Rethinking Research Presentations
The Assertion-Evidence Structure Seminar with Guest Speaker Michael Alley
March 11, 2025
2:00 PM - 3:15 PM
Location
Teaching Excellence Building (TEB), Room 201
Calendar
Download iCal FileAbstract
From an audience’s perspective, many presentations of scientific research 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, led by Michael Alley, presents the assertion-evidence approach to designing research 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.
About the Speaker
Holding a master of science in electrical engineering and a master of fine arts in writing, Michael Alley is a teaching professor of engineering communication at Penn State. He is the author of The Craft of Scientific Presentations (Springer, 2013), which has been translated to Japanese and Chinese, and The Craft of Scientific Writing (Springer, 2018). Over the past decade, Alley has taught presentations and writing to engineers and scientists on four continents. Sites include Army Corps of Engineers, Google, Harvard Medical School, MIT, Texas Instruments, the University of Oslo, and the University of Illinois. Alley’s website on presentations is a top Google listing for assertion-evidence presentations and his website on writing is a top Google listing for writing as an engineer or scientist.
EVENT FORMAT: This session will be held on-campus, in-person in room 201 in the Teaching Excellence Building (TEB) located on 924 S. Morgan Street.
Inclusion and Accessibility Information: CATE is committed to making events as accessible as possible. CATE’s in-person events typically involve a combination of presentation and discussion-based activities. We welcome ASL interpreters, note-takers, and accompanying assistants to all CATE events. The TEB is wheelchair accessible with an elevator to the second floor space. The TEB space is equipped with fixed-height tables that are moveable and can be reconfigured. There are single-occupancy, all-gender, accessible bathrooms on the second and basement levels of TEB. If you have any accessibility questions, requests, or to coordinate accommodations, please contact the CATE team at teaching@uic.edu.
Date posted
Feb 4, 2025
Date updated
Feb 5, 2025