Tips on Answering Questions at a Talk

After giving an academic talk, there is usually a question period. At a conference, it can be as short as 10 minutes. At a departmental talk, it can be as long as 30 minutes. Many people, including both graduate students and faculty, find this period stressful and difficult. In this blog post, I outline some strategies for managing the question period successfully.

1.

If somebody asks a difficult question during the question period, and you do not know the answer, say “Thank you very much. I will have to think about that.” 

There is no shame in not knowing how to answer a question. Just be respectful and polite toward the person who asked the question. You might even want to bend down and write some notes on the handout, to show that you are taking the question seriously. 

2.

If somebody asks a complicated multi-part question (difficult to understand and remember), say “Please, which part should I answer first? Could you break it down a bit?” The questioner will have to repeat their question in a simplified form. This process will allow you to focus on a single question.

3.

Turn the question on the questioner.

This allows you to understand the question more, and gives you time to sort out a response. For example, suppose the question is: 

Q: Can that phenomenon be handled with logophoricity?

Then you can ask:

Q’: How would that work exactly? Can you please elaborate a bit?

Or you could ask:

Q’’: Why do you think logophoricity is relevant here?

There are lots and lots of such follow up questions. By asking them, you get clarification and a bit more time to answer. Once you get the hang of this, it is a very powerful tool. And it does not make you look weak. Rather it makes you look confident.

4.

You may not be able to answer a question, but you may have interesting related ideas that you can speak confidently about. So you can deflect the question a bit with a comment like, “I have not explored that yet, but a closely related issue is…” or “That is issue is related to another that I have been thinking about…”.

5.

Plant possible questions during the talk.

There are certain parts of your research that you will not have time to present in the talk. You could plant little flags here and there in the talk, encouraging people to ask questions in the question period. For example, you could say during the talk:

“If anybody wants to hear what happens with reflexives, I could address that during the question period.” 

This will prime the audience to ask questions which you have already prepared for.

6.

Think ahead of time about possible questions and answers. 

You have been working on the material for a while. That is why you are giving a talk. What kinds of questions have come up before in talking with your advisor and your colleagues. You can even write down some of the most common ones, and plan out your answers to these questions. In other words, just like you give a practice talk to prepare, you can also entertain possible questions and answers ahead of time. In fact, if you give a practice talk to some linguist friends, you can have them ask a few questions just to get you going.

7.

If you have the option, then take minor clarificational questions during the talk, but all other questions should be reserved for the question period following the talk.

There is nothing worse than an over-zealous faculty member dominating your talk with questions concerning their own research program and how it relates to the talk you are giving. On many occasions, I have seen a whole talked ruined by this kind of person. This happens much more frequently than people usually acknowledge. Academics can be really pushy and insensitive, especially when it comes to pushing their own intellectual agenda.