Rethinking Scientific Presentations: Assertion−Evidence Structure

Presenter: Professor Michael Alley, a teaching Professor of Engineering Communication at Pennsylvania State University From an audience’s perspective, many scientific presentations suffer because the talks are unfocused. This lack of focus leads to much noise, which reduces the understanding by the audience. Much of the problem arises from speakers following PowerPoint’s defaults and building their talks on phrase headlines supported by bulleted lists. This seminar presents the assertion-evidence approach (http://www.assertion-evidence.com) to designing scientific presentations. In this approach, the speaker builds the talk on key messages supported by visual evidence. Our research has found that assertion-evidence talks are more focused and much better understood by audiences. In addition, our speakers (even those initially nervous about making presentations) report that using the assertion-evidence approach has given them more confidence.