– to fill in all the details of the proof
write a “mathematical foundations paper”
– to use the program and apply it as a black box
write a “user’s manual”
– to change the program
 write a “documentation”
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Exercise: What are (should / could be) the operational goals behind
Buchberger’s paper?

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The point(s) of emphasis:

• One or very few points of emphasis.

• Should be clear to the author, should be clear to the addressee.

• Napoleon: “Only chase one rabbit at a time!”

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Exercise: What is (should / could be) the point of emphasis in Buchberger’s
paper?

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Contents:

 The Role of Written and Oral Presentations

 The Parameters on Which Presentations Depend

• Structure of Written and Oral Presentations

• Technicalities of Written and Oral Presentations

Copyright Bruno Buchberger 2008 24


The Structure of Presentations

• Some structural considerations are common to oral and written


presentations (talks and papers).

• Some other structural considerations depend on the “media”


used.

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Three psychologic facts behind the art of presentation:

- Good motivation facilitates understanding.

- Well associated contents can more easily be kept in brain.

- Consecutive learning blocks may disturb each other.

As a consequence, the following “presentation curve” is fundamental.

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Motivation Presentation Association

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The most natural way
of presenting mathematics / informatics:

Problem Solution Method Solution

Beyond the Now within


capabilities the capabilities
of addressee ! of addressee!

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For many mathematical papers and talks,
a well chosen example can / should be the center of the paper.

The basic rule for good examples:

- as simple as possible

- as complicated as necessary.

This rule also applies to everything else in mathematics:


drawings, definitions, proofs, algorithms, …

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Set Work hard Enjoy
(operational)
goal

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The presentation curve is a fractal:

- an entire study
- an entire course
- a lecture
- part of a lecture

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Don’t do this:

Why not?

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Another rule for presentations:

The complete contents should be presented


in a couple of rounds of increasing detail.

• in the title
• in the abstract
• in the introduction
• in the technical part for the “user”
• in the technical part for the “developer”
• (in the conclusions for those who have read the paper)

Note: the addressee changes in the different parts of a paper!

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A typical structure of papers:

• Title
• Author, affiliation, bibliographic data
• Abstract

• Introduction / literature review

• Technical part for the “users”


• Technical part for the “developers”

• Conclusion

• References
• Appendices

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Title:

A good structure: according to

problem type,
data type,
method type.

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SOLUTION OF
BOOLEAN
Mathematics as
problem types
EQUATIONS a 3-D space
BY ELIMINATION

method types
EQUATIONS

ELIMINATION

BOOLEAN ALGEBRAS data types


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Author, Affiliation, Bibliographic Information:

• Should enable the reader to get in contact with the author.

• Should enable the reader to cite the paper or to search for


citations.

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Abstract:

• Note that the addressees are readers who do not have the paper!

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Introduction / Literature Review:

• The place for motivation!

• The place for the main example!

• The place that convinces the referees about

– scope
– clarity
– importance
– difficulty (non-triviality)
– originality (difference to other work, “statement of originality”)
– completeness of literature survey
– presentation

• The place for “reading instructions”

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The Technical Parts of the Paper:

– The main prerequisite is thorough mastery of the formal aspect of


the mathematical methodology, see Chapter “Thinking”.

– Only things that are correct can also be presented well!

– If one masters the formal aspect of mathematics then one can


play with “styles” in dependence of the input parameters of the
presentation.

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Differences between the structure of papers and talks:

• Talks: Interaction with the addressees possible and desirable.

• Talks: A variety of different media is available (blackboards, data


projector, speech)

• Talks: Proceed in real-time (with the same speed for all people in the
audience)

• Talks need an extra written preparation, which is different from the


paper!

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Written Preparation for a Talk:

Psycho Technicalities

Goal Media Time

M Blackbd.
The actual text of the presentation

……
P
……
…...
A
Data
Proj.
P

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Exercise:

• Analyze the structure of Buchberger’s paper.

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Contents:

 The Role of Written and Oral Presentations

 The Parameters on Which Presentations Depend

 Structur of Written and Oral Presentations

• Technicalities of Written and Oral Presentations

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Technicalities

Technicalities of Talks: see lecture notes.

- Blackboards and slides:

- On slides we “present” facts. (Don’t overload!)

- On blackboards we develop ideas.

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Technicalities of Writing Papers:

• The interplay between text and formulae: syntactical


correctness!

• Easy readability.

• Uniformity in style.

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Some Difficulties in English:

• The use of passive, “one”, “we”, “I”.

• “which” and “that”

• “don’t” and “do not”, “it’s” and “its”.

• “the”, “a”, “an” and “ “: The have logical meaning!

“a” …. “existential quantifier”

“the” … instead of a constant

(Advice: collect 100 sample phrases from good papers!)

• British and American English.

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Contents:

 The Role of Written and Oral Presentations

 The Parameters on Which Presentations Depend

 Structure of Written and Oral Presentations

 Technicalities of Written and Oral Presentations

Copyright Bruno Buchberger 2008 48


Exercise:

• Choose (a very limited) topic and prepare three versions of a


paper and a talk on the topic in dependence on various settings
of the “input parameters” for the presentation.

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Conclusion (Points of Emphasis of this Lecture)
• The dependence of presentations on the input parameters:
A
“Topic”
The
The
addressees
presentation
Chosen
media
Size
constraints
• The “presentation curve”:

• Formal mastery of mathematics is the basis for good style.

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Another Summary:
The 5 aspects and criteria for good talks and papers

• „Facto“ (math / comp scie contents): goal oriented

• „ Logo“: mastering the logical aspect of math / comp scie

• „ Socio“: directed to a particular audience / readership

• „ Psycho“: respecting the psychologic fact of learning

• „Techno“: the technicalities of talks and papers

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Additional Details

Copyright Bruno Buchberger 2008 52

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