How to Give a Good Academic Talk

An essential guide to giving effective and engaging talks for academics at all career stages, across the humanities, sciences, and social sciences

This book is for anyone in academia who will ever have to give a talk—which is just about everyone in academia. Presenting research is one of the most important tasks academics undertake, but few receive formal training in effective public speaking. In How to Give a Good Academic Talk, Sharon Marcus fills this gap, offering a practical, research-informed guide to an activity that can challenge even seasoned scholars. Marcus, who has given many academic talks in her career—and listened to even more—blends insights from learning and cognitive science, communications, rhetoric, and performance theory with her own seasoned judgment and firsthand observation to provide a pragmatic repertoire of dos and don’ts.

Each chapter addresses a central component of successful presentations, illustrated with examples drawn from a wide variety of academic talks, many available online. Marcus’s cross-disciplinary perspective allows her to identify elements that all good academic talks have in common, while remaining attentive to field-specific norms. She defines what an academic talk is and isn’t, and identifies its most important and challenging task: engaging the audience. How to Give a Good Academic Talk covers the beginnings and endings of talks, Q&A sessions, the design and use of slides, delivery, rehearsals, video conferencing platforms—and even offers wardrobe advice. Marcus’s essential guide equips academics to communicate their ideas with confidence, precision, and intellectual generosity.