Story Telling and Theatre Skills for Bringing Your Presentation to Life

Finding

Your Research

Voice

Itai Cohen

Melanie Dreyer-Lude

Story Telling

and Theatre Skills

for Bringing

Your Presentation

to Life

Finding Your Research Voice

ItaiCohen • MelanieDreyer-Lude

Finding Your Research

Voice

Story Telling andTheatre Skills

forBringing Your Presentation toLife

ISBN 978-3-030-31519-1 ISBN 978-3-030-31520-7 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31520-7

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ItaiCohen

Department of Physics

Cornell University

Ithaca, New York, USA

MelanieDreyer-Lude

Department of Drama

University of Alberta

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

We would like to extend special thanks to Susi Varvayanis, the Executive

Director of the BEST program at Cornell University, for her unwavering sup-

port of our work. Susi oered sage advice in each of the workshops we pro-

vided for her program and helped shape the content of this book. We thank

Sara Leanne Eddleman for her keen eye in helping to edit this manuscript. We

also want to thank the postdocs and graduate students who were participants.

ey were key players in helping us learn how best to help them deliver excep-

tional research presentations.

Acknowledgments

vii

1 Introduction 1

e Elevator Pitch 2

Part I e Story 7

2 Crafting Your Core Message 9

Guidelines for Creating a Core Message for a Research Talk 9

3 Shaping the Dramatic Arc 19

Structure 20

Shape 26

Length 29

4 Great Beginnings and Strong Endings 33

Great Beginnings 33

Strong Endings 38

e Wrap-Up 38

e Signal 42

5 Make em Care 45

Contents

viii Contents

Part II e Performance 51

6 Calibrating Your Speaking Presence 53

7 Using Your Voice 57

Volume 57

Diction 61

Pitch, Tone, and Prosody 62

Pace 66

Fillers 67

8 Using Your Body 69

Posture 70

Gesture 74

Eye Contact 77

Facial Expression 79

Movement 80

Entrances and Exits: How to Take the Stage 82

Part III e Event 85

9 Dealing with Stage Fright 87

10 How to Handle Questions 93

11 Game Day 99

12 Conclusion 101

References 103

ItaiCohen is a Professor of Physics at Cornell

University, where he works on materials in

motion. His research topics have ranged from

studying the behavior of shear thickening uids

like corn-starch, to the ight of insects, to

microscale robots, and the behaviors of crowds.

Professor Cohen has given over 250 invited

public, conference, and departmental speaking

engagements. He has chaired the American

Physical Society Forum on Outreach and

Engaging the Public and organized numerous

professional development workshops on sci-

ence communication.

MelanieDreyer-Lude is an artist-scholar spe-

cializing in international, intercultural, and

interdisciplinary research. She has directed,

produced, and taught theater in Chile,

Argentina, Germany, Turkey, Uganda, Greece,

and Canada. Fluent in German, Dreyer-Lude

translates and directs contemporary German

plays, which have been produced in the USA

and Canada and published in international

magazines and anthologies. She currently serves

as Chair of the Department of Drama at the

University of Alberta and lives and works in

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

About the Authors

x About the Authors

Cohen and Dreyer-Lude are the organizers and instructors of the popular

Finding Your Scientic Voice workshop, which has been run at various venues

including Cornell University, SUNY Upstate, the Howard Hughes Medical

Institute, and the American Physical Society March Meeting.

I. Cohen, M. Dreyer-Lude, Finding Your Research Voice,

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31520-7_1

Introduction

When is the last time you heard a compelling, interesting, or memorable

research talk? Conferences are notorious for providing ample opportunity to

see boring presentations of what could be important research. If you are read-

ing this book, chances are that you (or your students) need to learn how to tell

a better story. Whether you have been giving lackluster presentations at pro-

fessional conferences, you are on the job market and need to present your

portfolio to a search committee, or you have found yourself tongue-tied in the

middle of an ideal networking opportunity, learning to tell a compelling

research story can have a signicant impact on your career. Humans enjoy

telling and listening to great stories. ese stories help us make sense of the

world around us.

Good stories demand attention. Bad stories put an audience to sleep. Good

stories provide emotional and intellectual satisfaction. Bad stories frustrate an

audience and feel like a waste of time. e components of a great story signal

when we should pay close attention and where we will nd important

moments. By learning to tell a compelling research story, you can trigger an

emotional connection to your audience, which will help them remember the

important information you have just presented. It is easy to tell a research

story badly. It takes time and eort to learn to tell one well. Once you have

mastered the basic principles of good storytelling, you will experience the

satisfaction of performing successfully in front of an audience.

You can nd ample reference materials on presenting talks as stories. We

invite you to read them. Afterwards you may nd there is still a gap between

understanding what these books are telling you and incorporating the con-

cepts into your own work. is book lls that gap, presenting a range of key

research presentation techniques, followed by eld-tested exercises that will

help you improve your talk. To demonstrate, let’s look at an example.

The Elevator Pitch

A good elevator pitch provides a concise description of your research and why

it matters. A compelling elevator pitch will consist of a few clear sentences

that include:

1. What are you researching?

2. Why is this problem important?

3. What have others done, and why was that approach not sucient?

4. What you are doing dierently to solve the problem?

5. If you are successful, how will your work impact the eld and change the

conversation?

Many of us are familiar with the concept of an elevator pitch but still strug-

gle to apply these ideas in practice. Here is an exercise that illustrates this point:

Exercise 1.1 The Elevator Pitch

1. This exercise can be accomplished with just two participants, although a

larger group provides richer feedback.

2. Have the participants write down their elevator pitches based on the outline

above and then try to commit it to memory. It is helpful to agree on the

audience for this pitch (the general public, a conference presentation, your

advisor, etc.).

3. When all participants have created an elevator pitch, designate a leader

who will control the timing of the exercise.

4. Divide into groups of two or three, preferably with people you do not know

well, and determine who will speak ﬁrst.

5. On the leader’s signal, the ﬁrst speaker will share their prepared two- to-

three-sentence elevator pitch. They will have 30s to accomplish this task.

6. When 30s are over, the leader will call time and ask the next group member

to present their elevator pitch. Continue in this way until all members of

your small group have had a chance to pitch their research.

7. If there are enough participants, switch groups and ﬁnd a new collection of

people. Repeat the exercise under the leader’s guidance. Again, take only

30s per person.

8. Gather the entire group into a circle. The leader will select someone to iden-

tify the ﬁrst person they met during the exercise and ask them to describe

what that person does, providing as many details as possible.

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

9. Check back with the person who provided the research pitch to verify the

accuracy of this information. If there are few details, ask the person who

pitched their research what is missing that might distinguish them in their

ﬁeld. If the interviewer remembers a rich collection of details, have the

group analyze why these details were so memorable.

This is the teaching moment. When participants see where their elevator

pitch succeeds or fails to communicate or inspire, they can begin to deter-

mine why and work to make improvements. It is this personal “aha!” that

allows a participant to really see what is wrong with the pitch they created.

An elevator pitch may look good on paper, but if it does not resonate with

the audience, it fails to do the job. We ﬁnd that the most memorable eleva-

tor pitches come in the form of a great story.

10. You don’t need to review every participant’s experience. Once everyone

understands the point of the exercise—your message may not be getting as

much information across as you thought—have them return to their ﬁrst

small group and exchange what each remembers about the other’s elevator

pitch. This feedback will be important for revising the pitch.

11. Participants should now return to the written version of their pitch and

revise it based on what they have just learned.

The elevator pitch is a touchstone for research presentations. It encapsu-

lates key information that a researcher can reference regularly in profes-

sional conversations. It is its own tiny story. Take the time to perfect your

elevator pitch. It will be time well spent (Fig.1.1).

Fig. 1.1 Working on the elevator pitch

1 Introduction

We nd that the best elevator pitches come in the form of a story. is

strategy will extend to your research presentation. Communications consul-

tant Garr Reynolds (2012) suggests that when creating a presentation, one

should consider the techniques of a documentary lm. A documentary lm

intends to educate the viewer on a chosen subject using a cinematic frame to

create a compelling story. e storytelling process does not diminish the rel-

evance of the material, but rather engages the audience intellectually and

emotionally with the subject at hand. Because so many people watch lm and

television, your audience will already be habituated to experience your story

in a specic way. In this book, we will teach you how to appropriate the view-

ing habits of your audience and turn them into an advantage in the construc-

tion of your research story.

To illustrate our approach, we will focus on the 10min research talk typi-

cally presented at conferences. ere are several types of research talks you

may need to prepare in addition to our 10min talk example: the 30s elevator

pitch, the 2 min research summary, the 20 min conference talk, and the

60min colloquium presentation. e 10min talk usually has all of the ele-

ments of a longer talk but is short enough to be conveniently workshopped

while learning storytelling techniques. Once you have mastered the 10min

talk, it is easier to see how to create an hour-long talk since this is just a col-

lection of shorter talks with a common theme. e 10min talk also creates

the opportunity to prepare a 30s or 2min summary because it forces the

storyteller to focus on the core ideas they would like to convey.

We have divided this book into three main sections. We begin by address-

ing the content of your presentation and showing you how to improve the

story you want to tell. Once you have created a compelling narrative, we will

teach you how to include performance techniques to better present your story

for an audience. After you have mastered the content and polished your per-

formance, the third section will oer advice regarding logistical elements that

often impede speakers during the speaking event. e chapters are constructed

as learning modules that can be rearranged. For example, you may want to

interweave the rst two sections of the book. We encourage you to experi-

ment and adapt this manual to meet your needs.

You can apply many of the ideas in this book on your own. We provide

exercises at the end of each section that you can practice alone or in small

groups. Each of our exercises have been eld-tested in our science communi-

cation workshops and designed to specically address issues encountered in

research talks. Importantly, it will not be enough to just read the exercise

descriptions; you will only learn the material by applying the concepts through

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

practice. You will make mistakes. It will take time to become a master story-

teller. But once you have learned how to create a dynamic live performance of

your research story, you will nd that this professional obligation is no longer

something to dread, and you may even come to enjoy presenting your research

in public.

1 Introduction

Part I

The Story

I. Cohen, M. Dreyer-Lude, Finding Your Research Voice,

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31520-7_2

Crafting Your Core Message

Common criticism in some academic circles suggests that making a presenta-

tion more polished and including carefully crafted images will hide problems

in the research. In our experience, the opposite often happens. A clear talk

makes it easier to understand the good ideas, and illustrates where arguments

may be awed or illogical. A clear talk also gives the audience a chance to

engage with the research and the researcher in a meaningful way. Moreover,

the process of clarifying ideas in a research presentation often helps the pre-

senter see how to improve their own research.

e clarication process starts with the Core Message. A core message is a

statement, between one and three sentences long, that encapsulates the pri-

mary idea you want to convey to the audience. In addition to being succinct,

clear, and jargon-free, this message also needs to communicate why your audi-

ence should care about your ndings. While the elevator pitch gives context

to your research in general, the core message communicates specically what

you have found or achieved with this research project and why it is important.

It is the message that you would like your audience to take home. e core

message will provide the foundation for your research talk. It serves as the rst

step and most critical element in your story creation.

Guidelines for Creating a Core Message

for a Research Talk

Keep It Simple

Your research project probably covers a lot of territory. You will naturally want

to include many elements. Resist this impulse. Focus your core message on the

most important concept you are trying to convey in your talk. Too much infor-

mation is hard on your audience. A focused idea will help them process what

you want them to learn. Find the essence of your research (Heath & Heath,

2007). What is the one thing you want them to remember (Reynolds, 2012)?

Watch Out for the Curse of Knowledge

e curse of knowledge is the process of forgetting what it was like before you

knew what you know now (Heath & Heath, 2007). is obstacle may mani-

fest itself in a couple of ways, and we suggest the following tips to combat it:

1. Forgetting to connect the dots: You fail to explain critical components of your

research because you assume everyone “already knows that.” For example, it

does not make any sense to tell someone how to play a diminished third on

the piano if they do not understand musical scales. Determining the appro-

priate level of knowledge for your audience can be challenging and may

require feedback. It helps to know the background of your audience. Our

experience is that presenters are often speaking at a level that is too high, even

at discipline-focused conferences. After all, everyone is somewhat of a layper-

son outside of their own particular research specialty.

2. Cut the fat: You include irrelevant information, assuming everyone would

want to know how this or that process works or was developed. is extra

information, though fascinating to you, may distract from the main narra-

tive. You must be brutal when you edit and be willing to kill those beauti-

ful side stories that took you years to create. Meyers and Nix (2011) insist

that the most common complaints from a conference audience are: “(1)

Too much information. (2) Not relevant. (3) No point.” (p.44). Do not

assume your audience will know everything about your research, but do

not compensate for this lack of knowledge by including everything you

know. Keep your core message lean and clear.

Avoid Jargon Whenever Possible

Jargon has its place. When speaking with your advisor or other experts in your

eld, jargon is a useful shorthand for getting a lot of information across quickly.

In a talk to a broader audience, however, jargon stands in the way of clarity. You

may happen to be an expert on the scallop theorem and reciprocal motion in

low Reynolds number ow, but unless you specialize in uid mechanics, that

statement is incomprehensible. Instead, it is easier for the audience to under-

stand that dierent swimming strategies are necessary when a pool is lled with

honey instead of water. You may think that jargon makes you sound smart, but

it requires more processing time for the listener. e best presenters are able to

say things simply without dumbing down their presentations.

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

Working on your core message can be challenging. Often we nd our-

selves in circular ruts. e following improvisation exercise will help you

further simplify your crafted core message by forcing you to utilize the right

side of your brain. is is best done in a group of three or more. We recom-

mend you use a camera to record the entire exercise. You will forget what you

say, and some of your most creative material may be lost as a result. Record

your work and play it back. Watching yourself may be dicult, but there is

no faster way to adjust your presentation, and it is worth the temporary

discomfort.

Exercise 2.1 Beginning to Craft the Core Message

1. Look at all of the material you want to communicate and reduce it to the

essential idea. You should be able to articulate this idea in a few short sen-

tences. It will take multiple attempts to reduce your research to a core idea.

Do not worry about getting it right the ﬁrst time, just write many possible

versions trying to follow the guidelines listed above.

2. Once you have something you like, try to reduce any use of jargon and make

the tone of your message relatable. A good core message is something that

someone outside of your speciﬁc discipline can understand.

3. Make sure you have included why we should care. Do not take for granted

that your research is important, help us understand why and how.

Exercise 2.2 Reﬁning the Core Message with DING!

Ding! is an improvisation game that teaches you how to instantly create a new

solution to an old paradigm.

Phase 1: Regular DING!

1. Two people come to the front of the room.

2. The audience helps set up the exercise by providing important context for the

game. They need to choose:

Location: (the beach, a nightclub, on the moon, at the car shop)

Relationship: (siblings, lovers, a rival from high school, employee/boss)

3. The actors now begin to improvise a scene. The following important rules will

help this go well.

Choose something active to do. If you are on the beach with a sibling, ask

him or her to put sunscreen on your back. If you are on the moon with your

lover, discover that you have a terrible itch in the middle of your foot. If you

are at the car shop with a rival, offer to give him or her a ride home. This

initial choice will lead you somewhere. Be as imaginative as possible.

2 Crafting Your Core Message

Say yes to every suggestion. The golden rule in improvisation is “Yes/And.”

That means that if someone looks at you and says, “Wow! I didn’t know you

were pregnant!” you cannot say “No, I’m not” (even if you are male). You

might say “Yes I am. And you’re the father!” or “Yes, isn’t it amazing?

Septuplets!” “Yes” always leads to a new and interesting idea. “No” shuts the

action down.

4. As the scene unfolds and events begin to happen, the audience can shout out

at any point, “Ding!” Ding! functions like a game show buzzer. The actor who

has been “dinged” must pause, wind the action back to the beginning of the

last sentence, and then say the sentence again with a new ending. It might

work like this: You and your sibling are on the beach. She comments on the nice

tan you have. You say, “Yes, isn’t it great? It only cost me $9.95.” Someone in

the audience shouts “Ding!” You wind the action back and say, “Yes, isn’t it

great? It goes well with my bathing suit.” Ding! “Yes, isn’t it great? It guaran-

tees skin cancer by the time I’m 40.” Or perhaps your partner says, “Boy this sun

is hot, I could sure use a drink.” Ding! “Boy this sun is hot, I could sure use a trip

to Alaska.” Ding! “Boy this sun is hot. I could sure use this opportunity to dis-

cuss the merits of proper retirement planning.” Moderators should try to

encourage participants to explore a variety of possible endings. For example, if

answers fall into a similar category (food, locations, etc.) ding them again until

they ﬁnd something new.

5. Play a scene for up to three minutes. When the players catch on and have the

idea, thank them and offer applause. Then switch out until everyone has had

the chance to try (Fig.2.1).

Fig. 2.1 Ding!

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

Phase 2: Research DING!

This is the part you will want to record on your phone. It is easy to forget what

was just said, and a recording will allow the researcher to rewind and select

great moments for a future research talk (Fig.2.2).

1. Choose a moderator to guide the process.

2. The moderator asks one person to come to the front of the room armed with

a memorized core message.

3. This participant should recite the core message to the audience as crafted.

Allow this participant to get all the way through the constructed core

message.

4. Have the participant say the core message again, allowing audience members

to Ding! them whenever they encounter a section that is difﬁcult to under-

stand or is full of jargon. It is important that the audience not be shy about

“dinging” the person on stage. The quick-ﬁre process of getting dinged dur-

ing this part of the exercise is what helps release creative versions of the core

message. On the other hand, let the participant catch their breath or ﬁnish

their thought between dings.

5. If the participant is still struggling to simplify the core message, have them

“tell it to a fourth grader.” This helps eliminate jargon and the curse of

knowledge.

6. Finally, have the researcher start the core message one more time, trying to

stay within the one-to-three-sentence limitation.

We ﬁnd that through this exercise the researcher often creates golden

phrases that beautifully capture the central idea of their research. The mod-

Fig. 2.2 Recording the Ding! exercise

2 Crafting Your Core Message

erator and the audience should be sure to point these out. These phrases can

be ﬂeeting, which is why it is important to record the exercise for later

playback.

7. Make sure everyone in the group participates in this process.

8. On your own, watch the recorded versions of your Ding! exercise and extract

ideas that will be useful to you.

9. Rewrite your core message with this new information.

Here is an example of how we used Ding! in a workshop we conducted:

Dario’s Ding!

First attempt at the core message:

Membrane proteins are the high hanging fruit of drug design. Membrane pro-

teins are hard to express, making the research very prohibitive. We have engi-

neered a way in which membrane proteins can be expressed and solutized in a

detergent-free manner making the research more accessible.

(The message is headed in the right direction but is suffering from many of the

ailments listed above.)

DING—to a 4th grader:

In our bodies, we have cells. We are made out of millions of these cells. And

although we have eyes and ears and we can see what’s going on, our cells are

the ultimate judge of what is going on. So, if you have a fever, your cells realize

they have a fever. You’re going to go to the doctor, and the doctor is going to

give you medicine that will tell the cells to get better. The medicine needs to be

precise and match your disease or the thing that is making you sick. For a doctor

to understand what is the exact medicine you need for your sickness he needs to

understand little proteins that live in your cells. Those proteins are very hard to

understand. The doctors need new tools to understand them better and that’s

the research.

(Although this version rambles, Dario is breaking down his research in new

and interesting ways.)

