SCMB Postgraduate Fora 2009 How (not) to present a talk Arti Singh On behalf of the SCMB Postgraduate Students Committee 15 th October 2009

An example (or Doug Zongker, University of Washington Presented at a meeting of the American Society for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), February 2007

Purpose of a talk give an overview of a topic present a summary of your work engage and inform/entertain your audience tell a story present information in a limited amount of time

Slides time limit = limited number of slides Postgraduate Symposium: 15 min + 5 min Q&A guide: ~1 slide/minute; 15 min talk: slides don’t have too much information on a slide use dot points and figures/equations/flowcharts if its not important, leave it out (eg. details) practice, practice, practice!

Fonts easy to read eg. Arial, NOT Comic Sans MS (NB. Times New Roman may not always display correctly and can be difficult to read) don’t use more than 1 or 2 different fonts – be consistent large enough to read (eg. 26 point), smaller for references (eg. 10 point) avoid all capital letters (= yelling; difficult to read) avoid title case (eg. How to present a talk, NOT How To Present A Talk) emphasis: use italics and bolding instead of underlining

Pictures whenever possible, use pictures, graphs, equations, chemical structures instead of words don’t use ClipArt just for the sake of it make sure they are large enough! make sure they are clear – avoid ‘chart junk’ (eg. grey backgrounds, grid lines, too much axis detail) label graph lines directly instead of using legends

too small! good size, but too many distractions

simpler, less distracting = more effective in a talk

Colours use contrasting colours simple backgrounds are better light background, darker writing/figures dark background, lighter/brighter writing/figures don’t use too many colours on a slide – distracting use colour to highlight/code things avoid using red and green together (inability to distinguish them = most common form of colourblindness) yellowblue and yellow can be problematic for some people (try to avoid yellow writing on bright blue background)

Contrast is important!

Animation & sound some animation can be useful – emphasis, highlighting, explaining a process or results too much is distracting & wastes time sound – useful if it is a part of your research (eg. animals, communication) may not always be able to play sound in your presentation room

Talking to an audience know your audience – specialists? non-specialists? talk to the audience, don’t read out slides/notes maintain eye contact, don’t talk to the board laser pointer: don’t point at audience don’t fidget, put your hands in your pockets, shift your feet, chew gum, play with your hair etc pace yourself – don’t talk too fast or too slowly don’t be monotonous, make gestures make the audience care about what you have to say

Key points Limited amount of time to tell your story = limited number of slides Summary of your work – not too many details, overall picture – what and why use contrasting colours for backgrounds and writing/figures, fonts that can be easily read, figures/flow charts/equations make your slides as simple as possible – not too much animation voice, gestures, don’t read slides, talk to audience, eye contact, engage audience make audience care about your work and what you have to say practice, practice, practice!