presentation record part a epq

Resources and Information for EPQ, Holy Cross College

Presentation Record Part A – Example

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EPQ Toolkit for AQA

Introducing the EPQ

Lesson 1 Introducing the EPQ

INTRODUCING THE EPQ

What is the EPQ?

• The Extended Project Qualification.

• Equivalent to half of an A-level.

• Part of Advanced Diploma or Baccalaureate.

• Taken alongside an A-level or BTEC programme.

Value of the EPQ?

• Independent work.

• Self-guided.

1/4 Book page 4

THE BENEFITS OF THE EPQ

• Working with others.

• Working to deadlines.

• Planning and management of a project.

• Decision making and problem solving.

• Presentation skills.

• Communication skills.

• Learn skills for University-level study.

• Achieve UCAS points without sitting an exam.

2/4 Book page 4

See exercise 0.1

EPQ AT A GLANCE

Individual or group?

• Individual submission.

• Written report, essay, artefact, play …

• Cannot be directly related to your studies (dual accreditation).

Taught element (30 hours) and independent work (90 hours).

3/4 Book page 5

EPQ IN MORE DETAIL

4/4 Book pages 6–7

AO1 Manage the project: Clear aims and objectives, evidence of planning.

AO2 Use resources: Well-focused research.

AO3 Develop and realise: Autonomy, clear plan, well-written report, evidence of the journey.

AO4 Review: Reflecting on what you have learned.

Material that is assessed:

Your supervisor helps you through your project and marks the final version.

• PRODUCTION LOG.

• Written REPORT.

• Record of the PRESENTATION.

The centre coordinator oversees the whole process.

See exercise 0.2

An external moderator checks the marks given by your supervisor.

Ideas for a topic title

Lesson 2 Ideas for a topic title

THE TAUGHT ELEMENT

EPQ takes about 120 hours, taught element = 30 hours:

• Safety skills.

• ICT skills.

• Research skills.

• Project management skills.

• Personal, learning, thinking skills.

• Sub-specific skills.

See suggested scheme of work on page 11.

1/3 Book pages 10–11

PROJECT IDEAS FROM THE PAST

2/3 Book pages 12–13

• Extending your studies.

• An artefact.

• A newspaper article or TV programme.

• Doing own research on a topic you’d like to study at University.

• A performance.

• Cross-curricular topic.

Examples of good evaluative titles

Should the care of those suffering with Alzheimer’s disease be the responsibility of government?

How to raise a thousand pounds for a local charity.

Can I design and make a platform shoe in the style of the 1970s?

See exercise 1.2

THINGS TO AVOID

• Overly ambitious topics.

• Emotive issues.

• Where you have a personal axe to grind.

• Socially sensitive topics.

• Dual accreditation.

• Don’t try to be too original.

• Avoid being too narrow or too broad.

3/3 Book pages 14–15

See exercise 1.3

A preliminary literature review

Lesson 3 A preliminary literature review

DRILLING DOWN

A literature review = a systematic consideration of what other people have written or said about your chosen topic.

Literature = books, magazines, websites, TV programmes …

Use this preliminary literature review later when completing the

PART A: CANDIDATE PROPOSAL form.

1/2 Book page 16

A FLOWCHART

FOR DOING YOUR

PRELIMINARY

2/2 Book pages 16–17

See exercise 1.4

Writing the CANDIDATE PROPOSAL

Lesson 4 Writing the CANDIDATE PROPOSAL

THE PRE-PROJECT PROPOSAL FORM

You have now:

• Completed some preliminary research.

• Selected a topic.

Time to formally propose your project so it can be approved.

• WHO is affected by the topic?

• WHAT are the major questions for this topic?

• WHERE is your topic important?

• WHEN is your topic important?

Felix, who did the EPQ on Fracking.

1/5 Book page 18

See exercise 1.5

Lesson 4 Writing the CANDIDATE PROPOSAL 2/5

CONSTRUCTING THE RECORD OF INITIAL IDEAS

Book pages 19–20

The RECORD OF INITIAL IDEAS (page 5 of the EPQ candidate record).

STEP 1: Fill in the first two elements.

STEP 2: Discuss your ideas with your supervisor.

STEP 3: Record your supervisor’s comments on the form.

STEP 4: Modify your ideas and record your changes.

Lesson 4 Writing the CANDIDATE PROPOSAL 3/5

CONSTRUCTING PART A: CANDIDATE PROPOSAL

Book page 21

PART A: CANDIDATE PROPOSAL (page 6 of the EPQ candidate record).

Beforehand: arrange an interim meeting with supervisor.

PART B: SUPERVISOR’S COMMENTS ON CANDIDATE PROPOSAL filled in by supervisor (page 7).

PART C: CENTRE COORDINATOR’S APPROVAL OF CANDIDATE PROPOSAL filled in by centre coordinator (page 8).

See next slide for copies of forms.

Harriet did an EPQ on the Olympics.

Lesson 4 Writing the CANDIDATE PROPOSAL 4/5 Book page 21

THE ROLE OF YOUR SUPERVISOR

DO set ground rules.

DO take responsibility.

DO use the support effectively.

DON’T go it alone.

DON’T let your supervisor be too directive.

DON’T be disorganised.

YOU arrange the meetings.

Make checklist of what has to be done with supervisor.

Record supervisor’s comments.

Book pages 22_23

See exercise 1.6

Your supervisor.

Don't be a puppet.

