Presenting the PhD: 8 Tips for Making a Great First Talk

I have recently been lucky enough to give an academic presentation. It was a scary thing beforehand but  when I was giving it and afterwards everything was fine. I was pleased to hear that the talk had been received well and that the members in the audience enjoyed it. Perhaps more importantly they got the message of my talk. I was fortunate enough to have a support group around me who enabled me to give the best presentation that I could have at the time (Thank you to all who helped!). Here are some of the things that they helped me do in order to help me give a good presentation.

These tips are fairly simple and are likely to have been said before. Nonetheless it is something that worked for me, and may therefore be of use for others. Below are my 8 top tips to give a presentation.

Eight top tips for Presentation:
1) Know what your main message is
The key message that you want the audience members to take away from your presentation. Understanding what your message is can help you to frame the rest of your presentation, and in particular what you focus on in your "introduction" and "discussion" sections of your slides. As an audience member having a clear message that can be taken away from the presentation helps no end. Especially if your presentation that is a part of conference where there is likely to be too much information for all the delegates. Having a clear main message can help your findings be more likely to be remembered.

2) Know your audience (roughly)
It is highly unlikely that you will ever know who will exactly be in your audience. However you can make for some pretty good predictions on the basis of where or at what meeting you are presenting at. For example, my PhD goes across two main fields (Vision and Child Development). If I am presenting at a Vision conference then I will not have to go over the human vision system in detail since it is knowledge that all the audience know. But I will have to spend more time going over Child Development factors. I have seen presentations where it is obvious that a the speaker has one presentation that they give and do not adapt it for the audience. The risk of this is that it runs the risk of the audience not following your talk.

3) Know what your time limit is
Keeping to your allotted time limit can help you by giving you a set pace to go through your presentation with. This can enable you to  Furthmore by keeping to time, it is possible to deliver your talk at pace which you feel comfortable. I have seen numerous talks that have been spoilt by the speaker wanting to say too much, and in doing do not cover their material in a satisfying way and can leave the audience feeling confused at the (usually) disjointed at the end of the talk. If you are speaking at a conference then if you over run then there is also the risk that you will get cut out, depriving you the chance to finish your presentation.

The perils of overunning. Picture from Bodhisutra.com

4) Check your slides for clarity
 Clear and concise slides can help to convey your message effectively. Try not to make slides too full of texts or on results slides have there too much white space. Striking a balance can be difficult but it can be made. Personally I find the use of a dark text on light background to be clearer than the vice versa. Since you can't be sure of the quality of the projector using high contrast text/background combinationis generally a safe bet.

5) Ask someone to look over your slides
No matter how many times you go over your slides yourself it is always best to ask someone to look over your slides. They will see things that you do not and it is important to be open to their suggestions for this very reason. They are likely to think the same thing as your naive prospective audience members. Receiving these comments can help to make your talk more clear and accessible. 

6) Practice Practice Practice
There is no substitute for being familiar with your slides and having trial runs of your presentation. Practice will help to ensure that you keep within the time limit and also enable you to see which slides work well and which need more tweaking. The knock effect is that you can feel more comfortable with your slides and give you more confidence to give your presentation. Practicing in front of a small audience can also help since they can give you more feedback about how things are shaping up.

7) Let your enthusiasm show
You are doing scientific research for a reason and have a passion/interest for your subject. Showing this enthusiasm can help to engage with the audience and hold their attention. It can also help to make your presentation more memorable, which can be key in networking and may also facilitate talking between you and someone else later on.
  

Obligatory Meme is Obligatory but appropriate!

8) Enjoy yourself
This may seem a bit of misnomer, since it is likely that pre-talk you are likely to be nervous about the talk. However enjoying yourself can help to let your enthusiasm show. The people in your audience have turned up to see you talk. By trying to enjoy it can actually help to reduce nerves.

There we go, this is by no means a guarantee to give a good presentation but doing the above did help me immensely to give a good presentation. Good luck to those of you who are preparing for presentations