Got any advice for people giving talks?
Write out your talk before giving it, and practice it at least once on your own while timing yourself. This is a must. You’ll be surprised how much content you need to talk for an hour. Bring a printed copy with you. You shouldn’t read straight from it, but you’ll need it there to remind you of what you have to say and the order you wanted to say it in. Use a font that you can read from three feet away. Use all capitals for quotes, and use a bold font to highlight two or three key words in each paragraph so that you can quickly find where you are when you glance at it. Try to obtain recordings of any talks you do. Your mistakes will be very obvious and usually correctable. Find audio recordings of speeches other people have given on similar topcis. Copy some of their words, especially their examples and jokes. Check the Information Resources section of my homepage, and listen to as many recordings as you can. No matter what topic you will be speaking about, it’s worth listening to reco
