MAT 9000

Graduate Seminar

General Guidelines for Seminar Talks

1. Make an attractive announcement (include your name, talk title, an abstract (if possible), time and place) for your talk. E-mail the announcement to me two days before you are scheduled to speak. Be prepared that some outside people may attend.

2. Have a prepared presentation ready to show. Bring your presentation on flash drive or CD or even your own computer. We have computers and projectors available. Alternatively, you may use prepared slides for the overhead projector. You may get blank slides and write on them directly, or write on plain paper and make slides on a photocopier. Your slides should be neat and the print size should be fairly large. Don't crowd your slides. Diagrams are good. Slides are a visual aid for your presentation!

3. Do not write your talk onto the slides and read off of them. You should have a script, or at least an outline, for speaking. Use what's on the slides as something to talk about.

4. Don’t expect to do much writing on the board. You are telling about your subject, not teaching it.

5. Rehearse your talk before you give it! Forty minutes can be very long, or very short, or just right, depending on how you use it.

6. Written reports are due one week after you speak. They should include the details you don't have time for in your talk. They should have enough introduction to give them context to be readable by someone who hasn't studied your source(s). Include bibliography and pertinent referencing. Web resource referencing is still in development; be aware of current guidelines, and stick to sources that have authors (hopefully with affiliation/address). Include author information as the leading part of your citation.