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The written paper should be a self-contained brief and must contain sufficient data to support the thesis in the permanent record; however, many of these technical supporting details would only bore an audience and should be omitted in an oral presentation. Please try to get your ideas across as simply as possible and support them with brief, clear, pungent arguments. Although Manual MS-4 generally sets a limit of 4000 words on the maximum length of a written paper, the Academy's requirement on maximum length is generally 3000 words. No facilities for color reproduction in the monograph are available. 

8. Slides are an important element of any technical presentation. Many good authors consolidate all of their basic concepts (assumptions, analysis, conclusions) in a set of charts and diagrams, and their oral presentation consists of an explanation, discussion and interpretation of their slides. 

9. You will obtain the best results with negative slides, that is, white lines on a black background. These negatives are also cheaper to prepare. Such slides can also be made of simple free-hand sketches such as normally made on a blackboard, and are much more effective. Colored slides, especially pastel shades, are always difficult to read under the usual conditions existing at our meetings, and it is recommended that you do not use pastel colors. 

10. Slide size must be 2 X 2 (standard 35 mm). This is the most common size in use today, and also the most economical. There will, therefore, not be any other projections equipment available. The projectors will be author operated; there will be a push button at the lectern to control the projector. Slides must be inserted in the carrier prior to the session in the sequence in which they are to be shown. If an author wishes to refer to the same slide more than once in the same sequence, he must have an additional slide for each reference. 

11. Prepare the format of your slides in strict accordance with the instructions of MS-4. Remember that if a slide cannot be read from the back of the room, it is less than useless; it frustrates the audience with whom you are trying to communicate. Please review personally, prior to the meeting, your own slides from the back of a large auditorium, with some of the lights on. Do this far enough ahead of the meeting so that you can correct any unsatisfactory conditions. Do not rely solely on your organization's professional presentations department; they usually assume that ideal conditions will exist. Make sure that you yourself are satisfied; it is your personal reputation that is at stake. Unreadable slides are the most common and glaring, yet the most easily corrected deficiency of most presentations. 

12. Papers may not be read at the meeting, but must be presented extemporaneously. If you are not an accomplished speaker, take full advantage of any review procedures available in your own organization or in local society sections. If necessary, practice your presentation until you are sure of yourself.

13. Your session organizer will notify you of the amount of time allocated for your oral presentation. This time allotment will normally depend on the number of papers assigned to a session. In order to give each author his share of the available time, it is important that you do not exceed your allocated presentation time.