How-to guide

How to Turn a Research Paper Summary into a Great Presentation

Use these tips to turn your written summary into clear, engaging slides that your audience can actually follow and remember.

Organise your work

Before you start designing slides, make sure your written summaries are systematically organised into distinct sections (see “How to write a summary section”). This makes the whole presentation-building process much easier.

Use the headings from your summary as the headings for your slides. For example, if you have a section on experimental design, use the same title for a slide.

When choosing what to include, pick out the stand-out points from the summary – the information you feel is most important for your audience. Condense these into short bullet points that:

  • give the audience a clear idea of what you will talk about, and
  • act as prompts for you while you are presenting.

Know your audience

Remember that your audience may not have read the same paper, or have the same level of knowledge about the topic as you do.

Avoid overwhelming your slides with text that people have to read while also trying to listen. This makes it easy for key information to be missed and reduces the impact of the summary.

You, as the presenter, are responsible for explaining what is on the slide in a clear and complete way – the slide should support you, not replace you.

All about the looks

Colour and design can make your presentation more appealing and keep the audience interested, but it needs to be controlled.

Try to stick to a consistent colour theme and palette. Just like with the amount of text, too many colours or patterns can make the slide feel busy and difficult to follow.

How many is too many?

Always think about how many slides are appropriate for your presentation. This depends on how much time you have and how long or complex the paper is.

You will naturally want to relay as much information as possible, but you are presenting a summary of the research. Be selective so that your slides contain the most crucial information only.

If you find yourself rushing through the content just to cover all the slides, consider reducing the number of slides or the amount of text on each one.

Final reassurance

Making and delivering presentations can feel scary, but you give yourself the best chance of succeeding if your slides are as clean, clear and engaging as possible.

Quick checklist – do’s and don’ts

DO:

  • Have clear headings.
  • Use a consistent colour theme.
  • Include images when they are appropriate and relevant.

DON’T:

  • Overcrowd the slide with information.
  • Use so many slides that you only briefly cover each point.
  • Use so little information that the audience doesn’t know what is being discussed.
  • Make the typeface too small.
  • Choose fonts that are hard to read.
  • Use clashing colours.