The 4 parts of a talk
1. Opening:
- Thank your host.
- Explain the question and why it may be interesting
to most people in the audience (hypothesis
and background). Never overestimate your audience. An introduction can never be too
simple!
- Acknowledge those who helped.
- You must give the impression
that you
- know the field
- enjoy research
- are confident but not too confident and
- that your talk will be useful and interesting.
2. Body:
This is a series of short stories each consisting of
- a specific hypothesis
- specific methods
- results
- a recapitulation
- and implications.
Short stories are important because people's memories are often short. In a
paper if the you forget something you can look back. A listener cannot rewind
your talk. The number of short stories depends on the length of your talk; one for a ten min.
talk, two for a 20 min. talk, etc..
Make the talk modular. This makes it easier to cut one if you run out of time.
3. Closing:
Include
- a grand summary
- broad implications
- and future directions.
4. Answering questions:
- This is very important so try to anticipate some
questions.
- When asked a question, restate the question so that everyone
can hear it (and if need be rephrase it to make it clearer).
- In your answer, be brief and to the point.
- If you don't know the answer, say so
(and give an answer to a related question if pertinent).
Copyright © 1995
Tutis Vilis
Department of Physiology and Pharmacology
University of Western Ontario
London Ontario Canada |
Created 28 Sept 1995
Last updated
10 January 2007
Comments
welcome: tutis.vilis@schulich.uwo.ca |