Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the fourth edition
- 1 Start with a plan
- 2 Conduct a comprehensive literature search
- 3 Prepare for the challenge
- 4 Begin well
- 5 Compose the IMRAD core of a strong first draft
- 6 Assemble the rest of the first draft
- 7 Compile tables to develop, clarify, and support your story
- 8 Include figures for evidence, efficiency, or emphasis
- 9 Report numbers clearly and responsibly
- 10 Revise for coherence
- 11 Improve style and syntax
- 12 Improve word choice
- 13 Attend to punctuation, capitalization, and other mechanics
- 14 Address your ethical and legal responsibilities
- 15 Oral presentations: adapt the text and visuals
- 16 Share your story in public: presenting talks and posters
- 17 Publication: the rest of the story
- Thirty exercises to improve anyone’s scientific writing skills
- Selected resources
- Index
16 - Share your story in public: presenting talks and posters
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the fourth edition
- 1 Start with a plan
- 2 Conduct a comprehensive literature search
- 3 Prepare for the challenge
- 4 Begin well
- 5 Compose the IMRAD core of a strong first draft
- 6 Assemble the rest of the first draft
- 7 Compile tables to develop, clarify, and support your story
- 8 Include figures for evidence, efficiency, or emphasis
- 9 Report numbers clearly and responsibly
- 10 Revise for coherence
- 11 Improve style and syntax
- 12 Improve word choice
- 13 Attend to punctuation, capitalization, and other mechanics
- 14 Address your ethical and legal responsibilities
- 15 Oral presentations: adapt the text and visuals
- 16 Share your story in public: presenting talks and posters
- 17 Publication: the rest of the story
- Thirty exercises to improve anyone’s scientific writing skills
- Selected resources
- Index
Summary
The human brain is a wonderful organ.
It starts to work as soon as you are born
and doesn’t stop until you get up to deliver a speech.
george jesselEvery oral presentation has three major facets: content, design, and delivery. The quality of each of these aspects affects both the overall quality of the presentation and the extent to which the other aspects can be realized. For example, a confident delivery is much easier when you have good content and good organization. On the other hand, if the design of the talk is poor, even if the delivery is polished, it will be difficult for the audience to understand the content. We’ve presented guidelines for content and design. In this chapter, attention turns to delivery – the human elements in the way a spoken presentation actually occurs.
The human factor
It is often said that people rank speaking before a group as one of their biggest fears, and this may well be true. Most of us have relatively little experience of it and the potential for embarrassment seems high because speaking occurs in real time, so mistakes can’t be sucked back in for correction. The physical symptoms of nervousness – butterflies in one’s stomach, pounding heart, squeaky voice – are familiar to most of us as well. They are a result of adrenaline released by the body to escape an uncomfortable or threatening situation. (If it helps, think of nervousness as nature’s way of keeping you on your toes!) First let’s consider ways to get this under control. Then we can turn our attention to other aspects of delivery.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Successful Scientific WritingA Step-by-Step Guide for the Biological and Medical Sciences, pp. 221 - 235Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014