How to Present your Work
Master seminar, May 2007
Contents
•
•
•
•
Introduction
Preparing slides
Preparing oral presentation
Conclusion
Introduction
• We give basic guidelines for making your
slides and presenting them effectively.
• Following these guidelines will help the
audience follow your presentation.
• Also, following these guidelines may be
useful not only for presenting your master
thesis, but also scientific papers you may
write in the future or any general report.
Preparation of slides
• Make an outline
– Prepare a concise summary of the major
points and supporting facts of your talk.
– This will help you organize the flow of the talk
as well as point out where slides are
necessary.
Preparation of slides
• Plan your slides
– Use your outline to decide how many and
what kind of slides you need.
– Cover all your major points and include
supporting information.
– But do not overuse slides – they will confuse
the audience.
Preparation of slides
• One idea per slide
– Trying to present more than one idea at a time
is confusing.
– Use several slides to introduce complex
ideas.
Preparation of slides
• Keep it simple
– Remove all extra details.
– Use close-ups rather than panoramic views.
– If necessary, include a known size object to
show scale.
Preparation of slides
• Keep it concise
– Limit text-only slides to about 7 lines.
• Use charts and graphs
– Use charts rather than tables of data.
– Visual comparisons are much easier than
reading data.
– Tables are confusing.
Preparation of slides
• Keep it legible
– Make sure all slides will be legible even to the
person in the back row.
• Edit the presentation
– Make sure you covered all the points from the
outline.
– Do your slides fit the content of the narration?
– Is there continuity between slides?
– Are they legible?
Preparation of slides
• Rehearse
– Be completely familiar with your presentation.
– Especially pay attention to time limits – you
must leave several minutes for questions.
– Not respecting the time limits is a serious
offence.
Preparing oral presentation
• Do not try to cover the entire subject
– Select one specific part for your central idea
• Your contribution is a natural choice for this.
– Make your presentation interesting enough so
that the people in the audience will be
motivated to read your complete work (thesis,
paper, etc.)
Preparing oral presentation
• Phrase your central idea into a
purpose-sentence
– Thus you will know where you are going.
– Avoid swinging too far in the opposite
direction and making your oral presentation
seem like an aimless conversation.
Preparing oral presentation
• Make a list of 2-4 main points of your
central idea
– Many presenters make the mistake of
reducing each part of their work by the same
amount in order to boil it down for an oral
presentation.
– Pick only 2-4 main points, develop them
thoroughly and tie them together so that your
audience understands the relationship of
these points to your central idea.
Preparing oral presentation
• Obtain specific and interesting supporting
material for each of the main points
– Support your ideas by a succession of details,
examples, comparisons, illustrations, etc.
– Thus your listeners will remember and believe
what you say.
Preparing oral presentation
• Organize the speech into an outline
– Prepare extremely detailed outlines
containing up to about 60% of the number of
words, which would be included in the full
speech.
– A good plan to follow:
• An introduction
• A discussion
• A summary.
Preparing oral presentation
• Practice delivering the speech until you
have it well in mind
– Try reading your outline silently
– An alternative is to record your speech and
reproduce it later in order to find the mistakes.
Preparing oral presentation
• Practice delivering the speech until you
have it well in mind (cont.)
– What tells an amateur from a professional is
how they start to speak:
• Before you speak, pause and get ready.
• Address yourself to the chairman (evt. other
members of the panel, distinguished guests, etc.)
and finally your audience.
Preparing oral presentation
• Practice delivering the speech until you
have it well in mind (cont.)
– Try to speak as naturally and as
conversationally as you can.
– Don’t speak in a monotone – learn to
modulate your voice (a recorder may be very
useful for this).
– Speak slowly and avoid running words
together – beginners usually speak too fast.
Preparing oral presentation
• Practice delivering the speech until you
have it well in mind (cont.)
– Be sure to talk to your audience, not to your
slides.
– Avoid standing between the audience and the
slides.
Conclusion
• By following the guidelines presented
here, you will make a quality and
interesting presentation of your work.
• A good presentation is necessary in many
situations, not only in academic ones – so
practice and benefit from the experience
gained while making your master thesis
presentation.