STEM professionals are constantly faced with the style vs. substance dilemma.

Style is the delivery—tone, pacing, word choice, visuals, gestures, and storytelling techniques that make the message memorable.

Technical presentations need both.

So how can STEM professionals blend these two parts of their technical presentation? Below are three ways they can do this:

Treat Design as a Tool for Clarity, Not Decoration

STEM professionals can embrace visual polish when it enhances comprehension.

Remember, it is your job to provide factual information through the substance of your presentation. However, a second job for you, as important as delivering substance, is to transfer the maximum substance to your audience. Your delivery style has a significant effect on this.

Clean layouts, consistent fonts, and a clear visual hierarchy (e.g., bolding key numbers or highlighting cause-and-effect relationships) help the audience grasp complex information more quickly.

There are many ways to deliver your presentation substance. Delivering the substance in a way that resonates with your audience and makes it their own is an art. The first step is to make your substance clear.

The key is to apply style as a lens for understanding, not as a disguise for weak content. As Edward Tufte notes, effective design “maximizes clarity and minimizes confusion.”

This should be your goal when delivering your presentation – to maximize clarity and minimize confusion.

To do this, imagine you are your audience, trying to follow along as you present. Can you.

The best way to determine if they can follow you is to video record yourself. View the recording disconnected from the recording subject – you. Then dispassionately evaluate your delivery.

Ask yourself questions such as these: Did I clearly state the main points of the presentation at the beginning? Did I follow these main points, allocating equal delivery time to each one? Did I recap the main points at the end of the presentation?

One way to resolve the substance vs. style dilemma is to treat presentation design as a tool for clarity, not decoration.

Another approach is to initiate collaboration with a shared intent.

Begin Collaboration with Shared Intent

Early alignment between technical and non-technical contributors prevents conflict later.

There is sometimes conflict between STEM professionals and the management or marketing arms of their company.

STEM professionals should clarify the presentation’s purpose—to inform, persuade, or secure decisions—and agree with management or marketing on what success looks like.

When both groups value precision and persuasion, they can strike a balance between rigor and storytelling flow.

Agreeing on what success looks like should be accomplished before you start your presentation creation. This is the goal, but not the presentation journey.

There are many ways to travel from New York to San Francisco. The route chosen depends on what a successful road trip looks like –whether it involves scenic, faster travel, or intermediate stops.

Similarly, you are taking your audience on a journey. Your end goal for your audience will determine your delivery style.

Two ways to resolve the substance vs. style dilemma are to ensure you treat presentation design as a tool for clarity, not decoration, and begin collaboration with shared intent.

A third way is to anchor every presentation design choice to your core message.

Anchor Every Presentation Design Choice to Your Core Message

Before approving a stylistic change, STEM professionals should ask: “Does this design choice make the data easier to understand or recall?”

If the answer is no, it’s style without substance.

Also, ask: “Does this design choice concentrate strictly on my core message?”

If your answer is no, it’s substance over style.

You need to design your presentation so it has the correct amount of style to appeal to your audience and the proper amount of substance to impart information that your audience can immediately use.

The point here is that overemphasizing style or overemphasizing substance makes your presentation unbalanced. Unbalanced presentations are not received well by audiences.

You must balance style and substance if you want your presentation to transfer the maximum substance to your audience in the correct style, so they will make it their own.

For example, instead of adding animations for flair, use them to reveal data step-by-step or emphasize trends over time.

You can over-animate, so ensure that only the slides that reveal a data step-by-step or emphasize trends are animated.

Three ways to resolve the substance vs. style dilemma are to (1) treat presentation design as a tool for clarity, not decoration, (2) begin collaboration with shared intent, and (3) anchor every presentation design choice to your core message.

You can resolve the substance vs. style dilemma!

Call to Action

• Design your slides with clean layouts, consistent fonts, and visual hierarchy (e.g., bolding key numbers or highlighting cause-and-effect flow) to help the audience grasp complex information faster.

• Clarify the presentation’s purpose—to inform, persuade, or secure decisions—and agree with management or marketing on what success looks like.

• Before approving a stylistic change, STEM professionals should ask: “Does this design choice make the data easier to understand or recall?”

References

• Tufte, E. R. (1990). Envisioning Information. Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press../p>

Reynolds, G. (2008). Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery. Berkeley, CA: New Riders.

• Duarte, N. (2010). Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Being a confident, engaging, and effective STEM speaker is a vital personal and professional asset. With more than 40 years of engineering experience and more than 30 years of award-winning public speaking experience, I can help you reduce your presentation preparatory time by 50%, overcome your fear of public speaking and be completely at ease, deliver your presentations effectively, develop your personal presence with your audience; and apply an innovative way to handle audience questions deftly.

Working closely with you, I provide a customized protocol employing the critical skills and tools you need to create, practice, and deliver excellent STEM speeches and presentations. Let’s connect and explore how I can help you become the exceptional speaker you were meant to be. Please reach out to me at frank@speakleadandsucceed.com or 703-509-4424 for a complimentary consultation. Schedule a meeting with me at calendly.com/frankdibartolomeospeaks