Presentations are often short, with much on the line, and rarely go as planned (see your presentation graphic below).
Fortunately your peers offer numerous good tips.. The AEA’s Committee on the Economic Status of women for example has a nice Top 10 list,
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The World Bank Institute advocates the 666 rule: at most 6 words per bullet, 6 bullets per slide, or 6 word filled slides in a row. Bullets should be bullets not sentences. Your audience should not be reading your slides instead of listening to you. Six word slides in a row means you’ve talked long enough to risk losing your audiences attention.
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Always summarize your key points and findings up front (and then again at the end) just in case things don’t go as smoothly as planned (see John Cochrane on the mistake PhD students always make...)
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Find Figures or graphics which say lot about your topic or findings, many journals encourage visual abstracts, this is the sort of summary slide you need.
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Practice out loud with peers or video, time your talk, watch for redundant points .
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Know your audience speak clearly and loudly and never read your slides or from notes. Use the slides and bullet points to jog your memory, not as a text.
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Minimize your literature review, but do include references, include literature review slides see Marcus Golstein on this point. Borrow graphics we did below, but do credit the source (both graphics from Marcus Goldstein’s top 11 world bank blog…)
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Defer questions but explain briefly why you are doing so, anticipate questions with reserve slides after your reference
Practice, hope for the best, expect the worst, and recall what Oscar Wilde says about good advice in the Ideal Husband. always pass it on…
