A manual for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations, Ninth edition - Kate L. Turabian 2018
Plan your oral presentation
Presenting research in alternative forums
Research and writing
13.1 Plan Your Oral Presentation
13.1.1 Narrow Your Focus
13.1.2 Understand the Difference between Listeners and Readers
13.2 Design Your Presentation to Be Listened To
13.2.1 Sketch Your Introduction
13.2.2 Design Notes You Can Understand at a Glance
13.2.3 Model Your Conclusion on Your Introduction
13.2.4 Anticipate Questions
13.2.5 Create Handouts
13.3 Plan Your Poster Presentation
13.4 Plan Your Conference Proposal
It may be too early in your career to think about publishing your work, but it’s not too early to present. Researchers at all stages communicate their work to others in oral presentations to a class or at a conference or through research posters, a form especially common in the sciences. Increasingly, undergraduate researchers share their work with audiences beyond the classroom by participating in local research fairs or symposia. Experienced researchers also present their work to colleagues before publishing it in professional journals. Indeed, the ability to stand up and talk about your work clearly and confidently is a crucial skill for any career.
In this chapter we show you how to use your plan for a written text to prepare a talk. We also discuss the research poster, which combines elements of speech and writing. Finally, we discuss how to prepare a conference proposal as a first step, often, in presenting your research.
13.1 Plan Your Oral Presentation
An oral presentation may be easier to prepare than a written paper, but to benefit from the experience of delivering it, you must plan just as carefully. In giving a talk, you get immediate feedback that can be very helpful if you are testing new ideas or new data. You want to design your presentation to elicit responses that help you refine your arguments and your analysis.
13.1.1 Narrow Your Focus
Typically, a talk delivered at a conference runs about twenty minutes (or about eight to ten double-spaced pages for text read aloud). This is not much time to communicate your ideas, so you must boil down your work to its essence or present just a part of it. Here are three common options:
✵ ▪ Problem statement with a sketch of your argument. If your problem is new, focus on its originality. Start with a short introduction (review chapter 10), then explain your reasons, summarizing your evidence for each.
✵ ▪ Summary of a subargument. If your argument is too big, focus on a key subargument. Mention your larger problem in your introduction and conclusion, but be clear that you’re addressing only part of it.
✵ ▪ Methodology or data report. If you offer a new methodology or source of data, explain why it matters. Start with a brief problem statement, then focus on how your new methods or data solve it.
13.1.2 Understand the Difference between Listeners and Readers
Unless you know and respect the difference between listening and reading, your audience will find your presentation tedious or hard to follow. When we read, we can pause to reflect and puzzle over difficult passages. To keep on track, we can look at headings and even paragraph indentations. If we wander, we can reread. But as listeners in an audience, we can do none of these things. We must be motivated to pay attention, and we need help to follow a complicated line of thought. If we lose its thread, we may drift off into our own thoughts.
That’s why it’s important to not simply read your paper with little or no eye contact or, if using slides, merely introduce them and repeat their content. You must engage your audience as in a conversation but with extra care for what listeners need. You have to be explicit about your purpose and your organization. Further, you have to make your sentence structure far simpler than in a written paper. So favor shorter sentences with consistent subjects (see 11.1.2). Use “I,” “we,” and “you” a lot. What seems clumsily repetitive to readers is usually welcomed by listeners.