Preparing and Delivering Scientific Talks: The Job Talk as an Example

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Preparing and Delivering Scientific Talks The
Job Talk as an Example
John Crabbe, Ph.D. Professor, Behavioral
Neuroscience
Oct 2007
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• Survival Skills and Ethics Program

• Beth Fischer
• Michael Zigmond

www.pitt.edu/survival (This link appears to be
dead)
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Key VariablesWhat are they?

• Verbal 7
• Vocal 38
• Visual 55

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Relative importance in getting the message across.
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A Job Talk Should Tell a Story (not 3 stories)

• Be enthusiastic if you dont think it is
  interesting, why should I?
• Make eye contact find a nodder, or pick a
  friendly looking person, or multiple ones
• SPEAK UP! If in doubt, ask the audience if they
  can hear you in the back before starting
• Dont read your talk from your slides..
• Remember, adding you to the group is the happy
  ending to the story..

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Take Care in Preparing your Text Slides
Pick a single, simple color scheme and stick with
it A dark background and light letters is
impervious to bright light Pick a font size to
match the room size (28 works most places except
giant rooms) Alternatively, use bigger fonts that
can be seen in any room size (this is 32
pt) Remember, everyone wants to sit in the back,
and most of your viewers are a lot older than
you, and cant see teeny fonts (this
is 10 point )
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Bill Cameron Tells Me that Upper and Lower Case
Titles are Easier to Read than All Caps BILL
CAMERON TELLS ME THAT UPPER AND LOWER CASE TITLES
ARE EASIER TO READ THAN ALL CAPS He also tells
me that serif fonts like this are easier to read
than sans serif fonts I dont like how they look
in Powerpoint, so I use Arial (a sans serif font)
http//www.alexpoole.info/academic/literaturerevie
w.html http//www.alexpoole.info/academic/literatu
rereview.html
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LOOKS GREAT
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DARK LETTERS ON LIGHT BACKGROUND OFTEN WORKS
WELL, BUT WATCH OUT!

• Red can be seen here, but look what happens on a
  dark background (next slide)

Animation can be a valuable tool, but use it
sparingly, or it will be a big distraction
Why use drop-down mode when the viewer could be
reading ahead?
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(No Transcript)
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So, why the syringe on the slide before last?
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Will someone please go get me a double latte?
So, why the syringe on the slide before last?
Yellow is pretty hard to see on a light
background.
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ODDLY ENOUGH, BLACK TEXT DISAPPEARS INTO DARK
BACKGROUNDS

• Red text always looks great on the monitor, but
  is absorbed by dark blue and black

Cute fonts are particularly irritating, as are
content-free objects, bubbles, colors, etc.
Even shadow fonts can be hard to read
And especially embossed fonts
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The Job Description is for a Scientist, not a
Graphic Artist

• Slides should be clear and simple
• Dont make too many points per slide
• 5-8 lines of text is plenty
• Big tables are a sign of a death wish..

Leave healthy margins suppose the screen is
narrow or too short?
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Take the Trouble to Format Text Slides
Take the Trouble to Format Text Slides
Take the Trouble to Format Text Slides

• Reword if necessary to fit a point on a line
• Reword if needed to fit a point on a line
• Turn off the autofit option or it may just make
  the font too small to see

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I know you cant see this, but I just wanted to
show you my
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This is probably hard to see, but I just wanted
to show you the.....
Conservation of receptor sequence
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GABA-A Receptors and Ethanol
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Break this down into multiple slides! What else
is wrong with this slide??
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• Anything in the published literature is fair
  game to show in a talk.
• But, you should always provide attribution for
  someone else's data.
• Different people do this in different ways
• (I like the following)

Herson et al. (2003) J Neurosci 232618
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Null mutants were less affected on the balance
beam
Null mutants were less affected on the grid test
Some strains show better performance after 1.0 or
1.25 g/kg EtOH (e.g. BTBR/J)--Some strains show
only performance disruption after ethanol (e.g.
129S3/SvImJ)
For your midterm grade, please find this
reference from the citation....
Smith et al., 2001
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Acute tolerance develops to ethanol inhibition of
NMDA synaptic activity in hippocampal slices
Grover et al.(1994) Brain Res 64270
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ACS Guideines for Dress

