LibGuides: Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU): Giving Presentations

Presenting your research to a live audience is a professional must

Having your research published can be one of those most rewarding accomplishments--a bragging right!--in your professional life. Right then and there, you have something for other scholars to read and engage with. But are you aware that publications are just one part of the professional engagement and career progression package? What if someone were to tell you that there are other avenues to showcasing your research? Realize that your research findings could be something to be shared with in front of a live audience of like-minded or even curious colleagues. They may be more than willing to hear from you personally about your discoveries and methodologies. And so, this activity called the oral presentation is the vehicle you use for sharing that knowledge.

Best Practices

Doing presentations may come naturally quite easily for some people. For others, not so much; but that is not to say that public speaking is not your thing or should be avoided. Whatever your level of comfort or ability, it takes plenty of preparation and practice to get the delivery right for the big event. Here are some guidelines to keep in mind.

Try not to read off your slides, especially word-for-word, line-by-line.
As such, keep your eyes off the screen and make eye contact with the audience.
Avoid writing paragraphs on your slides. Keep to short-phrase or one-sentence bullet points.
Be mindful of the time you are allotted for your presentation.
Utilize transition animations and/or illustrations sparingly.
If you copy-paste an infographic or insert a photo or illustration, make sure that it renders sharply. Works best if the source image is high-resolution.
Whether to provide any printed handouts is debatable.

Same principles apply to when you are delivering presentations over live (or recorded) video. In addition to the guidelines above:

In a speaker-camera-on scenario, position your speaker notes or script in such a way so that as you are reading it, you do not give the appearance of "looking away from your audience."
Sometimes it is advisable to turn your camera off in order to save network bandwidth.
Have your source light in front of you, instead of in back of you.
Be mindful of your backdrop!
Before going live, always give yourself plenty of time to perform audio and video tests, as well as check internet connectivity.

Poster presentations are a unique alternative to doing a live, sit-down audience presentation. Like the sit-down audience presentation, the poster presentation also has its share of best practices.

Check out "Ten Simple Rules for a Good Poster Presentation."
Follow the rules put out by the conference venue organizers.
Be welcoming and engage with your audience.
Treat your poster presentation like an "elevator speech."

Choose from Among These Presentation Tools and Apps

If you know of others, please feel free to share them!

Try This/These Out

Explore the presentation apps we listed above. Feel free to set up an account or accounts for any one of these.
Are there any plans to do a presentation for your REU project?
ACTIVITY: Consult with your REU lead investigator about possible modes of presentation. If you are comfortable, at the next session please share with the group what the plans are. Perhaps on the final we day meet, you could do a dry run of your presentation, get peer feedback.