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Guidance and tips for effective oral and visual presentations.

What is the format? Is it a poster, a talk with visual material or a video?

What is the purpose? (For example: to summarise a debate; report the results of an experiment; present fieldwork; justify your research approach.)

What content needs to be included? Do you need to cover everything, just one topic or a particular aspect? How much detail is expected?

How should it be organised? This is often the trickiest part of designing a presentation and can take a few attempts.

The beginning: How are you going to set the scene for your audience and set out what they can expect to gain from your presentation? This section should highlight the key topic(s) and give any necessary background. How much background depends on your audience, for example your peers might need less of an introduction to a topic than other audiences.

The middle: How are you going tell the story of your work? This section should guide your audience through your argument, leading them to your key point(s). Remember to include any necessary evidence in support. You might also want to include or refer to relevant methods and materials.

The end: What is your conclusion or summary? This section should briefly recap what has been covered in the presentation and give the audience the final take-home message(s). Think about the one thing you want someone to remember from your talk or poster.

Presentation planner worksheet (pdf)

Presentation planner worksheet (Word docx)

Using the right language can really help your audience follow your argument and also helps to manage their expectations.

University brand guidelines and logos (Communications and Marketing)

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Guidance and tips for effective oral and visual presentations. What is the format? Is it a poster, a talk with visual material or a video? What is the purpose? (For example: to summarise a debate; report the results of an experiment; present fieldwork; justify your research approach.) What content needs to be included?

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Oxford University Press, English Language Teaching - elt.enquiry@oup.com

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Welcome to the Oxford Advanced Vocabulary Practice Student's Site. Here you will find a selection of additional exercises to use alongside Oxford Academic Vocabulary Practice. The extra resources on the site will give you the opportunity to further practise and apply the vocabulary from the books.

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Homepage | University of Oxford Podcasts

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Welcome to E APF OUNDATION.COM, a website dedicated to the needs of EAP students (and teachers). This page gives a brief guide to the main areas of the website, introduces the videos on the YouTube channel, lists some of the most popular pages, and outlines some special features of the site. For more detailed information, such as what EAP is and who the website is for, visit the About section.

Recently added pages are shown in the spotlight section below.

Spotlight

Main areas of the website

Below are the main areas of E APF OUNDATION.COM. Roll over an image for more information.

YouTube videos from EAPFOUNDATION.COM

EAPFoundation.com has its own YouTube channel. The following are some example videos from the channel (they open in a new window).

Popular pages of EAPFOUNDATION.COM

Below are some of the most popular pages of the website, according to number of visitors.

Special features of EAPFOUNDATION.COM

Below are some of the special features of the website. Roll over an image to find out more.

Other stuff

Want to subscribe to the newsletter? Purchase EAP Foundation books from Evident Press? Check and improve your academic English? The following links will help.

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EAPFoundation.com contains information and resources for students and teachers of English for Academic Purposes (EAP).

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Do you want to improve your English pronunciation? Well, you've come to the right place. Tim's Pronunciation Workshop shows you how English is really spoken. It'll help you become a better listener and a more fluent speaker.

The Sounds of English

Scroll down to the bottom of this page for The Sounds of English, our video guide to all the consonant and vowel sounds in the English language. Watch, listen and repeat. It's as simple as that!

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Do you want to improve your English pronunciation? Well, you've come to the right place. Tim's Pronunciation Workshop shows you how English is really spoken. It'll help you become a better listener and a more fluent speaker.

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The Academic Phrasebank is a general resource for academic writers. It aims to provide you with examples of some of the phraseological 'nuts and bolts' of writing organised according to the main sections of a research paper or dissertation (see the top menu ). Other phrases are listed under the more general communicative functions of academic writing (see the menu on the left). The resource should be particularly useful for writers who need to report their research work. The phrases, and the headings under which they are listed, can be used simply to assist you in thinking about the content and organisation of your own writing, or the phrases can be incorporated into your writing where this is appropriate. In most cases, a certain amount of creativity and adaptation will be necessary when a phrase is used. The items in the Academic Phrasebank are mostly content neutral and generic in nature; in using them, therefore, you are not stealing other people's ideas and this does not constitute plagiarism. For some of the entries, specific content words have been included for illustrative purposes, and these should be substituted when the phrases are used. The resource was designed primarily for academic and scientific writers who are non-native speakers of English. However, native speaker writers may still find much of the material helpful. In fact, recent data suggest that the majority of users are native speakers of English. More about Academic Phrasebank.

