How to speak by Patrick Winston

Today I attended Professor Patrick Winston's popular lecture on How to Speak. The lecture theater was packed and people had to sit on the floor including me, but it is really an awesome lecture. Here's the notes on the lecture.

Success = f(Knowledge, Practice, Talent)

• How to start
• Don't start with a joke because people may not have started paying attention yet and it will probably fall flat.
• Start with a menu (agenda) of what you are going to cover.
• Even better, start with a promise (what the audience will get by the end of the talk).
• Big 4 (heuristics of giving a good talk)
• Cycle: repeat the important point several times, and with more details every time.
• Fence: fence your idea by showing how it is different from others.
• Punctuation: use verbal punctuation.
• Question
• Tools
• Time & place
• 11am is a good time to give a talk. 
• Become familiar with the place and choose a room that can be comfortably full if you can.
• Board: 
• using the board can help you control the speed, and it automatically slows you down.
• Use the board to draw.
• Use it as a target to point at.
• Projections
• Do not read the slides and use fewer words.
• Be in the image
• Use simple image
• Use > 30pt
• Laser point is a bad idea
• Props
• Special cases
• Oral exams
• Don't apologize if you don't know something. 
• Confess instead
• People who fail usually because they fail to situate in time, space and field.
• Show your hand: situate your research by showing its relevance and importance.
• Practice with vicious colleagues
• Job talk
• Show vision and steps to achieve it in 5 minutes. For example, you can say "here are 4 steps to achieve the vision. Step 1 & 2 have been done, and I'm going  to focus on step 3, and continue with step 4 in the future."
• How to end
• Thank you!
• Acknowledgement
• Conclusions
• Contributions
• The Star
• Symbol
• Slogan
• Surprise
• Salient: idea that sticks out
• Story
• Stopping
• Joke is ok
• Thanks
• Questions
• Recite contributions
• Salute