Presenting science: a practical guide to giving a good talk

1 Introduction

2 Preparatory work

2.1 The audience

2.2 The structure of the event

2.3 The venue

2.4 Laptop, memory stick, plastic foils or chalk and talk?

2.5 What are the slides for?

2.6 Scoping the talk

2.7 The process of writing the talk

3 Structure of the presentation

3.1 The structure of the content

3.2 The backup slides

4 Identifying the context of the presentation 25

Some common contexts

4.2 Assessing the audience

4.3 Judging the length of the presentation

4.4 Timing

4.5 Am I the first speaker, or the last speaker, or somewhere in the middle?

5 Style

5.1 Font

5.2 The frame

5.3 Bullets and boxes

5.4 Pictures, plots and tables

5.5 Animation

5.6 Equations

5.7 Posters

5.8 Visual aids and props

6 Preparation and presentation

6.1 Position, to audience

6.2 Voice and language

6.3 Microphones

6.4 Using the laser pointer

6.5 Dress code

6.6 Entertaining the audience-jokes and asides

6.7 Are you sitting comfortably? Dealing with nervousness

6.8 Rehearsal

6.9 Dealing with questions

6.10 Final remarks

7 Concluding remarks

Appendix A Presenting complicated equations-a worked example

Appendix B Some Power Point tips

B.1 Blanking out the screen

B.2 Running out of time

B.3 Saving space with pictures

B.4 Power Point and equations

Appendix C Meeting the media

C.1 After a press release

C.2 The unsolicited contact

C.3 A final word on the media.

1 Introduction; 2 Preparatory work; 3 Structure of the presentation; 4 Identifying the context of the presentation; 5 Style; 6 Preparation and presentation; 7 Concluding remarks; Appendix A: Presenting complicated equations

a worked example; Appendix B: Some PowerPoint tips; Appendix C: Meeting the media; Index.