Thesis is not enough to write; it must also be protected. The requirement of most universities was the preparation of not only the speech, but also the presentation of the graduation project – this allows not to print bulky posters and handouts, at the same time using visual images.
What should be in the presentation to the thesis
The presentation should reflect the content of the thesis, making any new information (compared with the text of the work itself) is unacceptable. A thesis is a volume work that takes 60-80 sheets; it is impossible to place them completely on the presentation slides. When preparing a presentation, it is better to focus not on the thesis itself, but on the speech to it – it is precisely between these elements that the connection is the closest, it is they who form a holistic presentation.
The main parts of the presentation:
- Title page. In the presentation, it can be made out a little differently than in the printout of the thesis itself, but the basic information for the commission should be reflected on it: the topic of the work, its type (“Graduation qualification work”, “The graduation project”), student and manager data.
- The purpose, objectives, subject and object of study.
- Justification of the relevance of the work. It is recorded briefly, not as fully developed as in the introduction.
- The basic theoretical position of the topic. In the presentation, as in the speech, it is carried out very little from the first chapter. You can put on the slides a few definitions of the most important concepts, or some meaningful scheme.
- The results of the analysis – tables, charts.
- Justification of proposals and recommendations.
- The final slide – “Thank you for your attention.”
The usual presentation volume is about 15 slides.
Presentation of a thesis
If the drawings and posters are prepared strictly, then the presentation gives the student a certain freedom to choose the design. A mandatory requirement is the design in a business style, because the protection of a thesis is a formal event, limited by business etiquette. Tips for the design of the thesis presentation:
- The presentation template should correspond to the thesis topic. It is preferable to completely abandon the meaningless images in the design (of various ornaments and stripes – floral, technical and geometric). It is enough to accentuate the title of the slide.
- The background for the presentation is better to choose light (and the font is dark) – this combination is perceived on the big screen more easily than inverse. If the commission will have to peer into the text and suffer in attempts to disassemble it, the performance will cause negative emotions.
- The font should be large – at least 28 points for the main text and 32 points for headings. This requires a reduction in the amount of text on one slide. You do not need to strive to put the speech in the presentation: the main information should be told, you can put some key points on the slides (as a hint for yourself) or information that is poorly perceived by ear (tables with numerical data, charts, graphs).
- Do not abuse the text. Everything that can be designed as a scheme should be made that way. This makes the presentation more visual.
A presentation for the protection of a thesis, for example, may contain an organizational (tree) diagram.
- Presentation programs allow you to add various animation effects and transitions. In a presentation to defend a thesis, they are irrelevant; a sample of a presentation that is comfortable for perception does not contain “manifestation”, “fading”, “departures” and other ways of the appearance and disappearance of slide elements.
- Scrolling through slides should be done manually, not by timer. It is impossible to predict exactly how long it will take on a particular slide. Scrolling on the projector is carried out either by the remote control, or with the help of an “operator” sitting at the laptop (as a rule, someone from the group’s defendants).
How to prepare a presentation for the protection of the thesis
Presentation preparation is the final stage of work on the thesis. By the time work begins on it, the text should have already been verified and agreed with the supervisor. An exception is the presentation on the pre-defense, which allows you to rehearse the performance.
A few tips on how to make a presentation to the thesis:
- The main information to be presented in the presentation is contained in the introduction and conclusion of the thesis. They can be supplemented with illustrations from the chapters, but the text itself from these structural elements is sufficient.
- The presentation is more convenient to prepare in parallel with the speech. This will make in the speech references to the slides, place the slides in a logical order and echoes the speech. Looks ugly when a presentation slide on a speech is not accompanied by verbal comments. It should be borne in mind that if a slide contains a lot of information (it takes a lot of time for consideration), the accompanying speech should be of suitable duration. Otherwise, either the students will not have time to familiarize themselves with the slide, or there will be a pause (which makes an unpleasant impression).
- A common program for preparing presentations is Microsoft PowerPoint. A similar product exists in the OpenOffice.Org system, but compatibility is not absolute. It is better to clarify what system is installed in the university, and make a presentation in its format, to be sure that nothing will slip. In addition, it is possible to save the presentation in a special format for demonstration: it does not require the installation of special programs on the computer on which the demonstration is performed. You can take a file with you in protection in this format, as well as in a regular, editable one, in case you notice a typo at the last moment and want to correct it.