Introducing the PRODUCTION LOG and the reviewing process

Lesson 5 Introducing the PRODUCTION LOG and the reviewing process

THE PRODUCTION LOG

The EPQ is not about the PRODUCT – it’s about the PRODUCTION LOG.

The documents in the PRODUCTION LOG demonstrate your EPQ journey:

• RECORD OF INITIAL IDEAS.

• PARTS A, B, C: CANDIDATE PROPOSAL.

• PLANNING REVIEW .

• MID-PROJECT REVIEW .

(Described on next slide.)

• PROJECT PRODUCT REVIEW .

• PRESENTATION RECORD.

• SUMMARY AND REFLECTION.

1/2 Book page 26

THE REVIEW DOCUMENTS

PLANNING REVIEW

• Next steps in planning.

• Supervisor’s advice.

• Modifications made.

2/2 Book pages 27–29

MID-PROJECT REVIEW

• How your project has developed.

PROJECT PRODUCT REVIEW

Final title.

Next steps.

• Was revised plan followed?

Plan your time and objectives

Lesson 6 Plan your time and objectives

TIME MANAGEMENT

Threats to effective time management:

• Lack of objectives.

• Lack of clarity about the task.

• Disorganisation.

• Unforeseen crises or commitments.

• Perfectionism.

• Performance-debilitating circumstances.

• Procrastination.

1/4 Book page 30

See exercise 2.1

(continued)

Effective time management includes:

• Having clear objectives.

• A good plan.

• Classify tasks.

• Use a timetable.

• Don’t be distracted.

• Focus on one thing.

• Review each activity before you leave it.

• Reward yourself.

Reward yourself.

2/4 Book page 31

See exercise 2.2

SETTING YOUR AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

• S specific

• M measurable

• A achievable

• R realistic

• T timed

• A agreed

3/4 Book pages 32–33

See exercise 2.3

Lesson 6 Plan your time and objectives 4/4

MAKING A GENERAL PLAN

It is more difficult making a plan for 90 hours of work than for short deadlines.

Exemplar 1: Part of Rosie's plan.

Exemplar 2: Part of Jack's plan.

• List all the tasks.

• ‘Slack’ time built in.

• ‘Achieved’ column.

Book pages 34–35

• Lists all the sections.

• Tasks within the section.

Communicating changes

Lesson 7 Communicating changes

WHERE THESE ARE COMMUNICATED

AQA forms revisited , to see how changes were communicated:

RECORD OF INITIAL IDEAS

1/1 Book pages 36–37

See exercise 2.4

Additional management tools

Lesson 8 Additional management tools

PRODUCTION OF TIMELINES AND DIARY OF

Part of Megan's planning.

• These are optional extras.

• Excellent evidence of management.

Do not make the mistake of thinking that ‘the more I write, the better Grade I will get’.

• Initial production timetable.

• Secondary production timetable.

• Diary of progress.

• Diary of issues.

• Final production timetable.

Book pages 38–39

GANTT CHART

Shows the timing of each task .

• Column 1: A list of activities.

• Row 1: A suitable time scale.

• A bar represents each activity.

• Length of bar represents start, duration and end date.

2/3 Book pages 40–41

See exercise 2.5

Gantt, an American engineer.

Identifies the critical path for a project.

• PERT chart shows the relationship between the activities of your project.

• Looks at the time needed to complete each task.

• Shows the sequences in which the tasks will take place.

3/3 Book pages 42–43

See exercise 2.6

GANTT chart for same kind of project building a shed.

Dealing with data

Lesson 9 Dealing with data

PRIMARY AND SECONDARY DATA

Primary data

• Data collected first hand from your own research.

• No requirement to use primary data in your study.

Secondary data

• Data collected by someone else.

• Your literature review collects secondary data.

1/2 Book page 46

QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DATA

Quantitative data

• How much, i.e. quantity.

• Summarised using measures of central tendency and dispersion and graphs.

Qualitative data

• Non-numerical, e.g. words or pictures.

• Analysed thematically.

• Can count the number of times a word is used, becomes quantitative.

2/2 Book page 47

See exercise 3.1

A picture can be described quantitatively or qualitatively.

Lessons 10 & 11

Collecting primary data.

Lessons 10 & 11 Collecting primary data

IDENTIFYING ETHICAL ISSUES

A conflict between what a researcher wants and the rights of the participant.

• Informed consent.

• Deception.

• Right to withdraw.

• Protection of participants.

• Anonymity and confidentiality.

• Privacy.

1/7 Book pages 48–49

See exercise 3.2

DEALING WITH ETHICAL ISSUES

Before study: Gaining informed consent

• Rationale.

• Why participants selected.

• What they are required to do.

• How data stored.

After study: Debriefing

• Title of study.

• Thank you.

• Purpose of study, how findings used.

• Rationale for any deception.

• Confirm anonymity.

• Right to withdraw data.

• Enquire about any possible distress.

• Your contact details.

2/7 Book pages 50–51

See exercise 3.3

Selecting a sample

• Define target population.

• Either use whole target population or aim to select a representative sample.

Probability sampling

• Random.

• Systematic.

• Stratified.

Non-probability sampling

Convenience.

Self-selected/volunteer.

• Snowball.

3/7 Book pages 52–53

See exercise 3.4

SELF-REPORT TECHNIQUES

Questionnaire = fixed set of written questions.

Interview = interviewer can adapt questions.

Step 1 Developing good questions .

• Clarity (e.g. jargon, double-barrelled, double negative).

• Bias (leading questions).

• Analysis (closed versus open questions).

