How to prepare Presentation for Research Paper

The purpose of the presentation of the research paper is not to impress the audience by giving every little detail of your work but to give the audience a sense of the work and get their feedback on the presented work. A good presentation should:

• Convey the objective of the presented research.
• Express clearly the research finding and the analysis of those findings.
• Motivate others in the academic community to get interested in the presented work and give valuable feedback that could further, and strengthen the work.

Every research presentation starts with a title slide. The title slide must contain the title of research paper. It must, also, include the name(s) of author(s), department(s) and institute(s).

The research presentation, regardless of the field of study, contains some common sections. The notable sections are listed as below.

Introduction: This section is to inform the audience of all the relevant background information of the research. This is the section where it is explained as to why this research is important. Give the audience a broader impact of the research so that they become interested in the work.

Literature Review: This section will be an overview of literature for the audience, where discussion is, only about the most relevant articles or texts used in the research. This section is where the discussion starts about other studies that have been performed. This is important to convey what’s been done and how your research is different or an improvement.

Research Objective: State the research objective clearly. This statement should not be elaborated too much and preferably must be one to two sentences long. The goal of this section is to let the audience understand the research aim easily.

Research Methods: In this section, an overview about the methodology, tools, analysis techniques, algorithms developed, etc. is presented to the audience with all the relevant details.

Results: This section is used to clearly organize and display the results obtained and findings. The use of graphs, charts and images are most helpful for it. Discuss the results obtained briefly but pointing out the important outcomes.

Conclusion(s): The presentation is to be concluded with a concise summary of the main findings/ results of the research. Ideally answer to each research objective that was initially stated in the beginning of the slides is to be presented. The conclusion must be concentrated to the main findings.

Future Research: It is not necessary that all presentations will have this section, but in research it is most likely to have future research goals. State the goals in a bulleted format and add a sentence about the reasons for the research to go in the specified direction.

References: Do not include the entire reference list that is in the research paper. It’s best to include 3-5 key references. Make sure the references are in the proper format (APA, ASA, ACS, MLA or Chicago style) as per the field of study.

Acknowledgements (Optional): This section is used to thank the people, programs and funding agencies that allowed performing the research.

Questions: It’s great to include a final slide that simply says “Questions?” or “Any Questions?” in the center of the slide.

While preparing your slides the following issues should be followed to make the presentation visually appealing,

Background: Use simple backgrounds and use the same background throughout the presentation. Do not use backgrounds that are distracting or make it difficult to read the words.

Text Colour: Use a text colour that contrasts with the background. To emphasize some point use colour.

Font: Fonts should be standard and easy to read, viz. Times New Roman, Arial and Calibri. Do not use too small font size so that the audience has not to strain to read it. Capitalize only to make a point – not all the time and use one font style throughout.

Slide Layout: Avoid slides that are full of text and also avoid full paragraphs on the slides. Create the slide for each main point as it keeps presentation focused, helps the audience concentrate on each point and prevents audience from reading ahead.

And now, the most important thing about the questioning round after the presentation, in case if you DO NOT know the answer to a question. It is always a bad idea to “fake” an answer to a question. Just say something like: “I actually don’t know the answer to that, but it’s a great question and I will look into it.” Follow-up with this person after your presentation so you can send him/ her information on what you discover.

It’s often a good idea to have some extra slides prepared at the end of your presentation to answer anticipated questions.

Best wishes for your presentation ahead!

Nidhika