leuschke.org :: Opinion/Giving Good Talk

Opinion/Giving Good Talk

At the moment, these are just links and quotes about best practices for giving mathematical lectures. I hope to flesh it out eventually.

giving good talks & colloquia

John McCarthy has a great essay called How To Give A Good Colloquium (local copy). This is the preliminary version, which includes a few more radical suggestions that didn’t make it into the published version (local copy)
The London Math Society has two little blurbs about How To Write Mathematics and How To Prepare Papers for Publication, both of which are quite sane.
Robert Geroch’s Suggestions for Giving Talks
How to give a good talk, by Joe Gallian, who I’m told gives great talks (local copy)

→ (edit: for a personal reaction to one of Gallian’s talks, come to the MGO Conference - sgraves)

Two personal peeves:
1. Do not go over time. Just don’t.
2. Don’t ask for questions. Have an obvious finish and thank the audience, then shut up.