Be relaxed and natural, let the speech flow. This requires a lot of rehearsal.
DO NOT READ
Rehearse a lot. Make cuts so that you do not go over the time limit.
Engage with the audience, use eye contact.
Speak clearly and audibly.
Dealing with stress: learn diaphragmatic breathing.
When answering questions, it is ok to say: I do not know, but I will look it up and get back to you (and keep your promise)
Rehearse a lot (did I mention this already?)
Doctrine: Jazz
Have you ever listened to jazz music? A key characteristic in jazz is improvisation. The musicians spontaneously weave a melody during their solo, creating something new with each performance. The musicians may appear to pick the music notes randomly, but there is nothing random in jazz. To improvise, these musicians must master their instrument as well as music theory. The musicians need to know which notes are the right notes for each chord, without even thinking about it. This is the secret of music improvisation: total mastery. This requires a lot of practice.
You want your presentation to flow naturally, to appear light and effortless, just like a jazz solo. Instead of memorizing a text and delivering a well-rehearsed speech, you should learn to improvise during the presentation. This requires that you understand your subject sufficiently well that you can comfortably explain it to others and deliver a talk that has not been memorized, but that still sounds well prepared.
Reading: A beginner’s mistake
Making a presentation in front of a public is a stressful experience. You are worried that you may forget something important, or make mistakes, or freeze and embarrass yourself. It is tempting to write down your perfect speech and to read it during the presentation. Do not read! Reading your text during a presentation is a mistake, for several reasons:
Engaging the audience is important! Eye contact is crucial for this to happen. When you are reading, you are not making eye contact with the audience. They will quickly lose interest.
When you read, you project the appearance of being poorly prepared.
Because you are projecting your voice toward a screen or a paper, you are not projecting as much towards the audience. This brings down the “energy” of your presentation.
When you read, you are not paying attention to the reactions of the crowd. You lose the ability to adapt to the situation.
Communicating like a pro, part 0 – Secrets
This part of the guide aims to help you channel your inner science communicator hero and be the best that you can be at making science interesting for the audience. So, what makes famous public speakers like Neil deGrasse Tyson so riveting and inspiring when explaining science? The secret to becoming a great communicator can be summarized in three words: voice, body, and practice.
Before we elaborate on those three elements, here is another secret: observation and imitation. Find some videos featuring your favorite science communicators and observe them carefully. How do they speak? What is their tone? What is their pace? What are their eyes doing? What is their body doing? Take mental notes. Integrate some of that style to your own. There is a saying: if you must steal, then steal from the best.
Communicating like a pro, part 1 – The voice
In an earlier section, we made the connection between delivering a talk and playing a jazz music solo. Your voice is your instrument, and you can train yourself to make the most out of this instrument. Here are some pointers:
Project your voice: be loud, make sure you are heard clearly by the audience sitting in the back. But beware: there is a difference between projecting the voice and shouting. Do not shout. Proper techniques for voice projection involve breathing and use of the diaphragm. If you have experience singing, it is the same techniques. You can find many online guides to help you project your voice more efficiently. Here is an example.
Video: Jaime Sandoval is a physics professor at Dawson College and a professional opera singer. In this video, he gives you some pro tips to help you project your voice. Coming soon.
Articulate: Make an effort to enunciate clearly, detaching the syllables of your words so you are easily understood. Remember that the most important thing in a presentation is clarity, therefore your words must be clear. You can improve your enunciation with diction drills and exercises.
Balance your pacing: Do not talk too fast or too slow.
Balance your tone: Do not be monotonous. Exploit the dynamic range of your voice. Vary how loud you speak (but always make sure everyone can hear you). When something is important, emphasize it with your voice by speaking louder and by giving each word more weight.
Communicating like a pro, part 2 – The body
You can be surprised how much your body can contribute to elevate your oral presentation to greatness. Your posture, your eyes, facial expression, your gestures, they all support your words and help keep your audience engaged. Some pointers:
Your eyes: Maintaining visual contact with the audience is essential. Audience will be more engaged when they feel the speaker is addressing them personally. Think of it as reciprocation: you are asking for their attention, so you give them yours. Observing your audience is beneficial for you as well. Look out for cues in their reaction to your presentation and make quick adjustments. If the eyes are on you, good. If the audience starts to drift away (their gaze is distant, or they are looking at their phones), then take action to regain their attention.