DING! with interruptions:

Ding! #1 Our research engineers chaperones to enable membrane research for

drug designers. (clearer but still vague)

Ding! #2 Our research eliminates the need for detergents in membrane pro-

tein research. (important but not the critical point)

Ding! #3 Our research will enable membrane protein research in drug design

in a cheaper way. (another version of #2)

Ding! #4 The technology that we have engineered allows membrane proteins

to maintain their function even in an alien environment, making

research more accessible. (Much clearer and captures both. Still needs

a bit more work but well on its way.)

Final Core Message:

Our research enables membrane proteins to maintain their function even in an

alien environment, which will allow drug designers to access them less expen-

sively, opening up the ﬁeld for new drug development.

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

Once you have rened your core message, it is important to test it to deter-

mine if others understand what you are trying to say. is is stage three of core

message construction.

Exercise 2.3 Workshopping Your Core Message

1. Have a volunteer share their core message.

2. Discuss the draft collectively and identify what is working and what needs

improvement.

3. Check the core message for jargon. Have the volunteer deliver the core mes-

sage again and ask audience participants to raise their hands if they do not

understand a particular concept or idea. Try to brainstorm together to ﬁnd a

clearer phrase or an alternative way to express the same idea more simply.

4. Repeat the process allowing all participants to receive feedback.

5. Incorporate the feedback you received into your core message.

It is uncommon for your core message to expand to include all the ideas you

have been given. Pick and choose what works for you. The ﬁnal stage of this

process is to reduce the core statement to its essence so that it can be stated

in one to three sentences.

Core Message Example 1—Draft 1:

Using confocal microscopy, we have imaged the 3D location of individual col-

loidal particles and using probabilistic methods estimated the collision frequency

and directionality of particle collisions to extract the forces on the single particle

scale.

Now we’ll apply the concepts listed above:

• Keep it simple → too complex

• Watch out for the Curse of Knowledge → this is present

• Avoid jargon → lots of jargon here

Core Message Example—Draft 7 (having gone through Ding! and an extensive

editing process):

We have developed a method for turning our microscope into a local pressure

gauge.

Applying the concepts again:

• Keep it simple → Yes. Word count dropped from 35 to 12.

• Watch out for the Curse of Knowledge → None.

• Avoid jargon → None. We can all understand what a microscope and a pres-

sure gauge are.

Core Message Example 2—Draft 1:

The melodies inherent in a foreign language performance contain the potential

to trigger psychocognitive empathy through emotional contagion and mirror

neuron processing, broadening the potential social impact of multilingual

performance.

2 Crafting Your Core Message

is process may seem tedious and unnecessarily time consuming.

Remember that the core message serves as the touchstone for your entire

research talk. Rening it is worth the eort. Once you have created the core

message for your research talk, you are ready to put it into action. e follow-

ing exercise demonstrates how this works.

Now we’ll apply the concepts listed above:

• Keep it simple → both long and complex

• Watch out for the Curse of Knowledge → it is not clear to the layperson what

this means

• Avoid jargon → lots of jargon here

Core Message Example—Draft 7 (having gone through Ding! and an extensive

editing process):

The music in language can trigger an empathic response even when we do not

understand the words, and those feelings can change our minds about people

different from us.

Applying the concepts again:

• Keep it simple → Yes. Character count dropped from 238 to 167.

• Watch out for the Curse of Knowledge → None.

• Avoid jargon → None. (How and when this idea might be applied will require

more explanation.)

Exercise 2.4 Using the Core Message to Focus Your Research Talk

1. Review your talk slide by slide. For each slide, construct a summary sentence

that captures the main point you are trying to convey. You can also perform

this exercise for each image or graph. Try to determine the main point of the

slide or image and what the audience should see to understand that point.

Write this idea in your summary sentence.

2. Go through these summary sentences and remove any slides that are not rel-

evant to the core message you have constructed for your talk (Fig. 2.3). Your

goal is to determine the fastest way to get from the beginning to the end of

your talk.

• Get rid of the title slide.

• Get rid of the outline slide.

• Keep the slides explaining the main research problem.

• Keep the slides explaining a crucial technique you are using to solve this

problem.

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

• Remove any side stories. This includes most of the background material

that is not your own research. You must ﬁgure out how to retain the mini-

mal amount of background information without having it dominate your

talk.

• Remove unnecessary math calculations.

• Remove slides explaining a cool simulation that is not strictly necessary for

the main message.

• Keep slides that summarize results.

• Keep slides that help the audience to understand the results.

3. Review the remaining slides and determine if you have a complete narrative.

If there are holes or gaps, this is the time to construct slides that would ﬁll

these gaps.

4. Be brutal, and make sure that the new slides are still absolutely necessary to

complete the main idea identiﬁed in your core statement.

5. It may be useful go through this exercise as a group using the talks of one or

two volunteers. For each talk, have the listeners identify the simple line of

reasoning that is being presented. If there are gaps, ﬁll them. If something is

not in order, move it into the right place.

6. If there is not sufﬁcient time to go through everyone’s talk, try breaking up

into groups of two or three, and have each subgroup repeat the exercise with

each person’s trimmed talk. Peer feedback from researchers outside the disci-

pline is particularly helpful to reveal misinterpretations as they share what

they interpret from each image or graph.

Fig. 2.3 Working on the core message

2 Crafting Your Core Message

If you would like advice on how to shape the aesthetics and eectiveness of

your slides, images, and data representations, there are multiple resources

available. Be sure to seek guidance that is appropriate to your discipline. In

our experience, slides often contain too much information. Try to use fewer

words, fewer equations, and only one or two images. Do not worry about

blank spaces. Make sure each slide visually conveys a single idea. Here are

some resources for working on the aesthetics and layout of your slide

presentation:

• Dazzle’em with style: e art of oral scientic presentation (Anholt, 2010).

• Creating Eective Slides: Design, Use, and Construction in Science

(Doumont, 2013).

• How to Avoid Death by PowerPoint (Phillips, 2014).

• Slide:ology: e art and science of creating great presentations (Duarte, 2008).

• Storytelling with data: A data visualization guide for business professionals

(Knaic, 2015).

• Presentation Zen: Simple ideas on presentation design and delivery

(Reynolds, 2012).

• Visual strategies: A practical guide to graphics for scientists and engineers

(Frankel & DePace, 2012).

Crafting a core message may be the most dicult part of designing your

talk. Once you have identied your core message, however, the rest of the talk

becomes much easier to create. A 10–20min talk usually has one core mes-

sage. An hour-long talk still has one core message but may have two or three

interrelated themes framed by this overarching idea. e core message is the

foundation for your presentation and determining a good core message is well

worth the eort.

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

I. Cohen, M. Dreyer-Lude, Finding Your Research Voice,

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31520-7_3

Shaping theDramatic Arc

e shape of your story is a critical component in eectively transmitting

your core message and inspiring interest in your research. Many researchers

make the mistake of assuming that presenting the facts in a logical, sequential

manner will be the most eective way to convey the content of their work and

the professionalism of their approach. e problem is your audience may be

asleep before you communicate your essential nding and may remember

little of what you worked so hard to tell them. When someone steps into a

room (a theater, a lecture hall, a conference auditorium) and sits down to lis-

ten to a speaker who wants to engage their attention for a period of time, they

unconsciously begin to expect certain storytelling events to happen. ey

expect the speaker to pique their curiosity, transport them to another place,

and keep them wondering how the story will end (Heath & Heath, 2007).

Why does this matter? Scientists come to a conference or research presen-

tation to hear about science and just want the facts, right? Yes and no. e

science must be presented credibly, but facts are dull and hard to remember.

People viewing a presentation seek an emotional or intellectual connection.

Gallo called this “brain-to-brain coupling” (2014), and it is this coupling

that stimulates your audience to pay attention. A good story introduces situ-

ations that pose compelling questions. Heath and Heath named this ques-

tion-posing strategy “the gap theory,” because a good speakerneeds to open a

gap in a body of knowledge before closing it with facts. In a research talk,

opening a gap creates the need to know something about your topic. e gap

Electronic supplementary material e online version of this chapter (https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-

030-31520-7_3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. e videos

can be accessed by scanning the related images with the SN More Media App.

is a problem that requires knowledge to solve. Opening gaps hooks the audi-

ence and keeps them engaged. A list of facts, on the other hand, closes gaps.

With closed gaps there is no active cognition required. Facts do not inspire

curiosity; facts do not make one wonder; a list of facts fails to create mystery.

A good story contains open gaps that entice your audience into believing that

you have something extraordinary to share, something that matters, or some-

thing that will change their thinking. Once you have their interest, you can

close the gaps you have created with the facts you discovered during your

research. Starting with the facts in a research talk shuts down the opportunity

for discovery. Consider saving your facts for the best storytelling moment in

your presentation, allowing your facts to serve as the answer to the mystery

you have positioned with the rest of your talk.

We are hard-wired to absorb information in narrative form (Reynolds,

2012). Paul Zak insists that the process of becoming absorbed in a story is

biochemical:

Stories are powerful because they transport us into other people’s worlds but in

doing that it changes the way our brains work, potentially changing our brain

chemistry…Dramatic stories cause us to care about others. When we hear them,

chemicals are released in our brains spurring us to action (2012).

Researchers have tested the impact of storytelling on the retention of facts.

Students at Stanford University were asked to remember the content of pre-

sentations that included both facts and stories. Only 5% of them remembered

the facts, but 63% of them remembered the stories (Heath & Heath, 2007).

If you learn to convert your research into a compelling story, you have a

statistically higher probability that you will engage your audience, and that

they will remember your presentation.

Some stories are best told as a linear progression and some are not. A murder

mystery, for example, rarely starts with the murder. Instead, it starts in the mid-

dle, when the detective arrives and uses ash backs to assemble the plot. If the

story was told in sequence you would already know who the murderer is after

the rst scene! You will need to determine the best way to tell your story, keep-

ing in mind that the order in which you tell it can make a big dierence.

Structure

By becoming conscious of how a story is constructed, you can begin to con-

trol the order of events in your research story for maximum impact. It will

therefore be helpful to review the structure of a story, and to dene some

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

terms before we investigate how to apply them to a research talk. Some basic

building blocks of any story are: exposition, inciting incident, complicating

actions, climax, and resolution. ese elements can be arranged and rearranged

to suit your storytelling needs.

Exposition Exposition is the part of the story containing all of the circum-

stantial elements your viewer needs to know in order to understand what is

going on. Where are we? When is it? Who are the players? What are their

relationships? What events have occurred prior to our story that we must

know in order to enter the narrative smoothly? In your research talk, the audi-

ence will want you to provide background so that they can understand some

basic information. What question are you researching? Why is it important?

What have other researchers done? Exposition can be tricky. It is critical that

your audience have enough information to connect to the events, but too

much information can become confusing and dull (McKee, 1997). e other

delicate aspect of exposition is when to introduce it. Traditionally, it comes at

the beginning of the story, but many stories resist this standard form.

Expositional elements can, for example, be woven throughout a story, provid-

ing the audience with just enough background information for the next nar-

rative event. ere are several strategies for including background information

in your research talk. It is important to set the scene, but be sure to carefully

calibrate this component of your story—just enough but not too much.

Inciting Incident e inciting incident is the one event without which there

would be no story. It is often the moment that sets up the conict in the plot

(omas, 2013). In your research talk, an inciting incident could be the moment

that propelled you to investigate the subject of your research. What happened that

started you thinking that this should be your next research topic? Did you have a

new idea or develop a new technique that could shed light on some aspect of your

project or allow you to tackle the research problem in an innovative way?

Something sparked your interest in this particular research topic. Identify what

that something was. Alternatively, the inciting incident could have been a failed

project. What did that project teach you, and how did it allow you to change

direction, or make progress on the topic you are investigating now?

Complicating Actions Probably the most critical aspect of storytelling is

building tension through conict. is is where complicating actions appear.

In most stories, one nds a protagonist pursuing a specic goal. If the hero or

heroine grabs the prize without encountering any obstacles, the story is wholly

unsatisfying. We are engaged with a story when it surprises us—when our

expectations are thwarted or frustrated (Reynolds, 2012). When watching

3 Shaping theDramatic Arc

or listening to a story, we expect our heroine to encounter challenges,

disappointments, and frustrations, and we want the protagonist to overcome

them. Living vicariously through this process is central to dramatic catharsis,

and one of the things that makes good storytelling so satisfying.

In a research talk this series of hurdles may come in the form of experi-

ments that you ran and are trying to interpret or understand. You run the rst

experiment and get a particular result. Maybe this result is confusing, which

raises a question that drives you to conduct a second experiment. Maybe that

second experiment gives a result that solves part of the problem but suggests

a third experiment to understand things more fully. Finally, the third experi-

ment may yield a result that sets up the nal conclusion. Presenting the con-

clusion or answer to your research problem will be more satisfying for your

audience if you share the hurdles you had to overcome to get there.

In many stories, the protagonist will encounter one or more antagonists.

Everyone loves a good villain, and villains are often the main source of conict. In

your research story, you may nd that you or the solution to your research prob-

lem serve as the protagonists. Few research investigations run smoothly. ere are

almost always unexpected events along the way. Perhaps these events are your

antagonists. ey may become your complicating actions. You may be tempted to

disguise or hide challenges you encountered in your research process (a particu-

larly grueling experiment, unexpected results, or the need to build a new appara-

tus) in order to save face. Resist that impulse. Obstacles, unexpected ndings, or

even failures along the way are storytelling gold. ey increase dramatic conict

and help set up the climax. By sharing them with the audience, you can build

tension in your story, and your audience will care more about how the story ends.

e key to maximizing the storytelling value of obstacles is to brag about conquer-

ing them rather than complain about having to work so hard to overcome them.

Climax Once you have established your complicating actions, you are ready to

reveal the climax of your story. Your inciting incident introduced the problem,

and your complicating actions developed conict and tension. e pressure on

your research problem should be at its greatest point when you reach the climax

in your research talk. e climax happens the moment before the resolution. It

is the moment of greatest emotional intensity in a story (omas, 2013), and

brings about a signicant change in the problem at the heart of your narrative

(McKee, 1997). If you have set your story up properly, the climax will feel inevi-

table. is has to happen; this must be resolved. After the build in tension cre-

ated by the complicating actions, the climax-to-resolution transition provides

the long-awaited emotional catharsis for your audience. Granted, your audience

may not be moved to tears at a research conference, but if you have hooked

them with the initial part of your story, the climax is where you can provide a

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

satisfying payo for their attention and time. is climax will probably center

around your primary discovery or the new piece of knowledge that emerged

from your battle with the problem introduced in the inciting incident.

Resolution e resolution is the nal piece in the storytelling structure.

Sometimes referred to as falling action or denouement, this is where you wrap

up any loose ends in your story. is is the place in your talk where you pres-

ent your research breakthrough and take-home message. It is also an opportu-

nity to zoom out and let the audience know about the potential impact of

your research ndings on the broader community.

It may be helpful to see some examples of how this story analysis applies.

First, we will apply the terms to a television program so that denitions are

clear, and then we will demonstrate how to apply them to a research talk.

Example 1

House—Season 1, Episode 2 “Paternity”, rst broadcast on November 23, 2004.

(Watch it rst if your resources permit.)

Overview: A 16-year-old male comes to the hospital complaining of double

vision and night terrors after being hit in the head by a lacrosse

stick. Doctor House is dismissive until he notices a jerk in the

boy’s foot. After a near-fatal hallucination and several faulty diag-

noses, House is mystied until he learns the boy’s true paternity.

Story outline

Exposition (Laced throughout). A high school lacrosse player with two loving

parents suffers from night terrors and double vision.

Inciting

incident

A young man is hit in the head with a lacrosse stick during a game

and is rushed to the emergency room. (If he had not been injured

this story would not need to be told.)

Complicating

actions

1. In the emergency room, House sees an unusual knee jerk, which

destroys his previous diagnoses of this young man’s condition.

2. They discover a broken brain vessel and repair it.

3. The young man begins to hallucinate and nearly walks off a

roof edge.

4. The new diagnosis is neurosyphillis. They inject penicillin

directly into his brain.

5. The young man has auditory hallucinations, destroying the

previous diagnosis.

6. The young man’s parents argue with House over the lack of

progress. House steals their coffee cups and runs a DNA test.

7. We discover that the young man was adopted. They run a test

for the measles virus. He tests positive.

Climax As the young man moves closer to death, the doctors rush him into

surgery to correct the problem.

Resolution Brain surgery goes well. He recovers full function. His parents are

no longer angry with House.

3 Shaping theDramatic Arc

Example 2 Itai Cohen Group’s Complex Matter Lab: e ight of the fruit y.

Presented at 71st Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society Division

of Fluid Dynamics on November 18, 2018. Atlanta, Georgia (Cohen, 2019;

Video 1 in Supplementary Material).

Overview: Insect ight is aerodynamically unstable. Flies have developed strat-

egies for altering their wing motions to allow them to stabilize their

ight. e Cohen group investigates these strategies by gluing mag-

nets onto the ies and applying magnetic eld pulses to perturb the

ies in midair. By analyzing the resulting wing motions the group

has determined that insects use a proportional integral controller to

adjust these wing motions and maintain their body pitch orienta-

tion. ese controllers are very similar to those used to set the speed

of a car under cruise control or set the temperature of a room. To

investigate the neural origins of this control circuit, they use geneti-

cally modied ies where individual neurons in the circuit govern-

ing these controllers can be manipulated. Finally, they discuss why

ies may have evolved this control apparatus and the impact that

evolving ight control had on the ecology of our planet.

Story outline

Exposition

(background information

to set up the story)

Itai introduces the hero of the story (the fruit ﬂy) and

explains basic aspects of control through a

demonstration: balancing a pipe on his ﬁngertips.

(1:00–2:17)

Inciting incident

(introduction of the problem

that drives the story)

To ﬂy stably, a fruit ﬂy must do this type of balancing

at an incredibly fast timescale. How does it do this?

(2:17–2:47)

Complicating actions

(Chapters of the

investigation. Each

chapter builds on the

other and increases the

complexity and interest of

the research topic)

Chapter 1: How are fruit ﬂies producing forward

thrusts and turns? (2:50–16:00)—also contains some

of the exposition.

Chapter 2: How does the ﬂy maintain stable ﬂight?

(16:00–22:01)

Chapter 3: The relevance of a gyroscope to stable

ﬂight, genetic manipulation of the control circuit,

and the evolutionary value of halteres. (22:01–30: 31)

Climaxes Chapter 1: Demonstration of turns. (12:00–13:00)

Chapter 2: Putting the pieces together. (19:30–20:00)

Chapter 3: Comparison of pitch perturbation

experiments in normal versus b1 silenced ﬂies.

(24:20–25:00)

Chapter 3: Glue a dandelion ﬁber onto the ﬂy and

stability is restored. (29:25–29:30)

Resolution The evolution of halteres and strategies for stable

ﬂight has had a massive impact on the ecology of

our planet. (30:40–31:07)

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

Exercise 3.1 Identifying the Elements of Your Dramatic Arc

1. Give your talk a title.

Both of the examples above have titles that identify the talk. The television

episode is entitled “Paternity.” The research lecture’s title is “The Flight of the

Fruit Fly.” How would you title your talk? Keep it simple but clear.

2. Find the primary ideas that will help support your core message.

Meyers and Nix (2011) recommended identifying the three big things you

want to introduce in your talk. The number of items may depend on the

length of the talk. In a 10min talk, choose one story to support your core

message. In a 20min talk, choose two or three. In an hour-long talk, narrow

it down to four or ﬁve stories that support the big idea that you want to con-

vey. Write down your main stories.