This site was created by John Morley.

Academic Phrasebank is the Intellectual Property of the University of Manchester.

Copyright © 2023 The University of Manchester

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The Academic Phrasebank is a general resource for academic writers. It aims to provide you with examples of some of the phraseological 'nuts and bolts' of writing organised according to the main sections of a research paper or dissertation (see the top menu ).

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Academic grammar

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Academic posters are an excellent way to showcase your work at conferences and meetings. They can be used in poster presentations and serve as a summa...

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Good note-taking is essential for managing the information you read and listen to during lectures. There are a number of different note-taking techniques, and you may find it's effective to use different techniques depending on the information you need to record.

Note-taking advice

More note-taking tips

You do not need to write everything down

If you read a 20 page book chapter, and make 20 pages of notes, you won't be able to effectively review any of that information. Only record the most important information, and any additional thoughts or questions you have.

Always write down the original source of information

One of the most frequent types of plagiarism is when people write about an idea or concept from their notes but can't remember where it came from and so do not include an acknowledgement. Whether the information came from a lecture, a website or a textbook, make sure that you write down the source.

Good academic practice, and successful research, is based on demonstrating your knowledge of a subject, and that is based on the information you read and evaluate. Your notes are part of this process, so accurate record-keeping is essential.

Advice for managing your notes

Write the date and the name of the lecture on your notes.

Write bibliographic details on your notes, and include the page number(s) of any quotes you copy from books or journals. This applies to websites and images too. Find out more about referencing.

Write legible notes; give yourself space to add comments later; underline, circle or highlight the most important points.

Use abbreviations (so long as you understand them) - this can help in lectures to give you more time to think whilst you write.

If you are directly quoting a person or source, write quotations in a different colour or highlight them so you can distinguish them from your own thoughts and ideas.

Use your own words to write about what you read - this is good paraphrasing practice, and will help you to explain difficult ideas more easily.

Further resources

You will find many guides to note-taking online, or in books in the Library. Have a look for study skills using Library Search.

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Good note-taking is essential for managing the information you read and listen to during lectures. There are a number of different note-taking techniques, and you may find it's effective to use different techniques depending on the information you need to record.

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In English the core building blocks of any intellectual or research argument are paragraphs. Each paragraphs should be a single unit of thought, a discrete package of ideas composed of closely linked sentences. The most generally applicable sequence to follow is - Topic, Body, Tokens, Wrap.

The opening 'topic' sentence alerts readers to a change of subject and focus, and cues readers (in 'signpost' mode) about what the paragraph covers. It should never link backwards to material that came before (linkages are instead always made forward in 'wrap' sentences). So be wary of starting paragraphs with linking words (such as 'However', 'Never the less', 'Furthermore'), lest they lead you into looking back. Instead topic sentences should clearly signal a new focus of attention. Yet they also need to be carefully written, to give readers the impression of a fluent, 'natural' progression of thought. Remember too that a signpost is just that - it is a very short cuing or naming prompt, not a mini-tour guide or a preview of the whole paragraph argument to come.

The main 'body' sentences give the core argument of the paragraph. In research work they need to clearly and carefully set out reasoning, describe results, develop implications, elucidate formulae, or elaborate and explain theoretical and thematic points. Body sentences constitute the mainstream of the paragraph, the core of the unit of thought.

Researchers normally must offer tokens to back up and support their core arguments. 'Token' sentences can be sprinkled across a paragraph amongst the body sentences, at apt points where they are most needed or useful. Typically token sentences are examples, references, quotations from other authors, supporting facts, or analysis of accompanying 'attention points', exhibits, tables, charts or diagrams. In some degree 'token' sentences are inherently digressive: they potentially lead away from the mainstream of the paragraph. Hence they need careful management, especially when two or more token sentences follow each other, without intervening 'body' sentences.

Finally the 'wrap' sentence serves to pull the paragraph argument together, to make clear to readers that a building block has been put in place. It should be constructive and substantive, adding value to the argument, not simply repeating early materials. It should also handle any link forward to the next paragraph that is needed.

Rational, skimming readers do not treat all parts of paragraphs in the same way. In search of the quickest possible appreciation of what is being said, they pay special attention to the beginning and ends of paragraphs, to the topic and wrap sentences - a technique commonly taught on 'speed reading' courses. When and if they look more closely inside the body of the paragraph, readers may also initially skip across token sentences. And they will normally put off digging into 'hard' formulae or tough exposition materials in search of a more intuitive (if approximate) understanding gleaned from the sentences that precede or follow them.

