1. Editorial
Ten Simple Rules for Making Good Oral
Presentations
Philip E. Bourne
ontinuing our ‘‘Ten Simple your presentation was either Rule 7: Practice and Time Your
C Rules’’ series [1–5], we consider
here what it takes to make a
good oral presentation. While the rules
incomprehensible or trite. A side
effect of too much material is that you
talk too quickly, another ingredient of
Presentation
This is particularly important for
inexperienced presenters. Even more
apply broadly across disciplines, they a lost message. important, when you give the
are certainly important from the presentation, stick to what you
perspective of this readership. Clear Rule 3: Only Talk When You Have practice. It is common to deviate, and
and logical delivery of your ideas and Something to Say even worse to start presenting material
scientific results is an important Do not be overzealous about what that you know less about than the
component of a successful scientific you think you will have available to audience does. The more you practice,
career. Presentations encourage present when the time comes. Research the less likely you will be to go off on
broader dissemination of your work never goes as fast as you would like. tangents. Visual cues help here. The
and highlight work that may not Remember the audience’s time is more presentations you give, the better
receive attention in written form. precious and should not be abused by you are going to get. In a scientific
presentation of uninteresting environment, take every opportunity to
Rule 1: Talk to the Audience preliminary material. do journal club and become a teaching
We do not mean face the audience, assistant if it allows you to present. An
although gaining eye contact with as Rule 4: Make the Take-Home important talk should not be given for
many people as possible when you Message Persistent the first time to an audience of peers.
present is important since it adds a A good rule of thumb would seem to You should have delivered it to your
level of intimacy and comfort to the be that if you ask a member of the research collaborators who will be
presentation. We mean prepare audience a week later about your kinder and gentler but still point out
presentations that address the target presentation, they should be able to obvious discrepancies. Laboratory
audience. Be sure you know who your remember three points. If these are the group meetings are a fine forum for
audience is—what are their key points you were trying to get this.
backgrounds and knowledge level of across, you have done a good job. If
the material you are presenting and they can remember any three points, Rule 8: Use Visuals Sparingly but
what they are hoping to get out of the but not the key points, then your Effectively
presentation? Off-topic presentations emphasis was wrong. It is obvious what Presenters have different styles of
are usually boring and will not endear it means if they cannot recall three presenting. Some can captivate the
you to the audience. Deliver what the audience with no visuals (rare); others
points!
audience wants to hear. require visual cues and in addition,
Rule 5: Be Logical depending on the material, may not be
Rule 2: Less is More Think of the presentation as a story. able to present a particular topic well
A common mistake of There is a logical flow—a clear without the appropriate visuals such as
inexperienced presenters is to try to beginning, middle, and an end. You set graphs and charts. Preparing good
say too much. They feel the need to the stage (beginning), you tell the story visual materials will be the subject of a
prove themselves by proving to the (middle), and you have a big finish (the further Ten Simple Rules. Rule 7 will
audience that they know a lot. As a end) where the take-home message is
result, the main message is often lost, clearly understood.
and valuable question time is usually
curtailed. Your knowledge of the Rule 6: Treat the Floor as a Stage
Citation: Bourne PE (2007) Ten simple rules for
subject is best expressed through a Presentations should be making good oral presentations. PLoS Comput Biol
clear and concise presentation that is entertaining, but do not overdo it and 3(4): e77. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.0030077
provocative and leads to a dialog do know your limits. If you are not Copyright: Ó 2007 Philip E. Bourne. This is an open-
during the question-and-answer humorous by nature, do not try and be access article distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License, which
session when the audience becomes humorous. If you are not good at permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
active participants. At that point, your telling anecdotes, do not try and tell reproduction in any medium, provided the original
author and source are credited.
knowledge of the material will likely anecdotes, and so on. A good
become clear. If you do not get any entertainer will captivate the audience Dr. Philip E. Bourne is a Professor in the Department
of Pharmacology, University of California San Diego,
questions, then you have not been and increase the likelihood of obeying La Jolla, California, United States of America. E-mail:
following the other rules. Most likely, Rule 4. bourne@sdsc.edu
PLoS Computational Biology | www.ploscompbiol.org 0593 April 2007 | Volume 3 | Issue 4 | e77

2. help you to define the right number of violation of the other rules. Work hard presentation will go well, and
visuals for a particular presentation. A on breaking bad habits; it is afterward you feel it did not go well.
useful rule of thumb for us is if you important. Other times you dread what the
have more than one visual for each audience will think, and you come
minute you are talking, you have too Rule 10: Provide Appropriate away pleased as punch. Such is life. As
many and you will run over time. Acknowledgments always, we welcome your comments on
Obviously some visuals are quick, People love to be acknowledged for these Ten Simple Rules by Reader
others take time to get the message their contributions. Having many Response. &
across; again Rule 7 will help. Avoid gratuitous acknowledgements degrades
reading the visual unless you wish to the people who actually contributed. If
you defy Rule 7, then you will not be Acknowledgments
emphasize the point explicitly, the
audience can read, too! The visual able to acknowledge people and The idea for this particular Ten Simple
should support what you are saying organizations appropriately, as you will Rules was inspired by a conversation with
run out of time. It is often appropriate Fiona Addison.
either for emphasis or with data to Funding. The author received no specific
prove the verbal point. Finally, do not to acknowledge people at the funding for this article.
overload the visual. Make the points beginning or at the point of their Competing interests. The author has declared
contribution so that their that no competing interests exist.
few and clear.
contributions are very clear. References
Rule 9: Review Audio and/or Video of As a final word of caution, we have 1. Bourne PE (2005) Ten simple rules for getting
Your Presentations found that even in following the Ten published. PLoS Comp Biol 1: e57.
2. Bourne PE, Chalupa LM (2006) Ten simple
There is nothing more effective than Simple Rules (or perhaps thinking we rules for getting grants. PLoS Comp Biol 2:
listening to, or listening to and are following them), the outcome of a e12.
viewing, a presentation you have presentation is not always guaranteed. 3. Bourne PE, Korngreen A (2006) Ten simple
rules for reviewers. PLoS Comp Biol 2: e110.
made. Violations of the other rules will Audience–presenter dynamics are hard 4. Bourne PE, Friedberg I (2006) Ten simple rules
become obvious. Seeing what is wrong to predict even though the metric of for selecting a postdoctoral fellowship. PLoS
is easy, correcting it the next time depth and intensity of questions and Comp Biol 2: e121.
5. Vicens Q, Bourne PE (2007) Ten simple rules
around is not. You will likely need to off-line followup provide excellent for a successful collaboration. PLoS Comp Biol
break bad habits that lead to the indicators. Sometimes you are sure a 3: e44.
PLoS Computational Biology | www.ploscompbiol.org 0594 April 2007 | Volume 3 | Issue 4 | e77