3. Create your dramatic arc.

Using the chart below, begin to identify the components of your research

story. Do not worry about shape or length at this point, just list what you

believe belongs in each box. We recommend beginning with the climax/es, as

everything builds to that big idea or discovery. The most challenging box will

be your complicating actions. You need to take us on a journey to your big

discovery without including everything that happened along the way. Be

selective (Fig.3.1).

Fig. 3.1 Working on the dramatic arc

3 Shaping theDramatic Arc

Exercise chart

Exposition

(The setup. What do we need to know to understand your story?)

Inciting incident

(What was the moment when this all started? What happened?)

Complicating actions

(What sequence of events led to the climax of the story? They should build

tension as they unfold)

Climax

(What was the big moment? The crowning event? The aha!?)

Resolution

(Tie up all loose ends here. Fill in the blanks. Or suggest future research that will

emerge from this project)

Shape

“Like every book, movie, opera, or play ever written, your talk has three parts:

a beginning, a middle, and an end” (Meyers & Nix, 2011, p.49). e “begin-

ning” in the dramatic arc covers the exposition and the inciting incident.

Complicating actions and the climax comprise the middle, and the resolution

provides the ending of your story. Like an hourglass, the beginning and end

are broad, while the middle focuses on the details of your particular study.

Although this may all seem obvious from the descriptions above, what may

not be obvious is that these components can be rearranged to provide the big-

gest impact for your particular story. You have an obligation to present cred-

ible, compelling research using the tools of the profession. But there are no

rules that compel you to begin with the beginning or end with the end.

Television programs like Breaking Bad often tease the audience by beginning

an episode with a short clip of an important event (usually a complicating

action) that happens later in the story. is initial bit of narrative is out of

context and therefore mysterious. e viewer is left to wonder when that par-

ticular moment will be revealed and explained during the story. A number of

novels begin with the end of the tale, and then take us back in time to show

us how we got there. Serialized television shows (soap operas being the most

notorious) often end an episode with a new unresolved piece of information

to encourage the viewer to “tune-in next time.” To make your research story

compelling, you must nd the shape that best suits the story you want to tell.

You will need to determine what shape will best serve the experience you want

to create for your audience.

e following improvisation exercise will help you see the value in consid-

ering nontraditional structures for your research story.

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

Exercise 3.2 Story Parts

1. Gather in groups of four or ﬁve. Have each member of the group tell a short

story about something memorable that happened to them. This could be an

old memory (when you fell out of the tree at age seven and broke your arm)

or a recent memory (when your mother showed up and surprised you for your

birthday).

2. Choose one of the stories in your group to serve as your material. You will not

be using everyone’s story so the story you remember best might be a good

candidate. Make sure it has a beginning, a middle, and an end.

3. You will be telling this story to the audience as though it were your own.

Assign one section of the story to each member of the group. These sections

should roughly relate to the Dramatic Arc. Someone will provide the exposi-

tion or setup, another will introduce the problem (the inciting incident), one

member will relate complicating actions, another the climax, and ﬁnally

someone will resolve the story. If necessary, group members can be in charge

of more than one section of the story arc.

4. Stand in a line on the stage and tell your story to the audience, one at a time,

using the ﬁrst person. When it is your turn, tell it in the order you heard it.

5. Now keep your roles in the story, but rearrange your positions and tell the

story again, adjusting the detail of the narrative to make sense of the story.

The person telling the end may start or someone who told a portion of the

middle. This way your story will start in a new place. Just be sure that you do

not follow the same pattern that you used the ﬁrst time. While this way of

telling may not be chronological (in time), it may have greater impact and

keep the audience more engaged.

Example:

(One member of your group tells the following story.)

When I was 10 years old, my mom took me on a trip to Uganda. At one point

we went on safari and we drove through this big park full of animals. It was

really cool. We stopped the car to wait for parking, and a baboon hopped up

onto the car, then the roof, then through the sunroof and down into the car

and it started to attack me. My mother was having none of it. She grabbed the

pillow I had been using to nap on and started beating that baboon. It just

hissed at her. So she got really mad and began hollering and beating and

scared the heck out of that baboon. She chased it back up and out of the sun

roof, off of the car, and out into the park. I’ll never forget that. That baboon

was almost as big as I was, and it had gigantic yellow teeth. Didn’t matter. It

was no match for my mom.

(Each person in the group now takes a piece of that story and tells it to the

bigger group using as though it were their own.)

Person 1 (exposition): When I was 10 years old, my mom took me on a trip to

Uganda. At one point we went on safari and we drove through this big park full

of animals. It was really cool.

Person 2 (inciting incident): We stopped the car to wait for parking, and a

baboon hopped up onto the car, then the roof, then through the sunroof and

down into the car and it started to attack me.

3 Shaping theDramatic Arc

is exercise helps demonstrate the value in rearranging the parts of your

story. You can create tension, build suspense, or generate surprise through the

simple act of choosing not to begin with the beginning. Now apply these ideas

to your research talk.

Person 3 (complicating actions): My mother was having none of it. She grabbed

the pillow I had been using to nap on and started beating that baboon. It just

hissed at her. So she got really mad and began hollering and beating and scared

the heck out of that baboon.

Person 4 (climax): She chased it back up and out of the sunroof, off of the car,

and into the park.

Person 5 (resolution): I’ll never forget that. That baboon was almost as big as I

was, and it had gigantic yellow teeth. Didn’t matter. It was no match for my

mom.

(Now rearrange the order and tell the story again, making minor adjustments

in the narrative to make sense of the whole.)

Person 5 (resolution): I’ll never forget [the time I was staring face-to-face with

a] baboon [that was] almost as big as I was. [I]t had gigantic yellow teeth. Didn’t

matter [how big it was]. It was no match for my mom.

Person 2 (inciting incident): [What happened was] we [had] stopped the car

to wait for parking, and a baboon [had] hopped up onto the car, then the

roof, then through the sunroof and down into the car and it started to attack

me.

Person 3 (complicating actions): My mother was having none of it. She grabbed

the pillow I had been using to nap on and started beating that baboon. It just

hissed at her. So she got really mad and began hollering and beating and scared

the heck out of that baboon.

Person 4 (climax): She chased it back up and out of the sun roof, off of the car,

and into the park.

Person 1 (exposition): [This all happened] when I was 10 years old [when] my

mom took me on a trip to Uganda. [We were on] safari and we drove through

this big park full of animals. It was really cool. [Except for the baboon.]

Exercise 3.3 Determining the Shape of Your Story

In a group or on your own, consider some alternatives to a traditional narrative

plot. It might be helpful to storyboard your talk (Reynolds, 2012). Storyboarding

is a technique used by ﬁlmmakers to arrange the components of a screenplay

so they can more easily organize each shot. Usually a storyboard is a graphic

representation (a thumbnail sketch) of each story moment laid out in sequence.

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

Length

It is important that you monitor the length of your talk. A talk that goes

on longer than it should can undermine the overall impact of a great pre-

sentation. If a speaker goes over their allotted time, the audience gets rest-

less, the next speaker starts to panic, and the session moderator may

become annoyed. Determining how long your presentation will take is

one of the most challenging aspects of creating a talk. If you do not include

In PowerPoint, it is convenient to storyboard using the slide sorter (see Fig.3.2).

Your storyboard can take any form that is useful to you. Think of the compo-

nents of your dramatic arc as pieces of a puzzle that you can arrange in a variety

of conﬁgurations.

Looking at your dramatic arc, what would happen if:

• You began with the end?

• You began with one of your complicating actions?

• You constructed a murder mystery from your story?

• You created an action adventure with your story?

• You wrapped your story around the experiences of your hero? Or your villain?

• You modeled your story shape after a story you know that is particularly

compelling?

Notice how the focus of the story shifts when you start at different places in

the linear narrative. Now determine the best shape of your story by arranging

the components of your arc to emphasize your core statement or to generate

the greatest dramatic effect.

Fig. 3.2 Storyboarding with PowerPoint

3 Shaping theDramatic Arc

enough information, your audience will feel cheated. If you include too

much information, they may lose interest, or not grasp which elements of

your talk are most critical.

In short talks, it is good to remember that less is almost always more. Paring

down your presentation to the most essential concepts can help a novice

speaker avoid rushing the end of the presentation in order to stay within the

imposed time limits. It is much easier on the audience if the presentation has

fewer concepts described concisely at a slow or moderate pace, rather than

many concepts overly described at a rapid pace.

In longer talks, we recommend that you plan to end your presentation

slightly earlier than the deadline you have been given. is approach will pro-

vide two advantages: (1) ose extra minutes will serve as a cushion should

you nd yourself taking more time than normal on certain concepts. In this

case, these extra minutes serve as an insurance policy against the clock that

restricts you. (2) If you have been able to get through all of your slides, those

extra minutes can be used to discuss the big picture context more fully. Either

way you win.

If you are presenting an hour-long talk, it is helpful to know that most of

the members of your audience will need a break after 18min (Meyers & Nix,

2011). at is why TED Talks are restricted to an 18min window. To solve

this problem during an hour-long talk, break your narrative down into three

smaller sections, each of which builds toward the climax of your story. It is

helpful to change the rhythm of the talk at each of these time markers in order

to give the audience a break from the steady stream of information. Other

options include incorporating historical context, anecdotes, or personal

experiences. Master storytellers are able to incorporate some of these elements

even in shorter talks.

You will notice in Itai’s talk that he incorporates a variety of strategies to

keep the audience engaged. He introduces a concept with a demo or an anec-

dote and saves the complex equations until after he has set up relevance. He

divides his talk into three roughly equal sections, each with its own dramatic

arc including an interesting beginning and a strong ending. At 20min (very

close to the 18min recommendation), Itai incorporates a memorable video

which simultaneously generates surprise, incorporates humor, and establishes

relevance to his research. rough his talk, Itai uses multiple modes of engage-

ment. His slide show is primarily populated by images and serves as a support

rather than a repeat of his narrative.

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

Finding small breaks in your story will help your audience stay engaged.

Becoming aware of the 18min window of attention allows you to embed

moments of surprise or transition that can strengthen your research story.

Breaking your talk into sections can also help you stay within your time limit.

You can identify when you might go over the time allotment if you nd your-

self exceeding your smaller 18min sections. As you plan the map of your

research talk, continue to remember that less is almost always more.

Constructing a dramatic arc for your research talk can be challenging.

Once you have found the core ideas in your story, the elements of the dra-

matic arc will more easily fall into place. Using this structure helps you identify

Exercise 3.4 Dividing Your Talk into Sections

Identify where in your talk you can take a short pause or create a shift in your

narrative. Natural places to divide a talk are at the conclusion of an experiment

or result, a place where you became stuck and needed to reevaluate your

research approach, or a shift to the next phase of your research.

1. Use the slide sorter view to look at your talk and identify possible breaking

points. Remember, the idea is to experiment with locations where these inter-

ludes can be placed.

2. Brainstorm what you can do during these short intermissions to allow the

audience to rest for a moment but still keep them engaged.

Possible ideas:

• Illustrate the research you’ve just described with a demonstration.

• Bring in a sample that you can pass around to the audience.

• Have the audience conduct a mini-experiment from their seats.

• Show a short video.

• Relate what you are discussing to modern day events or technologies.

• Include a historical interlude that traces the origin of a scientiﬁc idea.

• Tell a short anecdote.

3. Experiment. If you have a great anecdote that is not in the right place, try

putting it in a different place. Sometimes you will identify a breaking point

but your audience may not need a break. Get feedback from your colleagues

regarding whether these small intermissions are working.

4. Test your ideas in front of a live audience. If they work, great. If they sort of

work, think about how to improve them. If they don’t work, drop them or

try a different approach.

3 Shaping theDramatic Arc

which components of your research story are most essential, and keeps you

from including too much information. Running your trimmed dramatic arc

by a colleague, especially one who is outside your own specialty, will help you

determine whether they are engaged and can easily follow what is going on,

or if you have taken out too much. Eventually, a good dramatic arc will allow

you to turn your core message into a compelling story, oering a greater pos-

sibility that your audience will stay engaged and alert during your entire

research presentation.

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

I. Cohen, M. Dreyer-Lude, Finding Your Research Voice,

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31520-7_4

Great Beginnings andStrong Endings

Great Beginnings

First impressions make a dierence. e way you begin your research talk can

prime the audience positively or negatively for everything that follows. Daniel

Kahneman identies this phenomenon as the halo eect (2011). e halo

eect happens when the rst impression in an experience colors the way you

view everything that happens thereafter. If you begin your research talk well,

the audience will be predisposed to listen and enjoy what you have to say. If

you begin poorly, you may lose them long before you reveal the most impor-

tant information. How long do you have to make a positive rst impression?

One study suggests that you have between 5 and 15min to impress someone

(Frieder, Van Iddekinge, & Raymark, 2016). Another expert states that you

have only 2min before your audience has decided for you or against you

(Reynolds, 2012). Meyers and Nix reduce the workable time frame for accom-

plishing this goal to seven seconds (2011). e exact timing will depend on

the context of your presentation, the scheduled length of your talk, and how

famous you are. Regardless, all experts agree that a good beginning is critical

to a successful presentation. Do not make the mistake of assuming that your

audience will listen to you just because you are speaking to them (Meyers &

Nix, 2011). You have to earn their attention. You need to captivate their inter-

est. e rst words you say and the rst thing you do in your research talk are

critically important to creating your storytelling hook. You need to immedi-

ately engage the audience’s attention and create high stakes for your talk, so

that those who are watching will want to lean forward to hear the next thing

you have to say (Meyers & Nix, 2011).

It can be challenging to nd the right way to begin if you are accustomed

to a more traditional approach. It is important that you choose something

that matches the message you are trying to convey, but we recommend that

you try to go beyond the traditional format. Standard introductions with an

opening slide that contains the title, your name, and institution, accompanied

by an agenda or outline slide, will signal to your audience that this is a typical

talk. Because these standard introductions are less engaging, you may nd

your audience looking at their phones or studying the conference program

while your talk gets going. A great beginning, on the other hand, will engage

your audience from the moment you start to speak. Here are a few concrete

ideas that may inspire the rst few minutes of your research talk:

1. Begin with an interesting image or clip.

A provocative image that relates to your research is an interesting way to

begin. Alternatively, you could display a 1min movie clip that demon-

strates a physical phenomenon or explains the relevance of what will fol-

low. Remember that the rst slide is often displayed before the talk begins.

at means the audience will be looking at that slide for the longest

amount of time. us, your rst slide is an opportunity to be compelling,

illuminating, or to inspire curiosity.

2. Begin with a provocative statement.

is beginning is easy if you have a very important discovery to convey

which is provocative in itself. In this case, do not beat around the bush,

just say what you have done. “e reason Western cultures conquered the

Americas is because they had better guns, germs, and steel.” “We’ve dis-

covered the earliest members of the human race.” “We invented a new

technique for turning o individual neurons in the brain (optogenetics).”

In most cases your discovery may be more modest. Nevertheless, there

may be aspects of your research that go against the audience’s expectation.

For example, your research ndings may challenge current orthodoxy,

such as Emily Oster’s talk on HIV in Africa (Oster, 2007) “Everything we

know about the spread of HIV in Africa is wrong.” In these cases, pro-

vocative statements can be very eective.

3. Tell a short personal story.

Anecdotes are one of the oldest forms of engaging an audience. Anecdotes

or personal stories help make an idea memorable by engaging the listener

in something personal. Margot Leitman (2015) suggested that beginning

with a personal story will win the audience to your side. Using an anecdote

as your beginning can be powerful, but you must use it carefully. eresa

MacPhail (2015) had four suggestions when incorporating an anecdote:

(1) Don’t make it all about you. (2) Weave the anecdote throughout the

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

presentation. (3) Find specic details with which your audience can iden-

tify. (4) Reference the story again at the end of the talk. Without question,

your anecdote should connect to your research. If you can nd the right

personal story to tell, you will create the opportunity for a memora-

ble moment.

4. Create an analogy.

Analogies can provide a nice frame for your central research idea. Unlike

a standard, straightforward explanation of concepts, analogies provide

poetic connections between commonly understood ideas and the com-

plex information you want to convey. A good analogy is a type of extended

metaphor and can help you gracefully and eciently introduce challeng-

ing concepts (Monarth, 2009).

5. Use an interesting prop.

Is your research about something concrete or tangible? Can you bring in

a sample? If you are studying the eect of a disease on apples, you could

bring examples of healthy and diseased apples for the audience to see.

Allowing your audience to see or touch the subject of your research will

be more eective than describing that object theoretically.

6. Create a moment of audience participation.

Audiences enjoy participating in the construction of knowledge (Conner,

2013). Can you nd a way to include the audience in the setup of your

research talk? Perhaps you could ask for a volunteer and use them to dem-

onstrate a point. Or ask the audience to look around and observe some-

thing specic in the room. Engaging the audience from the rst moment in

your presentation shifts their cognition from passive to active, and if exe-

cuted well, could create some critical initial buy-in. A note of caution about

polling the audience: if you ask an easy or obvious question, your introduc-

tion could fall at. It is more eective to ask a thought- provoking question

and allow your audience the time to contemplate the answer.

7. Begin with an astonishing statistic.

“Every year, three times as much garbage is dumped in the oceans as the

weight of sh caught.” Do you happen to have an unusual or impressive

statistic that would be a strong introduction to your research talk? Like

analogies, statistics can provide a bridge to the relevance of your research

idea. is is especially true if you can relate the statistic to the audience’s

experience or give it a meaningful context. For example, a 12% increase

in crop yield may not mean much to someone who is not a farmer. Is

12% a lot or a little? Relating this crop yield to the total income of the

farm, indicating whether it would make or break a growing season, or

comparing this result to those from other more well-known prod-

ucts can help.

4 Great Beginnings andStrong Endings

8. Set up a mystery that you will solve.

If you are researching the solution to something specic, a mystery might

be a nice frame for your talk. For example, “Rita has been struggling with

infertility. She also suers from celiac disease. Is there a link between

damaged villi and reproductive fertility? My lab is working to nd out.”

is scenario sets up an ideal opportunity for a story, and automatically

creates emotional connection to the subject.

9. Make it personal.

What is it about your research that is important to you? How did you

determine your particular research focus? For some, an area of research is

connected to someone specic or a particular life event. If you feel com-

fortable and can do so genuinely, share this information with your audi-

ence and let them know how much you care about your research subject.

“is is my grandmother, Ada. She’s 72 years old. She suers from

Alzheimer’s. Currently we don’t understand the specic genetic mecha-

nisms that cause Alzheimer’s. My research is working toward…”

10. Make them laugh.

Are you a natural comic? Do you enjoy making your friends laugh?

Nothing will charm an audience like beginning your talk with a funny

moment. Humor is enjoyable. Laughter is contagious. But take care. If

you are not good at jokes, if you fail to deliver punch lines properly, this

may not be the right choice for the beginning of your talk. If you are

interested in incorporating humor, remember that telling jokes is only

one form of comedy. Puns, sarcasm, running gags, or tongue-in-cheek

observations can also tickle an audience. e most important thing to

consider when incorporating humor is that the style of comedy matches

your personality, and the injection of humor is natural, not forced. Using

humor is not for everyone, but if you can, we highly recommend incor-

porating some lighter moments.

