Getting your (scientific) point across
A great post at creating passionate users, I think really applicable to science too.
I know this is horribly overgeneralized, but as a high-level rule, we believe:If you're using formal language in a lecture, learning book [...], you're worrying about how people perceive YOU. If you're thinking only about the USERS, on the other hand, you're probably using more conversational language.
How many talks have been to, where you struggled to stay focused on the subject? I know for me that it's a few. I find that at a talk, the audience has to make the effort understand the what the presenter's point is. Rather than the reverse. The worst thing is, that it is almost accepted as standard in scientific presentations. What a lucky situation for the presenter!
Imagine if the presenter thought about a bit more about what the audience wanted in a presentation, and then gave it to them? When you present, you are after all aiming to show the merit of your work. But great work won't present itself, and being a great scientist doesn't necessary mean a great presenter. Of course, a great presentation will not hide poor scientific content - which will always be king. Conversely, great results but presented poorly, is a great shame. You'll have missed an opportunity to get some useful discussion, and more importantly, raise your profile.
Often presenting is forced upon us, such as for journal club or presenting data at lab meeting. These occasions are viewed as a disruption to our schedule, and an inconvenience requiring time to be put a slideshow together. Another way to look at these occasions is a chance to find your feet. Presenting to people you work, while scary, will be not compare to the fear presenting to a conference audience for the first time. Which is very scary. What if you took these opportunities to experiment with your presenting style? Find what what works you, and more importantly, your audience?
My last point. Remember the boring lectures you were subjected to as an undergraduate? You didn't really want to be there, and probably the lecturer had thrown together the slides at the last minute. Next time you're preparing a presentation think about how bored you were in these lectures, and how you would have liked to have been presented to.
The go to resource for presenting tips is Garr Reynolds blog and presentation tips.