"Talk Nerdy to Me" Katie Anderson

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y66YKWz_sf0&list=PL8F1A9C6916AFC872&index=15

     While watching this video of Melissa Marshall speaking at a TED conference, I was able to relate to what she was saying very clearly.  This is because she focused on the matter of how scientists are likely to talk over our heads or use words that many non-scientists are likely to not understand.  She asks that scientists to try to make their topics that they are discussing more “relevant” to the listeners.  I have encountered this situation numerous times.  Marshall’s advice to those scientists is to try to make it so that it will make since to the common people, but is still interesting.  Her punch line throughout her speech is “Talk Nerdy to Me”.  In other words, she is telling scientists that she is very interested in what they have to say, but she is just asking them to try to “make their ideas more accessible, which is not the same as dumbing it down”.  Marshall references making ideas more accessible, so that non-scientists are more interested in what a scientist has to say.  Marshall does a very good job at focusing in on her key points as she has made slides for different topics on which she would like to focus.  Two of these topics were the use of jargons and bullet points.  When referencing bullet points, she asks, “what do bullet points do?, they kill” and she goes on to tell the audience that bullet points are very boring and are likely to loose the audience’s attention very quickly.  In other words, they may “kill” your presentation.  She also references jargons and informs scientists to try to avoid the use of jargons when possible.  This is because if scientists talk in jargons, which would be language that only other scientists are likely to understand, then the scientist will loose their audience’s attention more quickly.  Melissa Marshall is trying to help scientists in order to let their words and voice be heard more often.  At the end of Marshall’s TED talk, she summarizes all that she has said with a formula and the formula is to “take your science, subtract your bullet points and jargons, divide it by relevance and multiply by the passion.”  This formula is a great way to summarize all that Marshall has talked about and to leave the audience with a little something to remember about her speech.