Chapter 28 Presentations
28.1 Introduction
Giving presentations–talks, lectures, keynotes–is something that every data scientist is going to be called upon to do. Giving effective presentations is a skill that can be learned.
28.2 Theory and methods
I always recommend two books when I get asked about this topic: Garr Reynold’s Presentation Zen (Reynolds 2008) and Nancy Duarte’s slide:ology (Duarte 2008). There’s an ever-so-small amount of overlap between the two, just enough to reinforce the other.
The sub-title of Reynold’s book is “simple ideas on presentation design and delivery”, and that’s as succicnt a description as you could hope for. The associated website has further details, including this post on the website which has the following “10 tips for Improving Your Presentations Today” (actually 11 tips):
Turn off the computer
Put the audience first
Have a solid structure
Have a clear theme
Remove the nonessential
Hook ’em early
Show a clear conflict
Demonstrate a clear change
Show or do the unexpected
Make ’em feel
Be authentic
Nancy Duarte’s book delves deeper into the technical elements of good presentations, from layout to the use of colour. These design elements support the structural ideas that Reynolds promotes; hand in hand, the two books cover the core requirements for making great presentations.
articles
Melinda Seckington, 2017-07-29, The Art of Slide Design
Kieran Healy, 2018-03-24, Making Slides
Jessica Calarco, July 31, 2018-07-31, Conference Talks
general tips and pointers
Some of my tips for new JSM speakers:
— Dr. Sam Tyner (/@/sctyner) August 1, 2018
🔘 Avoid complete sentences on slides. They are only cues. You are a speaker, not a reader.
🔘 Try not to spend too much time on background. Your focus should be YOUR work, not others’
🔘 Spend the most time describing plots #JSM2018
28.2.1 R
28.2.1.1 {xaringan}
package
CRAN: xaringan: Presentation Ninja
github: xaringan
wiki: xaringan wiki
articles
Yihui Xie, J. J. Allaire, Garrett Grolemund (2018) R Markdown: The Definitive Guide (link to xaringan chapter (most recent update I’ve noted: 2018-06-02)
Yihui Xie, 2017-08-31, Incremental Slides with xaringan / remark.js
Yihui Xie, 2017-10-03, Help Me: xaringan / remark.js CSS Themes?
Daniel Anderson, 2018-06-02, (Contribute to Open Source with Pretty Slides)[http://www.datalorax.com/talks/cascadia18/#1]
Alison Presmanes Hill, 2017-12-18, R-Ladies presentation ninja
Alison Hill, 2019-01-16, Meet xaringan: Making slides in R Markdown – Presentation at RStudio Conference 2019
Nan-Hung Hsieh, TAMU Presentation Template
John R. Little, 2017-08-09, Compose Slides in R with Xaringan Slides
Steven V. Miller, 2018-02-03, Make Your Presentations Fun in Xaringan
xaringan tips and tricks
I'm not a ninja, but sharing my favorite #xaringan tricks we talked about in the Advanced R Markdown workshop at #rstudioconf. Slides are here: https://t.co/z4FZ1cgRuJ
— Alison Hill (/@/apreshill) January 16, 2019
First up: name your slides! Makes it easier to link out and cross reference within deck https://t.co/zVswMzkivf pic.twitter.com/HrOF4t5juG
Advanced R Markdown training - from RStudio conference, 2019-01-15/16
CSS tips and tricks
This is one of the best explanations I've seen of the CSS background-size properties contain vs cover: https://t.co/D5dzSmvbs0
— Alison Hill (/@/apreshill) December 19, 2018
If you are an #rstats #xaringan user (remark.js), this is very helpful for understanding when to use which size property with a background image! pic.twitter.com/SLI2jMEPf7
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