BAD PRESNTATINSJoshua Dubrow

school

As with all things, the audience expects things from the presenter.  The presenter is judged on how well they perform to expectations.  A good presenter knows when to “break the rules,” but this can only be attempted in extreme circumstances and with a lot of experience, i.e. knowing the rules before they can be broken.

Social scientists are not formally trained in presentations.  There are, unfortunately, more bad presenters than good ones.  Why?  Because scholars are trained to work without an audience; they are trained to read and write, but not to go in front of a lot of strangers and talk intelligibly about their ideas.  Some scholars are good entertainers.  Most are not.  There is no shame in not being a born entertainer.  

The most important thing is that the scholar does not “fake it,” i.e. be somebody that they are not.  Good presenters present their personality, their style.  

Presentations are a limited way to present research.  Do not pretend that you can present all the nuances of a 20 page paper in a 20 minute presentation.  Think of presentations as short documentaries, not long form movies.  They should tell a short, focused story that is simple and engaging.  Present just enough to communicate the main story, to get good feedback from the audience, and to have them wanting to know more about your research.

Remember: The audience in front of you is the audience for your presentation.  Construct the whole presentation around that audience.

The scholar’s job is to effectively communicate their research to strangers.  There are many bad ways to do this, but there are also many good ways to do this.

INSERT NONSENSICAL, IRRELEVANT AND ONLY SLIGHTLY HUMOROUS PICTURE HERE

Never use background slides such as these for they are very difficult to read.

Country Political Participation

(%)Ratio of High to Low

SES Quintiles Index of DissimilarityWeighted Index of

Dissimilarity Political Participation: EIU

Belgium 48,75 1,96 0,10 0,21 6,11

Croatia 33,42 3,39 0,16 0,47 6,11

Czech Republic 31,42 2,10 0,09 0,28 6,67

Denmark 62,61 1,85 0,08 0,13 8,89

Estonia 23,24 3,00 0,15 0,64 5,0

Finland 66,38 1,56 0,06 0,09 7,78

France 56,01 1,87 0,09 0,16 6,67

Germany 58,49 2,02 0,11 0,18 7,78

Greece 25,58 2,73 0,14 0,56 6,67

Hungary 19,04 3,68 0,17 0,90 5,56

Israel 18,88 2,43 0,15 0,77 8,33

Latvia 22,73 3,00 0,16 0,70 6,11

Netherlands 46,01 2,23 0,11 0,25 9,44

Norway 68,37 1,33 0,04 0,06 10,0

Poland 18,10 5,11 0,26 1,46 6,11

Portugal 14,45 7,38 0,29 1,99 5,56

Romania 17,57 2,32 0,11 0,64 6,11

Russian Federation 16,96 1,94 0,10 0,59 5,56

Slovenia 21,62 3,72 0,17 0,80 6,67

Spain 33,00 2,67 0,14 0,41 6,67

Sweden 69,73 1,36 0,05 0,07 10,0

Switzerland 53,49 1,71 0,10 0,19 7,78

Turkey 12,96 6,38 0,26 1,98 4,44

Ukraine 17,99 0,87 0,06 0,36 5,56

United Kingdom 52,72 1,90 0,10 0,19 5,0

What Is Political Inequality?

Joshua Kjerulf DubrowPolish Academy of Sciences

Cross-National Studies: Interdisciplinary Research and Training program (CONSIRT)

consirt.osu.edu

andCommittee on Political Sociology: Working Group on Political

Inequality(WG POLINQ)

politicalinequality.org

A definition of political inequality:

Unequal influence over decisions made by political

bodies and the unequal outcomes of those decisions.

There are more possible definitions.

Thomas the Tank Engine is an emergent phenomenon.

„Thomas was a tank engine who lived at a Big Station. He had six small wheels, a short stumpy funnel, a short stumpy boiler and a short stumpy dome. He was a fussy little engine, always pulling coaches about. ... He was a cheeky little engine, too.”

Distribution of Gender, Ethnicity and Class by Country for Germany, UK and the Netherlands, 2002 – 2006 (%)

Demographic Category

Germany UK Netherlands

Women 51.5 54.3 56.1

Ethnic Minority 4.8 9.4 6.3

Lower Class 18.0 20.6 13.2

N 8705 6343 6134