Speaker Guidelines for the American Physical Society March and April Meetings

APS meetings are one of many programs offered by the Society to advance and diffuse the knowledge of physics. The opportunity to present an abstract at an APS meeting is a privilege which entails a responsibility on the part of the author to present his/her research in a polished, clear and succinct manner. This applies to both oral presentations (i.e. delivery and supporting A-V) and poster presentations. The Guidelines for First-time Speakers is published to assist authors presenting for the first time in making the best presentations possible, and to enhance the quality of APS meetings.

Speaker Guidelines

Step back from the details of your research and think about what your audience might like to learn from your work. Keep it simple - remember, less is more.

Organization

Your talk should include:

1. Statement of hypothesis and purpose of the research

2. Description of methods of investigation

3. Inclusion of data collected and what was learned

4. Conclusions based on the data collected

5. Emphasis on significance and highlights of the research

Audio-Visuals

1. Supporting audio-visuals must be concise, uncluttered and readable from a distance

2. Audio-visuals should amplify your oral presentation, not duplicate it

3. Choose the medium that will optimally display your information - don't use words if a picture will convey it more clearly (graphs, tables, charts, etc.)

4. Use:

line graphs to show trends;
bar graphs to compare magnitudes;
pie graphs to demonstrate relative portions of a whole.

Delivery

1. Prepare notes that highlight the salient points of your talk.

2. Practice the delivery of your talk several times prior to your presentation along with your slide or transparency sequence being sure to fit your talk into the time allocated to you.

3. Use simple sentences; avoid jargon, highly specialized vocabulary and unfamiliar abbreviations.

4. Think about questions you might be asked about your work and be prepared with well-thought out answers, being mindful of the limited time for Q and A.