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How to Prepare a Paper Presentation

Last Updated: October 4, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Patrick Muñoz . Patrick is an internationally recognized Voice & Speech Coach, focusing on public speaking, vocal power, accent and dialects, accent reduction, voiceover, acting and speech therapy. He has worked with clients such as Penelope Cruz, Eva Longoria, and Roselyn Sanchez. He was voted LA's Favorite Voice and Dialect Coach by BACKSTAGE, is the voice and speech coach for Disney and Turner Classic Movies, and is a member of Voice and Speech Trainers Association. There are 9 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 361,498 times.

A paper is bad enough, but presentations are even more nerve-wracking. You've got the writing down, but how do you turn it into a dynamic, informative, enjoyable presentation? Why, here's how!

Guidelines and Audience

Step 1 Know the requirements.

  • Know how long the speech must be.
  • Know how many points you're required to cover.
  • Know if you must include sources or visuals.

Step 2 Know your audience.

  • If you're presenting to people you know, it'll be easy to know what to break down and what to gloss over. But if you're presenting to unknown stockholders or faculty, for instance, you need to know about them and their knowledge levels, too. You may have to break your paper down into its most basic concepts. Find out what you can about their backgrounds.

Step 3 Know your resources.

  • Does the facility have a computer and projector screen?
  • Is there a working WiFi connection?
  • Is there a microphone? A podium?
  • Is there someone who can assist you in working the equipment before your presentation?

Script and Visuals

Step 1 Create a script for your presentation.

  • Only have one point per notecard -- that way you won't end up searching the notecard for your information. And don't forget to number the cards in case you get mixed up! And the points on your cards shouldn't match your paper; instead of regurgitating information, discuss why the key points of your paper are important or the different points of view on this topic within the field.

Step 2 Decide on a limited number of ideas you want your audience to comprehend and remember.

  • As you go through this outline, remove any jargon if it may not be understood.

Step 3 Design visual aids to make your presentation even better.

  • If you won't have access to the proper technology, print visual aids on poster board or foam-core board.
  • If using presentation software, use words sparingly, but enough to get your point across. Think in phrases (and pictures!), not sentences. Acronyms and abbreviations are okay on the screen, but when you talk, address them fully. And remember to use large fonts -- not everyone's vision is fantastic. [7] X Research source

Step 4 Think in terms of conversation.

  • It's okay to be a bit repetitive. Emphasizing important ideas will enhance comprehension and recall. When you've gone full circle, cycle back to a previous point to lead your audience to the right conclusion.
  • Minimize the unnecessary details (the procedure you had to go through, etc.) when highlighting the main ideas you want to relay. You don't want to overload your audience with fluff, forcing them to miss the important stuff.
  • Show enthusiasm! A very boring topic can be made interesting if there is passion behind it.

Practice, Practice, and More Practice

Step 1 Practice your presentation in front of friends and family members.

  • If you can grab a friend who you think has a similar knowledge level to your audience, all the better. They'll help you see what points are foggier to minds with less expertise on the topic.

Step 2 Tape record yourself.

  • It'll also help you with volume. Some people get rather timid when in the spotlight. You may not be aware that you're not loud enough!

Step 3 Be warm.

  • Do the same with your conclusion. Thank everyone for their time and open the floor for any questions, if allowed.
  • Make eye contact with people in the audience to help build your connection with them.

What Is The Best Way To Start a Presentation?

Community Q&A

Community Answer

  • Most people get nervous while public speaking. [10] X Research source You are not alone. [11] X Trustworthy Source Mayo Clinic Educational website from one of the world's leading hospitals Go to source Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 1
  • Visual aids not only help the audience, but they can help jog your memory if you forget where you are in your presentation. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
  • Rehearse in front of a mirror before your presentation. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

paper presentation in general

  • Answer questions only if it is related to your presentation. Keep these to the end of your talk. Thanks Helpful 76 Not Helpful 14

You Might Also Like

Write a Conclusion for a Research Paper

  • ↑ https://theihs.org/blog/prepare-for-a-paper-presentation-at-an-academic-conference/
  • ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/conference-papers/
  • ↑ https://www.ncsl.org/legislators-staff/legislative-staff/legislative-staff-coordinating-committee/tips-for-making-effective-powerpoint-presentations.aspx
  • ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qZMPW5g-v8
  • ↑ https://twp.duke.edu/sites/twp.duke.edu/files/file-attachments/paper-to-talk.original.pdf
  • ↑ http://www.cs.swarthmore.edu/~newhall/presentation.html
  • ↑ https://www.forbes.com/sites/georgebradt/2014/09/10/big-presentation-dont-do-it-have-a-conversation-instead/#6d56a3f23c4b
  • ↑ https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/smashing-the-brainblocks/201711/why-are-we-scared-public-speaking
  • ↑ https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/specific-phobias/expert-answers/fear-of-public-speaking/faq-20058416

About This Article

Patrick Muñoz

To prepare a paper presentation, create an outline of your content, then write your script on note cards or slides using software like PowerPoint. Be sure to stick to one main point per card or slide! Next, design visual aids like graphics, charts, and bullet points to illustrate your content and help the audience follow along. Then, practice giving your presentation in front of friends and family until you feel ready to do it in class! For tips on creating an outline and organizing your information, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Open Access

Ten simple rules for effective presentation slides

* E-mail: [email protected]

Affiliation Biomedical Engineering and the Center for Public Health Genomics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, United States of America

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  • Kristen M. Naegle

PLOS

Published: December 2, 2021

  • https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009554
  • Reader Comments

Fig 1

Citation: Naegle KM (2021) Ten simple rules for effective presentation slides. PLoS Comput Biol 17(12): e1009554. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009554

Copyright: © 2021 Kristen M. Naegle. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Funding: The author received no specific funding for this work.

Competing interests: The author has declared no competing interests exist.

Introduction

The “presentation slide” is the building block of all academic presentations, whether they are journal clubs, thesis committee meetings, short conference talks, or hour-long seminars. A slide is a single page projected on a screen, usually built on the premise of a title, body, and figures or tables and includes both what is shown and what is spoken about that slide. Multiple slides are strung together to tell the larger story of the presentation. While there have been excellent 10 simple rules on giving entire presentations [ 1 , 2 ], there was an absence in the fine details of how to design a slide for optimal effect—such as the design elements that allow slides to convey meaningful information, to keep the audience engaged and informed, and to deliver the information intended and in the time frame allowed. As all research presentations seek to teach, effective slide design borrows from the same principles as effective teaching, including the consideration of cognitive processing your audience is relying on to organize, process, and retain information. This is written for anyone who needs to prepare slides from any length scale and for most purposes of conveying research to broad audiences. The rules are broken into 3 primary areas. Rules 1 to 5 are about optimizing the scope of each slide. Rules 6 to 8 are about principles around designing elements of the slide. Rules 9 to 10 are about preparing for your presentation, with the slides as the central focus of that preparation.

Rule 1: Include only one idea per slide

Each slide should have one central objective to deliver—the main idea or question [ 3 – 5 ]. Often, this means breaking complex ideas down into manageable pieces (see Fig 1 , where “background” information has been split into 2 key concepts). In another example, if you are presenting a complex computational approach in a large flow diagram, introduce it in smaller units, building it up until you finish with the entire diagram. The progressive buildup of complex information means that audiences are prepared to understand the whole picture, once you have dedicated time to each of the parts. You can accomplish the buildup of components in several ways—for example, using presentation software to cover/uncover information. Personally, I choose to create separate slides for each piece of information content I introduce—where the final slide has the entire diagram, and I use cropping or a cover on duplicated slides that come before to hide what I’m not yet ready to include. I use this method in order to ensure that each slide in my deck truly presents one specific idea (the new content) and the amount of the new information on that slide can be described in 1 minute (Rule 2), but it comes with the trade-off—a change to the format of one of the slides in the series often means changes to all slides.

thumbnail

  • PPT PowerPoint slide
  • PNG larger image
  • TIFF original image

Top left: A background slide that describes the background material on a project from my lab. The slide was created using a PowerPoint Design Template, which had to be modified to increase default text sizes for this figure (i.e., the default text sizes are even worse than shown here). Bottom row: The 2 new slides that break up the content into 2 explicit ideas about the background, using a central graphic. In the first slide, the graphic is an explicit example of the SH2 domain of PI3-kinase interacting with a phosphorylation site (Y754) on the PDGFR to describe the important details of what an SH2 domain and phosphotyrosine ligand are and how they interact. I use that same graphic in the second slide to generalize all binding events and include redundant text to drive home the central message (a lot of possible interactions might occur in the human proteome, more than we can currently measure). Top right highlights which rules were used to move from the original slide to the new slide. Specific changes as highlighted by Rule 7 include increasing contrast by changing the background color, increasing font size, changing to sans serif fonts, and removing all capital text and underlining (using bold to draw attention). PDGFR, platelet-derived growth factor receptor.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009554.g001

Rule 2: Spend only 1 minute per slide

When you present your slide in the talk, it should take 1 minute or less to discuss. This rule is really helpful for planning purposes—a 20-minute presentation should have somewhere around 20 slides. Also, frequently giving your audience new information to feast on helps keep them engaged. During practice, if you find yourself spending more than a minute on a slide, there’s too much for that one slide—it’s time to break up the content into multiple slides or even remove information that is not wholly central to the story you are trying to tell. Reduce, reduce, reduce, until you get to a single message, clearly described, which takes less than 1 minute to present.

Rule 3: Make use of your heading

When each slide conveys only one message, use the heading of that slide to write exactly the message you are trying to deliver. Instead of titling the slide “Results,” try “CTNND1 is central to metastasis” or “False-positive rates are highly sample specific.” Use this landmark signpost to ensure that all the content on that slide is related exactly to the heading and only the heading. Think of the slide heading as the introductory or concluding sentence of a paragraph and the slide content the rest of the paragraph that supports the main point of the paragraph. An audience member should be able to follow along with you in the “paragraph” and come to the same conclusion sentence as your header at the end of the slide.

Rule 4: Include only essential points

While you are speaking, audience members’ eyes and minds will be wandering over your slide. If you have a comment, detail, or figure on a slide, have a plan to explicitly identify and talk about it. If you don’t think it’s important enough to spend time on, then don’t have it on your slide. This is especially important when faculty are present. I often tell students that thesis committee members are like cats: If you put a shiny bauble in front of them, they’ll go after it. Be sure to only put the shiny baubles on slides that you want them to focus on. Putting together a thesis meeting for only faculty is really an exercise in herding cats (if you have cats, you know this is no easy feat). Clear and concise slide design will go a long way in helping you corral those easily distracted faculty members.

Rule 5: Give credit, where credit is due

An exception to Rule 4 is to include proper citations or references to work on your slide. When adding citations, names of other researchers, or other types of credit, use a consistent style and method for adding this information to your slides. Your audience will then be able to easily partition this information from the other content. A common mistake people make is to think “I’ll add that reference later,” but I highly recommend you put the proper reference on the slide at the time you make it, before you forget where it came from. Finally, in certain kinds of presentations, credits can make it clear who did the work. For the faculty members heading labs, it is an effective way to connect your audience with the personnel in the lab who did the work, which is a great career booster for that person. For graduate students, it is an effective way to delineate your contribution to the work, especially in meetings where the goal is to establish your credentials for meeting the rigors of a PhD checkpoint.

Rule 6: Use graphics effectively

As a rule, you should almost never have slides that only contain text. Build your slides around good visualizations. It is a visual presentation after all, and as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. However, on the flip side, don’t muddy the point of the slide by putting too many complex graphics on a single slide. A multipanel figure that you might include in a manuscript should often be broken into 1 panel per slide (see Rule 1 ). One way to ensure that you use the graphics effectively is to make a point to introduce the figure and its elements to the audience verbally, especially for data figures. For example, you might say the following: “This graph here shows the measured false-positive rate for an experiment and each point is a replicate of the experiment, the graph demonstrates …” If you have put too much on one slide to present in 1 minute (see Rule 2 ), then the complexity or number of the visualizations is too much for just one slide.

Rule 7: Design to avoid cognitive overload

The type of slide elements, the number of them, and how you present them all impact the ability for the audience to intake, organize, and remember the content. For example, a frequent mistake in slide design is to include full sentences, but reading and verbal processing use the same cognitive channels—therefore, an audience member can either read the slide, listen to you, or do some part of both (each poorly), as a result of cognitive overload [ 4 ]. The visual channel is separate, allowing images/videos to be processed with auditory information without cognitive overload [ 6 ] (Rule 6). As presentations are an exercise in listening, and not reading, do what you can to optimize the ability of the audience to listen. Use words sparingly as “guide posts” to you and the audience about major points of the slide. In fact, you can add short text fragments, redundant with the verbal component of the presentation, which has been shown to improve retention [ 7 ] (see Fig 1 for an example of redundant text that avoids cognitive overload). Be careful in the selection of a slide template to minimize accidentally adding elements that the audience must process, but are unimportant. David JP Phillips argues (and effectively demonstrates in his TEDx talk [ 5 ]) that the human brain can easily interpret 6 elements and more than that requires a 500% increase in human cognition load—so keep the total number of elements on the slide to 6 or less. Finally, in addition to the use of short text, white space, and the effective use of graphics/images, you can improve ease of cognitive processing further by considering color choices and font type and size. Here are a few suggestions for improving the experience for your audience, highlighting the importance of these elements for some specific groups:

  • Use high contrast colors and simple backgrounds with low to no color—for persons with dyslexia or visual impairment.
  • Use sans serif fonts and large font sizes (including figure legends), avoid italics, underlining (use bold font instead for emphasis), and all capital letters—for persons with dyslexia or visual impairment [ 8 ].
  • Use color combinations and palettes that can be understood by those with different forms of color blindness [ 9 ]. There are excellent tools available to identify colors to use and ways to simulate your presentation or figures as they might be seen by a person with color blindness (easily found by a web search).
  • In this increasing world of virtual presentation tools, consider practicing your talk with a closed captioning system capture your words. Use this to identify how to improve your speaking pace, volume, and annunciation to improve understanding by all members of your audience, but especially those with a hearing impairment.

Rule 8: Design the slide so that a distracted person gets the main takeaway

It is very difficult to stay focused on a presentation, especially if it is long or if it is part of a longer series of talks at a conference. Audience members may get distracted by an important email, or they may start dreaming of lunch. So, it’s important to look at your slide and ask “If they heard nothing I said, will they understand the key concept of this slide?” The other rules are set up to help with this, including clarity of the single point of the slide (Rule 1), titling it with a major conclusion (Rule 3), and the use of figures (Rule 6) and short text redundant to your verbal description (Rule 7). However, with each slide, step back and ask whether its main conclusion is conveyed, even if someone didn’t hear your accompanying dialog. Importantly, ask if the information on the slide is at the right level of abstraction. For example, do you have too many details about the experiment, which hides the conclusion of the experiment (i.e., breaking Rule 1)? If you are worried about not having enough details, keep a slide at the end of your slide deck (after your conclusions and acknowledgments) with the more detailed information that you can refer to during a question and answer period.

