What information should be included in the introduction of an oral presentation?

Introduction

The introduction section of your oral presentation should consist of 3 main parts.  

Part 1: Existing facts

In order to give audience members the "full picture", you first need to provide them with information about past research.  What facts already exist? What is already known about your research area?

Part 2: Shortcomings

Once you have highlighted past research and existing facts. You now need to address what is left to be known, or what shortcomings exist within the current information.  This should set the groundwork for your experiment.  Keep in mind, how does your research fill these gaps or help address these questions? 

Part 3: Purpose or Hypothesis

After you have addressed past/current research and have identified shortcomings/gaps, it is now time to address your research.  During this portion of the introduction you need to tell viewers why you are conducting your research experiement/study, and what you hope to accomplish by doing so. 

Methods

In this section you should share with your audience how you went about collecting and analyzing your data

Should include:

• Participants: Who or what was in the study?
• Materials/ measurements: what did you measure?
• Procedures: How did you do the study?
• Data-analysis: What analysis were conducted? 

Results

This section contains FACTS – with no opinion, commentary or interpretation. Graphs, charts and images can be used to display data in a clear and organized way.  

Keep in mind when making figures:

• Make sure axis, treatments, and data sets are clearly labeled
• Strive for simplicity, especially in figure titles. 
• Know when to use what kind of graph
• Be careful with colors.

Discussion

Interpretation and commentary takes place here. This section should give a clear summary of your findings. 

You should:

• Address the positive and negative aspects of you research
• Discuss how and if your research question was answered. 
• Highlight the novel and important findings
• Speculate on what could be occurring in your system 

Future Research

Not all presentations will have this section

If included this section should:

• State your goals
• Include information about why you believe research should go in the direction you are proposing
• Discuss briefly how you plan to implement the research goals, if you chose to do so.  

References

Include key references that you found during the literature review process (3-5 references). Be sure these references are in the proper format for the field. 

Why include References?

• It allows viewers to locate the material that you used, and can help viewers expand their knowledge of your research topic.  
• Indicates that you have conducted a thorough review of the literature and conducted your research from an informed perspective.
• Guards you against intellectual theft.  Ideas are considered intellectual property failure to cite someone's ideas can have serious consequences. 

Acknowledgements

This section is used to thank the people, programs and funding agencies that allowed you to perform your research.

Questions 

Allow for about 2-3 minutes at the end of your presentation for questions. 

It is important to be prepared. 

• Know why you conducted the study
• Be prepared to answer questions about why you chose a specific methodology

If you DO NOT know the answer to a question

◦DO NOT make up information 

Content

It is likely that you already have a topic and you know what you want to say about it. This is the content of your presentation. You may already have the content of your presentation in written form: for example in a written report. Whether your content is already written down or you are beginning from scratch, you may need to cut it down for your presentation. Why?

• You will need to fit your content within the time limit. Think carefully about how much information you can reasonably present in the time allowed and select the most important point.
• You will need to hold the interest and attention of your audience. Many people lose interest towards the end of presentations that contain too much information. Think carefully about the key points that you want to get across and build your presentation around them.
• Some kinds of information, such as technical explanations and tables of figures, are difficult for listeners to absorb during a presentation. Think about summarising this kind of information or referring the listeners to a document they can read after the presentation.
• You will need to leave time for examples and illustrations of your points. Think carefully about how you will support and explain your key points.
• You will need to leave time for an introduction, conclusion and questions or comments. During this time you are likely to be repeating points made in the main body of your talk.

Three points to think about when preparing the content of a presentation:

• What are your key points? Most good presentations have no more than 5 key points.
• How will you support your key points with examples and illustrations?
• How will you make it easy for your audience to follow your key points?

Structure

Most presentations will consist of an introduction, the body of the talk and a conclusion. The introduction prepares the audience for what you will say in the body of the talk and the conclusion reminds them of your key points. Good presentations raise questions in the listeners' mind. Good speakers encourage questions both during and after the presentation and are prepared to answer them.

Introduction

A good introduction does four things:

• Attracts and focuses the attention of the audience
• Puts the speaker and audience at ease
• Explains the purpose of the talk and what the speaker would like to achieve
• Gives an overview of the key points of the talk

It is often a good idea to begin a talk with a question, a short story, an interesting fact about your topic or an unusual visual aid. Many speakers follow this with an overhead transparency that shows the title, aim and outline of the talk.

Body

The body of a presentation must be presented in a logical order that is easy for the audience to follow and natural to your topic. Divide your content into sections and make sure that the audience knows where they are at any time during your talk. It is often a good idea to pause between main sections of your talk. You can ask for questions, sum up the point or explain what the next point will be. If you have an OHT with an outline of your talk on it, you can put this on the projector briefly and point to the next section.

Examples, details and visual aids add interest to a presentation and help you get your message through. Here are some questions you can ask yourself about the examples you include:

• Are they relevant to the experience of the audience?
• Are they concrete?
• Will the audience find them interesting?
• Are they varied?
• Are they memorable?

Conclusion

A good conclusion does two things:

• Reminds the audience of your key points
• Reinforces your message

Your conclusion should end the presentation on a positive note and make the audience feel that have used their time well listening to you.

Questions

Many speakers worry about questions from the audience. However, questions show that the audience is interested in what you have to say ad can make the talk more lively and interactive. You should be more worried if there are no questions at all! One way of handling questions is to point to questions you would like to discuss as you are talking. You can control questions better if you leave pauses during your talk and ask for questions. It is important not to let question and answer sessions during the talk go on too long, however. Answer briefly or say you will deal with the question at the end. Make sure you are ready to go on with your talk when questions have finished.

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What should be included in an oral presentation introduction?

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