02.12.

2021

Overview
1. Planning to Write
– Introduction to the Field of Technical & Scientific Writing
– Evaluate the Intended Audience
2. General Principles of Writing
- What is a technical/scientific paper
- General structure of a paper
- How to improve your writing style
- How to write a paper with minimum pain & Tips & Tricks of the writing trade
- Editing documentation: check for Quality, Fonts, Typography, Punctuation
- Plagiarism – the skill of the stupid and lazy
- Where and how to publish scientific articles
3. Creating Technical Presentations
– Preparation
– Design
– Delivery

4. Creating Technical Presentations

I. Preparation

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Where We Are Today?

! Really bad Slideware – PowerPoint/Keynote
! It seems slideware has been around forever
– In fact it’s common use for about 15-20 years
– PowerPoint 1.0 created in 1987 by Gaskins/Austin
– Initially on Mac, later on PCs & around the world…
! All is not well – “death by PowerPoint” began to spread around:
– PP style disrupts, dominates, trivializes content
– Lots of mind-numbing dull presentations each day
– Bad habits & lack of awareness & knowledge about what makes for great
presentations
– What should be ditched is the way PowerPoint is used!

Where We Are Today? (2)

! For 20 minute presentations:
– Ditch the ubiquitous bulleted list templates
– The same information on a slide and from your mouth is useless
– why are you there?
– Good oral presentation is different than a well-written document
– Most presentations today are mediocre: opportunity for you to
be different!
– Since the bar is low – even small improvements may make a big
difference
– In time however, expectations will rise

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Presentations – 5

General Considerations
! Slideware (MS PP, Keynote) is the “Jack-of-the-trade” of the
corporate & academic world
! You’ve got to have it to stay in the game
! PP gives a patina of professionalism even to the most
amateur presentation but they
– Obfuscate facts
– Hide evil
– Stifle questions

Your ideas will fall flat if you can’t keep your audience’s attention!
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Jeff Bezos: memos vs. ppts

! @Amazon:
– Execs read 6-page narrative memos before/at meetings instead of watching
update ppts – study hall approach
! Why writing a 6-page memo is harder than a ppt
– A narrative structure forces better thought & understanding
! Critically important for the memos is the (teaching) scope of the
message!
– It usually takes weeks to create a great document…
– Write / rewrite / review / drop / re-read / rewrite

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Benefits of memos
! Our brains are (hard)wired for narrative
– Stories are used for instruction, warning & inspiration
– Neuroscientist experiments confirm we process our world in narrative images
– Recalling and retaining information is most effective in stories, and not in bullets!

! Stories are persuasive

– Emotion is the fastest path to the brain…
– That is why stories are the best vehicle for ideas
– Bezos: “when anecdotes & metrics disagree, the anecdotes are usually right”

! The 6-page limit is “engineering with constraints”

Benefits of the approach

! Efficiency – all parties are “up-to-speed” on the topic
! Better Questions & Discussions
– Questions are deeper / thought-provoking
– People arrive ready to make their point
! Level playing field
– All people (even the shy ones) get their good ideas out
! Strategic thinking
– Making a memo requires deep thinking & a narrative
– Writers must really make their case!
! Historical record of ideas & decisions

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Presentations in “The Conceptual Age”

! Left-brain reasoning = logic and analysis
! Right-brain reasoning = (at least) six senses:
– Design
– Story
– Symphony
– Empathy
– Play
– Meaning
! Normal people use both hemispheres even for the most
simple tasks
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Design
! Design is not decoration
– It is not the icing on a cake
! Design is good when you don’t notice it consciously!
! Design starts at the beginning – not at the end
– Design begins in the preparation stage – before you start your
computer
– You slow down to consider the topic & objectives
– Decide on the key message to be presented
– Know the audience & sketch the main ideas

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Story
! Fact information & data are available more than ever before
! What we need to remember them is a story!
! Storytelling is “narrative imaging”
! It is not fiction & falsehood!
! The best & most effective teachers are the ones that tell true
stories:
– They put their own personality, character, and experience in the
form of a narrative that is illuminating, engaging & memorable

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Symphony
! In the information age – focus, specialization & analysis have been
most important
! In the conceptual age – symphony:
– Synthesis & the ability to use seemingly unrelated pieces to form the big
picture before us is crucial
– Illuminate relationships that are hard to see
– Anyone can learn & repeat chunks of information but it is most important to
recognize patterns
– Discover the simplicity in a complex problem
– Use your whole mind – logic, analysis, synthesis, intuition to make sense of
the world
– Determine what is important and what is not – decide what matters & let go of
the rest
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Empathy
! It is your emotional self
! Putting yourself in the position of others
! Understanding the importance of nonverbal cues & being
aware of your own limitations
! More of a talent than a skill that can be taught
! You should notice when the audience is “getting it” & when
they are not
! Adjust the presentation based on your reading of the
audience

