How to...?

Suggestions for panel proposals, abstracts and presentations

Evidently there are many different ways to write a proposal or an abstract and to present a paper. Still, some suggestions might be in order and helpful. A paper at the EACS is often the first time that other scholars meet you, hear of your work and form an opinion of you. This is an opportunity not to be missed and to be taken seriously. A good presentation of a strong scholarly argument goes a long way in establishing yourself in the field.

... structure your abstract:

  1. What is the problem? (Such as an opinion commonly held or a methodological approach commonly pursued by scholars, which disregards key pieces of evidence)
  2. What are the new sources/methodologies applied in the paper to handle the problem?
  3.  What is the outcome (or the hypotheses for the outcome) of the new approach?
  4. What are the wider ramifications?
  5. (For a panel: In what manner does the panel contribute to a dialogue across disciplinary borders or scholarly cultures?).

... prepare your presentation:

  1. Keep rigidly to the 20 minute limit. The audience will be aware of your overstepping it, attention is slipping, and your argument gets lost. If you go over time, you cut into the time of other speakers and of the discussion. The 20-minute will be rigorously enforced during the conference.
  2. Twenty minutes corresponds to less than 8 double-spaced pages. Test yourself by giving the paper within the allotted time aloud in a large room with someone sitting in the last row to make sure you are being understood.
  3. In a presentation of twenty minutes you will not be able to present all of your evidence in detail. Make clear and bold points, but be sure to have the evidence to back them up in the discussion period if someone asks.
  4. It is best if you give the paper free without reading a manuscript. Often, however, speaking without a manuscript takes longer, and there is the pressure of a large and unknown audience to cope with. One way to solve the dilemma is to write out the whole paper, mark some key passages, which you actually will read, and know the paper well enough so that in your free presentation you can insert formulations from your memory of the written paper.
  5. Most participants will not be native speakers of English, and very likely neither are you. To make sure you are being understood have a native speaker check the accurate pronunciation of key words and names, and speak with a moderate speed. A handout is most useful to both give the overall structure of your argument, and to save time by giving the audience in a written form the most important sources/names you will be referring to. As a rule, Chinese characters should be included. Names and titles should be numbered so that you can refer to them in your presentation. In some cases the use of audio-visual means of presentation may clarify your argument (beamer, slides, video, Powerpoint).

... prepare a panel:

  1. For a panel it is crucial that the panelists engage in a dialogue with each other. This should be done well ahead of the Conference. All panelists should see each other's papers at least a month before the Conference. They should revise their papers so as to actually talk to each other critically in their presentations. The organizer of the panel has the responsibility to make sure that the panelists are well prepared for this task.
  2. Panelists who are not personally known to each other should meet very early during the conference and ahead of their panel presentation.
  3. There is no need for a unification of thought among the panelists. In fact, a well-substantiated controversy makes a panel much more attractive. The organizer should alert the audience to the ensuing controversies in the opening statements.
  4. If there is a discussant, the organizer should make sure that the discussant is willing to invest a substantial amount of time to prepare for her/his comments, and that she/he has the necessary materials in hand (such as the papers) in a timely fashion.
  5. The discussant should stay as close as possible to the papers presented. Her/his comments should have the primary purpose of contextualizing the contributions, and of providing a well-prepared critical and short opening for the discussion.

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