US-IALE annually presents an award to a student for the outstanding oral paper or poster given at the Society's annual meeting. The winner of the award will have their travel expenses to the next US-IALE annual meeting paid, and will receive a plaque commemorating the award. The objective criteria on which the presentation is judged, each with equal weight, include significance of ideas, creativity, quality of methodology, validity of results, and clarity of presentation.

ADVICE FOR GIVING A GOOD ORAL PRESENTATION

• For a 20 minute talk, limit yourself to 15 minutes to allow time for questions. You'll probably end up talking for 16-18 minutes anyway.

• Practice your talk numerous times, both alone and in front of critical friends.

• Know your talk well enough to give it without notes in easy-to-follow conversational sentences. If necessary, bring your notes to the podium for security, but if you know your talk well enough, it will come automatically despite your fear.

• Tape record your talk and listen for "uhs" and other repetitious and superfluous words.

• Plan your talk carefully around a few "take-home messages," to provide focus for your talk.

• Use a loud, clear, enthusiastic voice. If you don't seem to care about your topic, why should your audience?

• Avoid distracting mannerisms, such as waving the pointer or pacing.

• Do NOT put too much information on a slide. Avoid tables, but if necessary, simplify them by including only the data you will refer to and use rounded numbers. If there is some graphical way to present the same information, do so, because your audience will be more likely to grasp it in the short time it is on the screen.

• If you can read a 2" x 2" slide without a magnifier, those in the rear seats will be able to see everything when it is projected. Use the largest type possible.

• Slides with light backgrounds are more legible than slides with dark backgrounds, particularly if any room light is present. Most computer-generated slides turn out much darker than they appear on a computer screen.

• Include on each slide only information that you will discuss. Other information is distracting and confusing. Limit each slide to one main idea, and just a few sentences.

• If you refer to the same slide more than once, use duplicates.

• Horizontal slides are best, since the size of the screen may result in cropped vertical slides.

For more complete guidance, an excellent resource is "Strategy and checklist for effective scientific talks" by S.T.A. Pickett, B.E. Hall and M.L. Pace (Bull. Ecol. Soc. Am. 72:8-11, 1991).