1 / 55

How to give a talk

How to give a talk. COMMUNICATION. What is the point of a “ talk ” ?. Specifically communicating scientific results, ideas

kirby-terrell
Download Presentation

How to give a talk

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. How to give a talk

  2. COMMUNICATION What is the point of a “talk”? • Specifically communicating scientific results, ideas • Less about impressing them with the amount of work you’ve done, the complexity of mathematical models, the exoticness of your field site, the cuteness of your study organism….

  3. Today’s talk What makes a good/bad talk? What makes you a good/bad talker? Mechanics & Style

  4. Introduction Methods Results Discussion *but maybe don’t make a slide like this

  5. Background Methods Results Future Directions

  6. But first: acknowledgments! The People and the Money Nick Colegrave Sue Healy Tom Little Tom Tregenza

  7. A good talk

  8. A good talk (1) The content!

  9. A good talk The content! (a good story and some fun biology)

  10. A good talk The content! (2) A confident speaker

  11. A good talk The content! (2) A confident speaker (3) Clear, engaging presentation

  12. A good talk The content! (2) A confident speaker (3) Clear, engaging presentation (4) Good timekeeping

  13. Being a good speaker Be confident “Sharing” your work People want you to succeed

  14. A good talk

  15. A bad talk

  16. A bad talk A “bad” speaker (too fast, too quiet, too nervous, too cocky…)

  17. A bad talk A “bad” speaker (2) Boring story (=no story?)

  18. A bad talk A “bad” speaker (2) Boring story (=no story?) (3) Too long

  19. A bad talk A “bad” speaker (2) Boring story (=no story?) (3) Too long (4) Unappealing slides

  20. 3-way interaction

  21. Being a good speaker Be confident: -look at the audience -speak to the audience -practice -go to other talks -never apologise…!

  22. Telling a good story

  23. Telling a good story

  24. Telling a good story Have a narrative: Have a clear question and go somewhere with it -for example, pose a question, but then return to the question at the end, and make it clear if you have/have not answered it.

  25. Mechanics & Style Actually giving a talk: (1) Timing (2) Speaking (3) “Stagecraft”

  26. Timing Very important! 1 slide = 1 minute Use a watch Multiple places to STOP Be prepared to STOP

  27. Timing Part of getting timing right is just being realistic about how much you can fit in 10-15 min talk = 1 experiment 20-30 min talk = 2-3 experiments 40-50 min talk = 2-3 sections* *give people a break…

  28. Marks dip during sessions (2002) • This effect WORSE for tutors! (P<0.001)

  29. Timing 10-15 min talk = 1 experiment 20-30 min talk = 2-3 experiments 40-50 min talk = 2-3 sections 60 min talk = what?!

  30. Timing Introductions are nearly ALWAYS too long

  31. Mechanics & Style: Speaking Important! LOUD and CLEAR Be natural Be prepared to alter how you speak

  32. Using a microphone

  33. “Stagecraft” Important! Be yourself Try and be comfortable But… Perform, burn energy

  34. Should I try and be funny?

  35. Should I try and be funny? Crudgington and Siva-Jothy 2000

  36. Should I try and be funny? Crudgington and Siva-Jothy 2000

  37. Should I try and be funny?  Crudgington and Siva-Jothy 2000

  38. Should I try and be funny? ≠ RSPB images not RSPB images

  39. Should I try and be funny? ≠

  40. Style

  41. Style and slides Keep it simple

  42. Quiz time: TRUE or FALSE? PowerPoint is really great and never fails? FALSE

  43. Powerpoint Make sure you test your talk on multiple computers, AND where you will give the talk Learn how to “embed fonts” “Insert” pictures c.f. drag & drop Compress picture sizes Email yourself your talk/put on website

  44. Images: Red cross of death…

  45. Images: Decompress TIFF files of death… Cannot decompress TIFFTM file Cannot decompress TIFFTM file Cannot decompress TIFFTM file Cannot decompress TIFFTM file Cannot decompress TIFFTM file

  46. Avoid tests of sex-linkage Anything wrong with this slide?

  47. Easy things to forget Anything wrong with this slide?

  48. Pictures versus text?

  49. Pictures versus text? Text can be an aide memoire Something to fall back on BUT Some people hate being told what is already on the screen…

  50. Text: remember, you do want them paying attention to you Introduction Natural populations frequently show considerable genetic variation in immune functions (e.g. Kurtz & Sauer 1999; Ryder & Siva-Jothy 2001; Cotter et al. 2004) and pathogen resistance (e.g. Lively 1989; Henter & Via 1995; Carius et al. 2001; Koskela et al. 2002). This seems paradoxical because immune defence is closely associated with organisms’ fitness, and natural selection is expected to erode genetic variation in fitness related traits by eliminating the least fit alleles from populations (reviewed by Roff 1997). What then maintains genetic polymorphism in immune functions? One likely factor that can maintain such variation is the high diversity of pathogens the hosts are exposed to. When the outcome of infection depends on the combination of both host and pathogen genotypes (GH × GP interaction; see Schmid-Hempel & Ebert 2003) pathogens impose a heterogeneous selective pressure on their hosts, which promotes maintenance of genetic variation. GH × GP interactions have been described from several plant–pathogen (e.g. Burdon & Jarosz 1991; Salvaudon et al. 2005) as well as animal–pathogen (e.g. Dybdahl & Lively 1998; Carius et al. 2001) systems, suggesting that they play an important role in maintenance of genetic polymorphism in resistance. GH × GP interactions, however, can effectively maintain genetic variation only in defence mechanisms which are highly specific to different pathogen genotypes. Pathogen resistance is often not strictly specific, but consists of defences that are independent of the genetic identity of the pathogen (i.e. non-specific immune defence; Frank 2000, Moret 2003). This part of immune defence is typically controlled by several genes and evolves through selection on heritable additive genetic variance (Cotter et al. 2004; Schwarzenbach et al. 2005). Therefore, mechanisms other than GH × GP interactions are needed to explain the maintenance of high polymorphism in immune functions. It has been suggested recently that genetic variation in pathogen resistance could also be maintained by environmental heterogeneity and physiological trade-offs (reviewed by Lazzaro & Little 2009). Several facts

More Related