Abstract

Many audiovisual presentations begin with a technical paper, but neither of the following extremes yields a successful talk: showing the original illustrations as slides or foils while reading the paper, or illustrating every point in the paper while narrating additional detail. The successful paper-to-talk conversion requires selecting only the main points; illustrating them with imagination and clarity; rethinking the order of presentation to accommodate the linear nature of an oral presentation-the audience cannot refer to an earlier portion, underline phrases, annotate the margins, etc.; complementing the visual aids with narration rather than written text; and developing supplementary materials for clarification, questions, and challenges.