Rule 9: Iteratively improve slide design through practice

Well-designed slides that follow the first 8 rules are intended to help you deliver the message you intend and in the amount of time you intend to deliver it in. The best way to ensure that you nailed slide design for your presentation is to practice, typically a lot. The most important aspects of practicing a new presentation, with an eye toward slide design, are the following 2 key points: (1) practice to ensure that you hit, each time through, the most important points (for example, the text guide posts you left yourself and the title of the slide); and (2) practice to ensure that as you conclude the end of one slide, it leads directly to the next slide. Slide transitions, what you say as you end one slide and begin the next, are important to keeping the flow of the “story.” Practice is when I discover that the order of my presentation is poor or that I left myself too few guideposts to remember what was coming next. Additionally, during practice, the most frequent things I have to improve relate to Rule 2 (the slide takes too long to present, usually because I broke Rule 1, and I’m delivering too much information for one slide), Rule 4 (I have a nonessential detail on the slide), and Rule 5 (I forgot to give a key reference). The very best type of practice is in front of an audience (for example, your lab or peers), where, with fresh perspectives, they can help you identify places for improving slide content, design, and connections across the entirety of your talk.

Rule 10: Design to mitigate the impact of technical disasters

The real presentation almost never goes as we planned in our heads or during our practice. Maybe the speaker before you went over time and now you need to adjust. Maybe the computer the organizer is having you use won’t show your video. Maybe your internet is poor on the day you are giving a virtual presentation at a conference. Technical problems are routinely part of the practice of sharing your work through presentations. Hence, you can design your slides to limit the impact certain kinds of technical disasters create and also prepare alternate approaches. Here are just a few examples of the preparation you can do that will take you a long way toward avoiding a complete fiasco:

  • Save your presentation as a PDF—if the version of Keynote or PowerPoint on a host computer cause issues, you still have a functional copy that has a higher guarantee of compatibility.
  • In using videos, create a backup slide with screen shots of key results. For example, if I have a video of cell migration, I’ll be sure to have a copy of the start and end of the video, in case the video doesn’t play. Even if the video worked, you can pause on this backup slide and take the time to highlight the key results in words if someone could not see or understand the video.
  • Avoid animations, such as figures or text that flash/fly-in/etc. Surveys suggest that no one likes movement in presentations [ 3 , 4 ]. There is likely a cognitive underpinning to the almost universal distaste of pointless animations that relates to the idea proposed by Kosslyn and colleagues that animations are salient perceptual units that captures direct attention [ 4 ]. Although perceptual salience can be used to draw attention to and improve retention of specific points, if you use this approach for unnecessary/unimportant things (like animation of your bullet point text, fly-ins of figures, etc.), then you will distract your audience from the important content. Finally, animations cause additional processing burdens for people with visual impairments [ 10 ] and create opportunities for technical disasters if the software on the host system is not compatible with your planned animation.

Conclusions

These rules are just a start in creating more engaging presentations that increase audience retention of your material. However, there are wonderful resources on continuing on the journey of becoming an amazing public speaker, which includes understanding the psychology and neuroscience behind human perception and learning. For example, as highlighted in Rule 7, David JP Phillips has a wonderful TEDx talk on the subject [ 5 ], and “PowerPoint presentation flaws and failures: A psychological analysis,” by Kosslyn and colleagues is deeply detailed about a number of aspects of human cognition and presentation style [ 4 ]. There are many books on the topic, including the popular “Presentation Zen” by Garr Reynolds [ 11 ]. Finally, although briefly touched on here, the visualization of data is an entire topic of its own that is worth perfecting for both written and oral presentations of work, with fantastic resources like Edward Tufte’s “The Visual Display of Quantitative Information” [ 12 ] or the article “Visualization of Biomedical Data” by O’Donoghue and colleagues [ 13 ].

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the countless presenters, colleagues, students, and mentors from which I have learned a great deal from on effective presentations. Also, a thank you to the wonderful resources published by organizations on how to increase inclusivity. A special thanks to Dr. Jason Papin and Dr. Michael Guertin on early feedback of this editorial.

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  • 3. Teaching VUC for Making Better PowerPoint Presentations. n.d. Available from: https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/making-better-powerpoint-presentations/#baddeley .
  • 8. Creating a dyslexia friendly workplace. Dyslexia friendly style guide. nd. Available from: https://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/advice/employers/creating-a-dyslexia-friendly-workplace/dyslexia-friendly-style-guide .
  • 9. Cravit R. How to Use Color Blind Friendly Palettes to Make Your Charts Accessible. 2019. Available from: https://venngage.com/blog/color-blind-friendly-palette/ .
  • 10. Making your conference presentation more accessible to blind and partially sighted people. n.d. Available from: https://vocaleyes.co.uk/services/resources/guidelines-for-making-your-conference-presentation-more-accessible-to-blind-and-partially-sighted-people/ .
  • 11. Reynolds G. Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery. 2nd ed. New Riders Pub; 2011.
  • 12. Tufte ER. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. 2nd ed. Graphics Press; 2001.

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How to present a research paper in PPT: best practices

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How to present a research paper in PPT: best practices

A research paper presentation is frequently used at conferences and other events where you have a chance to share the results of your research and receive feedback from colleagues. Although it may appear as simple as summarizing the findings, successful examples of research paper presentations show that there is a little bit more to it.

In this article, we’ll walk you through the basic outline and steps to create a good research paper presentation. We’ll also explain what to include and what not to include in your presentation of research paper and share some of the most effective tips you can use to take your slides to the next level.

Research paper PowerPoint presentation outline

Creating a PowerPoint presentation for a research paper involves organizing and summarizing your key findings, methodology, and conclusions in a way that encourages your audience to interact with your work and share their interest in it with others. Here’s a basic research paper outline PowerPoint you can follow:

1. Title (1 slide)

Typically, your title slide should contain the following information:

  • Title of the research paper
  • Affiliation or institution
  • Date of presentation

2. Introduction (1-3 slides)

On this slide of your presentation, briefly introduce the research topic and its significance and state the research question or objective.

3. Research questions or hypothesis (1 slide)

This slide should emphasize the objectives of your research or present the hypothesis.

4. Literature review (1 slide)

Your literature review has to provide context for your research by summarizing relevant literature. Additionally, it should highlight gaps or areas where your research contributes.

5. Methodology and data collection (1-2 slides)

This slide of your research paper PowerPoint has to explain the research design, methods, and procedures. It must also Include details about participants, materials, and data collection and emphasize special equipment you have used in your work.

6. Results (3-5 slides)

On this slide, you must present the results of your data analysis and discuss any trends, patterns, or significant findings. Moreover, you should use charts, graphs, and tables to illustrate data and highlight something novel in your results (if applicable).

7. Conclusion (1 slide)

Your conclusion slide has to summarize the main findings and their implications, as well as discuss the broader impact of your research. Usually, a single statement is enough.

8. Recommendations (1 slide)

If applicable, provide recommendations for future research or actions on this slide.

9. References (1-2 slides)

The references slide is where you list all the sources cited in your research paper.

10. Acknowledgments (1 slide)

On this presentation slide, acknowledge any individuals, organizations, or funding sources that contributed to your research.

11. Appendix (1 slide)

If applicable, include any supplementary materials, such as additional data or detailed charts, in your appendix slide.

The above outline is just a general guideline, so make sure to adjust it based on your specific research paper and the time allotted for the presentation.

Steps to creating a memorable research paper presentation

Creating a PowerPoint presentation for a research paper involves several critical steps needed to convey your findings and engage your audience effectively, and these steps are as follows:

Step 1. Understand your audience:

  • Identify the audience for your presentation.
  • Tailor your content and level of detail to match the audience’s background and knowledge.

Step 2. Define your key messages:

  • Clearly articulate the main messages or findings of your research.
  • Identify the key points you want your audience to remember.

Step 3. Design your research paper PPT presentation:

  • Use a clean and professional design that complements your research topic.
  • Choose readable fonts, consistent formatting, and a limited color palette.
  • Opt for PowerPoint presentation services if slide design is not your strong side.

Step 4. Put content on slides:

  • Follow the outline above to structure your presentation effectively; include key sections and topics.
  • Organize your content logically, following the flow of your research paper.

Step 5. Final check:

  • Proofread your slides for typos, errors, and inconsistencies.
  • Ensure all visuals are clear, high-quality, and properly labeled.

Step 6. Save and share:

  • Save your presentation and ensure compatibility with the equipment you’ll be using.
  • If necessary, share a copy of your presentation with the audience.

By following these steps, you can create a well-organized and visually appealing research paper presentation PowerPoint that effectively conveys your research findings to the audience.

What to include and what not to include in your presentation

In addition to the must-know PowerPoint presentation recommendations, which we’ll cover later in this article, consider the following do’s and don’ts when you’re putting together your research paper presentation:

  • Focus on the topic.
  • Be brief and to the point.
  • Attract the audience’s attention and highlight interesting details.
  • Use only relevant visuals (maps, charts, pictures, graphs, etc.).
  • Use numbers and bullet points to structure the content.
  • Make clear statements regarding the essence and results of your research.

Don’ts:

  • Don’t write down the whole outline of your paper and nothing else.
  • Don’t put long, full sentences on your slides; split them into smaller ones.
  • Don’t use distracting patterns, colors, pictures, and other visuals on your slides; the simpler, the better.
  • Don’t use too complicated graphs or charts; only the ones that are easy to understand.
  • Now that we’ve discussed the basics, let’s move on to the top tips for making a powerful presentation of your research paper.

8 tips on how to make research paper presentation that achieves its goals

You’ve probably been to a presentation where the presenter reads word for word from their PowerPoint outline. Or where the presentation is cluttered, chaotic, or contains too much data. The simple tips below will help you summarize a 10 to 15-page paper for a 15 to 20-minute talk and succeed, so read on!

Tip #1: Less is more

You want to provide enough information to make your audience want to know more. Including details but not too many and avoiding technical jargon, formulas, and long sentences are always good ways to achieve this.

Tip #2: Be professional

Avoid using too many colors, font changes, distracting backgrounds, animations, etc. Bullet points with a few words to highlight the important information are preferable to lengthy paragraphs. Additionally, include slide numbers on all PowerPoint slides except for the title slide, and make sure it is followed by a table of contents, offering a brief overview of the entire research paper.

Tip #3: Strive for balance

PowerPoint slides have limited space, so use it carefully. Typically, one to two points per slide or 5 lines for 5 words in a sentence are enough to present your ideas.

Tip #4: Use proper fonts and text size

The font you use should be easy to read and consistent throughout the slides. You can go with Arial, Times New Roman, Calibri, or a combination of these three. An ideal text size is 32 points, while a heading size is 44.

Tip #5: Concentrate on the visual side

A PowerPoint presentation is one of the best tools for presenting information visually. Use graphs instead of tables and topic-relevant illustrations instead of walls of text. Keep your visuals as clean and professional as the content of your presentation.

Tip #6: Practice your delivery

Always go through your presentation when you’re done to ensure a smooth and confident delivery and time yourself to stay within the allotted limit.

Tip #7: Get ready for questions

Anticipate potential questions from your audience and prepare thoughtful responses. Also, be ready to engage in discussions about your research.

Tip #8: Don’t be afraid to utilize professional help

If the mere thought of designing a presentation overwhelms you or you’re pressed for time, consider leveraging professional PowerPoint redesign services . A dedicated design team can transform your content or old presentation into effective slides, ensuring your message is communicated clearly and captivates your audience. This way, you can focus on refining your delivery and preparing for the presentation.

Lastly, remember that even experienced presenters get nervous before delivering research paper PowerPoint presentations in front of the audience. You cannot know everything; some things can be beyond your control, which is completely fine. You are at the event not only to share what you know but also to learn from others. So, no matter what, dress appropriately, look straight into the audience’s eyes, try to speak and move naturally, present your information enthusiastically, and have fun!

If you need help with slide design, get in touch with our dedicated design team and let qualified professionals turn your research findings into a visually appealing, polished presentation that leaves a lasting impression on your audience. Our experienced designers specialize in creating engaging layouts, incorporating compelling graphics, and ensuring a cohesive visual narrative that complements content on any subject.

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Princeton Correspondents on Undergraduate Research

How to Make a Successful Research Presentation

Turning a research paper into a visual presentation is difficult; there are pitfalls, and navigating the path to a brief, informative presentation takes time and practice. As a TA for  GEO/WRI 201: Methods in Data Analysis & Scientific Writing this past fall, I saw how this process works from an instructor’s standpoint. I’ve presented my own research before, but helping others present theirs taught me a bit more about the process. Here are some tips I learned that may help you with your next research presentation:

More is more

In general, your presentation will always benefit from more practice, more feedback, and more revision. By practicing in front of friends, you can get comfortable with presenting your work while receiving feedback. It is hard to know how to revise your presentation if you never practice. If you are presenting to a general audience, getting feedback from someone outside of your discipline is crucial. Terms and ideas that seem intuitive to you may be completely foreign to someone else, and your well-crafted presentation could fall flat.

Less is more

Limit the scope of your presentation, the number of slides, and the text on each slide. In my experience, text works well for organizing slides, orienting the audience to key terms, and annotating important figures–not for explaining complex ideas. Having fewer slides is usually better as well. In general, about one slide per minute of presentation is an appropriate budget. Too many slides is usually a sign that your topic is too broad.

paper presentation in general

Limit the scope of your presentation

Don’t present your paper. Presentations are usually around 10 min long. You will not have time to explain all of the research you did in a semester (or a year!) in such a short span of time. Instead, focus on the highlight(s). Identify a single compelling research question which your work addressed, and craft a succinct but complete narrative around it.

You will not have time to explain all of the research you did. Instead, focus on the highlights. Identify a single compelling research question which your work addressed, and craft a succinct but complete narrative around it.

Craft a compelling research narrative

After identifying the focused research question, walk your audience through your research as if it were a story. Presentations with strong narrative arcs are clear, captivating, and compelling.

  • Introduction (exposition — rising action)

Orient the audience and draw them in by demonstrating the relevance and importance of your research story with strong global motive. Provide them with the necessary vocabulary and background knowledge to understand the plot of your story. Introduce the key studies (characters) relevant in your story and build tension and conflict with scholarly and data motive. By the end of your introduction, your audience should clearly understand your research question and be dying to know how you resolve the tension built through motive.

paper presentation in general

  • Methods (rising action)

The methods section should transition smoothly and logically from the introduction. Beware of presenting your methods in a boring, arc-killing, ‘this is what I did.’ Focus on the details that set your story apart from the stories other people have already told. Keep the audience interested by clearly motivating your decisions based on your original research question or the tension built in your introduction.

