Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Organization
A crucial difference between a talk and a paper is that talks are inherently linear.
A reader can move back and forth in a paper and has the leisure of putting the paper
aside for a time; but in a talk the audience must learn at the speaker's pace and cannot
refer to material that was presented earlier on. Talks must be designed within this
constraint. A standard structure is of a sequence of steps leading the audience to the
single main point.
Broadly, a typical talk is structured around the following components:
Motivation . Reviews the topic or problem, sets the context, and creates interest in
the work.
Overview or goals . Explains where the talk is going, perhaps by presenting the
structure, or, perhaps, by indicating what an attentive listener will learn.
Background . Reviews the state of the art, and achievements, highlights, and limi-
tations of current work.
Contribution . Discussion of what is proposed, how to understand it, and how to
appreciate its value.
Evaluation . The observations, experiments, demonstrations, and proofs—and their
limitations—that support the claims made about the work.
Conclusions . What the audience should have learnt, and what the results imply for
future work.
In other words, the organization of a talk is much like that of a paper. However,
the structure of a talk is more fluid, and in some cases may be very different to the
template given above. For example, a talk given early in a research project might focus
on problems or difficulties rather than evaluation, with no contribution to discuss.
The typical structure does have potential pitfalls. In particular, take care to ensure
that the relevance of the background is obvious. You will lose the audience's attention
if they are wonderingwhy you are discussing an apparently unrelated topic.Whatever
the structure, ensure that all topics are relevant and follow an obvious sequence.
For the audience to follow the flow of argument in a talk, they need to understand
its logical structure. The preview-do-review strategy is highly effective. That is, use
backward and forward references (“I previously showed you that…”, “I will shortly
demonstrate that…but first I must explain…”) to show how the current topic relates
to rest of the talk. At changes of topic, summarize what should have been learnt by
the audience and explain the role of the new topic in the talk overall. Distinguish
between material that the audience must know to understand the main point and
material that is minor or incidental. If you skip important detail, say so.
Getting the timing right, particularly for a short talk, can be difficult. Somehow
the pace is never quite as you expect. It helps if your talk is designed so that there is
material towards the end that can be skipped without breaking continuity, or included
seamlessly if time permits. An effective strategy is to use repetition to emphasize
major points: present a second example, or explain the impact of the work in several
 
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