Ten early-career research staff at Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan, received individualized advice to improve their presenting skills at an Edanz workshop on 24 February 2017.
The half-day career-development event was organized by Hokkaido University for selected assistant professors with the most international promise. The workshop on presentation skills was led by Dr Trevor Lane (Education Director and Senior Publishing Consultant), who had edited and commented on the participants' sets of slides in the previous week.
The first part of the workshop consisted of a short Edanz seminar that provided presentation tips, useful phrases for different parts of a talk, and practical advice for preparing poster or slide presentations,writing and practicing speeches, and holding successful question-and-answer sessions.
The second part allowed the researchers to present their slide-sets in 10 minutes, followed by two audience questions. An appraisal was then given by both the instructor and the rest of the class, commenting on the clarity of the final slides, clarity of the speaker's voice and message, pacing and time-keeping, confidence, body language, use of technology, and effectiveness of the question-and-answer session. Participants were given an opportunity to repeat parts of their speeches, practice pronunciation of certain phrases and sentences, perfect slide transitions, and master using the laser pointer.
All participants said they enjoyed the Edanz workshop, found it to be useful or very useful, and would recommend it to a colleague.
Edanz Group provides tools, resources, and services for researchers and research institutions to publish in international indexed journals and communicate their research to the world. In addition to publication support, editing, and news writing, Edanz offers a range of educational services from trained native-speaking instructors to help all levels of researchers throughout their careers.
Please email global@edanzgroup.com for more information or to request an online or face-to-face lecture, interactive workshop, or individual/small-group consultation.
