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		Guidelines for Oral Presentations Oral communication of research results is essential in the sciences, and oral presentation of research and case studies of patient information is common practice for physicians. For this reason, it is a major goal of this course to help you develop your oral communication skills. You and your partner(s) will be asked to give 2 oral presentations on your research project - one a defense of your research proposal and the other a presentation of your results. A. General considerations The major difference between oral and written communication is that your audience will have only one opportunity to understand the points that you are making; they cannot reread your talk. Therefore, it is imperative that your sentences be shorter and much less complex than in a written report, and that your graphs and tables be clearly labeled and explained. Basically, you are telling the story of your research project. To keep your audience, your talk must be interesting, clear, organized, follow a logical progression, and emphasize the most important points. Try to keep all extraneous information and digressions to a minimum. It is helpful to have visual aids (see below) to help your audience concentrate. B. Presentation Your presentation should be clear, enthusiastic and well-paced. Speaking rapidly, speaking too softly, mumbling, fidgeting and using conversational tics ("you know", "uhm") are sure signs that you are nervous. Avoid "jargon"; define terms. Be sure to insert pauses between main points for emphasis. Restate your main points and write them on the board or on a slide. Point out specific pieces of datathat lead to conclusions; don't just indicate "Table 2 shows" globally. As you become more experienced, you may find that it is a good practice to script and memorize 1-2 opening sentences and 1-2 concluding remarks to be sure that your talk begins and ends gracefully, and just outline the rest. Keep 2 important points in mind. Write as you talk, with simple, short sentences and clear transitions. Do not stand up and read your talk; this is sure to put your audience to sleep. C. Content The content of your talk should parallel a written Proposal or Results section (see attached Evaluation Criteria). Each of the partners must participate in the oral presentation in an approximately equalfashion, but you may divide the material as you feel appropriate. Each is also expected to assist in the preparation of graphs, overheads, etc. The oral defense of your Proposalshould contain: Introduction: Start with a description of the general field of study and the basic problem. Indicate why it is important. Summarize the relevant background, giving both the theory and a brief description of experiments that lead up to yours. Refer to the authors by name, ("a study by Smith and Jones demonstrated..."). You should demonstrate that you are becoming an expert in the field.