Planning a Scientific Talk by answering 11 simple questions

Table of Contents

• 1 Purpose
• 2 Sources
• 3 Questions to answer
• 4 Tips
• 5 Final questions management
• 6 Fear management

1 Purpose

In this page you can find a short bullet list that you need to read before giving a Scientific talk.

2 Sources

1. ubc
2. stemdiv.ucsc.edu

3 Questions to answer

1. What is this talk about?
2. What is the main point of this talk?
3. What are the strengths of this method?
4. What are the weakness of this method?
5. How could this work be applied?
6. What are the main questions that author asked (i.e. find an explanation of the anomalous transport related with the stochastic behavior of the field lines)
7. Why did we ask these questions?
8. Were there any particular previous studies that prompted this work?
9. What results did they obtain?
10. How did your results update/change the understanding of the problem?
11. If it is a representation of existing ideas, is this presentation better than existing texts in literature?

4 Tips

1. Strong beginning and get to the point fast;
2. simple language, active verbs which are clear and concise;
3. use analogies, illustration and metaphors: paint pictures with words;
4. present a review at the beginning of the session and a summary at the end;
5. use memory tools: acronyms, visual aids and mnemonics;
6. have a dramatic (but not drastic) ending, end with a story or a quote;
7. Humor helps;
8. Never read the slides;
9. differentiate between experimental evidence and speculations;
10. integrate the references inside the slides;
11. Make a lot of references to existent literature in the talk;
12. Do not answer to the same question repeating the same concept different times;

5 Final questions management

1. Take your time to think about the question;
2. try to give an answer to the question anyway;
3. be gracious;
4. answer briefly and to the point;
5. as last resort answer: "I am not sure. I will have to give it some thought, can we talk later?"

6 Fear management

1. Reharse many times;
2. look calm;
3. speak slow;
4. focus on what you are explaining;
5. find a friendly face in the audience to look at;

Date: 2015-03-23 13:05:58 CET

Author: falematte

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Conference poster presentation: speech planning

Table of Contents

• 1 How to present a scientific poster
  • 1.1 Sources
  • 1.2 What you should know before starting
  • 1.3 Goals
  • 1.4 What you should answer in the first two minutes speech
  • 1.5 Language
  • 1.6 Tips and tricks

1 How to present a scientific poster

1.1 Sources

1. Arizona University
2. guide for elevator pitch
3. Virginia Department of Chemistry

1.2 What you should know before starting

1. What's the aim of your poster? engage a discussion about the content? Let the people learn something and try to apply the method on their own? Find out collaborations? The speech must reflect this. The template and the design should be functional to this;

1.3 Goals

1. To create a memorable and positive impression;
2. to open the door to further conversations;
3. find out possible collaborations;
4. let your poster emerge from the 40 other near you;

1.4 What you should answer in the first two minutes speech

1. What is the topic of your research?
2. what is the question that you are answering in your research;
3. why this question is important;
4. So what?;
5. how does your work connect with a broader disciplinary conversation?

1.5 Language

1. offer topical touchstones accessible to the listener;
2. avoid jargon;
3. use action verbs to show the movement of your work and the activity or action involved;

1.6 Tips and tricks

1. Have a two minutes for an elevator speech i.e., a short summary used to quickly define my research;
2. try to engage the audience, do not wait for viewers to ask questions. "Would you like to hear about my resesearch in two minutes or less?";
3. then leave them free to ask questions. If you do not know some answers admit it, speak about it with the person;
4. be sure that the person who is hearing understand the technical aspects of what are you explaining.
5. Speak loud and slow i.e. you should think that you are speaking too slowly. Do not use filters like "um", "uh", "like", "you know" and "okay";
6. Make practice with your family and friends;
7. try to engage a crowd, the more viewers the more will be attracted;
8. Posters are not papers. In a poster you need to distill your work without loosing the logical flow but you can connect more works and make the logical flow more explicit;

Date: 2015-02-08 19:03:06 CET

Author: falematte

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