Scientists typically have 10-12 minutes to present their research; you will also be subject to this time limit so that we can hear all the presentations in a reasonable time. This time limit can force you to be precise and to identify the most critical aspects of your study. Organize your talk by deciding on the major take-home message you want to tell your audience about your research. In the first few minutes, tell your audience what your hypotheses were and why this subject is interesting in a general sense. Then introduce them to your organisms and how you tested your hypotheses. Then give your major results. Throughout your talk, keep reminding your audience how your tests or results relate to your main question (briefly). Summarize your major findings and clearly state your main conclusion(s), relating it back to your original question. Remember that YOU are the expert on this subject, and you've spent a whole lot longer thinking about it than your audience has. Guide the audience through to your conclusions.

Guidelines for Oral Presentations

• Start with a brief description of which organism(s) and factor(s) you chose and your rationale for choosing them.
  
• End the introduction with a statement of the pattern you expected to see (the equivalent of your hypothesis in this case).
  
• Spend a couple of minutes briefly describing the method you devised to collect your data. Include only what your audience needs to know to understand the results.
  
• Briefly describe which statistical test you chose to use and why.
  
• Present a graph or other visual representation of the results with clear, interpretable axis labels. Show the statistical outcome either by letters above bars or a simple table (ANOVA or ANCOVA factors and P-values) in the upper right corner. Graphs for oral presentations have titles but not legends.
  
• Suggest a mechanistic hypothesis for why you saw a significant response or pattern, or reasons why your expected response or pattern was not significant.
  
• Offer your insights on new questions your work has brought up, and suggest how these questions might be answered.

 

Hints for Great Presentations!

• Use PowerPoint to construct your presentation. Most students who use PowerPoint do better presentations than those who don't simply because they think more about their presentation and illustrate more of their points.
  
• Show your hypotheses in some visual way to help your audience follow you and refer back to these hypotheses during your talk and/or at the end when you make your conclusions.
  
• Figures and tables should be clear, uncluttered and as brief as possible. Make sure that the major result is clear, i.e. "moss cover on deciduous trees was significantly higher than on conifers" or "increased light levels were associated with significantly higher moss cover."
  
• Don't read your paper! Talk to your audience. Slides or overheads can serve as notes to remind you what to say next. Write your major points down and underline them if you are afraid you might forget them or not present them clearly.
  
• Do a practice talk with some friends and get their comments.