  • Results (climax)

Less is usually more here. Only present results which are clearly related to the focused research question you are presenting. Make sure you explain the results clearly so that your audience understands what your research found. This is the peak of tension in your narrative arc, so don’t undercut it by quickly clicking through to your discussion.

  • Discussion (falling action)

By now your audience should be dying for a satisfying resolution. Here is where you contextualize your results and begin resolving the tension between past research. Be thorough. If you have too many conflicts left unresolved, or you don’t have enough time to present all of the resolutions, you probably need to further narrow the scope of your presentation.

  • Conclusion (denouement)

Return back to your initial research question and motive, resolving any final conflicts and tying up loose ends. Leave the audience with a clear resolution of your focus research question, and use unresolved tension to set up potential sequels (i.e. further research).

Use your medium to enhance the narrative

Visual presentations should be dominated by clear, intentional graphics. Subtle animation in key moments (usually during the results or discussion) can add drama to the narrative arc and make conflict resolutions more satisfying. You are narrating a story written in images, videos, cartoons, and graphs. While your paper is mostly text, with graphics to highlight crucial points, your slides should be the opposite. Adapting to the new medium may require you to create or acquire far more graphics than you included in your paper, but it is necessary to create an engaging presentation.

The most important thing you can do for your presentation is to practice and revise. Bother your friends, your roommates, TAs–anybody who will sit down and listen to your work. Beyond that, think about presentations you have found compelling and try to incorporate some of those elements into your own. Remember you want your work to be comprehensible; you aren’t creating experts in 10 minutes. Above all, try to stay passionate about what you did and why. You put the time in, so show your audience that it’s worth it.

For more insight into research presentations, check out these past PCUR posts written by Emma and Ellie .

— Alec Getraer, Natural Sciences Correspondent

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How to make a scientific presentation

How to make a scientific presentation

Scientific presentation outlines

Questions to ask yourself before you write your talk, 1. how much time do you have, 2. who will you speak to, 3. what do you want the audience to learn from your talk, step 1: outline your presentation, step 2: plan your presentation slides, step 3: make the presentation slides, slide design, text elements, animations and transitions, step 4: practice your presentation, final thoughts, frequently asked questions about preparing scientific presentations, related articles.

A good scientific presentation achieves three things: you communicate the science clearly, your research leaves a lasting impression on your audience, and you enhance your reputation as a scientist.

But, what is the best way to prepare for a scientific presentation? How do you start writing a talk? What details do you include, and what do you leave out?

It’s tempting to launch into making lots of slides. But, starting with the slides can mean you neglect the narrative of your presentation, resulting in an overly detailed, boring talk.

The key to making an engaging scientific presentation is to prepare the narrative of your talk before beginning to construct your presentation slides. Planning your talk will ensure that you tell a clear, compelling scientific story that will engage the audience.

In this guide, you’ll find everything you need to know to make a good oral scientific presentation, including:

  • The different types of oral scientific presentations and how they are delivered;
  • How to outline a scientific presentation;
  • How to make slides for a scientific presentation.

Our advice results from delving into the literature on writing scientific talks and from our own experiences as scientists in giving and listening to presentations. We provide tips and best practices for giving scientific talks in a separate post.

There are two main types of scientific talks:

  • Your talk focuses on a single study . Typically, you tell the story of a single scientific paper. This format is common for short talks at contributed sessions in conferences.
  • Your talk describes multiple studies. You tell the story of multiple scientific papers. It is crucial to have a theme that unites the studies, for example, an overarching question or problem statement, with each study representing specific but different variations of the same theme. Typically, PhD defenses, invited seminars, lectures, or talks for a prospective employer (i.e., “job talks”) fall into this category.

➡️ Learn how to prepare an excellent thesis defense

The length of time you are allotted for your talk will determine whether you will discuss a single study or multiple studies, and which details to include in your story.

The background and interests of your audience will determine the narrative direction of your talk, and what devices you will use to get their attention. Will you be speaking to people specializing in your field, or will the audience also contain people from disciplines other than your own? To reach non-specialists, you will need to discuss the broader implications of your study outside your field.

The needs of the audience will also determine what technical details you will include, and the language you will use. For example, an undergraduate audience will have different needs than an audience of seasoned academics. Students will require a more comprehensive overview of background information and explanations of jargon but will need less technical methodological details.

Your goal is to speak to the majority. But, make your talk accessible to the least knowledgeable person in the room.

This is called the thesis statement, or simply the “take-home message”. Having listened to your talk, what message do you want the audience to take away from your presentation? Describe the main idea in one or two sentences. You want this theme to be present throughout your presentation. Again, the thesis statement will depend on the audience and the type of talk you are giving.

Your thesis statement will drive the narrative for your talk. By deciding the take-home message you want to convince the audience of as a result of listening to your talk, you decide how the story of your talk will flow and how you will navigate its twists and turns. The thesis statement tells you the results you need to show, which subsequently tells you the methods or studies you need to describe, which decides the angle you take in your introduction.

➡️ Learn how to write a thesis statement

The goal of your talk is that the audience leaves afterward with a clear understanding of the key take-away message of your research. To achieve that goal, you need to tell a coherent, logical story that conveys your thesis statement throughout the presentation. You can tell your story through careful preparation of your talk.

Preparation of a scientific presentation involves three separate stages: outlining the scientific narrative, preparing slides, and practicing your delivery. Making the slides of your talk without first planning what you are going to say is inefficient.

Here, we provide a 4 step guide to writing your scientific presentation:

  • Outline your presentation
  • Plan your presentation slides
  • Make the presentation slides
  • Practice your presentation

4 steps for making a scientific presentation.

Writing an outline helps you consider the key pieces of your talk and how they fit together from the beginning, preventing you from forgetting any important details. It also means you avoid changing the order of your slides multiple times, saving you time.

Plan your talk as discrete sections. In the table below, we describe the sections for a single study talk vs. a talk discussing multiple studies:

The following tips apply when writing the outline of a single study talk. You can easily adapt this framework if you are writing a talk discussing multiple studies.

Introduction: Writing the introduction can be the hardest part of writing a talk. And when giving it, it’s the point where you might be at your most nervous. But preparing a good, concise introduction will settle your nerves.

The introduction tells the audience the story of why you studied your topic. A good introduction succinctly achieves four things, in the following order.

  • It gives a broad perspective on the problem or topic for people in the audience who may be outside your discipline (i.e., it explains the big-picture problem motivating your study).
  • It describes why you did the study, and why the audience should care.
  • It gives a brief indication of how your study addressed the problem and provides the necessary background information that the audience needs to understand your work.
  • It indicates what the audience will learn from the talk, and prepares them for what will come next.

A good introduction not only gives the big picture and motivations behind your study but also concisely sets the stage for what the audience will learn from the talk (e.g., the questions your work answers, and/or the hypotheses that your work tests). The end of the introduction will lead to a natural transition to the methods.

Give a broad perspective on the problem. The easiest way to start with the big picture is to think of a hook for the first slide of your presentation. A hook is an opening that gets the audience’s attention and gets them interested in your story. In science, this might take the form of a why, or a how question, or it could be a statement about a major problem or open question in your field. Other examples of hooks include quotes, short anecdotes, or interesting statistics.

Why should the audience care? Next, decide on the angle you are going to take on your hook that links to the thesis of your talk. In other words, you need to set the context, i.e., explain why the audience should care. For example, you may introduce an observation from nature, a pattern in experimental data, or a theory that you want to test. The audience must understand your motivations for the study.

Supplementary details. Once you have established the hook and angle, you need to include supplementary details to support them. For example, you might state your hypothesis. Then go into previous work and the current state of knowledge. Include citations of these studies. If you need to introduce some technical methodological details, theory, or jargon, do it here.

Conclude your introduction. The motivation for the work and background information should set the stage for the conclusion of the introduction, where you describe the goals of your study, and any hypotheses or predictions. Let the audience know what they are going to learn.

Methods: The audience will use your description of the methods to assess the approach you took in your study and to decide whether your findings are credible. Tell the story of your methods in chronological order. Use visuals to describe your methods as much as possible. If you have equations, make sure to take the time to explain them. Decide what methods to include and how you will show them. You need enough detail so that your audience will understand what you did and therefore can evaluate your approach, but avoid including superfluous details that do not support your main idea. You want to avoid the common mistake of including too much data, as the audience can read the paper(s) later.

Results: This is the evidence you present for your thesis. The audience will use the results to evaluate the support for your main idea. Choose the most important and interesting results—those that support your thesis. You don’t need to present all the results from your study (indeed, you most likely won’t have time to present them all). Break down complex results into digestible pieces, e.g., comparisons over multiple slides (more tips in the next section).

Summary: Summarize your main findings. Displaying your main findings through visuals can be effective. Emphasize the new contributions to scientific knowledge that your work makes.

Conclusion: Complete the circle by relating your conclusions to the big picture topic in your introduction—and your hook, if possible. It’s important to describe any alternative explanations for your findings. You might also speculate on future directions arising from your research. The slides that comprise your conclusion do not need to state “conclusion”. Rather, the concluding slide title should be a declarative sentence linking back to the big picture problem and your main idea.

It’s important to end well by planning a strong closure to your talk, after which you will thank the audience. Your closing statement should relate to your thesis, perhaps by stating it differently or memorably. Avoid ending awkwardly by memorizing your closing sentence.

By now, you have an outline of the story of your talk, which you can use to plan your slides. Your slides should complement and enhance what you will say. Use the following steps to prepare your slides.

  • Write the slide titles to match your talk outline. These should be clear and informative declarative sentences that succinctly give the main idea of the slide (e.g., don’t use “Methods” as a slide title). Have one major idea per slide. In a YouTube talk on designing effective slides , researcher Michael Alley shows examples of instructive slide titles.
  • Decide how you will convey the main idea of the slide (e.g., what figures, photographs, equations, statistics, references, or other elements you will need). The body of the slide should support the slide’s main idea.
  • Under each slide title, outline what you want to say, in bullet points.

In sum, for each slide, prepare a title that summarizes its major idea, a list of visual elements, and a summary of the points you will make. Ensure each slide connects to your thesis. If it doesn’t, then you don’t need the slide.

Slides for scientific presentations have three major components: text (including labels and legends), graphics, and equations. Here, we give tips on how to present each of these components.

  • Have an informative title slide. Include the names of all coauthors and their affiliations. Include an attractive image relating to your study.
  • Make the foreground content of your slides “pop” by using an appropriate background. Slides that have white backgrounds with black text work well for small rooms, whereas slides with black backgrounds and white text are suitable for large rooms.
  • The layout of your slides should be simple. Pay attention to how and where you lay the visual and text elements on each slide. It’s tempting to cram information, but you need lots of empty space. Retain space at the sides and bottom of your slides.
  • Use sans serif fonts with a font size of at least 20 for text, and up to 40 for slide titles. Citations can be in 14 font and should be included at the bottom of the slide.
  • Use bold or italics to emphasize words, not underlines or caps. Keep these effects to a minimum.
  • Use concise text . You don’t need full sentences. Convey the essence of your message in as few words as possible. Write down what you’d like to say, and then shorten it for the slide. Remove unnecessary filler words.
  • Text blocks should be limited to two lines. This will prevent you from crowding too much information on the slide.
  • Include names of technical terms in your talk slides, especially if they are not familiar to everyone in the audience.
  • Proofread your slides. Typos and grammatical errors are distracting for your audience.
  • Include citations for the hypotheses or observations of other scientists.
  • Good figures and graphics are essential to sustain audience interest. Use graphics and photographs to show the experiment or study system in action and to explain abstract concepts.
  • Don’t use figures straight from your paper as they may be too detailed for your talk, and details like axes may be too small. Make new versions if necessary. Make them large enough to be visible from the back of the room.
  • Use graphs to show your results, not tables. Tables are difficult for your audience to digest! If you must present a table, keep it simple.
  • Label the axes of graphs and indicate the units. Label important components of graphics and photographs and include captions. Include sources for graphics that are not your own.
  • Explain all the elements of a graph. This includes the axes, what the colors and markers mean, and patterns in the data.
  • Use colors in figures and text in a meaningful, not random, way. For example, contrasting colors can be effective for pointing out comparisons and/or differences. Don’t use neon colors or pastels.
  • Use thick lines in figures, and use color to create contrasts in the figures you present. Don’t use red/green or red/blue combinations, as color-blind audience members can’t distinguish between them.
  • Arrows or circles can be effective for drawing attention to key details in graphs and equations. Add some text annotations along with them.
  • Write your summary and conclusion slides using graphics, rather than showing a slide with a list of bullet points. Showing some of your results again can be helpful to remind the audience of your message.
  • If your talk has equations, take time to explain them. Include text boxes to explain variables and mathematical terms, and put them under each term in the equation.
  • Combine equations with a graphic that shows the scientific principle, or include a diagram of the mathematical model.
  • Use animations judiciously. They are helpful to reveal complex ideas gradually, for example, if you need to make a comparison or contrast or to build a complicated argument or figure. For lists, reveal one bullet point at a time. New ideas appearing sequentially will help your audience follow your logic.
  • Slide transitions should be simple. Silly ones distract from your message.
  • Decide how you will make the transition as you move from one section of your talk to the next. For example, if you spend time talking through details, provide a summary afterward, especially in a long talk. Another common tactic is to have a “home slide” that you return to multiple times during the talk that reinforces your main idea or message. In her YouTube talk on designing effective scientific presentations , Stanford biologist Susan McConnell suggests using the approach of home slides to build a cohesive narrative.

To deliver a polished presentation, it is essential to practice it. Here are some tips.

  • For your first run-through, practice alone. Pay attention to your narrative. Does your story flow naturally? Do you know how you will start and end? Are there any awkward transitions? Do animations help you tell your story? Do your slides help to convey what you are saying or are they missing components?
  • Next, practice in front of your advisor, and/or your peers (e.g., your lab group). Ask someone to time your talk. Take note of their feedback and the questions that they ask you (you might be asked similar questions during your real talk).
  • Edit your talk, taking into account the feedback you’ve received. Eliminate superfluous slides that don’t contribute to your takeaway message.
  • Practice as many times as needed to memorize the order of your slides and the key transition points of your talk. However, don’t try to learn your talk word for word. Instead, memorize opening and closing statements, and sentences at key junctures in the presentation. Your presentation should resemble a serious but spontaneous conversation with the audience.
  • Practicing multiple times also helps you hone the delivery of your talk. While rehearsing, pay attention to your vocal intonations and speed. Make sure to take pauses while you speak, and make eye contact with your imaginary audience.
  • Make sure your talk finishes within the allotted time, and remember to leave time for questions. Conferences are particularly strict on run time.
  • Anticipate questions and challenges from the audience, and clarify ambiguities within your slides and/or speech in response.
  • If you anticipate that you could be asked questions about details but you don’t have time to include them, or they detract from the main message of your talk, you can prepare slides that address these questions and place them after the final slide of your talk.

