Research Tips: Presentation Skills

Prezi is a cloud-based presentation software and storytelling tool for exploring and sharing ideas.

Google Docs Presentations is a collaborative presentation tool.  You can allow other people to view or edit your presentation and access it from any computer that has an internet access.

PowerPoint is a software package designed to create electronic presentations consisting of a series of separate pages or slides.

Tips for creating a rapid-fire presentation:

How much time do you have? If it's 1-5 minutes, you'll need to distil your information down to the major highlights of your research. What does this look like?

• Start with a quick "hook" story or a question.
• Take your three most important points from your research - your research question, 1-2 sentences about how you conducted your research and what surprised or fascinated you about your results.
• You can use a PowerPoint presentation to supplement your talk, but keep it to 2-5 slides. Your slides should be minimalist. Use images or single words rather than narrative text or bullet points to illustrate your talk.
• Practice your presentation until you can say it without any notes. You only have to speak for a few minutes so memorise it! Once you have it memorised, it will be easier to make it sound natural.
• During your presentation, make sure that you: dress professionally, make eye contact with the audience, do not pace around the room and do not read from your slides or notes.

Remember, everyone wants to see you succeed - so smile! You know your research very well and this is your opportunity to share it with your audience