The better you are prepared when entering the seminar, the more right you have to interrupt the speaker and ask your questions or make your points. Take notes during the seminar. Take a scratch pad with you and jot down some notes during the seminar. Write down a key equation or unfamiliar notation. When to keep quiet Let the speaker have at least two to five minutes before your first interruption.
Papers often begin with a list of related studies.
While it is fair to ask the speaker to give you a brief summary of these papers if they are important to understanding today's talk, or to suggest other related studies if they are important, try not to get into a discussion about the literature review. Clarifying questions about notation, the entries in a table, or the interpretation of a graph are almost always fair. However, give the presenter a chance to describe these things before posing such questions. Sometimes the seminar spins out of control. A barrage of questions has thrown the presenter off track and time is running out before the main contribution of the paper can be presented.