1. Conducting Research and Making Your Presentation  Picking a topic  Researching your topic  Scoping your topic  Developing a plan  Outlining your presentation  Practicing your presentation  Making your presentation

2. Picking a Research Topic  Determining your interests  Determining your strengths  Talk with other, more senior students  Look at journals, bibliographies, course outlines  Look at working papers, memos, technical reports  Try to determine the principal journals, etc. in the field  Browse the Web for ideas

3. Researching Your Topic  Use the library, especially online databases  Review textbooks  Attend talks, conferences, etc.  Look at conference proceedings, transactions, journals, books/collections, magazines, etc.  Browse the Web to find latest concepts, ideas, etc.  Find out who is working in the area, contact them  Take notes as you perform the above steps

4. Scoping Your Topic  Make an outline  Estimate how much time each item will take  If more than enough time for all items, expand those items of most interest  If not enough time for all items, reduce or eliminate those items of least interest  Re-estimate time needed for each item  Repeat the above steps as necessary

5. Developing a Plan  Based upon your estimates and outline, develop a schedule for your activities leading up to the talk  Continue to read and review articles in the area  Talk with other students about your area of interest  Begin to think about the organization of your talk  Develop a detailed outline of your presentation  Decide on the design for the slides

6. Practicing Your Presentation  Construct a preliminary set of slides  Using them, give your presentation to yourself  Time the presentation  Expand or contract the presentation as necessary  Update the slides as needed  Make the presentation to a friend or fellow student  Get feedback as to improvements that might be made to the slides or to your speaking abilities  Check over your slides for spelling or other problems

7. Making Your Presentation  Be prepared to deliver talk on the date given  Have a backup plan for accessing your slides  Stand and look at the audience (smiling is good)  Introduce yourself and your topic  Provide an overview or outline of your talk  Speak slowly and carefully, don’t fidget  Don’t read your slides word for word  Don’t go overtime

8. At the End of Your Presentation  Say “thank you”  If you wish, you may then say “Are there any questions?”  Be prepared to answer a question or two  If you don’t know the answer, simply say so