No More Ummms.

Last year I gave a talk to the first and second year grad students as part of a seminar series that they're required to take. Each year in our department, the older grad students present their research, have their talk videotaped, and then receive feedback from the audience on their presentation. The benefits to the junior and senior grad students are obvious.

One of the things I found amazing when I watched the tape of myself was just how often I said "ummm" during my talk. I didn't think I had said it once, but I was saying it at least a couple of times a minutes.

With my talk at Princeton less than a week away, it's funny that I came across this website suggesting an approach to eliminating the umms from one's speech (at least when delivering a talk). I'll have to see if I can dig up that old videotape and force myself to watch it a few more times.