It follows that the beginning and endings of paragraphs should always be the most carefully written materials. Try to separate out these two sentences and look at them together. Check how they read, how substantive and informative they are, and how they might be improved.

Six common paragraph problems

Six things most commonly go wrong in writing paragraphs:

1 The author starts with a backward link to the previous paragraph, instead of a fresh topic sentence. Readers may conclude that this is simply 'more of the same' and so skip onwards to the next paragraph. Even those who persist may become confused - what is the paragraph really about? Is it the start sentence? Or the different point given in the now 'submerged' topic sentence that comes second?

2 The paragraph begins with a 'throat-clearing' sentence, or some formalism or other form of insubstantial sentence (or perhaps several such sentences). For instance authors might begin by discussing a caveat, a definition, a difficulty or a methods issue that form part of the provenance of the argument to be made. The effect is again to bury the real topic sentence one or two sentences deep in the paragraph. Readers may conclude on a quick look that the whole paragraph is just an insubstantial caveat, or navel-gazing of the familiar academic kind, and so skip forward, missing the change of focus completely. If they do persevere reading they may not correctly identify the now submerged topic sentence, and then find that the wrap sentence seems unjustified or tendentious, because it does not fit with the apparent topic.

3 The author starts the whole paragraph with another author's name and reference, for instance: 'Harding (2007: 593) argues ...' This is a beginning especially beloved of some PhDers and other unconfident authors, creeping forward with their argument propped up on the supports of other peoples' work. Some postgrad students will construct whole sets of paragraphs in this manner, running over several pages, every one of which starts with another author's name, especially in 'literature review' sections. They mistakenly believe that this way of proceeding will convince readers that they have closely read the literature. But when the first words of a paragraph are someone else's name, the author is inadvertently signalling: 'Here follows a completely derivative paragraph' - or section if this pattern is repeated. So critical readers' common reaction is to downgrade or skip the paragraph (or sequence of such paragraphs) and move on.

The easy solution to this problem begins by not thinking in terms of individual authors, but focusing instead on the schools of thought, or 'sides' in an empirical controversy, that the authors to be cited represent. Write a clear and free-standing topic sentence. Then explain the core ideas or propositions of one or more schools of thought involved in the body sentences. Relegate author names to the supporting references that come at the ends of sentences, where they belong.

4 A paragraph stops abruptly, usually because the author has become aware that it has got too too long. Commonly this occurs because token sentences have multiplied - perhaps because the planned brief exposition of an example or analysis of an exhibit have become unwieldy. Usually authors here make an enforced 'emergency stop', and then commonly write up what should have been the wrap sentence as the beginning of the next paragraph. The first paragraph then has a sequence of Topic, Body, Tokens but no wrap sentence. And the next paragraph 2 starts with the displaced wrap1 sentence, and has a buried topic2 sentence. Readers will get a bit lost at the end of paragraph 1 here, as a token or body sentence ends the paragraph with no form of recap. And they will read the displaced wrap sentence as signalling the topic of paragraph 2 (which it doesn't). They may puzzle through paragraph 2, feeling that it was not what was promised at the start, or that it does too many things. Or again they may skip forward here, feeling that paragraph 2 only repeats.

5 Paragraphs get too long, extending beyond the acceptable research text range of 100-200 words to take up 300 words or more. Often this happens because tokens have multiplied or swollen outside the limits that can be handled easily. But because of their partly digressive character the author is reluctant to recognize the need to create separate paragraphs to handle them. Especially when they discuss attention points or exhibits that are complex and not designed to be self-contained and easily understood, body and token sentences may blur together, creating text where the mainstream argument becomes hard to distinguish.

The solution to very long paragraphs has to be brutal. Once a paragraph passes 250 words, it must be partitioned, usually as equally as feasible, and separate topic and wrap sentences provided for each part. If the problem arises from an overlong exposition of a token or an exhibit, then the author needs to find a solution that allows a partial digression to be smoothly handled. If a paragraph falls between 200 and 250 words this might be retainable, so long as the wrap sentence can still reconnect readers back to the (now rather distant) topic sentence.

