Suggestions for lecture and paper preparation

1. It helps to have a structure in mind. Here is a suggested structure: Divide your presentation/paper into 7 parts as follows
   • For what sort of problems is this technique useful? What sorts of scientific questions can the technique shed some light on?
   • For what kinds of data can this technique be used? Give an example data set, discussing the features of the data that require the technique, and the question you hope the data will answer.
   • Discuss some plots or graphics that can be used to get a preliminary look at the data.
   • Give a brief description of the technique, including appropriate models, and methods of estimation for the parameters in the models.
   • Include a brief description of any diagnostics that are used to test the goodness of fit of the model.
   • Discuss the software that can be used for the model fitting.
   • Give a worked example showing how the software works, and how the computer output is interpreted to answer the original research problem.
2. Remember that in 20 minutes or 20 pages you can't cover every detail. Cover the big picture and give references to the fine detail.
3. Use Powerpoint or Acrobat for the presentation, and Latex or Word for the paper. One of the aims of this course is to give you practice in speaking and writing to a professional standard. You can download a sample 40-minute Powerpoint presentation on Linear Models.
4. Powerpoint presentations giving more hints on writing and verbal presentations are in the files reports.ppt and talks.ppt. The first presentation concerns writing up projects but should have some relevance to writing your papers.