Presentation Guide

Comparative Politics

Giacomo Lemoli

General Instructions

Presentation and Discussion

During the second half of our discussion sessions (\(\approx\) 30-35 minutes)

• Presentation length: 15 minutes
  • Any slide format (PPT, Beamer, Revealjs, etc) \(\rightarrow\) upload on Moodle any time before the presentation

• During presentation: no interruptions from the audience

• After presentation: questions and discussion from the audience

Expectations

• Everyone (presenter and class) has read the paper and is prepared with questions

• The discussion emerges spontaneously from the class

• I will provide hints and inputs for discussion if/when needed

Goals

• Engage with concepts seen in lectures outside of the textbook context

• Learn how concepts and theories in CP are used by comparativists in research

• Learn to read and interpret empirical results

• Use theories to assess the soundness of research design

• Engage critically with theories based on empirical evidence

• The goal is not to disprove the presenter (presenter is not the author)

Guidelines for Presentation

What the Presentation Should Do

Presentation \(\rightarrow\) paper summary + critical assessment

Focus on the following questions:

• What is the research question?
• Why is the research question relevant according to the authors?
• What is the research design employed? What assumptions are necessary to give a causal interpretation of the results?
• What are the main results?
  • If there are many supplementary results, which ones are most relevant?
• What are the implications of the results for what we have seen in class?
  • E.g., empirical test? Highlight specific conditions/exceptions? Provide a new perspective?

What the Presentation Should Do

Discuss the strengths/weaknesses of the study

• Is the study overall convincing?

• What are the strengths?

  • e.g., Theoretical work, important real-world case, practical implications

• What are the weaknesses/limitations?

  • e.g., skeptical of the assumptions, limited applicability

What the Presentation Should Do

Note: questions from the class can cover also methodological aspects of the paper

• The presenter is not expected to delve into mathematical/statistical details beyond what seen in class

• I will provide clarifications if necessary

A Non-Satisfactory Presentation: General

• Just a lame summary of the paper

• Shows little understanding/engagement

• Misinterprets the paper

• No effort to connect with the class material

• No effort to reason through implications

A Non-Satisfactory Presentation: Style

• Too short (not taking the most out of the time)

• Too long (goes after time)

  • Too many slides (e.g., more than 1 per minute)

• Slides too dense (e.g., “Wall of text”)

  • BP take multiple lines
  • Dozens of BP
  • BP are full sentences
  • Entire paragraphs on slide

A Non-Satisfactory Presentation: Style

• Nice appearance but little substance
  • BP cannot be understood
  • Visualizations without text
  • Too many visualizations in one slide
• Unedited LLM output
  • Fine to use LLMs but you have to show you “own” the content

A Non-Satisfactory Presentation: Delivery

• Talking a lot without following the slide \(\rightarrow\) audience gets confused

• Improvising

• Reading a presentation script

• Skipping slides without reason

A Satisfactory Presentation

• Addresses all the necessary points

• Highlights new aspects/perspectives

• Draws connection with the class material and contributes to the discussion on these topics

• Has the right number of slides (typically 1 per minute or less)

• Has the right balance of text and visualizations

On AI use

My General View on AI

• AI is great

• We will use it more and more

• You will use it in your future job

• You need to know how to use it well

• Telling you not to use it would be

  • Ridiculous
  • Not a service to you

• However, AI is double-faced

AI accelerates execution but can seriously hamper learning

Learning with AI

• The best use of AI is to enhance your learning

  • E.g., apply and expand boundaries of what you learned

• The worst use of AI is to pretend you have learned

  • E.g., “here is the essay title, can you write it for me”

• Whether you use one strategy or another, it shows

• I can see it (easily), your future employers will see it

Learning with AI

• The best choice would be to avoid the second strategy

• However, the temptation to use it as a shortcut is just too large \(\rightarrow\) Commitment problem

  • Key problem in politics: we will study it

• So we have to force strategy 1

What does this mean in practice

• All the grades for this course are earned in class

• Use AI to enhance learning or communication (e.g., make a nice figure for my slide)

• But what matters is whether you “own” the output and can defend it