6. A paragraph is too short. For a research text this occurs if it falls below 100 words, and especially if it consists of just one sentence or is less than 50 words. Normally, short, bitty paragraphs like this look terrible on the printed page of a journal or a research book, and they undermine the usefulness of paragraphs as argument building blocks. Short paragraphs happen because an author is unsure what to say, or has not properly thought through how a point or a set of points fit together or can be sequenced into the overall argument. Some reflect miscellanies of points that the author has not acknowledged as such. Other single sentence paragraphs are 'orphan' sentences that should be incorporated into longer nearby paragraphs but have not been - for example, in starting lists or sequences of connected paragraphs. Orphan sentences (and short paragraphs generally) should always be merged into their neighbours, so that they disappear.

Two groups of people need to take particular care adapting to this convention of English paragraphing at research level. First, Spanish speakers (and related languages) often write using multiple, very short or single-sentence paragraphs, organized in subtle thematic ways that English-speaking readers find very hard to follow. Such an audience will often see only a baffling multiplicity of paragraphs that is interpreted as disorganized thinking. Second, journalists, and now some academic bloggers also, use short paragraphs that look OK in newsprint or on narrow or spaced-out blog columns. All these types of author should aggregate their short paragraphs into longer ones of at least 100 to 200 words if they want to publish journal articles or research books in English. If you have ever seen a journalist's writing transposed into book form without this change, you will appreciate that there are also strong aesthetic reasons to make this shift.
To follow up these ideas in more detail see my book: Patrick Dunleavy, 'There is also very useful advice on Rachael Cayley's blog Explorations of Style. Authoring a PhD' (Palgrave, 2003) or the Kindle edition, where Chapter 5 covers 'Writing clearly' and Chapter 6 'Developing as a Writer'.
And for new update materials see the LSE's Impact blog and on Twitter @Write4Research

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In English the core building blocks of any intellectual or research argument are paragraphs. Each paragraphs should be a single unit of thought, a discrete package of ideas composed of closely linked...

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Academic vocabulary and how to use Academic Vocabulary Lists (AWLs)

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UCL (University College London) is consistently ranked among the world’s top ten universities (QS World University Rankings 2010 - 2021). Our excellence extends across all academic disciplines, from one of the world’s foremost centres for research and teaching in the biological sciences to world-ren…

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Home " ELT Materials " English Language Teaching Materials

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Lots of free explanations and exercises to help you perfect your English grammar.

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Research Guides: How to Create a Research Poster: Poster Basics

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Research Guides: Reading and Study Strategies: Annotating a Text

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Use the tabs to find guides to help you read academic texts in a way that helps you remember and use the information. Move beyond a highlighter for note-taking strategies to use while reading.

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Try doing the "wordbank" activities, these change every day, a great way to build vocabulary!

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Missed a day?

Get access to our 'Word of the Day' revision exercises with "CAE Exam Success Plus!".

Build an organised record of vocabulary with these worksheets.

Self study mark sheets to help you keep track of new words.

Your Feedback

"Very, very good organised and structured and really useful and effective!The wohle website is very good. What I most prefer is the Word bank with its step by step learning Learning English with flo-joe is encouraging and delightful. It seems to study comfortably on your own sitting at your desk but always helped and guided by a teacher."
Elena F. CAE student, Italy

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A daily phrasal verb collocation and word formation quiz to help students with the CAE Use of English Part 3 task

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When words sound different in isolation vs. in a sentence, look up the pronunciation first in a dictionary, then use https://youglish.com

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Strategies for Struggling Readers

Have you ever known someone who reads impossibly fast? You watch them reading and it's almost as if they aren't even reading. In fact, they seem to be absorbing text. They simply look at words and they jump into their mind.

As surprising as this may be to learn: they are doing much more than simply glancing at words and absorbing them. They are unconsciously using reading strategies that allow them to read quickly while maintaining a high level of reading comprehension.

Scaffolding Techniques

The lack of these effective reading strategies is often what prevents struggling readers from excelling with reading. Fortunately, you can teach reading strategies to struggling readers to help them improve their reading comprehension.

Often, educators call these reading strategies " scaffolding " techniques because they help struggling readers build their way up to reading comprehension, much as a scaffold helps a construction worker to build upward from the ground.

Annotating Text

One such scaffolding skill that you can teach to struggling readers is the annotation of text. This means, quite simply, that the reader "marks up" sections of text, either with a highlighter or underlining, and makes notes in the margin in his/her own words, to ensure understanding.

Annotation helps build three key reading skills. When annotating a text, the reader:

1. Formulates questions in response to what he is reading

2. Analyzes and interprets elements of poetry or prose

3. Draws conclusions and makes inferences based on explicit and implicit meaning

Teaching Struggling Readers to Annotate Text

In order for this to be effective, it is essential that you show your struggling readers how to highlight and annotate a text. Otherwise, the student will probably lapse into highlighting every word, which doesn't help him to identify key concepts.

