Graduate Seminar Suggestions

Some suggestions on putting together an effective oral presentation.

I. Organization of a Talk

• Talk Outline:
  • Useful to let the audience know what's coming and let the speaker get warmed up.
• Introduction:
  • What's the issue?
  • What is new?
  • Why is it interesting?
• Body of the Talk:
  • Experiment or method
    • How does this issue get addressed?
    • Describe the experiment or theoretical assumptions.
    • How were the data analyzed/what theoretical techniques were used?
    • What sources and magnitudes of uncertainty remain?
  • Results
    • What's the answer?
  • Discussion
    • What does it mean?
    • Interpret the results to form a physical picture and answer the question posed in the introduction.
    • Connect experiment and theory.
• Conclusion:
  • What did we learn? Summarize the main point(s) of the talk and reiterate "the answer".

II. A Few Hints:

• A good talk has only a few main points:
  • If reviewing a topic or field, ask: What is it about? Why is it interesting? What's the current hot question?
  • If reporting on your own research: Why is it interesting? What did I do? What did I learn?
  • It's better to choose fewer points and make sure your audience really gets them.
• Don't go into too much detail!!
  • Give only enough detail so the audience can understand the answer and form an opinion as to whether it's believable.
  • When in doubt, prepare a reserve slide with all the details. Show it only if asked a question about these details, or if your audience looks very confused by your summary of how the work was done.
• Talk to your audience:
  • The speaker always knows more about the subject than the average audience member! The purpose of the talk is to teach them about something they don't know and you do.
  • Speak slowly and clearly and watch the faces of your audience to see if they are following you. Look at the audience, not your slides.
  • Don't read your slides word for word!
  • Don't stand between the audience and your slides!
• Slides:
  • Must be legible even from the back of the room.
  • No yellow! Orange is iffy. Find a projector and look at your slides.
  • The slides should not be too busy. It is better to make more slides with less material on each. Also, avoid writing whole sentences; the slides should be bullets or an outline for what you plan to say.
  • Estimate an average of 1 - 2 speaking minutes per slide.
• Practice your talk!
  • This is extremely useful, no matter how experienced you are!
  • It helps you get your story together and check the clarity of your presentation. Also this lets you optimize the amount of material for the time you have.
• Remember to ask yourself "So What?" This keeps your talk interesting and focussed.

III. Information sources for Nuclear and Particle Physics, and Astronomy

• General interest science periodicals:
  • Scientific American
  • Discover
  • Science News
  • Science
  • Nature
• Review Articles:
  • Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science
  • Physics Reports Reviews of Modern Physics
  • Annual Review of Astronomy & Astrophysics
  • Review Books from the "private collections" of people working in the field.
• Letter journals:
  • Phys. Rev. Letters
  • Astrophys. J. Letters
  • Physics Letters
• All the details:
  • Phys. Rev. C,D
  • Zeitschift fur Physik
  • Nuclear Physics
  • Astrophys. J.
  • Conference Proceedings

IV. For this course:

• Aim for about 30 minutes of speaking time. You'll have about 10 additional minutes for questions and discussions.
• Remember to make and turn in your abstract in the week before your speaking day.
• Be sure to visit with one of the professors to go through your material/plans or outline about a week before your talk.