HOW TO PREPARE EFFECTIVE HANDOUTS
Handouts are crucial in linguistic research, so it’s
important that you master this discourse genre. Here are some basic guidelines
for creating an effective handout for sociocultural linguistics.
Make people pay attention to the content of the handout, not
its appearance
·
Use only white paper.
·
Use a readable, ordinary
font like Times or Courier. Don’t vary fonts (or font styles or sizes) for
design purposes; you may alternate between a text font and a transcript font,
or you may put headings in a different font/size/style, but make the text as
uniform as possible. And bear in mind that most academics have poor eyesight;
use at least 12 point font. If you want to shrink two portrait pages to fit one
landscape page to save space, enlarge your font accordingly so that the handout
text is the equivalent of 12 point.
·
Use white space
judiciously; don’t cram more than you can fit into each page, and don’t leave
gaping blank spots. Never double-space a handout.
Make the handout easy to navigate.
·
Match the handout order
to the presentation order. Don’t make audience members flip back and forth
between pages (or between handouts; you should have only one handout for your
presentation). If a large transcript or table won’t fit where you want to put
it, reduce its size, break it into pieces, leave white space, or restructure
your presentation order. If you have an extremely long transcript that you are analyzing
in detail, you may include the whole thing in an appendix, but you must repeat
the excerpts you analyze within the main text of the handout.
·
Double-sided handouts are
highly recommended (they’re lighter weight and save paper).
·
Always staple multipage
handouts, preferably only once, in the upper left corner.
·
Include page numbers!
·
During your presentation,
guide people through the handout. You may optionally refer to page/section
numbers, but you absolutely must refer to example numbers, and to line numbers
when used.
·
During your presentation,
give people time to digest examples. Ideally play at least one or two of your
examples and read the rest. If you don’t have time to play or read the whole
example, try to at least read a piece of it or mention the key part of it
(e.g., “In example (4), first-person pronouns occur in lines 4 and 19.”)
Elements of the handout
Title section
This occurs at the top of page 1 (and nowhere else; don’t
have a header with the title on every page). This section includes more than
the title. You should have the following information, typically in this order,
typically centered (i.e., model it on the manuscript of the article that this
presentation will eventually become): title of paper, your name, (your university
affiliation and perhaps department: for conferences, job talks, etc.), your
email address. It’s a marker of a newbie to put too much information in the
title section; if you want to include the presentation location (e.g., the
conference acronym, such as AAA or LSA) and date, you can add it in the first
page header or below your email address, but don’t list the session title,
organizer, etc.
Body
This can vary quite a bit, depending on the nature of your
presentation. You can structure the body using headings and/or an outline
format, or if your presentation is primarily data-driven, you can simply allow
readers to follow along using the example numbers. Don’t overstructure your
handout; one or two heading levels is the most you should use.
Quotes
You can include quotes from other researchers if relevant,
but you should not number them. Cite the author, date, and page number
parenthetically, and then add the full reference in your reference section at
the end of the handout.
Examples
All data examples should be numbered. Tables and figures
should be numbered separately from data examples. That is, if you have a table
that occurs after data example (4), call it Table 1 and follow it with data
example (5). Number all examples, tables, and figures using Arabic numbers
only. By convention, data examples are usually numbered in parentheses above
the data: (1), (2). Don’t write “example” before the example number.
Tables
Keep their design simple, and use them only for the
presentation of material that won’t work better in a data example or a graphic
of some kind (e.g., lists of discourse markers and their function in the
discourse work well in a table; simple statistics may be best presented in a
table, but often a graphic is better for this purpose). Transcripts should
almost never be in tables. All tables should have clear and informative
captions: not “Table 1: Codeswitching” but “Table 1: Percentage of
codeswitching in narrative, by gender.” Look at examples of published tables to
find an effective format. Tables are harder to design than you might think.
Figures
Figures include charts and graphics. If you have graphics,
make sure they’re clearly visible on the handout. Color graphics are pretty but
expensive; a clear black and white photocopy is usually fine. Like tables,
figures should also have informative captions.
Transcripts
Provide line numbers for transcripts of more than a few
lines (typically 5 or so). Line numbers should be Arabic numbers with no
parentheses or periods. Try to format your numbering so that long lines don’t
run into the numbering column or the speaker name column.
Don’t:
1 A: blahblahblahblah blahblahblahblah
blahblahblahblah
blahblahblahblah blahblahblahblah.
2 B: blahblahblahblah blahblahblahblah.
Do:
1 A: blahblahblahblah blahblahblahblah
blahblahblahblah
blahblahblahblah
blahblahblahblah.
2 B: blahblahblahblah blahblahblahblah.
Include only the text that you absolutely need to make your
argument and use ellipses to mark omitted text; if you need to use a long
transcript, highlight the material under discussion (e.g., underline or
boldface, arrow in the margin).
Transcription conventions
You should list all the transcription conventions you use in
the handout, and only those. To save space, you can simply cite your source for
transcription conventions, if you’re using a widely known system like
Jefferson’s or Du Bois’s.
References
List only the references mentioned in the presentation
(orally or on the handout). These are usually no more than five or ten for a
short talk, or a page for a longer talk.
