BOOK REVIEWS
Designing Science
Presentations: A Visual
Guide to Figures, Papers,
Slides, Posters, and More
Matt Carter
2013; 384 pages
Publisher: Academic Press, Elsevier
ISBN: 978-0-12-385969-3
Price: $49.95 (softcover)
It happens at every
professional meeting:
we see an exciting
title for a talk and go
to the session room.
Then our spirits fade
because the visual aids
on the screen are too confusing, too cluttered with text the speaker may or may not
be reading, or too crammed with small
graphs or a table with 50 numbers. Our
interest wanes, and we are disappointed with what we thought we would gain
from the talk.
Matt Carter prepared Designing Science
Presentations so that we can enjoy a talk
or poster that teaches us something or
sparks a new idea. The author explicitly
states four major goals in his book: 1)
impress upon scientists they should care
about designing science presentations
rather than just making them; 2) provide
specific, tangible recommendations and
advice for designing excellent science presentations; 3) highlight inspiring examples
of good presentation design; and 4) make
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the content accessible for quick and easy
reference to a point. I believe the author
accomplished these goals.
The content of Carter’s copiously illustrated book is divided among six parts.
Part 1 explores the concepts of scientists
as designers, presentation goals, and what
exceptional presentations share. Chapter 1 addresses the philosophy, purpose,
and need for designing (not decorating)
a presentation. Design is about delivering a visual, well-understood message.
Chapter 2 outlines the advantages and
disadvantages of the four presentation
formats (written, oral with slides, oral
without slides, and poster) and the reasons why they succeed or fail. Chapter 3
discusses 21 characteristics that outstanding presenters adopt in their presentations. Among these are design a message,
inspire interest in your subject, highlight
1-3 take-home points, let your narrative
lead your visuals, and master the written
English language.
Part 2 details in seven chapters the
visual elements of science presentations.
Chapter 4 describes the fundamental concepts of using color. Color should be used
to highlight pertinent information, not to
decorate slides. Typography (the selection
and arrangements of characters to make
language visible) is covered in Chapter
5. Appropriate font style, font size, and
case enhance legibility and clarity, and
so they must be chosen wisely, not fancifully. Chapter 6, on words, stresses the
point that good writing is exemplified
by the best combination of words that
express precise, concise, and clear meaning. Carter provides good examples for
avoiding wordiness and misused words,
using active versus passive verbs, and
distinguishing similar words. Chapter 7
provides instruction and examples for
designing tables. Copying and pasting
a table from a manuscript into a slide is
painful for the audience because tables
are not designed for written presentations
in the same way that they are for slide presentations. The critically important visual
aspects of presentations are discussed in
Chapters 8 (charts), 9 (diagrams), and
10 (photographs). Much of what Carter
professes in these three chapters is just
good common sense. Simplicity and clarity are the rule.
Part 3 focuses on written presentations.
In Chapter 11, Carter describes 10 techniques for improving an author’s writing
skills. All are great recommendations,
but (because they are not followed by
many students and authors) these are my
favorites: 1) write statements that can be
interpreted in a single way; 2) avoid wordiness; and 3) spend as much time or more
editing a paper as you do writing the initial drafts. Chapter 12 progresses through
the steps of building a research article,
whereas the relatively brief Chapters 13
and 14 do the same for review articles and
research proposals, respectively.
Part 4 on slide presentations is, in my
American Entomologist • Summer 2016
opinion, the most valuable section in the
book. Everyone should learn and implement new skills from the eight chapters in
this part. Chapter 15 gives an introduction
to the use of slides in an oral presentation, whereas Chapter 16 details a slide
presentation’s structure. Using examples,
Chapters 17-19 illustrate the principles of
slide content, slide layout, and animations
and transitions, respectively. Chapter 20
imparts recommendations for delivering a slide presentation, and Chapter 21
explains how to use technology (projectors, laser pointers, remote slide advancers). Chapter 22 briefly addresses the considerations associated with the various
types of slide presentations.
Part 5 provides guidance on delivery of
an oral presentation without slides. What
did presenters at meetings do before the
age of carousel slides and PowerPoint?
Have you been to a meeting recently
where a presenter used no visual aids at
all? Interestingly, Carter says that presenting without slides is not difficult when you
realize you do not need (his emphasis) the
slides. Chapter 23 teaches how to structure
a talk without slides, maintain audience
attention, and prepare presentation notes.
Chapter 24 is an overview of four types
of oral presentations without slides: chalk
talk, roundtable presentation, impromptu
speech, and speaker introduction.
