Oral presentations should 12 minutes long with 2 minutes for questions. In order to keep the room on schedule, hosts will stop the speaker after 14 minutes.

A computer with PowerPoint and a projector will be available for all oral presentations.  For the sake of efficiency on the day of the conference, the PowerPoint presentations should be submitted to the Office of Undergraduate Research by 5 PM on the Friday before the festival.

The ACU Speaking Center is available to help presenters prepare their talks and their slides. You can schedule an appointment on the Speaking Center Blog.

Tips

1. Practice your talk. It is best to practice with your mentor listening, they will be the best at catching the detailed issues. Practice in front of your roommates, friends, and/or significant other. They will be able to tell you what doesn’t make sense to a non-expert. The more you practice, the more relaxed you will be the day of the Research Festival.

2. Proofread your slides. You don’t want to be up in front of people when you realize that there is a mistake on one of your slides. Have your mentor or a friend read them too.

3. Make sure your slides are readable. Remember that projectors usually aren’t as bright as computer screens. Small fonts and low contrasting colors make it hard for your audience to read the slides. It is better to use boring readable colors than cool unreadable colors.

4. Avoid wordy slides. Try to only put keywords, key phrases, and/ or images on your slides. Make your slides, practice your talk, then delete half or more of the words on your slides. It is boring to read along during a talk.

5. Practice, Practice, Practice. It is worth saying again.