➡️ More tips for giving scientific presentations

An organized presentation with a clear narrative will help you communicate your ideas effectively, which is essential for engaging your audience and conveying the importance of your work. Taking time to plan and outline your scientific presentation before writing the slides will help you manage your nerves and feel more confident during the presentation, which will improve your overall performance.

A good scientific presentation has an engaging scientific narrative with a memorable take-home message. It has clear, informative slides that enhance what the speaker says. You need to practice your talk many times to ensure you deliver a polished presentation.

First, consider who will attend your presentation, and what you want the audience to learn about your research. Tailor your content to their level of knowledge and interests. Second, create an outline for your presentation, including the key points you want to make and the evidence you will use to support those points. Finally, practice your presentation several times to ensure that it flows smoothly and that you are comfortable with the material.

Prepare an opening that immediately gets the audience’s attention. A common device is a why or a how question, or a statement of a major open problem in your field, but you could also start with a quote, interesting statistic, or case study from your field.

Scientific presentations typically either focus on a single study (e.g., a 15-minute conference presentation) or tell the story of multiple studies (e.g., a PhD defense or 50-minute conference keynote talk). For a single study talk, the structure follows the scientific paper format: Introduction, Methods, Results, Summary, and Conclusion, whereas the format of a talk discussing multiple studies is more complex, but a theme unifies the studies.

Ensure you have one major idea per slide, and convey that idea clearly (through images, equations, statistics, citations, video, etc.). The slide should include a title that summarizes the major point of the slide, should not contain too much text or too many graphics, and color should be used meaningfully.

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How to Make a PowerPoint Presentation of Your Research Paper

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A research paper presentation is often used at conferences and in other settings where you have an opportunity to share your research, and get feedback from your colleagues. Although it may seem as simple as summarizing your research and sharing your knowledge, successful research paper PowerPoint presentation examples show us that there’s a little bit more than that involved.

In this article, we’ll highlight how to make a PowerPoint presentation from a research paper, and what to include (as well as what NOT to include). We’ll also touch on how to present a research paper at a conference.

Purpose of a Research Paper Presentation

The purpose of presenting your paper at a conference or forum is different from the purpose of conducting your research and writing up your paper. In this setting, you want to highlight your work instead of including every detail of your research. Likewise, a presentation is an excellent opportunity to get direct feedback from your colleagues in the field. But, perhaps the main reason for presenting your research is to spark interest in your work, and entice the audience to read your research paper.

So, yes, your presentation should summarize your work, but it needs to do so in a way that encourages your audience to seek out your work, and share their interest in your work with others. It’s not enough just to present your research dryly, to get information out there. More important is to encourage engagement with you, your research, and your work.

Tips for Creating Your Research Paper Presentation

In addition to basic PowerPoint presentation recommendations, which we’ll cover later in this article, think about the following when you’re putting together your research paper presentation:

  • Know your audience : First and foremost, who are you presenting to? Students? Experts in your field? Potential funders? Non-experts? The truth is that your audience will probably have a bit of a mix of all of the above. So, make sure you keep that in mind as you prepare your presentation.

Know more about: Discover the Target Audience .

  • Your audience is human : In other words, they may be tired, they might be wondering why they’re there, and they will, at some point, be tuning out. So, take steps to help them stay interested in your presentation. You can do that by utilizing effective visuals, summarize your conclusions early, and keep your research easy to understand.
  • Running outline : It’s not IF your audience will drift off, or get lost…it’s WHEN. Keep a running outline, either within the presentation or via a handout. Use visual and verbal clues to highlight where you are in the presentation.
  • Where does your research fit in? You should know of work related to your research, but you don’t have to cite every example. In addition, keep references in your presentation to the end, or in the handout. Your audience is there to hear about your work.
  • Plan B : Anticipate possible questions for your presentation, and prepare slides that answer those specific questions in more detail, but have them at the END of your presentation. You can then jump to them, IF needed.

What Makes a PowerPoint Presentation Effective?

You’ve probably attended a presentation where the presenter reads off of their PowerPoint outline, word for word. Or where the presentation is busy, disorganized, or includes too much information. Here are some simple tips for creating an effective PowerPoint Presentation.

  • Less is more: You want to give enough information to make your audience want to read your paper. So include details, but not too many, and avoid too many formulas and technical jargon.
  • Clean and professional : Avoid excessive colors, distracting backgrounds, font changes, animations, and too many words. Instead of whole paragraphs, bullet points with just a few words to summarize and highlight are best.
  • Know your real-estate : Each slide has a limited amount of space. Use it wisely. Typically one, no more than two points per slide. Balance each slide visually. Utilize illustrations when needed; not extraneously.
  • Keep things visual : Remember, a PowerPoint presentation is a powerful tool to present things visually. Use visual graphs over tables and scientific illustrations over long text. Keep your visuals clean and professional, just like any text you include in your presentation.

Know more about our Scientific Illustrations Services .

Another key to an effective presentation is to practice, practice, and then practice some more. When you’re done with your PowerPoint, go through it with friends and colleagues to see if you need to add (or delete excessive) information. Double and triple check for typos and errors. Know the presentation inside and out, so when you’re in front of your audience, you’ll feel confident and comfortable.

How to Present a Research Paper

If your PowerPoint presentation is solid, and you’ve practiced your presentation, that’s half the battle. Follow the basic advice to keep your audience engaged and interested by making eye contact, encouraging questions, and presenting your information with enthusiasm.

We encourage you to read our articles on how to present a scientific journal article and tips on giving good scientific presentations .

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How to Prepare for a Paper Presentation at an Academic Conference

 In my previous post, I laid out a timeline for choosing an academic conference.  This post will lay out four steps to help you successfully prepare for a paper presentation at an academic conference.

Pay attention to the deadline for proposals . 

Your proposal outlines the paper you are going to write, not a paper you have written . You may treat your proposal as a commitment device to “force” you to write the paper, but the final paper may well differ from your original intention.

The Claremont Graduate University Writing Center offers some good examples of proposals here .

Write a winning abstract to get your paper accepted into the conference. 

Abstracts are an afterthought to many graduate students, but they are the what the reviewer looks at first. To get your paper accepted to a conference, you’ll need to write an abstract of 200 to 500 words .

The emphasis should be on brevity and clarity. It should tell the reader what your paper is about, why the reader should be interested, and why the paper should be accepted.

Additionally, it should:

  • Specify your thesis
  • Identify your paper fills a gap in the current literature.
  • Outline what you actually do in the paper.
  • Point out your original contribution.
  • Include a concluding sentence.

Academic Conferences and Publishing International offers some additional advice on writing a conference abstract  as you prepare for your paper presentation at an academic conference.

Pay attention to your presentation itself.

In order to convey excitement about your paper, you need to think about your presentation as well as the findings you are communicating.

Note the conference time limit and stick to it. Practice while timing yourself, and do it in front of a mirror. I also recommend practicing in front of your peers; organizing a departmental brown bag lunch could be a great way to do this. As you are preparing, keep in mind that reading from notes is better than reading directly from your paper.

Once you arrive at the conference, check the location of the room as soon as you can before the event. Arrive early to make sure any audiovisual equipment you plan to use is working, and be ready to present without it in case it is not.

Always stand when giving your paper presentation at an academic conference. Begin by stating your name and institution. Establish eye contact across the room, and speak slowly and clearly to your audience. Explain the structure of your presentation. End with your contribution to your discipline. Finally, be polite (not defensive) when engaging in discussion and answering questions about your research.

By focusing on (a) making sure your work contributes something to your field (b) adhering to deadlines and convincing conference organizers that your paper is worth presenting and (c) creating a compelling presentation that aptly highlights the content of your research, you’ll make the most of your time at the conference.

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Oral presentations usually introduce a discussion of a topic or research paper. A good oral presentation is focused, concise, and interesting in order to trigger a discussion.

  • Be well prepared; write a detailed outline.
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Basic Methods Handbook for Clinical Orthopaedic Research pp 227–233 Cite as

How to Prepare a Paper Presentation?

  • Timothy Lording 8 , 9 &
  • Jacques Menetrey 10 , 11  
  • First Online: 02 February 2019

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Presenting your paper at a meeting is an important part of sharing your research with the orthopaedic community. Presentations are generally short and sharp, and careful preparation is key to ensure that the premise, findings, and relevance of your work are successfully conveyed. For most conference papers, the structure will mirror that of a scientific manuscript, with an introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, and conclusions. Anticipation of potential questions will help to clarify your research for the audience.

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Elmansori A, Lording T, Dumas R, Elmajri K, Neyret P, Lustig S. Proximal tibial bony and meniscal slopes are higher in ACL injured subjects than controls: a comparative MRI study. Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc. 2017;25:1598–605.

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Lording T, Corbo G, Bryant D, Burkhart TA, Getgood A. Rotational laxity control by the anterolateral ligament and the lateral meniscus is dependent on knee flexion angle: a cadaveric biomechanical study. Clin Orthop Relat Res. 2017;90:1922–8.

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Shybut TB, Vega CE, Haddad J, Alexander JW, Gold JE, Noble PC, Lowe WR. Effect of lateral meniscal root tear on the stability of the anterior cruciate ligament-deficient knee. Am J Sports Med. 2015;43:905–11.

Simon RA, Everhart JS, Nagaraja HN, Chaudhari AM. A case-control study of anterior cruciate ligament volume, tibial plateau slopes and intercondylar notch dimensions in ACL-injured knees. J Biomech. 2010;43:1702–7.

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Sonnery-Cottet B, Mogos S, Thaunat M, Archbold P, Fayard JM, Freychet B, Clechet J, Chambat P. Proximal tibial anterior closing wedge osteotomy in repeat revision of anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. Am J Sports Med. 2014;42:1873–80.

Stijak L, Herzog RF, Schai P. Is there an influence of the tibial slope of the lateral condyle on the ACL lesion? Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc. 2007;16:112–7.

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Timothy Lording

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Volker Musahl

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Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Traumatology, Kantonsspital Baselland (Bruderholz, Laufen und Liestal), Bruderholz, Switzerland

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Institute for Medical Science in Sports, Osaka Health Science University, Osaka, Japan

Norimasa Nakamura

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Lording, T., Menetrey, J. (2019). How to Prepare a Paper Presentation?. In: Musahl, V., et al. Basic Methods Handbook for Clinical Orthopaedic Research. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-58254-1_24

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Conference Papers

What this handout is about.

This handout outlines strategies for writing and presenting papers for academic conferences.

What’s special about conference papers?

Conference papers can be an effective way to try out new ideas, introduce your work to colleagues, and hone your research questions. Presenting at a conference is a great opportunity for gaining valuable feedback from a community of scholars and for increasing your professional stature in your field.

A conference paper is often both a written document and an oral presentation. You may be asked to submit a copy of your paper to a commentator before you present at the conference. Thus, your paper should follow the conventions for academic papers and oral presentations.

Preparing to write your conference paper

There are several factors to consider as you get started on your conference paper.

Determine the structure and style

How will you structure your presentation? This is an important question, because your presentation format will shape your written document. Some possibilities for your session include:

  • A visual presentation, including software such as PowerPoint or Prezi
  • A paper that you read aloud
  • A roundtable discussion

Presentations can be a combination of these styles. For example, you might read a paper aloud while displaying images. Following your paper, you might participate in an informal conversation with your fellow presenters.

You will also need to know how long your paper should be. Presentations are usually 15-20 minutes. A general rule of thumb is that one double-spaced page takes 2-2.5 minutes to read out loud. Thus an 8-10 page, double-spaced paper is often a good fit for a 15-20 minute presentation. Adhere to the time limit.  Make sure that your written paper conforms to the presentation constraints.

Consider the conventions of the conference and the structure of your session

It is important to meet the expectations of your conference audience. Have you been to an academic conference previously?  How were presentations structured? What kinds of presentations did you find most effective? What do you know about the particular conference you are planning to attend? Some professional organizations have their own rules and suggestions for writing and presenting for their conferences. Make sure to find out what they are and stick to them.

If you proposed a panel with other scholars, then you should already have a good idea of your panel’s expectations. However, if you submitted your paper individually and the conference organizers placed it on a panel with other papers, you will need additional information.

Will there be a commentator? Commentators, also called respondents or discussants, can be great additions to panels, since their job is to pull the papers together and pose questions. If there will be a commentator, be sure to know when they would like to have a copy of your paper. Observe this deadline.

You may also want to find out what your fellow presenters will be talking about. Will you circulate your papers among the other panelists prior to the conference? Will your papers address common themes? Will you discuss intersections with each other’s work after your individual presentations? How collaborative do you want your panel to be?

Analyze your audience

Knowing your audience is critical for any writing assignment, but conference papers are special because you will be physically interacting with them. Take a look at our handout on audience . Anticipating the needs of your listeners will help you write a conference paper that connects your specific research to their broader concerns in a compelling way.

What are the concerns of the conference?

You can identify these by revisiting the call for proposals and reviewing the mission statement or theme of the conference. What key words or concepts are repeated? How does your work relate to these larger research questions? If you choose to orient your paper toward one of these themes, make sure there is a genuine relationship. Superficial use of key terms can weaken your paper.

What are the primary concerns of the field?

How do you bridge the gap between your research and your field’s broader concerns? Finding these linkages is part of the brainstorming process. See our handout on brainstorming . If you are presenting at a conference that is within your primary field, you should be familiar with leading concerns and questions. If you will be attending an interdisciplinary conference or a conference outside of your field, or if you simply need to refresh your knowledge of what’s current in your discipline, you can:

  • Read recently published journals and books, including recent publications by the conference’s featured speakers
  • Talk to people who have been to the conference
  • Pay attention to questions about theory and method. What questions come up in the literature? What foundational texts should you be familiar with?
  • Review the initial research questions that inspired your project. Think about the big questions in the secondary literature of your field.
  • Try a free-writing exercise. Imagine that you are explaining your project to someone who is in your department, but is unfamiliar with your specific topic. What can you assume they already know? Where will you need to start in your explanation? How will you establish common ground?

Contextualizing your narrow research question within larger trends in the field will help you connect with your audience.  You might be really excited about a previously unknown nineteenth-century poet. But will your topic engage others?  You don’t want people to leave your presentation, thinking, “What was the point of that?” By carefully analyzing your audience and considering the concerns of the conference and the field, you can present a paper that will have your listeners thinking, “Wow! Why haven’t I heard about that obscure poet before? She is really important for understanding developments in Romantic poetry in the 1800s!”