A useful teaching strategy you can employ is to use an old-fashioned overhead projector or a SMART board, to display a piece of text and READ IT FIRST. Students need to know that they don't start highlighting until after they've first read through the text. You can then highlight it yourself, talking your way through WHY you choose certain items to highlight. As you do this, you can also ask the students to pick items for highlighting and have them explain why they selected them.

As the highlighting progresses, it's important for students to make notes in the margins, such as:

questions the student needs to ask you

predictions about what will happen as a story progresses

identify figurative language, such as: simile, metaphor, symbol, or other literary device (usually this would be done with poetry or prose)

note unfamiliar vocabulary (the definition can later be written in the margin)

As you use these teaching strategies, you should discuss with the students the purpose of highlighting. Each student will have different purpose for highlighting depending on their own skill set and reading struggles.

For example:

Students that struggle with understanding what they read (reading comprehension), benefit from highlighting because it helps them focus on identifying the main ideas of a text.

On the contrary, other students can grasp main ideas, but don't "read between the lines" very well. They will benefit from having a set of reading questions provided in advance that require making an inference. These students can use the highlighter to try to locate information that will help them respond to the questions. A key question for students to write onto a text and refer back to frequently is: "How do I know this is true?" This question reminds them to look for evidence to support their conclusions.

Side Note:

K-12 students typically are not permitted to highlight their textbooks, for obvious reasons. It is well worth the time & expense for the classroom teacher to make photocopies if possible for struggling readers so that they can annotate their texts.

Conclusion

Showing struggling readers active strategies like annotating gives them concrete tools to be able to interact with text and find small, immediate successes. The more students practice effective reading strategies, the more natural they will become, and the closer to absorbing text they will get.
List of Reading Strategies ›

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Reading Strategies for Struggling Readers

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Have you ever known someone who reads impossibly fast? You watch them reading and it's almost as if they aren't even reading. In fact, they seem to be absorbing text. They simply look at words and they jump into their mind.

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Suggested Resources
Style Guide Overview MLA Guide APA Guide Chicago Guide OWL Exercises

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

Summary:
A discussion of transition strategies and specific transitional devices.

Transitional devices are like bridges between parts of your paper. They are cues that help the reader to interpret ideas a paper develops. Transitional devices are words or phrases that help carry a thought from one sentence to another, from one idea to another, or from one paragraph to another. And finally, transitional devices link sentences and paragraphs together smoothly so that there are no abrupt jumps or breaks between ideas.

There are several types of transitional devices, and each category leads readers to make certain connections or assumptions. Some lead readers forward and imply the building of an idea or thought, while others make readers compare ideas or draw conclusions from the preceding thoughts.

Here is a list of some common transitional devices that can be used to cue readers in a given way.

To Add:

and, again, and then, besides, equally important, finally, further, furthermore, nor, too, next, lastly, what's more, moreover, in addition, first (second, etc.)

To Compare:

whereas, but, yet, on the other hand, however, nevertheless, on the contrary, by comparison, where, compared to, up against, balanced against, vis a vis, but, although, conversely, meanwhile, after all, in contrast, although this may be true

To Prove:

because, for, since, for the same reason, obviously, evidently, furthermore, moreover, besides, indeed, in fact, in addition, in any case, that is

To Show Exception:

yet, still, however, nevertheless, in spite of, despite, of course, once in a while, sometimes

To Show Time:

immediately, thereafter, soon, after a few hours, finally, then, later, previously, formerly, first (second, etc.), next, and then

To Repeat:

in brief, as I have said, as I have noted, as has been noted

To Emphasize:

definitely, extremely, obviously, in fact, indeed, in any case, absolutely, positively, naturally, surprisingly, always, forever, perennially, eternally, never, emphatically, unquestionably, without a doubt, certainly, undeniably, without reservation

To Show Sequence:

first, second, third, and so forth. A, B, C, and so forth. next, then, following this, at this time, now, at this point, after, afterward, subsequently, finally, consequently, previously, before this, simultaneously, concurrently, thus, therefore, hence, next, and then, soon

To Give an Example:

for example, for instance, in this case, in another case, on this occasion, in this situation, take the case of, to demonstrate, to illustrate, as an illustration, to illustrate

To Summarize or Conclude:

in brief, on the whole, summing up, to conclude, in conclusion, as I have shown, as I have said, hence, therefore, accordingly, thus, as a result, consequently

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

Summary:
A discussion of transition strategies and specific transitional devices.