Step 2 Design a good questionnaire.

• Order of questions.

• Variety.

• Response set.

• Filler questions.

• Distribution.

4/7 Book pages 54–55

See exercise 3.5

Step 3 Pilot study.

• Stage 1:

• Select small representative sample.

• Test instructions, questions, equipment.

• Stage 2: Make changes.

Step 4 Considering reliability and validity.

• Internal reliability – split half.

• External reliability – test-retest.

• Internal validity – leading questions, social desirability bias.

• External validity – population validity.

Step 5 Select sample.

5/7 Book pages 56–57

See exercise 3.6

OBSERVATIONAL TECHNIQUES

Recording data , behavioural categories should:

• Be clearly organised.

• Cover all possible components.

• Be mutually exclusive.

Sampling procedures

• Event sampling.

• Time sampling.

Other things about observations

• Naturalistic and controlled.

• Overt and covert.

• Participant and non-participant.

Looks like P3, see coding system in textbook.

Book pages 58–59

See exercise 3.7

Considering reliability and validity.

Content analysis.

Advantages and disadvantages of observations.

OTHER RESEARCH METHODS

Not sure I can take any more!

• Experiments :

• IV and DV.

• Observation or self-report to measure DV.

• Lab, field or natural/quasi.

• Extraneous/confounding variables.

• Ecological validity.

• Correlations.

• Investigations.

• Case studies.

Where to begin

• Aims.

• Hypothesis.

• Operationalisation.

What happens at the end

• Descriptive statistics.

• Inferential statistics.

7/7 Book pages 60–61

See exercise 3.8

Lessons 12 & 13

Full literature review.

Lessons 12 & 13 Full literature review

SECONDARY SOURCES

1. Wikipedia .

2. The Internet.

• Cross check.

• Be selective.

• Peer-reviewed.

• Search engines.

• Record details (see table).

3. Other credible sources:

• A-level textbooks.

• Books.

• Academic Journals.

• Newspaper articles.

• TV programmes.

1/2 Book pages 62–63

See exercise 3.9

Lessons 12 & 13 Full literature review 2/2

SECONDARY DATA USING DIFFERENT SOURCES

Synthesising sources: A literature review.

• Like a funnel.

• Narrow to specific area.

• Group items together.

• Lead logically to aims.

What the literature review should NOT be.

• A descriptive list.

• Feelings.

• Everything.

• Irrelevant material, e.g. life story.

Example of a bad literature review and improved version.

Book pages 64–65

See exercise 3.10

Being analytical

Lesson 14 Being analytical

METHODS OF ANALYSIS

Analysis = examine in detail but not descriptively – evaluate .

Analysis method 1 : Considering conflicting arguments.

• Example project: Jenny’s EPQ on Yellowstone

Analysis method 2 : Considering the value of sources used.

• Source.

• Author’s background.

• Date published, are the findings still relevant?

• Depths of reviews.

• Sources cited.

• Objectivity.

• Justification for reliability.

1/1 Book pages 66–67

See exercise 3.11

See exercise 3.12

Understanding peer review

Lesson 15 Understanding peer review

USING PEER REVIEWED JOURNALS

Peer review

• Academic journals.

• The Internet.

How to use peer review when evaluating sources.

1/2 Book page 68

See exercise 3.13

EVALUATING PEER REVIEW

The strengths of peer review

• High quality research.

• Controls amount of information.

• Determines ownership of intellectual property.

• Guards against plagiarism.

• Guards against fraud.

The limitations of peer review

• Finding an expert.

• Anonymity versus open reviewing.

• Preserves the status quo.

2/2 Book page 69

See exercise 3.14

Avoiding plagiarism

Lesson 16 Avoiding plagiarism

AVOIDING PLAGIARISM

1/2 Book pages 70–71

Plagiarism = publication of someone else’s words, thoughts, ideas without permission or credit.

• Make it your own.

• Rewrite don’t cut and paste.

• Paraphrasing and summarising.

See exercise 3.15

Using quotes

• Credit the sources.

• Credit ideas as well as words.

• What about general knowledge?

• How much should I quote?

• Using long quotations.

• Can I cut and paste a diagram from the Internet?

• How much is too much?

Examples of how to quote.

Words to use.

Other issues:

• More than one author.

• Introducing a long quotation.

• If you need to alter a quotation.

• If you remove some text from a quotation.

2/2 Book pages 72–73

Preparing MID-PROJECT REVIEW

Lesson 17 Preparing MID-PROJECT REVIEW

THE MID-PROJECT REVIEW

Record your outline plan about halfway through your work.

Page 10 of the EPQ candidate record.

Good practice – see Kim’s project (page 28) and James’ project (page 37)

• Changes to plan justified.

• Good summary of advice from supervisor.

• Show how and whether you will act on advice from supervisor.

• Detailed planned next steps.

• Title clear and analytical.

Bad practice – see Robert’s project (page 29)

New approval from Centre Co-ordinator may be required if approval was subject to recommendations.

1/1 Book pages 28–29, 37

Beginning the report

Lesson 18 Beginning the report

WHERE DO I BEGIN?

Overcoming the blank page syndrome , for example:

• Think out loud.

• Write the ending first.

• Change location.

• What else?

Set achievable objectives

• Set a timer for three minutes and see how much you can write.

• Try just writing five sentences.

• Each day set ACHIEVABLE GOALS.

1/1 Book pages 74–75

Marking exercise

Lesson 19 Marking exercise

EXEMPLARS I, II AND III

AQA marking criteria.