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Play
! Work is not just about seriousness but about play as well
! Playfulness & humor can make a presentation easier to
follow
– No jokiness or clown-like informality
– Good old-fashioned humor leading to laughter
! Laughing people are more creative
! We were sold the idea that “real presentations” are dull &
devoid of humor – something to be endured, not enjoyed

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Meaning
! A presentation is an opportunity to make a difference
– A bad presentation can destroy a career
– A good presentation can be fulfilling for all parties

! Few things can be more rewarding than connecting with someone by

– Teaching something new
– Sharing that which you feel is very important with others
! Audiences are used to death-by-PP
– If you are different you will exceed expectations & make an impact and a
difference
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Preparation – Creativity
! Designing presentations is an extremely creative activity
! Start with the beginner’s mind
– Don’t be afraid to make mistakes
– If you choose the “traditional way” you do it after careful analysis
and not by default
! Children “work” on their art because it is them
! As we got older, fear, doubt, self-censoring, and over-
thinking crept in
! The creative spirit is in all of us

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Preparation – Creativity (2)

! The big lie we tell ourselves – “You are not
creative.”
– Failing is fine – necessary & actually useful
– Avoiding experimentation will kill your creative
spirit – worrying about “what if”
– Take chances & test your limits – you might
surprise yourself…
! Be a pirate!
– Where can you find inspiration? Everywhere!
– Relax, be free and your inspiration will find you

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Preparation – Creativity (3)

! Don’t force it
– Idling or doing nothing is important
– Most of us are obsessed with “getting things done”
– Big ideas come during “laziness” or “wasting time”
– Solitude & a break can help a lot
– Managers who give staff their space are the best
! Enthusiasm
– Put love, passion, imagination, and spirit behind it
– No enthusiasm – no creativity!
– Don’t stay close to people that dismiss it…
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Preparation – Constraints
! Restrictive conditions usually lead to inventive solutions
– Constraints and limitations are a powerful ally
– Creating your own self-imposed constraints & limitations is
fundamental to good creative work
! Clearer messages are thus formulated
! You must do only what is necessary to convey what is
essential
! Eliminate elements that distract from the essential whole
of the desired message

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Preparation – Planning Analog

! In the initial stage of preparing a presentation get away from your
computer! You need to:
– See the big picture
– Identify your core message
! Templates & wizards are bad
– They lead to oversimplification of content
– Obfuscation of the message
! Technology should enhance the potential inside us
– Like “a bicycle for our minds” – Steve Jobs
– Not like a pre-packaged car for our mind
! Important to understand principles of presentation creation and
design not software applications
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Preparation – Paper, Whiteboard & Post-its

! Tools of the trade
– Paper & colored pens
– A storyboard book / whiteboard
– Post-its
! Professional designers plan on paper
! It is faster to sketch on paper than in PP
! Once you have a plan – creating slides is much easier
! With post-its it is easy to see the big picture & make
changes quickly

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Preparation – Slow Down to See

! Slowing down leads to greater clarity
! The state of mind is important
! The problem is not busy but busyness
– The uncomfortable feeling of being rushed, distracted,
unfocused and preoccupied
– Busyness kills creativity
! Because we are busy, we owe our audience to offer them
a better experience
! Slowing down helps achieve greater focus & allows one
to see the big picture
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Preparation – Asking the Right Questions

! The wrong questions
– How many bullets should I use per slide?
– How many slides per presentation is good?
! It depends on a lot of things… it might be 0!
! The right questions
– How much time do I have?
– What’s the venue like?
– What is the time of the day?
– Who is the audience?
– What’s their background?
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Preparation – Asking the Right Questions (2)

! The right questions
– What do they expect of me?
– Why was I asked to speak?
– What do I want them to do?
– What visual medium is most appropriate for this
situation & audience?
– What is the fundamental purpose of my talk?
– What’s the story here?
– What is my absolute central point?
– What will the audience remember if they could
remember just one thing?
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Preparation – Asking the Right Questions (3)

! The two main questions are
– What’s your point?
– Why does it matter (to me)?
– Both are equally important and show empathy
! You tried to put yourself in the shoes of the audience
! So what?
– Ask yourself this tough question all the time!
– If the point is not relevant to the story – cut it out
! The “Elevator test”?
– Learn to “sell” your message in 30-45 seconds
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Preparation – Handouts
! A handout will release you from the pressure of saying “everything”
in the talk
! The presentation will then just focus on the most important points
! The majority of the slides = just-in-case slides
– People think they show they are “serious people”
! The solution
– Prepare a detailed document
– Keep the slides simple
– Never distribute printed slides as handouts (in advance)
! This is the kiss-of-death

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Preparation – Planning Well

! If you prepare well the preparation process itself should help
you really know your story
! You should then be able to tell all there is to know even
without slides
! The planning stage should be the time when
– The mind is clear
– All barriers are removed
! Stay analog & use your creativity to crystallize
– What is the core message
– Why is it important
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Preparation – Crafting the Story

! You now need to give the core message a logical structure
! Structure brings order and helps delivery as well as
understanding of the message
! What makes messages stick?
– Simplicity
– Unexpectedness
– Concreteness
– Credibility
– Emotions
– Stories

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Preparation – Simplicity
! If all is important then nothing is important
! If all is a priority then nothing is a priority
! One must be ruthless in the effort to simplify the
message to the absolute core
– Not to “dumb down” the message
! Every idea can be reduced to bare essential meaning
! Again
– What is the core idea?
– Why does/should it matter?

