From the Archives: Michael Alley on Best Practices for Presenting Research

Research in Action | A podcast for faculty & higher education professionals on research design, methods, productivity & more

On this episode, Katie is joined by Michael Alley. Holding a master of science in electrical engineering and a master of fine arts in writing, Michael Alley is an associate professor of engineering communication at Penn State. He is the author of The Craft of Scientific Presentations (Springer, 2013), which has been translated into Japanese and Chinese. Over the past decade, he has taught presentations to scientists and engineers on four continents, in sixteen countries, and at more than 150 institutions. He has presented at Google, MIT, Harvard Medical School, Texas Instruments, Simula Research Laboratory (Norway), Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and the European Space Organization in the high desert of Chile. Alley’s websites on presentations are top Google listings for the topics of "engineering presentations" and "scientific presentations."

Segment 1: Best Practices for Scientific Presentations [00:00-09:35]

In this first segment, Michael shares some of what he has learned about making effective research presentations.

In this segment, the following resources are mentioned:

• Alley, M. (2013). The Craft of Scientific Presentations. New York: Springer.
• Michael Alley's website

Segment 2: Investigations on Confidence in Speaking [09:36-16:25]

In segment two, Michael discusses how researchers can be more confident as presenters.

Segment 3: Rethinking the Way We Use PowerPoint [16:26-30:55]

In segment three, Michael shares some of his thoughts on PowerPoint and best practices for using the tool.

In this segment, the following resources are mentioned:

• Microsoft PowerPoint
• Reynolds, G. (2012). Presentation Zen. Berkely, CA: New Riders.
• Duarte, N. (2008). Slide:ology. Sebastopol, CA: O'Riley Media, Inc.
• Slides Carnival
• Canva
• assertion-evidence.com

Bonus Clip #1 [00:00-02:48]: Tips for Presenting to Non-scientists

Bonus Clip #2 [00:00-06:39]: The Four Aces for Projecting Confidence

To share feedback about this podcast episode, ask questions that could be featured in a future episode, or to share research-related resources, contact the “Research in Action” podcast:

Twitter: @RIA_podcast or #RIA_podcast Email: [e-mail] Voicemail: 541-737-1111

If you listen to the podcast via iTunes, please consider leaving us a review.

The views expressed by guests on the Research in Action podcast do not necessarily represent the views of Ecampus or Oregon State University.