Here is how Itai applies these concepts to his research talk:

Itai begins his talk on ight of the fruit y with this introduction: “is is

Drosophila melanogaster. Isn’t he beautiful?” (#1, #2, #10). He then proceeds

to demonstrate a typical controls problem by balancing a meter stick on the

tips of his ngers—balancing an inverted pendulum (#5). In longer talks, he

uses volunteers to do this demonstration (#6). Finally, he makes the analogy

that, similar to an inverted pendulum apping ight is unstable, so that fruit

ies need to make constant corrections to their wing strokes to maintain their

stability (#4). However, because the time scale for these corrections are related

to the size of the object, ies must perform these corrections on the millisec-

ond time scale (#7), how do they do this? (#8) He then nishes by telling the

audience that this talk is about understanding this control reex.

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

is beginning demonstrates ways in which you can incorporate multiple

strategies to create a good beginning. Within about a minute, Itai has hooked

the audience, and they want to know more about his research.

Exercise 4.1 Creating a Good Beginning

1. Using your Core Message and your Dramatic Arc as reference points, brainstorm

about some possible beginnings for your talk. Try to ﬁll in at least one example

in each of the following categories. Do not worry if some of them seem ridiculous

or improbable. Just freely brain storm and see which possibilities emerge:

• An interesting image or clip

• A provocative statement

• A short personal story

• An analogy

• An interesting prop

• A moment of audience participation

• An astonishing statistic

• A mystery you will solve

• A personal reason for this research topic

• A moment of humor

2. Narrow down your choices to your strongest possibilities. Map out how you

could use each of these strategies to begin your talk. Write out some dialogue

if you ﬁnd that helpful. Get on your feet and practice them in front of a cam-

era. Once you have had a chance to review your practice sessions, polish the

strongest version. Your beginning should be the most rehearsed component

of your research talk (Fig.4.1).

Fig. 4.1 Constructing a great beginning

4 Great Beginnings andStrong Endings

Strong Endings

Equally important to a good beginning, and often overlooked, is the impor-

tance of a strong ending. e purpose of ending strongly is to create a sense of

emotional satisfaction for the audience, make the talk memorable (in a posi-

tive way), and ll the audience with a sense of satisfaction akin to just having

nished a great meal (Meyers & Nix, 2011). A strong ending reminds your

audience of what they learned, and why it is important. Ending well helps the

audience understand why they should care about your research talk. A weak

ending, on the other hand, can deate energy and momentum, dissipate your

connection with the audience, and make you feel less positive about your

performance. erefore, it is important to take the time to gure out how you

want to end your presentation.

In order to achieve the nal emotional payo for your research talk, you

need to wrap-up the ideas you have just delivered, and signal to the audience

that you have nished your presentation. e wrap-up helps the audience

remember the important points you just talked about, while the signal helps

the audience determine when the talk is over.

The Wrap-Up

In your dramatic arc, the wrap-up is the resolution section of your story. Here

is where you ll in any narrative gaps in your storytelling and provide con-

cluding information about something you have addressed earlier in your talk.

Once again, we encourage you to try something dierent from the traditional

approach while still staying true to the message you are trying to convey.

Typical endings consist of a conclusion slide with a few bullet points

summarizing your main ndings. is slide is often followed by one listing

the collaborators and grants. While this format is useful for communicating

your information eciently and is often a safe fallback, it is not very engag-

ing. Below are a number of suggestions for improving your wrap-up (Fig.4.2).

1. e circle back or callback.

A callback is a reference to whatever you used to hook your audience at the

beginning of your talk. If you used an anecdote, nd a way to talk about it

again. If you included a joke, perhaps you can remind the audience of that

funny moment. If you began with an image, you could wrap up with the

same image on the screen.

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

2. Make them think.

Talk about the implications for your research. Most speakers assume that

the audience will understand why their research is important. After all,

to you it is obvious. But remember that the audience has only been

thinking about this topic for the duration of your talk. During your talk

most of the audience’s eort is consumed with trying to keep up as you

speak. It is unlikely that they will have enough time to connect the dots

themselves. Be clear about why your research matters, and where it ts in

the big picture.

3. End with a memorable image.

Images make a stronger impression than a collection of words. If you can

nd an image or video that summarizes the core message of your talk, the

audience will have better recall. Some phenomena are naturally beautiful.

In that case, simply putting up an image of the phenomena will remind the

audience of the beauty in a breaking drop of water, or the intricacy of a

metamaterial’s deformation, or the vibrancy in a work of art. Choosing an

appropriate image is important. If you put up an image of a cat, they will

remember a cat. It will be memorable, but at the expense of your message.

Instead, use simple and eective images that summarize your ndings and

core message.

Fig. 4.2 Strong endings

4 Great Beginnings andStrong Endings

4. End with a cli-hanger.

Sometimes, your talk is a progress report and will not have a natural end-

ing. Your research may be ongoing, or you may have nished one of several

related projects that contribute to a bigger body of work. You can still

entice the audience by giving them a road map for the next steps in your

research. e important thing is to provide them with the vision for your

future work. Many students are hesitant to adopt this approach because

they are afraid they will be held accountable if these future projects fail.

Audiences, however, are often willing to be exible with their expectations,

especially during a talk’s conclusion. Everyone realizes that until the paper

is written and published, everything in a talk is subject to some amount of

revision. So you have some leeway. In fact, you can use this description of

your future plans to solicit ideas from the audience, or even collaborations

that could facilitate your future work.

A traditional conference talk on the Flight of the Fruit Fly would end with

a slide containing the following summary bullet points:

• Just as sh use lift forces when swimming, ies also use drag forces when

ying, so ying and swimming are not so dierent.

• A y’s ability to correct for midair perturbations can be modeled using PI

controllers.

• Using genetic manipulation, we are determining the neural circuit that takes

sensory signals and converts them to muscle contraction and wing actuation.

• Evolution has pushed the development of halteres making Diptera more

maneuverable, better predators, and better able to avoid predation.

is information is accurate and provides a nice summary of primary

points, but it is dull and far from memorable. Instead, Itai uses some of the

strategies above to make the end of this talk more interesting and compelling.

1. Callback. (31:10)

Itai uses the image of the y and returns to the sentence with which he

began his talk “is is Drosophila melanogaster, isn’t he beautiful?”

2. Make them think. (30:40)

Itai shows an image of a y on the patent for the Wright Brothers’ ier.

is image is meant to recall for the audience the elegant strategies insects

use to control their ight. He then asks the audience to imagine the world

350 million years ago before insects took ight. “ere were no trees, there

were no owers, all plants were less than three meters tall. e ability

ofinsects to take to the air and control their ight had a profound eect

on our planet’s ecology.”

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

3. End with a memorable image. (31:10)

Itai begins and ends his talk with a photograph of Drosophila melanogaster.

e beauty of this image is that it is initially revolting. By the end of the

talk, however, the audience falls in love with this creature and the image

evokes a completely dierent response. By using the same image, the audi-

ence appreciates where they started and where they ended up.

4. Determine the best place to end the talk. (31:10)

To achieve a strong ending Itai thanks his collaborators after he delivers his

ending. Once the applause has begun to die down, he immediately adds

his acknowledgment slide and says his thank-yous. is approach creates

an emotionally satisfying ending to the research talk while still nding a

way to thank contributors. Another option for preserving a punchy ending

is to thank collaborators at the beginning or middle of the talk.

is wrap-up demonstrates ways in which you can create a strong conclu-

sion to your research talk. is approach does not require any more time than

the traditional conclusion slides and leaves the audience with a greater sense

of emotional satisfaction.

Exercise 4.2 The Wrap-Up

1. Think about why you are doing this research. What are the ultimate implica-

tions? What do you ﬁnd so cool about what you have discovered? Why are

you putting in so much time to solve this puzzle? These are the questions

that should guide the construction of your wrap-up. If you have already

constructed a traditional concluding slide, you can use the bullet points as

guidelines for what you want the audience to take away from your talk.

Then brainstorm about some alternative ways of presenting the same ideas.

Using the prompts below, experiment with possible wrap-ups to your

research talk.

• Callback: Go back to the ﬁrst few slides and determine if there is a theme

you can return to in your ending.

• Make them think: What are the implications of your work? If what you say

holds up, how will it change the world? We recommend that you consider

the largest possible implications and then scale back from there until you

feel comfortable with the connection you are making.

• End with a memorable image: There are many images that could work

here. Try using an image from your ﬁrst slide. Such an image would also

address the callback. Create a compelling image that summarizes your

ﬁndings. This is the last impression you will leave on your audience so

choose the image carefully.

4 Great Beginnings andStrong Endings

The Signal

At the end of every talk, good speakers will signal the audience that their story

is coming to an end. ere are some techniques that can be used to accom-

plish this task:

1. Take a short pause before the nal sentence.

2. Slow down while delivering the nal sentence.

3. Lift the pitch during the rst half of the nal sentence, and then drop it

during the last half.

4. End the nal sentence with a recognizable ending phrase like “ank you.”

5. Accompany your last words with a gesture, such as dropping your hands to

your side or a slight nod of thanks to the audience. (See more on the use of

the body in Chap. 8)

In Itai’s talk, he has three closing moments that help signal applause.

(31:09) First, he pauses, and makes direct eye contact with the audience.

Second, he repeats the introduction “is is Drosophila melanogaster, isn’t he

beautiful?” Notice the pitch drop at the end of the sentence. Rather than

making this a question as he did at the beginning of his talk, with the pitch

drop he turns it into a statement signaling nality. Finally, he takes a short

pause and ends with a rm but pleasant “ank you.”

• End with a cliff-hanger: This strategy works well if the talk you just gave is

part of a larger story with an even bigger impact. If this is the case, letting

the audience glimpse what is to come can be very effective. Think about

the next steps in your research project. How will the pieces for this larger

story come together? What are the implications if your future research

leads the project one way or the other?

2. Once again, narrow your choices to your strongest possibilities. Experiment

with the different endings and see which ones are most effective at keeping

your audience riveted to the very end of your talk.

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

Beginnings and endings are critically important for your research talk. e

audience will use the rst few moments of your presentation to decide if lis-

tening to what you have to say is worth their time and whether or not you are

credible in your delivery. You will know if you have a great beginning if the

audience sticks around for the rest of your talk. Strong endings, sometimes

overlooked and thrown away, are as important as good beginnings. e way

you end your talk determines the impression the audience will take away with

them. You will know when you have nailed the ending if the audience stays

for the applause rather than rushing to catch their next talk. ese two parts

of your talk are where you have the greatest creative license to experiment.

ey will be anchored by the rigorous content in the body of the talk. So be

brave. e audience will reward you for it.

Exercise 4.3 The Signal

1. Identify the ﬁnal sentence of your research talk. Practice pausing before

delivering this sentence, lifting the pitch at the beginning and dropping the

pitch at the end.

2. Choose a ﬁnal tag out phrase like “Thank you.” “That concludes my remarks.”

“I’ll take your questions now.” “I hope you’ve enjoyed this journey as much

as I have.”

3. Practice delivering your wrap-up and concluding with your signal sentence

and tag out phrase. Record your delivery and perfect it until you can conclude

your talk easily and smoothly.

4 Great Beginnings andStrong Endings

I. Cohen, M. Dreyer-Lude, Finding Your Research Voice,

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31520-7_5

Make Them Care

Having worked hard to streamline your talk and create an engaging beginning

and a strong ending, it is now time to ask yourself once again: Why should

anyone care about this research? Does your talk answer this question? If not,

more eort may be required to explain why your work is relevant to your

audience members. To some scientists and scholars, selling their work is con-

sidered dirty and belittling. After all, if the work is great why does one need

to sell it? It should sell itself. It should be obvious why it is important. e

answers to these questions require us to overcome the “curse of knowledge”

(Heath & Heath, 2007). It may be easy for you to connect the dots and rec-

ognize the implications of your research on a grander scale, but a typical audi-

ence member will need some help. Certainly there is a risk of overselling your

work. Underselling your work by not connecting the dots for your audience

is also a problem. You may need to experiment to get the balance of your

message just right.

It may be helpful to remember that the goal in giving a good talk is to hook

the audience. In many ways your presentation is an advertisement for your

work. For many listeners, it will serve as an entry point to a eld or topic they

are interested in understanding. If they like the talk, they will be more likely

to read your papers. If they like the papers, they may want to collaborate with

you on a project or enter the eld themselves. erefore, rather than trying to

cover every single aspect of your work, your primary objective is to make your

audience care about this specic result.

is goal can be accomplished by covering fewer topics with greater clarity.

Greater clarity means that your audience will be able to discern whether your

result is substantial. It is better to be clear and honest about your ndings

rather than hiding them through obfuscation. In the best-case scenario, you

have a rigorous well-developed ground-breaking result and by clarifying your

presentation you are making it easy for people to understand the importance

of your research.

One of the key strategies for connecting with your listeners is to appeal to

their self-interest. Jerry Weissman (2008) called this WIIFY—What’s in it for

you? An audience becomes actively engaged when they can see how what you

are talking about matters to them personally or professionally (Heath &

Heath, 2007). e strategies you will use to create audience buy-in may

depend on the particular problem you are studying. If you are studying a dis-

ease or tracking the value in a social change movement, making your case may

be easy. Who would not want their corn to be more nutritious or to hear how

the social climate is improving? In the case of malnutrition and medical dis-

eases in particular, while including personal anecdotes and concrete examples

can be powerful, it is important to make sure you are not exploiting those

who are suering and that your descriptions are authentic. Some experimen-

tation may be in order to get your script just right. If your work has the poten-

tial to usher in a new type of important technology or asks us to reconsider

the implications of a moment in history, you might try inspiring the audience

by describing an imagined future or a reimagined past. In such cases, a good

rule of thumb is that you should be as optimistic as possible without mislead-

ing your audience. In most cases, your research will address one component

of a broader strategy. While it is important to describe the big-picture goal, it

is also important to provide context for where your particular piece of the

puzzle ts. Making the connection between what you are researching and its

ultimate impact on society is a good way to make your audience care.

e following exercise demonstrates how to think in new ways in order to

determine why your research may be important to your audience.

Exercise 5.1 Make Me Buy This

1. Identify two or three volunteers who will demonstrate the exercise for the

rest of the group.

2. Assign the roles of salesperson, customer, and coach. (If you only have two

people use salesperson and customer.)

3. Have the audience choose an unusual product for the salesperson to sell. It is

important that this item is either an odd or challenging product. For example,

a roll of toilet paper, one shoe, or your half-eaten sandwich.

4. Have the audience choose a role for the customer: unemployed father of

three, farmer, or captain of a spaceship.

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

Another strategy for making your audience care is to emphasize the aes-

thetic elements in your work. You could, for example, relate the motions of the

electrons you are studying to a beautiful dance. You could demonstrate the

impact of an economic initiative through colorful graphics. You could present

5. The salesperson now has two minutes to try and sell this product to the cus-

tomer using a variety of tactics.

6. The coach (who can also serve as time keeper) may provide suggestions when

the salesperson gets stuck.

7. During the 2min time frame, if the salesperson convinces the customer of the

value of the product, the customer indicates a “win” by shaking the hand of

the salesperson and saying “I’ll take it.” If a tactic does not achieve a win and

the customer is not buying, the salesperson must shift tactics and try again

and again. To achieve success, try to imagine how your product will serve the

speciﬁc needs of this customer. Try not to get stuck on obvious uses for your

product.

8. Once the demonstration is complete, split into teams of two or three and

repeat the exercise on your own.

9. Keeping the same teams, repeat the exercise using your own research as the

product. The person whose research is being “sold” gets to choose the role

for the customer (research advisor, grant manager, reporter, or tax payer). The

other group member(s) should try to help by providing ideas for how to make

your research relevant to your chosen audience (Fig.5.1).

Fig. 5.1 Make me buy this

5 Make Them Care

images of the landscapes that inspired Whitman’s work as you analyze the

contemporary relevance of his writing. Perhaps the phenomena you are inves-

tigating is visually striking. You can nd good examples of arresting images in

the gallery of uid motion, or by using other sources of stock imagery like

iStock or Getty Images. Another strategy is to illustrate a clever or elegant

experimental study aimed at elucidating a complicated puzzle. You might

highlight a particularly ingenious experimental apparatus you have designed,

or a beautiful mathematical framework you have developed for investigating a

particular phenomenon. You could provide striking images of artifacts that are

relevant to your anthropological study. ese latter strategies often work well

if you are giving a talk to specialists who already care about the topic and know

why it is important. Many of your audience members will have gotten into

their eld because they thought it was beautiful. By appealing to their aesthetic

sense, you can remind them of why they became scholars in the rst place.

If you are still stumped, a good starting point is to determine why you are

passionate about your research. Something drives you to get up each morning

and wrestle with your research problem. Was it a nagging sense that our cur-

rent picture of the world is not quite right? Was it about hunting down an

idea that kept tugging at you? Or perhaps a quixotic quest to elucidate some

behavior that enthralls you? Communicating that personal passion during

your talk is another strong way to establish a connection. Your passion will

inspire their passion. Research has demonstrated that passion is contagious

(Gallo, 2014). If it appears that you are indierent to your topic, it is unlikely

that you will generate interest from your listeners (Leitman, 2015). Passion,

on the other hand, creates presence, and presence is interesting to watch. e

following exercise provides some suggestions for nding an emotional hook

for your talk:

Exercise 5.2 Finding the Emotional Connection

1. WIIFY. How is your research speciﬁcally important to your audience? Why will

it matter to them? Is it personally or professionally important to those who

will be listening? Do not assume that they will know this already.

2. Aesthetic appeal. What is it that is beautiful about your work? Did you dis-

cover an elegant way to solve a problem? Perhaps there are images that are

just beautiful. Maybe there is an elegance that you can highlight. Remember

that the aesthetics may relate to the streamlined explanation rather than the

tortuous path you took to get to your results.

3. Personal passion. Take a moment to reﬂect on what is personally important

to you about your research. Is it how your ﬁndings will help others? Is it the

intellectual puzzle you will solve? It is the joy of discovery? Late in the process

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

In his research talk, Itai uses several tactics to help the audience understand

why they should care. First, he helps them develop an emotional relationship

to the fruit y. He does this by speaking about the object of his research with

passion, aection, and admiration. By the end of his talk, his audience is sad

to say goodbye to this underestimated creature. At several points during the

talk Itai will pose a rhetorical question as though he has anticipated the

thoughts of his audience. He then proceeds to answer this question by directly

addressing the issue. roughout his talk, Itai draws parallels to real-world

applications—particularly to ight and the engineering required to make it

possible. Some members in his audience will have been on an airplane mul-

tiple times in their lifetime. Because this is a science audience, Itai makes clear

the impact his research will have on future developments. His work has real-

world applications and lays the groundwork for future studies in this eld.

If you want to make an impact with your research presentation, you need

to connect with your audience and make them feel something. Scholarly

of conducting research, after months or years of scholarly work on your sub-

ject, it can be challenging to remember what sparked your interest in the ﬁrst

place. Write down some thoughts about why you are personally passionate

about your work. Then weave this passion into your delivery (Fig.5.2).

Fig. 5.2 Working on the emotional connection

5 Make Them Care

presentations are often about data, arguments, and concepts. is reality can

be a challenge to engaging your audience. Long-term memory is constructed

by emotional experience. Memory athletes use this idea to generate emotion-

ally charged stories that enable them to recall long card sequences (Dresler

etal., 2017). Within the context of a conference where the brain is exposed to

lots of ideas, facts, and gures from many dierent presentations, the audi-

ence will have a better chance of retaining ideas that are emotionally compel-

ling. Stimulating retention by making your audience care will signicantly

enhance the impact of your talk.

