Things to Think About

1. Oral Communication is different from written communication

   Listeners have one chance to hear your talk and can't "re-read" when they get confused. In many situations, they have or will hear several talks on the same day. Being clear is particularly important if the audience can't ask questions during the talk. There are two well-know ways to communicate your points effectively. The first is to K.I.S.S. (keep it simple stupid). Focus on getting one to three key points across. Think about how much you remember from a talk last week. Second, repeat key insights: tell them what you're going to tell them (Forecast), tell them, and tell them what you told them (Summary).

    

2. Think about your audience

   Most audiences should be addressed in layers: some are experts in your sub-area, some are experts in the general area, and others know little or nothing. Who is most important to you? Can you still leave others with something? For example, pitch the body to experts, but make the forecast and summary accessible to all.

    

3. Think about your rhetorical goals

   For conference talks, for example, I recommend two rhetorical goals: leave your audience with a clear picture of the gist of your contribution, and make them want to read your paper. Your presentation should not replace your paper, but rather whet the audience appetite for it. Thus, it is commonly useful to allude to information in the paper that can't be covered adequately in the presentation. Below I consider goals for academic interview talks and class presentations.

    

4. Practice in public

   It is hard distilling work down to 20 or 30 minutes.

    

5. Prepare

   See David Patterson's How to Give a Bad Talk

Ten commandments (with annotations gleaned from Patterson's talk by Mark D. Hill):

1. Thou shalt not be neat

   Why waste research time preparing slides? Ignore spelling, grammar and legibility. Who cares what 50 people think?

    

2. Thou shalt not waste space

   Transparencies are expensive. If you can save five slides in each of four talks per year, you save $7.00/year!

    

3. Thou shalt not covet brevity

   Do you want to continue the stereotype that engineers can't write? Always use complete sentences, never just key words. If possible, use whole paragraphs and read every word.

    

4. Thou shalt cover thy naked slides

   You need the suspense! Overlays are too flashy.

    

5. Thou shalt not write large

   Be humble -- use a small font. Important people sit in front. Who cares about the riff-raff?

    

6. Thou shalt not use color

   Flagrant use of color indicates uncareful research. It's also unfair to emphasize some words over others.

    

7. Thou shalt not illustrate

   Confucius says ``A picture = 10K words,'' but Dijkstra says ``Pictures are for weak minds.'' Who are you going to believe? Wisdom from the ages or the person who first counted goto's?

    

8. Thou shalt not make eye contact

   You should avert eyes to show respect. Blocking screen can also add mystery.

    

9. Thou shalt not skip slides in a long talk

   You prepared the slides; people came for your whole talk; so just talk faster. Skip your summary and conclusions if necessary.

    

10. Thou shalt not practice

    Why waste research time practicing a talk? It could take several hours out of your two years of research. How can you appear spontaneous if you practice? If you do practice, argue with any suggestions you get and make sure your talk is longer than the time you have to present it.

     

Commandment X is most important. Even if you break the other nine, this one can save you.