Print Email Font A A

Communication Skills

Up to Essential Skills

Tips on giving great presentations and writing great papers.

How to write a great research paper
Great advice from Simon Peyton Jones at Microsoft Research.
PLoS Computational Biology: Ten Simple Rules for a Good Poster Presentation
"Posters are a key component of communicating your science and an important element in a successful scientific career. Posters, while delivering the same high-quality science, offer a different medium from either oral presentations [1] or published papers [2], and should be treated accordingly. Posters should be considered a snapshot of your work intended to engage colleagues in a dialog about the work, or, if you are not present, to be a summary that will encourage the reader to want to learn more. Many a lifelong collaboration [3] has begun in front of a poster board. Here are ten simple rules for maximizing the return on the time-consuming process of preparing and presenting an effective poster."
Giving a Talk: Guidelines for the Preparation and Presentation of Technical Seminars
by Frank R. Kschischang. "These notes are a collection of a few simple guidelines for preparing and delivering a 'talk.' The basic principles are applicable in defence of your thesis, at conferences, in giving research progress reports and the like."
PLoS Computational Biology: Ten Simple Rules for Making Good Oral Presentations
"Continuing our “Ten Simple Rules” series [1–5], we consider here what it takes to make a good oral presentation. While the rules apply broadly across disciplines, they are certainly important from the perspective of this readership. Clear and logical delivery of your ideas and scientific results is an important component of a successful scientific career. Presentations encourage broader dissemination of your work and highlight work that may not receive attention in written form."
How to Give a Talk
by James Allan. "The purpose of this page is to present some ideas about presentation style. These are all surface issues and do not address the actual content of your talk (because it is, of course, spectacular)."
Communication Styles
by Search Masters International recruiter Dave Jensen. "Your ability to understand the chemistry at work in relationships with your colleagues will allow you to make the slight change of approach that might be necessary for good communication."
How to Give a Talk: Changing the Culture of Academic Public Speaking
"On behalf of bored audiences everywhere, I wrote this essay to promote good public speaking."
Oral Presentation Skills
by Search Masters International Recruiter Dave Jensen. "Speaking before an audience offers a great opportunity to convey your thoughts; to teach, to convince, to enlighten. The skills required here are basically the same regardless of whether you are delivering a research paper to several hundred scientists at a national meeting, or presenting your proposed budget to a small group of senior executives. Oral presentation skills are one of the best "career enhancers" that you can add to your collection of marketable qualities. Because of this, we'd like to offer you a collection of ideas on how to improve your personal presentation style and effectiveness in front of a group."
Advice on Research and Writing
A collection of advice about how to do research and how to communicate effectively (primarily for computer scientists).
How to Do a Good PowerPoint Lecture
Great suggestions from Chad Orzel's Uncertain Principles blog.
Career Advice: Advice for Grad Students, part II - Inside Higher Ed
Stephen C. Stearns outlines writing issues facing those in doctoral programs.
Rules for a perfect math job talk
by Eugene Lerman at UIUC. Useful advice on how to give a successful job talk at a research university.
Giving a Job Talk in the Sciences
"As a doctoral student or postdoc seeking a professorship, your academic job talk may well be the most important presentation you will ever give. An excellent talk can get you the job, while a poor one will almost surely eliminate you from contention."
How to Write More Clearly, Think More Clearly, and Learn Complex Material More Easily
by Michael A. Covington, University of Georgia
Giving a Talk
"Giving a talk is more difficult that it seems. Especially when your talk is about a high-level computing science subject. There are syntactical as well as semantical forms to be observed, and these might differ per environment. Timing is an issue, and keeping the audience attention is too. Being a computing scientist, it is probable that you will be asked to give a (large) number of talks during your career. As these talks have some points in common, we will focus on those points."
Giving a Kick Ass Presentation
Great tips from the organizers of PubCon
How to report scientific research to a general audience
Tips from Cognitive Daily
The All-Important Research Talk: Learning How to Do It Better
by Alka Agrawal, Science's Next Wave. "Few people like to get up in front of a room full of people and speak. In fact, surveys have shown that people fear public speaking more than death, which leads comedian Jerry Seinfeld to quip that the average person at a funeral would be better off in the casket than giving the eulogy."
How I made my presentations a little better
Great tips from 43 Folders.
Armando's Paper Writing Page
Great tips on writing effective papers and on how to review papers.
Preparing Scientific Illustrations: A Guide to Better Posters, Presentations, and Publications
by Mary Helen Briscoe. "Mary Helen Briscoe has done every speaker, conference goer and publisher a tremendous service by providing this readable manual on how to visually present scientific information. This book should be on the shelf of every educator, researcher, lab and library. It should also be required reading for any new scientist giving a paper, presenting a poster or submitting an article." -- Journal of Chemical Information and Computer Science