Pro tip 1: When making eye contact with the audience, do not stare are one individual for too long. Instead, randomly shift your gaze around, making eye contact with a large portion of the audience. You do not need to apply this technique all the time, but it can help underline an important message in your presentation. Pro tip 2: Look at a distant point, behind the audience, and slightly above their eye level. This keeps the audience in your field of view without focusing on any specific individual.
Your posture: Open posture. Stand upright, arms open, not crossed or behind your back. Your body language should be telling the audience: “you are welcome here, please stay and listen to what I have to say”.
Your facial expression: Smile. Show enthusiasm for your presentation (be excited!). If you give the impression that you are passionate about your subject, then the audience is more likely to join in your enthusiasm and remain attentive to the talk. This is a two-way exchange. The audience is influenced by a public speaker’s “energy”, and the speaker is in turn motivated by the audience’s positive response to confidently pursue the talk. A stand-up comedian builds momentum with the help of the crowd’s reaction. A science presentation is not a stand-up act, but lessons can be learned from the dynamics with the audience.
Your gestures: You can use hand and arm gestures to highlight your words, help the audience visualize your ideas, and add some dramatic effects. It is an effective tool, but do not go overboard. Too much gesture can be distracting. Use gesture to support your speech.
Video - Here we compare three deliveries of the exact same text:
1-Reading the text,
2-not reading but lacking in dynamic range,
3-taking full advantage of the dynamic range, and pacing of the voice.
Communicating like a pro, part 3 – Practicing
Unless you have a natural talent for public speaking, you must rehearse. Make an audio recording and listen to yourself so you can improve. Some guidelines:
Time yourself. Most talks have a time limit. If you exceed the time limit, start cutting and keep cutting until you are able to fit the entire presentation within the time limit.
Practice until you are no longer dependent on reading. Use the text on your slides as memory aid. Eventually, you will not need that either.
When listening to your practice recordings, check the voice pacing and tone. Make sure you are applying the guidelines in “the voice” section of this document.
Dealing with the anxiety
Feeling anxious before an oral presentation is 100% normal. A bit of stress can be good, it keeps you alert and focused. It is problematic when there is too much anxiety before and during the presentation, or when one suffers from public speaking anxiety. Some tips to help you deal with this:
Diaphragmatic breathing helps reduce anxiety. This technique is effective, but you need to learn to do it properly. Practice the technique, then you can apply it anytime you feel a surge of anxiety, for example before the talk. Here is a short video tutorial on the technique.
Rehearse a lot. Being well prepared helps reduce the anxiety.
Remind yourself that you know your subject a lot better than the audience does. You spent hours researching the subject, they did not. Be confident in your knowledge.
It takes courage to stand in front of an audience and give a talk. Remind yourself that you are courageous. Remind yourself that whoever is judging your presentation knows this as well and respects you for it.
Engagement and interaction with the audience
Coming soon.
Handling questions
Here is some general advice for a successful question period after your talk:
Repeat the question out loud. This buys you a few seconds to process the question and engages the rest of the audience in the discussion. Remember that your answer to the question should benefit everyone in the room.
Relax. You may worry that your public will ask you difficult questions that you can’t answer. This is unlikely to happen. Remember that you know your subject a lot more than your audience does, especially if you have been following this guide. Be confident in your ability to answer the questions.
If there is a question you can’t answer, admit that you do not know the answer. If it is a question from your supervisor, you can offer to investigate and submit the answer later.
Keep it brief. Limit your answer to the question asked.
Recovery phase
After the talk, you should take a moment to reflect. What went well? What can be improved? Take mental notes on how to do better next time.
After you are done reflecting, close the chapter and move on. What is done is done. If you made mistakes, learn from them, but do not dwell on them.
