ADVICE TO BEGINNING PHYSICS SPEAKERS Public speaking is a necessity of professional life. But what do you do if, like many physicists you're basically a shy person? Here is some advice on how to 4-3-2 give ralks thar won't wreck your career or humiliate your thesis adviser. ⊙ James C. Garland If you're a physics graduate student, it's highly likely that before you receive your degree, you'll be asked to give a talk on your research-possibly at an APS meeting, or maybe just to fellow students. And once you finally graduate, you'll undoubtedly find standing be- hind a podium. Wha matter that your pr your audience dep you are also pr ly, avoid eye colleagues are not Iis a Capital crime. exceed time wasted, they do your job. How your alltted time and persuasively come across as a respect for the a violating the implicit contract that a speaker has with the With this thoug audience to always be clear and understandable. point you in the ri rally devote the first half tion of Gauge your au The classic dilemm s can under- at what level to p consists of both n error is to play only the experts' opini ed to the else in the audienc clever person. Wro that only a few resent you not only James Garland is a pro University. This article is adapted fr Ma rtoer der it almost a capital crime for speaker to ex- graduate students. ce allotted time. It is not unusual for a session 42 PHYSICS TODAY JULY 1991 of e of Pysics
ferente to the screen. Audiences are especially scornful of speake speaker who rambles on after the timer has sounded. who load their presentations with equations because of a Even in less formal settings, a speaker who ignores the prescribed time limit will quickly alienate nearly every cheguided belief that the mathematics alone will imbue eir work with a more scientific or rigorous flavor yut Talk is lll time. To do so is extremely egotistical, and even if your au- impress your audience with your proficiency in doing dience is courteous enough to let you continue, they will algebra. There is seldom any need to drag your audience 芝 step by step through a derivation or the solution to an But in, say, 10 minutes, how can you possibly convey n. Audiences will happily assurme that you can the significance of the work that you sweated over for the solve equations, so forget the algebra and focus instead on past two years? Rest assured that all speakers wrestle the assumptions that led to the equation, the technique with this problem. The key principle is that virtually ar that you used to solve it and a careful explanation of the topic can be presented in any amount of time. One cor relevance of the solution to your to compress the history of the world into 30 seconds if And finally, keep in mind that audiences need a bit of necessary, or stretch out a treatise on the eating habits of extra time to assimilate mathematics, so try to make their the flea to a yearlong series of weekly lectures. (Admitted- job as for them as possible. It's particularly s hard to imagine either commanding a very large important to dehne any unfamiliar symbols and to avoid audience. umbersome notation. If you're only going to use the Speakers often erroneously assume that very short scalar form of an equation, then write it out using that no time limits mean they must emphasize generalities and tation and leave the generalized tensor version for the gloss over specifics. However, you ll almost always give a textbooks. And dont just plunk down the equation and more lively and interesting talk if you narrow rather than then stand there like a tombstone for 60 seconds while widen the scope of your remarks. Thus if you' re giving a your audience studies it. You should always talk through lecture to the local astronomy club, it's better to spend any equation you show your audience. For example, as your 30 minutes speaking on"The Rings of Saturn"than you're writing out E=me the blackboard, you should on‘ The Planets of th by the sq weed out relentlessly any extraneous subject matter. Any of the speed of light tables or figures or equations that dont contribute specifically to the one or two points you're making must Be sensible about transparencies go, no matter how interesting they may be in their own The overhead projector has in the past decade become the prop up their talks with diverting little sidelights. transparencies for a talk-typically 3 to 6 for a 10-minute Unfortunately, the effe 10 to 15 for a half-hour talk. Al But what should you do if you' ve got 30 minutes worth you should allow several minutes for an audience to absorb of in formation to ust never do is attempt to squeeze your talk into the overwhelm your audience. permitted time slot by speaking rapidly, flashing through You needn't write out full sentences on your transpar. your slides and frantically scribbling on the blackboard. a encies (although you should certainly speak in full w years ago i attended a department colloquium during ntences). In other words, if you re planning to say our which the speaker, a candidate for a faculty position, easurements showed that the period of the pendulum ipped through more than 60 transparencies. I cant was independent of the mass of the emember now what his talk was even about, but I can your transparency should read, "Period was independent easily recall how irritated I felt and how I never wanted to mass. But don't get carried away. It has lately become Use mathematics and equations sparingly often sees transparencies that are meaningless lists of words, abbreviations and sentence fi It is not difficult to integrate equations, into your talk if eral rule is that the transparency text should be absolutely certain that the a ple precautions. First, make enough to be self-explanatory but no more than t tions are necessary, and if Learn where the light switch, focus control and harder pointer are located before your talk. Also give some to understand, they slow the pace and the ought to where you'll stand, because you'll ofter creating confusion. If overdone, they al resent- blocking the view of part of the audience if you stand beside nent; one literally will hear groans from an audience the projector, if that's the case, stand next to the screen and when a speaker flashes an equation-filled transparency on use a pointer. Make sure you've got a table to set your PHYSICS TODAY JULY 1991 43
