General Guidelines for Oral Presentations
(Adopted from Adrian Tinsley Program for Undergraduate Research)
The purpose of this document is to provide you with General Guidelines for giving an oral presentation
at a professional conference. As these general guidelines may not be directly applicable to your specific
project or to your discipline, it is expected that you will consult extensively with your mentor on the
presentation format that is consistent with your discipline. If you will be using PowerPoint, you should allow
time to make sure your computer platform is working properly and that your presentation materials are
loaded onto that computer. Each oral presenter will be introduced and the title of your talk will be read by
the moderator for your session. Again, the maximum length of your presentation varies, depending on the
conference. The IUURC program limits each student’s oral presentations to 8-10 min followed by 2-4 min
for Q&A for a total of 12 min. Your moderator will signal you at 2 minutes before your talk should end.
Presentation Slides
Title: You are expected to give a power point presentation and your first slide should contain your title,
name, your mentor’s name and department.
Introduction: Your Introduction should describe the research question you wish to answer (the project
goal, hypothesis, thesis statement, or question), and a list of objectives (the specific steps you need to
take, or the questions you need to answer, or what you need to learn or accomplish in order to reach your
project goal, hypothesis, or question). Your introduction should summarize the current understanding of
knowledge in the field, and on work directly related to your project. You may also want to include an outline
of what will be presented and discussed in the body of your presentation.
Significance: What is the significance of your research question? Although you should be able to explain
the expected impact on others within your academic discipline and on society in general, the broader
potential impact may very well be speculative.
Research Methods or Experimental Methods: you should describe the specific methodology
used in your research, or describe the detailed experimental or instrumental methods and/or techniques you
employed.
Results and/or Discussion: In this section you should present and interpret your research findings. In
some disciplines it is strongly recommended that you use tables, figures, diagrams, pictures, or equations to
supplement your oral presentation. You should explain either why this information is important to your
work, and discuss the relevance of this information in providing an answer to your research question.
Conclusion: This section is typically a factual summary of how your research work supports (or does not
support) your hypothesis, or whether your work has provided an answer to your research questions. It may
be helpful to restate your specific project goals and objectives, summarize the main points or significant
findings, and include a final statement to pull everything together.
Future Plans (optional): If you intend to continue your work, what do you propose to do next and why?
Acknowledgments: Be sure to thank any individuals who helped you with your research (such as your
mentor!), or who provided you with materials or information.
FINALLY, PRACTICE AND TIME YOUR TALK THREE TIMES AT MINIMUM. GOOD LUCK.
Resources: [Link]