Transitional devices are like bridges between parts of your paper. They are cues that help the reader to interpret ideas a paper develops. Transitional devices are words or phrases that help carry a thought from one sentence to another, from one idea to another, or from one paragraph to another. And finally, transitional devices link sentences and paragraphs together smoothly so that there are no abrupt jumps or breaks between ideas.

There are several types of transitional devices, and each category leads readers to make certain connections or assumptions. Some lead readers forward and imply the building of an idea or thought, while others make readers compare ideas or draw conclusions from the preceding thoughts.

Here is a list of some common transitional devices that can be used to cue readers in a given way.

To Add:

and, again, and then, besides, equally important, finally, further, furthermore, nor, too, next, lastly, what's more, moreover, in addition, first (second, etc.)

To Compare:

whereas, but, yet, on the other hand, however, nevertheless, on the contrary, by comparison, where, compared to, up against, balanced against, vis a vis, but, although, conversely, meanwhile, after all, in contrast, although this may be true

To Prove:

because, for, since, for the same reason, obviously, evidently, furthermore, moreover, besides, indeed, in fact, in addition, in any case, that is

To Show Exception:

yet, still, however, nevertheless, in spite of, despite, of course, once in a while, sometimes

To Show Time:

immediately, thereafter, soon, after a few hours, finally, then, later, previously, formerly, first (second, etc.), next, and then

To Repeat:

in brief, as I have said, as I have noted, as has been noted

To Emphasize:

definitely, extremely, obviously, in fact, indeed, in any case, absolutely, positively, naturally, surprisingly, always, forever, perennially, eternally, never, emphatically, unquestionably, without a doubt, certainly, undeniably, without reservation

To Show Sequence:

first, second, third, and so forth. A, B, C, and so forth. next, then, following this, at this time, now, at this point, after, afterward, subsequently, finally, consequently, previously, before this, simultaneously, concurrently, thus, therefore, hence, next, and then, soon

To Give an Example:

for example, for instance, in this case, in another case, on this occasion, in this situation, take the case of, to demonstrate, to illustrate, as an illustration, to illustrate

To Summarize or Conclude:

in brief, on the whole, summing up, to conclude, in conclusion, as I have shown, as I have said, hence, therefore, accordingly, thus, as a result, consequently

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Style Guide Overview MLA Guide APA Guide Chicago Guide OWL Exercises This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice. Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved.

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Type in a word and it'll show you what it collocates with

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Just The Word collocations - helps you in writing English

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Giving presentations is an important part of sharing your work and achieving recognition in the larger medical and scientific communities. The ability to do so effectively can contribute to career success.

However, instead of engaging audiences and conveying enthusiasm, many presentations fall flat. Pitfalls include overly complicated content, monotone delivery and focusing on what you want to say rather than what the audience is interested in hearing.

Effective presentations appeal to a wide range of audiences - those who work in your area of interest or in related fields, as well as potential funders, the media and others who may find your work interesting or useful.

There are two major facets to a presentation: the content and how you present it. Let's face it, no matter how great the content, no one will get it if they stop paying attention. Here are some pointers on how to create clear, concise content for scientific presentations - and how to deliver your message in a dynamic way.

Presentation pointers: content

Here are five tips for developing effective content for your presentation:

1. Know your audience. Gear your presentation to the knowledge level and needs of the audience members. Are they colleagues? Researchers in a related field? Consumers who want to understand the value of your work for the clinic (for example, stem cell research that could open up a new avenue to treat a neurological disease)?

2. Tell audience members up front why they should care and what's in it for them. What problem will your work help solve? Is it a diagnostic test strategy that reduces false positives? A new technology that will help them to do their own work faster, better and less expensively? Will it help them get a new job or bring new skills to their present job?

3. Convey your excitement. Tell a brief anecdote or describe the "aha" moment that convinced you to get involved in your field of expertise. For example, Dr. Marius Stan, a physicist and chemist known to the wider world as the carwash owner on Breaking Bad, explained that mathematics has always been his passion, and the "explosion" of computer hardware and software early in his career drove his interest to computational science, which involves the use of mathematical models to solve scientific problems. Personalizing makes your work come alive and helps audience members relate to it on an emotional level.

