Guidelines for presenting your oral research report.

Walter vom Saal

Psyc 220: Research Methods

NOTE: Guidelines for the current semester will be developed in class after the middle of the semester, as we begin preparing to make oral presentations.  The guidelines here were developed in previous semesters and are presented here for reference and discussion.

1. Guidelines for attendance.

a. arrive promptly at 8 am or earlier.

b. groups will be selected to present in random order.

c. if a group member is not there when the group begins, she or he will receive a 0 for the oral report.

d. if a group member is not there when the group begins, the other members are responsible for giving the entire presentation.  They will be expected to do a good job on all components prepared by the members present, and an acceptable job on the component prepared by the missing person.

e. all students must stay for the entire period.  Attendance (for the entire period) counts as 3 times normal.

 

2. Guidelines for the overall report.

 

a. Overall guidelines.

- the total time for the presentation is 15 minutes for the presentation and 10-15 minutes for comments and discussion.

- the presentation should be well organized.

- the presentation should be well timed to be sure it fills the allotted time but does not run over.

- the presentation should be designed to be understood by the “intelligent layman.”  That means that jargon should be avoided, and technical terms or complex ideas should be explained.

- presenters should NOT read from a written script.  The use of notes or outlines is acceptable, but the less you need to refer to them, the better.  It is a good idea to have at least an outline, to be sure your presentation is organized and you do not leave out major points.

- use visual aids where appropriate.

 

b. Guidelines for each section.

- there should be segments on each of the major sections of the APA written report:

- include sections on introduction, method, results, and discussion.

- within each of these sections, cover the same material described in the APA written report.

- allow some time for questions within the presentation, but ask the audience to hold most questions and discussion until the end.

- leave time for questions and comments at the end.

 

3. Grading.

- grading will be based on

            1. the degree to which the presentation meets the guidelines above, and

            2. the quality of the research and your analysis of it.  As described in class, the grade will not depend on what the data were, but rather it will depend on how the research was carried out, analyzed, and reported.  Even a poor or flawed research design does not necessarily lead to a poor grade if the report shows that you understand the flaws and you describe what they are and how they might be corrected.

            3. as described in class, each member of the group will be asked to evaluate the contribution of all other members in terms of both effort of the contribution and quality of the contribution.  This applies to the written APA report as well as to tht oral presentation.