Platform Presentation Instructions
Teratology Society Annual Meeting 2003

Each platform paper, except for those presented in the symposia or workshops, will be allowed 15 minutes (12 minutes for presentation and 3 minutes for discussion). The time schedule will be strictly followed in all sessions.

Presenters may choose to use digital projection or 35 mm slides. Presenters choosing to use digital projection are responsible for bringing a laptop computer to run the presentation, connecting the computer to the digital projection system at the break prior to their presentation, and assuring that the connection functions properly.

Oral presentation of a scientific paper with slides or digital projection is quite different from presentation of the same information in a journal article. In a journal article, all the details of the research must be given to allow the reader to evaluate the science. In an oral presentation, you have a limited amount of time and a limited number of slides in which to get across the major thrust of the study. Details cannot be included, only the major ideas. Therefore, the slides cannot contain more information than the viewer can comprehend in a short time. Design each slide to communicate a single idea quickly! Make the print large enough to be seen on an 8' screen from a distance of 100 feet.

The following should help you in your presentation preparation:

1. Prepare your slides to communicate ideas, not details. If someone wants details, let him or her ask you in the discussion period.

2. Put the minimum amount of information on the slide that is necessary to communicate the idea you want. After drafting the slide, see what can be left out while still communicating the essential idea. Reduce the draft to reduce the material to a minimum.

3. Graphical presentation of data often communicates an idea more quickly than tabular presentation of the same data. Photographs may also be effective, but avoid pictures of animals.

4. A table in a published article is much too detailed for a slide presentation. Take the time to think through what conclusion you want to present from the table and use the least amount of material you can to communicate that idea. In general, a table on a slide should contain no more than 3 columns and no more than 4 rows.

5. A slide presentation should include a title slide, a slide stating the question or hypothesis to be addressed, and a slide describing the overall approach you used to address the question. A "methods" slide or two should be included but should never provide all the details unless the purpose of the talk is to describe the method. Drawings or flow charts can sometimes be used to present complex methods succinctly. The next several slides should present and interpret the results obtained, and a final slide should give the conclusions of the study.

6. If you have more than one slide per minute of presentation, you have too many slides.

7. Color and graphics can enhance and clarify your presentation but can also be distracting if not carefully chosen. In general, text shown on a dark background should be very light and text shown on a light background should be very dark. Some color combinations that work fine on a computer monitor do not project well.

8. Be sure to try out your slides or digital presentation before the Annual Meeting to make certain that everything is easy to read from the back of the room.
All participants, including platform presenters, are required to register for the Annual Meeting. Registration and Housing information can be obtained on the Teratology Society’s Web site:

http://teratology.org/meetings/2003/RegFormrev03.pdf