Week 7 – Presenting

In my last update, I discussed the avenues for future examination that other scholars could do to expand upon my research. I wanted to take this update to discuss the process of presenting.

Presenting a project for an AP exam is quite different than the presentation style I’m used to and it put me out of my comfort zone. I typically like to prepare slides with little words. However, there were some slides where that wasn’t possible given the immense amount of information I had to present, such as my lit review. In order to discuss the findings of nine different authors into one slide, I had to get creative with how I used up space. I also don’t like to heavily rely on my slides that much, typically using them for bullet point summaries of what I’m saying or using images that enhance what I’m saying as opposed to consisting of what I’m saying. Because so many of my results involved graphs (showing how many times certain candidates committed norm violations compared to others), I need to point at and heavily talk through what was on the screen. Not my typical style.

In addition to this, I had to give a presentation with specific parts in a specific order. Because the AP Research presentations are graded on a strict rubric, my goal was to make it as clear as possible I was sufficiently covering all the essential parts of my project. As a result, I discreetly labeled slides things like “Alignment to Research Question” or “Assumptions and Limitations,” where in a more relaxed setting, I would have preferred to use slide names that were a bit more descriptive.

Practicing the presentation was a long process as well. I needed to get the entire thing under 15 minutes, and it was 22 minutes after my first rehearsal, despite relying on flashcards (typical Benjamin habits, always happens when I rehearse presentations). I rehearsed it several times over the course of a week, gradually cutting elements down that weren’t necessary for the presentation, relying less and less on flashcards, and simplifying my wording. Eventually, I was able to deliver the presentation confidently enough.

Thank you for reading. I hope this was insightful.