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T. R. Girill
Society for Technical Communication/Lawrence Livermore Nat. Lab. (retired)
[email protected]
Technical Writing: Neurodivergent Technical Talks Help Everyone
Giving a good technical talk--not just for professionals but for
student classmates or science fair judges--involves generating the
four features needed for every successful technical description:
1. Structure
Every description needs an underlying logical framework, but in a
talk the listener must follow the speaker's chosen structure, an
extra responsibility for the one presenting.
2. Review
Careful rereading can really help one absorb technical content,
but during a talk the listener must rely on the speaker to provide
needed review, a second added duty.
3. Understanding
A reader can gradually develop a full understanding of a written
technical description, but during a talk that grasp must often come
on first hearing. So the speaker has the burden of making that
easy.
4. Delivery
Readers can decode a written technical description at any pace
that suits them, but they must follow the speaker's pace while
listening to a talk, so that delivery must be carefully chosen
to meet listener needs.
Armando Andres Roca Suarez, in a short note in Science, March 23,
2023 (vol. 379, issue 6638, p. 394, DOI: 10.1126/science.adh3154)
extends these presenter responsibilities just a bit further.
Suarez has ADHD and sometimes struggles when hearing others
present, so when he speaks he now strives to better meet the
needs of neurodivergent audience members like himself. Now he
follows a few extra, self-imposed rules of thumb to actively
address every listener's constraints:
1. Supply motivation.
To stimulate listener interest right at the start, Suarez always
begins his technical talks with an introduction that overtly
'highlight[s] why the study in important and what gap in knowledge
I'm trying to fill.' A good technical talk is NOT a mystery
novel with a surprise ending.
2. Offer visual simplicity.
Technical complexity on presentation slides often frustrated
Suarez, so he supports his own listeners by 'keep[ing slides]
simple, using minimal text and inserting graphs, plots, and
diagrams to illustrate my points as much as possible.' Visuals
that are informative, not just decorative, can usefully
minimize complex presentation prose.
3. Practice progressive disclosure.
To avoid overwhelming his audience, Suarez 'often start[s]
with relatively blank results slides, gradually adding more
figures or diagrams in parallel with my explanations.' This is
one aspect of the facilitated review obligation mentioned above.
4. Include helpful redundancy.
On individual slides that are information dense, Suarez now not
only announces his point right away, but sometimes 'repeat[s]
that message a second time in a bullet point at the bottom.'
Likewise, a 'conclusions slide at the end of each talk [now]
reiterates my main points.' Since the presenter sets the pace,
this helps listeners who have missed key claims reconnect with
the speaker's message.
Following these technical-talk suggestions means more homework
for the (student) presenter, of course, usually expressed in
extra slide review and practice sessions. But Suarez embraced
these extra duties to help his technical audiences, young and
old, succeed: 'the techniques [above that] I found useful as an
audience member helped and resonated with non-ADHD audience
members as well.'
[For more on helping students prepare technical talks, see
http://writeprofessionally.org/techlit/talktips-analysis
For more on designing effective technical descriptions, see
http://writeprofessionally.org/techlit/analysisgd]
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