How To Prepare An Impressive Dissertation Defense Presentation

When studying at university or any other institution of higher learning, you will probably have to write a dissertation at some point. Whilst you have probably written many essays during your education, a dissertation or thesis is generally going to be far more comprehensive a piece of work compared to what you may have done before.

As well as being required to carry out a considerable amount of research, you will be required to write an academic paper that includes numerous different sections, and can be quite considerable in length. Furthermore, you may also need to prepare a dissertation defence presentation.

Essentially, a dissertation defence presentation will involve you presenting various slides to your professor and anyone who may be judging you, as well as any other members of the public - such as your fellow students - who may wish to turn up.

Attending other people’s presentations

As mentioned, these presentations are generally open to members of the public, such as your fellow students. Whilst this may feel like it puts extra pressure on the work you are doing, there is also a positive side to this - as long as you’re not the first person up, it means you can go and watch the other people carrying out their presentation before you. This gives you an idea of how long you’ll have, what you’ll need to do, and how you should present yourself.

Providing additional materials

As well as preparing a presentation, you may also wish to bring various additional materials with you. For example, it is a good idea to prepare any notes, just in case you forget what it is that you are going to say. However, you shouldn’t read directly from the notes; rather, you should learn what you’re going to say, and only have the notes there as back up.

You may also wish to bring some printed handouts that you can provide to members of the audience, as this can help them to follow and understand exactly what it is that you’re saying.

Preparing yourself for additional questions

Once you have carried out your presentation, you will probably be asked questions by the audience and your professors. Therefore, you should try and anticipate any questions that people may ask, and prepare answers for them. This will ensure that you aren’t suddenly put on the spot the question by a question that you don’t necessarily know the answer to.