How to Give a Ten Minute Talk

1
How to Give a Ten Minute Talk

• 1. Presentation
• Preparation, Timing, Style, Speech
• 2. Content
• Structure, What to Cover.
• 3. Handling Questions

2
Presentation

• Preparation
• Dont leave it till the last minute!
• Proof-reading
• Timing
• 2/3 minutes per slide
• nervous faster, side-track longer
• When practising, speak aloud
• Keep an eye on the time
• Landscape vs Portrait
• Overheads can be either, but watch the margins
• Slides tend to be in landscape
• Keep important information in the top 2/3

3

• Word-Processing
• More Professional
• Range of Highlighting Techniques
• DONT PUT EVERYTHING IN CAPITALS
• Colour (pens) BLUE GREEN NOT RED
• Font Size
• 12 point Times too small this is Arial 18 point
• Diagrams - choose suitable settings for line
  width and font size
• Speech
• Dont rush!
• Dont mumble!
• Learn first slide give yourself enough
  prompts!
• Mechanical Details
• Number slides, or hold in a file
• Focus the audiences attention
• Avoid switching OHP on/off

4
Content

• Introduction
• Background to the relevant chemistry
• Length 1 or 2 slides of 5
• Results and Discussion
• Main body of the talk 2 or 3 slides out of 5
• Give examples and include yields, experimental
  detail, mechanistic detail
• Say how the results were determined, or
  conclusions reached
• Include pictures, diagrams and tables that add
  interest or clarity
• For confidence, check naming of compounds and
  abbreviations
• Conclusions
• What have you shown in this talk? (bullet
  points)
• If the talk title is a question can you answer
  it?

5
Handling Questions

• Questions
• Invite questions
• Preparation practise drawing structures and
  transition states
• Remember you are the specialist
• Learn from the questions!
• And in later years talking about your honours
  project
• References
• Useful books or reviews that cover the chemistry
  youve talked about
• Any work that youve published
• Interesting reagent prep. etc.
• Acknowledgements
• Supervisor, postdocs etc. for technical
  assistance
• Funding body
• Abstract
• For a job interview you may wish to have an A4
  abstract of your talk

6
FAQs

• Talk title
• Assigned talk title codes are posted on
  Chemistry 3 noticeboard.
• Booklet with titles for each code and a key
  reference also on the noticeboard (copies also
  available in the CTO Office)
• Preparation
• Week 6, if you get really stuck go and find the
  staff member who assigned the talk title (do not
  bother them with trivial questions -remember
  they may be assessing you!)
• Overheads
• You can collect 6 blank acetates from the CTO
  Office.
• When and Where?
• Weeks 7 or 8 in the Transferable skills
  timetable session, location as posted on the
  Chemistry 3 noticeboard.

7
Assessment and Feedback

• Mechanism
• Two staff members will assess you talk using the
  criterion outlined on the feedback sheet
• A completed feedback sheet will be returned to
  you.
• Your fellow students will be asked to help with
  feedback!
• Assessment Categories
• Content
• Manner of Delivery
• Clarity of Delivery
• Quality of Overheads/slides/blackboard work