• Men
• tie and jacket
• white or blue shirt (long-sleeve) (??)
• well-groomed
• minimal jewelry, cologne

• Women
• suit or dress
• conservative accessories (??)
• well-groomed
• minimal makeup, perfume

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OK
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Maybe not.
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Organization of a Research Seminar

• Introduction (5-10 min)
• Internal sections (25-35 min)
• Closing (5-10 min)
• Questions (10 min)

Beware! Total 65 minutes!
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Proportions Remain About the Same
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How to Prepare

• Assess your audience
• Organize your talk in writing
• Prepare your notes

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Options for Notes

• Text at hand
• Outline mode in Powerpoint (beware)
• Memory

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Introductions

• Avoid
• Is the microphone working?
• Well, I guess Ill get started.
• (Looking at your title), Actually, that isnt
  what Ill talk about.
• Is everyone awake?

• Prefer
• I am very pleased to be here.
• I would like to thank
• Today, I will talk about...

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What Should the Introduction Accomplish?

• This sounds interesting maybe Ill listen
  instead of grade exams
• Sounds like this person knows where she is going
  and will finish this talk on time
• (Both of these are conducive to attention on the
  part of the audience)

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Take Home Messages

• Major scientific points (aim for three)
• You should try to tell a story (not 2 or 3)
• This person is really good we should hire her
• This person really communicates well
• (even when they dont know what you are talking
  about!)
• (crucial if you are applying for a job that has
  a substantial focus on teaching)

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Visual Focus

• To make oneself understood to people one must
  first speak to their eyes.
• Napoleon

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Pace

• Talk slow and dont say too much.
• John Wayne

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Pace

• Talk slow and dont say too much.
• John Wayne
• Anything worth doing
• is worth doing slowly.
• Gypsy Rose Lee

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Pace

• Rate of speaking 5 wd/10 sec
• Leave time to explain slides
• data slides 2 min/slide
• text slides 0.5 - 1 min/slide
• More than 30 slides is too many Q.E.D.

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Pace

• Time can be saved (and clarity improved) by
  presenting data slides in similar format
• You can go into detail with the first such slide,
  and then you wont need to take as much time with
  each succeeding one
• Favor repetition over variety in how you express
  the same kind of data

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Avoid para-language

• ...uh...
• I mean,
• Like,
• Kinda like
• Sorta like
• So,
• Right?
• y know?

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Scientific Issues (1)

• Know your audience
• If you are talking to a Psychology Department,
  dont expect them to know the difference between
  NMDA and the NRA
• If you are talking to a molecularly-oriented
  audience, they may think that a conditioned
  stimulus is some kind of a conditioned medium

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Scientific Issues (2)

• Background should give the big picture. If you
  are talking about the cell biology of seizures,
  start by explaining its relevance to epilepsies
  and their treatment. (Especially as you are
  coming from OHSU)
• A common mistake is to have one background slide
  about which you say two sentences, and then
  launch into your own detailed data

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Scientific Issues (3)

• Slides with graphs are more effective than lists
  of citations of background work
• Previous research showed that environmental
  enrichment aided spatial learning more in young
  and aged mice than in middle-aged mice
• (Harburger et al, 2007)

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• Previous research showed that environmental
  enrichment aided spatial learning more in young
  and aged mice than in midele-aged mice

Harburger et al. (2007) Behav Neurosci
121(4)679.
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Scientific Issues (4)

• Concentrate on the results, not the methods (they
  can always ask later)
• An exception may be if the methods are the
  scientific point, or if they are extremely
  complex and crucial to understanding

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Scientific Issues (5)

• Be sure to tell your audience where this line of
  research is going, and what you plan to do when
  you set up your own lab (which methods will your
  lab use)
• Strike a reasonable balance between background/
  technical information and talking down to your
  audience
• A good tactic for a general audience is to keep
  it fairly simple, then go into one important
  example in more detail

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Scientific Issues (6)

• When showing a graph, clearly describe both axes
  and the relevant groups
• Dont identify the flaws in your own data

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Rotarod Performance Depends on Task Parameters
Rustay et al. (2003) Behav Brain Res 141237
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Rotarod Performance Depends on Task Parameters
Rustay et al. (2003) Behav Brain Res 141237
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Order of Internal Sections
Alternatives

• Experiments A, B, C, D
• Presentation
• historical A, B, C, D
• logical D, C, A, B
• When in doubt, choose logical

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Closing

• Avoid
• Are there any questions?
• Well I guess I will stop here.
• Can I have a few more minutes?
• I am sorry I did not get a chance to

• Prefer
• Summarize
• Conclude
• End on strong note, don't just stop
• As for the intro, move back to the big picture
  with more than just one slide

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Now for the Questions!