Writing your conference paper

I have a really great research paper/manuscript/dissertation chapter on this same topic. Should I cut and paste?

Be careful here. Time constraints and the needs of your audience may require a tightly focused and limited message. To create a paper tailored to the conference, you might want to set everything aside and create a brand new document.  Don’t worry—you will still have that paper, manuscript, or chapter if you need it. But you will also benefit from taking a fresh look at your research.

Citing sources

Since your conference paper will be part of an oral presentation, there are special considerations for citations. You should observe the conventions of your discipline with regard to including citations in your written paper. However, you will also need to incorporate verbal cues to set your evidence and quotations off from your text when presenting. For example, you can say: “As Nietzsche said, quote, ‘And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you,’ end quote.” If you use multiple quotations in your paper, think about omitting the terms “quote” and “end quote,” as these can become repetitive. Instead, signal quotations through the inflection of your voice or with strategic pauses.

Organizing the paper

There are numerous ways to effectively organize your conference paper, but remember to have a focused message that fits the time constraints and meets the needs of your audience. You can begin by connecting your research to the audience’s concerns, then share a few examples/case studies from your research, and then, in conclusion, broaden the discussion back out to general issues in the field.

Don’t overwhelm or confuse your audience

You should limit the information that you present. Don’t attempt to summarize your entire dissertation in 10 pages. Instead, try selecting main points and provide examples to support those points. Alternatively, you might focus on one main idea or case study and use 2-4 examples to explain it.

Check for clarity in the text

One way to anticipate how your ideas will sound is to read your paper out loud. Reading out loud is an excellent proofreading technique and is a great way to check the clarity of your ideas; you are likely to hear problems that you didn’t notice in just scanning your draft.  Help listeners understand your ideas by making sure that subjects and verbs are clear and by avoiding unnecessarily complex sentences.

Include verbal cues in the text

Make liberal use of transitional phrases like however, therefore, and thus, as well as signpost words like first, next, etc.

If you have 5 main points, say so at the beginning and list those 5 ideas. Refer back to this structure frequently as you transition between sections (“Now, I will discuss my fourth point, the importance of plasma”).

Use a phrase like “I argue” to announce your thesis statement. Be sure that there is only one of these phrases—otherwise your audience will be confused about your central message.

Refer back to the structure, and signal moments where you are transitioning to a new topic: “I just talked about x, now I’m going to talk about y.”

I’ve written my conference paper, now what?

Now that you’ve drafted your conference paper, it’s time for the most important part—delivering it before an audience of scholars in your field!  Remember that writing the paper is only one half of what a conference paper entails. It is both a written text and a presentation.

With preparation, your presentation will be a success. Here are a few tips for an effective presentation. You can also see our handout on speeches .

Cues to yourself

Include helpful hints in your personal copy of the paper. You can remind yourself to pause, look up and make eye contact with your audience, or employ body language to enhance your message. If you are using a slideshow, you can indicate when to change slides. Increasing the font size to 14-16 pt. can make your paper easier to read.

Practice, practice, practice

When you practice, time yourself. Are you reading too fast? Are you enunciating clearly? Do you know how to pronounce all of the words in your paper? Record your talk and critically listen to yourself. Practice in front of friends and colleagues.

If you are using technology, familiarize yourself with it. Check and double-check your images. Remember, they are part of your presentation and should be proofread just like your paper.  Print a backup copy of your images and paper, and bring copies of your materials in multiple formats, just in case.  Be sure to check with the conference organizers about available technology.

Professionalism

The written text is only one aspect of the overall conference paper. The other is your presentation. This means that your audience will evaluate both your work and you! So remember to convey the appropriate level of professionalism.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Adler, Abby. 2010. “Talking the Talk: Tips on Giving a Successful Conference Presentation.” Psychological Science Agenda 24 (4).

Kerber, Linda K. 2008. “Conference Rules: How to Present a Scholarly Paper.” The Chronicle of Higher Education , March 21, 2008. https://www.chronicle.com/article/Conference-Rules-How-to/45734 .

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Mastering the Art of Paper Presentations in Exams: Strategies for Success

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By Ashesh Neupane

July 31, 2023

exam tips

Paper presentations are an integral part of many exams and assessments, providing students with an opportunity to showcase their understanding of a particular subject matter. While written exams test a student’s knowledge on paper, paper presentations take it a step further by evaluating their ability to communicate and present information effectively. This article aims to provide valuable insights and strategies to excel in paper presentations during exams, enabling students to maximize their potential and achieve academic success.

Apart from knowledge and understanding of the subject, the way you present your answers in the answer sheet to the examiner also plays a vital role in scoring good marks in board exams. You may have definitely heard toppers talking about the role of paper presentation and how it helps to score well on boards. Presenting your answers in an appealing manner helps you score candy points in any examination. Although it won’t fetch you many extra marks, it helps prevent the extra loss of marks.

Understanding

Before diving into the preparation process, it is crucial to thoroughly understand the objective of the paper presentation. Analyze the topic or subject matter assigned and identify the key points or themes that need to be covered. This will help you structure your presentation effectively and stay focused throughout the process.

Time Management

Time management is crucial during paper presentations. Practice delivering your presentation within the allotted time frame to avoid rushing or exceeding the time limit. Divide your content into manageable segments and assign a specific duration to each section. This will help you stay on track and ensure that you cover all the essential points without compromising quality.

Don’t run after ‘good’ handwriting. Handwriting does not play any role in your exams. Instead, make sure that your handwriting is legible, i.e., the examiner can read your answer sheet clearly without making many assumptions about what you have written. You are supposed to make your answer sheet neat and not beautiful. Do not try to show off your calligraphy skills on paper. Write in clear, neat handwriting with sufficient gaps between the words and minimum cuts.

Handling Questions

Prepare yourself for potential questions from the audience. Anticipate queries based on your presentation and be ready to provide concise and confident responses. If you don’t know the answer to a question, admit it gracefully, and offer to research further or provide follow-up information later.

Unless it is a language paper, always use bullet points to write long answers in theory exams. The examiner neither has the time nor will to read long paragraphs to assess your answers. Make his task easier by writing in bullet points.

You may use bullets to write answers for the following type of questions:

  • Give reasons.
  • Describe the types/components/parts.
  • Characteristics/features of something.
  • Importance of the topic.

Practice & Perfect

To boost your confidence and delivery, dedicate ample time to practice and rehearse your presentation. Stand in front of a mirror or record yourself to observe your body language, gestures, and vocal tone. Pay attention to your pace, volume, and clarity of speech. Consider seeking feedback from peers or mentors to further improve your presentation skills.

Research and Information

Once you have a clear understanding of the topic, conduct thorough research to gather relevant information and supporting evidence. Utilize various resources such as textbooks, academic journals, credible websites, and online databases to ensure the accuracy and reliability of your content. Take notes and organize the information in a logical manner to facilitate easy referencing during the presentation.

Highlight Important Keywords

Much often, certain keywords are powerful enough to answer the whole question. However, while writing they get mixed up with other words and the examiner may not pay much attention to them. Highlighting keywords of the answer by underlining them grabs the attention of the examiner, who can now at a glance judge the quality of the answer and understanding of the candidate.

  • Avoid highlighting the whole sentence unless it is a really important and famous quote. Highlight certain words and phrases only.
  • Always highlight the facts, formulas, and key-terms.

Use Diagrams and Graphs

Make your sheet appealing and attractive. Use  pictorial presentation  wherever required. This helps the examiner to predict the content of your answer before even reading it. Thus, if you have drawn a good flowchart representing the components of the Budget, you will get full marks even if you have not written the answer very well. This will provide you an edge over other students who use only words to explain. Don’t restrict yourself to that.

Leave Enough Space

Between words, answers, and on margins. Usually, the answer sheet provided by any board is already margined. If not, take 2-3 mins initially to draw straight margins on both sides of every sheet. You can use the space beyond the margin on the left-hand side of the paper to write the question number.

Similarly, leave 2-3 lines after finishing every answer and before starting a new answer. You can also draw a horizontal line after finishing an answer to make it more visible. In case of long answers, start every answer on a fresh page. This makes your answer sheet clearer and organized.

Make a separate space for rough work

In subjects that require calculation, it is advisable that you mark the  last sheet of the answer booklet as rough  and use it for your calculations. Many students use the space beyond the right margin of the sheet to do rough calculations. This disturbs the neatness of the paper a little bit. However, no one is going to cut your marks for that purpose. You can go as per your comfort.

Mastering the art of paper presentations in exams requires careful planning, preparation, and effective delivery. By understanding the objectives, conducting thorough research, organizing content, practicing, and engaging the audience, you can excel in these assessments. Remember, confidence, clarity, and effective communication are the keys to success. With consistent practice and continuous improvement, you can become a proficient paper presenter, enhancing your academic journey and future professional endeavors.

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Ashesh Neupane is the Co-founder and Admin of HighApproach. He is also a student of Bachelor of Information Management (BIM) at Tribhuvan University.

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What It Takes to Give a Great Presentation

  • Carmine Gallo

paper presentation in general

Five tips to set yourself apart.

Never underestimate the power of great communication. It can help you land the job of your dreams, attract investors to back your idea, or elevate your stature within your organization. But while there are plenty of good speakers in the world, you can set yourself apart out by being the person who can deliver something great over and over. Here are a few tips for business professionals who want to move from being good speakers to great ones: be concise (the fewer words, the better); never use bullet points (photos and images paired together are more memorable); don’t underestimate the power of your voice (raise and lower it for emphasis); give your audience something extra (unexpected moments will grab their attention); rehearse (the best speakers are the best because they practice — a lot).

I was sitting across the table from a Silicon Valley CEO who had pioneered a technology that touches many of our lives — the flash memory that stores data on smartphones, digital cameras, and computers. He was a frequent guest on CNBC and had been delivering business presentations for at least 20 years before we met. And yet, the CEO wanted to sharpen his public speaking skills.

paper presentation in general

  • Carmine Gallo is a Harvard University instructor, keynote speaker, and author of 10 books translated into 40 languages. Gallo is the author of The Bezos Blueprint: Communication Secrets of the World’s Greatest Salesman  (St. Martin’s Press).

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Language: English | German

Accepted standards on how to give a Medical Research Presentation: a systematic review of expert opinion papers

Anerkannte standards zum halten medizinischer vorträge: eine systematische Übersicht publizierter experteneinschätzungen, christine blome.

1 University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), Institute for Health Services Research in Dermatology and Nursing (IVDP), German Center for Health Services Research in Dermatology (CVderm), Hamburg, Germany

Hanno Sondermann

Matthias augustin.

Background: This systematic review aimed to extract recommendations from expert opinion articles on how to give a medical research presentation on a scientific conference and to determine whether the experts agree on what makes an effective or poor presentation.

Methods: Presentation-related terms were searched within article titles listed in PubMed, restricting the search to English-language articles published from January 1975 to July 2015. Recommendations were extracted from the articles, grouped by content, and analyzed for frequency. Ninety-one articles were included. Among 679 different recommendations, 29 were given in more than 20% of articles each. The five most frequent recommendations were to keep slides simple, adjust the talk to the audience, rehearse, not read the talk from slides or a manuscript, and make eye contact.

Results: No article gave advice that was the complete opposite of the 29 most frequent recommendations with the exception of whether a light or dark background should be used for slides.

Conclusions: Researchers should comply with these widely accepted standards to be perceived as effective presenters.

Zusammenfassung

Hintergrund: Ziel dieser systematischen Übersichtsarbeit war es, aus publizierten Expertenstellungnahmen Empfehlungen zur Vorgehensweise bei medizinischen Präsentationen auf wissenschaftlichen Fachtagungen zu extrahieren und abzuleiten, ob Experten in der Frage übereinstimmen, was eine gute oder schlechte Präsentation ausmacht.

Methoden: Präsentationsbezogene Schlagwörter wurden in den Titeln englischsprachiger, in PubMed geführter und zwischen Januar 1975 und Juli 2015 erschienener Artikel gesucht. Aus den gefundenen Expertenartikeln wurden Empfehlungen extrahiert, inhaltlich gruppiert und nach Häufigkeit ausgewertet. Einundneunzig Artikel wurden eingeschlossen. Von insgesamt 679 unterschiedlichen Empfehlungen fanden sich 29 jeweils in mindestens 20% der Artikel. Die fünf häufigsten Empfehlungen lauteten: Einfache Folien verwenden; die Zuhörerschaft kennen; Augenkontakt halten; die Präsentation üben; nicht von Folien oder Manuskript ablesen.

Ergebnisse: In keinem Artikel wurde eine Empfehlung gegeben, die das klare Gegenteil einer der 29 häufigsten Empfehlungen darstellten, bis auf die Frage, ob ein heller oder dunkler Folienhintergrund verwendet werden sollte.

Schlussfolgerung: Wissenschaftler sollten sich an die hier gefundenen, weithin akzeptierten Empfehlungen halten, damit ihre Präsentationen positiv wahrgenommen werden.

1. Introduction

Some presentations at medical conferences are easy to follow, engaging, and even inspire changes in the way patients are treated or scientific work is conducted. Conversely, others induce the audience to check their mobile phones or take a nap because they are so difficult to concentrate on.

What exactly makes great medical research presentations great? Empirical or even experimental data on this question are scarce [ 1 ], [ 2 ], [ 3 ], [ 4 ]. However, more than 80 authors of expert opinion articles have described what they believe a medical presenter should or should not do. The aim of this review was to extract all recommendations from these articles and determine whether the experts agree on what makes a medical research presentation either effective or poor.

Parts of this study were obtained from a previous dissertation by Sondermann, 2014 [ 5 ].

Presentation-related terms were searched within the titles of articles listed in PubMed, restricting the search to English-language articles published from January 1975 to July 2015. The search terms were:

(scientific[ti] AND presentation*[ti]) OR (conference[ti] AND presentation*[ti]) OR (oral[ti] AND presentation*[ti]) OR (research[ti] AND presentation*[ti]) OR (scientific[ti] AND meeting*[ti]) OR (public[ti] AND speaking[ti]) OR (public[ti] AND speech[ti]) OR (Power[ti] AND Point[ti]) OR PowerPoint[ti] OR (scientific[ti] AND talk*[ti]) OR lecturing[ti] OR lectures[ti] OR (scientific[ti] AND conference*[ti]) OR (medical[ti] AND presentation*[ti]) OR (paper[ti] AND presentation*[ti]) AND "1975/01/01"[PDAT]:"2015/07/31"[PDAT] AND English[lang]

The bibliographies of eligible articles were reviewed for further references.

