Presentation Skills for Scientists: A Practical Guide

Presentation Skill for Scientists offers a quick introduction to public speaking geared toward scientists with little or no presentation experience. Ultimately, it is a great place to start for help with presentations. The presentation of scientific knowledge and research is an important part of a researcher’s career, yet scientists are rarely offered instruction on how to present their material. In contrast with other books and materials focused on general presentation skills, this book is entirely concentrated on the presentation of scientific material by an expert. The chapters are arranged in the order in which they should be considered when preparing a presentation, starting with “Audience” and “Planning the Talk,” and finishing with “Handling Questions” and “How Did It Go?” This organization scheme gives a logical flow to the material. The chapters are short, but the authors do suggest additional resources at the end of the book if the reader is interested in more detail. Each chapter begins with a short overview of that chapter’s material. Subtitles break the text down into succinct sections, and boxes inserted into the text contain key points. The authors add presenters’ or audience members’ anecdotes to emphasize the points made in each chapter. Throughout the book, they offer specific solutions to problems presenters might encounter. For example, in the chapter titled “Controlling Nerves,” they list typical signs of nervousness, such as excessive hand movement, and offer solutions to hide those, such as focusing on keeping your hands loosely at your sides. “DVD-ROM” boxes inserted next to relevant topics within the text tell the reader when to refer to the DVD-ROM that accompanies the book. The DVD material provides visual examples of ways to design slides, an example talk broken down with examples of “do’s” and “do not’s,” and exercises for controlling nerves and enhancing delivery of the talk, for example, enunciation exercises. The examples of wrong ways to deliver a talk can be painful to watch, but being able to see the problems discussed in the text makes the reader more aware of how distracting these problems are during a presentation. Presentation Skills for Scientists is not intended for experienced presenters. But for new presenters or those seeking ways to improve their talks, this book provides a great introduction. And at only 66 pages, it’s difficult not to read it cover-to-cover.