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Designing Presentations

Scientific communication is key for scientists to share their knowledge with others. One way of scientific communication is through presentations. Here are some tips when designing presentations in order to best communicate your data.

Keep the slide design simple. Most of the time a plain white background with black text in a simple font is best.

Have a title that clearly states the main takeaway from the slide. If someone in the audience gets distracted they should be able to get the main point by reading the title.

Make sure to put citations (generally at the bottom corner of the slide) for all figures and if you have any collaborators.

Make sure the figures are high quality (not blurry or pixilated) and that everything is clearly labeled (for example if data points are different shapes or colors make sure there is a key).

Less text is generally better. Put key points to keep yourself on track and get the point across, but most information you will give by speaking during the presentation.

For a full presentation make sure you have a good introduction for anyone not familiar with the field, present the research logically, and have a good conclusion slide to wrap it up

Here is an example of presentation formatting from my dissertation defense.

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