Helpful Presentation Information

The not-so-secret secret to an engaging and effective oral presentation is preparation, preparation and more preparation. This means preparing your materials to suit: your purpose, the audience's needs and the length of your talk.
It also means rehearsing your delivery to ensure your talk:

• Engages the audience with the topic
• Presents the necessary information clearly and concisely, and
• Can be delivered within the time limit.

A useful thing you can do to prepare for your own milestone presentation is to view other milestone presentations. Try to establish a sense of the setting and audience, and the elements of a successful presentation.

Try to listen carefully to how material is organised and presented by other candidates. Think, in particular, about which elements that make the speaker's presentation engaging. If English is not your first language, pay special attention to how the speaker keeps the presentation flowing, how questions are handled, and whether the words, phrases and sentences you hear are formal, informal or a combination.

There are several recognised strategies for organising information in an oral presentation. In the first instance, discuss your proposed presentation structure with your Principal Supervisor.

One means of presenting information is through a simple introduction-body-conclusion structure:

• Tell your audience what you will be talking about;
• Proceed to do so; and
• Conclude by recapping your main points.

You may be used to thinking about the topic that you will investigate in 'content' terms: for instance, equine anatomy, cancer genes, the pest resistance of genetically modified canola. Describing the topic of your research in these terms will not necessarily communicate its importance or relevance to an audience, however.

To hook an audience, it is better to describe the problem that your project will address, not only the topic that you will investigate. You will bore your audience if you go into details about how and what you plan to research before telling them why that research is significant. You need to tell them right at the start why they should be interested in the project.

You can do this by establishing that your research addresses a specific and significant problem or need. The worth and application of your research project will then be obvious. No-one will need to ask: 'why would you do that?'
Compare, for example:

In the reworked topic statements on the right hand side of the table, a problem or need is implicit:

• A social problem - high teenage pregnancy rates and poor outcomes in a particular demographic group
• A problem for medical practice - patient non-adherence to treatment
• A functional limitation - the water permeability of concrete needs to be improved
• A research/knowledge gap - a particular phenomenon has not been documented

Importantly, the reworked topic statements indicate how the proposed research will contribute to solving the identified problem or need. Any audience will enjoy supporting such a project!

Preparing for question time is as important as preparing the material for your talk. While the Milestone Review Panel members are always interested in the content of a candidate’s report and presentation, many look to question time as the best opportunity to assess a candidate's abilities and depth of knowledge. If you plan to rehearse your presentation with others, invite questions and take note of the questions asked.

Some questions may indicate a gap or point of confusion in your talk. For example, 'what is the relationship between ...' Others will ask you to expand on a particular point or explain something in more detail (open questions). For example, 'could you say more about ...' Some questions are asked because the listener missed a point or wants to check his/her understanding (closed questions). For example, 'what technique did you propose to use for ...'

After rehearsal, decide whether the information elicited by the questions is so important that it needs to be included in the body of the presentation. Don't try to include everything, however.

During question-time on the day of your presentation, it's worth keeping the following in mind:

• Listen attentively; paraphrase the question or ask for it to be repeated if necessary
• Decide whether you are being asked an open question - which gives you the opportunity to expand and elaborate - or a closed one - which requires only restatement or clarification
• Answer honestly and stay within the limits of your knowledge
• Maintain control - if necessary by reminding your audience that the project is still in development. (For example, 'I can't answer that question at this point in the research. I'd hope to have an answer in 6 months time...'  or 'I don't know. It's something I'll be looking into but I'll have to get back to you on that one.')
• Be honest in your answers

Use question time as a way of getting support and advice that will help you continue along the journey.

Some form of visual material is expected with most oral presentations. PowerPoint slide are the most common media.

Whatever you end up using, the golden rule is to practice with it in advance. You must be able to handle your slides effortlessly.

To aid your presentation, visual material must also be legible. A few points are worth checking before your in-person presentation starts:

• Will you be blocking anyone's view of the screen?
• Is the equipment properly focussed?
• Is projection of an adequate size from the back of the room or for the virtual audience

Some general guidelines when preparing PowerPoint slides are:

• Use landscape layout (not portrait)
• Keep layout, borders, fonts and images simple and clear
• Font sizes: use 32 point to 36 point for headings. No less than 18 point for text, 28 is better.
• Maximum 10 lines of text per slide.

A final note: if you plan to use a computer, have a backup plan in case of equipment failure - for example, a printed copy of your presentation.

No one will be expecting your milestone presentation to be a consummate performance. The Milestone Review Panel and the other academics in attendance are likely, however, to expect it to be a thoroughly prepared presentation, evidenced by your:

• Reasonably fluent delivery, with minimal use of speaking notes, and
• Use of appropriate visual aids, such as PowerPoint slides or overhead transparencies

Your audience will be more interested in your research if you appear enthusiastic. More importantly, once you have your audience's interest, you will relax and gain confidence in your delivery.
Particularly if English is not your first language, it’s important to be aware that an oral presentation is not an academic paper read out loud – it’s a different way of using language. Keen observation can be the first step in developing your skills in this area.
Even though you will be addressing a specialised audience with technical knowledge of your general field, aim to make your presentation as clear and accessible as possible.

Clarity is assisted by:

• Using 'active voice': 'I will investigate ABC', not 'ABC will be investigated'
• Precision: if possible specify extent, duration, quantity etc
• Brevity: if one word will serve, use it instead of a phrase. For example, use 'as' instead of 'on account of the fact that'; 'then' instead of 'after this has been done'.
• Connecting new information to something already known. For example, before describing a new computer modelling program, briefly remind your audience of the features and functions of the programs they are likely to have used in the past.