How you will be assessed:

• AO1 Manage (10 marks)

• AO2 Use resources (10 marks)

• AO3 Develop and realise (20 marks)

• AO4 Review (10 marks)

Mark the exemplars on pages 108–121.

Use the AQA markscheme: see pages 9–12 of filestore.aqa.org.uk/subjects/AQA-W-7993-SP-15.PDF

1/1 Book pages 108–121

Writing well

Lesson 20 Writing well

WRITING FLUENTLY AND CRITICALLY

• Clear line of argument.

• Well-structured paragraphs.

• Points are based on evidence.

• Both descriptive and critical analysis.

• Avoid personal opinion.

• Use precise language.

• Avoid abbreviations and contradictions.

• Use of quotations.

Making your point – writing a POWERFUL paragraph:

• Identify the point.

• Justify the point.

• Elaborate upon it.

• Further elaboration.

• Conclusion.

1/2 Book pages 76–77

See exercise 4.2

USEFUL PHRASES

• This suggests that …

• This would imply …

• So we can see …

• One consequence would be …

• One advantage of this is …

• An alternative explanation …

• Therefore …

• This is challenged by …

• In comparison …

• In contrast …

• However …

One consequence would be ...

2/2 Book page 77

See exercise 4.3

Writing an abstract

Lesson 21 Writing an abstract

A PLANNER FOR YOUR ABSTRACT

Abstract = A succinct summary of a piece of research.

• No subheadings.

• First or last?

• Aim and/or hypothesis.

• Relevant background literature.

• Method.

• Findings.

• Conclusion (relate to background research).

• Implications (relate to findings).

Word count 150–250 words.

1/2 Book pages 78–79

See exercise 4.4

See exercise 4.5

Writing the introduction

Lesson 22 Writing the introduction

AN OVERVIEW

• A starting point.

• A topic sentence.

• An attention-grabbing statement.

• A brief outline.

• Establish your research territory.

• Establish a niche.

• Background.

• Scope of the work.

Word count up to 4000 words.

1/2 Book pages 80–81

See exercise 4.6

A LITERATURE REVIEW

• Relate directly to your topic.

• Identify an area of controversy.

• Present a summary of what we already know.

• Provide a clear statement of the research questions/problems which you will be addressing.

• Narrow down to the aims/hypotheses.

• What order?

• Chronological.

• Thematic.

Book pages 80–81

Writing the method

(primary data and artefact only)

Lesson 23 Writing the method

STRUCTURE FOR THE METHOD SECTION OF

2. Participants.

3. Materials /apparatus.

4. Date(s) and location.

5. Ethical consideration.

6. Procedure.

Word count 500–600 words.

Book pages 82–83

See exercise 4.7

Writing your report is like writing a recipe for a cake.

Writing the findings

(primary data only)

Lesson 24 Writing the findings

STRUCTURE FOR THE RESULTS SECTION OF

1. Descriptive statistics.

2. Summarise.

• Quantitative data: tables and graphs.

• Qualitative data.

3. Inferential statistics where appropriate.

4. Presenting tables and figures.

Book pages 84–85

See exercise 4.8

Writing the discussion

Lesson 25 Writing the discussion 1/1 Book pages 86–87

STRUCTURE FOR THE DISCUSSION SECTION

OF THE REPORT

The purpose of the discussion is to consider previously mentioned research in relation to your own research. Therefore it is not expected that you will introduce new research here.

See exercise 4.9

1. Explain the findings in relation to the hypothesis.

2. Explain the findings in relation to previous research.

3. Strengths and limitations of your project.

4. Implications.

Writing a CONCLUSION

Lesson 26 Writing a CONCLUSION

WHAT IS A TAKE-HOME MESSAGE?

1/1 Book pages 88–89

Think about what you want people to remember.

First write in BLUNT terms  explain so it RESONATES.

Don’ts, e.g.:

• End with a lengthy quotation.

• Say ‘in conclusion’.

• Introduce a new idea.

• In fact …

• For these reasons … etc

Word count about 300 words.

Generic structure

Brief recap.

Reference to larger issue.

Highlight key aspects.

Evaluate main arguments.

Take home message

See exercise 4.10

Editing and referencing the draft EPQ

Lesson 27 Editing and referencing the draft EPQ 1/3

FORMATS FOR REFERENCING

Book reference

Offer, D., Ostrov, E. and Howard, K. (1981). The Adolescent – a psychological self-portrait . New

York: Basic Books.

Papers/articles

Milner, D. (1970). Ethnic Identity and preference in minority-group children. In: H. Tajfel, (1981)

Human groups and social categories . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.329–356.

Journal articles

MacKay, G. (2002). The disappearance of disability? Thoughts on a changing culture. British

Journal of Special Education , 29 (4), 159–163.

Internet pages

Jackson, R. (2004). Inclusion: A flawed Vision . GSSPL [online]. Available at: www.gssp1.org.uk/html/inclusion_aflawed-vision [Accessed January 2014].

Other types

Personal communication.

Book pages 90–91

See exercise 4.11

Lesson 27 Editing and referencing the draft EPQ

ENDNOTES AND FOOTNOTES

A sequential number is placed in the text where you would normally put (Milner 1970).

• Endnotes – end of chapter.

• Footnotes – at bottom of the page.

• Word processors will do it for you.

Exemplar using footnotes

2/3 Book page 90

EDITING THE DRAFT EPQ

Checklist – am I done?

This is not a list to just tick things off.

3/3 Book pages 92–93

You have finished the report!

