How To Give A Bad Talk
Let’s face it. You’ve spent a lot of your scholarly career sitting through talks and seminars that are less than Stellar – illegible slides, mumbling speakers, pointless babble. Glean what you can from these otherwise awful experiences. What are some of the patterns you’ve noticed repeated by many speakers? Think of your experiences as a listener during academic talks and workshops and give some instructions for preparing a bad talk.
- Don’t pay any attention at all to your audience
- Allow difficult audience members to sabotage your talk
- Reading from the podium without looking up
- Reading overheads and handouts verbatim
- Don't have a contingency plan for technological difficulties
- Be late and exceed the time frame
- Speak fast
- Be boring: Tell people things they already know, repeat yourself over and over and over
- Speak in a monotone voice
- Do not structure your talk
- Structure your talk but don't tell your audience where you are going or where you are
- Be complicated, unintelligible, irrelevant
- Be conventional
- Concentrate on only one part of the audience
- Be self-important and a know-it-all
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