Some Learning from a Skillful Presenter

Greetings again. I hope you’re doing well.

The intensive course that I teach on research writing began last week. The week included 2 guest presentations by a faculty member known as an excellent speaker. One presentation was on planning scientific presentations. The other was an example of such a presentation.

The speaker’s advice resembled that in AuthorAID materials on giving presentations. However, it also included additional ideas, such as the following:

• Realize that a presentation markets your work. In the future, some listeners might, for example, peer review your papers and proposals. Make a good impression.
• In a 45-minute talk, generally spend about 15 minutes introducing your topic, 25 minutes presenting your work, and 5 minutes summarizing.
• Be an effective storyteller. For instance, unlike in a journal article, present your most important finding last.

The sample presentation was a 15-minute overview of some of the speaker’s research. The presentation impressed us. We noticed that the speaker

• posed an interesting question early in the presentation and then spent much of the time presenting findings that helped answer it;
• had good eye contact with the audience and used gestures well;
• showed slides that were clear and uncrowded;
• used the laser pointer to indicate exactly what he wanted us to notice (rather than waving the pointer around); and
• repeated important points to emphasize them and help us remember them.

Later in the course, the attendees will give presentations. Fortunately, they received good advice and have a good model to follow.

Until the next post—

Barbara