sci-talk-planning

name

sci-talk-planning

description

Design the research narrative for a scientific presentation before any slide-level work begins. Use when converting research materials, papers, notebooks, experiment results, or calculation outputs into a structured talk plan with a core argument, evidence chain, audience profile, narrative arc, time budget, material priorities, and predicted questions. Output a talk_plan.md that hands off to simple-sci-ppt for slide-level planning and PPTX generation. Do not create slides, write generator code, select layout archetypes, or produce PPTX files; hand those to simple-sci-ppt.

Scientific Talk Planning

Overview

This skill is the narrative design layer that sits upstream of simple-sci-ppt:

sci-talk-planning -> simple-sci-ppt
  (what to say)        (how to render it)

Produce a human-readable talk_plan.md containing the core argument, audience profile, narrative arc, claim-evidence matrix, material priorities, time budget, and predicted questions. Do not plan slides, select layout archetypes, write generator code, or produce PPTX files.

Write human-facing prose in Chinese by default. Keep code, JSON keys, schema fields, paths, filenames, commands, units, and technical terms in English. Do not repeat the same content bilingually.

Core Workflow

1. Inspect available source materials: papers, notebooks, figures, experiment results, calculation outputs, prior slides, and user notes. Do not modify anything yet.
2. Interview the user in rounds of one to three high-value questions. Follow references/interview-guide.md.
3. Identify the talk type: group meeting, conference talk, thesis defense, classroom lecture, invited seminar, or progress update.
4. Define the core argument: what are the 1-3 key takeaways the audience should remember after this talk?
5. Read references/narrative-archetypes.md and select a narrative structure. Challenge the user if the chosen structure does not serve the core argument.
6. Build the claim-evidence matrix. For each takeaway claim, list supporting evidence, evidence strength, source, and known limitations. Read references/evidence-chain.md.
7. Prioritize materials. Classify every available source as essential, supporting, or cuttable for this specific talk. Read references/material-prioritization.md.
8. Determine the time budget. Given the talk duration, allocate time across narrative sections. Read references/time-allocation.md.
9. Predict audience questions and identify weaknesses the user should prepare to address.
10. Read references/talk-plan-contract.md and write talk_plan.md using assets/talk_plan.template.md.
11. Present the plan to the user for review. Ask for explicit approval before handing off.
12. After approval, instruct the user to invoke simple-sci-ppt with the talk_plan.md path. Do not invoke simple-sci-ppt directly.

Narrative Design Rules

• The core argument must be falsifiable or empirically grounded. If a takeaway cannot be challenged, it is a platitude, not a scientific claim.
• Every claim in the takeaway list must map to at least one evidence item in the claim-evidence matrix. Unmapped claims are flagged evidence gap.
• Evidence strength must be rated as confirmed, preliminary, inferred, or pending. Do not let preliminary evidence support a strong takeaway without an explicit caveat.
• The narrative arc must have a clear climax: the slide or section where the strongest evidence meets the central claim. Identify it explicitly.
• Time budget must be realistic. A 15-minute talk should not plan more than 12-14 content slides. Reserve time for transitions and audience interaction.
• Material priority is talk-specific. A paper that is essential for a group meeting may be cuttable for a conference talk with a different focus.
• If the user has a reference folder with many papers, do not plan a paper-by-paper summary unless explicitly requested. Select claims and figures that serve the narrative arc.

Handoff Contract

The output talk_plan.md is the sole handoff artifact. It must contain these sections in order:

1. Talk metadata: type, title, presenter, date, duration, audience.
2. Core argument: 1-3 takeaways with declarative statements.
3. Audience profile: who they are, knowledge baseline, expectations.
4. Narrative arc: sections with purpose, time allocation, and the identified climax.
5. Claim-evidence matrix: claims, evidence, strength, source, limitations.
6. Material priorities: essential / supporting / cuttable with rationale.
7. Predicted questions: likely audience questions and recommended response strategy.
8. Handoff to simple-sci-ppt: recommended deck mode, approximate slide count, key figures to include, and any constraints (language, citation style, visual style).

simple-sci-ppt reads this file and uses it to pre-fill sections 1-3 of its slide-level markdown plan. If talk_plan.md is absent, simple-sci-ppt can still work independently with a lightweight inline version of these decisions.

Hard Failure Examples

• A takeaway claim has no corresponding evidence row in the matrix.
• The time budget exceeds the talk duration without an explicit overflow plan.
• The narrative arc has no climax and reads like a flat list of topics.
• preliminary or inferred evidence is used to support a strong declarative takeaway without a caveat.
• The material priority list omits a source that the claim-evidence matrix depends on.
• The plan defaults to paper-by-paper structure when the user did not request it.
• The plan includes slide-level details such as layout archetypes, coordinate boxes, or PPTX generation instructions (owned by simple-sci-ppt).
• The talk plan is not presented to the user for approval before handoff.

Reference Map

• references/interview-guide.md: staged interview to extract the core argument, audience context, and constraints.
• references/narrative-archetypes.md: common research talk narrative structures with selection criteria.
• references/evidence-chain.md: claim-evidence matrix construction, evidence strength rating, and gap analysis.
• references/material-prioritization.md: source classification and cutting strategy for talk-specific focus.
• references/time-allocation.md: duration-based section budgeting and slide count estimation.
• references/talk-plan-contract.md: field definitions and validation rules for the handoff document.
• assets/talk_plan.template.md: skeleton template for talk_plan.md.

Handoffs

• Use simple-sci-ppt for slide-level planning, layout archetype selection, PPTX generation, and QA iteration after this skill produces an approved talk_plan.md.
• Use init-research-project if the talk is part of a new project that has not been initialized yet.
• Use computation-design if the talk depends on computational experiments that have not been scientifically designed.
• Use vasp-analysis if the talk needs figures or data from completed VASP calculations that have not been extracted yet.
• Keep this skill focused on narrative design. Do not generate slides, write code, or produce artifacts beyond talk_plan.md.