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Giving Conference Papers and Posters
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At SEAC 2000, the SEAC Committee for Student Affairs sponsored a student workshop on strategies for giving conference papers and posters. The following are some notes from the workshop.
PRESENTING CONFERENCE PAPERS AND POSTERS |
- some tips from Vin Steponaitis about delivering papers...
- keep it simple
- avoid jargon
- remember to write a spoken presentation that people will be listening to, rather than writing a paper that somebody would sit down and read
- conference papers written in this way are easy to listen to even if a speaker chooses to "read" a paper rather than to "give" a talk
- never read papers in a monotone voice
- write about whatever you find interesting and significant, but the MA and BA theses that you have done are generally very good starting points for conference papers
- ten double-spaced type-written pages take twenty minutes to read
- practice reading your paper out loud to yourself and to an audience
- some tips from Gayle Fritz about showing slides...
- show maps that are marked with large lettering and clearly visible symbols that relate directly to points you are raising in your talk (lots of maps are illegible to audiences)
- show simplified graphs and tables that highlight the main trends you are talking about (rather than showing every little detail)
- box and whisker plots can work very well to illustrate trends in many archaeologicla datasets
- minimize the number of rows and columns of data if you need to show tables
- leave your illustrations on the screen long enough for the audience to digest them
- always check to make sure your slides are in order and facing in the right direction
- some thoughts from Adam King about doing posters...
- a poster can be a great way to present any kind of archaeological data, especially if it involves maps or illustrations of architecture
- a poster gives you a chance to present your ideas and interpretations of archaeological data, and the chance to get direct feedback from people who visit your poster
- some thoughts from Bob Mainfort about writing papers...
- revise your conference papers and posters and submit them to the journal!
- journal papers carry greater weight in hiring and tenure decisions than book chapters and book reviews!
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