How to present a paper
Ashwin Ram
(Paraphrased from my hazy memory of what Drew McDermott taught me many years ago)
Many students present a paper, especially one authored by someone else,
by talking through it section by section or page by page. The student
reads out the definitions and points the audience to the figures.
Anything in italics is read out. The student works through the paper
linearly, taking great care not to miss anything that the author might
have written that might possibly be relevant.
This approach is not useful because all that is happening is that the
student is reading the paper aloud, forgetting that the audience is
perfectly capable of reading the paper themselves and in most cases has
already done so. Here is a different approach.
If you're presenting the paper:
- Read the paper ahead of time, and decide what you think of the
ideas presented in the paper. (Here
are some tips on how to read a research paper.) In particular, decide
whether you think the paper has some good ideas or whether it belongs in
the recycling bin. Keep in mind that very few papers have no worthwhile
ideas whatsoever; however, if you're convinced that your paper belongs
in this category, follow the steps listed below for critiquing a paper.
- Next, decide which idea is the best idea (or a small cluster of
related ideas) in the paper. "Best" may mean most novel, most central,
most relevant, most clever, most important, and so on. Write down this
idea, preferably in your own words, and a one-line justification for why
this idea is the best one. (This step is particularly important when
the paper you're presenting is your own.)
- Now comes the crucial step: Figure out how to get your audience as
quickly as possible to the point where they can understand this idea.
- Next, if necessary, elaborate the idea and fill in the details.
Explain things like how the idea came about, how it was fleshed out in
the paper, how it was proven, what benefit it had, what difference did
it make, what alternative ideas might have been pursued instead, and so
on.
If you're critiquing the paper:
- Read the paper ahead of time, and decide what you think of the
ideas presented in the paper. (Here
are some tips on how to read a research paper.)
- Next, determine what you think is the central fallacy or bad idea
(or a small cluster of related ideas) in the paper. Don't pick
something tangential; you want a novel, central, relevant, clever,
important idea (similar to the kind of idea you'd pick if you were
presenting the paper) but one that is, in your mind, simply wrong.
Write down this idea, preferably in your own words, and a short "bottom
line" reason explaining why this idea is wrong.
- Now comes the crucial step: Figure out how to get your audience as
quickly as possible to the point where they can understand the fallacy
or bad idea.
- Next, if necessary, elaborate the idea and fill in the details.
Explain things like how the idea came about, how it was fleshed out in
the paper, what problems did it raise, why the proof was inadequate,
what alternative ideas might have been pursued instead, and so on.
See here
for some related tips on how to write a paper.