[Stiftel Home]
Frequently
Asked Questions
As a student, how do I get the most out of a professional conference?
How should I prepare for a doctoral preliminary examination in planning theory?
How should I go about negotiating the terms of employment for faculty work?
If Paul Davidoff has e-mail, should I write? [Blog post by Ann Forsyth]
How do I prepare a presentation for a scholarly conference?
As a student, how do I get the most out of a professional conference?
Maximize your chances of good things by thinking ahead.
Go to the conference with three or four conversation opening questions
pre-planned. Make and take business cards (Yes, "MSP Student" is
a legitimate job title). Don't spend all your time in a huddle
with your fellow FSU students: that's not the way to meet new people
(You can debrief with your friends later).
You can't become part of a community unless you step forward and try.
New entrants into a professional group often feel that the group isn't
interested in them. This isn't true. More likely, the person who
walks away from you after you've just introduced yourself has something
else on his/her mind: a presentation coming up, a must-make connection
with a colleague, a phone call back to the office. There are lots
of others who very much want to meet you, to help themselves expand
their contacts, to learn what young planners are learning/thinking,
because you are someone different than the people they see every year,
because they themselves don't know anyone and feel excluded.
Extend a hand, introduce yourself, ask a question. Even the
overtures that don't lead to anything now may open doors later.
Objective Function: "Leave memorable images; take useful data (projects and contact info)." Look
like the person you want to be remembered as. Say things you want
to be remembered for. Bring home names and addresses, copies of
good reports and remarks, ideas for things you want to do and behaviors
you want to emulate.
Have fun. If you're in a good frame of mind, you will be more relaxed and function better.
[Top of Page] [Stiftel Home]
How should I prepare for a doctoral preliminary examination in planning theory?
Assuming the course work is behind you...
I would ask myself, what the boundaries of Planning Theory are, and
then work up a list of 20-40 key works that best describe what we know
about this field. I'd then gather together physical copies of
these works, together with my class and research paper notes on the
field. (The field, not just the formal courses I've taken labeled
'planning theory'.)
Then, I'd look over this material with the twin aims of:
1) reminding myself of what I know in the field, and of what my opinions about the field are; and
2) assessing what the gaps in knowledge are in this field, and what I
believe would be the most promising ways of closing these gaps.
If you want to get formal about it, you might work up to some notes on "a research agenda for planning theory".
If you do these things, or other things aimed at the same general
purposes, you should wind up being well prepared to sit for an exam,
and hopefully will also advance your preparation to contribute to the
development of our profession in the work you do at dissertation stage
and beyond.
A cautionary: It's easy to build up the prelim study process into
more than is productive or efficient. Use your time wisely, but
don't panic. You've studied this field for a very long time: what
has come before is much much more important to your exam performance
than whatever you can do in the next few months.
[Top of Page] [Stiftel Home]
How should I go about negotiating the terms of employment for faculty work?
Martin Krieger has a page on his web log discussing this that I think is quite useful.
[Top of Page] [Stiftel Home]
If Paul Davidoff has e-mail, should I write? [Blog post by Ann Forsyth]
[Top of Page] [Stiftel Home]
How do I prepare a presentation for a scholarly conference?
from Martin Krieger's PLANET posting, October 2007:
There are always
lots of complaints about the quality of presentations at meetings. People have
to present to get their way paid. They might be looking for jobs, or even want
to find someone interested in their work.
1. Practice. Be sure
you are taking less than the allotted time. If it is 15 minutes, go for 13. If
you go over your alloted time, stop then and there. People will be grateful...
See point 4 below. Also, be sure your display or slides or whatever work ahead
of time. If they stop working during a talk, don't worry--just keep
talking.
2. If your language
skills are deficient, use Power Point so that people know what you are saying.
Also, have copies of your paper to give to people, and perhaps a one-page
summary to give out before you start. PowerPoint is the arsenic of modern
academic life, but it is better for people to follow your presentation than not
understand it.
If you are shy, get
help from therapists. Academic life is rhetorical and performative and
combative.
(Ed Tufte has lots
of help with making PowerPoint work better. The best way is not to use
it.)
3.Talk loud and
clear. Face the audience at least some of the time.
4. Give away your
main point in the first minute of your presentation. Don't save it for the end.
I realize this is controversial, but given what I know of most people's
concentration and patience, at least you have their attention in the first
minute. Repeat that main point at the end, and maybe even in the
middle.
5. If you use charts
of numbers etc, be sure people can read the charts, or give people copies on
paper. Use color coding on your slide so that people know what to look for.
Always indicate uncertainty, whether it statistical or systematic or just plain
ignorance--if you have 8 significant figures, I assume that is your bank account
or an artifact of your computer program--you usually have about 1 significant
figure in planning.
6. Cute titles are
disasters. Titles should give away the main point.
7. As for questions:
listen carefully, respond the best you can, say that you don't know if you don't
know, and suggest you discuss it with the questioner after the session. And then
take the questioner to a corner, buy them a snack, and get to know
them.
8. If you are
writing your paper on the plane or in the hotel room, you are likely to be in
trouble. Maybe don't go to the airport at all. The problem here is that your
delivery may well reflect your lack of time to practice, and most of us are
neither Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, or Budda or Confucius, able to sound wise
always. Two days before you leave, practice your talk, at the
latest.
In general, well
prepared students will outdo their professors, well prepared junior faculty will
outdo their senior colleagues. It's no fun to watch people make a mess. More to
the point, if you are seeking recognition, a job, or even just scholarly
interest, people are ALWAYS watching you. If you give a well prepared talk,
everyone will notice and be grateful. You might well survive a poor talk, even
get a job, but that is playing the odds that most people cannot afford. If you
are the strongest person in your field, people still expect you to show up on
time and be well prepared.
Dress neatly. No
sneakers, be well groomed, business attire. Freshly showered and
toothbrushed. Don't be drunk or drugged-out.
I'm sure there is
more, but if you follow the above you won't be a disaster. If your work is
average, and most of the work we see is, at least people will think well of you,
and even recall your main point.
MK
[Top of Page] [Stiftel Home]