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

Part II

The Performance

I. Cohen, M. Dreyer-Lude, Finding Your Research Voice,

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31520-7_6

Calibrating Your Speaking Presence

e audience has come to hear you speak, the real you, not a phony con-

structed version of you (Howard & Tivnan, 2003). To learn to be authentic

and poised as a public performer, you do not need to construct another per-

sona, but you may need to make some adjustments to your physical perfor-

mance. It is important to recognize that some of what you do as a performer

is already working for you and that some of it is not. In the same way that it

is hard for us to hear our own verbal ticks until they are pointed out to us, the

rst step towards reconnecting with your physical expression is to learn to

recognize the signals you are sending. Because many of us have been raised in

an atmosphere that is critical and judgmental—think of all those oral exams

and graduate school presentations—we have learned to defend ourselves by

reducing our vulnerability and restricting our expression. Unfortunately, these

behaviors often get in the way of fully communicating your story and convey-

ing your own personality.

It may be useful to remind yourself of the broad range of emotions that you

can access when trying to make a point or tell a story. e following exercise

is an exaggerated version of the broad palette that is available to each of us.

Exercise 6.1 Tell It Like…

1. Have each participant write down a mundane piece of news that they will

share with the class. This news should be about three sentences long. It could

be a weather report, the latest on the economy, or road closings. It is helpful

to the exercise if the content is rather dull.

One of the things that makes this exercise humorous is the mismatch between

the mundane content of the “news” and the way in which this information is

delivered. When the signals you are sending do not match your intended mes-

sage, the audience is often left confused and uncertain about how to respond.

If you are jumping with excitement when you are describing something unre-

markable, the audience may think you are crazy. On the other hand, if you talk

about your main result using the same cadence and volume as the rest of the

presentation, the audience will not understand that this part of the talk is of

particular importance. Detailed feedback about nuance may require a profes-

sional. But you should be able to understand the basics on your own or at least

with some feedback from a colleague. With these ideas in mind, let us look at

your 10min talk and determine if there are glaring inconsistencies between the

content you are presenting, your intended message, and your delivery.

2. On several small slips of paper, have each participant write down an emotion-

ally charged circumstance through which someone could deliver this news.

For example, you just won the lottery, your goldﬁsh just died, your hateful

stepparent is coming for a visit, you found out that you need to have a tooth

pulled, you have been asked to bungee jump by your best friend… Here it is

helpful to choose circumstances that generate extreme emotional states.

3. Put the slips in a hat or other container. Have everyone blindly choose one of

the slips of paper.

4. One at a time, have participants stand in the front of the room and deliver

their “news” to the class using the circumstances indicated on the chosen slip

of paper. Each performer should be as clear as possible with their tone of

voice and body language.

5. Have the group guess what the circumstances might be based on the per-

former’s behavior.

6. Have the performer share with the group the circumstances they were trying

to convey. Ask the group for feedback regarding other strategies the per-

former could use to make those circumstances clear. Could the performer use

more body language, facial expression, or a different tone of voice?

Exercise 6.2 Finding Your Disconnect

1. Gather in groups of three or four.

2. Play the clip of one group member’s 10min talk.

3. As a group try to identify where you see a possible disconnect between the

research message and the speaker’s physical and vocal expression.

4. Review each member’s 10min talk in the same way.

5. Do you notice any common problems? What was working well in each talk

that you can borrow for yours?

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

Another useful exercise is to learn to recognize how others use physical

expression in their talks to strengthen their message. Once you can recognize

these behaviors, you can learn to mimic them and incorporate them into your

own performance. rough borrowing and testing these elements in your

own talks, keeping the ones that work for you and throwing the rest away, you

will develop your own style (Fig.6.1).

Recognizing how you are expressing something is dierent from being able

to change it. e above exercises are examples of the ways in which you can

explore, test, and adjust your range of expression. is process may feel for-

eign at rst, but eectively incorporating these elements can make a big dif-

Exercise 6.3 Borrowing and Stealing

Go through Itai’s talk, attend a departmental seminar, or watch a talk of your

choosing on the internet and identify physical expressions or other behaviors

that you ﬁnd particularly effective for communicating an idea. A good test

would be to ask yourself whether that behavior helped you understand a key

point of the talk. Identify one or two elements that you can try out in your own

talk. Determine where in your talk you could insert this element and then try it

out on a test audience.

Fig. 6.1 Analyzing your behavior

6 Calibrating Your Speaking Presence

ference in how the audience receives your talk. e next two chapters will

address in greater detail the two most important aspects of your delivery:

using your voice to be heard and understood, and using your body to support

your ideas through posture and physical expression. ese chapters and the

accompanying exercises will help you tailor and broaden your tool set for self-

expression. We encourage you to experiment beyond what you would natu-

rally do to determine what style works best for you.

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

I. Cohen, M. Dreyer-Lude, Finding Your Research Voice,

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31520-7_7

Using Your Voice

e way you speak controls how your presentation will be received. If your

audience cannot hear you, nds your voice quality unpleasant, cannot under-

stand your words, cannot keep pace with your delivery, or in some other way

becomes frustrated by the way you speak, you will have failed to engage, con-

nect, and inspire. It is helpful to recognize the qualities of good speaking and

to identify what is working and what is not in your speaking voice. When

speaking well in front of an audience, you are audible (using adequate vol-

ume), comprehensible (we can understand your words and what they mean

because you are using good diction), and sonorous (using appropriate pitch and

a pleasant tone). In addition, good speakers use an appropriate pace and

remove distracting llers.

Volume

Being heard when you speak is critically important. If your audience cannot

hear you, they will not pay attention. It can be exhausting to strain to hear a

speaker’s words. Volume is also a critical indicator of condence and energy

(Stone & Bachner, 1994). If you are speaking softly, it appears as though you

do not believe in what you are saying or in yourself as the speaker (Reynolds,

2012). On the other hand, it is important to refrain from shouting (Reynolds,

2012). Shouting can make you sound angry. e goal is to speak loud enough

to be heard with a nice sense of energy and enthusiasm. Learning to calibrate

your volume is an important component of good vocal expression.

Calibrating your own voice can be tricky. What you hear inside of your

head is dierent from what others hear when you speak. When you make a

volume adjustment, it might feel as though you are shouting or whispering,

but this is probably not true. Your inner perception of volume may not align

with the actual sound you are making in the room. A recording of your pre-

sentation or feedback from peers will help you calibrate the volume of

your voice.

It is often surprising to discover how loud one actually needs to be in order

to be heard. For some, speaking this loudly is not natural and can create vocal

strain. In order to avoid damaging your voice when trying to speak more

loudly, it is important to review some of the basics of voice production.

Volume is created through breath not musculature. You cannot make your

voice louder by pushing the sound out through your throat (Stone & Bachner,

1994). Pushing or striving for a louder sound creates tension that may result

in laryngitis or vocal nodes. Rather, think of the process of creating more

volume as releasing the tension, taking a deeper breath, and sending out a

bigger idea. Voice specialists Patsy Rodenburg (2015) and Kristen Linklater

(1976) recommend a version of this cycle of events: (1) Release physical ten-

sion. (2) Let the breath drop down. (3) ink of what you want to say. (4)

Send the energy out. Rodenburg describes the importance of breath support:

is support of air should connect to and with the voice. Support starts and

stops sound as we increase or cut o the air supply, just as you experience with

an air hose used to inate one of your car tyres [sic]. ink of the sound of the

voice as starting with the support from the centre [sic] of the body and not the

throat (2015, p. 152).

Exercise 7.1 Learning to Control Your Volume Using Your Breath

1. Place one hand on your belly and one on your chest. Notice where you are

breathing. Ideal breath support comes from belly breathing. Many people

breathe primarily from the chest. This limits the amount of air you draw into your

lungs and the amount of breath you have to increase the volume of your voice.

2. To help you learn to draw your breath from your belly, try the following: Push

all of the air out of your lungs—every drop. Wait one moment until you feel

the need to breathe. Give in to the need to breathe by allowing your belly to

draw the breath in. Do this several times so that your body begins to remem-

ber to draw the breath down.

3. Now place your hand on your belly. Imagine that your torso is cavernous and hol-

low but elastic. Allow the breath in naturally (do not push), but imagine it coming

all the way down to your pelvis and ﬁlling that space. Then allow the breath to

leave your body on its own. Practice this breathing method several times.

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

Once you begin to understand how to generate volume with your breath,

it is important to adjust the level of volume you use when speaking in public.

e following exercise helps you learn to calibrate your volume to meet the

needs of the room.

Microphones are a big help with volume control when you are speaking to

a crowd. Learning to use a microphone eectively is an important contribu-

tion to the impression of competence and condence. Microphones can also

make it easier to use lower volume for dramatic eect without losing compre-

hension, as you can move in closer to a microphone when you drop your

volume and still be heard. When using a microphone, it will still be important

to use good breathing technique to project your voice, though the volume

calibration will be dierent.

You will probably be using one of two types of microphones: a xed mic on

a lectern, or a lavalier mic that is attached to your body. In both cases, do a

mic check before you speak to be sure the mic is working. All microphones

4. Keeping your hand on your belly, look at someone in the room and tell them

“Hey!” Imagine that the “Hey” comes from your belly (not your throat

muscles).

5. Yawn and feel your throat open.

6. Visualizing that your throat is relaxed and open (as in the yawn), ﬁnd another

person, let the breath drop down, and then tell them “Hey!”

7. To practice volume control, choose a partner. Stand two feet away from one

another and say “Hey!” at a volume that is appropriate. Now move ten feet

apart and adjust your volume using your breath. Now move 20 feet apart and

say “Hey!” Think of these volume adjustments as using energy (supported by

your breath) to throw the words at the other person—do not push them.

Rather, release them like a ball when you toss it.

Exercise 7.2 Volume Calibration

1. Try to ﬁnd an empty lecture hall or space comparable to a conference room.

2. Have everyone stand at the back of the hall.

3. One by one, have each participant walk to the center of the speaking stage

and introduce themselves, as in “Hello. My name is xxx and I study xxx.”

4. If the group at the back agrees that this person was audible, they may return

to the back of the room. If not, the speaker must continue to repeat this

phrase, increasing the vocal energy until the other members of the group

agree that the volume is appropriate.

5. Make sure everyone takes a turn to have their volume production checked.

7 Using Your Voice

have a range within which they can pick up your voice. ink of this as an

invisible cone that extends from the microphone. e better the micro-

phone, the wider the cone. With a xed microphone, you want to posi-

tion the mic so that you can stand up straight and be heard whether you

are looking at your notes, or the audience. Having your voice go in and

out of microphone transmission can be distracting, and can undermine

the quality of your presentation. Take the time to adjust the mic before

you begin.

e other kind of mic, a lavalier or lapel mic, simplies voice transmis-

sion and allows you to move more freely as you present. Lavalier mics are

normally attached to your clothing in the front and connected to a power

pack that is clipped to your belt or waistband. If you know you will be using

a lavalier mic in your presentation, it is helpful to wear clothing that will

accommodate these devices. With a lavalier mic you must remain conscious

of the transmission cone as well. Place the mic far enough away from your

face to allow for a larger transmission area, preferably in the middle of your

chest area. If the mic is too close to your neck, your voice could jump in and

out as you turn your head. To avoid these pitfalls, the best strategy is to

practice using this technology.

In the best-case scenario, there will be someone on hand to help you adjust

the microphone position and resulting volume. Practicing with a microphone

beforehand will allow you to make such adjustments on your own even when

a technician is not available.

Exercise 7.3 Using a Microphone

1. To determine the range of a podium microphone, begin to speak and move

your head left and right to determine when you move in and out of ampli-

ﬁcation. Now speak again and increase and decrease your distance from the

microphone to determine the ideal relationship between your mouth and

the mic.

2. To determine the appropriate position of a lavalier microphone, attach the

microphone to different positions on your shirt or dress to determine how the

ampliﬁcation changes. Turn your head from one side to the other and notice

any volume changes. Remember, the ideal position would be in the mid-chest

region for most microphones.

3. To avoid feedback, try to stay away from any speakers.

4. Try going through some of your talking points and determine whether you

are staying within the microphone’s range.

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

Diction

If you speak loudly enough to be heard, you might still struggle to be under-

stood. Diction refers to the clarity with which we speak. Some speakers mum-

ble, some speak with an accent, or some only encounter clarity issues on

certain words or sounds. e easiest way to improve your diction is to practice

pronouncing consonants eectively. Be careful not to turn “t”s into “d”s, and

be sure to enunciate your “r”s. In English, vowels provide the substance of

sound but consonants divide the sound into packets of meaning. e good

news is that comprehensible pronunciation of English words is a skill you can

learn. ere are a number of books containing explanations and exercises that

can be helpful. Below is an exercise to help you determine where you may

need help with diction. Remember that if you are a non-native speaker and

Exercise 7.4 Diction

1. A tight tongue makes it difﬁcult to pronounce things clearly. Here is an easy

exercise you can use to loosen up your tongue. Imagine that you have just put

a large spoonful of peanut butter in your mouth (any imaginary sticky sub-

stance will do). It is now stuck in every crevice and you must use your tongue

to clear it out. Get under, behind, between every part of your mouth using

your tongue, pretending to clean out the peanut butter. This will naturally

encourage you to stretch your tongue in every direction.

2. Now that your tongue is loose, say the following tongue twisters out loud to

determine which sounds are a struggle for you. Pay attention as you read the

phrases out loud. If you struggle to clearly articulate a particular kind of

sound, this will alert you to a deﬁciency in your pronunciation. A partner in

this exercise can help you focus on the sounds that can be improved for

clarity.

Plosives: (p, b, d, t, k, g)

Picky people pick Peter Pan Peanut-Butter, 'tis the peanut-butter picky people

pick.

A big black bug bit a big black bear, made the big black bear bleed blood.

Begging beguilingly.

Begrudging curmudgeon.

Curiously obscure procurer.

Fricatives: (v, f, th, s, z, sh)

Alluvial bivalve.

Four furious friends fought for the phone.

Very well, very well, very well …

Three free things set three things free.

Scissors sizzle, thistles sizzle.

Casual clothes are provisional for leisurely trips across Asia.

Three tethered teething things.

7 Using Your Voice

your words are already comprehensible, there is no need to remove your

accent. In fact, some audiences appreciate the new melody and tones a foreign

accent can provide.

Pitch, Tone, andProsody

Pitch, tone, and prosody control the emotional qualities of speech. ey also

contribute to comprehension and the appearance of condence and authority.

Pitch refers to the range of expression of your speaking voice and could be

correlated to a musical scale (between middle C and F, for example). Tone

Affricate: (ch)

Chester Cheetah chews a chunk of cheap cheddar cheese.

Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager.

Charming bachelor Chuck.

Charting challenging channels.

Nasals: (m, n, ng)

Aluminum linoleum.

Belonging longer.

Mary Mac’s mother’s making Mary Mac marry me.

Nine nice night nurses nursing nicely.

The king would sing, about a ring that would go ding.

How many mahogany and mohair hassocks has Hermione?

Frictionless: (r, l, y, w)

Ray Rag ran across a rough road. Across a rough road Ray Rag ran. Where is

the rough road Ray Rag ran across?

Luke Luck likes lakes.

Yellow yams yank Yolanda’s yak.

I wish I were what I was when I wished I were what I am.

A wooden worm wouldn't be worthy of worship but would he if he won-

dered and worried about what he would be worthy of if he wasn't wooden?

Red leather, yellow leather.

Once you’ve determined which elements need work, you can ﬁnd exercises

(in books or on the web) that will help you build proﬁciency with those par-

ticular sounds. When you develop the muscles that produce these sounds, you

will ﬁnd them much easier to pronounce.

3. Perform the ﬁrst ten minutes of your talk to ﬁnd the sounds that you need to

work on in your presentations. Again, enlist the help of a partner to identify

particular words or sounds that lack clarity. Are there particular words that

are difﬁcult for you to enunciate? Does your partner look confused when you

say a particular word? Get feedback from your partner on how to pronounce

a word more clearly. Practice the speciﬁc tongue twisters listed above to help

you generate the sounds needed to pronounce these words.

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

refers to the quality of the sound. A round, resonant tone is more pleasant for

the listener than a harsh, abrasive tone. Prosody refers to the melody the

speaker uses to convey the meaning of the statement. e use of these ideas

when speaking is often cultural. Tonal languages like Mandarin place the

same word on various pitches using dierent melodies to connote distinct

meanings. English has no grammatical pitch requirements, although English

speakers also use pitch and prosody to convey meaning. In English, pitch is

used to distinguish the dierence between a question and a statement. We

raise the pitch at the end of a sentence if we are asking a question and lower it

if we are making a statement.

Operative words are important in many languages and provide a useful

communication tool. e operative word is the word (or words) in a sentence

that are most important. In English, the speaker employs operative words

using a combination of pitch and emphasis. e sentence, “e apples in this

basket are red” can have slightly dierent meanings when the speaker shifts

emphasis to the operative word. “e apples in this basket are red” (not the

oranges) versus “e apples in this basket are red” (not the other basket) versus

“e apples in this basket are red” (not green). e words are the same. e

meaning shifts with pitch and emphasis. Understanding the power of opera-

tive words may come in handy in your research talk. By carefully selecting

particular words at important moments, you can help your audience under-

stand where and when to pay attention.

A verbal tick associated with pitch that can confuse the listener is Upspeak.

Upspeak occurs when you turn a statement into a question by raising the

pitch at the end of the sentence. Upspeak is a habit that should be eliminated

as soon as possible, as it suggests uncertainty and lack of condence (Stone &

Bachner, 1994). If you hear the sentence, “I’ll meet you after work tomor-

row.” as “I’ll meet you after work tomorrow?” you might not be certain that

the person speaking will actually show up. When persuading an audience

with your research talk, you want to convey condence, certainty, and author-

ity. Upspeak can undermine those qualities and leave the audience with the

impression that you are not sure about your ndings.

It is also worth considering your optimal pitch placement. Pitch placement

is the note you use most often when speaking. Everyone has an optimal pitch

that is determined by their physiology. Gender can inuence pitch placement.

Some women tend to speak above their optimal pitch (because they may

believe it to be more feminine); some men speak below their optimal pitch

(because they may believe it to be more masculine). ese are often uncon-

scious decisions that become embedded habits or habitual pitch. A lower than

optimal pitch reduces audibility because the sounds tend to blur and distort.

A higher than optimal pitch can become shrill or breathy and undermines the

7 Using Your Voice

perception of condence and competence. Here are two exercises that can

help with optimal pitch and Upspeak.

A rich, resonant tone is often a component of those voices we admire

most. A beautiful tone is open, full of sound, and easy to hear. Consider the

speaking voices of Helen Mirren, Michelle Yeoh, Mahershala Ali, Salma

Hayek, or Jon Hamm. ere are a handful of problems that can impede a

rich tone. e rst is vocal tension which can make your voice sound tired

or strained. Vocal fatigue occurs when you are engaging your vocal chords

unnecessarily as you speak. If you nd that you often lose your voice after

public speaking engagements, you may need to learn to relax your throat

muscles and let the breath do the work. One version of vocal tension mani-

fests in something known as vocal fry. Vocal fry is the process of dropping

your pitch to its lowest register, tightening your chords, and speaking with

a scratchy sound (listen to Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams, and Mary-Louise

Parker as examples of vocal fry). Vocal fry is hard on your voice. If you have

fallen into the habit of using vocal fry and are nding that you regularly lose

your voice due to vocal tension, removing vocal fry from your speaking pat-

tern may help.

