Presenting Your Findings
Oral & Poster Presentations
Frances L. Chumney, Summer 2005
Oral Presentations
Things That Matter
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Contents (duh!)
Graphs, Figures Images
Visual Appeal
Graphics & Illustrations
You
Contents
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Title Slide
Abstract
Introduction
Methods
Results
Discussion
References
Contents: Title Slide
• Title of presentation, as reported in the
program book or original submission
• Name of authors & coauthors
• Institutional Affiliations
• Titles, such as Ph.D.
Contents: Abstract
• If you include one….
Sample Abstract
The present study extended the research of Zinser, et al. (2004) and Straub and Seaton (1993) in five
tasks designed to compare the configurational knowledge of the U.S. states in men and women. For the
site-name memory task, participants listed as many of the 50 states and 25 largest cities as they could
remember. For the site-name-with-map-aid task, an outline map of the U.S. was provided. For the maplabeling task, participants were required to write the name of the states and major cities on the maps.
For the fragmented U.S. state maps task, participants wrote the names of the states and cities on cutouts of each state. For the fifth task, the U.S. was shown divided into regions: southeast, northeast,
midwest, west, and southwest, and participants were asked to name and draw the outlines of each of the
continental states within its appropriate region and to provide the names and locations of the 25 largest
cities. A demographic questionnaire had the participants rate themselves on ability to visualize
geographic locations, ability to recall state and city names with and without a map, and ability to give
easy-to-follow directions, all before and after completing the map tasks. Men performed better on the
cities of the site-name task, but no difference was found on the states measure; no gender differences
were found for the site-name-with-map-aid or the map reproduction tasks; and men performed
significantly better than did women on both the states and cities of the map labeling and the fragmented
states labeling tasks. The gender difference from the fragmented states task suggested that men were
superior in configurational knowledge of the outlines of the states. The ratings and experience data
suggested that the gender differences in knowledge of the cities and states of the U. S. were a joint
product of nature and nurture.
Contents: Abstracts
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“Here’s my abstract for the project.”
You don’t read it.
You click past it.
What’s the point?
Contents: Introduction
• Literature Review
• Objectives
• Hypothesis(es)
Introduction: Literature
Review
• Overview of primary articles
• Do not summarize each article
• Main points of each article, as they
relate to your research project
• Combine like ideas & integrate material
from different articles
• Excerpt from paper, if written
Sample Lit Review Slide
• Configurational knowledge is about shape, pattern, distribution of
items in space, and associations with other objects in space
(Golledge, 1992)
• When asked to indicate the locations of cities on an outline map
with no state or regional indicators, women made more errors
than men (Beatty & Bruellman, 1987; Montello, et al., 1999)
• When required to label states or cities on an outline map of the
U.S., a significant gender difference favoring men has been
found for states (Straub and Seaton, 1993), and cities (Beatty
and Bruellman, 1987; Beatty and Tröster, 1987)
Introduction: Objectives
• Good idea, but regarded as optional
• Objectives of the project, not of the
presentation
• Why did you do the research?
• Potential impact of this line of research
• Supported by lit review presented
Introduction: Hypothesis(es)
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They deserve a slide
Short and simple
Elaborate orally
Logical ordering on slide
Usually, one per condition
Sample Hypotheses Slide
Site-name Memory: No significant gender differences were expected
Site-name with Map-aid: A significant gender difference was expected for
the states, but not for the cities portion of this task
Map Labeling: Men were expected to identify a significantly larger number
of states and cities
Fragmented U.S. States: Will illustrate the effect of state shape or
configuration on geographic knowledge; A gender difference favoring
men was expected
Map Reproduction: Will show the knowledge of and ability to reproduce
configurational information about the relative shapes, sizes, and
locations of U.S. states and cities; men expected to perform better
Contents: Method
• Participants
• Materials
• Procedure
Method: Participants
• Sample size
• Where sample came from
• Distinguishing characteristics of the
sample
• Breakdown of important demographic
characteristics
Method: Materials/Measures
• List of materials/measures used
– Mention by name
– Present in order presented or in order
consistent with rest of the presentation
• List of equipment
• Arrange by condition, if necessary
Sample Materials Slide
Fragmented U.S. States
– Participants were provided with pages containing the outlines of the fifty
individual U.S. states separated from each other and organized in random
order.
