Do’s and don’ts of presenting research

A few things to remember – and never to forget!

Do’s

Prepare ahead

• Sounds obvious, right? Amazing how many people postpone their slide and material preparation to the last minute as if they are postponing a torture session. Taking the time ahead (i.e. at least two weeks ahead) will enable you to build a solid presentation and rehearse it (see below).

Limit slides number

• How much time do you have? 15 minutes or a full hour with a question session? Plan accordingly with the aim to limit your slides to between one slide per 1-2 minutes, depending on your tendency to talk (more on that later).

Choose your most exciting topic

• If you have several projects, go for the one that excites you most.

• Recruit this excitement to engage your audience. Most of them will remember your presentation even if the data presented is limited. The "how" is much more important than the "what".

Write a script

• Prepare a text of what do you want to say at each slide. It'll help you capture quite quickly how much time you need for every slide.

Tell a story

• A presentation is basically telling a story (hopefully an interesting one!). A story can make your talk interesting and captivating! Think about how to approach the audience so that you will draw them into your world and keep them fascinated, instead of having them sitting there with their heads bowed down, sleepily looking at their watches.

Practice, practice and… practice

• Yeah, practice. And not in your head. Run the slides in full screen, stand up and start telling your story in a clear voice as you would do in front of an audience. It's no fun at all, at first. But as you repeat the process, you will gain more confidence and the slides will flow without the need to read from them all the time. When you think you're ready, practice one more time, and then, give a lecture in front of your friends/spouse.

Prepare for the question session

• People will ask you questions, even if they found your topic boring. They often do this out of courtesy, or because they want to show off their cleverness. Either way, analyse your presentation and locate its weak points, areas where the data is not strong enough or your motivation is not clear enough. Plan what and how to answer each question, it will make you sweat less on stage.

Don’ts

Stand still & talk monotonously

• You want people to listen to you, right? Being idle is a good way to make people go to sleep, especially after lunch time in a dark auditorium with the heater on. Walking a bit to this or that side of the stage, changing the tone of your speech to highlight a point or generate tension can make a difference. Look at people's eyes, talk to them, and convince them your story is interesting.

Use a wide variety of colours and fonts

• Visual aids are important in presentations, because our eyes are the most powerful sensing tool we've got. Try your best to keep the same slide background for all slides, choose a pleasant colour that’s easy on the eyes and limit your font's colour gamut to 2-3 options. You are not promoting a circus, right?

• This slide is absolutely horrendous and a great example of what your sllides SHOULDN’T look like.

Talk too much/ slow/ fast

• Either one of these will make your audience either move uneasily in their chairs or worse, go to sleep. Make sure you're talking to the point, at a normal pace (ask friends/colleagues for this feedback).

Tell your new joke

• Humour can break the ice, recharge interest and make people engaged. However, use humour wisely and according to the atmosphere. You can plan a place to insert a humorous comment, but if you feel people are already engaged you might want to pass it. You're presenting a scientific talk, not stand-up comedy.