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Preparation – Unexpectedness
! You get people’s interest by violating
their expectations – surprise them!
! To sustain interest one must stimulate the curiosity of
the audience
! The best way
– Pose questions/open holes in people’s knowledge
– Then fill those holes
! Make people aware they have a gap in their knowledge
and fill it in your presentation
! Take people on a journey
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Preparation – Concreteness
! Use natural speech
! Give real examples with real things – not abstractions

! Speak of concrete images

! Use (memorable) proverbs

! Use word structures that are easy to visualize

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Preparation – Credibility
! If you are famous you may have
built-in credibility
! Most of us rely on numbers and cold data for it

! Statistics are not inherently helpful

– The context and the meaning is important

– Put it in terms people can visualize
! “Five hours of battery life.” vs. “Enough battery life to watch your TV
shows on your iPod nonstop from San Francisco to New York.”
! A quote from a client / authority in the field may also help

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Preparation – Emotions
! People are emotional beings
! You must make people “feel” something
! Lots of ways to make people feel something
! Images can help a lot – visceral compassion
– Images of disasters not bullet points of statistics
– Humans connect better with people not abstractions

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Preparation – Stories
! Stories is how humans communicate
! We express through the stories we share
! We teach, learn, and grow through stories
! Stories get your attention and are easier to remember than
a list of rules
! Great ideas and presentations have
an element of story to them

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Preparation – Storytelling
! Before the written word people used stories to transfer
culture across generations
! Illustrate the presentation with good stories
– Clear beginnings
– Provocative and engaging content in the middle
– Clear conclusions
! All stories should be real, regardless of topic
! The brain cares about stories
! Stories can contain more lessons than the real hard-data
does
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Preparation – Storytelling (2)

! Effective presentations use
– Relevant stories in a clear, concise manner in a voice that is human not formal
! One must use authentic stories
– From gut & heart not from a memorized script
– A real story is not memorized, it is in us
– Live the story – be the story – you can’t fake it
– If you don’t believe your story how can you connect and convince others with
your words?
! The human voice is important
– You feel included & the need to participate
– Natural & conversational style will keep you engaged

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Preparation – Storytelling (3)

! It’s not just about information
– Informed people used to be in hot demand
– Not anymore – information is now widely available
– The ability to synthetize facts and give them context and perspective is
important
– What we want from presenters is meaning
– Intelligent, evocative, provocative human that stimulates us with knowledge
and meaning, context and emotion that is memorable
– Information + emotion + visualization + anecdotes
! The stuff that stories are made of!
! The bottom line:
People want to hear the story of your facts!

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Preparation – The Process

! You have identified the core message
! You must now create a storyboard
– Use the “Slide Sorter View” / “Light Table View”
– Stay analog a bit longer with paper, post-its, or a whiteboard
! One typically requires four steps to go forward
1. Brainstorming
2. Grouping and identifying the core
3. Storyboarding off the computer (optional)
4. Storyboarding in Slide Sorter / Light Table View

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The Process – 1. Brainstorming

! Step back & go analog again
! Brainstorm ideas & let it flow
! Explore possibilities
– It might be messy
! See the issues from all sides
! Always keep in mind the big picture
! When working with a partner/client
– Listen to carefully and ask relevant questions
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The Process – 2. Grouping

! Identify the one memorable idea from the
audience’s point of view
! Use chunking to group similar ideas while
looking for a single unifying theme
! Three is a good number of sections for a
presentation – memorable structure
! All the sections support the same core
message and the story

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The Process – 3. Storyboarding Offline (optional)

! Lay out the ideas from step 2 with Post-its
! Easier than online
– Add new content without switching to “slide view”
! Printout blank slides – 6/9/12 per sheet
– Tape the printouts to the wall
– Sketch your visuals on them
– Write down key points

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The Process – 4. Storyboarding Online

! If you have a clear sense of your structure – skip step 3
(offline storyboarding)
! Create a blank slide of the simplest template
! Place a text-box inside with the desired font
characteristics
– To be most used
! Duplicate this slide several times
! Section slides (bumper slides) should be “different” than
normal slides
! Add visuals to support the narrative
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Preparation – Editing & Restraint

! Edit & cut out all that is not essential to the message
– The hardest part!
! What doesn’t contribute to the “story” has to go
! You should not show all your work
! Always keep the audience in mind
– Keep the talk as short as possible
! One must be ruthless when editing
– When in doubt – cut it out!
! You must take tough choices, or your audience will
! Most people are not good at it because they are afraid – do not let
your fear guide you!
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