EricVT said:
This Wednesday I'm going to be giving my first academic talk to the nuclear group here at my University. The nuclear faculty, postdocs, and graduate students will be in attendance and I'm expected to give a presentation over my current research: motivation, goals, established results and future.
I'm just an undergraduate and to be giving a presentation like this to a group of professional nuclear physicists is rather nerve wracking I must say. What are some things that I should keep in mind or any tips that you have for me?
Thanks.
1. Have you given a practice talk in front of your supervisor and other members of your group? If you haven't, that is always a good thing to do and get their feedback and criticism.
2. Keep in mind that the only way to be good and comfortable at doing this is by doing it a few times. So consider this as a training ground. Giving a speech or presenting a talk is not something we can be good at automatically, or simply by reading about it. It is a skill that you can only acquire via doing it repeatedly. So if you keep in mind that this is simply part of your learning process, then all you can do is simply learn from it and try to do it better next time.
3. I always tell the graduate students around here that while you will be doing most of the talking, it really is a 2-way communication. Look at your audience. Don't just show them your back while you spend most of your time reading and pointing at the viewgraphs (this, to me, is one of the most annoying habits of many presenters). When you're describing something, look at the expression on their faces. Do you see a bored, glazed look, or a puzzled look, or an approval, attentive look? If half of the people are falling asleep, then your talk may have problems in terms of getting people to understand what you are trying to say. After you have gained enough of a skill at doing your presentation, you will learn to adjust your talk on the fly based on the reaction you get with your audience. I've often went back over points that I've already mentioned if I gauged that the audience didn't quite understood some of the latter points. But this requires that you're already comfortable with doing this in front of people.
4. Look at your viewgraphs and figure out if no one is listening to what you are saying, can they still get the gist of the point you are trying to make simply by looking and reading the page you are showing? This means asking the question to see if your that page of the viewgraph is clearly titled, adequately annotated, and has clear, concise comments.
If you wish, you may want to read http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=df5w5j9q_5gj6wmt&hl=en that has a more detailed suggestion. Whatever the outcome, consider yourself lucky that someone has thought that this part of the process is important enough that you get to gain this valuable skill at being able to present a technical talk. It is a great opportunity to learn from it.
Zz.
