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©2016 Speaking Science, LLC www.speakingscience.com 425.518.2081 / nick@speakingscience.com
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The foundation of public speaking whether it’s a scientific presentation, or not, is to speak with your audience in mind. This
statement can be understood many ways. Here are a few basic ways to do this.
Your Presentation is Not for You
Your presentation is for your audience so make it worthwhile for them. Prepare your presentation in a way that ensures that
your audience understands and remembers your message.
Respect Their Time
Your audience has willingly given you their most precious and non-renewable asset, their time. Stick to your allotted time or end
early. By doing so, you are communicating respect and gratitude to your audience.
Identify Your Message and Key Points
Start preparing your presentation by deciding on your overall message and the key points you need to include to support that
message. Three to five key points is enough for a technical or sales presentations. Investor pitches will have more points.
Create a Memorable and Repeatable Presentation
One of the best results you can achieve with a presentation is if your audience remembers your message and is able to repeat
it to others. One step you can take to be memorable and repeatable is to create short, “twitter-length” statements for your
overall message and your key points, then repeat them periodically during your presentation.
Keep it Simple
Aid your explanations with simple, easy to understand visuals. NO BULLET POINTS! AND DON”T READ YOUR SLIDES!
Words are not visual, so reduce the number of words on slides to the fewest needed to make your point… and I don’t mean
bullet points with just a few words. This is useless and unmemorable. Images, plots, tables, schematics, diagrams, and
cartoons are visual. If you’re spending a lot of time explaining your slides, then you need to simplify them.
Know Your Audience
Consider your audience’s background with your topic and make it understandable and interesting for them. Use analogies or
stories/anecdotes and avoid jargon except when absolutely necessary. When you cannot avoid jargon, define the term
succinctly, but don’t assume the audience will remember the definition. Use reminders when the term comes up.
Tell a Story
Everyone loves a story. Treat the presentation as though you’re telling a story. For example, build anticipation for each next
slide by making an assertion before showing your support data.
Reading Your Presentation/Slides
This leads to a monotone voice that causes an audience to stop paying attention to you. Varying the tone and volume of your voice will
help to keep your audience’s attention. Reading a script or slides suppresses vocal variety.
Speaking Science® with Your Audience in Mind

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©2016 Speaking Science, LLC www.speakingscience.com 425.518.2081 / nick@speakingscience.com
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Too Much Information
Loading your slides with too much information and having to navigate your audience through them exhausts a speaker and overwhelms an
audience. Adding commentary in addition to the notes on slides does not help. Instead, treat the presentation like a narrative or story and
use slides to provide mental images that AID the narrative. This is a powerful way of keeping your audience engaged in your talk. The
Coffee Talk exercise described later is a great way to develop your narrative.
Forgetting Your Information
Being unable to recall too many details not explicitly stated on slides can look as though you don’t know what you’re doing. You won’t
necessarily remember every detail about your experiments, but the more you’re able to recall when questioned, the more confident others
will be in your results, your understanding of your work, and your ability as a scientist.
Conveying Uncertainty
How do you respond to the audience’s questions? It’s best to ALWAYS BE HONEST AND CONFIDENT IN YOUR ANSWER. Sounding
unsure or negative doesn’t give the audience confidence in your work. It might even suggest that you’re hiding something. Even if you
don’t know the answer to a question, say, with confidence, “I don’t know.” Follow that up with “…but here’s what I think…” Understand,
however, that the “…but here’s what I think…” part of your answer is interpreted as thinking by other scientists, but is likely to be received
as fact by most everyone else.
Being Too Complex
You will most certainly be judged by how well you can simplify an idea. Simplifying a complex idea is the ultimate demonstration of how
well you understand it. Note that it’s easy to make something complicated, but it’s hard to make something simple. The work needed to
simplify an idea is well worth it, especially in a presentation.
Losing Sight of the Big Picture
Be able to explain why you’re doing the work you’re presenting at a higher level than what you find in an objective statement. In other
words, never lose sight of the big picture. Why are you doing what you’re doing? How does it relate to the big picture? Keep this in mind
when you’re presenting, even if it’s not necessary to explicitly state it in a presentation.
Coffee Talk
The ultimate test of winning your audience’s confidence in your abilities and results is whether you can still “tell the story of your work” if
the technology you’re relying on fails. Can you communicate your message without these aids?
I call this exercise Coffee Talk because it’s similar to the way you would explain your work to someone over a cup of coffee. It will force
you to select the simplest and most succinct manner in which to make your points. Start with Coffee Talk the next time you prepare a
presentation. It will build the framework for your talk—then add visuals and polish.
All the best on your next presentation!
Want help preparing for an important presentation with money at stake? Contact Dr. Nick Milanovich, The Speaking Scientist®, at
425.518.2081 or nick@speakingscience.com.