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Tips for a Good Talk

This guide provides valuable tips for delivering a good talk, from preparing slides to engaging audiences effectively with practical advice and speaker insights.

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Tips for a Good Talk

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  1. Tips for a Good Talk Alycia J. Weinberger 28 October 2011

  2. You MUST Have an Outline • Introduction: • What is the problem and Why you should care • Your story arc • The Protein • Something to nourish every member of audience • The Conclusions • What we have learned about what you care about • Where we will go next

  3. General Points • You must have an outline • Know your audience

  4. Know your Audience Faculty in a different and/or competing field New faculty in related field Skeptical faculty more interested in something else 1st year grad student Expert in your field

  5. General Points • You must have an outline • Know your audience • Practice, Practice, Practice • Be comfortable and confident with your material • Use pointers judiciously • Know your venue

  6. Screen Sizes May Not Scale with Room Size V = (screen width / room length) • Astronomy Library • V = 4 ft / 22 ft = 0.18 • Greenwalt Seminar Room • V = 9.25 ft / 45 ft = 0.20 • Marriott Wardman Ballroom • V = 8 ft / 90 ft = 0.09

  7. General Points • You must have an outline • Know your audience • Practice, Practice, Practice • Know your venue • Engage your audience • Make eye contact • React and adjust • Dress nicely

  8. Tips for Preparing Good Talk Slides

  9. Obvious or not so obvious • Always credit plots • Make slides for your audience, not so much for you • Convey something important on every slide • Use slides for what just words won’t do This slide did not have to exist, unless it helps your audience to assimilate or remember what you said

  10. Let every slide make a point, and make it clear what this point is. My opinion on slide design One good figure will fit on a slide and be worth 1000 words A title helps them understand what you’re talking about A conclusion lets them catch up if they fall asleep Credit Powerpoint clipart

  11. Please don’t do this Check your font sizes: This is 8 pt!

  12. 32 pt: My very exciting conclusion Let’s Talk Font Sizes 28 pt: My very exciting conclusion 24 pt: My very exciting conclusion 20 pt: My very exciting conclusion 18 pt: My very exciting conclusion 16 pt: My very exciting conclusion 14 pt: My very exciting conclusion 12 pt: My very exciting conclusion

  13. Font Test Slide • This is a serif (Times Roman) font at 28 pt • This is a sanserif (Arial) font at 28 pt • This is a serif font at 20 pt • This is a sanserif font at 20 pt Is one easier to read than the other?

  14. Let’s talk colors • Remember that 5-7% males find Red and Green hard to distinguish/see • Projectors are often not very bright or high contrast White CyanGreenRedYellow Orange PurpleBlue MagentaBanana Silver BlackCyanGreenRedYellow Orange PurpleBlue MagentaBanana Silver BlackCyanGreenRedYellow Orange PurpleBlue MagentaBanana Silver

  15. Please Don’t Do This: Eschew complicated backgrounds Conferences sometimes post talks; people will steal your slides; label them! HD209458b,HD189733b,XO-1b HD 209458b Mass= 0.69 Mj; Radius = 1.32 Rj; Parent star= G0 Distance = 0.045 AU; HD 189733b Mass = 1.15 Mj; Radius= 1.156 Rj; Parent Star = K1-K2; Distance= 0.0312

  16. Figure Sizes and Whitespace

  17. A Mediocre Slide • Infrared spectrum is unique • 10 micron flux is huge • All far infrared flux arises from hot dust

  18. A Good Slide • 10 micron flux is huge • All far infrared flux arises from hot dust Infrared spectrum is unique

  19. Preparing Figures for Papers/Talks You or your colleagues WILL take figures from your papers for talks

  20. Use large fonts & thick lines (16 pt equiv) Thick = 3 Thick = 4 Postscript Times-Roman Default IDL Vector font xthick = 3

  21. Using your own figures well My PS figure converted to jpeg with GraphicConverter My PS figure converted to PDF with Preview Interestingly, this one appeared clear, and I filled it white

  22. Font Size for Journal Figures Consider line thickness too Weinberger et al. 1999 Spatial Frequency (This label is in 11 pt! Oops!) Spatial Frequency (This label is in 20 pt! Aaah!)

  23. plot,x,y,/nodata,xtitle='X Axis',ytitle='Y Axis’ oploterr,x,y,yerr,3 oplot,x,y,psym=-4 Not so good (Examples on these slides thanks to Larry Nittler)

  24. Better • !p.thick=3 • plot,x,y,/nodata,xtitle='X Axis',ytitle='Y Axis', charsize=1.5, xthick=3, ythick=3 • oploterr,x,y,yerr,3 • oplot,x,y,psym=-4

  25. Best • !p.thick=3 • plot,x,y,/nodata,xtitle='X Axis',ytitle='Y Axis', charsize=1.5, xthick=3, ythick=3 • oploterr,x,y,yerr,3 • oplot,x,y,psym=sym(‘cir’,/fill), symsize=1.5

  26. Inserting Other Scientists’ Figures You WILL need to show other people’s data

  27. “High Res” Journal Figure Not too bad Roberge, Feldman, Weinberger, Deleuil & Bouret, 2006

  28. Preview snapshot at 100% Nice! (transparent) Roberge, Feldman, Weinberger, Deleuil & Bouret, 2006

  29. Acrobat Snapshot of PDF at 150% Ugly and hard to read Roberge, Feldman, Weinberger, Deleuil & Bouret, 2006

  30. Acrobat Snapshot of PDF at 557% Fine! Roberge, Feldman, Weinberger, Deleuil & Bouret, 2006

  31. Useful reference websites: http://cit.information.unl.edu/info0806.htm http://jfly.iam.u-tokyo.ac.jp/color/ http://homepages.rpi.edu/~newbeh/WIPcommText.htm

  32. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE

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