DON'TS AND DO'S OF PROJECT WRITING AND PRESENTATION

Project writing and presentation is a prerequisite of getting a degree by a student, either for graduate degree or postgraduate degree. You need to read widely and extensively so you can have a lot of materials, combined with what your lecturers thought you, to write a very good project. After the write-up, comes the presentation. To make a good presentation of your project, there are some rules you need to adhere to. There are some do’s and don’ts you should stick to, to make sure that your project presentation goes well. First let’s see the don’ts, the things you should not do.

Project Presentation DON'Ts

1. First, don’t just dump all your ideas down onto PowerPoint as a stream of consciousness. Only the main points need to be on the powerpoint pages.
2. Don’t use covers, folders, notebooks or page covers for your thesis. If a standard staple won’t hold your project together, then you are doing something wrong.
3. Don’t use data from a sample project data or a sample project obtained from the internet.
4. Don’t copy the wording of a sample project word for word. Try to write what you read from the sample in your own words as your project topic may have different data and from a different situation, therefore the wordings of a sample project will most likely not apply in your situation.
5. Don’t mix up different approaches throughout your presentation, e.g. if you start out using title case in your headings keep this going throughout.
6. Don’t show your calculations. The supervisor just want to see your results. If your results look unreasonable, he will check the calculations himself.
7. Don’t assume that your audience has the same level of knowledge about your subject matter like you. This is very important when creating cascade presentations and it is important that you provide sufficient details in the lowest level of knowledge for your audience.
8. Don’t use 3D histograms or 3D bar charts if your thesis involves graphs and charts. The 3D style of charts are more difficult to interpret.
9. Don’t use computer-generated graphs if they don’t follow the graphing rules given in your lectures. If essential, you can always draw the graphs by hand.
10. Don’t create your presentation and then assume that it is unchangeable. After every presentation you do, you should think about the questions that came up and improve.

Project DOs

1. To start, do prepare in advance of a presentation, don’t just wing it, as it will show badly.
2. Do write and submit your project on paper.
3. Do put your name, date and if possible the exact time you are presenting the project.
4. Do show all the information that is displayed in the sample project.
5. Do strategize your presentation on paper ahead of time, before you start creating it in PowerPoint. Summarise your story and the key slides with the key points, their objectives and key messages that you want to cover.
6. Do follow the rules of graphing stated during the lectures. If your computer program does not produce graphs with these rules, it is better to draw the graphs by hand.
7. Do send your presentation round to family and friends for comment/feedback, where appropriate before the day of your presentation. They may be able to pick up on errors/missing information or add additional info/insight to your topic. But, be careful of sending out your presentation to more people than necessary; don’t lose sight of what you are communicating!
8. Do keep your work tidy. Use a ruler and/or graph paper to draw your charts and graphs. Use a word processor or typewriter to write your analysis if needed.
9. Do present the sources of all your data giving titles, publication dates, locations, and dates you obtained the data from the internet.
10. Do organize your project presentation with the analyses of graphs being near the graphs.
11. Do make sure the descriptions and analyses you write, are clear and make sense to someone who has not taken your course at a higher level or probably has forgotten their course work.
12. Do break up your presentation with pertinent images or graphics. Though it's not everyone that needs them, however many people need to see imagery or graphical representations to understand as well as just the words on the screen as most people are better stimulated visually.