We included expert opinion articles and editorials that provided advice on how to give a medical research presentation at scientific conferences. We excluded articles exclusively referring to lectures to students, continued medical education, or health care management.

Recommendations were extracted from each article, including both direct (e.g., “You should…”) and indirect recommendations (e.g., “Remember the audience’s time (…) should not be abused by presentation of uninteresting preliminary material” [ 6 ]). Mere suggestions were not extracted; these were typically signaled by words such as “consider.” We also excluded recommendations on abstract writing, use of outdated technology (e.g., diapositives), radiologic images (for being too specific), and technical aspects (e.g., choice of software).

Differently worded advice from two authors was regarded as the same recommendation if equal in content (e.g., “initially, rehearse alone” [ 7 ] and “initially, practice the talk alone” [ 8 ]). Similar recommendations were grouped into more general but still concrete advice. For example, “limit the number of lines on a slide to six” [ 9 ] and “no more than seven lines per slide” [ 10 ] were grouped into “limit the number of lines per slide.” Finally, we determined the frequency of recommendations, counting those given in two articles by the same first author only once.

The PubMed search delivered 4,140 hits, 91 of which met the inclusion criteria [ 6 ], [ 7 ], [ 8 ], [ 9 ], [ 10 ], [ 11 ], [ 12 ], [ 13 ], [ 14 ], [ 15 ], [ 16 ], [ 17 ], [ 18 ], [ 19 ], [ 20 ], [ 21 ], [ 22 ], [ 23 ], [ 24 ], [ 25 ], [ 26 ], [ 27 ], [ 28 ], [ 29 ], [ 30 ], [ 31 ], [ 32 ], [ 33 ], [ 34 ], [ 35 ], [ 36 ], [ 37 ], [ 38 ], [ 39 ], [ 40 ], [ 41 ], [ 42 ], [ 43 ], [ 44 ], [ 45 ], [ 46 ], [ 47 ], [ 48 ], [ 49 ], [ 50 ], [ 51 ], [ 52 ], [ 53 ], [ 54 ], [ 55 ], [ 56 ], [ 57 ], [ 58 ], [ 59 ], [ 60 ], [ 61 ], [ 62 ], [ 63 ], [ 64 ], [ 65 ], [ 66 ], [ 67 ], [ 68 ], [ 69 ], [ 70 ], [ 71 ], [ 72 ], [ 73 ], [ 74 ], [ 75 ], [ 76 ], [ 77 ], [ 78 ], [ 79 ], [ 80 ], [ 81 ], [ 82 ], [ 83 ], [ 84 ], [ 85 ], [ 86 ], [ 87 ], [ 88 ], [ 89 ], [ 90 ], [ 91 ], [ 92 ], [ 93 ], [ 94 ], [ 95 ], [ 96 ]. Of the 91 articles, 63 were from the medical field and 28 from related fields such as nursing. We found 3 to 103 different recommendations in each article, totaling 3,135 recommendations. Identification of identical recommendations and grouping similar ones resulted in 679 different recommendations. Of these, 349 were given in only one article each; for example, “remain in the hall from the start of the session until your talk” [ 94 ].

The most frequent advice, given in 62.9% of articles, was to keep slides simple. In particular, authors stated that one should not overload slides or include too much detail, but use clear, concise, simply designed visuals instead. Simplicity of visuals was also the subject of 5 of the 29 most frequent recommendations (see Table 1 (Tab. 1) ), including limiting the number of lines per slide (42.9%) and number of words per line (28.6%), using simple tables and graphs (34.1%), using animations carefully (27.5%), and putting phrases, not sentences, on slides (24.2%).

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The second most frequent advice, to know one’s audience (52.7%), referred to who the audience is (e.g., profession, size, age, education), what they already know of the topic, or why they are there (i.e., what their expectations, attitudes, and interests are). Authors advised adjusting the presentation accordingly instead of using canned talks.

Making eye contact was the third most frequent advice (46.2%). This was specified by some authors as making eye contact with many or all persons, making eye contact with persons in all sections of the audience, or making continuous eye contact.

Rehearsal of the presentation was recommended in 44.0% of the articles. In addition, one-third of the articles advised rehearsal in front of other persons. Taken together, 56.0% of the articles gave at least one of these two recommendations. Timing the presentation beforehand – recommended by 38.5% – can ensure that the presenter will stick to the allotted time, an advice given by 40.7%. Further advice calling for thorough preparation was to know one’s topic “like the back of one’s hand” (31.9%), to develop an objective for the talk (28.6%), to and prepare for questions (20.9%). All equipment should be tested beforehand (27.5%).

When delivering the presentation, one should not read the talk from either slides or a manuscript (44.0%). For this purpose (and for simplicity) slides should contain words or phrases instead of complete sentences (24.2%).

The presenter should vary the presentation of his or her voice instead of speaking monotonously (29.7%), not speak too fast (24.2%), face the audience (23.1%), and show some enthusiasm, excitement, or energy (20.9%). To enhance understanding, one should keep the presentation clear and simple (26.4%), be logical (23.1%), and end with a summary (26.4%). The number of slides should be limited (27.5%); most articles specified one slide per minute (n=7, 7.7%).

The slides should be readable (42.9%), referring to both text and visuals. This was probably also the reason for recommending large font sizes (this advice was not included in the 29 most frequent recommendations, however; n=18, 19.8%). Authors generally disagreed regarding the exact size to be used, which ranged from 18 to 32 points; a font size of 24 points was recommended most frequently (n=8, 8.8%).

Authors agreed that the slide design should be consistent throughout the presentation (20.9%) and that contrasting colors should be used (20.9%). Most authors recommended using a dark background (26.4%), while only few recommended using a light background (n=3, 3.3%), arguing that this makes slides easier to read [ 15 ], [ 46 ]; one paper [ 89 ] recommended light background for charts and graphs, but not for text slides (without giving reasons).

None of the included articles gave advice that was the complete opposite of these 29 most frequent recommendations (except for the light versus dark background). However, limiting advice was occasionally given, such as not to practice too much in order to save some enthusiasm [ 62 ] or not to exceed >10% of the original time [ 19 ]. Authors also disagreed on a few topics that did not make it to the 29 most frequent recommendations, including whether clipart or cartoons should be included, whether using a pointer is recommended, and whether information should be added sequentially on a slide.

4. Conclusions

This review extracted recommendations from 91 expert opinion articles on how to give a medical research presentation. We found a high degree of concordance among authors, with 29 recommendations given in more than one-fifth of articles each and very little explicit discordance.

Our findings are limited by the fact that we restricted the literature search to one database and to article titles (without the latter, our search would have yielded 195,766 hits). Nevertheless, we included 91 articles on the presentation of medical research and thus considerably more than two previous reviews, which included 9 expert opinion articles on podium presentations each [ 97 ], [ 98 ].

In addition, the distinction between what authors meant to be recommendations versus mere suggestions was a matter of interpretation; the same is true for decisions on whether recommendations were similar enough to be grouped.

The fact that many authors recommend a behavior does not necessarily mean it will indeed be effective. This can be tested in experimental studies that systematically vary a presenter’s behavior. As in clinical studies, the outcome of interest would need to be defined, which is rarely done in expert opinion articles. We propose as “presenter-relevant outcomes” a) to induce learning effects (i.e., comprehension and retention [ 99 ]), b) to change attitudes, c) to interest and entertain, and d) to improve the presenter’s reputation (e.g., by appearing competent).

To our knowledge, experimental studies have only been done for presentations other than medical research presentations. Surprisingly, the recommendation given most often in this study, “keep your slides simple”, has not been supported with regard to the amount of text on a slide (an aspect also related to further recommendations, like “limit the number of lines per slide”, “limit the number of words per line”, and “put phrases, not sentences, on slides”). A number of studies in students did not find significant differences in retention of information after presentations with concise slides as compared to presentations with more detailed slides [ 100 ], [ 101 ], [ 102 ], as would have been expected by cognitive load theory. This theory states that information will not be encoded adequately if the capacity of our working memory is overloaded [ 103 ], [ 104 ], for example when trying to understand detailed slides and at the same time listen to the presenter. These surprising findings underline the necessity of experimental research on presentation techniques. However, simple slides have been found to be more effective with regard to a different aspect: that is, whether they include pictures not related to the content of the talk. Here, recall was better in students who attended a presentation using slides with irrelevant pictures [ 105 ].

The third most frequent advice, to make eye contact, was found to be effective in one study: Not only did students consider a speaker who made eye contact to be more credible and his talk to be more comprehensible, but they actually learned more as indicated by a subsequent multiple-choice test [ 102 ]. In this study, the “eye contact” condition also differed from the control condition in that the presentation was more lively (recommendation no. 13: “vary your voice“) and in that the presenter did not read from written text only but also made colloquial interjections (recommendation no. 5: “do not read the talk from slides or a manuscript”).

It is quite possible that empirical studies will contradict the advice found in this opinion-based study. For example, there is reason to assume that dark backgrounds (recommended by 24 experts as compared to 3 experts recommending light background) may have disadvantages. For example, they may require dimming the lights so that the audience can read the slides, which in turn may lead to reduced levels of attention due to increased tiredness.

In addition, findings from previous studies may not be generalizable to medical conference presentations where the audience may differ in important aspects from students (which have been the subjects of many of the experiments [ 106 ]) – for example with regard to their reasons for attendance and their prior knowledge of the topic. Future experimental studies should therefore investigate whether the recommendations found in this study are indeed effective, looking at different audiences and contexts, and focusing also on rarely explored aspects related to the preparation of the presentation, like adjustment of the talk to the specific audience (recommendation no. 2) and rehearsal (recommendation no. 4).

Probably one of the main reasons that a particular piece of advice was given in the expert opinion papers is that the authors believed that many presenters did not yet follow it. The 29 most frequent recommendations can thus be interpreted as the 29 most common mistakes made by conference presenters. Most of them appear to be common sense and are generally well known [ 99 ]; therefore, why are flaws so common, even in senior presenters [ 98 ]? Researchers may be unwilling to invest time in thorough preparation [ 107 ], or perhaps they have competing interests such as drawing the audience’s attention away from themselves or using slides as a memory aid [ 104 ]. However, if presenters want their talk to be inspiring and practice-changing, they should adhere to the agreed advice found in this review.

Future experimental studies should investigate the effectiveness of the recommendations found in this opinion-based review.

Funding sources

The authors have no funding sources to declare.

Authors' contributions

CB conceived of the study, participated in its design, conduction, and analysis, and drafted the manuscript. HS participated in the study design, conduction, and analysis and helped draft the manuscript. MA participated in the study design. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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What Makes a Great Conference Paper: A Step-by-Step Guide

ScienceEditor

A conference paper is both a presentation and a paper. A scholar is invited or selected to present their research at a conference, and will prepare a paper to accompany that presentation. In some fields, conference papers are published as part of the conference proceedings, either before or after they are presented at the conference. In other fields, only abstracts are published in the conference proceedings. These abstracts help conference attendees decide which sessions to attend, which is especially important when there are concurrent sessions. Presenters may be asked to provide a copy of their conference paper to the person moderating their session, to help him/her facilitate discussion. Other times, writing a conference paper is simply an intermediate step for the author, with the final goal being the conference presentation. In these cases, the researcher will usually say they are "giving or presentation" or "giving a talk", rather than "presenting a paper".

Here we will go through the steps of putting together a great conference paper and presentation.

Step 1: Keep in mind the benefits of presenting at a conference

A major benefit of presenting at a conference is the opportunity to connect with people who work on similar topics. By presenting your work in progress, you can get feedback that helps identify and address shortcomings, and/or helps focus the overall research project. This feedback will help strengthen your work before it is submitted for publication through a rigorous peer-review process , and/or submitted for consideration by a thesis committee, selection committee, or tenure committee.

Therefore, one of the major goals of your conference presentation and paper should be to facilitate conversations with colleagues working in related areas. This may involve highlighting unexpected connections, or problems that you are still working through.

By presenting yourself and your work in a professional setting, you are introducing yourself to a room full of people who might be able to help you with your career goals. There will likely be people at the same career stage with insight to share, and people recruiting applicants for graduate school, post-doctoral positions, faculty positions, and other professional opportunities. A good conference presentation can easily cause them to seek you out for additional conversation.

Step 2: Know Your Audience

Think about why people have decided to attend your chosen conference, and your assigned session within the conference. This will help you decide what concepts you need to explain in detail, and what concepts your audience will already be familiar with. Time is almost always a major limitation for conference presentations, while space (and retaining the reader's interest) is a limitation for conference papers and abstracts. Do your absolute best to hit the "sweet spot" where your paper, presentation, and abstract seem familiar enough for your audience to take interest right away, yet novel enough for them to remain engaged.

While some conferences will cover a broad range of topics (e.g. genetics), your specific session will likely be more focused (e.g. genetic modification with CRISPR-Cas9). Know that your audience will have multiple opportunities to learn specifics about the topics that are common to your session, so you should focus on explaining aspects that are specific to your work.

Introduce your topic in a way that appeals to the broadest audience at your particular conference. For example, at a conference focusing on climate change, you might start with how CRISPR-Cas9 technology can be used to modify crop plants to better tolerate climate change. At a conference focusing on genetic diversity, you might start with how CRISPR-Cas9 technology can be used to better understand how specific genetic changes affect plant phenotypes.

Presenting your work so that it appeals to shared interests will help facilitate conversation.

Step 3: Plan for your time limit and your word limit

Conference presentations have very specific time limits, typically 10-20 minutes with a few minutes for questions from the audience. If you go over your allocated time, you will either lose you time for questions (and lose the opportunity to make useful connections), be interrupted by the moderator, steal time from other presenters who have worked hard to stay within the time limit, and/or cause the session to run overtime. None of these are good options. Be courteous and make every effort to stay within the time limit for your presentation.

For a conference paper, the consequences of going over the designated word limit are less dire. However, staying within the word limit for your paper will help you stay within the time limit for your presentation. In general, it takes 2 to 2.5 minutes to read one page of double-spaced text aloud at a reasonable pace.

Plan for the limited time and space. It is better to explain a few topics clearly than to explain many topics poorly.

Step 4: Focus on the big picture

In a 10-minute presentation, you can reasonably cover one big idea. For a 20-minute presentation, you might be able to cover two big ideas. Start with the "big picture", so that everyone can get a basic understanding of why your research is important. Then add enough detail so that people who are knowledgeable about your field can clearly see that you are also knowledgeable, that your study is well designed, and that your conclusions are based on solid evidence.

You may have a lot of results that you are excited to share. Do not share them all in your presentation. Instead, share some of your results with a reasonable amount of detail, then briefly summarize other exciting results in a concise list. This can help generate questions from the audience, and people who are interested in additional detail can easily find you to continue the conversation. After your session is over, stay near the front to see if anyone approaches you with questions. Chat with the other presenters or the moderator. Make sure that your email address is correct in the conference proceedings, and check your email during breaks.

