Kate: Hi, Martin.
Martin: Hi, Kate. How are you?
Kate: Fine. I'm relieved to have done my presentation!
Martin: I'm sure! How did it go?
Kate: Oh, OK in the end, but I was ever so nervous beforehand. It's silly, because I do know my stuff quite well. I must know those statistics inside out, but when you have to get each table of results to come UP in the right order, it can make you nervous. It was mv first time using the computerised projector, and I was sure I was going to get the controls wrong, or something. And of course, that's not a good situation, if you know you've got to listen to questions carefully, and be ready to answer quickly.
Martin: But it was fine once you got going?
Kate: Yes.
Martin: I do feel that the standard of presentations could be improved in general. I think a lot of the lecturers agree with me, although I don't honestly know what they can be expected to do about it. Students need to appreciate the difference between style and content. Too many presentations are just a mass of detailed content - all very worthy - without any attempt to engage people's interest. Basic things, like looking at your audience's faces, seem to get forgotten. And that makes it harder to concentrate on the points made about the research itself. Yes, there are quite a few improvements I'd like to see. Take tutorials, for example. I feel they're often a missed learnt. Week in week out, I faithfully plough through the reading list, which is fair enough, but then the discussion doesn't seem to extract the main issues. It's frustrating.
Martin: Hmm, I know what you mean. Mind you, we have to take some responsibility ourselves. I actually got quite a lot from that skills workshop I went to on taking notes, and I'd like to make similar improvements in the next semester. The reading list we get has several websites each time, and I want to learn to navigate mv wav round them more effectively.
Kate: That's sounds a good idea. Mind you, it means spending more time in the library...
Martin: If you can get in ...
Kate: You mean because it's too crowded? It isn't big enough, is it?
Well, I don't know. I mean. I like to work late in the evening, and it shuts before I want to finish. But I know you can access the catalogue from a laptop.
Kate: Which personally I haven't got. Actually, the problem for me is that I like to get up early and start work straight away and they don’t start until 9. I wish they'd change that.