Chapter 8在线视频

English for Presentations at International Medical Conferences

Chapter 8 describing figures and tables

Hello everyone

I am Tao Xin from Capital Medical University

Now we are going to talk about Chapter 8

describing figures and tables

This chapter discusses functions of figures and tables

and suggested ways to describe figures and tables

in a medical conference

Upon completion of this chapter

you are expected to

understand functions of figures and tables

master words and phrases

for describing figures and tables in medical conferences

Two

Functions

Figures and tables are extremely common

in scientific presentations

especially in the findings and results sections

to indicate relationships and trends

They serve to give the audience immediate access to data

which provide support for the main results of the research

They reinforce the novelty and immediacy

of the content presented and allow the audience

to process information more quickly than text

They can be used to illustrate an argument

or convey complex or detailed information

in a concise manner

Figures are visual presentations of results

including graphs, diagrams,

photos, drawings

schematics, maps, etc

Figures present the data in a clear

compact and organized way

and present the data trend or shape

not otherwise apparent

They are suitable for presenting pronounced trends

and relationships between sets of values

Common figures presented in medical conferences

include bar graphs

line graphs and scatter plots

Tables present lists of numbers or text in columns

each column having a title or label

They are suitable for presenting specific information

or exact values

Three

Suggested ways to describe figures and tables

Figures and tables are a central

part of a medical presentation

reflecting the multimodal semiotic nature

of the conference presentation

and they need to be integrated into the spoken text

Different from descriptions of figures and tables

in the published paper

which are formal and detailed

presenters need to explain the trend

the problem or the main result

as conveyed in the figure or table

clearly and concisely in a medical presentation

So filling one slide with enormous

amounts of data would overwhelm the audience

They are unfamiliar with your data

and unable to process them within the few seconds

that it is displayed

Simplification results in greater comprehensibility for the audience

steps of describing figures and tables

A key point to remember about presenting data with

figures and tables is to tell the story

instead of only showing the data

After all the arduous work in collecting

reporting and analyzing data

it is tempting to show the audience all the data

But the point of presenting is to tell the story

and persuade the audience in an effective

and efficient manner

So it is necessary to consider what to keep

and what to change in an oral presentation

as compared to a research report

So before we go to an oral presentation

simplify and visualize the data

according to the audience’s level of expertise

Declutter unnecessary information

Highlight and emphasize the main point

When we have actually come to describing the data

also keep the description to the point

Here we suggest an effective sequence

to present figures and tables in presentations

what is it: introduce the figures and tables

Think about what the whole story is

so that audience would understand

how the data fit in with the whole picture

There are three distinct steps to tell a story

Start by introducing what the graph is

and then orient the audience

to the elements of the graph

Give them a few seconds to understand

what the graph is and how it is laid out

For example

Figure...

shows the result of

in the form of a scatter plot

Table...

presents shows describes demonstrates

This graph shows the ...

One the left axis

you see...

And on the bottom are ...

Then orient the audience to the ranking on the axis

Point out the highest and lowest value

for example

While you are describing

you can gesture to the screen

and point to appropriate parts on the graph

Two what does it say

present the key point

Next tell the audience the main points

Put the key point at the top of the graph

Illustrate them with animated arrows

Present the key point first

Do not suspend the key point until the end

How much information you give

and what level of technical information you give

is all dependent on the audience

Use highlighting devices like circles or animation

to help the audience focus

Dig deeper

but only according to the audience’s needs

Consider giving a handout

if there is too much information

Three

what does it mean: interpret the data

The next step is to tell the audience

“what does it mean”

or “why it matters”

How we interpret the data

depends on the purpose of the presentation

and that of the audience

Two describing figures

Presenting data visually in a figure

is easier to understand

than presenting all data in a table

Here we introduce the three common types

of figures used in medical presentations

line graphs bar graphs and scatter plots

line graphs

Line graphs plot a series of related values

that depict a change in Y as a function of X

In describing line graphs

we usually use verbs to describe the action

adverbs to describe degree

and adjective + nouns

to describe direction of movement

as shown in the following table

While describing the change

we could frame the sentence in this pattern

what and how plus where and when

like in the following examples

Prepositions including 'by'

