EAS-450 Scientific Communications

Spring 2007

Student Opinions from Spring 2006 on What Makes a Good Talk (e.g. PowerPoint)

Speech, Presentation

• deliver in a clear loud voice, otherwise audience will not pay attention
• use slides as guidelines for your talk, do not read them
• choose language that will connect with audience; make topic interesting
• talking is a skill, must be learned
• avoid long pauses - cause audience to get bored, loose interest

Body Language, Mannerisms

• move about to give animation, but not too much to distract
• odd personal habits should be minimized
• face audience for most of talk
• be confident about your subject
• dress appropriately for the occasion
• do not appear nervous

Timing

• follow given time allocation
• do not go on after time, audience will not be sympathetic

Organization, Order

• outline topics in presentation only briefly
• order must be logical, do not make harsh transitions
• take time to prepare the presentation
• must finish with strong conclusions
• you need much more background material about subject than what you say
• keep to the facts, do not stray into details

Text, Figures

• keep text short and in bullet form
• use more figure slides than text slides
• avoid fancy fonts and busy backgrounds
• text should be large enough to be read from back of room
• slides should be relatively simple and easy to explain
• use photos to give ‘real’ aspect to talk, as opposed to cartoons
• figure should be ‘explained’, or given with a caption