– The cities portion of this task consisted of the random arrangement of the
states that included at least one of the twenty-five most highly populated
cities, marked by large dots.
Map Reproduction of U.S. States and Cities
– Participants were provided an outline of the U. S. with regional boundaries
defining 5 major regions of the United States: Southeast, Southwest,
Northeast, West, and Midwest. Participants were asked to draw outlines
and label the 48 contiguous states, and mark with a dot and label the 25
largest cities of the U.S.
Sample Materials Slide, cont.
Sample Materials Slide, cont.
Method: Procedure
• Order in which sections of study were
completed
• Time or other limitations created by
experimenter
• Scoring, if logical
Contents: Results
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Organize by hypothesis
Say it in numbers, say it in words
Relevant to the discussion you present
Statistics to show what you did
Tables or matrices, as needed
Sample Results Slide
Sample Results Slide, cont.
• Fragmented U. S. States
– Significant differences favoring men were found for both the
states and cities tasks
– Self-Ratings: Ratings for all four items decreased significantly
for both men and women
• Map Reproduction
– Significant gender differences were not found on either the
states or cities portion of this condition
– Self-Ratings: Ratings for all four items decreased significantly
for both men and women
Sample Results Slide, cont.
Contents: Discussion
• Organize by hypothesis
• Interpret the results
• Elaborate on the possible implications of
the results that you found
• Draw conclusions
• Future directions
• Include limitations
Sample Discussion Slide
• Businessperson is a subgroup of White, and a subtype of Black and Latino –
Supported
• Data supported the hypothesis that welfare recipient is a subtype of White,
and a subgroup of Black and Latino – Supported
• High levels of prejudice will accompany attitudes that support the
subgroup/subtype relationships – Not Supported
• Low levels of privilege awareness will accompany attitudes that support the
subgroup/subtype relationships – Not Supported
Contents: References
• “Here are citations for the key articles
used for this project.”
• Limit to introduction
• Compact, compact, compact
Graphs, Figures, Images
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Good for clarification
Keep simple
Use as needed
Neat and attractive
Be prepared to explain and elaborate
Use gridlines sparingly – they almost
never enhance the figure
Sample Bad Graph/Chart
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West
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1st Qtr
2nd Qtr
3rd Qtr
4th Qtr
Sample Good Graph/Chart
90
East
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West
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North
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First
Second
Third
Fourth
Quarter
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Visual Appeal
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Really, Visual Appeal?
Text Size & Crowding
Slide Theme & Background
Using Color
Uniformity
Text Size & Crowding
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At least 20-point font
Simple fonts better for everyone
Leave margins
“White Space”
Simple is GOOD
Sample Bad Font Slide
If you have to lean forward and squint from only five feet away, the font is too small!
Freehand fonts are not appreciated in a
professional presentation.
Artsy fonts are not
appropriate either.
Shouldn’t there be space between letters?
Sample Good Font Slide
Times New Roman is the most common.
Arial is also very common.
Some people prefer Courier.
Tahoma is clean but subtly different.
Narkism isn’t too bad.
Slide Theme & Backgrounds
• Simple is good
• Too much pattern makes font hard to
read
• If like busy pattern, give textbox solid
background
• Contrast text color with background
• Create your own color scheme
Sample Bad Background Slide
Sample Better Background Slide
Using Color
• Too much color is distracting
• Limit text colors to one or two
• High-contrast colors into graphs &
figures
Uniformity
• Format all slides the same
• Do not mix-n-match fonts and
backgrounds
• Presentations should not be eclectic.
Graphics & Illustrations
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Relevant material only
Use conservatively
Nothing controversial unless related
Better to avoid
Sample Bad Graphics Slide
Hints & Shortcuts
• Complete sentences not required
• If you wrote the paper, use it
• Do it rough, then fix it
You, the Presenter
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Mannerisms
Language
Knowledge
Aware of Audience
Poster Presentations
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Similar to oral presentations
Complete sentences often better
Completely self-explanatory
All other rules are the same!!!