Preparing speaker’s notes and
practicing your talk
Jane E. Miller, PhD
The Chicago Guide to Writing about Numbers, 2nd edition.
Overview
• Review of slide design considerations
• Speaker’s notes
• Practicing a talk
The Chicago Guide to Writing about Numbers, 2nd edition.
Preparing your talk
• Even if you are a confident extemporaneous
speaker, you must prepare.
– Visual materials
• Prepare slides (see podcast on designing slides).
– Oral explanation of visual materials
• Prepare notes to coordinate with slides.
– Delivery
• Practice timing.
– Too long? Too short?
• Check clarity with a guinea pig audience.
The Chicago Guide to Writing about Numbers, 2nd edition.
Review: Design considerations
• Average of about 1 slide per minute of
allotted time for your talk
– Fewer slides if they are
• Complicated charts or tables
• Involve anecdotes or quotations
• Succinct text
• Simple, clear charts or tables
The Chicago Guide to Writing about Numbers, 2nd edition.
Reasons to use speaker’s notes
• Flesh out material on the slides:
– Remind you of full sentences
– Provide illustrative anecdotes
• Prompt about aspects of tables or charts to
emphasize.
• Keep you on time.
• Remind you not to just read the slides .
The Chicago Guide to Writing about Numbers, 2nd edition.
Where to put speaker’s notes
• In PowerPoint, can type them into the “notes
page”
• Either view them on split screen (if technology
supports it).
• OR print notes out hardcopy to use as you
present the slides.
– Print notes out with large type (~14 point), so you
can read them!
The Chicago Guide to Writing about Numbers, 2nd edition.
Screen shot of speaker’s notes view
• Here is the “notes view”
for one of the slides
earlier in this
presentation.
– Top panel shows the slide
as it will be projected onto
the room screen.
– Bottom panel shows the
text box you will be able to
see on the computer
screen.
The Chicago Guide to Writing about Numbers, 2nd edition.
Contents of speaker’s notes
• Introductory sentence for slide. Either:
– Paraphrase title,
– Restate title as a rhetorical question.
• “Vanna White” if needed to:
– Describe a chart or table.
– Coordinate with handouts.
• Summary sentence if slide covered a lot of info
• Transition sentence to next slide
– Explain where slide fits in the overall analysis.
The Chicago Guide to Writing about Numbers, 2nd edition.
Speaker’s notes: Length
• If your notes are longer than will fit with 14
point type, you are probably trying to say too
much about that one slide!
• Split material across more slides
• Or cut some of what you were going to say
The Chicago Guide to Writing about Numbers, 2nd edition.
Wording of speaker’s notes
• Paraphrase information on your slide into
complete sentences.
• Write in the first person.
• E.g., if your slide shows
– 1988–1994
– US
– Sample of infants (N=9,813)
• You could say:
– “We study a random sample of about 98 hundred infants
born in the United States between 1988 and 1994.”
The Chicago Guide to Writing about Numbers, 2nd edition.
Rehearsal
• First, practice talk alone, using your slides
and speaker’s notes.
– Check timing, especially for short talks.
– Check sequencing of topics.
– Evaluate slide layout and contents.
– Evaluate speaker’s notes.
– Practice coordinating “Vanna White” motions
and script.
• Make adjustments to slides and notes.
• Practice again.
The Chicago Guide to Writing about Numbers, 2nd edition.
Rehearsal with test audience
• Enlist a guinea pig audience if you will be
presenting
– To a new type of audience for you
• Interdisciplinary audience
• Applied or lay audience
– About a method you haven’t explained before
• Your test audience should ideally have
training and interests similar to those in your
intended audience
The Chicago Guide to Writing about Numbers, 2nd edition.
Points to evaluate
•
•
•
•
•
Logical story line
Should be familiar to
Vocabulary and metaphors
audience.
Types of charts and tables
Relative depth and emphasis of different sections
Whether questions you ask and answer fit that
audience’s interests:
– Implications of study for
• Policy
• Practice
• Research
The Chicago Guide to Writing about Numbers, 2nd edition.
Summary
• Prepare speaker’s notes to:
– Coordinate with your slides,
– Cover the needed content,
– Explain layout of diagrams,
– Help you stay within allotted time.
• Practice presenting, check
– Time,
– Order of material,
– Clarity of definitions, examples.
The Chicago Guide to Writing about Numbers, 2nd edition.
Suggested resources
• Chapter 12 in Miller, J. E. 2015. The Chicago
Guide to Writing about Numbers, 2nd Edition.
The Chicago Guide to Writing about Numbers, 2nd edition.
Suggested online materials
• Podcasts on
– Designing effective slides
– Explaining a chart or table live: The “Vanna White
technique”
– Comparison of paper, speech, and poster
The Chicago Guide to Writing about Numbers, 2nd edition.
Suggested practice exercises
• Study guide to The Chicago Guide to Writing
about Numbers, 2nd Edition.
– Questions #2 and 4 in the problem set for chapter 12
– Suggested course extensions for chapter 12
• “Reviewing” exercises 1 parts g, i, j, and m
• “Writing” exercises #4 and 5
• “Revising” exercise #4
The Chicago Guide to Writing about Numbers, 2nd edition.
Contact information
Jane E. Miller, PhD
jmiller@ifh.rutgers.edu
Online materials available at
http://press.uchicago.edu/books/miller/numbers/index.html
The Chicago Guide to Writing about Numbers, 2nd edition.