Information and suggestions for presenters at the Ninth Nordic Conference for English Studies

There will be 30 minutes for each presentation, including introduction, questions and discussion. It is therefore recommended that speakers aim to talk for around 20 minutes.

Presenters should bring with them any handouts they wish to distribute. Likely audience size: 20-30. (Any presenters who think they may have difficulty in bringing their handouts are asked to contact the conference organisers in advance).

Rooms will be equipped with overhead projector and chalk board or whiteboard. If other audio-visual equipment is needed, it must be requested in advance.

An abstract of 75-100 words in length will be included in the conference programme. If presenters wish to give a longer abstract of their talk, this should be in the form of a handout.

Papers and poster presentations given at the conference will be included in a publication on CD-ROM of the conference proceedings, to appear towards the end of 2004. Texts may be fuller than the actual presentation. Manuscripts in electronic form of maximum 6,000 words should be submitted by August 15.

Hints for less experienced speakers

Many of the speakers at the conference will have given numerous presentations before, and will need no advice on how to make them. However, for those who are relatively new to making conference presentations, I take the liberty of offering the following suggestions to you for your consideration:

Remember that an oral presentation is different from a written presentation. I would therefore urge you not to write a paper as if it was an article for publication and then read it aloud. Papers read aloud tend to be difficult for the audience to follow, since the style is often inappropriate and since many of us do not read aloud very well. A better solution for many people is to work from notes and aim to talk in natural oral language. If you feel you need to write out the full text of what you are going to say, aim for language which is spoken rather than written in style.
Try out your presentation before the conference to make sure that you will not overrun the time allowed.
Talk to your audience, not to your notes. A conference presentation is interactive, even if the audience does not speak until the end - the speaker needs to engage the audience.
Use visual materials - handouts, overhead transparencies, Power Point presentations, etc. Such visuals help the audience focus on your main points. Make sure the text on overhead transparencies is large enough to be read at a distance (16-point is usually a minimum).
Explain clearly at the outset what your presentation will cover, and use "signposts" in your presentation to keep the audience orientated as to where you are in it ("Now I will move on to consider the effects ….")
A 20-minute presentation is very short. Aim to explain a few essential points clearly rather than trying to cram in a lot of material. You will have the opportunity to expand your material in the published text, or in discussion with other conference participants later.

Tim Caudery