Creating your Research Proposal
Presentation
Atissa Banuazizi
Lecturer, Writing Across the Curriculum
13 November 2007
Cite as: Angela Belcher, Drew Endy, Natalie Kuldell and Agi Stachowiak. Course materials for 20.109 Laboratory
Fundamentals in Biological Engineering, Fall 2007. MIT OpenCourseWare (http://ocw.mit.edu),
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Downloaded on [DD Month YYYY].
Overview
Goals and components of the Module 3
Presentation
Dividing up the presentation
Delivering the presentation with your partner
Questions to ask yourselves: organization, slide
design, delivery
Cite as: Angela Belcher, Drew Endy, Natalie Kuldell and Agi Stachowiak. Course materials for 20.109 Laboratory
Fundamentals in Biological Engineering, Fall 2007. MIT OpenCourseWare (http://ocw.mit.edu),
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Downloaded on [DD Month YYYY].
Goals for your presentation
How can you make your proposal compelling?
Convince audience that project is worth doing
Convince audience that you can do it
Assume that your audience comprises:
experts in your topic
intelligent non-experts with exposure to your
field
Useful tips on creating funding proposals at
http://www.wwu.edu/depts/rsp/insideview.pdf
Cite as: Angela Belcher, Drew Endy, Natalie Kuldell and Agi Stachowiak. Course materials for 20.109 Laboratory
Fundamentals in Biological Engineering, Fall 2007. MIT OpenCourseWare (http://ocw.mit.edu),
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Downloaded on [DD Month YYYY].
Components of the presentation
brief project overview
sufficient background information for everyone to
understand your proposal
statement of the research problem and goals
project details and methods
predicted outcomes if everything goes according to
plan and if nothing does
needed resources to complete the work
societal impact if all goes well
Cite as: Angela Belcher, Drew Endy, Natalie Kuldell and Agi Stachowiak. Course materials for 20.109 Laboratory
Fundamentals in Biological Engineering, Fall 2007. MIT OpenCourseWare (http://ocw.mit.edu),
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Downloaded on [DD Month YYYY].
Dividing up the presentation:
general principles
Each partner should speak roughly the same
amount of time
Audiences will assume change in speakers
corresponds to change in topic -- dont confuse them
Changing speakers can distract audience/slow the
talk down -- keep shifts to a minimum
How you choose to divide the talk depends on the
shape of your presentation -- many different options!
Cite as: Angela Belcher, Drew Endy, Natalie Kuldell and Agi Stachowiak. Course materials for 20.109 Laboratory
Fundamentals in Biological Engineering, Fall 2007. MIT OpenCourseWare (http://ocw.mit.edu),
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Downloaded on [DD Month YYYY].
Dividing up the presentation:
Option 1 (Down the Middle)
Speaker 1:
Speaker 2:
brief project overview
project details and
methods
sufficient background
information for everyone
to understand your
proposal
statement of the research
problem and goals
division assumes that Part I
is roughly as long as Part II
predicted outcomes if
everything goes according
to plan and if nothing
does
needed resources to
complete the work
societal impact if all goes
well
Cite as: Angela Belcher, Drew Endy, Natalie Kuldell and Agi Stachowiak. Course materials for 20.109 Laboratory
Fundamentals in Biological Engineering, Fall 2007. MIT OpenCourseWare (http://ocw.mit.edu),
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Downloaded on [DD Month YYYY].
Dividing up the presentation:
Option 2 (The Sandwich)
Speaker 1:
Speaker 2:
brief project overview
sufficient background
information for everyone to
understand your proposal
context=bread
statement of the research
problem and goals
project details and
method
predicted outcomes if
everything goes
needed resources to complete
according to plan and if
the work
nothing does
societal impact if all goes well
experiment nuts & bolts =
filling
Cite as: Angela Belcher, Drew Endy, Natalie Kuldell and Agi Stachowiak. Course materials for 20.109 Laboratory
Fundamentals in Biological Engineering, Fall 2007. MIT OpenCourseWare (http://ocw.mit.edu),
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Downloaded on [DD Month YYYY].