Preparing the PROJECT PRODUCT REVIEW

Lesson 28 Preparing the PROJECT PRODUCT REVIEW

GOOD AND BAD PRACTICE

Page 11 of the EPQ candidate record.

Examples of good practice

Kim’s project (page 28), and Wesley’s project (page 37).

Example of bad practice

Robert’s project (page 29).

Preparing the PRESENTATION

Lesson 29 Preparing the PRESENTATION

DIFFERENT TYPES OF VISUAL AIDS

To non-specialist audience.

Demonstrates AO1 (planning), AO2 (use of resources), AO3 (develop and realise).

• Microsoft PowerPoint.

• Video, DVD, YouTube.

• Interactive white board.

• Non-interactive board.

• Paper handouts.

• Flip chart.

• Artefact or props.

• Market place display.

• A poster presentation.

1/4 Book pages 96–97

See exercise 5.1

PRESENTATION SKILLS

Preparation beforehand

• Know your material.

• Use notes to support the style of your presentation.

• Rehearse.

• It’s no laughing matter.

2/4 Book pages 98–99

• Where to start.

• The glass is always half full.

• Be polite and assertive.

• Pump up the volume?

• Pace yourself.

• Mind your language.

• Don’t forget to breathe.

• Connect with your audience!

See exercise 5.2

QUESTIONS AND CHECKLIST

Dealing with questions asked.

• You are assessed on responses to questions from the audience.

• Anticipate the questions and prepare.

Checklist and then …

• Fill in PRESENTATION RECORD PART A (Page 12 of the EPQ candidate record).

• An exemplar is on page 101.

3/4 Book pages 100–101

See exercise 5.3

ASSESSING THE PRESENTATION

You can include a presentation feedback form in your PRESENTATION RECORD PART B for the moderator.

• Audibility.

• Pace.

• Fluency.

• Tone and energy.

• Eye contact.

• Body language and posture.

• Appropriateness to the audience.

• Structure and cohesion.

• Use of visual aids.

• Verbal content.

• Response to questions.

PRESENTATION RECORD PART B – filled in by your supervisor.

4/4 Book pages 102–103

See exercise 5.4

Writing the SUMMARY and REFLECTION

Lesson 30 Writing the SUMMARY and REFLECTION

THE SUMMARY

1. Brief recap of what you have covered in relation to the essay title.

2. Reference to the larger issue.

3. Highlight the important aspects.

4. Evaluate the main arguments.

5. The take-home message.

1/3 Book pages 104–105

See exercise 5.5

WRITING A REFLECTION

1. What have you have learned from completing your project?

2. What new knowledge or expertise have you found valuable?

3. What are the strengths and weaknesses of your project?

4. What skills have you improved?

5. What changes would you make if you undertook the work again?

6. What advice would you give to others undertaking such a project?

Fill in SUMMARY AND REFLECTION after the presentation.

Page 14 of the EPQ candidate record.

2/3 Book pages 106–107

See exercise 5.6

Lesson 30 Writing the SUMMARY and REFLECTION 3/3

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EPQs: why give a presentation?

What are the guidelines for the presentation?

The Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) is an opportunity for you to work independently on a topic that really interests you or that you think is important. It is equivalent to an A-level qualification. These articles are designed to help you if you are enrolled on an EPQ.

See previous article in series: Writing up your dissertation

Why give a presentation?

Giving a presentation on the results of your work is a requirement for the EPQ. You are asked to:

• show evidence of how you approached and carried out the EPQ
• give an overview of the research you conducted.

There can be many reasons for giving a presentation. You might want to start a discussion, persuade others to share your opinion, analyse some evidence, share information, inspire people to do something, communicate an idea, teach a topic, learn something, show what you’ve been working on ...

The purpose of the presentation affects the content you include and the style you choose to use. 

Who’s in your audience and what do they want from your presentation ?

A presentation is a two-way activity. Thinking about your audience and developing a rapport with them keeps people engaged with what you’re saying or doing. 

Very often, a presentation will include a space for audience questions or discussion. If you have kept your audience engaged throughout your presentation, their questions will be more closely related to the content, making it easier for you to answer.

• Thinking about your audience
• Starting your presentation
• The EPQ audience

Starting your preparation by thinking about your audience – who they are, what they want, what they are interested in, what they like, what they don’t like – will help bring them to life in your mind.

You can imagine their characters and personalities, their interests and responses. You don’t have to think about the life story of everyone in the audience – this is about broad descriptions. But thinking about the audience means that when you are creating your presentation, you are doing it with people in mind, helping you craft a presentation that engages them as much as possible.

As an example, look at the two people in Figure 2 (or read the description) and write down five words to describe them.

How did you describe them? You might have come up with: 

• girl, writing, young, computer, relaxed, t-shirt
• man, banjo, musician, outdoors, beard

How can you use this description?

Think about starting your presentation .

If you think your audience is likely to be people like the young female writer, you could start with a (relevant!) quote from your favourite writer. For an audience of people that like to make music, you could include a piece of music that relates to your work.

Think about the content of your presentation. If you are presenting to a group of painters, you’d want to use lots of images. If you were presenting to very young children, you’d probably want to include some activities they could join in.

For example, Nisha, a researcher, gave a presentation at a science festival on the topic of ‘the future of space in society’. She characterised her audience as: 

• more than 16 years old
• knowledgeable
• interested in the future

What does this mean for how she structured her presentation? Because she imagined her audience as  adults , it’s likely she would have been comfortable discussing quite difficult topics and using complex language.

