Course 4: Presenting Research in Conference Talks and Poster Sessions

Keywords:

• rhetorical skills to connect with your audience
• highlighting key benefits of your research
• awareness of body language
• tone and pace of voice
• dealing with difficult questions
• layout and design of slides and posters

Introduction to the course topics:

At international conferences, research talks can be divided into the poster session and the classic conference talk. In these presentations, researchers need to bring across their messages clearly and effectively so that the audience can understand and remember the key information.
In this seminar we use a range of interactive activities and feedback to develop your rhetorical skills and presentation competence for international conferences. Here we will look at areas such as body language, voice, structure, and poster layout and design.
The training will provide you with a framework for developing your own talks and applying rhetorical techniques to create clearer messages. The interactive format gives participants the opportunity to prepare and deliver short presentations as well as practice in dealing with difficult questions.

Course aims:

• Developing audience-friendly rhetoric
• Communicating the relevance and key benefits of your research
• Developing own authentic style of body language and voice

Technical requirements: none.

Teaching Methods:

The main focus lies on the application of skills and constructive feedback. The application is based on brief input phases of theory.
We study short examples of presentation videos and poster formats.
Short skills-practice sessions build up to own 8-minute research presentation

Participation requirements:

• B2 level of English
• Assignment: Please prepare an 8-minute conference talk about your research. If you do not want to present your PhD project, you are welcome to present your master’s project.

Literature: none.

Other information, notes: none.

Information about the trainer:

Originally from South Africa, I hold an MA in Applied Linguistics. My key interests lie in the rhetoric and argumentation of scientific research. As a trainer, I enjoy supporting learners in how to communicate their research so that the audience understands why their research brings benefits to the field.
I hold seminars at research institutes across the country where I also focus on ‚Scientific writing‘ and ‚Logic and argumentation‘.