Scientists interact with an audience on a daily basis. That audience could be other scientists, students, or "civilians" (i.e. the general public). The outcome of these exchanges affects everything from the fate of grant proposals, your teaching evaluation, to the look on your friends' faces when they ask what you do. In the climate change debate, it could ultimately determine the fate of the world! My premise is that these interactions are fraught with peril (or at least some pressure) and require a sufficient degree of planning and execution to be successful. The following discussion introduces my view on potential missteps and how to avoid them.

Problem

        Conveying information in higher education and academia requires the speaker/presenter/instructor to convey tricky material to an audience of varied background and experience. Speaking beyond your lab group can be a challenge. People remember a clear message. Simple visuals paired with discrete, short points make a significant impact. Thanks to what I call the "AGU Effect" this doesn't always occur. The urge to impress and inform triggers an overflow of information into a lecture, short talk, or poster. Students will implode if forced to spend a class copying notes and paying attention to lecture content at the same time. Conference-goers lose focus in front of wordy posters or speakers who read from overcrowded power-points. Thus, without thoughtful focus your hard work may get lost in the noise. At some point, everyone has walked away from a presentation wondering "Huh?" Sometimes it's just a difficult topic; others it's a muddled message.

Solution

        Less is more. Streamlining the content of your presentation not only eases an exchange of ideas but also forces you to command your subject by internalizing its key points. Be spare. For a long time, my presentations were putrid because I could not keep them simple and organized. Friends like Scott St. George suggested how to focus on just the key elements of a topic. Scott discusses how to effectively present a specialized subject here, using a talk of mine as example. Additionally, spending time as a teaching assistant at Arizona led me to consider how to teach at a level fair to novice audiences of undergraduates. In the end, it's about finding a way to hold the audience's attention for 5, 15, or 45 minutes. Refer to Presentation Zen for many suggestions and examples on how to improve your presentations.

Suggestions

Know Your Material: Commanding your subject fosters a conversational tone instead of reading from the screen or sheet of notes. Removing those crutches freshens the atmosphere and opens more of a dialogue. Anyone with the brightness to do science can learn the nuances of linking their key points to specific slides. The more you practice how your talking points relate to your visual aids, the better. Once that framework is installed in your head, it will be difficult to lose.

Partition Information: In talks, the 1 slide/minute is useful only as an average. Some slides can be discussed for several minutes if they are especially detailed. Many scientific figures require this sort of proper treatment for the unfamiliar to understand. Plan which slides can be quickly shown, and which should be discussed in depth. Slides that incorporate more detail can be placed behind your final "talk slide" for easy access during questions if needed. In both posters and talks keep the font large to force less writing. Under no circumstance do you make font on a poster smaller than ~30 point. No one will read it except you and maybe your parents!

Visualize: Being able to illustrate concepts with a minimal explanation should be the goal of any presenter. Crowded maps and complicated diagrams may confuse your audience. Plus, the time wasted while laboriously describing a complicated figure could be better spent emphasizing its relevance. Sometimes figures have to be complicated, especially if they summarize years of data. Just keep in mind the advantage of being spare.

(I know this isn't quite how it happens in the real world.)

Share Your Material: For class lectures, instead of having students copy from a screen or noteboard, give them the notes beforehand. Then use your visual tools to develop what's on the handout. For posters, make a fun-sized version for people to take home. If your font and figures are appropriately sized, then your poster should still be legible on an 8x11 sheet.

Project: You don't have to be a loud-mouth to be heard, though in my experience it helps. Speaking clearly, annunciating, and inflecting on key points maintains your audience's interest. If you need a mic, get a mic.

Use Examples: As a southpaw, I find myself more apt to learn a concept through trial-and-error and metaphor. Using examples to articulate abstract concepts allows your audience to better relate to a process. In lectures, this involves color images, videos, and especially physical examples and demonstrations.

Employ Humor: Be hammy, sarcastic, or ironic. Dr. Peter Venkman once said of scientists, "they're usually pretty stiff." Loosen up your audience with an absurd anecdote or goofy analogy. It cuts the tension. Dr. James Roberts, a former professor at the University of South Carolina mastered the use of humor in the classroom and regularly worked personal anecdotes into his upper-tier maths. In that spirit, here is an example from a lecture on Bolide Impacts in Geological Disasters and Society, an physical science course for non-majors at Arizona. This joke provided an introduction to discussing the ramifications of a major impact. The point here wasn't to start with a statistic about the likelihood of an impact, but wake up the audience at a critical juncture of the presentation.

Proof?

Geoscience 218: Geological Disasters and Society (Superior Performance Evaluation)

Dr. Susan Beck, "Andy gave two great lectures that the students really liked. The students indicated that Andy's lectures were interesting, clear, and organized. They liked the movie clips." "Andy was engaged in the class even though most of his duties were grading. He put together and gave 2 lectures that I attended and they were better than my lectures."

Geoscience 322: Introduction to Geophysics (Superior Performance Evaluation)

Dr. Rick Bennett, "Andy was regarded highly in all categories by all of the students." "Andy is one of the best TA's ever."

Flowing Asthenosphere and a Slab Window Beneath the Coast Mountains Batholith, British Columbia (Best Overall Talk - GeoDaze 2008, Department Research Symposium)

Dr. Susan Beck, "Great explanation of shear wave splitting. Very clear and simple figures." "Great talk! Nice integration."

Dr. Clement Chase, "Good plan & graphics, well-situated w.r.t. geography. Excellent presentation." "Questions: handled articulately."

Dr. Roy Johnson, "Very strong voice, eye contact. Very good slides! Great." "Overall great talk!"