Public Speaking Pointers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One common type of advice for speakers is to give them pointers on what to do. The other type of advice to discuss mistakes, and how to avoid them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a long, excellent article by Paul N. Edwards from October 2014 titled How to Give an Academic Talk, v5.2. It is a 14-page pdf which descended from a 5-page pdf article from 2001 titled How to Give an Academic Talk: Changing the Culture of Public Speaking in the Humanities. He has a table with worse or better rules of thumb, as shown above. There also are six gray boxes with advice on:

 

Preparing Your Talk

About Vocal Technique

About Presentation Software

About Timing

Handling Questions

Murphy’s Law applies directly to you:

  plan for disaster

 

And there is a 7-page pdf article by Christine Blome, Hanno Sondermann, and Matthias Augustin in the GMS Journal for Medical Education on February 15, 2017 titled Accepted standards on how to give a Medical Research Presentation: a systematic review of expert opinion papers. They analyzed 91 articles! Their thirty recommendations and their percentages (shown in their Table 1 and greater than 20%) are to:

 

 1] Keep your slides simple - 62.6%

 2] Know your audience - 52.7%

 3] Make eye contact - 46.2%

 4] Do not read the talk from slides or a manuscript - 44.0%

 5] Rehearse the presentation - 44.0% [also see #11]

 6] Limit the number of lines per slide - 42.9%

 7] Slides should be readable - 42.9%

 8] Stick to the allotted time - 40.7%

 9] Time the presentation beforehand - 38.5%

10] Use simple tables and graphs - 34.1%

11] Rehearse in front of other persons - 33.0% [also see #5]

12] Know your topic ‘like the back of your hand’ - 31.9%

13] Vary your voice - 29.7%

14] Develop an objective when preparing the presentation - 28.6%

15] Limit the number of words per line - 28.6%

16] Choose a light background - 28.6% [also see #20]

17] Do not use too many slides - 27.5%

18] Test all equipment - 27.5%

19] Use animations carefully - 27.5%

20] Choose a dark background - 26.4% [also see #16]

21] Keep the presentation clear and simple (delivery) - 26.4%

22] Summarize at the end of the presentation - 26.4%

23] Do not speak too fast - 24.2%

24] Put phrases, not sentences, on slides - 24.2%

25] Be logical - 23.1%

26] Face the audience - 23.1%

27] Be enthusiastic - 20.9%

28] Be prepared for questions - 20.9%

29] Create visuals with a consistent design - 20.9%

30] Use contrasting colors - 20.9%