Key points for an effective presentation

• Know your stuff – There is no substitute for knowing your topic!! (if you don’t know something be honest)
• Identify the key messages – Determine what you need to get across
• Identify the key points – DON’T try to include all your material (eg no more than 1 slide per minute)
• Tell a story – Have a beginning, middle and an end – tell what you are going to do, do it and then tell what you have done
• Your presentation MUST be clear – Both in your verbal presentation AND the graphics

Finally - Presentation is to be:

• Short
• Clear
• To the Point

A few hints about the major oral presentation:

Preparation of the oral presentation: what are the objectives of your research project, the processes and the key things you discovered along the way. This needs to be carefully structured and the information organised. In the end it does need to be like a story, rather than a dry report. Some of this can be quite specific and detailed, rather than always general and not really saying anything. Even pitfalls can be engaging if they are told in an easy and engaging way. This should be written and needs to be limited to a time of 20 mins.

The presentation is formal as it will be delivered in front of a panel and you will be assessed for it. This does not mean that your approach and individuality cannot come through. The structure suggested above is an important convention for presentation, beyond that you need to find a style that suits you.

Your interest, pleasure and engagement with your work can be contagious and can assist the examiners to engage with it. Thus it is important that you tell us the significant details that make your project substantial and important.

It is important that you are not rushing the oral presentation. Speaking is a different task to writing and reading, and all the pauses, silences are just as important as the information and the words. The benefit of oral presentation is that one can see their audience and can elaborate on points if the faces look confused, etc. Words are a powerful tool and need to be used carefully and precisely, as well as poetically and eloquently.

Remember there is also question time - so that some points can be elaborated during that time.
Other more pragmatic points include - always refer to your images to illustrate your oral presentation, to look at the audience when speaking, to not stand in front of the slides and thereby hide them, to speak clearly.