Transcript Huntington’s Disease Neuroscience Lecture Series Partners

How to Give a Good Talk
and Why It Matters
Jang-Ho J. Cha, MD PhD
Overview
• Why it matters
• Good talks vs. bad talks
• Telling a story
• Audiovisuals
• How to talk
Why it Matters
• Papers don’t matter as much as you think
– People don’t read papers
– Difficult to determine individual contribution
• Scientists are judged on their talks
– Is this person a good scientist?
– Should I invite this person as a symposium
speaker?
– Should we hire this person?
Why it Really Matters
If your audience can’t understand your talk, they
will conclude either that:
1. “I am too stupid to understand this speaker,”
or
2. “This speaker is too stupid to make his/her
presentation understandable.”
Either conclusion is disastrous for your career.
Good Talks
Bad Talks
Good Talks, Bad Talks
GOOD:
• Ends on time
• Spoken clearly
• Easy to follow
BAD:
• Goes over time
• Mumbles
• Difficult to follow
Be a Critic
• In order to learn, judge other talks
• Give each talk a grade
• If the talk was good, the speaker has
done something right: emulate!
• If the talks was bad, the speaker has
done something wrong: don’t do it!
What People Remember
• People listening to your talk may not
remember anything about what you say
but they will always remember how they
felt about your talk.
• Assume that the audience will recall at
most one fact about your talk: decide
what that is.
• So, what are people remembering?
Logical Flow is All Important!
• Great talk: “It seemed so logical!”
• Scientists like to think of themselves as
smart.
• Construct your talk as if the next slide
was the most logical thing in the world.
• If you have planted the idea correctly,
the audience will conclude that you are
so smart.
Logical Flow: the Big Picture
• Tell them where you’re going.
–How would you review a movie?
• Do not assume that your audience will
piece it together.
–Tell them what’s important:
• Your question
• Your approach
• Your conclusion
Your Ugly Baby
• Everyone thinks their baby is beautiful.
Not all babies are beautiful.
• You can’t assume that people will be
interested in your project.
• Every baby has redeeming qualities.
Scientists Love a Puzzle
• Get your audience to ride along with you.
• Scientists can’t resist a good mystery.
• Set it up as a problem to be solved, and the
audience will be right there with you.
• There has to be an answer at the end!
• The ‘question’ that you pose at the beginning
of your talk will be miraculously answered by
the data your present ---> “Ahhh!”
Seminar as Musical Composition
• The essential feature is creating tension and
resolution
• Tension: the unanswered question
• Resolution: the experiment that you just
happened to perform
• If you present all of your data as ‘resolutions,’
your audience will be greatly impressed!
Logical Flow: How to Set It Up
• “Here’s what we know”
– Protein X has a PDZ domain
– Other PDZ proteins bind protein Y
• “Here’s what we don’t know”
– If Protein X and Y interact
• “So, we decided to ask…”
– Does X bind Y?
– Does binding depend on the PDZ domain?
Audiovisuals
• Don’t try to present all the data you can
• Do try to present data in a logical fashion
• Slides should work with your talk, not against
it
• Remember: your audience is hearing it for the
first time.
– Pop vs. classical music
Slides
• Choose a high-contrast background
– White letters on blue
– Black letters on light background
• Readable font
• Avoid words
– If you have too many words, it makes your audience have
to work too hard to read everything, and then they spend
the whole time furiously trying to read what’s on the slide
as opposed to listening to what you’re saying, which, of
course, doesn’t help in the least. They inevitably feel like
they’ve missed something.
Slides
• Avoid foofy backgrounds: detracts attention
– Good restaurants use white plates
• Keep the same background
– Eyes drawn to ‘novel’ stimuli
• Test your background in the lecture room
– “This looked great in the store.”
Chromatin Immunoprecipitation
Setting Up Your Data Slide
• Present your data as the answer to a
burning question
• Example:
–In HD models, dopamine D2 receptor
mRNA is downregulated while NMDA
NR1 mRNA is expressed normally.
–Both genes are driven by Sp1.
–Is there altered association of Sp1 with
these genes?
Chromatin Immunoprecipitation: Decreased Sp1
Association with D2 gene, but not with NR1
Slides
• Any important point deserves a slide
• Use slides for transition:
–Refer to your overview slide
–“Are we there yet?” Audience like to know
where they are
–Conveys a sense of order to your
presentation. Oh, yes!
• Do not pollute your slide!
DATA
R6/2 mice
HD gene-positive patients
Striatum
1
Normal
0.75
Transgenic
D2
PET
***
0.5
***
D2 binding
[ 3 H]YM-09151-2 Bound
(pmol/mg protein)
1.25
***p < 0.0001
0.25
0
4
8
12
Age (Weeks)
CTL
HD
Andrews et al. Brain 1999;122:2353-63
Cortex
D2
PPE
N
R
1
b-actin
How to Talk
• Giving a talk is not natural speech
• Must be loud!
–Practice with someone in the back of the
room
How to Talk
• Not a conversation, but an oration
• Talk slowly!
– Audience hearing it for first time
– Audience reading your slides
– Non-native English speakers
– If you talk quickly, people assume you’re
nervous, and they become nervous.
– If you talk slowly, with pauses, people assume
you’re brilliant.
How to Talk
• Don’t feel obligated to fill in the empty
spaces.
• Practice talking “into the void”
– Be comfortable with the sound of your own voice
– Practice looking around the room
– Time your talk
• Work on your enunciation and your English
speaking skills.
– You are judged on how you talk
How Not to “Umm”
• Don’t be afraid of the blank space!
• Listen to yourself speak.
• Every time you feel it coming on, take a
breath.
Delivering the Message
• Beware of competition between the slides
and what you’re saying
– Helpful:
• Fewer words on screen
• Clean figures
• Speak slowly, leave pauses
• Do not gesticulate!
– Where do you want your audience’s eyes?
Laser Pointers
• Don’t wave that thing!
–People find it visually irritating
–Detracts from what you’re saying
• Point to the item in question
• Turn pointer off after you’ve pointed out
item of interest
Dress Rehearsal
• Practice in the room
• Learn how to set up necessary
equipment
• Familiarize yourself with the podium and
room acoustics
• Practice advancing slides, using pointer
• Memorize the order of your slides:
–Slide = the answer to a question
–**Contributes to logical flow
Wrapping It Up
• Important to finish on time. Finishing early
even better!
• You will not have time to show all your data.
Get over it.
• Remember: tension and resolution:
– Show how the data you have shown have
answered the question posed at the outset.
Deliver the conclusion!
• Last chance to tell the audience what the
take-home message is.
How to Improve
• Practice.
–Get used to the sound of speaking with
no one responding
• Practice again.
–Don’t look like you’re seeing the slides for
the first time.
• Practice in front of friends.
–Ask for honest feedback. No one will
spontaneously tell you you’ve given a
terrible talk.
Take Home Message
• Scientists are judged on their talks.
• People will not remember the content of
your talk, but they will remember if they
were able to follow it.
• Don’t wave the pointer.
Questions