I've tried looking for examples online but have had little luck. Does anyone know whether, when you do a conference presentation, you include the references in your slides or not? It stands to reason that you should, I think, but I haven't seen any online that actually do. Oh, and do you think 20 slides (2 a minute) would be fine for a 10 minute presentation? Thank you.

I've never seen references included in slides, and I've been to conferences, and presented at them.

I think 2 slides a minute is a bit of a rush myself, and would be a break-neck pace for the audience to keep up with. I always tend to allow a couple of minutes per slide. For just a 10 minute presentation I could see at a push myself using 7 slides, but even that would be rushing things a bit much for my liking. Then again I do put rather a lot on my slides 8-)

Hi Walminski

I've done lots of presentations, and do include references just (Author, date), and that's enough. I agree with Bilbo - about 90 secs- 2 minutes a slide, for a 10 minute presentation, I'd wouldn't have any more than 7 slides. You want people to listen to you, not have to keep up with a plethora of slides. Don't forget to not have too much on the slides, just a few key points, don't make them too busy.

Hi Walminski,

I have presented mainly at courses and have been to several conferences. My experience is that many presenters do not put references on the slides, however others do (like Sue indicates), usually only showing author and date.

I think the function of a slide it to bring forward a few key issues only. Therefore too much information is distracting and as such extensive referencing would be over the top. Therefore I would keep the slides simple and would stick to about three bullit points, and if important or controversial to add the author(s) and date.

I agree with Bilbo and Sue to stick to a few slides, for ten minutes I think five would be more than enough. Keeping it down to a few also helps you to focus on the essentials.

Good luck
:-):-)

The others' advice about keeping slides simple is very good. I should perhaps clarify that I do that too (I don't cram my slides full of content), but my slides have lots of jumping off points, so I use them as springboards to talk about stuff, rather than just simply reading what's on screen. I find this form of presentation easier, more lively, and it makes the audience pay a bit more attention.

I did this when I was a science PhD student well over a decade ago, and a humanities PhD student more recently. Same principles apply, whatever the discipline. Crumbs I've been using Powerpoint for a long time :p

A very effective lecturer I know simply puts the reference in a thin coloured strip at the bottom of that particular slide. So it's informative and stylish!

hi wally
In my uni the general mantra is one minute a slide, so 10 minutes is 10 slides. However this all depends on whether or not you have any 'quick' slides, like the title slide and a thank you slide at the end, that kind of thing, where you know you'll just be putting it up for a second or two and not dwelling on it.
Also, we've been told many many times, about the rule of 7's...no more than 7 lines on a slide and 7 words on a line. I absolutely HATE when people put up loads of stuff on a slide, it makes me not even want to hear what they will be saying. We've got one course director who sees it as a sign of laziness, like the presenter just hasnt tried hard enough to make it more concise... :-)
as for references, we've been told not to bother, reference the name and year as in text, if you want to, if anyone wants the reference they can ask you for it at the end or at tea break.
try printing out a handout of your slides, with an extra slide at the end with the references, so you can give them the handout and to take away, and they'll remember more about you and your talk too!

Thanks very much everyone. I'll definitely get it cut down then.:-)

I like to have slides where each bullet point is no more than 3 words - preferably one or two words because it makes me seem super knowledgeable and stops people reading ahead to think of nasty questions.

As others have said a lot depends on what is on the slides - if it is just text then probably a couple of minutes per slide is a minimum but if you are using images then you can get through a lot in a few minutes.  As a geographer I use lots of images in presentations (and classes) - students in particular groan when it is 5.30 on a Friday evening and we still have 35 slides to get through (but for this "graveyard and then some slot" there are loads of images) - we always manage to get through them.

When I worked in industry someone told me that you should never have more words on a slide than you would have on a t-shirt (but I a=old enough to remember those lipsmackin... pepsi t-shirts)

And just to entertain you - have you seen the Abraham Lincoln powerpoint - kind puts things in perspective and reminds us it's what we say that is important not the powerpoint - for those who haven't seen it here it is

http://norvig.com/Gettysburg/

Thanks Sneaks and Jepsonclough. It ended up as 12 slides for 10 minutes in the end, so roughly one slide a minute.

sounds good wally, I usually get about 12-15 slides depending on if ive got graphs or photos or whatever to put up :) good luck for the talk and let us know how it goes :)