Presentation

• Watch the way other people give talks. There are a lot of talks given by people visiting MIT. Attending such talks is a good way to get a taste of areas you aren't so familiar with, and if the talk turns out to be boring, you can amuse yourself by analyzing what the speaker is doing wrong. (Going to a seminar is also a way to cure the mid-afternoon munchies)
   
• Practice
  • If your advisor's students have regular research meetings, volunteer to talk about your stuff.
  • The MIT AI lab has a series of semiformal talks known as the Revolving Seminar. Volunteer to give one if you have something worth turning into an AI memo or a conference paper.
  • Learn enough about the Lab's various robotics projects so when your relatives or friends from out of town come you can give them a tour and a little 60 second talk in front of each robot about it. (Your relatives and non-AI friends will usually love this; they won't be so impressed by the intricacies of your TMS.)
  • Since revising a talk is generally much easier than revising a paper, some people find that this is a good way to find the right way to express their ideas. (Mike Brady once remarked that all of his best papers started out as talks.)
  • Cornering one of your friends and trying to explain your most recent brainstorm to him is a good way both to improve your communication skills, and to debug your ideas.
     
• Practice talk
  • Practice the talk in an empty room, preferably the one in which you will deliver it. Studies of context effects in memory suggest that you will remember what you are going to say better if you have practiced in the room you deliver in. Practice runs let you debug the mechanics of a talk: what to say during each slide, moving overlays around smoothly, keeping notes and slides synchronized, estimating the length of the entire talk. The less time you spend fumbling around with your equipment, the more time you have left to communicate.
  • Practicing with a mirror or tape or video recorder is another alternative. The lab has all three. They might help debug your voice and body language, too.
  • For a relatively formal talk-especially your Oral Exam-do a practice run for half a dozen friends and have them critique it.

• Some key things to remember in planning and delivering a talk:
  • You can only present one ``idea'' or ``theme'' in a talk. In a 20 minute or shorter talk the idea must be crystal clear and cannot have complicated associated baggage. In a 30 or 45 minute talk the idea can require some buildup or background. In an hour talk the idea can be presented in context, and some of the uglies can be revealed. Talks should almost never go on for more than an hour (though they often do).
  • The people in the audience want to be there; they want to learn what you have to say. They aren't just waiting for an excuse to attack you, and will feel more comfortable if you are relaxed.
  • Don't try to cram everything you know into a talk. You need to touch on just the high points of your ideas, leaving out the details -- but be sure you give enough detail to make a convincing case. Your paper should fill in the missing details, so that people can read it to get a more in-depth understanding. Know your audience: you'll have to give more background to a general audience, and more technical detail to audiences that are very familiar with the field of research you're discussing.
  • Take at least one minute per overhead. Some people vary in their rate, but a common bug is to think that you can do it faster than that and still be clear. You can't.
  • Make sure your talk fits in the time slot allocated. There's nothing worse than a speaker who rushes through the last ten slides, or skips from the middle of the talk to the conclusion. A good rough rule is to allocate 2-3 minutes per slide, on average.
  • Use examples and pictures to illustrate and clarify your ideas.
     
• You should dress according to the expectations of the audience spoken to. If I am going to give an address at the MIT computer center, I dress with a bolo and an old corduroy jacket or something else. I know enough not to let my clothes, my appearance, my manners get in the way of what I care about. An enormous number of scientists feel they must assert their ego and do their thing their way. They have got to be able to do this, that, or the other thing, and they pay a steady price.

• Make sure your slides are readable and as simple as possible. Never put up a slide with tiny text and say ``I know you can't read this, but...'' Use few words and big type. If you can't easily read your slides when you are standing and they are on the floor, they're too small.
• Draw pictures whenever possible.
• Don't stand in front of the screen.
• Don't point at the overhead if it is possible to point directly at the screen. If you must point at the overhead, don't actually touch the transparency since you will make it jerk around.