Exercise 7.5 Pitch

1. Optimal pitch. Working with a partner, speak a sentence in what you would

consider to be your normal pitch.

2. Repeat the sentence using a higher pitch.

3. Repeat the sentence using a lower pitch.

4. Discuss with your partner which version sounds the best (to him or her) and

feels the most comfortable (to you). Does the ideal version match the pitch

you are currently using? Or do you need to make an adjustment?

5. Upspeak. Speak the sentence you used above as though it were a question, by

using a higher tone for the last word in the sentence. Now repeat the sen-

tence as though it were a statement by dropping the tone at the end. Do you

hear the difference? If not, try having your partner repeat what they heard,

emphasizing the tonal difference at the end of the sentence.

6. On your own, record yourself describing some of your slides. Notice whether

you are using any Upspeak. If you ﬁnd that you do, take a paragraph of text

and read it through while converting every sentence into a question (this

sensitizes you to the habit). Then read it through again and make every

sentence a statement (even if there are questions in the text). Note if speak-

ing in statements is easy or difﬁcult for you. Begin to pay attention to the

ways in which you might be using Upspeak in daily conversation. Ask friends

to point it out to you when it happens. Removing a habit requires aware-

ness and time.

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

Calibrating your breath is also important for generating good tone. Some

speakers put too little breath into their vocalization, which creates vocal ten-

sion. is tension can occur when the throat is too closed, the chest is tight,

and you are not using belly breathing to support your voice. When your

throat is closed, the muscles in your throat must work extra hard to generate

volume, resulting in a strained tone. To alleviate this situation, you need to

open your throat and allow the breath to ow freely. Try yawning to open

your throat and be sure to use your belly breathing to control your volume,

not your throat muscles. At the other end of the spectrum, some speakers do

not engage their vocal chords enough, allowing too much air to pass through

without generating sound. is can create a soft, breathy tone (think Marilyn

Monroe). A breathy tone that saps the volume from your voice can suggest a

lack of condence or authority. If you tend to be breathy when you speak, you

need to learn to connect your breath more strongly to your voice to generate

a fuller sound. Breathiness can sometimes arise when a speaker is nervous.

Should this occur, it is important to take a moment to breathe deeply and

relax, letting your breathing slow down a bit (perhaps by taking a sip of water).

is will allow you to return to generating a nice rich tone with your speaking

voice. Of course, using a breathy voice or a harsh tone might be the right

choice for making a certain point in your presentation and can always be

inserted for dramatic eect.

e following exercises are most useful when done in pairs. For each of

these exercises, engage in the activity by taking turns as reader and responder.

e responder can help the reader recognize when she or he is employing the

habit or leaving the habit behind.

Exercise 7.6 Tone

1. Vocal Fry. Find a paragraph of text to read. Read a portion of it trying to

deliberately use vocal fry. Now read it trying to relax your vocal chords and

leave your throat open and released.

2. Breath Control. Read the paragraph tightening your throat and releasing as

little breath as possible when you speak. Follow that by reading the para-

graph in a breathy tone à la Marilyn Monroe. Give yourself a moment to

shake off these extreme choices and read the paragraph with a balanced

tone.

3. Apply these ideas to your presentation. Choose a particular moment in your

talk and try speaking with a balanced tone. If you are ambitious, try to

determine if you can generate other effects by experimenting with your

tone.

7 Using Your Voice

Pace

Speaking at an appropriate speed can be critically important to comprehension.

It is rare for presenters to speak too slowly. It is far more common to hear them

speak too quickly. e information you are conveying is familiar to you, but it

is brand new to your audience. Each sentence you say will have new informa-

tion your listeners need to process. If you speak too quickly, the audience will

spend some of their processing time returning to the previous sentence to try

and decode what they think you might have said. It can be challenging to learn

to slow down when you normally speak quickly. When you do manage to slow

down, it may feel as though you are speaking at a glacial pace, but this is often

not the case. Your version of slow may be just the right speed for your audience.

In addition to tempo, it is helpful to pay attention to rhythm when you are

speaking. Rhythm is comprised of the pattern of sound you make when you

speak. Speeding up slightly when you are delivering information of less impor-

tance and slowing down a bit when you reach a critical moment in your talk

can add variety and aural interest. ink of the rhythm of your talk as group-

ing words together into blocks of meaning (Meyers & Nix, 2011). A predict-

able rhythm can lull the audience into a semiconscious state, while an

unpredictable or changing rhythm can keep them on the edge of their seat

wondering what you will say next.

One of the best tricks to use when shaping the rhythm of your talk is the

dramatic pause. A dramatic pause halts the action and allows a moment of

silence before the talk continues. ere are multiple places to include a pause.

(1) Right after you enter and before you begin to speak. (2) Directly before

presenting an important nding. (3) As you transition from one section of

your talk to another. A pause, particularly before a transition, can give your

audience a moment to reect and consider what you have just said, and to

begin to build links between what you have said and what you are about to

say (Arnold, 2010). Well-placed pauses can help reinforce your dramatic arc,

building tension and interest as you move through your points one by one.

Exercise 7.7 Pace

1. Slowing down. Find a paragraph of text and record yourself reading it at your

normal pace. Now record yourself reading the paragraph at what you would

consider a very slow pace. You could try thinking of yourself as reading the

text under water, or in a slow-motion movie. Play the “normal” and the

“slow” recordings for a colleague and ask for their opinion of the pace or

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

Fillers

Many people include llers in their speech. Some common examples are: like,

um, man, so, right, ok, totally, well, you know, you see, I mean, I guess… Any

word or collection of words can become a ller. We use llers to cover insecu-

rities when we are speaking, to buy time when we are thinking, to pad our

sentence and attempt to add substance, or to try and create a smooth subject

transition. Fillers are usually unconscious habits that can be very distracting

for your audience (Kushner, 2010). ere are a variety of reasons why llers

may have crept into your vocabulary. We recommend taking the time to

remove them from your speech patterns. e best way to remove a ller from

your research talk (or your everyday conversation) is to enlist some colleagues

to alert you when you have just used a ller while speaking. By pointing out

the use of a ller word the moment you say it, your colleagues are helping you

make an unconscious habit conscious. Habits are hard to break unless you can

tempo with which you are speaking. Which do they prefer? Which recording

is more comprehensible? Are there further adjustments that they recommend

for the pace of certain words or phrases?

2. Add variety. Find a section of text that includes two or three paragraphs.

Read through it once to get a sense of the ﬂow. Take two or three colored

highlighters and code the text, indicating which sentences you will read more

quickly because they are not crucial (perhaps coded yellow), which you will

emphasize by reading more slowly (perhaps orange), and those that you will

deliver at a normal pace (perhaps blue). Once you have coded the text, read

through it, trying to follow the guidelines you have created. On the ﬁrst pass

through the text, exaggerate your choices so that fast and slow are signiﬁ-

cantly different from one another. On the second pass, soften your choices

and try to make the transitions sound more natural and conversational.

3. Adding pauses. Using the same text, read through the document and ﬂag at

least three places where you could put a pause. You will pause either to high-

light a point, to reveal an important moment, or to help you transition from

one section to another. Record yourself reading through the text again, keep-

ing the rhythmic variety you coded in the previous exercise, and adding the

pauses you have now identiﬁed.

4. Compare recordings. Find a colleague and play the original (part 1) and ﬁnal

(part 3) recordings. Ask for feedback on the effectiveness of each recording.

5. Apply ideas to your research presentation. Go back to your 10min talk and try

to identify places where you can implement these ideas to achieve the desired

effect. We often suggest that you focus on three places in your talk where

you can consciously remember to change the pace to generate dramatic

effect.

7 Using Your Voice

catch yourself in the act. Once you become conscious of these vocal habits,

you can begin to remove them from your vocabulary. Stone and Bachner

(1994) recommended saying nothing when you have the impulse to add a

ller and to allow the silence to serve as an opportunity to think of the next

thing you have to say.

“A strong pleasant voice is the greatest asset a speaker can have” (Stone &

Bachner, 1994, p.19). In this chapter, we have provided an introduction to

the basic components of a good speaking voice. Most importantly, you must

be heard and understood. Calibrating your volume, diction, and pace will get

you most of the way there. As you become a more procient speaker, you will

nd that playing with your pitch, tone, and dramatic pauses will provide

nuance and specicity that will allow you to engage with your audience in a

more meaningful way. If you attend to each of these elements of your voice,

you can develop an exceptional instrument that will be a pleasure to hear.

Exercise 7.8 Fillers

Review an earlier recording of your talk. Use a sheet of paper to record a hash

mark each time you use a ﬁller. When you have ﬁnished watching and listening

to your talk and making your marks, look at your sheet of paper and notice how

many ﬁllers you used. Which speciﬁc ﬁllers are problematic for you? When do

you tend to use them? Identify patterns in your use of ﬁllers so that you can

begin to break those habits.

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

I. Cohen, M. Dreyer-Lude, Finding Your Research Voice,

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31520-7_8

Using Your Body

e goal in mastering body language is to create a sense of presence—a qual-

ity that compels the audience to look at you in a positive way. Presence creates

the expectation that something extraordinary is about to happen. According

to Sarno and Moore (1987), presence is generated through the ways in

which we carry ourselves. ey have identied a number of factors that can

aect the perception of whether or not you have presence: your physical bear-

ing, the way you enter the room, the quality of your support material, the

atmosphere in the room, and the makeup of the audience. Only some of these

factors are under your control, and body language is one of them.

Studies have made clear that we are communicating with our body lan-

guage and facial expressions whether we realize it or not (Ekman, 2007; Key,

1975). Folded arms can telegraph emotional distance, a slouched posture sug-

gests a lack of condence, and failure to make eye contact can make you look

deceptive (Burgoon & Saine, 1978; Scheen, 1972). To convey condence

and poise when presenting, you will need to become aware of your body lan-

guage. Ideal physical behavior is relaxed (free of tension and full of ease),

condent (upright and certain), and expressive (energized and passionate). e

goal, however, is not to force these behaviors. Relaxed, condent, and expres-

sive body language should emerge naturally from your preparation and prac-

tice. Once prepared, you will feel more relaxed. If your story is well formed,

you will tell it in a more condent manner. Your emotional connection to

your material can naturally lead to a passionate and expressive performance.

is chapter will focus on how to develop these qualities in your presentation

style and help you strengthen your message through the use of your body.

In our experience, many of the issues associated with miscommunication

through body language arise from bad habits: rocking when you stand; dget-

ing with your pencil; looking at the oor when you speak. Even overuse of a

“good” gesture can be a problem and become distracting. On the other end of

the spectrum, standing perfectly still without conveying any physical expres-

sion is also a problematic habit. Some of these behaviors are easily xed.

Recording yourself and watching your behavior will often alert you to the

most egregious problems. Other bad habits may be more ingrained and will

take longer to correct. e rst step to xing these more entrenched behaviors

is to become aware of them and consciously correct them so that, over time,

the good behaviors will become the unconscious habit.

Appropriate body language during a presentation can be broken down into

several components: posture, gesture, eye contact, facial expression, and

movement. Mastering each of these aspects will help make you more con-

dent about your presentation. Physical behavior—including posture and ges-

ture—can change how we feel emotionally (Gallo, 2014, p.94). A slouched,

withdrawn posture can contribute to feelings of sadness and lethargy, while an

open, upright posture can help generate feelings of strength and contentment.

A strong, condent posture and hand gestures also create a positive feedback

loop with your audience. If you appear more condent, the audience will

believe you are condent, helping you feel more condent, creating a vir-

tuous cycle.

Posture

Posture is a key component in creating presence. A few examples of dierent

body postures can be seen in Fig.8.1. In the rst image (sway back), the

model has pushed his pelvis too far forward. is posture disturbs the

natural center of gravity and puts a strain on the lower back and thighs. In

the second image (lumbar lordosis), the pelvis is kipped in the opposite

direction. Although the spine has a natural curve toward the tail bone,

exaggerating this curve creates excessive tension in the lower back muscles

and results in lower back pain. e third image (thoracic kyphosis) shows

a collapse of the upper spine and is common for those who work hunched

over a desk for many hours a day. is posture deates the overall physical

energy and puts strain on the shoulder and neck muscles. e next image

(forward head) has most of the elements of a good posture, but the for-

ward head position creates tension in the neck muscles, which could result

in vocal strain and the loss of your voice. In the nal image in the illustra-

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

tion above (good posture), you will notice that the body lines up along a

vertical plumb line. e head is lifted but not thrust forward, the chest is

lifted but the shoulders are released, the posture is tall but relaxed and free

of tension. ese ideas are the foundation of a number of movement

methodologies (Maisel, 1989; Feldenkrais, 2013; Jakubowicz, 2018). e

key to good posture is the release of tension and the proper realignment of

the body. Proper alignment will allow your body to function more eec-

tively, and learning to release tension is key to creating a relaxed stage

presence. Here are the components of a relaxed, tension free posture:

1. You are standing with your feet shoulder-width apart and your weight

evenly balanced.

2. Your knees are soft, not locked.

3. Your pelvis is rooted, but free.

4. Your chest is lifted while your shoulders and arms are free of tension.

5. Your head is oating up and free. e back of your neck is released and long.

It may take time to master a perfect posture, particularly if bad posture is

your habit. Try to incorporate a lifted, relaxed posture into your everyday

routine. Before long it will become your new habit.

Fig. 8.1 Posture

8 Using Your Body

Exercise 8.1 Posture

If possible, do these exercises in front of a mirror, or in collaboration with a col-

league who can provide a reﬂection for you, either through a cell phone or

through verbal feedback.

1. Standing posture.

(a) Feet: Stand with your feet shoulder width apart. Your feet may point

forward or at a slight angle, whatever is natural for you.

(b) Balance: Check your center of balance by rocking in pendulum fashion

left and right and then front and back, allowing the movement to

become smaller until you can sense the central point of weight

balance.

knees are not bent knees, and their slight bend should be mostly imper-

ceptible to the observer. Locked knees can cut off circulation and make

you feel faint. Keep your knees released but not bent.

(d) Pelvis: Take a look at the position of your pelvis. Rock your pelvis very far

forward and then very far backward. Feel the tension that each of these

extreme positions create, particularly in your lower back. Now think of

rooting your tail bone by tilting it toward the ground so that it releases

your lower back. The tilt should not be so extreme that it pushes your

body out of alignment. If you are doing this properly, you should feel the

tension in your lower back soften and disappear.

(e) Shoulders and chest: Look at the position of your shoulders and chest.

It is common for the upper chest to be collapsed forward a bit and for

the shoulders to sag forward as well. This position compromises your

appearance of conﬁdence and erodes your physical energy. To ﬁx this

posture problem, imagine that you have a string tied to the center of

your chest that extends upward at a 45° angle. Now allow that string

to pull your chest up gently. Your shoulders should not do the work by

pushing backward, they should just follow along and remain released

and relaxed. Lifting your chest in this way should feel gentle and easy,

not strained. You may ﬁnd that this position helps with your breathing

as well.

(f) Head: Take a look at how your head is positioned on the top of your

body. Are you pushing it back or jutting it forward? To ﬁnd the proper

position, imagine that your head is light as a balloon and would ﬂoat

to the ceiling if it were not attached. Allow your head to ﬂoat up.

There is a natural tendency for your chin to ﬂoat up as well, creating

tension in your neck. Let the movement of your head initiate from the

back of your head so that your chin will naturally ﬂoat down (Maisel,

1989).

(g) Neck: Put your hand softly on the back of your neck. You want to release

any residual tension that remains here. Gently direct your neck muscles to

soften into your hand. You should feel a slight release and softening of

these muscles.

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

(h) Release: Move your head around gently continuing to imagine that your

head is as light as air. Check to be sure that you have not added more ten-

sion. Use your hand to release any residual tension.

(i) Review the video of your initial talk. Identify whether you are using good

posture and if not, make adjustments.

2. Sitting posture.

You can practice an upright, relaxed posture even when you are sitting.

(a) Sit in a chair with both feet on the ﬂoor.

(b) Allow your position to be well back in the chair but not all the way to the

back.

(d) Lift your chest as instructed above. Make sure that your arms and shoul-

ders are released.

(e) Check your head and neck and allow your head to ﬂoat up and forward

as instructed above.

(This posture will allow you to sit tension free for hours, although regular

breaks are best when working at a desk.)

(f) If you wish to rise from your chair without adding tension, simply tip your

torso forward and send the energy up through your head at a 45° angle.

Allow your body to follow that direction and you will easily rise from your

chair.

3. Releasing tension.

It is difﬁcult to convey conﬁdence if you are feeling tense and rigid. Use the

following exercise to help you relax before you speak.

(a) Sit in a chair (or you may stand) and place your body into proper

posture.

(b) With your eyes open or closed (depending on what circumstances will

allow), start at your head or at your feet, and work your way through

your body, focusing on one area and gently instructing it to release. For

example, direct your attention to your feet, notice where there might be

tension, direct your feet to release that tension and to soften into the

ﬂoor (and then continue working your way up your body).

above.

(d) Check to be sure you are in an upright, tension-free posture and make

corrections if necessary.

(e) Now begin to walk around, trying to keep the tension released from your

body. You may begin at a slow tempo, but try to work your way up to a

normal walking pace, still walking without tension.

(f) There may be parts of your talk where you feel extra tension (e.g., begin-

ning of the talk or during the question period). Try implementing the

tension-relaxation tips listed above. Releasing tension in your posture

may help you relax a bit and think more clearly (Fig.8.2).

8 Using Your Body

Gesture

Another key component of physical self-condence is the use of gesture when

you speak. Goldin-Meadow (2005) oered a technical denition of gesture as

those movements of the hands that directly relate to what you are saying, but

gesture lends itself to a broader denition. Gesture may be considered any

component of your physical expression that you employ to highlight, empha-

size, or clarify what you have to say. We will focus primarily on hand gestures,

but you can also gesture with your head, your feet, your posture, your hips, or

any other part of the body that is appropriate for expression. What if you do

not feel comfortable using your hands to express yourself? Do you really need

to incorporate gesture? Gallo (2014) says yes, because gestures help clarify

ideas and contribute to an impression of condence. Using supporting ges-

tures when speaking in public adds credibility to what you are saying.

Fig. 8.2 Working on posture

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

It is important to be sure that your gestures match your words. If your ges-

tures do not appear to support your text, the audience will become uncom-

fortable and might begin to distrust your message (Gallo, 2014). For those

who struggle with gesture, the real question is how to do it. First and fore-

most, allow gestures to emerge spontaneously from your own natural move-

ment. e exercise below will help you become more comfortable with using

gesture. e best placement for gesture in a public speaking environment is

within the Gesture Box. e Gesture Box refers to the area in front of you that

is located above the waistline and below the shoulders. is is considered the

power area (Gallo, 2014). When the hands reach too low (below the hipline),

the speaker appears awkward or sti. When the hands reach too high (above

the shoulders), the speaker appears overly enthusiastic. You can break the

Gesture Box rule when you want to make a particularly important point,

surprise the audience, or change the rhythm, but in general the Gesture Box

is the area to use when gesturing.

