Presenting your research Preparation Ask yourself What visual

Presenting your research

Preparation Ask yourself: • What visual aids are you planning to use in your presentation? • How will you make sure that you engage your audience? • What skills will you need to develop to make sure your presentation is a success?

Some helpful tips To prepare effectively for your final presentation you will need to undertake a mock presentation on a topic of your choice. 1. Plan and deliver a short presentation on a topic of your choice. 2. Following feedback, assess how your presentation went. 3. Identify the skills that you need to develop to • improve your presentation skills. Draw up a skill development action plan.

• It is also a good idea to include some activity that involves your audience members. Th is is particularly important if the same people are listening to a whole series of presentations in a single day. • You need to make your presentation stand out, so including some sort of interactive element, for example, that involves your audience looking at a sample or mock-up of your work, then giving some feedback, can help you achieve this.

Written report The structure of your report should be similar to that of your oral presentation, though of course there is the opportunity for you to include more detailed information in a written report. The report should include: 1. an introduction in which you explain its purpose and aims 2. an explanation of the research methods and techniques that you have used 3. the research data itself, presented in a suitable form (such as tables, charts, graphs or diagrams) 4. an explanation of what you found out from analysing the results of your research 5. the conclusions that you can make from these results 6. any proposals that you are making based on these conclusions.

Written report • Because this is a written report you should also include a bibliography in which you detail the books that you have used in your research project. • You should also include details of any other sources of information, including websites, newspapers and magazines. • Please refer to the Harvard method of referencing or the Modern Languages Association (MLA)

Use of visual aids • Images, videos, graphs or other multimedia content can make your presentation more engaging. • Make sure the visual material is relevant and clearly presented in your presentation / written report. • If you are using images or videos produced by other people you need to reference them in your bibliography. • If you are thinking of producing your own material, make sure you allow for enough editing time

Presenting skills • Bodylanguage • Eye-contact • Pacing and language • Presentable dress • Engagement with audience • Smile!

Task in class 1. Pick one of the assessment topics and start your research on the internet, gathering content from at least 3 different media. 2. Start a research folder (or, alternatively customise your blog) in order to organise your research effectively.