Tips for Success: Powerpoint summary presentation of a research paper

Executive Summary: the most common medium to summarize research papers has changed, but the underlying concepts and goals remain the same.

Introduction: before the PC and PowerPoint, when you completed your research paper it was very common to create a poster summarizing your paper. Many young scientists and engineers remember what it is like to be one of twenty posters in a large hall at technical conferences. You would stand next to your poster and recite the elevator pitch summarizing your research and paper to other scientists that walked by with glasses of wine and plates of hors d'oeuvres.

PowerPoint: today instead of a poster, most researchers use PowerPoint and give a short presentation. The goals have not changed, they are:
- To inspire colleagues to read your paper
- To build name recognition for yourself and your work
- To share your passion for a problem, issue, and/or potential solution

Presentations regardless of medium: the same guidelines apply whether the medium is poster, PowerPoint, or increasingly, short video presentation:
- Match your presentation to your audience's knowledge level. If they are working in the field, do not waste their time with the basics.
- Focus your message, what are the three golden nuggets you want them to "take away?"
- Convey your message visually. Avoid tiny print, very busy slides, charts that do not actually inform, and be aware of red/green colorblindness with both the slides and laser pointer.
- Distance, be aware of the distance between your screen and the audience. This applies to live presentations and presentations viewed over the Internet. In a large room, people sitting in the back row may lose out, but people in the middle of the room should be able to understand.
- Remember some of your audience may be non-native English speakers or of a different culture, be careful with jargon, jokes and idioms.
- Be professional, avoid "cutesy slides", be consistent with fonts and font sizes.
- Be organized, tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, tell them that you told them.

1.1 Added fonts and font sizes thank you S. Ramsey