PRESENTING YOUR PROPOSAL

Purpose of a proposal
presentation?
• Persuading evaluators to support your research project
• Make your proposal compelling
• Convince audience that project is worth doing
• Convince audience that you are capable of carrying it out

2
Preparing for the research
presentation
• Structuring your story
• Summarise the content
• Preparing and giving the presentation
• Concluding your presentation
• Questions and answers

3
 Structure
• Basic rule
• Say what you are going to say
• 1-3 main points in the introduction
• Say it
• Give the talk
• Then say what you said
• Summarize main points in the conclusion
• Don’t try to build suspense and then unveil a surprise ending

4
Stick to the Script
• Prepare your material so that it tells a story logically
• Introduction/overview
• Research question
• Aim and objectives
• Methodology
• Expected outcomes/summary

• Prioritize the content

• Create continuity so that your slides flow smoothly
Your last point on one slide should anticipate the next slide
5
Know your Audience
• Assume that your audience comprises of
- experts in your topic
- intelligent generalists with exposure to your field

• What do you want the audience to learn?

• Think about this as you construct your talk
• Edit your slides -- delete what is unnecessary, distracting, confusing, off
point

6
Questions to ask yourselves about
slide design
• Is everything on the slide readable?
• Do the slides have a good balance of text and figures?
• Is there something I can illustrate?
• Have I chosen clear, specific titles that express the main point of each slide?
• Is the design/format of my slides consistent
• Do I have slide numbers?

7
What Size Font to Use
Type size should be 30 points or larger:
18 point

20 point

24 point

28 point

36 point
AVOID USING ALL CAPITAL LETTERS
BECAUSE IT’S MUCH HARDER TO READ
8
What font to use
Use a Sans Serif font:
This font is Arial. This font is Comic Sans.
This font is Calibri. This font is Papyrus.
Lucida console

Fonts set the tone…

Use bold to make text clearer:

This font is Times New Roman. Arial vs. Arial bold

This font is Courier. Calibri vs. Calibri bold

This font is Didot
This font is Ravie
 Powerpoint basics: Color

Many experts feel that a dark blue or

black background works best for talks in
a large room.

10
Powerpoint basics: Color

Dark letters against a light background

are best for smaller rooms, especially when
the lights are on for teaching

11
Avoid red-green combinations as 8-10% of the
human population is red-green colorblind.

Lots of people can’t read this –

and even if they can, it makes your eyes hurt.

12
Powerpoint basics: Color

Other color combinations can be equally bad:

13
Powerpoint basics: Color

View your slides in grayscale to ensure that there

is adequate color contrast in each slide.

14
 Layout
• Use 3-4 bullets per page of only key words

• Limit text blocks to no more than two lines each.

The reason for limiting text blocks to two lines is that when the text
block goes on and on forever, people in the audience are going to
have to make a huge effort to read the text, which will preclude them
from paying attention to what you are saying. Every time you lose
their focus, your presentation suffers!

15
Layout
• Try your best to include a simple image on every slide.
• Limit the number of items on each slide.
• Each slide should make just one or two points!

16
 Layout
If you try to cram too much into a
slide, and place things too close to
the sides, they can get cut off if
you’re using a poor projector. In
any case, the slide looks all
cluttered and junky.

17
Animations
• Useful tools if you want to guide your audience through multiple
points / facts

• Introducing lists
with each fact
requiring an explanation
that you will provide orally

• Use sparingly and don’t automate

18
1900
GMEP
1955-1969

19
1900 1945

20
1900 1945 1970
GMEP
1955-1969

21
1900 1945 1970 1990
GMEP Malaria
1955-1969 Forum
2007

22
1900 1945 1970 1990 2011
GMEP Malaria
1955-1969 Forum
2007

“Control” Elimination “Eradication”

23
Presenting Your Data
• Figures
• ‘1 figure  1000 words’
• Figures should be readable, understandable, uncluttered
• Keep figures simple, use color logically for clarification
• Blue = cold, red = warm, dark = little, bright = a lot
• Invisible color
• Explain axes and variables
• Include reference on figure

24
Figures...

• You can use web sources for figures

• Include reference
25
 Preparing Yourself

• Reread your written proposal

- Familiarize yourself with content
• Divide your presentation into chunks (5 slides)
• Don’t over- practice your first draft

26
 Preparing Yourself...

• Mock present to your mentor/ supervisor

- Practice Q and A session
• Practice makes…..
• Practice using a voice recorder/ video camera and timer

27
Preparing Yourself...
• Practice in front of your friends/family
• Practice your introduction and conclusion extensively
• Visit venue beforehand (visualize)
- Preview presentation

28
Preparing Yourself...
• Make sure you are familiar with the projection equipment, slide
changer and PowerPoint
• Bring your laptop with and your USB
• Arrive at the venue early

29
 What to Wear …
• Dress up – maybe wear a jacket?
• Wear nothing distracting
• Dark clothes are more powerful than light clothes
• Shirts or blouses with collars are better than collarless ones
• Clothes with pressed creases (!) are signs of power

30
Number one rule

31
Giving the Presentation
• Don’t apologize or make comments about yourself
• “I hope you’re not bored”
• “I was working on this ‘til 3 am”

• Stand where the figures can be seen

• Engage with presentation

32
 Giving the
Presentation
• Don’t overuse the pointer
• Don’t worry about stopping to think
• Use your notes

• Don’t rush
• Figure out which slide is your half-way mark and use that to check your
time

33
 Giving a good talk
• It’s a mental thing
• Project your voice
- Vary your tone

• Talk to your audience, not to your slides.

• Don’t pace up and down but also don’t stand rigid

34
 Running Out of
Time?
• Avoid this –if it happens …
• Do not skip all of your slides looking for the right one to put on next
• Type slide number and hit enter
• Conclude – on time wherever you are in your talk -- by making your main
points

35
 Concluding Your
Content
• Announce the ending so that people are prepared
• Come back to the big picture
• Summarize the significance
• Open up new perspective
• Describe future work, raise questions, potential implications

36
Finishing Your Presentation
• Think carefully about your final words and how to finish your presentation
• Don’t just drift off … “I guess that’s all I have to say …”

• End strong
• Say “Thank You” … pause for applause … then
• Say: “Any questions?”
• Don’t forget acknowledgements, always give proper credit

37
 Minor Interruptions
During Your Presentation

• Don’t look irritated or rushed

• A question that you will answer later in your talk?
• Say “Good point; just wait two slides”
• Requires a long answer and is not critical understanding?
• Say “Good point; I’ll come back to it at the end of the talk.”

38
 Questions and Answers
• Usually you have thought more about the material than anyone else
• Anticipate typical questions and prepare for them
• Methodological bias? Uncertainties? Exceptions? Priorities?
• Still concerned about questions?
• Make extra slides – perhaps on details of instrumentation or methodology

39
Questions and Answers
• Questions definitely help you in writing up your research
• Identifies parts the audience did not understand
• Can you repeat the question?
• Also if you heard the question incorrectly, it presents an opportunity for
clarification
• If you don’t know the answer?

40
Questions and
Answers
• Keep your answers short and to the point
• don’t respond with another lecture

• Don’t say that a question is bad, or that you addressed it already

• If the questioner disagrees with you
• Defuse the situation

41
Difficult Questions, continued
• If you really don't know the answer
• Say "Interesting, I will look into that" or “That’s a good point, let’s discuss
it afterwards”

• If the questioner disagrees with you and it looks like there will be an
argument then defuse the situation
• "We clearly don't agree on this point, let's go on to other questions and
you and I can talk about this later"

42
Any Questions?

43