Robert Lintott: The Art of Crafting a Conference Paper

Robert Lintott is a musicologist living in the Washington D.C. area. Over the years, he’s presented at numerous academic conferences—and won awards for his outstanding conference papers. In this interview, I peek under the hood and ask Robert about his process and approach to crafting conference papers that work.

How many conference papers have you given, and at what types of forums?

I’ve given papers at six different conferences ranging in size from a small conference on the composer Robert Schumann at University of Maryland to the national meeting of the American Musicological Society (AMS). My favorite venue, though, was a paper I gave at a conference at West Point aimed at English studies. The topic was “Literature and World War I”, and I found it singularly refreshing to break out of my discipline and engage with people outside of musicology.

When was the first time you presented your work? Was that a frightening experience?

I think my first academic presentation came at a chapter meeting of the AMS. It was for the Lowen’s Award (a competition for the best student paper) and was probably more nerve-wracking than I’d like to admit. But the nerves came more from having to compete than from speaking in public.

Have you become more skilled and confident as you’ve given more conference papers?

Absolutely. In the first few conference papers, you think everyone is going to tear you to shreds in the Q&A, but you quickly realize that most attendees are either 1) pretty collegial, 2) not really paying that much attention anyhow, or 3) just eager for Q&A to start so they can get in their “more of a comment than a question.” As in most things in life, we worry that people are judging us, but in reality most people aren’t.

You’ve had some great success giving conference papers. What is your process for developing a conference paper? Do they usually begin as seminar papers, or as journal articles you’re working on?

Most of my papers originally began as work from my thesis or dissertation. The one exception was the aforementioned Schumann conference, where I presented something that started as a seminar paper. But as for developing the presentation, I usually start with the question of “how can I best frame my research to get accepted to this conference?” For instance, my dissertation research focused on Benjamin Britten’s “War Requiem.” Well, if I wanted to present at that literature conference at West Point, I needed to frame that in a way that put the emphasis on, well, the literature.

So, instead of looking at the music, I focused almost exclusively on the text of the piece I was researching. Once I understood my approach, I just picked the parts of my research that best fit the idea. From there, it was simply a matter of forming a cogent story for the presentation and hanging the flesh off of those bones.

What do you think makes a good conference paper topic as opposed to a journal article or dissertation topic? What are the characteristics of a good conference paper topic?

Ha, it’s something I just mentioned: story. There is NOTHING I hate more in academia than going to a conference and having someone read me a condensed journal article. We’re all academics. We can all read very well. If I wanted to read your article, I’d do so. But instead I’m here in a medium that has you speaking to me. So . . . narrate. Tell a story. Do something in your presentation that you can’t do on paper. If you’re using PowerPoint, make sure it is useful (e.g., don’t fill every slide with 1000 words). If you’re using musical examples, really use them. You can’t hear a musical example in a journal article, so use the opportunity you have to the utmost.

And finally, tell a story. Not literally. But make sure that your paper has some sort of narrative arc. That keeps things interesting and prevents you from simply reading an article.

Do you usually provide handouts to your audience?

Yes! Because that means that I don’t have to put everything that’s on the handout in the PowerPoint presentation. But I also make sure not to put tons of stuff in the handout. Again, you want people focusing on you, not on the book chapter on the handout.

How important is PowerPoint and other multimedia in your presentations? Do you find that simple PowerPoint—or perhaps something fancier—is preferable for keeping people engaged?

It depends. PowerPoint is a tool, and tools have purposes. Do you have visual things that the audience could benefit from seeing? If so, then it’s very important! If not (and you’re just going to put keywords on the screen), skip it! People tend to default to PowerPoint as a crutch. But as a result they don’t actually use it very well. When you put a ton of text on a slide (or just do keywords with no purpose) you might as well not use it. The purpose is to provide something in addition to what you’re saying.

Is the process of writing the paper different from writing a journal article? For example, do you try write in more of a speaking style?

Absolutely. I HATE writing things that I’ll be speaking. So often I’ll give an impromptu speech, record it, and then write that down. Or I’ll simply write in a more conversational style. Again, don’t read an academic article to me. That’s annoying.

How do practice before a presentation? Do you rehearse? Practice in front of the mirror?

I do rehearse. Usually at my laptop, and with cues at the ready. (I put [CLICK] in big bold letters where I’m supposed to do so to make the PowerPoint work.) I keep a pen handy and circle stuff that doesn’t work as I go along, and after I’m done I go back and fix it. Do this a few times and you’ll be ready!

Do you tend to get nervous before presentations?

Not any more. I did speech and debate all through high school. And the events I did were the kind where you are given a topic and then have to come up with a speech on the spot. So compared to that, reading something from a piece of paper is a cinch.

Do you memorize your presentation?

Ehhhh. Not really? But I mean, whenever you practice a bunch you end up memorizing a bit unintentionally. And this is important, because you constantly want to be looking at the audience rather than the paper.

Do you think it’s important to get audience involved? Is humor important?

As with so many things, it depends. If you’re in a pretty informal setting, sure! But you don’t HAVE to literally get the audience involved to keep them engaged.

Answering questions after the paper can be nerve-wracking for some people. Do you have advice on how to be successful in the Q&A?

Keep in mind the fact that you know more about this topic than they do. So many people feel disadvantaged by the Q&A format, but you’re the one with the answers. That’s a powerful (and calming!) feeling.

Do you have any particular strategies for writing your abstract proposal—any ways to increase your chances of getting it accepted?

Make sure you read the call for papers carefully and try to include key words from it in your abstract. If there is a theme, MAKE SURE you connect your paper to the theme. Conferences choose themes for reasons, and they want their papers to reflect that.

Attending conference can be a real financial investment. Do you think the cost of traveling around the country is worth it if you get a chance to present your work?

And here’s the great question. I’m not really sure. At this point, I doubt I’d ever want to attend a giant national music conference again. Those conferences can be DREADFUL. People are nervous wrecks, papers are long, and no one seems interested in much beyond themselves.

But smaller conferences? Absolutely! People take risks here. The Society for American Music (SAM) annual conference is a perfect example. Folks are friendly, papers are interesting, and there’s a real sense of trying to go beyond just putting a line on a CV.

So pick and choose. Find a few conferences that are important professionally AND personally and go to those. And leave the others behind.