Part 6 is another section that should
be consulted by presenters because it
gives excellent suggestions for designing
and presenting a snappy poster. Chapter
25 outlines the fundamental aspects of a
poster and addresses four axioms; the two
most important, in my view, are 1) don’t
put an abstract on the poster (the poster
is already a summary!) and 2) “there is an
inverse correlation between the amount
of text on your poster and the probability
that someone will actually read it.” Chapter 26 teaches the techniques for designing
a poster, and Chapter 27 conveys sound
advice for presenting a poster and using
it for interaction at a meeting.
The book’s table of contents and index
clearly direct the reader to easily locate
specific subjects of interest. Headings
within the chapters assist the user at finding the particular topics. Each chapter
finishes with a series of “Don’ts and Dos.”
Four appendices offer additional reading
resources, tips on software applications,
thoughts on designing a presentation from
scratch, and design principles to help you
market yourself.
American Entomologist • Volume 62, Number 2
This is not a book about insects, but
those of us who present talks and posters to fellow professional scientists and
laypeople and those of us who instruct
students need this book. In the foreword,
Dr. Susan K. McConnel warns “the only
downside to following Carter’s advice is
that it’s going to eat up some time.” So
take the time to show you care about
your audience, consult Matt Carter’s book,
and design a presentation that we will
remember.
Ronald D. Cave
Indian River Research & Education Center
University of Florida
Ft. Pierce, FL 34945
DOI:
10.1093/ae/tmv025
The Insects: An Outline of
Entomology, 5th Edition
P. J. Gullan, P. S. Cranston
2014; 624 pages
Wiley-Blackwell, West Sussex, UK
ISBN: 978-1-118-84615-5
$99.95 (hardcover); $79.99 (e-book)
Insects are the most
successful group of
animals on Earth.
They are critical
components of
nearly all ecosystems, and provide
essential services to the environment. Despite the abundance, diversity, and importance of insects, relatively
few introductory entomology textbooks
are available, particularly those that can
accommodate courses with both laboratory sections and specimen collection
requirements.
Last spring, I happily received a new
copy of Gullan and Cranston’s fifth edition
of The Insects: An Outline of Entomology.
Earlier versions of this hardcover textbook, dedicated to the study of insects,
have been my text of choice for teaching entomology courses for the last five
years, and the newest edition provides
significant updates and an entirely new
chapter. One of my favorite aspects of this
book is its versatility. Gullan and Cranston’s text is appropriate and effective for
teaching introductory entomology at the
undergraduate and graduate levels. It is
an impressive synthesis of insect biology,
ecology, and systematics, yet also provides
specimen preservation techniques and
identification tools needed for basic laboratory exercises.
The text is thoughtfully prefaced with
changes and updates to the previous editions, allowing the instructor and firsttime reader to navigate the new material.
Gullan and Cranston’s fifth edition offers
18 chapters, each of which is subdivided
into concise sections, supported with captivating inset examples from recent primary literature. This approach provides students with a solid framework for learning
insect biology that is modern, scholarly,
and interesting. Gullan and Cranston’s
book continues to be exceptionally well
illustrated, with detailed diagrams and
color plates showcasing the array of insect
morphology, diversity, development, and
behavior. The authors also provide a companion website complete with electronic
resources to support student learning.
The website provides tables from the textbook and Microsoft PowerPoint slides of
all figures. The information is searchable
by chapter or resource. The electronic
availability of these tools for teaching is
invaluable, particularly for new faculty
teaching an introductory insect biology
course for the first time.
Gullan and Cranston’s entomology
textbook covers a vast breadth of topics in the discipline. It begins with the
importance of insects, and subsequent
chapters (through Chapter 6) focus on
internal and external anatomy, physiology,
and behavior. Chapter 7 is a discussion
of insect systematics and phylogenetic methods and provides a higher-level
classification scheme for Hexapoda. The
topics of Chapter 8 are evolution and
biogeography, which set the stage for the
remaining units covering ecology, insects
of medical and economic importance,
and biological control.
A new chapter, “Insects in a Changing
World,” considers the response of insects
to climate and environmental change.
This important topic is discussed in the
context of “biotic globalization” and protection of our resources from exotic pests.
The first section in this chapter focuses on
the influence of climate on insect biology
and development. These and other factors (such as ecology) should be considered when modeling insect distributions,
particularly when considering control
strategies for pests. The second section
provides a thought-provoking discussion
on the implications of climate change
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