PS900: Presentation Skills

Skills for Success

(Adapted by Dr Meadows for Social project)

skills@essex.ac.uk
 Skills for Success

What we can help with:

English language
Academic skills
Maths & statistics
Digital skills

How?
Embedded teaching
Workshops & 1:1s – book on Careerhub
Online resources

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 Workshops and 1:1s

For general help with skills throughout the year,

use our workshop programme,
and our 1:1 service.

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 Skills for Success – Links & info

Skills for success: Links and info

• Our webpages: essex.ac.uk/student/academic-skills

• Email: skills@essex.ac.uk
• Workshops
• 1:1s
• Book a librarian

Good luck!

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 What do you have to do?

Week 25 – Proposal presentation

“Each student will have the opportunity to present
their research proposal in an oral presentation
during their weekly lab class in week 25.”
• Max 5 minutes
• 10% of mark for module
• To 2 supervisors and peers
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 Why are you doing this?

Why are you being asked to do this?

• Demonstrate “science communication skills”
• “an important skill for future employment”
• But most importantly – to get feedback from your
supervisor on your project and its progress
• “The key is to effectively communicate the summary of
your project, and to highlight your understanding of
the research project you are undertaking.”
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 What are the key elements

“In this presentation you will briefly introduce the

background theory, your research question, how you
will address this question and the anticipated results.
These presentations are a great opportunity to receive
valuable feedback from your supervisor on your
understanding of the research project.

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What should it cover?
• Essentially, everything from the abstract on your
Project Proposal Form:
• Background theory (1 slide)
• Research question (1 slide)
• Methods (1–2 slides)
• Anticipated results (1–2 slides)

 This is actually quite a lot to cover in 5 minutes, so

you will need to be concise…
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 Marking criteria
Marking criteria

• Background/Introduction & Research Questions

(Hypotheses/Predictions)
• Research questions/aims
• Methods (How the questions/aims will be addressed)
• Anticipated results
• Overall organisation, presentation, communication
• Mark out of 20 (15 + = 1st class; below 10 = fail)

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 Background theory

Background theory
• Briefly describe the key literature that provides a
context for your study/experiment and motivates your
research question/hypotheses. Cite the key literature.
• e.g., “Performance is improved on the X task when
participants receive a caffeine supplement (Malony et
al., 2023).”
• Do not provide a reference list.
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 Research question

Research question:
• State your research question or study aim
• e.g., “This study will investigate the relationship between …..”
• e.g., “This study will explore whether …”

• If you phrase it as a question, it’s your research

question. If you phrase it as a sentence (like above),
it’s the aim. Both ok. Choose one.
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 Methods & methodology

How you will address question (i.e., Methods):

• What kind of design will you use?
• e.g., “This study will use a cross-sectional design.”
• Who are your participants and how will they be recruited?
• What measures will you use to address your research
question?
• Self-report scale (e.g., personality) ← adapt to your RQ
• What is the procedure?
• Participants will be directed to an online survey platform… etc.
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 Anticipated results

Anticipated results (what do you expect to find?)

• This could be communicated with text….
• e.g., “I expect to find that performance on the X task will be higher in
the treatment condition…..”
• e.g., “I predict that critical consciousness will be positively associated
with ratings of group X on measures of warmth and competence, and
negatively related with prejudice toward group X.

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 Anticipated results

Anticipated results (what do you expect to find?)

• …or in the form of a figure or table (depending on what is
appropriate for your study)
• If you have more than one hypothesis, make a prediction
for each one.

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 Anticipated results

Example bar chart

Relationship between empathy and group attitudes

Positive attitudes

People with tattoos Immigrants

Target group

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 Anticipated results

Creating graphs for expected results

• Microsoft support: charts and graphs
• When you get to the part where it opens up a spreadsheet:
• Create some imaginary data that mirrors the pattern you expect to
see
• Play around with it till you get the effect you want
• You may find it helpful to sketch this out on paper first

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 Anticipated results

Example table

Relationship between different aspects of moral identity and stereotypes and

prejudice toward immigrants

Warmth Competence Prejudice

Moral identity

Internalisation
↑ ↑ ↓
Symbolisation
↓ = ↑

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 Anticipated results

Creating tables for expected results

• Microsoft support: tables
• You could use sample numbers, arrows, or +/– signs in
table cells
• Play around with the formatting until you get the effect you
want

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SUPER SUPER IMPORTANT
 Submit your slides
How:
1/ Go to your lab group folder

2/ Click on “Presentation Assessment Submission”

3/ Save your file with your user name as your file name. Your username is
the first part of your Essex email address.

4/ Submit your PowerPoint slides before the stated deadline (midday the
day before your presentation)
Slide
Some tips for preparing your slides

Lots of examples of what NOT to do!

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 Do not have too much text

Don’t write with too much text on the slides otherwise it’s
really confusing for your audience and all they’ll be doing
is reading what it says on the screen when they should
be listening to what you are saying and they are there to
listen to you not to read – it’s really annoying if
everything is just written up on the screen like this isn’t
it?

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 Avoid distractions

Don’t use weird colours for the

text or background
Or weird fonts…
…or tiny font sizes

Use Arial, Tahoma, Verdana or similar

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 Make it easy for your audience

Don’t use weird colours for the

text or background
It’s hard to read and looks stupid

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 Again, avoid distractions

Don’t use silly animations…

…or sound effects

And make sure there are no mitskaes.

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 Manage the flow of information

If you have to use animations, just use “appear”,

and “on click”.

…like this.

Microsoft support: animations

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 Images, graphs and tables

Are graphs, images or tables needed?

They need to be clear – clearly labelled, readable,
linked to question & discussions

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 An example…of how not to do it?

SfS Delivery
3500

3000

2500

2000

1500

1000

500

0
Embedded AES Central Total

18/19 19/20 20/21 21/22 22/23

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 Key points

• Your slides should be clear and simple

• They should support what you say, not distract
from it
• You should not have too many slides
• The purpose of each should be very clear to
your audience

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Some tips for your presentation

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 Presentation skills

Presentation skills: The basics

• Engage your audience – eye contact, body language
etc.
• Good pacing, leave pauses
• Clear signposting
• Have a script – not an essay you read out
• Use Powerpoint

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 What’s most important?

• Remember – the key is to communicate the key

information clearly….
• Don’t get too hung up on delivery.

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 Delivering presentations

Some tips:
• Think about your script – you don’t want to be
obviously reading.
• Cue cards, bullet points, full script? It’s up to
you…
• …but deliver it, don’t read it.

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 Delivering presentations

Even better, if you can:

• Use the information on the slides as a prompt
to yourself
• Don’t use a script at all – this will sound more
natural

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 Let’s practice

If you need help (or want to practice) before next

week – book a 1:1 with Skills for Success.

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