Scientific Presentations

I recently bought a book called The Craft of Scientific Presentations by Michael Alley, which begins with a quote from Isaac Asimov.

On March 21, 1949, I attended a lecture given by Linus Pauling… That talk was the best talk by anyone on any subject that I had ever heard…  The talk was more than a talk to me.  It filled me with a desire of my own to become a speaker.

The book belongs on your bookshelf if you deliver scientific presentations, or presentations that report research of any kind.  It provides scores of examples from contemporary and historical scientific presentations to show clearly what makes an oral presentation effective.

What is most intriguing to me is his study proving that the proper use of PowerPoint slides can in fact boost audience comprehension.  Alley calls the most effective use of PowerPoint the “Assertion-Evidence” method. This means that the headline of a slide should be an assertion–a complete sentence–that is proven by the visual or graphical evidence below it.

I know several of my client companies in the consulting business do this, including McKinsey and Health Strategies Group, although the practice is not universally adopted in either firm.  But they are on the right track, according to Alley.  His study demonstrated an 11% boost in audience comprehension with the “Assertion – Evidence” model vs. the standard use of a phrase as the headline–such as “Market Share” or “Toxicity.”

It is time that those of us responsible for communicating ideas and information of strategic importance use PowerPoint in a manner that is based on research, and not on ease of use or corporate culture.

The book is called The Craft of Scientific Presentations.  The author is Michael Alley.  It’s worth owning, if you care about excellence in presenting ideas.