Step 5: Use appropriate visual aids

Follow the conventions of your field for showing data, calculations, graphs, etc. Make sure that everything is clearly labeled, and expect some people to take pictures of your slides. (In some competitive fields, this unfortunately means that you may want to exclude a few key details until you are close to publication.) A good rule of thumb is to spend 1-2 minutes per slide, although this will depend on how much information is included in each slide.

Your slides should complement what you are saying, not repeat what you are saying. Essential labels must be included, but I otherwise recommend limiting the text. A brief title can indicate what is shown on the slide, while an additional line of text might highlight a key conclusion. A list of bullet points might also be appropriate. Use large font.

For scholars who are communicating in a second language (often English), the same rules apply. If you are nervous about the audience understanding you, use clearly labeled diagrams, graphs, and other visual aids to help convey the important points.

Visual aids can also help introduce the "big picture" to the broadest possible audience. It may be appropriate to use stock photos of glaciers, baby animals, hospital patients, etc. Many high-quality scientific images are also available to share through Creative Commons .

Step 6: Write, practice speaking, and revise

Start with an outline of what you want to cover in your allotted time. For a typical 10- to 15-minute presentation, it should be a short list. Also note how much time you expect to spend on each topic (e.g. 2 minutes for introduction, 2 minutes for methods, 4 minutes for results, 2 minutes for conclusions and future directions).

Once you have a basic outline, start writing. I recommend writing one section at a time, starting with the introduction or the section you feel most confident about. Sketch out your visual aids. When you have a few good paragraphs, practice reading aloud with your best "engaging speaker voice". Read with expression, emphasize the important concepts, point to your visual aids, and pause at appropriate times so the audience can digest what they heard.

After the first few readings, you will likely want to edit to improve flow. Once you feel moderately good about your delivery, time yourself. Consider the time limit for your presentation, and decide whether you are happy with your use of time. Revise as necessary. (You can also talk faster, but a top priority should be to deliver a clear presentation.) Repeat this process until you are reasonably happy with each section, and then with the overall presentation.

Next, practice with an audience. (Colleagues who will also be giving conference presentations are often a good choice.) Make eye contact. Be an engaging speaker. Time yourself. Listen to feedback from your audience about what was and wasn't clear, and revise again.

Putting together a great conference paper and presentation is a lot of work, but it is one of the best ways to connect with people who might be able to help you with your research and your career.

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LASIK surgery”

45 th Virtual Annual Conference VOS-VRCON 2020 of the Vidarbha Ophthalmic Society from 26 th & 27 th December, 2020

More A , Shukla A K, Singh S, Sheikh A, Bhosale N

Management of Diabetic Patients with Vision Threatening Diabetic

Retinopathy in Rural Vidarbha region”

Peddawad S , Shukla A K, Singh S, Sheikh A, Bhosale N

Screening for vitamin A deficiency in tribal Maharashtra (Melghat)”

Bhosale N , Shukla A K, Singh S, More A

Visual outcome after small incision cataract surgery (SICS) in diabetic and non-diabetic patients”

Rathi N , Singh S, Shukla A K, Tayde D

Corneal topographic patterns in myopic eyes”

Taneshwari S , Dhabarde A, Shukla A K, Pednekar N, Sarode K

Analysis of Causes of Protposis in a Rural Based Tertiary Care Hospital

Tejashree B , Shukla A K, Singh S, Bang P, Peddawad S

An Insight into the Burden of Concomitant Strabismus among Primary School Children in Central India”

Yadav V , Shukla A K, Singh S, Tayde D, Malwe G

A case of lid ptosis and total ophthalmoplegia Annual Delhi Ophthalmic

Society International Hybrid Conference of 18 th December, 2020

Study of change in contrast sensitivity and corneal aberration in eyes

undergoing LASIK (Laser in situ Keratomileusis)

Bhosale N , Shukla A K, Singh S, More A, Malwe G

Bilateral Optic neuropathy: a rare presentation of Systemic lupus erythematosus ( e Poster)

Rosai Dorfmann Disease of Orbit” ( e Poster)

A case of optic nerve head drusens mimicking optic disc oedema” ( e Poster)

Yadav V , Shukla A K, Singh S, Tayde D, Chauragade S

An unusual presentation of mucormycosis in a known diabetic 45 th Virtual

Annual Conference VOS-VRCON 2020 of the Vidarbha Ophthalmic Society from 26 th & 27 th December, 2020

CISP II Workshop (Convener and Resource Person)

28—29 August 2020 at MGIMS, Sevagram

Graduate Medical Education Regulation (2019) on 28 th August 2020

Alignment & Integration on 29 th August 2020

Skills training on 29 th August 2020

Panel discussion on the impact of the corona pandemic on medical

education in the country. ( Panelist )

The Indian Medical Association- Indian Medical Students Network and the Medical Students Association of India, 14 Jun 2020

Enhancing learner engagement in online sessions. (Guest speaker)

Medical Education Unit, NKP Salve Institute of Medical Sciences and Lata Mangeshkar Hospital, Nagpur, 27 May 2020

Case based learning in Pathology . (Resource person)

E-course on Competency based learning in Pathology. 6 May 2020

Online teaching learning: Modalities for student engagement. (Guest speaker)

Webinar by Indian Association of Public Health Dentistry, 16 May 2020

Anshu Attention please: Tips for enhancing learner engagement online. (Guest speaker)

Webinar organized by Academy of Health Professions Educators, 19 April 2020

MGIMS Sevagram's Village Adoption Scheme and Social Service Camp for medical students. (Guest speaker)

Organized by the Network Towards Unity for Health (TUFH) Social Accountability Institute. 14 Apr 2020

Enhancing student engagement in online teaching. (Guest speaker)

Medical Education Unit, MGIMS, Sevagram, 17 Aug 2020

Enhancing student engagement in online teaching: Tips and tools (Guest speaker)

Centre for Continuing Education and Inter professional Development (CCEID), Manipal Academy of Higher Education, 25 Jul 2020.

Effective strategies for online learning. (Resource person)

Personal and Professional Development Group of Melaka Manipal Medical College for Malaysian students of I MBBS, 11 Jul 2020

Should a pathologist be a jack of all trades or a master of one? (Debate,

Invited speaker)

Vidarbha Association of Pathologists and Microbiologists, Nagpur, 20 Dec 2020

Pharmacology

National Level e-poster competition

Dr. P.R. Pote Patil College of Pharmacy, Amravati, June 2020

Gorjelwar P

Transfusion-Related Adverse Reactions in patients admitted in medicine department at Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital of Central India

Virtually Online, IPCON 2021 Date: 25 Feb 2021

Gorjelwar P & Kale R

Poster presentation in National Level e poster competition on Proposed

treatment of Covid 19

PR Pote Patil College of Pharmacy, Amravati, 31 st May 2020

Singh Rajput A

To study the effect of wound healing activity of Musa Balbisiana Sp.peel as anti-inflamatory activity on wistar Rats

2 nd World Congress on infectious Disease & Antibiotics 2020

J.N. Tata Auditorium, Indian institute of Science, Bengluru, 17 th Oct 2020

Knowledge attitude and practice towards covid 19 among medical students: a questionnaire based study (Poster Presentation)

Asian ACPCON 2021 organised by American college of physician- india chapter supported by acp chapters, 6 th 7 th feb 2021

International Webinar on Cardiovascular & VO 2 Max Assessment”

AD Instruments, South East Asia, 9 Sep 2020

Webinar : IPS community psychiatry seminar “Healthy eating, under nutrition and obesity among Indian children and adolescent (Guest Speaker)

Organized by : Dr.KS Shubrata, 2 nd May 2020

Annual National CME of industrial Psychiatry of India “Mental Health Issues in IT Industry” Theme - Current and emerging mental health issues in different industries, on 12/12/2020 (Guest Speaker)

KK Mishra, Ahmed

Title – ‘Absenteeism in Health Care Industries’ (Award Paper)

18 th ANCAIPI” held at DY Patil, Pune on 4 th to 6 th March 2021.

“IK Mujawar Award Poster”

Annual Conference IPS West Zone 2 nd & 4 th Oct. 2020.(Webinar)

Radiotherapy

Palliative radiotherapy to triage patients for radical treatment in locally

advanced oral cavity cancer during COVID CRISIS’ Annual Conference of

Association of Radiation Oncologist of Maharashtra, 19 Dec 2020

Clinical outcomes of reirradiation of brain metastasis with erlotinib in

metastatic adenocarcinoma lung’ 10 th Annual Conference of Indian Society

for study of lung cancer, Association of Radiation Oncologist, 26 Sept 2020

Covid 19 a double edge sword for cancer patients’

The Federation of Obstetric & Gynecological Societies of India and POGS international Conference of Indian society for study of lung cancer, Association of Radiation Oncologist, 11 Dec 2020

Efficacy and outcomes of hypofractionation in locally advanced head and neck cancer’

Annual Conference of Association of Radiation Oncologist of India North zone, 2 Oct 2020

Evaluation of nasogastric tube feeding during radiotherapy in head and neck cancer patients’

Annual Conference of Association of Oncologist of North East India, 19 Jan 2021

Left Coronary Artery Dose Exposure Predicts Major Adverse Cardiac Events in Coronary Heart Disease Negative Lung Cancer Patients’

Best of ASTRO 2020, 15 Aug 2020

The Dutch Lung Cancer Audit-Radiotherapy (DLCA-R): Real-World Data on

Elderly Stage III Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Treated with Definitive

Chemoradiation

Best of ASTRO 2020 16 Aug 2020

Changing Paradigm in Radiotherapy of Postmastectomy Breast Cancer patients A comparative study of 3DCRT vs IMRT : Dosimetry,Toxicity and Outcome at the end of 4 years’

Annual Conference of Indian Society of Medical and Paediatric Oncology, 6 Nov 2020

How to optimally utilize the waiting time/area of patients while they are in

waiting hall before their RT commences for the purpose of patient education 43rd Indian Cooperative Oncology Network Virtual Conference, 9 Oct 2020

Role of prophylactic nasogastric feeding tube to maintain nutrition during

radiotherapy in head and neck cancer patients” Virtual Symposium on

Nutrition in Cancer Care & Management of Mucositis to be held on Friday,

26th February 2021

Kale P, Kalbande P , Rangari P , Datta NR

An evaluation of cost-effective nutrition supplement using homemade recipes vs commercially available formulations in cancer patients on liquid diet from low-middle-income group countries”

Virtual Symposium on Nutrition in Cancer Care & Management of Mucositis to be held on Friday, 26th February 2021

Skin & VD

Puzzling papules on the neck: Cutaneous metastasis from the breast ( e-Poster)

49th National Conference of IADVL, 5th to 7th February, 2021

Patrick S , Kar S, Gangane N, Deshmukh A

Lepromatous Hansen’s disease simulating Still’s Disease: a parodying case

report with diagnostic conundrum (e-Poster)

Manwar P , Kar S, Sawant A, Patrick S, Nandwani S

Blaschkolinear Atrophoderma of Pasini and Pierni with shortening of foot –A

Rare Entity ( e-Poster)

Nandwani S , Kar S, Sawant A, Patrick S, Manwar P

Leprosy presenting as a diagnostic challenge in a case of HIV with Pulmonary Tuberculosis at a rural tertiary care hospital (e-Poster)

Approach to obstructive Jaundice (Guest Lecture)

ASICON-2020 (virtual) from 14 - 19 th Dec. 2020

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1000+ Best General Topics For Presentation (Updated)

This is a list of more than 1000+ best general topics for presentation. These updated presentation topics are useful for PowerPoint, Google Slide as well as Prezi presentations.

These presentation ideas will help students, teachers, researchers, and professionals to prepare a stunning presentation. These technical & non-technical topics can be used for seminars, webinars, conferences, oral presentations, speeches, essays, and research papers.

Table of Contents

List of Latest Topics For Presentation

These are trending topics which covers recent happenings in India and the world updated in 2021.

5G Technology: boon or bane?

The World in 2021: How global politics will change this year

The world after Covid-19 pandemic

The Farm Bill: Why farmers protest?

Article 370: What’s happening in Kashmir!

Are We Prepared for the Next Pandemic?

India China Standoff: The cost of the cold war!

Babri Masjid Demolition: Verdict & Impact

Online Ratings: How reliable!

India And Its #MeToo Movement: Where Are We Now?

Brexit: Analyzing the impact – what changed and what doesn’t!

5 Minute Presentation Topics

Future of Communication

Time is Money

7 Wonders of the world

How to win friends easily

Data is the new oil

Love Vs. Attachment

Importance of Silence

Power of Meditation

Health is Wealth

A World Without Weapon

My favourite teacher

How to say no?

What is real love?

The secret of happiness!

Social Media and Privacy Issues

Out of the box thinking!

Honesty is the best policy

Pollution: Effect & remedies

Data Privacy: Concerns & Dangers

These are short presentation topics can also be used for 3 minute, 5 minute or 10 minutes PowerPoint or oral presentation.

Interesting topics for presentation

These are slightly different and mysterious topics for presentation which may generate interest.

Aliens and UFO’s: Are they real?

Smart City: More Livable Future!

Ancient science: direction for new technology?

Bermuda triangle: Truth?

Beauty is subjective

Borderless World: Still far away?

Global Warming: Myth or Reality?

Love: A choice or A Feeling!

Do opposites really attract

How do astronauts vote from space?

You are more than you think!

Elon Musk: A real superhero!

Presentation Topics For School & College Students

Solar: The Future Fuel

Electric Vehicles: Future Of Transportation

Plastic Recycling

Discipline in the classroom

E-Learning: Future of education?

Green Technology

Unlimited benefits of sports

Indian Topics For Presentation

Cricket Mania in India

Chaturbhuj Project India

Indian Culture

Indian Festivals

Indian Hospitality

Indian Wars

Incredible India

Swachch Bharat

Make In India

Ancient India

Indian Economy

Assam Riots/ violence 2012

Science Presentation Topics

Black Holes: Still Mystery?

Earth beyond earth: Life Possibilities in the universe

How old is the universe?

The mystery of Dark Matter!

Amazing World of Quantum Physics

Gene Therapy: Future of Medical World!

Is the Earth an organism?

What Does Quantum Theory Actually Tell Us about Reality?

Technology Presentation Topics

Android OS: Revolution in Mobile Experience!

Adaptive signal processing in wireless communications

In Search of Best Operating System

Sixth Sense Technology

Google Glass: Better but banned!

Anti-theft devices for homes

Intelligent Traffic Control Using Image Processing

Autonomous Car: Miraculously Self Driving!

