Goals of Presentation

• Thesis writing tips• Powerpoint Capabilities• How to’s • Options for Saving and Viewing presentations• Tips for better presentations

Tips for Thesis Writing

•Tone•Tense•Voice•Acronyms•Equations•Figures and Graphs•Grammar / word usage

ToneThe tone of the thesis is formal. This means:• Do not use contractions: it’s, they’re, can’t, etc.• Do not use “I” or “we”.• Do not use slang or cliches.

TenseBe consistent in the use of the past or present tense! In general:• The past tense is used to describe previous studies, the experiment conducted and results.• The present tense is used to describe climatology, the general circulation patterns, some results.

Voice

Passive vs. active voice: • Try to use the active voice. If your meaning dictates the use of the passive voice, vary your sentence starters: The boom thermometer on the ship measured a minimum sea surface temperature of 12.3C during the experiment.

The minimum sea surface temperature measured during the experiment was 12.3C. vs. During the experiment, the sea surface temperature measured was 14.2C.

Acronyms

Define every acronym the first time it is used, even in the Abstract.Define every acronym even if you think everyone knows what it is (e.g. CTD, XBT). Exceptions are words like scuba and radar.

Equations•NPS has a site license for MathType, which does equations in Word (and other software). • All equations should be numbered on the right hand side unless they are inline equations. You may either number sequentially throughout the thesis: (1), (2) etc., or number sequentially within each chapter: (2.1), (2.2) etc.• All terms of the equation must be defined. • Numbers should have a leading 0 (e.g. 0.5, not .5)

Figures and Graphs

• Discuss all figures in the text; an exception is the Appendix, if needed.

• .eps files work best for incorporating figures (e.g. matlab) into Word.

• Limit the number of color figures in the thesis, but not in the presentation

• For graphs that have lines and data points - explain whether (a) the lines connect the points (b) the lines are a fit to the data, and if so, what type of fit, or (c) the lines are plots of theoretical equations

•Make sure all axes are labeled with titles and units.

Common Confusables:

Which vs. ThatUse “which” to begin a clause that is independent; use “that” tobegin a clause that is dependent:

• The chair that is broken will be moved. • The chair, which belonged to my great-grandmother, is broken. Fewer vs. LessFewer is used when the noun it describes is countable; less is used when the noun it describes is not countable:

• There are fewer small cars on the road today than 10 years ago. • There was less snowfall this year in Maine than there was in Maryland.

Affect vs. EffectAffect is a verb: The horizontal grid resolution of a model affects the time step required for numerical stability.

Effect is a noun: The effect of decreasing the horizontal grid resolution is to increase the computational time of the model. Northward vs. Northerly A current may be referred to as “eastward”, meaning it flows to the east. The wind is referred to as easterly, meanly it comes from the east. Currents that flow northward in the northern hemisphere or southward in the southern hemisphere should be referred to as “poleward”.

Grammar Checklist

•Avoid run-on sentences, they are hard to read.

•No sentence fragments.

•Verb-subject agreement•Hyphenate when using two words as an adjective: e.g. a little-known fact is different from a little known fact A man eating tiger is different from a man-eating tiger.

•Avoid commas, which are not necessary.

•Avoid confusing readers with misplaced modifiers: (e.g. Abraham Lincoln wrote the Gettysburg Address while traveling from Washington on the back of an envelope)

Parallel Construction: An anemometer measured the windspeed, and the

relative humidity was measured by a hygrometer. change to: Windspeed was measured by an anemometer, and Relative humidity was measured by a hygrometer.

Use the semicolon to vary the cadence and form of your sentences; however, use it sparingly.

Powerpoint Presentations

• Widely used and available• Start from an existing presentation or use the

autowizard to create a new one.• Templates in various formats available.

Powerpoint Capabilities

• Bulleted slides

• Insert images

• Link to the Web

• Easy conversion to the web

• Animation

• Sound

AboutThis

WebsiteWBC Library

The Fall Poster Session willtake place Sept 11-15, 2000.

Enter here to view the posters.

Inserting a matlab jpeg image

Inserting a Matlab contour image

time

frequency

)(txsignal:

time

Existing Time Frequency Techniques:

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),( 00 ftX

)(tx )(00

tg ft dt

time

)(00

tg ftbasis:

0/1 f

Example 1:

• signal: finger tapping

• noise: fan

sound1

Play sound2

Example 2:

same + white noise

Use of Education partners and Commercial Courseware to offset development cost

TOPIC

TOPIC

TOPIC

TOPIC

COTS Content

Naval Oceanography

Descriptive TrackDescriptive Track Physical OceanographyPhysical OceanographyMain TrackMain Track

Methods TrackMethods Track

TOPIC

TOPICTOPIC

Partner ContentTOPIC

TOPIC

TOPIC

TOPIC

TOPIC

TOPIC

TOPIC

TOPICTOPIC

NPS Content

TOPIC

TOPIC

TOPIC

Video Clips

• The movie to the right is

an avi format (windows only)

of the Navy’s Blue Angels.

The movie is stopped and

restarted with a click of the

mouse. The clip is resizable (this one has been enlarged).

• To add a video clip, choose the Insert menu and choose an option under “Movies and Sound”.

Voice Narration

On the Slide Show menu, click “Record

Narration”. Click ok on the next dialog box.

Now, just speak naturally, and move through yourpresentation.

After you finish, PowerPoint will place yourrecorded voice into the slides.

You can also add voice or sound to individualelements of the presentation by recording a soundfrom Insert Movies or Sound.

Saving Your Presentation

• PowerPoint Show * Automatically opens in Slide Show mode

* Not editable, viewable only

• Pack and Go

Save as...

* Compresses the presentation* Includes sound and video you linked to it* Spreads across multiple floppies* Run pngsetup.exe on the first floppy to restore.

Saving Your Presentation

Custom Shows

- Different versions of the same presentation tailored for different audiences.

• On the Slide Show menu, choose “Custom Shows”. Name it and select the slides you want to show.

• To show, use the “Setup Show” dialog box to specify which Custom Show to run.

Avoid “Death by Powerpoint”

• Relate to your audience’s interest• Involve the audience• Establish eye contact•Practice and test.

• Provide outline of the presentation• Logical, organized flow• Present evidence for each point (graph or image)• On a scientific graph, first tell what you are looking at, what the axes are, etc., then tell what the audience should learn from this slide.•Tell a story with the slides.

The End