4. Tell your story. A presentation is your story. It needs a beginning, a middle and an end. For example, you could begin with the problem you set out to solve. What did you discover by serendipity? What gap did you think your work could fill? For the middle, you could describe what you did, succinctly and logically, and ideally building to your most recent results. And the end could focus on where you are today and where you hope to go.

Start with context. Cite research - by you and others - that brought you to this point. Where does your work fit within this context? What is unique about it? While presenting on organs-on-chips technology at a recent conference, Dr. Donald Ingber, Director of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard, described the pioneering work of others in the field, touched on its impact, then went on to show his unique contributions to the field. He did not present his work out of context, as though his group were the only one achieving results.

Provide highlights of what you did, tied to the audience's expertise and/or reasons for attending your presentation. Present the highlights in a logical order. Avoid going into excruciating detail. If people are interested in steps you don't cover, they'll ask and you can expand during the Q&A period. A meeting I covered on educational gaming gave presenters just 10 minutes each to talk about their work. Most used three to five slides, making sure to include a website address for more information on each slide. Because these speakers were well prepared, they were able to identify and communicate their key points in the short timeframe. They also made sure attendees who wanted more information would be able to find it easily on their websites. So don't get bogged down in details - the what is often more important than the how.

Conclude by summing up key points and acknowledging collaborators and mentors. Give a peek into your next steps, especially if you're interested in recruiting partners. Include your contact details and Twitter handle.

Frame the problem: "We couldn't understand why our experiment wasn't working so we investigated further"; "We saw an opportunity to cut costs and speed things up."

5. Keep it simple. Every field has its jargon and acronyms, and science and medicine are no exceptions. However, you don't want audience members to get stuck on a particular term and lose the thread of your talk. Even your fellow scientists will appreciate brief definitions and explanations of terminology and processes, especially if you're working in a field like microfluidics, which includes collaborators in diverse disciplines, such as engineering, biomedical research and computational biology.

I've interviewed Nobel laureates who know how to have a conversation about their work that most anyone can understand - even if it involves complex areas such as brain chemistry or genomics. That's because they've distilled their work to its essence, and can then talk about it at the most basic level as well as the most complicated. Regardless of the level of your talk, the goal should be to communicate, not obfuscate.

Presentation pointers: you

Here are 10 tips to help you present your scientific work and leave the audience wanting more.

1. Set the stage. Get your equipment ready and run through your slides if possible (use the "speaker ready" room if one is available). If you've never been in the venue, try getting there early and walk the room. Make sure you have water available.

Breathe slowly and deeply for a few minutes before your talk.

Visualize yourself giving a relaxed talk to a receptive audience. This works best if you can close your eyes for a few minutes. If you're sitting in the audience waiting to be introduced and can't close your eyes, look up at the ceiling and try visualizing that way.

Do affirmations. Tell yourself you are relaxed, confident - whatever works for you. Whether affirmations are effective is a matter of debate, but you won't know unless you try.

Assume one or more "power poses," developed by social psychologist and dancer Dr. Amy Cuddy of the Harvard Business School, before giving your presentation. She demonstrates them in this TED talk. Power poses are part of the emerging field of embodiment research (see a comprehensive collection of articles related to this research in the journal Frontiers in Psychology). Research on power poses has yielded mixed results to date, but they're worth a try.

2. Get ready to perform. Every presentation is a performance. The most important part is to know your lines and subject. Some people advocate memorizing your presentation, but if you do so, you can end up sounding stilted or getting derailed by an interruption. When you practice, focus on the key points you want to make (note them down if it helps) and improvise different ways of communicating them.

It's well known that a majority of people fear public speaking - and even those who enjoy it may get stage fright. Fear of public speaking will diminish with experience. I've been presenting and performing for many years but still get stage fright. Try these strategies to manage the fear:

3. Stride up to the podium. Seeing you walk energetically energizes the audience. They expect you to engage them and you have their attention.

4. Stand tall and keep your chest lifted. It's more difficult to breathe and speak when your shoulders are rolled forward and your chest caves in. Standing tall is also a way of conveying authority. If you're presenting from a sitting position, sit up in your seat, keep your arms relaxed and away from your sides (i.e., don't box yourself in by clasping your arms or clasping your hands in your lap).

5. Smile. Not only will you appear more relaxed if you smile, but research has shown that smiling - even when forced - reduces stress. Plus the audience enjoys watching and listening to someone who's smiling rather than being stern or overly serious, especially if your topic is complicated.

