Scholars attend conferences to learn about new work in their fields, to get responses and gauge reaction to their work in progress, to engage in formal and informal live exchange with scholars working in their area, to make and maintain (sometimes over many years) contacts and friendships. If your research has uncovered new material, led to a fundamentally new approach to familiar material, or posed a valuable new connection or juxtaposition, you should consider disseminating your scholarship in the form of a conference paper.

Assuming that you have a specific conference in mind, be sure to follow the guidelines for submission carefully. Don't send in a 650 word abstract/proposal when a 200 word abstract is called for, or vice versa. (If no word limit is specified, 500 words is standard). If the submission is in the form of abstract or paper, send one or the other, not a cross between the two; a full paper may be given more weight than an abstract. If a paper is called for, a brief (50-150 word) accompanying abstract, even if not requested, will facilitate the screening process. Don't send a full-length essay or chapter with a promise to cut later. You needn't waste too much time making your abstract fit the announced conference theme, especially if it is for a yearly conference: the themes are often intended to generate interest and ideas rather than to narrowly circumscribe the possibilities and exclude good work in the field. A one-off conference specifically organized around a theme, however, or a special session topic may be more narrowly focused: if in doubt, run a polite inquiry by the conference or session organizer.

Your abstract/proposal should anticipate three standard challenges on the part of the conference committee: "tell us something we don't already know," "so what," and "why should we care." That is, you should make clear your work's originality, importance, and relevance to ongoing work in the field (or thematic/disciplinary/theoretical focus) in question. (Think twice about establishing your originality by aggressively attacking a prominent scholar, however--you may find her sitting in the audience!) Work in a few key details, quotations, allusions to generate interest. Your cover letter should be brief and you need not identify yourself as a graduate student, although your academic affiliation should be included; if you belong to the conference's sponsoring organization, it's a good idea to mention that. You should make it easy for the conference organizers to reach you, even if your cover letter becomes detached from your proposal, by including your mailing and e-mail addresses, phone number and (if possible) fax number on both the cover letter and proposal itself.

The title of your paper (along with the title of the session) will help determine who actually comes to your talk: it's important to be specific. Very long titles, however, must be avoided; a maximum of 70 characters is suggested.

Because the conference paper is an oral form, you must take the cognitive needs of your auditors into account. The opening lines may be allusive, funny, or off-the-cuff--the livelier, perhaps, the better--but the introductory section should quickly move to a "verbal map" of the main issues and material to be covered and the order in which they'll be presented. You should return to reiterate the map (and reorient the auditor) at important transition points ("Up to now I've been arguing that . . ; at this point, I will change focus somewhat to show how in contrast. . .") You should signal the beginning of your conclusion ("Finally . .), slow down when you read it, and end with a "Thank you" (so the auditors know you're really finished). Conference papers do not, of course, include endnotes, although you may append a bibliography of works cited for the use of the session chair or others who might see your talk in printed form.

If your material at all lends itself to humor, audiences do love to be amused. Two particularly effective points for (good) jokes are near the beginning, to help you establish a sense of rapport with the audience, and near the middle, when attention will be most likely to flag. It is important to maintain eye-contact with the audience--look up from your paper frequently, pick a friendly looking auditor (or plant a friend) toward the middle for a focal point. Plant a second friend in the back to let you know if you're not being heard: incidentally, it's much more kind to politely say "Excuse me, we can't hear you back here" to an inaudible panelist than not. If people do have trouble hearing you, stand up at the podium (if you're not standing already), ask for the door to be shut (if it's open and there's any hall noise), and (of course) speak more loudly.

It's crucial to rehearse your talk before you give it. Three rehearsals is a good minimum. One should be in front of an audience of a friend or two. Do at least one rehearsal in "real time" (no interruptions) to make sure you're talk is within the allotted time limits. Other practice readings will be interrupted by on-the-spot editing, practicing words that tend to trip you up, making notes on your final copy ("pause here"; underscore for emphasis; "EYE CONTACT"; "drink water"; "SLOW DOWN"). To be understood by your audience, you will need to speak more slowly than you might think; one source recommends a speed of 100-120 words per minute.

According to MLA guidelines for conference speakers, "a page of double-spaced, typed material, in a standard elite-sized font, takes about two minutes to read" (without extemperaneous remarks), so they estimate 7 1/2 pages for a 15-minute talk and 10 pages for a twenty-minute talk. Never go more than a minute or two--if that--over your allotted time. Have a few paragraphs toward the end bracketed for on-the-spot cutting in case you go over and the session chair asks you to start winding up. Don't fool yourself into thinking that your paper is so important that you deserve, and will somehow be granted, extra time. Instead, you're likely to irritate the chair, stretch the audience's patience, leave everyone vaguely unhappy if you cut into discussion time, and leave a fellow panelist or respondent acutely unhappy if you cut into his or her time.

How do you make your talk sound live--and lively--if you're reading from well-rehearsed written copy? The rehearsal will help more than hinder--you will find you've memorized stretches of the text, and can look up from the paper more frequently. Colleagues in the sciences frequently talk from notes and outlines (the latter often projected on a screen) in order to keep their papers from sounding canned. Those of us in literary studies tend to be more concerned with matters of style and specific phrasing; few talk from notes, although (with practice and perhaps training) this can be done effectively and elegantly. If, however, like most of us, you are working from a written text, there are several techniques for adding a sense of spontaneity to a read paper. If you have a tenacious memory, you can get the talk mostly by heart and then reconstruct it in performance from notes. Short of that, you can highlight key terms, phrases, and transitions in your text, and reconstruct it from those phrases as you perform it; if you get stuck or tongue-tied, you can temporarily return to the written text. Or you can have the text on one side of a notebook, the text reduced to notes on the other, and move from notes to text as needed. Above all, in performing your talk, try to recapture for the audience the feelings you experienced in developing the ideas it expresses: the initial puzzlement at a crux, the wry frustration with existing attempts at solving it, the surprise at the unexpected solution or missing piece of the puzzle, the growing sense of conviction as more pieces fell into place.

