2. Seminars that discuss how something works and why it’s useful are best. Do not clutter your talk with useless experimental details about solution concentrations and temperatures unless that information is actually crucial to the talk.

3. A most important guideline is that you must assume the audience has no more knowledge of the area of science about which you are speaking than a first year student majoring in the discipline. Do not fill your talk with jargon and advanced concepts - unless you are prepared to define every one of them. Do not use jargon that is not necessary to get your point across. The goal is for everyone in the room to understand your talk, not to impress them with your advanced knowledge of the subject.

2. The material on an overhead should be clear and large. For chemical structures, limit yourself to 2 or 3 if they are large; 6 to 8 if small. Type should be large (at least 14 point) and there should be no more than one or two sentences per overhead. A title of 2 or 3 words at the top of each overhead helps the audience understand what each overhead is about.

3. Experimental data should appear only when you plan to talk about it. If there is a table in the article that contains 30 numbers, but you plan to discuss only two numbers, do not reproduce the entire table. Retype the numbers you really want and skip the rest. You can always refer to them in a question situation. Maximum numbers on an overhead is 8 to 10.

4. If reproducing pictures with the xerox machine be sure they are clear. Redraw or use white-out as necessary. Don’t put up bad overheads, then apologize for them.

5. Be sure you have the overheads in a sensible order. Be very familiar with the order and the contents of each overhead. You should never look surprised by an overhead as it appears on the screen.
 

2. Try to make eye contact with each person in the room once during your talk. If one person looks more interested than others, then focus on them.

3. Use the laser pointer carefully. A red dot dancing on the walls will detract attention away from you. A very fast moving pointer or a very shaky one is also distracting.

4. You can put up an outline or verbally refer to one as you progress. Tell the audience when you are changing gears.

5. The audience should not have to strain themselves to figure out what you are talking about. The overheads should be clear enough that the audience should not be straining to decipher it. The pace should be a speed such that it moves along without flying.

6. When preparing your talk, anticipate the questions that might be asked, and find answers. If something you say relates closely to something you learned in a previous course, expect that professor to ask the question. Don’t be surprised when you are expected to apply knowledge from various sources to your topic.

7.  When answering questions watch closely the face of the questioner. Use your own words to answer; don’t recite things from the reference sources. Often the questioner wants to find out if you have any clue at all, sometimes they are making leaps in logic and asking a question that is only tangentially related. Try to figure out the difference when deciding what to say.

8.  Plan to talk slowly and clearly. Remember that your audience is trying to process difficult info while you talk. If some info is needed for viewing throughout the whole talk, then write it on the board. If your slides are well drawn and planned out you will be reminded what to say by looking at them. Do not write out and then memorize your whole talk. Memorize a few elegant connection phrases to get you from one slide to the next. A laser pointer will be available.