If statistics are anything to go by, writing a thesis for your master’s program is not a simple walk in the park. Out of 33% of US students who graduate with a bachelor’s degree, only 10% are able to finish a master’s in their fields of choice. While writing a thesis may be simpler for most graduate-level students, having the right acumen to defend it is what actually makes a difference whether a thesis will be accepted or not.
Common to all these are the rudimentary requirement of good presentation which is critical to give your work an upper edge and present the best possible chances of being understood and accepted by the panellists. Therefore, if you master the art of presentation, this will give you a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to argue your case in the thesis. It does not matter how rich the content of your thesis may appear to be. How well you present this content and make the panelists understand it is what will help you finally clinch your position on the graduation list.
Prior to writing your thesis presentation, you ought to ask yourself a number of critical questions that will help lay a solid steel foundation for your content. You ought to ask yourself, ‘What is the purpose of this thesis?’ and ‘Who will read this thesis?’ To simply do this, these questions will help you to figure out what is the aim and who is the intended audience? You will need to keep the answers to these questions at the back of your mind when preparing your presentation.
In order to help you keep track of the important principles of good thesis writing, below is a checklist that tries to exhaust the generally accepted principles of thesis presentation writing:
Make it easy to follow
After you have defined your signature idea and figured out who your audience is, make sure that you design your presentation in a manner that is easy to follow. This is to means that the material in the body of the presentation ought to be structured in a logical manner. Thus, your presentation structure should be apparent and the topics easily identifiable. Subjects of discussion should be highlighted with precise headings and subheadings where they are required. Furthermore, as far as topics go, make sure that every slide of the presentation only contains a single topic or subtopic for ease of flow.
Keep the presentation clear
The whole point of a thesis presentation is being understood. Graduate students make the mistake of creating complicated presentations with the hope that they will appear more technical to the panellists. This is where you go wrong. If your presentation is vague, it simply results in a misunderstanding of your entire presentation. A way to help you draft a clear concise thesis presentation is to ask another person to read your work so that they can help you identify areas that may appear vague.
Use the right sentence structure
Remember, less is more. Do not be tempted to write large pieces of information on a single slide. The last thing you need is to have your panellists getting bored along the way because you’ve chosen to bombard them with a lot of information. Decide what you want to say before you write. Keep your slides short and concise to the point.
Carefully take into account your presentation’s typography
This simply means choosing the right text color and font size. Whatever typography you choose, please don’t force the panellists to squint from across the room while trying to decipher your presentation content. Taking your time to understand the room in which you will present your thesis will go a long in helping you identify the most appropriate design.
Communicate verbally as well as visually
The last thing you want during your presentation is for the panellists to lose interest in your presentation, get bored along the way and start yawning in the middle of the presentation. While keeping your slides clear of too much information, one way to help draw the attention of the committee is to design slides that are engaging through interactive illustrations, graphs, maps, and charts where possible. This will not only help in explaining specific points but will also serve to break the monotony of text and keep the audience interested. Just like bullets, bullet points in a presentation “kill”! Yes, they will kill the attention and interest of your audience. Make a point of using visual devices to help your thesis presentation be more engaging.
Consistency is priceless.
Make sure that your entire presentation has a clearly defined pattern. This means that every slide of your thesis presentation should follow on from the other before it, in a way that is considered seamless and rational. Switching color schemes or layout dramatically from one slide to the other will only make your work seem messy as the audience struggles to keep track of your presented thoughts.
While these ideas may help you have a clearly defined roadmap for creating a top-of-the-grade presentation, please remember that preparing your thesis isn’t something to gamble with. One slight mistake could end up costing you time and resources. Creating an impressive thesis defense presentation takes time, a large time of which may be spent on perfecting your design. Here, we offer you a lifeline by providing presentations that are pre-designed for your defense and help you save time on the design aspect and actually focus your energy on the content. We have helped numerous graduate-level students arse their presentations and we hope to achieve the same with you.