--------------------------------------------
Advice on How to give a talk (for beginners)
--------------------------------------------

- with thanks to all the speakers, good and bad, from whom I have learned.

A: Slide design
===============

1. *** Use big fonts. Must be visible from back. Use thick fonts -
thin lines are invisible from a distance. Never photocopy papers onto
transparencies at 1:1 -- fonts in a paper are much too small for
projection. If you do copy a paper onto a slide, add some colour to
it.

2. *** Don't put lots of stuff on one slide. Don't write out huge long
sentences and then read them out to the audience. Write abbreviated
sentences only.

3. Use colours but only visible ones. (Not yellow on transparencies;
not red-on-black or blue-on-black or vice versa on slides.) I like
always using one colour for text, another for headings, a third for
equations, or maybe two colours within equations if it makes them
clearer. (eg black for = | and parentheses, and other colours for
parameters and variables). Make a decision to use washable or
non-washable pens. I recommend using washable ones until you have got
very good at writing slides. Try thick and thin pens. I find my
writing looks best with medium pens.

B: Speaking
===========

4. *** Stand to one side of the screen and use a pointer. Have a
system for processing your transparencies - for example, turn them
over like a book and keep blank sheets of paper between them. You
should be able easily to go back and find previous slides.

5. Plan every sentence that you are going to say. Use words with
precision.

6. Never talk to yourself or make quiet asides (such as mumbling
"crumbs, that is a bad slide").

7. When answering a question, repeat the question, then answer it.

C: Content
==========

8. *** Give a talk that is too low in level rather than too high;
people much prefer to understand 90% of the talk than 10%. Just one
new thing, with the rest all being review, is fine. People also like
talks that finish ahead of time.

Never imagine you are going to report all the work you have
done. Don't say "I tried this; then I tried this; then I did
this". Remember that you have worked on your project for months and it
would take months to describe everything you have done.

9. Say what you are going to say. Say it. Then say what you have
said. An audience likes to be given a sense of direction. Is there a
single key point you are going to address? Flag this prominently when
it turns up. Is there a key question which you address? Pose it at the
start of the talk.

10. Don't go through mathematical derivations step by step. Just state
assumptions and results (and be sure you can produce the derivations
in outline or detail if asked).

11. One good way to plan the talk and to write the paper is to explain
the whole topic from beginning to end to a novice recipient.

12. Stay cool and have fun.