Symbian OS: Leader to Nowhere!

Unmanned Aircrafts

Robot that can camouflage itself

Video Games: Impact on Children

The power of social media

Robotics For Military Applications

Mobile: Future of Technology

Self Driving Car

Electronic Governance

Electronic Media

Embedded Systems

Genetic Engineering

GPS (Global Positioning System)

Greenhouse Effect

Grid Computing

Microthrusters

Mobile Number Portability (MNP)

Molecular Electronics

Nuclear Technology

Quantum Cryptography

Super Conducting Generator

Telecom System

Telemarketing

Touch Screen Devices

Touch Screen Monitors

Blu Ray Disc

Biomechatronics

AMOLED (Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode)

Biomedical engineering

Biometric Voting System

Digital Books

Digital Divide

Digital Signature

Evolution of Telecom System

History of Computer

Driverless Car

IT Topics For Presentation

Ethical Hacking

Moving towards paperless world!

Cloud Computing

Artificial Intelligence

Cyber Monday

Future of Computers

Future of Technology

Business Presentation Topics

Ethics in Business

Globalization & its impact

Visual Resumes: New way to present yourself

WTO (World Trade Organization)

Bill of Exchange

SEZ (Special Economic Zone)

Share Capital

Share Market

Commercial Geography

Consumer Behavior

Mass communication

Foreign Investment

Foreign Exchange Management

Direct taxation

Distribution channels

BRIC Countries

Anti Dumping

Integrity at work

Easy Presentation Topics

Save Earth Save Humanity

Stress Management

Unemployment

Tree Plantation

Time Management

Social Topics For Presentation

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): The (harsh) Truth?

Inter caste marriage (Inter caste marriage act)

Role of Cinema in Social Awareness

Online Education: Social Impact

Social Media: Pros and cons

Social Networking

Social Responsibility

Social Welfare

Women’s Rights

Human Biology Topics for Presentation

Antibiotics

Antioxidants

Anorexia Nervosa

Biological Engineering

Biological Weapons

Healthcare Presentation Topics

Alternative Medicine: The Future of Healthcare?

Abortion: Need, Psychology & Hurts!

Birth Control: Challenges & Solutions?

Blood Donation: Let’s contribute

Food Poisoning

Economy Presentation Topics

Black money: Good or bad?

Borderless world: Good for the world economy?

Need for a better World Health organisation!

Green Economy

Law presentation topics (Legal topics)

Company Act

Consumer Protection (Consumer Protection Act)

Consumer rights

Copyright (Copyright Act)

Anti Ragging act

Child Labour and related issues

Education Presentation Topics

Academic Dishonesty

Academic Freedom

Future of Education

Real-Life Uses of the Pythagorean Theorem

E-Book Vs. PaperBook – Which is better?

Unschooling: Legitimate pedagogy or foolish fad?

The Hardest Languages in the World to Learn

Distance Education

Animal Presentation Topics

Animal Rights

Animal Cruelty

Animal Abuse & Cruelty

The life of deep sea fish

How to train your dog

Why all kids should have pets

Wild animals should stay wild

Experimentation with Animal or In Vivo Testing: Right or wrong?

Environmental Topics For Presentation

Acid Rain: Reasons & Solutions

Global Warming: causes, effects & solutions!

CNG (Compressed Natural Gas): Eco-Friendly Future

Climate Change: Who is responsible!

Conservation of Energy: Need of the hour!

Anti Pollution: New Challenge

Save Papers. Save Trees. Save Earth.

Green House Effects & Climate Change

Go Green to save the earth

Water Conservation

Wildlife Conservation

Anti Pollution

Alternative Fuel

Deforestation

Natural Calamities/Disasters: Reasons and Solutions

Eco-friendly products & technologies

Conservation of Natural Resources

Renewable Energy

CNG: Future of Fuel?

CNG: Fuel for Vehicle – Analysis

Renewable Resources

Natural Calamities or Disasters: Who is responsible?

Is Global warming real!

Energy Conservation

Soil Conservation

Soil Erosion

Solar Energy

Save Energy. Save Earth.

Save Tigers. Save Earth.

Save Water. Save Earth.

Rainwater harvesting

Forest Conservation

Silicon Solar Cell

Buy Nothing Day

Air Pollution

Natural Gas

Natural Resources

Ozone Depletion

Ozone Layer

Plastic Pollution

Agriculture Topics

Is Organic Farming Profitable?

Zero Budget Natural Farming

Agricultural biodiversity

Agricultural Policy

Organic Vs. Natural Farming

Topics For Management Presentation

Impact of Advertisement on Buying Behaviours

Marketing Myopia

Competitive Intelligence

Copycat Marketing

Work-life balance

Risk Management

Corporate Social Responsibility

Integrating business and family

The change challenge

Organizational Behaviour: Changing Environment

Management by objectives

Time management in the workplace

Simple ways to be a better manager

Pareto’s Principle: The 80/20 rule

Black Friday: Deals beyond deals!

Business Ethics

Presentation on Maths Topic

Vedic Mathematics

Art of Mathematics

Math & Connections with Nature

History of Mathematics

Timeline of women in mathematics

The numbers of nature: the Fibonacci sequence

Fibonacci Numbers and the Golden Ratio

Mathematics behind fingerprinting

Demographic Presentation Topics

Ageing Population

Population: Threat or Opportunity

Abuse of The Elderly

Ageism or age discrimination

Spiritual & Religious Presentation Topics

Vedanta Philosophy

Vedic Astrology

Miscellaneous Topics

Abused Women

Acoustic Coupler

Affirmative Action

Alcohol Abuse

Airline Safety

Alternative imprisonment

Animal Communication

Animated Dictionary

Animated Movies

Anti-corruption

Anti-Semitism

Arab-Israeli Conflict

Armed Conflicts

Arms Control

Atomic Energy

Ban on Gutkha

Biogenetics

Bio photography

Biodiversity

Bionics (Biomimicry, biomimetics, bio-inspiration, biognosis or bionical creativity engineering)

Blind Faith

Bluetooth: Applications

Body Language

Capital Punishment

Child marriage

City Planning

Cordic Implementation

Corporate Communications

Corruption and related issues

Cosmetic Surgery

Crime / Criminal Activities

Cyber Crime

Disaster Management

DNA Computing

DNS Changer

Doordarshan

Ethnic Violence

Extraterrestrial life

Eye Donation

False Memory syndrome

Farmer Suicide

Female Foeticide (Feticide)

Fibre Antennas

Foreign Oil Dependence

Head Hunting

Healthy Lifestyle

Human Cloning

Human Rights

Human Trafficking

Inclusive Growth

Infant homicide

Information Technology Act

Insect Eating Plants

Landrover Robot

Law of Attraction

LED (Light Emitting Diodes)

Liquid Funds

LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas)

Loadshading

Lokpal Bill

LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas)

Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Magneto Electronics

Management Style

Match Fixing

NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration)

National Consumer Dispute act

National Game

Negotiable Instruments

Neural Network

Open Source Applications

Open Source Projects

Optical Coherence Tomography

Organ Donation

Outsourcing

Ozone Therapy

Plasma Antennas

PNG (Portable Network Graphics)

Project Blue Book

Promissory Note

Reservation

Right to Information Act

Roswell Incident

Rural Development

Save a girl child

SIP (Session Initiation Protocol, in Voice Over IP telephony)

SIP (Systematic Investment Plan)

Spanning Tree Protocol (STP)

Special Economic Zone

Special Investment Region (SIR)

Stress on Students

Surface Plasmonics

Syndicated Services

Terror Attacks: Analysis

Traffic Problems

TV Media Censorship

Wireless Energy Transmission

More Categories (Coming Soon)

Topics For Group Presentation

Creative Presentation Topics

Topics for communication presentation

Artificial Intelligence Presentation Topics

Politics presentation topics

Critical thinking presentation topics

Leadership presentation ideas

Geography topics for presentation

Funny 10-minute presentation topics

Unique Presentation Topics

Share with friends

IMAGES

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COMMENTS

  1. 4 Ways to Prepare a Paper Presentation

    Know if you must include sources or visuals. 2. Know your audience. If you're giving a presentation to your classmates, you probably have a rough idea of their knowledge on the topic. But for virtually every other circumstance, you may be in the dark. Either way, cater your paper to make zero assumptions.

  2. Ten simple rules for effective presentation slides

    Rule 2: Spend only 1 minute per slide. When you present your slide in the talk, it should take 1 minute or less to discuss. This rule is really helpful for planning purposes—a 20-minute presentation should have somewhere around 20 slides. Also, frequently giving your audience new information to feast on helps keep them engaged.

  3. Research Paper Presentation: Best Practices and Tips

    Creating a PowerPoint presentation for a research paper involves several critical steps needed to convey your findings and engage your audience effectively, and these steps are as follows: Step 1. Understand your audience: Identify the audience for your presentation. Tailor your content and level of detail to match the audience's background ...

  4. How to Make a Successful Research Presentation

    Turning a research paper into a visual presentation is difficult; there are pitfalls, and navigating the path to a brief, informative presentation takes time and practice. ... In general, your presentation will always benefit from more practice, more feedback, and more revision. By practicing in front of friends, you can get comfortable with ...

  5. Ten simple rules for effective presentation slides

    Rule 2: Spend only 1 minute per slide. When you present your slide in the talk, it should take 1 minute or less to discuss. This rule is really helpful for planning purposes—a 20-minute presentation should have somewhere around 20 slides. Also, frequently giving your audience new information to feast on helps keep them engaged.

  6. How to make a scientific presentation

    Related Articles. This guide provides a 4-step process for making a good scientific presentation: outlining the scientific narrative, preparing slide outlines, constructing slides, and practicing the talk. We give advice on how to make effective slides, including tips for text, graphics, and equations, and how to use rehearsals of your talk to ...

  7. How to Make a PowerPoint Presentation of Your Research Paper

    Here are some simple tips for creating an effective PowerPoint Presentation. Less is more: You want to give enough information to make your audience want to read your paper. So include details, but not too many, and avoid too many formulas and technical jargon. Clean and professional: Avoid excessive colors, distracting backgrounds, font ...

  8. (PDF) Presenting Research Paper: Learning the steps

    Journal of The Association of Physicians of India V ol. 65 September 2017. 72. Presenting Research Paper: Learning the steps. Sandeep B Bavdekar 1, Varun Anand2, Shruti Vyas3. Professor and Head ...

  9. How to Prepare for a Paper Presentation at an Academic Conference

    To get your paper accepted to a conference, you'll need to write an abstract of 200 to 500 words. The emphasis should be on brevity and clarity. It should tell the reader what your paper is about, why the reader should be interested, and why the paper should be accepted. Identify your paper fills a gap in the current literature.

  10. Presenting the Research Paper

    A good oral presentation is focused, concise, and interesting in order to trigger a discussion. Be well prepared; write a detailed outline. Introduce the subject. Talk about the sources and the method. Indicate if there are conflicting views about the subject (conflicting views trigger discussion). Make a statement about your new results (if ...

  11. Presentation and publication skills: How to present a paper

    Be 'pointer aware', that is don't point it at the audience. Try to control wild tremors by, if necessary, leaning on the podium to support your arm. The aim should be to inspire confidence in the paper being presented. The audience should be watching and listening to you, not just staring at the screen. 9.4.

  12. PDF How to Present a Technical Paper

    paper highlights the important points to an effective presentation; however, there is no substitute for the actual practice or experience of delivering a live presentation. The ideas in this paper are a guideline to help make presentations more memorable and dynamic. The Title The title is the author's introduction of the subject to the reader.

  13. How to Prepare a Paper Presentation?

    Most free paper presentations are 6 min in length. Careful preparation is important, to ensure that that the premise, findings, and relevance of your work are successfully conveyed in this short timeframe. ... As a general rule, try to keep slides uncluttered, with a few main points per slide and clear, illustrative diagrams. Many presenters ...

  14. Presenting a Paper

    Presenting a Paper. When preparing to present a paper, it is important to remember that papers and presentations have different goals and audiences. Papers use meticulous research and detail to back the overall claim. Presentations should explain only an overview of this research in the context of the big picture.

  15. Conference Papers

    Presentations are usually 15-20 minutes. A general rule of thumb is that one double-spaced page takes 2-2.5 minutes to read out loud. Thus an 8-10 page, double-spaced paper is often a good fit for a 15-20 minute presentation. Adhere to the time limit. Make sure that your written paper conforms to the presentation constraints.

  16. Mastering the Art of Paper Presentations in Exams: Strategies for

    Finally, Mastering the art of paper presentations in exams requires careful planning, preparation, and effective delivery. By understanding the objectives, conducting thorough research, organizing content, practicing, and engaging the audience, you can excel in these assessments. Remember, confidence, clarity, and effective communication are ...

  17. What It Takes to Give a Great Presentation

    Here are a few tips for business professionals who want to move from being good speakers to great ones: be concise (the fewer words, the better); never use bullet points (photos and images paired ...

  18. Accepted standards on how to give a Medical Research Presentation: a

    Background: This systematic review aimed to extract recommendations from expert opinion articles on how to give a medical research presentation on a scientific conference and to determine whether the experts agree on what makes an effective or poor presentation. Methods: Presentation-related terms were searched within article titles listed in PubMed, restricting the search to English-language ...

  19. Rules for Presenting a Scholarly Paper

    Don't tell the author what paper you would have written had you written the paper; accept, as given, the author's topic and focus for the paper. Don't give your own paper; work from the ideas presented by the author. (4) Contribute to the Discussion: The general discussion that follows the presentations can be focused or disorganized.

  20. What Makes a Great Conference Paper: A Step-by-Step Guide

    A conference paper is both a presentation and a paper. A scholar is invited or selected to present their research at a conference, and will prepare a paper to accompany that presentation. In some fields, conference papers are published as part of the conference proceedings, either before or after they are presented at the conference. In other fields, only abstracts are published in the ...

  21. Student Paper Presentations

    General Approach. There are several steps involved in preparing a paper for presentation. It is highly recommended that you follow the suggested sequence of steps, and do not skip any of them. First, you need to read and understand the paper. Second, you need to adapt it for presentation. Third, you need to get a set of slides ready.

  22. Paper Presentations

    Deotale V. Presented a paper (Oral Presentation) on "Co infection of pneumocystis. carinii and cryptococcus neoformans" in the 2 nd Annual Conference of. Vidarbha Association of Medical Microbiology VAMMCON-2021 (online) held at Akola on 20 th and 21 st February, 2021.

  23. 1000+ Best General Topics For Presentation (Updated)

    5 Minute Presentation Topics. Future of Communication. Time is Money. 7 Wonders of the world. How to win friends easily. Data is the new oil. Love Vs. Attachment. Importance of Silence.