One of the most enjoyable presentations I've covered was on animal versus human cognition. It dealt with the evolution and activation of different parts of the brain. By inserting anecdotes in with complex didactic information, presenter Dr. Onur Güntürkün, Professor of Biological Psychology at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum in Germany, made the topic accessible and compelling.

6. Speak up. The audience came to your talk so they really do want to hear what you have to say. If a microphone is available, use it. I've seen countless presenters stand in front of a microphone yet somehow manage not to talk into it. Talk from your diaphragm, not your throat, to give your voice authority and resonance.

7. Take your time. A moment or two of silence as you gather your thoughts or move to a new topic can actually make the audience pay attention. Don't feel you have to talk continuously, and avoid filler phrases, such as "you know."

8. Talk to the audience, not the screen. Making eye contact with one or more friendly faces can relax you and help you connect to the audience. It will also prevent you from reading your slides, which you don't want to do unless absolutely necessary (for example, if you forget the statistics supporting a particular point).

9. Stick to your time frame. We've all done it, but it's not fun to have to cycle rapidly through your last 10 slides because the moderator has given you a two-minute warning and you're nowhere near the end. Try to pace yourself. When preparing your slides and practicing (i.e., rehearsing for your performance), make a note on the slide you think you should be discussing when you're about midway through your talk. This gives you a benchmark and lets you know if you need to speed up or slow down the rest of the presentation.

10. Don't drift off at the end. I've seen people read their summary slide, then nod and walk away. Instead, say "That concludes my presentation. Thank you for your attention." If appropriate, ask if there are any questions or tell the audience they will have an opportunity to ask questions later.

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Six dos and don'ts of PowerPoint slides

1. Less is more. Although there are no "rules," I've found that 20-25 slides work well for a one hour presentation. You'll have a better idea what works for you if you time yourself during a practice session.

2. Create sections. Use a title slide to start a new section or change the subject. This will also help you organize your presentation and make sure it flows logically.

3. Avoid clutter. Stick to three to five bullet points per slide at most. Bullet points should contain key words - not complete sentences. For examples of what not to do, see this recent editorial in the Washington Post, which urges a ban on PowerPoint presentations.

4. Make it readable. Rule of thumb for fonts: 28-40 point for headlines; 18-28 for text; 12-14 for references. Use sans serif fonts, and make sure you have a strong contrast between the background and text (e.g., black or dark blue text on a white background; white text on a blue background). Don't use ALL CAPS; underscore a point by putting it in italics or bold (underlining can make the text more difficult to read).

5. Use visuals. In a recent talk, presenters explained why biological image processing and analysis is a hot field in laboratory R&D. The reason is simple: you can tell a lot more about cells with an image versus a cell count. The same is true of your presentation: a single image of something particularly relevant to your work is more engaging and has the potential to convey more information than words.

That said, it's important to keep the visual simple - an image of a single cell or pathway, for example. If you use graphs to show comparisons or results, indicate what the axes represent and which variables (ideally, not more than two or three) you're displaying.

Generally, steer clear of videos. One of the few effective videos I've seen was of a Caledonian crow creating a tool to obtain food, which Dr. Güntürkün included in the presentation referred to above. Videos of in vitro experiments and imaging results rarely help support a point because the low resolution makes everything look grainy.

6. Check your spelling. Nothing takes away from credibility like misspelled words, especially if they're up on large screen for a minute or more - or worse, repeated throughout your presentation. After you use spell check, proof your presentation yourself. Let a day go by if possible; it's easier to pick up errors after a break.

Elsevier Connect Contributor

Marilynn Larkin is an award-winning science writer and editor who develops content for medical, scientific and consumer audiences. She was a contributing editor to and its affiliated medical journals for more than 10 years and a regular contributor to the New York Academy of Sciences' publications and Reuters Health's professional newsfeed. She also launched and served as editor for of Caring for the Ages, an official publication of the American Medical Directors Association. Larkin's articles also have appeared in Consumer Reports, , and many other consumer publications, and she is the author of five consumer health books.

As a consultant on postural awareness and confidence building, Larkin has presented to corporations and nonprofits and at regional and national meetings of, among others, the American Society on Aging and National Council on Aging, the American College of Sports Medicine, and New Jersey Dietetic Association.

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How to give a dynamic scientific presentation

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Giving presentations is an important part of sharing your work and achieving recognition in the larger medical and scientific communities. The ability to do so effectively can contribute to career success. However, instead of engaging audiences and conveying enthusiasm, many presentations fall flat.