Dividing up the presentation:
Option 3 (Back and Forth)
Speaker 1:
Speaker 2:
brief project overview
sufficient background
information for everyone to
understand your proposal
each partner speaks long
enough to establish flow
project details and
methods
predicted outcomes if
everything goes according
to plan and if nothing
statement of the research
problem and goals
needed resources to
complete the work
societal impact if all goes
well
Cite as: Angela Belcher, Drew Endy, Natalie Kuldell and Agi Stachowiak. Course materials for 20.109 Laboratory
Fundamentals in Biological Engineering, Fall 2007. MIT OpenCourseWare (http://ocw.mit.edu),
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Downloaded on [DD Month YYYY].
More options (for specific kinds
of projects)
Two discrete research questions OR
Two discrete methods
each partner follows one strand
introductory and concluding material each
presented by a single partner
Other possibilities, depending on the particulars of
your material
Cite as: Angela Belcher, Drew Endy, Natalie Kuldell and Agi Stachowiak. Course materials for 20.109 Laboratory
Fundamentals in Biological Engineering, Fall 2007. MIT OpenCourseWare (http://ocw.mit.edu),
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Downloaded on [DD Month YYYY].
Help focus the audiences
attention on the right speaker
During overview, identify who will speak on what
topic
Review/Preview as you proceed through the talk
Articulate transitions explictly -- hand off
Only one partner onstage at a time
If youre not speaking, dont hover nearby
Do not interrupt each other
Cite as: Angela Belcher, Drew Endy, Natalie Kuldell and Agi Stachowiak. Course materials for 20.109 Laboratory
Fundamentals in Biological Engineering, Fall 2007. MIT OpenCourseWare (http://ocw.mit.edu),
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Downloaded on [DD Month YYYY].
Rehearse as a team
Note timing of each section and of talk as a whole
Practice moving into speaking position at transition
points
Will you advance each others
slides?
Aim for similar speaking styles
Photo removed due to copyright restrictions.
dont imitate each other, but
match your formality levels
Familiarize yourself with partners
material
Practice Q&A
Cite as: Angela Belcher, Drew Endy, Natalie Kuldell and Agi Stachowiak. Course materials for 20.109 Laboratory
Fundamentals in Biological Engineering, Fall 2007. MIT OpenCourseWare (http://ocw.mit.edu),
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Downloaded on [DD Month YYYY].
Questions to ask yourselves
about organization
Does our talk fit together as a coherent whole?
Are all sections of the talk adequately developed?
Do we have a focused, well-defined hypothesis?
Is it clear what is going to be done and how?
Have we realistically articulated the scope of the
work?
Have we omitted extraneous material?
Will our project fire up an audiences interest?
What might make this proposal more convincing to a
funding body?
Cite as: Angela Belcher, Drew Endy, Natalie Kuldell and Agi Stachowiak. Course materials for 20.109 Laboratory
Fundamentals in Biological Engineering, Fall 2007. MIT OpenCourseWare (http://ocw.mit.edu),
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Downloaded on [DD Month YYYY].
Questions to ask yourselves
about slide design
Is everything on the slide readable?
Are our slides a good balance of text and figures?
Have we chosen clear, specific titles that express
the main point of each slide?
Is the design/format of our slides consistent, or were
they obviously designed by different people?
Cite as: Angela Belcher, Drew Endy, Natalie Kuldell and Agi Stachowiak. Course materials for 20.109 Laboratory
Fundamentals in Biological Engineering, Fall 2007. MIT OpenCourseWare (http://ocw.mit.edu),
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Downloaded on [DD Month YYYY].
Questions to ask yourselves
about delivery
Can we get through our whole presentation in 10
minutes?
Do we know where to position ourselves, and how to
coordinate our shifts smoothly?
Do our speaking styles work well together?
Are we making the transitions between topics and
speakers clear to the audience?
Cite as: Angela Belcher, Drew Endy, Natalie Kuldell and Agi Stachowiak. Course materials for 20.109 Laboratory
Fundamentals in Biological Engineering, Fall 2007. MIT OpenCourseWare (http://ocw.mit.edu),
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Downloaded on [DD Month YYYY].
Questions to ask us?
Cite as: Angela Belcher, Drew Endy, Natalie Kuldell and Agi Stachowiak. Course materials for 20.109 Laboratory
Fundamentals in Biological Engineering, Fall 2007. MIT OpenCourseWare (http://ocw.mit.edu),
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Downloaded on [DD Month YYYY].
