An excellent scientific presentation first requires that you have content worthy of your audience's time. Second, to motivate the audience to listen, you should show your passion for that content. Third, you need a keen sense of your audience: who they are, what they know, and why they are listening to you.

To excel in scientific presentations, The Craft of Scientific Presentations advocates the assertion-evidence approach. This approach calls for building the presentation on messages, not phrase topics. Moreover, those messages should be supported by visual evidence rather than bulleted lists. Finally, to explain that evidence, you should fashion sentences on the spot (but after planning and practice). Presentations that follow the assertion-evidence approach are in a much better position to be understood, remembered, and believed.

The Craft of Scientific Presentations, 2nd ed.

Confidence in Presentations

Principles of Assertion-Evidence Approach

Tutorial for Assertion-Evidence Approach

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Build talks on messages,
not topics

Assertion-Evidence Tutorial

Building your talks on messages, rather than
​topics (as most people do), will make your presentations more focused. See Chapter 4. 

Support messages with
​visuals, not bullet lists

Assertion-Evidence Templates

Audiences can process images while listening. However, audiences become overloaded when speakers project too many words. See Chapter 4.

Explain visuals by forming sentences on the spot

Model Talks

​The best speakers fashion sentences on the spot, but do so after planning and practice. Delivering in this way  projects confidence. See Chapter 5.