For those who wonder how and when they might incorporate gesture into

their talk, Arnold (2010) oered some useful suggestions. ese are not pre-

scriptive, but they might help you generate ideas for when to use gesture:

1. You can DESCRIBE something using your hands.

2. You can ENUMERATE with your ngers.

3. You can EMPHASIZE with a specic gesture.

4. You can CHOP instead of pointing.

5. You can REACH OUT toward the audience.

6. You can MODEL and show the audience what they should do in your

example. (Arnold, 2010, pp.49–50) (Fig.8.3)

We recommend the following rules for incorporating gesture in your talk:

1. Keep your gestures free owing but not overly energized. Gestures need

to support your statement but not draw too much attention to themselves.

2. Resist the overuse of any gesture as it will lose its eectiveness in support-

ing your message. An overly repetitive gesture shifts from providing sup-

port to being a tick that can become irritating to watch (Collins, 2011).

3. Watch the hands in pockets. Hiding your hands in your pockets can

betray nervousness and/or look overly casual. One hand now and then is

not a problem, but be sure not to ddle with keys, coins, or anything else

you have stored there.

4. Do not use pointers, pens, or chalk when gesturing. Put them down

rst. Lasers can be hard on the eyes, so be careful not to point them at the

8 Using Your Body

audience. Also, watch for excessive laser circling of something in your

visual material. Point to it once, and then trust that the audience is with you.

5. Watch for nervous ticks. is includes but is not limited to: dgeting,

tapping, jingling, or standing rigidly in place (Gallo, 2014).

Fig. 8.3 Working on gesture

Exercise 8.2 Gesture

1. Find a short story from your recent past that you can tell your colleagues.

Think through the details from beginning to end.

2. Now tell the story to a small group without using words. Try to use only your

hands to convey your narrative. Note: This may be difﬁcult and you may ﬁnd

yourself resorting to absurd measures to communicate. That is ok. Do not cen-

sor yourself. The goal here is to become comfortable communicating with

your hands.

3. Now tell the story again, and add words to the story. Although your need for

absurd gestures should signiﬁcantly diminish, continue to include gesture to

illuminate and support your points. Your colleagues should press you to con-

tinue using your hands to explain your tale, even when only words will do.

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

Eye Contact

Looking another person directly in the eyes is an act of courage. If you are

having a conversation with someone, and they refuse to look you in the eye,

in US academic culture one might assume that they are (1) lying to you, (2)

nervous about something, or (3) socially maladjusted. A key element of con-

dence, whether you are speaking with one person or to a crowd, is the cour-

age to look your audience in the eye. You can help establish an emotional

connection with your audience through your gaze. Eye contact helps your

audience feel important, which will help them set their other activities aside

and focus on you (Zeoli, 2008). Eye contact helps create an atmosphere of

intimacy between you and your audience. Eye contact also conveys power and

condence (Stone and Bachner, 1994). If you have the courage to look your

audience in the eye, you must really believe in what you are saying.

ere are a number of recommended “Dos and Don’ts” when making eye

contact with your audience. One of the most important things to do is to

make sure that you spend most of your talk looking at your audience rather

than the projection screen or your notes (Reynolds, 2012). Keep your eyes up

and out. Experts recommend that you keep your eyes on the audience 90% of

the time (Sarno and Moore, 1987). If you are managing to keep your eyes

up during your talk, you need to watch that you do not fall into the habit of

sweeping or scanning the audience (Meyers and Nix, 2011). Connect with

one audience member at a time, delivering a point here, and a point there, as

you shift your gaze from one audience member to another. Try to shift your

gaze evenhandedly. Create a pattern that will help you include everyone: cen-

ter, right, left, center, right, left. Be sure to choose new people when you shift

your gaze. Try not to cling to those three people who seem to be enthusiastic

about your presentation. Look at all areas of the audience and nd someone

with whom to connect. If looking an audience member directly in the eye

overwhelms you, consider talking to their nose or their forehead. Be sure,

however, not to focus your gaze far above their heads (Kushner, 2010). ey

will not be fooled and you will fail to make the connection. If it is dark in the

4. Shift to a new small group and tell your tale. Use as much or as little gesture

as feels appropriate. Allow the use of gesture to feel natural, as though these

movements belong to you.

5. Finally, look through your talk for moments where gestures could support

your communication. Practice incorporating gesture into those sections of

your research talk.

8 Using Your Body

room and you are illuminated, it is still important to look out to all areas of

the audience. It can be challenging to make eye contact as you deliver your

research talk, but remember that it is critically important for several reasons:

conveying condence, establishing an emotional connection, and helping

your audience feel as though what you are saying matters.

Exercise 8.3 Eye Contact

1. To warm up your ability to make eye contact, gather in an open area of the room.

2. Approach each person in your group one at a time and shake their hand. As

you do, look them directly in the eye and say “Hello.” Be sure to greet every-

one in the room.

3. Now choose a ﬁve-minute section of your research talk, or a short story you

can share with your peers.

4. One at a time, stand and deliver your text to the group making an effort to

individually connect with each person in the room.

5. Offer one another feedback when you are serving as an audience member.

Did the speaker genuinely connect with you? Was the gaze long enough? Did

the speaker include everyone or fall into a pattern?

6. The next time you deliver a talk in public, have a colleague watch your pre-

sentation and offer feedback on your use of eye contact. Keep this feedback

in mind for your next talk and adjust as necessary.

7. A note for international conference presentations: the use and interpretation

of eye contact might differ in other cultures. Be sure to check if possible with

a native from that land (Fig.8.4).

Fig. 8.4 Using eye contact to connect

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

Facial Expression

An expressive face helps your audience understand what you mean. We know

from the research on mirror neurons that your audience will not only be infer-

ring your point of view when they watch you speak, they will also, at least to

some degree, be living it with you (Niedenthal, 2007). You can encourage the

audience to enjoy your presentation by enjoying it yourself. Allow your facial

expression to reect pleasure and you will encourage the audience to nd

pleasure in what you say.

You are not expected to deliver a Tony Award-winning performance with

your facial expression. e most important expression you can incorporate

into your presentation is a smile. Even in the most serious of professional situ-

ations, a light smile will help you convey condence. A smile creates rapport

in almost every situation (Kushner, 2010). It can be challenging to smile when

you are nervous or concerned about how your talk will be received. Smiling

may help you feel happier about what you are doing. Research has shown that

if you come across as warm and friendly, you will appear to your audience as

more competent (Fiske, 2018). Practice smiling and it will come more natu-

rally to you. If you already smile regularly, do not hesitate to include it in your

presentation style.

Exercise 8.4 Facial Expression: The Smile

1. If you are someone who normally appears somber, serious, or even stern, your

facial muscles will be accustomed to this expression as a resting pose. In order

to create a more expressive range, you will need to “teach” your face another

possibility. Try to take a few moments during your day to pay attention to

your facial expression and incorporate a smile. You do not need to ﬂash a big,

toothy grin, just use a light smile as your target. If you are unsure whether or

not you are smiling, check in the mirror and adjust the degree of smile accord-

ingly. It is important that the expression you use be recognizable as a smile to

outside observers. This “smile practice session” can be as long or as short as

you like. We recommend repeating it until it feels more natural. Initially, this

exercise might require attention and concentration, but eventually, a light

smile will come easily to you.

2. Review a recording of your talk and determine whether you smile. If you have

gone through the full talk without smiling, try to identify moments in your

talk where a smile would be appropriate. Then try incorporating a smile dur-

ing those moments the next time you give the presentation (Fig.8.5).

8 Using Your Body

Movement

In addition to posture, gesture, eye contact, and facial expression, learning to

move appropriately can contribute to the appearance of condence. Proximity,

orientation, and how to move are all aspects of this subject.

Edward Hall (1963) introduced the idea of proxemics in the 1960s.

Proximity is the distance between you and your audience. Whether or not you

have control over this distance will depend on the space in which you are

presenting. Ideally, you want to remove obstacles between you and your view-

ers to create more intimacy and enhance your emotional connection. One of

the key issues in many locations is whether or not you will be tethered to a

podium. If the room is large and you require a microphone, and the only

microphone available to you is hardwired to the podium, you may be forced

to remain there. However, if you have a lavalier mic, or the room happens to

be small, come out from behind the podium.

It is also important to orient yourself so that you are facing your audience

whenever possible. It is a mistake to spend much of your presentation talking

to the projection screen. You can turn to the screen to point out a specic ele-

ment on a particular slide, but afterwards be sure to return your body’s orien-

tation to the front. You are the star of this show, not your slide presentation.

Incorporating a stage cross during your presentation can help you look

condent and in charge (Reynolds, 2012). You could use a stage cross to help

Fig. 8.5 The smile

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

emphasize an important point by drawing attention to that moment.

Depending on your presentation space, you might consider choreographing

these moves into your talk. Once you have determined where you want to

move, it is important to motivate your cross. Here are some strategies for

incorporating a motivated cross into your talk.

1. Cross to the other side of the stage to reference a point on your projection

screen. is will seem justiable to your audience if you are identifying

something on that side of your image.

2. Cross in order to talk to a specic person or section of your audience. To

do this, as you begin to transition into this section of your story, make eye

contact with someone in that section, and let your need to talk to him or

her draw you over.

3. You can cross back to your notes (perhaps on the podium?) in order to

quickly reference something (even if you do not need a reminder). is

will place you in a neutral position once again from which you can choose

to move to another location on the stage.

4. You may also consider crossing during the question and answer period of your

presentation by approaching the side of the stage closest to your questioner.

5. Be sure to nd moments of stillness as well. Crossing the stage should be

the periodic accent to your talk, not the dominant element.

ere are a few aspects of movement that you want to avoid. Be careful not

to rock or bounce when you are standing. ese distractions are nervous hab-

its and should be removed from your presentation. When you cross, do not

oat purposelessly from one place to another (Meyers and Nix, 2011). Rather,

nd your target location, create the reason to go there (your motivation), and

cross strongly to that position. When you are standing, stand on two feet in a

relaxed posture. Avoid standing on one leg, or crossing your feet. Keep your

posture upright and relaxed with an even balance of weight, and you will be

perfectly positioned to make your next stage cross.

Exercise 8.5 Adding Movement

1. Take a look at the shape (the dramatic arc) of your research talk. Identify

speciﬁc moments when you can cross (a) to the projection screen, (b) to the

audience, or (c) back to the podium or desk.

2. Practice including this movement by following the instructions above. Allow

your peers to provide feedback regarding how natural and appropriate your

movements choices were.

8 Using Your Body

Entrances andExits: How toTake theStage

“Taking the stage” in the theater is the process of stepping in front of the audi-

ence and commanding attention (Howey, 2005). Even in a conference pre-

sentation you are participating in a theatrical ritual. People have gathered;

someone will come to the front and tell a story; those in the audience will

listen. e audience wants you to radiate condence and charisma as you

prepare to speak. at is why they have come. You can signal from the very

start of your presentation that you are prepared, condent, competent, and

excited to share what you have to say. We spoke earlier about the importance

of beginnings when you construct a story, as the beginning is where the audi-

ence decides whether or not your story is worth their time. What you may not

know is that the audience makes some decisions about you even before your

story begins. e evaluation of you as a speaker starts with your introduction,

not with the rst moment of your story. So it is important to get this pre-

beginning section right.

e rst step in making sure your entrance goes smoothly is to check your

equipment earlier in the day. It is important to manage the logistics of your

environment, as unnecessary fumbling or malfunctioning equipment can

undermine the impression of condence (Collins, 2011). is short

investment of time can make a big dierence between a strong rst impres-

sion and the sense that you are not sure of what you are doing. If you know

that your equipment is set up and ready to go, this will remove at least one

worry from your presentation and set you up for a successful beginning.

Often (but not always) you will be introduced to the audience before you

speak. is is an important moment in your presentation. e audience will

be scrutinizing you during your introduction, making small judgements

about your appearance and your condence level. is may sound intimidat-

ing, but it is inevitable. e good news is that you can control many aspects

of the impression you make so it is important to begin conveying condence

from the very rst moment. While you wait to move to the front of the room,

stand or sit tall and relaxed, nd a comfortable position for your hands, place

a light smile on your face, and keep your eyes xed on the speaker.

Once you have been introduced, you need to take the stage. is is another

important moment in your presentation. You are providing information to

the audience about what to expect, through your body language. e way you

approach the front of the room makes a dierence. Again, theatrical tradition

provides some insight. “When [actors] enter the room, the energy level rises.

You perk up, stop what you’re doing, and focus on them. You expect some-

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

thing interesting to happen” (Halpern & Lubar, 2004, p.1). You are the actor

in this scenario, and the audience will be watching to see if you convey pres-

ence. Stage presence is communicated through a combination of factors. First,

be sure that you are tall and relaxed (this is where the posture lesson comes

into play). Next, focus your gaze forward toward where you are going, not on

the oor. Look either at the person who introduced you or the place where

you will be speaking. is will motivate your movement and create the impres-

sion that you know exactly where you are going. As you walk, keep your facial

expression pleasant. Remember that a light smile conveys condence. e

tempo with which you move is also important. Your pace should be brisk and

purposeful, energized but unhurried (Dale Carnegie Training, 2011; Stone &

Bachner, 1994). A brisk pace is one that is slightly faster than a normal walk-

ing pace, but not so fast that you appear to be rushing. A simple approach to

the front of the room is actually a complex combination of messages that you

convey to your audience, all of which are under your control.

e moment you arrive on the stage and before you begin your talk is cru-

cial. Many public speaking experts agree that to convey condence and relax-

ation, once you reach the stage, do not immediately begin to speak. You have a

few options before you begin. If appropriate, shake the hand of the person

who introduced you (conveying warmth and openness), and thank that per-

son for the nice introduction (grace and charm). en move to the place

where you will begin your talk and make any nal adjustments to your equip-

ment. Once that is nished, take a breath, look up, and make eye contact with

your audience. All of this may take only 15s, but those 15s are important. By

taking your time, you create the impression that you have done this before,

that you have the situation under control, and that the audience is in good

hands for the next short period of time. e very rst moment of your talk

once you are settled is a moment of silence. A silent moment is a condent

moment. A silent moment allows your audience to relax and get ready to lis-

ten. A silent moment begins the process of anticipation and helps build ten-

sion. Do not immediately speak when you reach the stage. Take a moment

and allow the audience to settle their attention on you.

You should pay similar attention to your exit. After you have delivered your

compelling research story and have answered audience questions, you need to

exit gracefully. In the section on endings, we discussed how to signal the end

of your story and to encourage applause. As your beginning has a pre-

beginning (your entrance), your ending has a post-ending (your exit). ink

through how you will exit before you begin your presentation, perhaps during

the time you spend checking your equipment. What moves will you need to

8 Using Your Body

make? Do you need to take a computer or notes with you? Do you need to

return the lavalier? Do you need to log out of a software program in prepara-

tion for the next speaker? Ideally, you want to gather and return things as

quickly and smoothly as possible, and then condently leave the stage. e

movement rules of your exit are the same as your entrance. Move briskly and

condently using a pace slightly faster than normal but not hurried. Eyes are

forward and up looking toward your goal (the back of the room? the exit

door? a place where you will sit and listen to other speakers?). You should have

a light smile on your face whether or not you feel you did well. Leave the stage

with grace and pride and that is what your audience will remember about you.

ere are many aspects of a condent presentation, and the way you use

your body plays an important role. You can control some aspects of how

people view you. You can shape their perceptions of your competence, and

the message you choose to send about who you are as a speaker. Learning to

control your body language and the impression you make in public will help

you charm your audience, engage them in your subject, and persuade them

that what you have to say is worth their while.

Exercise 8.6 Entrances and Exits

1. One by one practice entering and preparing to say the ﬁrst line of your story.

Have another member of the group introduce you so that you can practice

this part of your pre-beginning. As you work, have the group give feedback

on the following:

(a) Was your demeanor relaxed and conﬁdent as you were being introduced?

Did you keep your eyes on the speaker?

(b) Was your approach to the podium brisk but unhurried? Were your eyes

up and forward? Did you smile as you entered?

check your equipment, take a breath, and make eye contact with the

audience?

(d) Finish the exercise by saying the ﬁrst line of your presentation.

2. Now practice your exit. Begin with the ﬁnal sentence of your story and then

move into your exit. Again, have the group check for the following.

(a) Did you smoothly negotiate the logistics of exiting (returning the mic,

disconnecting your laptop, etc.)?

(b) Was your walk brisk but unhurried? Were your eyes up and forward and

focused on where you were headed?

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

Part III

The Event

I. Cohen, M. Dreyer-Lude, Finding Your Research Voice,

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31520-7_9

Dealing withStage Fright

We are often asked about how to eliminate nervousness before delivering a

talk. Being nervous is common, even for seasoned performers. What profes-

sional speakers have learned is that nerves are a part of the job. A lack of ner-

vousness can create a sloppy or half-hearted presentation. at is because

nervousness is a form of energy, energy that you can harness and funnel into

your presentation. Nerves can be your ally. Nerves can sharpen your focus and

heighten your attention. Rather than resisting your feelings of nervousness,

consider reframing how you think about the butteries you feel before you

speak. ink of nerves as that extra punch that will add passion to your talk.

Shift your worry about your upcoming talk to a focus on the value of having

all of that extra energy. Speakers who appear to have more charisma on stage

have probably learned to channel their nerves into passion for their topic

(Howard & Tivnan, 2003).

It is also helpful to remember that nervousness often dissipates during your

talk. Once you have begun your well-prepared presentation, you can forget

about the frightening part of public speaking and focus on the message you

want to tell (Dale Carnegie Training, 2011). at is why professional speakers

spend the greatest part of their preparation time working on the rst few lines

of their presentation. ey know that starting a presentation well allows the

speaker to shift more quickly from a focus on nervousness to the telling of

the story.

In reframing your relationship to nervousness, it is also helpful to reframe

your relationship to your audience. ose who came to hear you speak did so

because they were interested in what you have to say. ey want you to shine,

to be compelling, to change their world view with your new discoveries

(Kushner, 2010). Audience members are usually on your side. Keep that in

mind as you step onto the stage to share your research.

One of the biggest reasons people become nervous about speaking in pub-

lic is the fear of making a mistake. It is the rare public presentation that does

not contain at least one mistake. Mistakes happen. You might bungle your

words, skip ahead in your slide presentation, forget to mention something

critical, or trip as you enter. ere are many grim possibilities and spending

time imagining them or worrying about them is time and energy wasted. e

audience is not usually that bothered by little mistakes. e only person who

really cares is you (Zeoli, 2008). Your audience can and will forgive any mis-

takes you make, as long you are willing to let them go and move on (Stone &

Bachner, 1994). If you make a mistake, get yourself back on track as quickly

as possible and continue with your presentation. If you forget it, they will

forget it. ey are not interested in focusing on small imperfections. What

interests them is hearing your story.

e number one antidote to extreme anxiety when giving a research talk is

preparation. It is the rare person who can “wing it” when speaking about

something important in public. Preparing a sensational research talk takes

time. You must start weeks ahead constructing and perfecting your story.

Once you have created an interesting story to tell, you must begin practicing

your presentation. You cannot do well if you have not adequately rehearsed

your talk (Meyers & Nix, 2011). We highly recommend recording your later

practice sessions so that you can see and assess your performance from an

objective point of view. Once you have polished your talk, nd opportunities

to present it to a practice audience and invite them to oer you feedback. If

possible, try to practice in an environment similar to the location where you

will be presenting. e closer you can come to recreating the actual presenta-

tion circumstances when you practice, the more comfortable you will feel

(Menzel & Carrell, 1994). Regardless of the tools you use to improve your

performance, ample time for practice is key. It can be challenging to nd the

time to practice. Every minute you prepare will be well worth the eort. Not

only will the nal product be more convincing, it will be more fun to present

your research, and you will naturally feel more condent while delivering

your message.