knees shuffling through your papers in the darf esel transparencies and notes on, because you wont present a bad form in scientific and technical circies, If you a more neous presentation is preferre re using transparencies, they can probably serve as your notes Practice your talk otherwise just jot down the outline, key ideas and Unless you're an unusually gifted speaker, you' ll need to While you practice, try to be attuned to any nervous rehearse your talk in front of your classmates, colleagues, mannerisms. Avoid wringing your hands, pacing back pouse or friends. It is not enough to think through your and forth, fidgeting with your microphone strap or you'll feel in front of a real audience, And unless you where the speaker was so skittish that we felt like jumping actually speak aloud, you won' t discover the difficult and clamping our arms around him to calm him down Inesitions, the hard-to-verbalize ideas or the convoluted If you're really panicked, try taking a few deep breaths podium with both hands and of practice you'll usually find that your delivery smooths distributing your weight equally on both feet le to itially seemed possible. However, you must resist the Dress appropriately mptation to speak too quickly just because your words What you choose to wear for your talk is, of course,a you sound like you and that you avoid writing out your talk and mother. Nevertheless, other people do form an impression clentihic helds often read prepared papers, it is considered is at least to consider what statement your clothing is making. At the very minimum, you should avoid looking like you just dragged yourself out of bed or staggered out of the hotel bar (even if true). to play it safe youll want to neatly and For men, this means that you shouldn't wear cutoffs and running shoes if most of your male colleagues are wearing sports coats and ties. And don t overdo it either:if you dress like a Wall Street bank and unsophisticated. (Incidentally, it is highly recom- not when you're standing up there in front of 300 people. For women, the same genera plies: Don' t look ke a slob, but don' t dress to the nines, either. most career counselors suggest not overdoing the jewelry, staying way from frilly blouses and dresses, and avoiding tight or otherwise revealing clothing and very high heels. Your best bet is a tailored comfortable dress, skirt and 路盛( or suit. Power suits are a bit obvious however; you may as well wear a sign around your neck saving"I've read dress for Success. nteract with your audience When you finally pr ur talk, be sure not to ignore Don' t stare like a zombie into the space above their heads, and don' t focus intently on your transparencies or the foor or your shoes or a spot on k out several friendI from one person to another and making sure that no section of the room is ignored. If you try this, you' ll find d ing your self-assurance. You'll also have a better sense of partice whether to speed up or slow down, or to repeat yours your-steech i And don't forget to ere frequently use too soft a voice, as if subconsciously hoping Is udience will usually shout out, "louder! "bt 44 PHYSICS TODAY儿Y1991
ell ( marks, your talk will be a disaster if your At the end of your talk. you'll generally be asked to respond to ques- cause it seems they run the risk of being humiliated or exposed as an ignoramus having their entire presentation it alidated by a questioners allusion to an this an abound of, for instance, the mean-spirit barrassing junior colleagues with with- ering, ad hominem comments at majo tact, provided you never fail to Goitre ublic argur your feelings: never sS∥eC5Dner favor that if you displa hint of argumentative or the lobby her to It's far better to say, I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with that spring to the rescue and really nail you. With that paper"or"I havent considered that point yet. "Of course general precaution in mind, here are a few specific you find that you,ve never uidelines to ensure your survival: dered any of the points raised by oners then D Let your questioner finish the question. t so excited and nervous that they interrupt the b Deflect hostile questions. One day you may encounter questioner in mid-sentence to blurt out an answer to the an angry or aggressive questioner. Although the nd let the questioner drone esist t L Be prepared to rephrase the question. If the but it ays repeat the question for the benefit of the nion. This probably isnt the proper forum for a debate It also is important to rephrase the question succinctly if, butI'll PP. u in p confused or There will be plenty of time later for you to get even with disorganized. Your goal should be to make the questione the cree nt and perceptive as possible, even if the Now a final bit of advice. E se the answer as an opportunity to digress to a related the canned humor. The litt 么副么 really sure of yourse量m切是。时m四如比如自; subject, Usually a protracted answer sends the mes ession on the audience, especiely if it's near the bi tone-faced strangers watching you in the cold of the session and they re anxious to meet their friends at firsthand. Trust me e lesson you don ' t want to YSICS TODAY儿Y199145