Presentations
You may be asked to present your research or academic progress at various levels of university study. Generally speaking, there are several types of academic presentation and this section gives you advice on Oral Presentations (e.g. design reports and weekly tutorial readings), Confirmation and Conversion for graduate students, Academic Posters, and Conference Papers.
Oral Presentations
A 1973 survey by the Sunday Times newspaper found that more than twice as many people feared public speaking (41%) as feared death (19%). The most effective way for you to reduce anxiety about public speaking is through preparation. You must be aware of the purpose of your presentation and your audience before you begin designing your presentation and deciding whether or not to use Powerpoint slides. Remember that the six most irritating habits of public speakers are (1) an unclear structure, (2) poor visuals, (3) repetition, (4) a monotonous voice, (5) reading from notes, and (6) disorganisation.
Your main purpose in an oral presentation is to report key information and to use effective spoken delivery techniques and visual aids to enhance the reporting of this key information. An effective oral presentation has three basic features:
- a clear logical structure,
- effective visual aids
- good delivery techniques.
Logical Structure
Like written essays, an oral presentation has an introduction, body and conclusion. The introduction provides:
- the background to your topic (e.g. importance, history)
- your topic (e.g. hypothesis, research question)
- the structure of your presentation
The body provides the key points, results, or arguments in the same order that your introduction stated.
The conclusion:
- summarizes the key points, results, or arguments
- refers to the relevance or importance of your topic as stated in the introduction
- makes recommendations for further research
- finishes with one or two ‘take home messages’
Your presentation structure will probably be one of six types:
- Chronological - time sequence
- Spatial - big picture to small picture
- Cause & Effect - points flow from a problem
- Compare & contrast – similarities & differences
- Topical - points arranged in order of importance
- IMRAD –Introduction, Methodology, Results, Analysis, Discussion.
You must consider your audience when you design your presentation and understand:
- what your audience already knows about your research and the field of research
- what they need to know about your research.
You can grab your audience’s attention and involve them in the presentation with:
- an anecdote about the topic
- a rhetorical question to get them thinking about the topic
- a direct question that they may ask each other in pairs
- a joke.
You should decide whether you will answer questions during your presentation or at the end of your presentation and tell this to the audience.
Visuals
You use visuals to supplement your explanations so the visuals should be simple, clear and visible from at least 3 metres away. You want your audience to listen to you and not to read off the screen. Tables are good for large amounts of data while graphs are good for showing trends.
Refer to the Academic Skills Unit flyer on Presenting your Research (53KB | PDF)
Links:
www.cs.umbc.edu/~mariedj/maple/pres-advice.ppt#281,15,Some useful resources
www.uni-hohenheim.de/i490a/teaching/M4901-430/Buchenrieder.pdf
www.egr.msu.edu/~mason/teaching/Presentations-Papers.ppt#327,20,Paper Abstract/Conclusion Organization
top of pageConfirmation and Conversion
Confirmation
Confirmation is the key point in your Ph D candidature. Its purpose is to determine whether or not work to that point on your research proposal indicates a strong likelihood that it will result in a high quality thesis, completed in the required time. Up until your confirmation, your candidature is ‘probationary’ (usually for between 6-12 months for a full time student). This probationary candidature ends once your confirmation is confirmed.
There are five steps to confirmation.
- Prepare and submit written report
- Deliver oral presentation to department
- Verbally ‘defend’ your proposal to your confirmation committee
- Satisfy any other departmental requirements
- Return the confirmation report form SGR by the due date
You can find information about Ph D candidature confirmation at the University of Melbourne at
www.gradstudies.unimelb.edu.au/current/forms.html#confirmation
Conversion
Normally students who convert from Masters to PhD candidature are admitted into confirmed candidature and therefore have to complete the Ph D confirmation procedure before applying to convert. It is vital to discuss the timeline for your conversion with your supervisor.
You can find information about Ph D candidature confirmation at the University of Melbourne at
www.gradstudies.unimelb.edu.au/future/phdapplication.html
Academic Posters
You may be asked to present your research work as an academic poster and, moreover, academic poster presentations are an important part of scientific conferences. More information on Academic Posters (52KB | PDF).
Conference papers
If you want your research to be read by people other than yourself then you should seek out appropriate conference presentation and journal article opportunities. Your audience at conferences are academics who are often experts in the field and value “systematic, transparent and rigorous work to produce evidence which proves your conclusions; extensive methodology; [a] lengthy and comprehensive literature review that includes accurate citations; and contributions to theory and debate” (Thody, 2006, p. 39).
On the other hand, presentations of longer than 15 or 20 minutes test an audience’s concentration so Thody (2006) suggests the use of well-signalled asides like an audience activity, a practical demonstration or a video clip. Her suggestion is that an entertaining and informative performance may have you re-invited to other conferences as a presenter. Thody (2006, p. 210) also suggests that conference audiences “are generally weary, enjoy the social life of the conference and want to absorb your message as easily as possible.”
For further information:
Thody, Angela. (2006) Writing and Presenting Research. London: Sage publications Limited.
www.cgu.edu/pages/867.asp
www.gradstudies.unimelb.edu.au/programs/pge/pge2.html