Thinking of them as  knowledgeable  means she would have been prepared for some interesting, and possibly tricky questions.

Visualising them as  interested in the future  means she would have included some material on new developments in research, and thought about the kind of questions they might ask about future work.

Who is the audience for your presentation?

For the EPQ, your audience is likely to be your fellow students and your teachers. These are probably people you know well, and who know each other well.

• What five words could you use to describe them?

What are the guidelines for the presentation ?

It’s always a good idea to know the guidelines for your presentation.

It’s helpful to have a few basic issues sorted out before you start preparing your presentation.

How long should your presentation be? Do you have to include time for discussion after the presentation or is that separate? 

For EPQ presentations, different exam boards have different specifications about timing and format, so check the guidelines for the exam board you are studying with. A typical guideline might be that you should present for ten minutes, followed by five minutes for questions and discussion.

What equipment do you need?

Will it be provided or will you have to take your own? 

Do you or the audience have specific needs that you should accommodate? 

For example, you might be asked to use a microphone because someone in the audience has hearing problems. What kind of microphone will this be? One fixed to a stand or one you carry in your hand? How will using the microphone affect your planned presentation style? If it’s a fixed microphone, and you planned to move about while you present, you might have to change some elements of your presentation.

Where will you be giving the presentation? What kind of layout will the room have? How will this affect your presentation?

For example, will the audience be seated in rows (like a theatre), around a table (like people in a café), in an informal circle, or some other arrangement? Is the room layout fixed or can you re-arrange it to suit your presentation?

Who will be in the audience?

If you have read the previous section, you’ll have thought about this and how you can create a presentation that will appeal to them.

How many people will be in the audience? 

This matters if you are planning to share handouts or ask people to look at visual aids or physical objects. You don’t want to have too few, but you don’t want to waste resources by preparing too much.

There are many different ways to present, so which kind of presentation should you choose? That depends on the kind of project you have done and the material you are presenting. 

Every format has advantages and disadvantages. You will want to choose the format that works best for you and your work.  Some common examples are:

Face-to-face oral presentation

Sometimes simply talking is enough. Telling your story directly to the listeners, with no distractions, is very compelling.

Oral presentation with visual aids

If you want to include evidence such as graphs, charts or images, using visual aids to support your presentation is helpful. Visual aids include presentation software (such as Microsoft PowerPoint, Prezi or Apple Keynote), wall displays, large posters or printed handouts.

Video presentation

You could choose to make a short video documenting your work. This allows people to look at or listen to the presentation in their own time.

This style of presentation is very appropriate for a project in which you have created an artefact or run an experiment and you need to show the whole process. 

There’s more information about giving your presentation  later in this article.

Structuring your presentation .

There will be a time limit on your presentation, so you should plan your presentation to be sure that you cover everything you need to.

• How many slides?

One way to allocate the time for the different sections is to think about the proportions you used for the dissertation.

Check out the previous article in this series ‘Writing up your dissertation’  for more info.

Introduction – 1 minute – why this question:

• the question you set out to answer
• why this question matters (perhaps to you, to your audience, to other people).

Review – 3 minutes – the evidence you found:

• a summary of how you carried out your research
• an overview of the evidence you found.

In three minutes, you probably won’t have time to cover all your evidence, so pick out the key points that are most important for you to explain.

If the audience knows there’s more you haven’t had time to say, they will be able to ask you questions about it.

Discussion – 5 minutes – why it matters:

• a summary of your key findings
• evidence for and against your question
• what the evidence means – how it helped you answer your question.

Again, in five minutes, you’ll only really have time to focus on the key points, so think carefully about what they are and which ones you want to present.

Conclusion – 1 minute – the answer:

• the answer your evidence has led you to
• the key message you want your audience to take away from your presentation.

How many slides should you make for your presentation? The most important thing to think about is how much time you have. Ann, who is a lecturer in astrobiology education and also teaches science communication, discusses this issue.

What are her suggestions?

When you’re thinking about creating the slides for a presentation, there’s a couple of good rules of thumb to remember. One is to stick to one idea per slide. 

And the other is that it takes approximately two minutes to present a slide. So for a ten-minute presentation, you’re looking at maybe five slides. 

If you divide them up roughly the same way as you divide the presentation itself, that will be one slide for the question, another slide to review the evidence that you found, perhaps a couple of slides on your discussion and analysis and one slide on the conclusion. 

You can have a top and tail. It’s good to have a slide at the beginning with the name of your talk on it, and your name. This is a good one to have on display at the beginning, while people are settling down and getting comfortable. You can also have a closing slide that you can leave up to cover the question time.

Ann’s summary

If you plan to use presentation software, it’s tempting to cram in lots of slides, because you’ve done a lot of work and you want to share it all. However, your audience will need time to absorb the material you are presenting on your slides. If you have text, they need to be able to read it; if you have images, they need to be able to take in all the details. Good communication practice suggests that you should present one idea per slide, and that it takes roughly two minutes to present one slide. So for the example outlined in Table 1, that would mean:

• Introduction – one slide.
• Review – one or two slides.
• Discussion – two or three slides.
• Conclusion – one slide.

That’s approximately five to seven slides for a ten-minute presentation, with perhaps an additional opening slide to introduce yourself and a closing slide to cover the question time (Figure 7).

Using presentation software (such as PowerPoint, Prezi or Keynote) is probably the most common way of creating a presentation, but it’s worth taking a moment to decide whether this is the most appropriate route for the topic, the presentation and you.

