1. How to Give a Journal Club Talk
BIO425
Randal Voss
August 30, 2006

2. Journal Club Presentations
In graduate school (or some other life venue) you will be asked to give a presentation on a specific topic.
Remember that the primary goal of any talk is learning: you must gauge your audience and present information in a way that motivates interest and participation.
So how do you accomplish the primary goal?

3. Gauging Your Audience In BIO425, you can assume that students will
have a general knowledge of biological concepts
(e.g. concepts from the core courses). However,
because students take different elective courses,
your talk should provide sufficient background
information and you should deliver that
information without using a lot of technical jargon.

4. Preparation
Be prepared! Practice your talk before giving it the first time. It may help to write the complete talk out, however you should be able to give the talk with minimal notes.
If you are prepared, you will have confidence and be able to relax. It also helps to remind yourself that you are the expert and members of your audience are ignorant (but want to learn).

5. Pace of the Presentation
There is no rule of thumb on the pace of a presentation. Some people are effective fast-talkers, while others articulate points better at slower speeds. Most people can cover approximately slides in a 40 minute talk.

6. Presentation Media
Most people will give a computer presentation using powerpoint or pdf. Have a general sense of the layout of the slides in your presentation so that you will anticipate transitions in your presentation. Please me your presentation before class or bring me a copy on CD or flashdrive.

7. Presentation Style (cont.)
Reverse video (light on dark) is sometimes effective for Powerpoint and tends to be easier to read.

8. Presentation Content
You have been assigned 2 papers. In almost all cases you have been given a review paper and data paper.
Use the review paper (and references within the review paper and data paper) to develop an introduction for your talk.

9. Presentation Content
Your presentation should have the following sections:
Introduction to the general problem (10-15 minutes)
Introduction to the data paper (5 minutes)
Methods (5-15 minutes)
Results (5-15 minutes)
Discussion/Summary (5-10 minutes)
Overall conclusions as they relate to the general problem (1-5 minutes)

10. Delivery of Information
For each major section of your talk, tell the audience what you will talk about on an introductory slide. Next, give that section of the talk. Finally, summarize what you just talked about. This strategy makes the logic clearer in scientific talks.

11. Delivery of Information
For each slide, it helps to first introduce the main idea of the slide or to state simply what the slide shows. After carefully describing all aspects of the slide (e.g. axes on graphs), you should make a short summary statement to help transition to the next slide.

12. Delivery of Information
Each slide should convey only one major idea or point. The moment you put a new slide up, everyone will stop listening to you and read the slide. If your slide contains small text, is hard to understand, or contains a lot of material, you will lose your audience until they have figured it out.

13. Delivery of Information
However, sometimes you have to show a complex slide. You can keep control of your audience by revealing part of the slide, talking about it, and then revealing the rest. Do it with a simple hide/show. Do not use goofy effects.

14. Delivery of Information
Use the actual figures from the paper if they are graphs or images. Figure legends are usually not suitable for slides. Remove them, and write your own in large text that is simple and clear. Sometimes it is preferable to retype tables too, if the text is small and cluttered.

15. Presentation Grade
Presentations represent 80% of your grade! If you need help on any aspect of your presentation, please contact me well ahead of your scheduled presentation. I am here to help.
You will be graded on the presentation of
material, the content of the presentation, and your ability to answer questions.
I will likely reward students with bonus points throughout the semester for asking GOOD questions.