Handouts and audio or visual aids can greatly enhance your talk, but introduce potential problems that you should watch for. A handout including key long quotations, or short complete texts, or illustrations that get extended treatment in your paper will help the audience follow along (though it can also prove distracting). These should be distributed in advance of the session, or by someone other than yourself (don't let this cut into your precious time). Do the photocopying in advance of the conference; finding a photocopier on site can be frustrating. If you are going to show slides, transparencies, or images from a digitized file and need a projector, arrange this with the conference organizers well in advance. If you wait till the week of the conference, it will almost certainly be too late and you will appear disorganized and rude. Do not imagine that a mention of A/V needs in your original cover letter, or a single mention to the session chair, will be sufficient: write a separate letter to the conference organizers (copied, if relevant, to your session chair) at the time that your paper is accepted, and follow this up with a reminder about a month before the conference is held. The same goes for a tape or CD player; consider, in addition, borrowing and bringing along a small portable player in case of problems. If you are presenting web pages, download them onto a disk rather than trying to work live from an internet connection: live connections are notoriously unreliable and slow, will almost certainly push your presentation well over its allotted time, and will cause boredom and frustration for your audience.

In this era of photocopying, the WWW, and virtual conferences, live (embodied) exchange is the primary justification for attending conferences away from your home institution. Do what you can to promote live exchange among the panelists in your session and with the audience during the question period, first by not going over your allotted time and cutting into the time for open exchange. Suggest to the session chair that the panelists precirculate their papers in advance; this means, of course, getting your paper finished at least a couple of weeks ahead of the conference. It will save time and headaches if the chair distributes the panelists' addresses and panelists exchange copies of their papers directly, rather than via the chair or conference organizers.

Anticipate likely questions from the audience, listen attentively to questions as they're asked (don't cut a questioner short, even if you see where the question is headed), ask for a question to be rephrased or pointed if you have trouble understanding it, and repeat it for the audience if it can't be heard throughout the room. Buy time (if needed) by initially responding, "That's an intriguing/important/helpful question"--this may also buy you some good will with an initially hostile questioner. Be prepared to acknowledge ignorance if you simply don't know the answer to a question. (Maybe someone else in the room can supply it). Questioners are generally allowed one follow-up, but should not persist beyond that; politely offering to discuss the issue one-on-one after the session, and asking if others have questions (perhaps for other panelists), is an entirely appropriate response to an overly persistent questioner. Avoid asking long, essayistic questions yourself; if you are asked one, and have trouble seeing the point, feel free to ask "could you briefly restate that as a question?" or (only if sufficiently provoked) "what was the question?"

Feeling nervous at the beginning of a talk is common, and may help keep you alert. Nervousness can build up, however, in a cyclical manner--getting anxious that one appears anxious, etc.--and there are both psychological and physiological ways to break the cycle and help lower the anxiety level. It may help to remember that few, if any, scholars have attended a conference presentation that altogether broke down: you will be able to get through your talk. Moreover, the audience will be on your side: they will be pulling for you to become more comfortable and, even if you don't, they will be listening to your ideas and not worrying as much as you are about your performance. Best of all, you probably do not appear as nervous as you think you do, and may even find yourself congratulated on your effective and relaxed manner after performances you thought were shaky or high-strung. Physically, you can significantly calm your nerves through deep, slow, rhythmic breathing during the minutes before your talk begins (or during a brief break for water, as needed). You need to breathe from your diaphragm (a friend who's had decent voice or wind-instrument training should be able to show you how to breathe in this way).

Conference organizers typically seek to include significant graduate student representation on the program, so a good paper should have a real chance of acceptance at any conference with open submissions. Regional conferences often include a greater proportion of graduate students in the program, and graduate student conferences can have acceptance ratios of up to 100%. A graduate student conference can be a good venue for your first presentation--less pressure, more support, more fun in the evenings--but on strictly professional grounds, there is no reason to present at more than one or two graduate conferences. For building an identity, credibility, and contacts in your chosen field, there is no substitute for presenting at conferences in that field, particularly the "major" conference(s). However, there is a point of diminishing returns after you've given say, four or five conference papers; published articles in refereed journals remain the gold standard, and presentations at conferences are no substitute for publishing.

The best way to find out about conferences is now the WWW. Currently, for example, there is a Call for Papers (CFP) website, frequently updated, at www.english.upenn.edu/CFP/. Other important sources are e-mail lists in your field, mailings from professional organizations you belong to, bulletin boards in your department, and word of mouth. This last is quite important--if you're interested in attending conferences in a given field, ask your teachers/mentors/advisors in that field to help keep you informed about relevant and important conferences. If you can at all afford it, consider an extended summer conference, if there's one in your field--this can be an invaluable way for building contacts and getting frank and helpful reactions to your scholarly work and plans. Once your paper has been accepted, partial funding can be pursued through the GA&S, the GSA, and your program director or department chair.