Mentally preparing for your presentation is another helpful antidote to anxiety.

ere are a variety of techniques you can use to get your mind settled and ready

to go (Fig. 9.1). Belly breathing and the tension/relaxation method can help you

settle before your presentation. Belly breathing is the process of sitting in a chair

and allowing your breathing to slow and deepen so that you are breathing more

from your belly than from your chest. e tension/relaxation method involves

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

isolating specic muscle groups, deliberately tensing them, holding that tension

for a moment, and then letting the tension go as you completely relax that part of

your body. Even closing your eyes and counting down from 10 is an eective

method for reminding your body that this is not a ght or ight situation.

Another great way to prepare is to spend time imagining yourself succeed-

ing. Called Creative Visualization (Gawain, 2016), some athletes use this

technique before a game to improve their performance (Newmark, 2012).

e following exercises can help you mentally prepare for your talk on the day

you will be presenting:

Exercise 9.1 Belly Breathing

1. Sit in a chair, preferably in a quiet place (although this is not required).

2. Check your posture and make sure you are sitting tall but relaxed. Do not let

yourself collapse into the back of the chair. A proper posture will help open

the channels of your breathing.

3. Release and relax the muscles of your behind, allowing them to melt into the

chair, but keep your pelvis in its neutral position (neither tipped forward nor

back).

4. Place your hand on your belly. Notice your breath.

5. Using your thoughts and a release of muscles, let the breath drop down into

your pelvis as you breathe. You should begin to feel the hand on your belly

moving up and down. You might also feel your back grazing the back of the

chair as your torso inﬂates. These are all good signs.

6. Give yourself at least 20 nice, slow belly breaths before returning to normal

breathing.

Fig. 9.1 Learning to relax before a presentation

9 Dealing withStage Fright

Exercise 9.2 Tighten and Release

1. You may do this sitting in a chair, standing, or lying down. A quiet place is

preferable but again not required.

2. Check your posture and apply proper alignment.

3. Move through your major muscles groups one by one, ﬁrst tensing that mus-

cle group as hard as possible, holding that tension for a moment, and then

releasing that muscle group completely. For example, you could begin with

all of the muscles in your right leg, then your left leg, then your pelvis, then

your back, etc.

4. It can be tricky to do this without tensing other collections of muscles. Do

your best to isolate the group you are tensing and to release any group that

does not belong.

5. When you release, imagine the muscles melting away in relief—giving up the

tension all at once.

Exercise 9.3 Creative Visualization

1. A few days prior to your talk, ﬁnd a quiet space and either sit or lie down in

a comfortable position.

2. Begin to imagine the process of giving your talk. Play the entire movie from

introduction to exit.

3. Play the movie from an outsider’s point of view, as though you are an audi-

ence member watching yourself present.

4. Now play the movie again from an insider’s point of view, relishing the

conﬁdence and ﬁnesse that you are naturally presenting to an admiring

crowd.

5. Make sure that your movie is positive and successful. This is not the time for

morbid worrying. In these movies, everything goes perfectly.

6. Consider doing this exercise daily for one week before you present.

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

Creative Visualization involves practicing a mental movie of your talk:

Imagine yourself stepping condently to the front of the room. Everything is per-

fectly prepared. Your equipment functions beautifully (because you checked it prior

to the event). You begin with a bang; the audience is mesmerized. Your voice is

open, resonant, and everyone can hear you. You make eye contact with the entire

room, including a smile when appropriate, adjusting your delivery tempo to punc-

tuate the important moments in your talk. When you reach the nal lines of your

presentation, you hold for a moment, and then button the talk with a condent

“ank you!” triggering enthusiastic applause. You answer follow-up questions

with lucidity, clearly demonstrating your expertise. en you gather your things

and leave the stage with grace, your head held high. Mentally imagining your

victory can prime you for success. If Creative Visualization does not work for

you, we recommend just faking it. Pretend to be calm and condent before,

during, and after your presentation. “It doesn’t really matter how nervous you

are—as long as you appear calm” (Kushner, 2010, p.124).

It might be helpful to place your preparation process on a timeline. Here is

an example that you can adjust to meet your needs.

Six week preparation timeline

Week 1 • Sketch out the primary ideas for the talk

• Establish your core message

• Determine what images will anchor your talk

Week 2 • Determine the shape of the story or dramatic arc

• Fill in the details and establish how you will create tension and

resolution

• Find a terriﬁc beginning

Week 3 • Determine how to make a strong ending

• Find moments of humor or surprise

Week 4 • Say your talk out loud at least three times without timing it

• Make adjustments to your story and the visual aids as appropriate

Week 5 • Practice at least three times to get a sense of the performance of

the talk.

• Record your practice sessions and give yourself notes

• Go live with your research talk by practicing on your own or in

front of colleagues

• Take notes from them and make adjustments

9 Dealing withStage Fright

Week 6 • Practice your talk at least three times in costume with all props

• Identify where you will move and how

• Include the equipment check and the entrance in these three

rehearsals

• Practice your talk in full ﬁve times

Presentation

day

• Check your equipment ahead of time

• Find a place to relax and mentally prepare

• Present what you have practiced and allow yourself to shine

• If you make a mistake or two, learn from them and let them go

• Focus on your accomplishments. You worked hard and prepared well

• Celebrate after your talk!

As you prepare your research talk, remember that stage fright is your friend.

Allow those nerves to provide some extra energy for your performance. Believe

that you can do this and you will give a stunning presentation. You have done

your homework: You have fully prepared and rehearsed your talk, you have

checked your equipment, you are dressed appropriately, and you know your

subject well. You are the world’s expert on this particular topic. You know

more about the content of your research talk than anyone in the room. So put

on a brave face with a light smile and pretend the audience does not scare you.

Remember they are just people. People have voluntarily come to hear you

speak. ey want you to do well. If you have prepared properly, you will.

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

I. Cohen, M. Dreyer-Lude, Finding Your Research Voice,

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31520-7_10

How toHandle Questions

Most research talks provide time for a question and answer period once the

talk has nished. For some speakers, this can be the most terrifying part of the

presentation. Even if you would prefer not to take questions, it is important

to save time for a question and answer session at the end of your talk if the

venue in which you are presenting expects it. ink of a question and answer

session as another opportunity to connect with your audience rather than a

situation in which you will have to parry an attack. Most viewers who ask

questions will be genuinely curious about something you have presented.

Questions are a sign that you have sparked interest. Answering these questions

allows you to further enhance your credibility as an expert on your particular

research topic.

A typical question and answer session is between ten and twenty percent of

your entire speaking time. You may need to reduce the content of your talk in

order to accommodate questions within the time allotted for your presenta-

tion. Timing your question and answer session properly creates an impression

of control. Staying in control will contribute to a perception of condence,

something that will assist you should you encounter a challenging question.

If you are concerned about your performance during the question and

answer session, it might help to prepare by creating a collection of test ques-

tions ahead of time. You will not necessarily know which questions will be

asked once you present, but even the process of anticipating questions can

help you mentally prepare for the questions you will receive. Another way to

prepare yourself would be to include a question and answer session during the

practice sessions you present to peers. You can provide test questions to the

colleagues who are helping you prepare, or allow them to construct their own.

You could also give this pretend audience various roles to play as dicult

audience members, helping you learn to negotiate challenging questions.

Participating in a question and answer session is a form of performance.

ere are some protocols and recommended best practices when answering

questions in a formal situation.

Standard Question and Answer Protocol

1. When taking a question, give the speaker your full attention. Do not let

yourself become distracted. Look the speaker in the eye and listen carefully.

e audience is watching how you handle this moment.

2. Listen carefully to the speaker to make sure you are hearing what is

being asked.

3. ank the speaker for asking the question either by nodding in acknowl-

edgment or by using one of the following scripts: “anks for asking that

question.” “at’s a great question.” “at’s an interesting question.” “I’m

so glad you asked that question.” Any script will do as long as it acknowl-

edges the speaker in a positive way.

4. Repeat the question back to the speaker to be sure you have heard it cor-

rectly. “What I heard you ask is…” “You seem to be interested in more

information about…” is is both respectful and can save time, as it will

prevent you from answering a question that was not asked.

5. Answer the question to the best of your ability. Direct the answer to the

speaker who asked the question, but be sure to look around and include

the entire audience as well (Dale Carnegie Training, 2011). If you nd

yourself getting into an extended discussion with just one person and are

leaving the rest of the audience behind, cut the discussion short and sug-

gest meeting after the talk to continue the conversation.

6. Verify that you answered the question asked: “Does that answer your ques-

tion?” e Dale Carnegie Institute training (2011) refers to this step as the

“bridge” as it assists with a smooth transition from one question to the next.

Exercise 10.1 Preparing for a Question and Answer Session

1. Write a list of several questions that an audience member might ask about your

research. Include a range of possibilities. Choose easy and difﬁcult questions.

Include questions that interrogate a data set or graph in your presentation.

Include questions that challenge your hypothesis or indicate someone has already

answered it. Include a question that asks about next steps in your research.

2. Now answer each of those questions verbally, practicing until you feel you

have found a smooth and concise answer to each.

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

In our experience the place where the question and answer session typically

goes wrong is in step number 4, which requires determining the actual ques-

tion. e following improvisation exercise will help you really listen to what

is said and learn to build a logical response from that information.

Exercise 10.2 So What You Are Saying Is…So I’ll…

1. Stand in a circle, or across from a partner if there are only two of you.

2. One person begins with a statement. Anything will do. Perhaps he or she

begins with: “I’m feeling a little bit hungry.”

3. The next person repeats what that person said precisely, beginning with the

name of the game. Like this: “So what you are saying is that you’re feeling a

little bit hungry. So I’ll order lunch for us at the pizzeria.”

4. The next person takes the most recent addition to this narrative and adds to

it something of their own: “So what you are saying is you’ll order lunch for us

at the pizzeria, so I’ll call and make sure they have a table.” And the next

person: “So what you are saying is you’ll call and see if they have a table for

us, so I’ll go and put on my shoes.”

5. Listen carefully and repeat what you hear. Try and make sure that your addi-

tion to the narrative is logical and not a random statement. Others in the

group can help guide these efforts.

Exercise 10.3 Practicing a Research Talk Question and Answer Session

1. If possible, gather several colleagues for a practice presentation session and

include a question and answer session at the end. If you encounter a question

that you were not expecting, prepare an answer for next time. Chances are

that if one person had a question about a particular part of your presentation

others will, too. If you can modify a future version of your talk to address that

question, do so.

2. Consider asking your colleagues to play the role of a difﬁcult questioner.

Possibilities include:

• A hostile questioner who asks something that challenges your credibility.

For example, “Wasn’t all this done by professor so-and-so 10 years ago?”

• A long-winded questioner who wants to make a speech more than ask a

question. In this case, try out some ways for respectfully interrupting the

speaker. For example, “I’m sorry, but I seem to have missed your question.”

• A dominating questioner who insists on asking several questions in a row.

Here, you might call on another questioner who has their hand up before

the next question is asked.

3. During your actual presentation, you may ﬁnd other points in the question

and answer session during which you get stuck. Try to come up with an exer-

cise for your next practice session that tackles these new issues.

10 How toHandle Questions

ere may be times giving a research talk when you have fully prepared,

you are following proper protocol when taking questions, and things still

seem to go awry. Below we list some last-resort strategies for handling dicult

situations during such a session.

Tips for Handling Dicult Situations

1. Aggressive or critical questions: Individuals who present aggressive behavior

may be looking for a ght. is may or may not be personal. e easiest

way to diuse this impulse is to nd a way to agree with the individual

(Meyers & Nix, 2011). For example: Individual: “Isn’t your research just a

rehash of X’s investigation of Y?” You: “anks for asking that question. I

do agree that what I’m doing could be perceived as a reexamination of

already existing data. What’s signicant and unique about my work

here is…”

2. When you don’t know the answer: “I’d like to think about that a bit more

before I answer it. Could you and I talk afterwards?” (en, make sure to

have the answer for next time!)

3. When you disagree with the questioner: “I appreciate your position on the

issue. Perhaps you and I could discuss it in more detail later on.”

4. Someone seems to know a lot about your topic: “You seem to know a lot about

this subject. Perhaps you and I can compare notes after my talk is over.”

5. In any dicult situation maintain your cool. Stay in control, keep a pleas-

ant smile on your face, and do not let them upset you. Remember that

most of the audience (perhaps all but one) is on your side.

We have provided a collection of best practices for question and answer

sessions in this chapter. ere are also behaviors you should avoid in order to

have a successful question and answer session. Here are some recommenda-

tions for what not to do.

ings to Keep in Mind During a Question and Answer Session

1. Don’t interrupt the speaker asking the question unless this person is making

a speech (Dale Carnegie Training, 2011). You may think you understand

what is being asked and are ready to answer long before the speaker has

fully articulated the question. It is bad manners to interrupt unnecessarily,

and you could be wrong. Be sure to check and make sure that you have

understood the question properly.

2. Make sure you answer the question that was asked rather than the question

that you wish had been asked (Dale Carnegie Training, 2011). Checking

before you answer and once again when you have nished answering will

help make sure you have answered their question rather than your own.

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

3. If you do not know the answer to the question just say you do not know.

Even experts encounter moments when an audience member has asked

something outside of their area of expertise (Collins, 2011). Not having all

of the answers is perfectly all right if you handle it with grace. Express

interest in knowing the answer yourself, and oer to research the answer

and get back to them. at creates a win for both parties. You can reframe

the situation when you encounter a question you cannot answer. “at’s a

really interesting question. We might be able to answer it by doing such

and such experiments in the next phase of our research. anks for the

suggestion.”

4. Sometimes questioners are just mean. Try not to take it personally

(PowerSpeaking, 2016) or get defensive. If they succeed in upsetting you,

they win. If you maintain your dignity and gracefully deect the question,

you win. e audience will not appreciate watching someone attack you.

If you handle the situation well, the person asking the hostile question will

lose face and you will gain respect.

Answering questions is a bit of an art. Like the improvisation exercises in

this book, it requires thinking on your feet and it gets easier with practice.

Eventually, this part of the talk may become the most enjoyable as the audi-

ence reects back to you how well you presented your research and how

engaged they are in your discoveries.

10 How toHandle Questions

I. Cohen, M. Dreyer-Lude, Finding Your Research Voice,

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31520-7_11

Game Day

It is the day for the main event. You have important research to share and you

have carefully prepared your research talk. Make this moment count. Get

enough sleep the night before to make sure you are physically prepared. Dress

nicely. It is always better to be overdressed than underdressed. Wearing nice

clothes will help you feel condent and will convey respect for the audience.

Finally, build yourself up emotionally. Be your own coach. You have been

practicing your talk, perfecting your slides, and honing your performance

skills. You have got this.

Here are some additional things to consider as you get ready to present

your research.

Before You Arrive at the Site

• Make at least one backup copy of your slide show. You may want to bring

your slides in multiple formats (in the Cloud, on a thumb drive, on your

laptop). Having multiple copies will help put your mind at ease, should

you encounter obstacles on site.

• Pack an extra outt to wear. If your best outt becomes stained or marred

in travel, having a backup will make a dierence. If you will be ying to the

presentation site and you have a tight connection, wear your presentation

clothes on the airplane. If your luggage is lost or delayed, you will still be

well-dressed for the event.

• Remember to pack your power cords, your thumb drive, your media adapt-

ers (dongles), and your laser pointer/clicker. Although the organizers of

your talk may have these supplies on site, it is always best to bring your

own as a backup.

100

On the Day of Your Presentation

• If possible, visit the room where you will present several hours before your

presentation time. Get a sense of the size and architecture of the space.

Examine the audio-visual support you will use and take a good look at the

microphone. Even doing this from a distance as you watch another speaker

present in your space will help prepare you mentally.

• Arrive at least 30min early for your presentation. If possible, nd a quiet

space to focus and relax before you present.

• When you are introduced, stand condently and smile. Head to the front

with a bounce in your step. Pause for a moment before you begin and take

the audience in.

• Now present what you have rehearsed, forget about small mistakes, and

enjoy sharing what you know with your colleagues.

• If possible, have a colleague record your presentation so that you can watch

it at a later date.

After Your Presentation

• Smile and exit with your head held high.

• Try to stick around right after your talk in case someone wants to nd you

and ask further questions.

• If someone congratulates you on your talk, thank them. Do not be self-

eacing or falsely modest. Even if you feel like you could have done better,

the audience may have thought your talk was terric.

It is best not to reect on the details of your performance right away. It is

hard to be objective right after a presentation: small mistakes become larger

than life; big victories seem life changing. You can be more objective later,

when the emotion of the event has dissipated. If you asked a colleague to

record your performance, watch it several days after your presentation and

objectively assess what worked and what did not. Remember that developing

any skill takes time and practice. ere is no such thing as a perfect talk. Each

time we give a presentation is an opportunity to try out slight improvements.

Master speakers may present the same talk 50 times before it is perfected. So

be patient with yourself and acknowledge the improvements you make with

each iteration.

Once your talk is over, it is time to celebrate by having dinner with friends

or watching a movie. e celebration is an equally important part of the

ritual. If you are giving a departmental seminar, this celebration may include

a dinner or reception. After a conference talk, you should take the lead in

planning your own celebration and go and have some fun. You have worked

hard to construct your talk, and this eort needs to be acknowledged.

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

101

I. Cohen, M. Dreyer-Lude, Finding Your Research Voice,

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31520-7_12

Conclusion

Becoming an expert public speaker is possible for anyone who is willing to put

in the time and eort. If you have followed the advice in this book, you will

probably have worked harder than you ever imagined to turn your own pre-

sentation into a clear, engaging, and entertaining performance. As your pre-

sentations improve, you will discover that the eort is well worth the reward.

Remember that there is no one way to give a good talk. What we have pro-

vided in this book is a set of exercises that will help guide you in turning your

presentation into an engaging talk. is is just a beginning. We hope that as

you improve in your presentation skills, the exercises here will become even

more useful. As time goes on you may modify these exercises or even develop

new ones that help perfect your best practices.

roughout this book, we have encouraged you to break out of your com-

fort zone. It is easy to be ordinary when giving a research talk. You will see

ordinary talks everywhere you go. e exercises in this book have been about

teaching you to be extraordinary. To be exceptional, you must engage your

imagination, develop some creative tactics to grab your audience’s attention,

and then take the risk of including those ideas in your presentation. Taking a

risk in the creation of your talk and the presentation of your performance

means that you might fail. You might tell a bad joke, try an exciting reveal that

zzles, or present a story that does not engage. But by risking these moments,

you will learn what works and what does not, and you will adjust your choices

accordingly. Chances are your audience will appreciate the fact that you are

trying to provide something unexpected and interesting. You may nd that

risk-taking oers its own emotional reward as it can be exhilarating to take a

chance when giving a talk, particularly when the risk pays o.

102

Giving a great talk to a fully engaged audience is thrilling. Once you experi-

ence the power to make them laugh on cue or get them to feel the things you

want them to feel, you will nd yourself inspired to continue to improve your

presentation skills. As these skills mature and your ability to express your ideas

ourishes, you will get a small taste of what makes being an actor so intoxicat-

ing… but that is another book.

I. Cohen and M. Dreyer-Lude

103

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