Reading and Hearing Papers -- John Hobbins weighs in.

Over on Ancient Hebrew Poetry, John FH has an excellent post On Reading and Hearing Papers at SBL-Rome 2009. He writes:

After ISBL-Rome 2009, I am more convinced than ever that most people do not understand what kind of content can be delivered and how to deliver it effectively before an audience which has sat through several presentations already whose point was barely intelligible or not intelligible at all.

And he goes on to list several "common errors". Given my comments on the topic here, over several years (Presenting Papers), John's post is music to my ears. I particularly liked common error number 5, "Wall-flower presiders". This is a great term, and one I am tempted to adopt myself.