Super Speaking -- Tricks of the Trade
School of Computing
National University of Singapore
COM1 Level 2
SR1, COM1-02-06
closeAbstract:
Most of us in academia are engaged in this typical sequence of activities: (a) do research; (b) write a report/paper about it; (c) give an oral presentation. While many of us are good at research skills (a), and can write reasonable well (b), we are less confident in speaking about it (c). Indeed, presenting our work in front of an audience often causes knees to wobble and stomachs to cramp. It gets worse when we realize, halfway through the talk, that the audience is getting restless or bored because they are not understanding our message.
In this talk, I will share some techniques that will improve the intelligibility of our technical presentations. I learned many of these "tricks of the trade" in school -- the School of Hard Knocks. Others I picked up by observing the habits of good speakers; still others from the wise counsel of my seniors. While I cannot guarantee to take away the nervousness when you give a talk, I can certainly offer practical tips that will hopefully improve the clarity of your communication. At the very least, you can get a kick out of seeing whether I practice what I preach.
Biodata:
Dr. Terence Sim is an Associate Professor at the NUS School of Computing. His research is in biometrics and computational photography. He also has a passion for sharing ideas on how to speak and write well. Over the years, Dr. Sim has coached students in writing technical papers, and giving research talks. He also actively strives to improve his own speaking and writing, learning from peers and master speakers.