How to give a talk
In academia, the ability to communicate your research to an audience—or “giving a talk”—is an important skill. To be fair, there exist great scholars who cannot give a good talk to a wide audience, but it is more of an exception; communicating one’s research well can be incredibly effective at spreading one’s idea in academia and beyond.
Although not everyone can become a legendary orator, I believe that anyone can become a decent speaker. Here are some principles and tips that I view as critical for giving decent talks.
Know your audience
I think the most important principle is that a talk doesn’t exist in vacuum. A talk can be structured in so many ways and at so many levels, from a talk for general public to one for a handful of experts who know exactly what you’re talking about.
Slides are aids
I think one of the most common mistakes in approaching a talk preparation is to focus too much on slides but not enough on the talk. Many put together a slidedeck—without practicing it even once—and then call it done; the good preparation of a talk should be about figuring out the talk part. Slides follow the talk not the other way around.
For what it’s worth, the TED talks are some of the most well-prepared talks for the general audience. You may notice that many talks use slides minimally and some even don’t use them at all.
Giving a talk is foremost a “talk”, telling a story. Slides are helping that by providing visuals.