Whether it is a seminar review or a research project, you maybe required to represent your findings in a PowerPoint presentation and defend it before a panel. A project or a seminar review presentation demonstrates a student’s ability to identify society’s problems and proffers solutions. Therefore a project defense is a crucial part of your educational journey. Typically you present your project defense to a panel of seasoned professionals in your field. Their role is to critique or commend the outcome of your research and your presentation technique.
Presenting a project requires a lot of prior research into the subject matter. The delivery must be clear and concise. A good PowerPoint presentation for your project defense should capture the audience’s attention and help you with cues and reminders to help in your presentation.
Seeing the weight that your project holds in your academic achievement, we have outlined the best practices and layouts for your written and oral project defense. There are three characteristics of a project defense presentation that you have to bear in mind; there’s never enough time to talk about everything. The presentation reflects on you and your project, and the goal is to pass a clear message.
Table of Contents
How to Prepare a good PowerPoint Presentation for your Project Defense
Why is it important to give a good PowerPoint presentation for your project defense
A good presentation means three things:
- You did the work yourself
- You understand the process
- You can articulate the outcome of your research to anyone in a simple possible way
If you fail in your presentation, it will look like you didn’t put any effort into the project, moreover, it does not make sense to work so hard on your project, but no one else understands it. A good presentation simplifies everything about your project and put you in a good path with the project defense panel.
Things to Consider When Preparing for your defense
- To score high in your project defense, you have to demonstrate a clear understanding and mastery of your research methodology and the outcome of the research. Note that the panel can ask questions after your presentation; being unable to answer such questions can be detrimental to your success rate.
- Rehearse your project defense. It might feel like memorizing it; however, the better you know your presentation, the higher your chances of getting it right. During many project defense sessions, every presenter has a timer; therefore, a rehearsal can enable you to know whether you have the correct number of slides.
- Provide a thorough summary of your work. You can achieve this by including the key ideas and findings, such as statistics and theories. You should be ready to answer any questions from the panel
- Arrange all the slides neatly, proofread and ensure that is no grammatical errors.
- Print out your completed slides, study it, understand it and be ready to share your finding confidently with the project panel
Things to Consider When defending your project
- Appear confident. The panel expects you to be nervous; however, there are several ways to show confidence even if you don’t feel so confident. First, introduce yourself at the start. It will help if you don’t refer to your notes and focus on your advisor for clues. Keep eye contact with your audience and be attentive to the reaction you get from the audience.
- Attempt all question, but be honest and ask for clarity if you don’t understand any question
- Remember to thank the panel at the end of the presentation for listening to your presentation.
Final Thoughts
No matter your performance during the questions session, don’t panic, be confident in your answers and accept corrections where there are any. Remember you did the project not them and your duty is to tell them what you did, how you did it, why you did it and the contribution of your research outcome to knowledge
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