Why you shouldn’t use a title slide

For a 15-20 minute presentation at a scientific meeting, a title slide wastes time and money and is an insult to the audience and the moderator.

Almost all scientific meetings have programs. The programs almost always list the titles of the talks. Ordinarily, the people who choose to attend your talk (as contrasted to the ones who didn’t leave the room after the last one) are there because they read the title of your talk, and decided it was worth hearing. They have already seen the title.

When the moderator introduces you, she will almost always tell the audience your name and the title of your talk (and often your institution, as well). Everyone in the room at that moment has learned the title of your talk, many for the second time.

You already know the title of your talk; maybe not word-for-word, but close enough that you could give a scientific presentation about it.

So when your first slide is a title slide, you are repeating information that many of the audience have already learned more than once, and that the moderator already took care to speak. And it’s not as if you were repeating something that bears repetition, such as crucial results or far-reaching conclusions; you’re merely repeating the title.

If you read the title from the title slide (or even say it from memory), that’s four repetitions (and the audience would well reply “Duh!”, since, by and large, they could read it without your help). If instead, you began your talk, the title slide would stand as an often unattractive and uninformative backdrop to your remarks.

So why bother? The beginning of a talk is the most crucial part for grabbing the audience’s interest and attention, and for setting the stage for the rest of the presentation. Instead of a title slide, try one of the following:

• A photograph of an organ, organism, or habitat
• A statement of the basic problem to be addressed (perhaps in the form of a question)
• A bulleted list of the goals of the talk or of the research
• A logo (a handy way to avoid a title slide if your company or lab insists on major billing)
• Anything else that directly relates to your opening statements
• Or you can always make the initial remarks with the room lights on, and call for slides when you have something to show

• When you are giving a practice talk, and there is no program and no organized moderator.
• When you are presenting somewhere other than a scientific meeting, and many of the audience will not have heard a title.
• Any other circumstances where you have to introduce yourself.
• When, even after reading the arguments on this page, your major professor or employer requires it.