• Should I use presentation software?
• Making it readable
• Using images

If you do decide to use presentation software, following a few simple guidelines will help keep your presentation interesting and impactful. When deciding, think about:

What’s best for your content?

• do you have a lot of images? (useful)  
• are there graphs and charts? (useful) 
• is it all text? (not so useful)

What’s best for your audience?

• how old are they?
• what are they interested in?
• where are you giving the presentation – small room, large theatre, in the dark, in artificial light?

What’s best for you?

• what skills do you have – can you draw really good images or take great photographs? 
• can you sum up complex ideas in a few interesting words?

A good rule of thumb is to aim for presentation slides to be readable from 2.5m away.

Don’t try to crowd too much onto a slide. Aim for your text or images to take up no more than half the area of the slide. Keeping a good margin of white space around the content makes images easier to understand and text easier to read.

Using a widescreen (16:9) format for your slides gives you a larger area to work on, which means your images can be bigger and the text size can be larger.

Compelling and relevant images that are easy to understand will hold the audience’s attention and support your storytelling.

In Figure 9, it’s easy to see that the young women are sharing their thoughts by writing on a large sheet of paper. We can speculate that some of them might be mothers, as there are young children and babies in the photo.

Compare that with the image in Figure 10. It’s not very clear – there’s some open water, a flock of pink birds that are possibly flamingos and a shoreline beyond them. It’s not easy to work out what the subject is: is it the water, the flamingos or the land on the horizon? If you used this photo, you would have to explain what to look for. That means the photo isn’t doing its job of enhancing your presentation.

Where to find images

If you have your own photos, drawings or images, that’s ideal, because they will represent your work most clearly. As the creator of the image, you own the  copyright , so you can use the image in whatever way you want.

As  discussed in our ‘Writing up your dissertation’ article, you should never try to pass off someone else’s work as your own. This applies to photos and images as well as text.

If you choose to use images created by other people, look for images that are in the public domain or have a Creative Commons licence, and in your presentation, include text that acknowledges where the image came from. Websites such as Pixabay or rawPixel offer lots of usable images, with full details of how you should acknowledge the creators. If you’re using Google Images, you can also click on ‘Tools’ and then adjust the ‘Usage Rights’ settings to search for re-usable material.

Using tables, graphs and charts

Presentation software, posters or handouts are excellent for showing tables, graphs and charts that illustrate your findings. When creating your presentation, you can re-use graphs and charts that you created for your dissertation.

For more information, see  Article 1: ‘Writing up your dissertation – Tables, graphs and charts’ .

Less is definitely more when it comes to text on slides. Compare these two slides – which is easier to read and understand?

The first slide is much better. It has a pale grey background with five lines of black text, with a few words highlighted in orange.  The second slide has a large image of a woodland as the background, with approximately 25 lines of white text. The text is almost unreadable.

Good communication practice suggests using:

• a maximum of  9   lines  of text on a slide
• a maximum of  10   words  per line
• an  easy-to-read  font; preferably sans serif (common sans serif fonts include arial, helvetica and calibri)
• large font  sizes; ideally 36-point text for titles; 30-point and 24-point for body text
• black text on pale grey (or pale yellow or blue) background; good contrast between background and text is best for people with dyslexia and vision problems. Avoid stark white backgrounds, as the shininess can cause problems
• colours  (up to five) for contrast and highlighting.

Giving your presentation .

We can learn a lot by watching and listening to other people give presentations, picking up from their good points and learning from what doesn’t go so well.

• Good presentations
• And not so good presentations
• Preparing to present – practising 

What’s the best presentation you’ve ever watched online or been to? Perhaps you have a teacher whose style you admire, or you’ve been to a public lecture or talk that included presentations. What made them so good?

If nothing comes to mind, watch this presentation on   The networked beauty of forests   from the  TED-Ed  community to get your thinking started. The presentation lasts about six minutes.

As you watch, consider anything about it that appeals to you. What are its good points?

You might have come up with ideas such as:

• a  title  that grabs your attention
• clear and relevant  images ,  graphs  and  tables
• use of relevant pieces of  video , audio  or  music
• speakers who look like they really  care  about the subject
• speakers who keep up a  good pace , not going too slowly but not rushing either
• being able to  hear the speaker  clearly
• being able to  see the content  clearly.

You probably came up with some other thoughts. How can you incorporate these ideas into your presentation?

Most of us have sat through presentations that weren’t very good. What problems did they have?

Watch this video , which was produced by Keele University, and use the bingo card below to identify some of the common mistakes made in presentations.

You probably spotted more problems than were included on the bingo card!

Of course, this was a deliberately bad presentation, but it gives us some clues about errors we can easily avoid. Sometimes speakers do things that irritate the audience because they’re nervous – people jangle keys in their pocket, chew their hair or constantly fiddle with a pen. Sometimes people don’t feel well-prepared so they read from a script, or they say ‘um’ or ‘er’ or ‘so…’ a lot. These are errors that we can avoid through good preparation and lots of practice.

Once you have designed your presentation, you need to think about how you are going to deliver it. What will you say as you present the slides?

Organise your notes

You might be very good at learning a script, but most people can’t remember the whole of a presentation by heart, and reading from a printed script isn’t engaging for your audience.

Therefore, many presenters use a ‘cue card’ system to keep on track:

• organise your notes into a logical series of points
• write a few reminder words for each point
• transfer your reminder words on to small cards (small enough to fit in your hand but big enough that you can read the reminder words easily; say 10cm x 5cm)
• have one card for the beginning, with your opening sentence written out
• have one card for the end, with a reminder of the message you want your audience to take away from the presentation
• fill in the middle with a card for each main point you want to make, or phrase you want to use.