'at' and 'of' are used in describing graphs

'By' describes differences

'at' means at a static point

while 'of' indicates quantity following nouns

Two bar graphs

Bar graphs are used

when you wish to compare the

value of a single variable

usually a summary value such as a mean

among several groups

Bar graphs are also used for describing relationships and trends

The common expressions for describing trend

used in line graphs are also applicable here

So we may find the following expressions

useful for describing bar graphs

After Treatment A Variable B increased fall drop over time

The overall trend is an increase

The steepest increases in variable A occurred in Group B

Variable A in Group B has dropped from a peak of to

Three scatter plots

X Y Scatterplots are plots of X Y coordinates

showing each individual's

or sample's score on two variables

When plotting data this way

we are usually interested in knowing

whether the two variables show a "relationship"

do they change in value

together in a consistent way

Variable 1 increases/decreases with Variable 2

Scatter plot graphs are depicted in Figure

with an R2 value of

for Group 1 and a R2 value of

Three describing tables

Tables are used for describing prominent values or comparisons

Avoid using complex tables in presentations

as the audience have a relatively short time

to take in the information

and they seldom have the opportunity

to refer to the tables later

So do not overwhelm the audience

with too much to look at

One, tables for highlighting prominent values1

Tables can be used for describing exact values

so in reporting we usually meet highlighting

prominent values

Group A had a ...

of variable A

while Group B had a ...

of variable B

Variable A increased or decreased from ...

for one category to ...

for another category

Two, for describing comparisons

When tables are used for describing a relationship

we can introduce comparisons

with expressions like the following

variable A was positively/negatively/inversely

associated with variable B

increased variable A was associated

with a lower/higher risk of variable B

we observed statistical significance

between the two variables

Four establishing rapport with the audience

Appropriate language strategies could reduce

the distance between the speaker and audience

and make understanding of complex

figures and tables easier and more accessible for the audience

As presentations are a different mode of

presenting research from research articles

the language used may be more informal and concise

And we can reduce the distance

between the speaker and the audience

with interactive personal pronouns

such as ‘you’ and ‘we’

and interpersonal small words like ok, right

For example

we could contextualize the figures and tables

before describing them

To properly background the content of

the figures and tables

and to allow audiences to activate a cognitive schema

we can use the following forms

Now or next I’d like to show you

Ok let’s look at

Equally effective phrases used

at scientific conferences

for pointing out visual details are

So here are the steps that we took

Here you can see X

As you can see here

Ok I’m going to show you two graphs

We can see Table...

presents shows/describes/demonstrates ...

We can notice that in the above expressions

inverted sentence structure

(Here is...)

and reference words (here, this）

are used to introduce visuals

Sometimes no explicit direction is needed

to draw the audience’s attention

to the figures and tables

but once attention is gained

inversions and references are good choices

to maintain and orient interest

Here are other effective phrases for explaining visuals

We can see

As you can see in this chart or graph

If you just look at X

you can see Y right

Here ‘just’ and ‘ok’ are used

to represent a highlighted trend

illustrating the departure from the greater

body of the research data

and help to distinguish the visual narrative

from the written text

Avoid using phrases like “Please pay attention to X

” and “like this picture” when describing figures and tables

‘Pay attention to’ is a directive

that sounds like scolding the audience

Better replace it with ‘I’d like to point out‘

or ‘Please note or look at X’

Utterances such as “like this picture”

is usually used as an explanatory clause

after presenting a message

The problem is that it sounds too informal

as in a casual chat

The medical conference is still academic interaction

though the tenor is not as formal

as that of an article

Try to replace it with ‘as this picture shows’

Five word usage summary

In this section we have discussed useful words and expressions

for describing figures and tables

Now let’s make a word usage summary

most frequently used verbs and phrases

are showing in the following table

Six dos and don’ts

Interpret the figures and tables for your audience

Describe the relationships

shown in the titles of figures and tables

Avoid using complex figures or tables in presentations

when the audience have a relatively short time

to take in the information

Involve the audience by using interactive language

like personal pronouns and reference words

Four Practice

One

Suppose you are going to a medical conference

and present a line graph like the following

How would you describe it in the presentation

Reference

Ok now let’s look at the Figure here

It shows Kaplan-Meier curves for the cumulative risk of

CVD outcome events for each category of

baseline push-up capacities

We can see that the 0- to 10-push-ups group

has the greatest cumulative incidence of CVD outcome events

And we can find a 15% cumulative incidence

of CVD events in the 0 to 10 push-ups group

vs 5% or lower in the other groups

Two

You are going to a medical conference

to present the following table

from the article

‘Anticholinergic Drug Exposure and the Risk of Dementia

A Nested Case-Control Study’

How would you describe it

Reference

This table is rather complicated

So it is necessary to simplify the table

and highlight the important message

with columns or boxes

We can describe the table like this

Ok we can see Table 4 presents the risk of dementia

associated with total cumulative

use of any type of anticholinergic drugs

Here we can see the AOR associated with total

cumulative anticholinergic exposure

in the 1 to 11 years before the index date

increased from 1.06 for 1 to 90 TSDDs

to 1.49 for more than 1095 TSDDs

When restricted to the 3 to 13 and 5 to 20 years

before the index date

we found that results were similar

but with slightly lower ORs

for example

for the 5 to 20 years before the index date

the AOR was 1.44

for more than 1095 TSDDs