2. Why to Present Research?
To achieve recognition among Scientific communities
To take feedback from colleagues
To defend thesis or dissertation
The greatest ideas are worthless if you keep them to yourself
3. Purpose of research Talk
Is not to:
Impress the audience
Tell them all you know about a
subject
Present every little detail of
your work
Is to:
Give the audience a sense of
what your idea/work is
Make them want to read your
paper
Get feedback on your work
4. Parts of a presentation
Two major parts of presentation
I. Content
II. How to present
5. To Develop Good Content
Know your audience
Who they are
What is their prior knowledge on your topic
Why they are likely to be interested in your research
What are their needs and how can you help them
6. For Thesis defence
The audience will be your thesis examiners and colleagues
In this case your knowledge of topic would be greater than
audience
Why would they be their???
To be convinced that your thesis makes contribution to
research
7. For Conference Presentation
Audience would probably the academics with same interest
In this case audience would be knowledgeable, may be the
expert of field
Why will they be their???
To gain knowledge, which will help their on work and to build a
network
8. “Never overestimate your
audience's knowledge;
never underestimate their
intelligence."
(C.P. Scott, former editor of the Manchester Guardian.)
10. Preparing the slides
simplicity and clarity lead to good design
Do not use a number of animations, it will invert the focus of
audience from the topic
Create sections, use a title slide to start a new section
Avoid clutter, 3-5 bullets are sufficient on a slide
Use images to explain
11. Outline
Make 1st or second slide of your presentation as an outline
Follow the order of your outline for the rest of the presentation
Only place main points on the outline slide
Ex: Use the titles of each slide as main points
12. Structure of Slide
Do not write complete sentences
Write in points
A slide should not consist more than 5 bullets
Do not paste whole paragraphs in the slide
13. Cont…
Show one point at a time
It will help audience to focus that point
Otherwise they will continue to read whole the slide
Will help you to keep your presentation focused
14. Fonts style and size
Use at least an 18-point font
Use different size fonts for main points and secondary points
this font is 24-point, the main point font is 28-point, and the title font is
32-point
Use a standard font like Times New Roman, Arial or Calibri
15. Bad Fonts
If you use a small font, your audience won’t be able to read what you have written
CAPITALIZE ONLY WHEN NECESSARY. IT IS DIFFICULT TO
READ
Don’t use a complicated font
16. Color
Use a colour of font that contrasts sharply with the background
Ex: blue font on white background
Use colour to reinforce the logic of your structure
Ex: light blue title and dark blue text
Use colour to emphasize a point
But only use this occasionally
17. Bad colours
Using a font colour that does not contrast with the background
colour is hard to read
Using colour for decoration is distracting and annoying.
Using a different colour for each point is unnecessary
Using a different colour for secondary points is also unnecessary
Trying to be creative can also be bad
18. Spelling and Grammar
Proof your slides for:
speling mistakes
the use of of repeated words
grammatical errors you might have make
If English is not your first language, please have someone else
check your presentation!
19. Preparing the presentation
Prepare the slides in advance
Show them to friends
When you think you are done read them again
Check all animations with the sound on
20. Preparing the presentation
Practice, practice, practice
Give a practice talk to a general audience
Give a practice talk to an audience of expert
Time your presentation (allow for speed up effect caused by
nervousness)
Always assume technology will fail you. Have backups.
21. Delivering the talk
Be enthusiastic! If you aren’t why should the audience be?
Make eye contact with the audience
Watch for questions. Be prepare to digress or brush off when
irrelevant
22. Delivering the talk
Point at the screen not the computer
Do not read directly from the PPT or your notes
Have the “spill” for the first couple of slides memorized in case
you go blank
Finish in time
23. How can I get better?
Practice every chance you can
Observe others
Steal good presentation ideas
Notice all the things that turned you off
Seek comments from friends and mentors