As a classic introvert, I needed to work really hard to become a good presenter. I believe I’ve always been intuitively didactic, but I needed time and effort to learn how do it well in formal occasions and to big audiences. I can now proudly say that I consider myself a very good presenter and I often hear from colleagues compliments for my talks, requests of help with their talks and even encouragement (from the most enthusiastic ones) to share my “know-how” in a course or something.
Well, after seeing a post on LinkedIn of tips for a talk, I decided to make my own version here, focused on scientific presentations, as a personal exercise.
I must say that I started this exercise with no expectations… but, as the list grew longer and longer, I decided to chop it in two: part one focused on the presentation itself (planning and delivery), and part 2 focused on the visual part of the presentation (figure/slide design). So, here is the first part, divided into basic and advanced tips:
Know your audience. This is one of the most shared pieces of advice and yet one of the most disregarded. Don’t presume knowledge from your audience. Instead, think “What do they know about the topic?” and build your presentation from it. The focus and the depth of your presentation also need to be adapted from one audience to another.
It’s storytelling time! A good presentation tells a story with your results. The story doesn’t need to have a happy end or even to have an end at all. The results also don’t need to follow the order as they came out IRL. Their rarely do. The storyline you choose just need to be coherent and to fit both your timeslot and your audience. Sometimes switching the order of 2 slides can totally change the coherence and flow of a presentation. Play around and find out!
We want drama! There is no good story time without interpretation. It is no crime to read your talk if you are a nervous presenter. But reading or not, there is no good story that can be told in a monotone voice or a rushed peace. It’s very important do have a natural delivery as much as possible: vary your voice tone, pause, breath, etc. Don’t think as a trained actor, but as yourself telling a story to one single person you know.
Be selective with your results. A rookie mistake is to bury the audience under a pile of results in the eagerness to show how exhaustive your research is. Instead, select your results according to the representativeness of it, the time available and the target audience.
Explain your graphs. This is another tip that should be common knowledge, but it is very often disregarded. Scientific figures/plots can be dense and difficult, but we forget that after looking at them for too long. So, don’t forget to walk the audience through your results and even explain some methods. The explanation can be one sentence sometimes, but it makes a big difference. Also, if you can’t explain, don’t show!
Share your passion: Let’s be honest, we don’t science for money, convenience or glamour. There is none of that! We do it because we love what we do and all the little things we discover along the way. So, don’t be afraid of telling your audience why that finding made you thrilled or how frustrated you were when your hypothesis was obliterated by results, etc. Don’t be afraid to show your quirkiness. Humans can’t relate to data, but we can't help to relate to feelings.
Focus on the transitions. When you have a result you’ve produced in front of you, you are very likely to be able to explain it in at least 3 different ways. So, when rehearsing your presentation your focus shouldn’t be so much on each single slide, but rather on the transition of topics/ideas that will allow you to tell your story in a coherent and fluid way.
Your timeslot isn’t a suggestion. You should never aim to fill up your entire time slot. Your focus should be on the content. If something can be explained in 10 min, using 15 min won’t make the audience think more of it. On the other hand, if you exceed your timeslot, you’re disrespecting the audience, the organizers, and the other speakers, and it will make all those people think less of you.
Practice, practice practice! Yes, it’s about rehearsing a lot! Repeating over and over again, to someone, to the mirror, to the ceiling, in your mind, etc until the words flow from you and not from the text you’ve prepared. But it is also about embracing every single opportunity to give a talk. The more you present your data, the better you do it. But it only truly works if you re-think and re-shape your presentation every time. This will allow you to see your results from new angles, which can shed light on flaws and features of your data you wouldn’t see otherwise, and it can completely redefine your storyline of choice and even your research.
It isn't about you! That is a great reminder for when your inner saboteur quicks in. Being nervous/overstressed can totally derail an otherwise excellent presentation. So, remind yourself you are just the messenger, the content of your presentation is the actual star.
Don’t be ashamed to write it down: Sometimes some parts of my presentation are very hard during the rehearsals: I have difficulty explaining something easy, or I hear myself using way too many words to get to a point, etc. On these occasions, I normally use speech-to-text apps to write down as I am saying, as it’s easier for me to edit my words when they are written. A more targeted approach is for when I keep repeating the same words over and over on a presentation (e.g. bind). So, I just write down a list of applicable synonyms (e.g. interact, attach, join, affect, modify, interfere, etc). After reading the edited version or the list of synonyms a couple of times, it magically gets into my brain and goodbye struggle. I think these tricks are particularly useful in foreign languages, as our brain can be slower in expressing ideas, rephrasing, remembering synonyms, etc.
Plan and hint gaps. That is a clever tip for all presenters. Leaving planned gaps in your presentation will prompt the audience to a range of expected questions. This is very helpful for nervous presenters, as the Q&A is the most stressful moment of presentations. It can also allow you to talk about some results you couldn’t fit in your timeslot or your storyline. Identifying a good gap to leave requires some experience, as it cannot affect the comprehension of what you’re showing. Subtle gaps and hints work bettter as they can also boost the confidence of your audience.
Lampshading for engagement: When teaching molecular biology, I would sometimes see myself burying my students with convoluted details about some cell machinery and I could see a big “WHY?!?” in their eyes. That was my cue to admit clearly to them that I was aware of their pain and how much those details seemed quite pointless indeed. Then I would proceed to show them how the said “details” were important to transform knowledge onto biotechnological tools, clinical applications, etc. That lampshading allowed us to relate to a feeling over the topic, and it was crucial to relax the atmosphere and to increase students’ engagement. It was equally handy for me to switch topics seamlessly. When preparing a presentation on a very specific topic of research, it’s not difficult to see yourself explaining intricacies that may make you afraid to lose your audience. That may be your cue to a lampshading manoeuvre.
Lastly, I will steal from the original poster and advise you to allow yourself moments of spontaneity, they make it more memorable and also remember that when you mess up you give your audience a glimpse into the real you.
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