Week 6-7: Answering questions Your responses to questions raised in the Q&A session should satisfy and benefit not only the person who posed the question but rather the entire audience. To achieve this goal you need to confirm the meaning of the question, identify and share the questioner’s motivation with the rest of the audience, defend your ideas from aggressive attacks, and sometimes admit that you do not yet have an answer to a question. This week we will discuss useful expressions in carrying out these steps. It is important to realize that questioners often do not expect a direct answer to the question; rather they are interested in how you handle the question, or how you as a scientist think about the problem in general. By providing a good response to a question, you can impress the audience not only with your work but also with your research interests and potential. Let’s give it a try! In class you will make short speech on a familiar scientific topic and then respond to questions from your classmates.