This document provides guidance on delivering effective scientific presentations and posters using six key principles: simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional, and stories. It advises finding the core message and prioritizing messages (simple). Grabbing attention with counterintuitive ideas or curiosity gaps (unexpected). Using specific, sensory language and visuals to make ideas concrete and memorable. Providing evidence and relating data to real experiences to establish credibility. Appealing to emotions and self-interest to encourage caring about the message. And using stories to drive action and inspire through simulation and examples. Resources on applying these principles are also referenced.

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Delivering effective scientific presentations
and posters
Steve Lee, PhD; stnlee@ucdavis.edu
Graduate Diversity Officer for the STEM Disciplines GradPathways
University of California, Davis October 6, 2016
Use as many of these 6 key principles as possible:
S
Simple
• Find and share your core message.
• Prioritize your messages to discover the core.
• Simplicity isn’t about dumbing down.
• Look for analogies or illustrations to communicate your message.
U
Unexpected
• Help people to be curious. Use questions.
• To grab their attention, violate a schema. Be counterintuitive.
• To hold their attention, use curiosity gaps. Before your message can stick,
your audience has to want it.
C
Concrete
• Help people to understand. Be specific.
• To be concrete, use sensory language. Provide visual images.
• Concrete is memorable. Abstract is not.
• Explain your ideas in terms of human actions and tangible details.
C
Credible
• Help people to believe you. Give evidence.
• Ideas can get credibility from authorities, data, and real-life experiences.
• Data and statistics can be useful, but bring them to life by contextualizing
them in terms that are personable and relevant to everyday experiences.
E
Emotional
• Help people to care about your message. Inspire.
• People care about people, so share their experiences.
• Invoke self-interest. WIIFM: What’s in it for me?
• Appeal to identity: who they are now, and who they want to be.
S
Stories
• Help people to remember. Simulate.
• Stories drive action through simulation (what to do) and inspiration (why to
do it). Stories can help people imagine how a problem can be resolved, or
help people to imagine themselves in the message.
Resources:
● Chip and Dan Heath’s “Made to Stick”. They also have free resources at: http://heathbrothers.com/
● To learn how to be unexpected and introduce mystery boxes, see JJ Abram’s TED talk:
○ http://www.ted.com/talks/j_j_abrams_mystery_box
● To deal with nervousness, see Amy Cuddy’s TED talk on Power Poses
○ https://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_shapes_who_you_are
Thanks for coming to my workshop! I hope that it was helpful. My materials are posted in < www.slideshare.net >.