How to explain your PhD project to a broad audience in under three minutes? How to effectively convey your passion for your research? How to make sure you are understood?
This Monday, UC’s 2020 winners of the three-minute thesis competition, Morgan Tracey and Sam Treceño, shared their experiences with our audience.
Sam, who also competed in the Asia-Pacific semifinals, emphasised three points to consider before the 3MT talk:
- Practice, practice, practice! Ideally in front of other people who can give constructive feedback, or alternatively record yourself on video.
- Repeat! You have to know exactly what you want to say and how, or you risk going over time. Once your words flow automatically, you can concentrate on vocal variety, gestures and interaction with the audience.
- Watch your appearance in ‘minute zero’! Before and while you are introduced, make sure you appear confident, relaxed and perhaps smile, as this is when the audience will get their first impression of you. If you have a friend in the audience, you may be able to establish eye contact with them as this interaction with someone familiar is often a very effective technique to reduce nervousness.
The former Vice-President of the PGSA also recommended to join Toastmasters to gain general speaking skills and confidence 🙂
Morgan explained the judging criteria of the thesis-in-three competition, which fall into the categories of
- Comprehension & Content
- Engagement & Communication
To score well in both areas, Morgan advised to
- state the motivation for or the potential impact of the research, include some findings and possible applications (explain the what and the why).
- speak slowly and clearly using everyday, simple language, without ‘dumbing down’ the content. After all, even though the audience has a diverse background, it is still composed of highly educated people.
- work on a confident appearance and radiate enthusiasm through your voice and body language.
- use illustrative graphics, ideally photos, on the slide but only minimal text. Your slide should be well organised and arouse interest. Interact with it to make it part of your presentation!
Morgan, who is nearing completion of her PhD in biological sciences, also recommended the website biorender.com for professional looking infographics and icons that are excellent for designing slides in biology, chemistry, life sciences and related fields.
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