Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- PART I The first couple of years
- 1 Choosing and handling your Ph.D. adviser
- 2 Motivation, time management, and multitasking
- 3 Handling the literature
- 4 Report writing
- 5 Powerful presentations
- PART II The end of the beginning
- PART III The transition to post-doctoral research
- PART IV Making it in science
- Epilogue
- Web-links
- Index
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- PART I The first couple of years
- 1 Choosing and handling your Ph.D. adviser
- 2 Motivation, time management, and multitasking
- 3 Handling the literature
- 4 Report writing
- 5 Powerful presentations
- PART II The end of the beginning
- PART III The transition to post-doctoral research
- PART IV Making it in science
- Epilogue
- Web-links
- Index
Summary
Successful oral presentations are not just about meticulous slide preparation, important as that is, they're also about doing a good ‘head-job’ on yourself. You don't want to wake up in a cold sweat the night before your talk.
Remember when you took your driving test or sat your final examinations? Sure, you needed to be alert and motivated; but, if your mental pendulum happened to swing too far in that direction, you may have ended up too ‘charged-up’ to be effective. You may have missed things and made mistakes in your eagerness to impress. Similarly, if you practised your deep-breathing exercises a little excessively, you may have faced the challenge with an attitude of ‘it doesn't really matter, anyway’. I suspect most of us end up in the unhappy no-man's-land between these two extremes. We enter the arena neither motivated nor relaxed: we just get in a bit of a flap. The real trick is to find both states of mind within you and use them simultaneously. I know, I know, this is an unusual concept for us ‘fight or flight’ creatures – to stand our ground and keep our cool, but with some careful preparation it can easily be achieved, at least for a short time. Long enough to present an award-winning talk at any rate.
Here's a six-point checklist to make your presentation an enjoyable experience for both you and your audience!
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Building a Successful Career in Scientific ResearchA Guide for PhD Students and Postdocs, pp. 26 - 28Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006