When you are confident you have the right flow in your content, number your cue cards in sequence. Nervous presenters have been known to drop their cards and scatter them across the floor. If that happens, you’ll want to get them back in order quickly!

Practise giving your presentation as much as you can. Practise to your family, practise to your friends (and be an audience for them in return), practise to the cat or practise to a tree; the more you practise, the more confident you will be.

As you practise, you will become more comfortable with the sound of your ‘presenter’ voice and feel more like you’re talking as you would to a friend.

Something else to think about as you write your presentation is your speaking speed. You will find you need to speak more slowly when you are presenting, so that you deliver each word clearly. This means you can’t pack as many words into the minutes as you can in ‘normal’ speech.

Timing yourself over multiple practices helps you judge whether you have the right amount of content. If there’s anything there that doesn’t  need  to be there, this will give you the opportunity to cut it out. You might need to trim back and focus on fewer points, or you might find you have the space to add more material.

Practising also helps you ensure that the order of your points is logical and tells a coherent story. And finally, through practising you’ll be able to judge whether your visual aids (if you have used them) give the right message and enhance what you are saying. 

Feedback from other people can be very helpful when you’re practising, especially if you ask for feedback on specific points that you are concerned about. Asking for targeted feedback on the delivery, the slides or the visual aids (or other points) is likely to be more useful than simply asking ‘what do you think?’.

If it isn’t possible to get ‘live’ feedback, you could video yourself and ask others to watch it back and give you feedback, or you could watch the recording yourself and reflect on the presentation. Not everyone enjoys watching themselves give presentations though!

On the day.

Remember: 

• It’s your story – and you’re the best person to tell it.
• You’ve designed your presentation with the audience in mind (look back at  ‘Giving your presentation ’ ).
• You’ve prepared great content (look back at ‘Guidelines’  and ‘Structuring your presentation’ ).
• You’ve designed excellent slides, posters or other aids (look back at ‘Presentation software’ ).
• You’ve timed and practised your presentation (look back at ‘Structuring your presentation’  as well as the resources below).

Look up, smile at the audience, take a deep breath and be great! Good luck!

More resources.

There are lots of resources available online to help you prepare and give good presentations. Here are two from the Open University that you might find useful:

• Communicating and presenting: skills for OU study
• Giving presentations

Other articles in this series...

EPQs: designing your research question

You’ve already decided to do an EPQ, so it might seem a little odd to start this resource by asking you to consider why you want to do a research project. People do an EPQ for all sorts of reasons. Why do you want to do an EPQ?

EPQs: finding and using evidence

Finding the evidence that will help you understand a topic or answer a question is an important stage in the research process. And once you have found it, you will need to examine it closely and carefully, to judge how reliable it is and whether it is useful to help you answer your question.

EPQs: writing up your dissertation

You have collected and analysed your evidence and considered it in relation to your research question. The next step is to communicate all that you have done. Your dissertation is the element of the EPQ that is read and assessed by others who haven’t been involved in your research.

Become an OU student

Ratings & comments, share this free course, copyright information, publication details.

• Originally published: Wednesday, 3 May 2023
• Body text - Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 : The Open University
• Image 'Fig 1 - The research cycle: Communication' - Copyright: Ann Grand
• Image 'A woman giving a presentation. She is pointing at an image displayed on a large monitor.' - Copyright: Photo by  airfocus  on  Unsplash
• Image 'Fig 3 - Structuring a presentation' - Copyright: Ann Grand
• Image 'A powerpoint slide in wide-screen format' - Copyright: Victoria Pearson
• Image 'Women in a discussion group about health services for women and children' - Copyright: Voices from Durgapur (CC0)
• Image 'Photo of someone giving a presentation on stage' - Copyright: The Open University
• Image 'Screenshot of the presenter's view of an online presentation, showing the slide and notes.' - Copyright: Ann Grand
• Image 'Possibly flamingos? Photo by S. Filippidou, AstrobiologyOU' - Copyright: Sevasti Filippidou
• Image 'Example 1 of a slide' - Copyright: Ann Grand
• Image 'Example 2 of a slide' - Copyright: Ann Grand
• Image 'Possible audience members' - Copyright: Photo by Windows on Unsplash Photo by Meillene Ferrer on Unsplash
• Image 'Photo of someone presenting to an audience' - Copyright: Photo by Ben Moreland on Unsplash
• Image 'Photo of someone filming themselves' - Copyright: Photo by Jenny Ueberberg on Unsplash
• Image 'EPQs: designing your research question' - © Betta0147 | Dreamstime.com under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license
• Image 'EPQs: finding and using evidence' - Alphabet Yellow © Betta0147 | Dreamstime.com under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license
• Image 'EPQs: writing up your dissertation' - © Betta0147 | Dreamstime.com under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license
• Image 'EPQs: why give a presentation?' - Alphabet Yellow © Betta0147 | Dreamstime.com under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license

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EPQ PRESENTATION FULL MARKS A*

Subject: English

Age range: 16+

Resource type: Visual aid/Display

Last updated

29 March 2023

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Extended Project Qualification (EPQ AS) Presentation, exemplar .

EPQ Presentation, awarded full marks for my 2021 EPQ, A* grade overall. Resource would be very helpful as an exemplar for what students need to include in a high level EPQ presentation.

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