Technical Presentations
A technical presentation is a medium that informs or persuades a specific audience. It often engages with its audience, and it is not peer-reviewed.
When beginning to create your presentation, be sure to review the requirements and rubric. Create an outline that addresses the following:
- What is your purpose? How will you inform/persuade the audience?
- What is your presentation method?
- What are the audience’s takeaways?
Choose a layout that will meet your criteria:
- Academic Journal: introduction, hypothesis, methodologies, discussion, conclusion
- Harvard Layout: beginning, middle, end
- Problem/Big picture – Causes – Solution – Summary
- Chronological
- Order of importance
Format your slides in a clear way to enhance audience comprehension:
- Font: Calibri or Arial, 40 point title, 28 point heading, 24 point subheading
- Text: less is more, and proofread carefully
- Colour and Effects: use sparingly
- Graphics: use to increase understanding, convey more information than text, and/or to make a point memorable. Keep graphics relevant (ex. charts, tables, graphs, images).
- Timing: general rule is one minute per slide
Share an agenda in your introduction and refer to it during the presentation, including your main objective. Other helpful tips for technical presentations:
- Introduce speakers and their role in the project in your introduction
- Decide how much time you will spend on each section (ex. 2 minute introduction, 10 minute body, 3 minute conclusion)
- Don’t rely on too much technical jargon; present to the least knowledgeable and build upon this during the presentation
- Try different presentation modes (ex. whiteboards, Prezi, Google Slides, Visme)
Improve your writing and study skills! Book an appointment with a writing advisor and/or academic coach on OSCARplus. Questions? Email skills@mcmaster.ca.
References
“How to make Technical presentation.” YouTube, uploaded by Introduction to Research – I, 3 Feb. 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQrj_7xkeNI.
Ernst, Michael. “How to give a technical presentation.” Advice for researchers and students, 1 Dec. 2020, https://homes.cs.washington.edu/~mernst/advice/giving-talk.html.