Tips on a plenary / oral presentation

Presenting time

- Plenary presentation: 12 minutes (9 minutes presentation + 3 minutes discussion)
- Oral presentation: 11 minutes (8 minutes presentation + 3 minutes discussion)

Structure

1. Title:
Draw the attention of your audience with your title. Make sure it is brief and that it covers the contents of the presentation.
2. Introduction:
The introduction starts with what is known, followed by what is unknown about the subject. Remember: just give simple, necessary background information to explain your research question.
3. Hypothesis/ Research question:
State your hypothesis/research question as clear as possible! Use a separate slide for it.
4. Materials and Methods:
Explain your experimental design for answering your research question. Clarify what experiments/techniques you used in order to answer your research question. State the function of every technique/measurement and if necessary, explain why you have chosen certain techniques. Remember to keep confined to essential details.
5. Results:
Only report results that are relevant for your research question. Give percentages rather than exact data when possible. Also, use graphs for your most important findings.
6. Conclusion:
Give the answer to your research question. With this, repeat the question you stated in your introduction. Do not use more than one or two slides.
7. Discussion:
Explain the answer to your research question. If relevant, state some conditions that could have influenced your data.
8. Future prospective:
State the future prospective of your research shortly.
9. References/funding

4 keypoints to a better powerpoint presentation:

• Slide design: Use key terms instead of whole sentences on your slides and. When possible, summarize your text using bullets. Watch out you don't use more than 6 bullets per slide and 6 to 8 words per line. 
• Colors and contrast: Make sure the background color of your powerpoint contrasts with the color of your font. It is common to use a light and simple background colour. For lettering, choose a contrasting color differing from your background. 
• Font: Use a simple font (for instance Arial, Verdana or Calibri). The size should be at least a 28 font for titles and at least 22 point for the text. 
• When you're almost done, check your slides: Make sure there is not too much information on your slides. Avoid typing errors or ask a friend to check your slides, since errors are easy to miss.