Colloquium Talks

What makes a professional colloquium talk? Do's and Don'ts

Your colloquium talks are your chance to show off what you have done! Every SoLS grad student will present once every academic year. So remember, your audience hasn't seen it in a year! Make sure to hit all of the key points: background, hypothesis, data, conclusion, future directions. General flow of your presentation should look like:

1. Give background summary of your research

2. Introduce your project and hypothesis

3. Give logical reasoning for approach to test hypothesis

4. Brief methods section, focus on data (walk the audience through each figure!)

5. Remind audience of the hypothesis and how the data supports/does not support it.

6. List future objectives for the coming year.

7. Thank your committee and anyone who helped with the research.

Do's

• Practice before your scheduled talk

• Use a laser pointer

• Dress professionally

• Bring water

• Show up early to load your talk onto the computer

• Don't be afraid to say IDK to questions at the end

Don'ts

• Don't have a bad attitude

• Don't have too many words on slides. The audience doesn't want to read paragraphs. Use Figures!

• Don't point with your hand. A laser pointer is much better