• Dont relax yet! (Youll miss it)
• Be polite
• Thats a good question! (Variant "That's a
  great question!")
• Don't start to answer before you know what you
  are going to say

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Problems During the Question Period

• No questions
• Very specific question
• Lengthy comment (stay alert!)
• Dont know answer
• You were wrong
• Hostile comment/questions

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Dealing with Questions

• Restate the question
• Admit ignorance
• Dont blither - A filibuster is a poor way to
  avoid answering a question
• Don't start to answer before you know what you
  are going to say

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More About Questions

• Be prepared for obvious questions about your
  data. You can even have slides waiting.
• Dont get sidetracked searching for a slide you
  showed. Usually you can answer the question
  effectively without going back (This will be
  especially frustrating if you have 8 mouse clicks
  per slide to wade through).

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More About Questions

• Be sure you understand the question. Get
  clarification if needed, but don't get hung up
  forever just move on and say "Ill be happy to
  discuss that later."
• Try to answer the question asked.
  If needed, you can always answer something
  else close that you do want to talk about. This
  may be necessary if the question is impossible to
  understand or doesnt make any sense.

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Picky Issues

• I hate the outline (snore), but many use it
• Dont summarize each set of four slides, or each
  experiment, and then summarize the first part,
  and then summarize again at the end.And dont
  keep showing me the outline over and over again!
• Find a balance between repetition and inducing
  screaming boredom

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(Practise)n

• Learn to use your pointer effectively
• Remember to verbalize all visual aids (think
  about the people to whom your talk is
  videoconferenced, or the visually impaired)
• Dont use lab jargon and avoid acronyms (migs
  per kig, Group RB vs Group CB)

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(Practise)n

• Figure out what to do with your hands
• Figure out what to do with your body
• Dont stand in front of the screen
• Dont turn your back on the audience
• Dont fuss with your hair
• Dont cover your mouth
• Your friends can help eradicate distracting
  habits before you go on the road

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Nervousness vs Performance
Don't fall into the beta blocker trap!
Performance
Nervousness
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Timeline

• Weeks before
• Night before
• 30 min before talk

• Make up your talk
• Practice revise your talk
• Review outline
• Load, check talk and room
• Check equipment
• Computer, Remote
• Microphone, Clock
• Pointer, Water

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ToolsBring with you

• Notes/relevant reprints
• Experimental details
• Presentation on multiple media (e.g., flash
  memory, and advance email)
• Pointer
• Clock

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English as your Second Language

• 1. Memorize as much as possible
• 2. Rehearse with a native speaker
• 3. Use text slides to convey story (put all
  points up at once)
• 4. Speak slowly, especially at beginning
• 5. Focus on pronunciation, not grammar
• 6. Use words you can pronounce

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Ethical Issues

• Selecting data to show (follow the same
  guidelines you would for a manuscript)
• (You must balance telling a simple, clear story
  with suppressing those data that do not fit that
  story)
• Giving credit

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Ethical Issues Data Selection

• 2 experiments yield the same answer, 3rd a
  different answer - good to go?
• Your story is built up on analyses from male
  animals. You do one experiment with females that
  shows no differences
• One control group shows no change (good). A
  control for a different factor shows an even
  bigger change. Can you delete the second control
  group?

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Scientists Behaving Badly
Martinson Anderson de Vries (2005) Nature
435737
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Scientists Behaving Badly
Martinson Anderson de Vries (2005) Nature
435737
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Giving Credit

• For others published data, a brief citation is
  reasonable and sufficient
• Be sure to acknowledge any differences in how you
  interpret others data
• Acknowledgments should include the funding
  agency, but not every summer student in the
  laboratory
• (this is OK for local talks, and is a nice
  thing to do)

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Taking Appropriate Credit for Your Own Work

• If you are responsible for one piece of a complex
  puzzle (e.g., from a large lab), try to get
  across which are your own skills and primary
  data.
• The easiest way is to identify the responsible
  person at the time.