A dissertation presentation is a 15-20 minutes physical overview of your dissertation that acknowledges your research work and the findings gathered from the chapters in your dissertation. A dissertation presentation should be brief and presented interestingly to help engage your audience in your discussion.

Dissertation presentations can be divided into two categories:

1. Mid-research presentation

This type of presentation is often made at the mid-point of your research. Your presentation is made in front of the faculty panel and fellow students. During dissertation presentation, the examinators or students may ask questions regarding your research work. This type of dissertation presentation is often informal. The major goal of the mid-research presentation is for students to express their progress and strong points while also identifying areas that need to be improved.

       2. Assessment presentation

An assessment dissertation presentation is a formal presentation often made in front of the faculty panel alone. It includes an overall assessment where students must complete their presentation at the end of their research work. After a student has full made a dissertation presentation, they are asked lengthy oral questions by their examinators. This form of presentation is used to evaluate the validity of the student’s original research work.

When creating your dissertation presentation, ensure that it includes a summary of all factors of your entire dissertation. This will allow your audience to glimpse what your whole dissertation is about. Within your presentation material, ensure to include the following within your dissertation presentation:

• Problem statement: Briefly outline the problem your research work aims to solve and describe why it is in your interest to focus on the issue.
• Research questions: Your introductory part will discuss the primary questions that your research work will answer. These questions should not be too broad or too many. Instead, focus on a research question that is clear and easily manageable.
• Purpose of the study: this part of your dissertation should briefly describe the aims and objectives of your research work and what goals it needs to fulfil.
• Literature review: In your literature review, ensure to include a brief description of the sources you consulted to support the dissertation paper. All forms of literature included in your work should be relevant to your topic of study. A literature review helps to find gaps that may give you ideas about what your research questions should be and what not to include in your dissertation paper. Therefore, when preparing this part for your dissertation presentation, be keen not to have other factors in other research works that are not relevant to your research work.
• Sample and population: In this section, you should ensure that you include visual elements such as diagrams to understand better what or who your target or sample population is. It is also important to back up these diagrams with a brief demonstration of what is visible in your graphs.
• Data collection and analysis: This marks the second half of your dissertation presentation, which is entirely grounded on your dissertation’s fourth and fifth chapters. In this section, you will include graphs and charts to show a manifestation of your original research.
• Research findings: Your research findings in your dissertation may be too broad and presented in a dozen of pages. Therefore, summarise your results in a few sentences, usually two to three. Then, to make the presentation of your research findings better, present them in the form of a table to incorporate all your key findings.
• Implications: After offering a thorough overview of what your dissertation is about, highlight the significance of your research work and its impacts on our study area or industry.
• Recommendations: With a clearly and briefly described research, you can recommend future research in this section. In this discussion, you need to encourage future research by ensuring that future researchers overcome the limitations you had in your research to help reach the study’s goals.
• Questions: The final part of your dissertation should open the floor to questions from examiners and other dissertation committee members. In addition, this part allows you to broaden your research knowledge and help identify other study weaknesses.

A dissertation presentation offers you an opportunity to be creative as a scholar. Employ creativity in creating your dissertation presentation to make it appealing to your examiners. On top of your creativity level, your dissertation presentation should be able to communicate concisely and precisely to allow your audience to understand your dissertation clearly.

How to prepare for your dissertation presentation

Because of their lack of preparation, most students find giving presentations in front of a faculty panel difficult. As a result, the ideal way to prepare for your dissertation presentation is to thoroughly analyse your work, highlighting significant points that should be included in the presentation. Furthermore, it would be best if you had a critical grasp of your research’s scholarly context, as this will aid you in determining what you should discuss in your discussion.

Create a PowerPoint presentation once you grasp all these aspects of preparing for your dissertation presentation. Make your slides brief and informative, and include images in your presentation sparingly. To boost your confidence, rehearse your presentation several times.

To earn high marks on your dissertation presentation, you need to achieve the following key areas:

• Good presentation skills: As you make your presentation, ensure that you are audible and concise. Be confident; stand in front of your audience to make your presentation. In addition, ensure that you do not rely too much on your notes; instead, make an original demonstration of what is in your notes.

• Knowledge of the topic: You may be confident and have a nice flow of discussions if you thoroughly comprehend your issue and research work. A dissertation presentation aims to put your knowledge to the test and ensure that you are well-versed in your research.

• Professional behaviou: Stay calm throughout our presentation and engage your audience. When asked questions, ensure that you answer them objectively and with professionalism. Ensure that your arguments have evidence from other scholars to support your research work.

• Take your time: Many students mistake rushing to answer questions when they could take their time to understand the question first. Taking your time to make your presentation allows your presentation to include essential information and demonstrate in-depth research work.