phd defence presentation template

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PhD Defense Template

You’ve done the hard work to prepare your PhD dissertation, and now there’s only one step left: your defense. And Beautiful.ai has the perfect presentation template to help you along the way.

These customizable template slides have all the basic elements of a PhD defense presentation, including an abstract, methodology, research findings, executive summary, and more. The result? A streamlined presentation that’s as professional as it is impressive. All with just a few clicks of the mouse. 

Our PhD defense template can also help you:

• Customize your PhD presentation for different audiences
• Synthesize months of academic work into a concise presentation
• Successfully defend your PhD thesis to your panel

Use our template to create an effective PhD defense presentation

Your PhD defense presentation is a critical step in your academic journey – one that requires a smart and sophisticated format, layout, and story flow. That’s why our template includes everything you need to create an effective presentation. Tailoring this defense template to your unique PhD thesis is simple. Whether you need to create additional data points or showcase more findings, you can quickly bring your visions to life with these customizable templates and our entire library of professionally designed template slides.

Pro Tips for creating your own PhD defense presentation template

When you are thinking of creating your own impactful Phd defense presentation, keep these best practices in mind:

Condensing hours and hours of research can be daunting. Build an outline or table of contents first, then simply stick to that structure as you create your presentation.

It can be easy to get caught up in your research and findings, but don’t forget to answer critical questions like, ‘Why is this important?’ and ‘What results have you achieved?’

Remember: You aren’t recreating your entire thesis into a visual presentation. Limit the amount of content and data you add to each slide.

Your PhD defense presentation is your chance to share all of your hard work. Don’t be afraid to showcase bits of your personality throughout.

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Free thesis defense presentation templates

Bring your research to life and impress the examining committee with a professional Thesis Defense Presentation template. Defend your final year project, Master’s thesis, or PhD dissertation with the help of free slides designed especially for students and academics. 

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What’s a thesis defense presentation?

As you approach the end of grad or postgrad studies, you’ll probably be required to deliver a thesis defense presentation. This takes place during the final semester and involves speaking about your thesis or dissertation in front of a committee of professors. 

The word “defend” might sound intimidating, but it simply means answering questions about your work. Examiners want to see how knowledgeable you are about your field and if you can back up your arguments with solid and original research. Some departments invite students to a pre-defense, which is like a dress rehearsal for the main event. 

If you’re defending your doctoral thesis or dissertation, the event will be more formal than at Master’s level. In some universities, this is called a PhD viva, which comes from the Latin viva voce, meaning “by live voice”. Basically, it’s time to speak about the 80 thousand words you’ve written! As well as your supervisor, the panel will usually include visiting academics from other institutions. If it’s an “open defense” it will be open to other students and members of the public.

The format varies between different universities, but a thesis defense usually starts with the candidate delivering a short presentation accompanied by slides. This is followed by a question and answer session with the panel. 

How do I design slides for my thesis defense?

The secret to a good thesis defense presentation is a well-designed slide deck. This will act as a visual aid and starting point for the conversation. Structuring your points and illustrating them on the screen will help you present more confidently. 

If the prospect of creating a thesis presentation from scratch is daunting, check out Genially’s free thesis defense templates. Each design has been created by professional graphic designers in collaboration with students and academic experts. 

Choose from hundreds of examples with preset color palettes and easy-to-edit slides. In a few minutes you can outline the content of your thesis in an impressive visual format. No artistic skills required!

How should I structure a thesis presentation?

When you create a thesis defense presentation, the first thing to remember is that it should be short and concise. There’s no need to rewrite your thesis on the slides. Members of the committee will already be familiar with your work, having read the document prior to the event. 

A thesis defense is a conversational, person-to-person event. Examiners don’t want to read large blocks of text on the screen. They want to hear you talking about your research with passion and insight.

With this in mind, your presentation should serve as a starting point or prompt for discussion. Think of your slides as cue cards: use short titles and keywords to remind you of what you want to say. 

Make a good first impression by using a professional thesis defense presentation template with a consistent theme and attractive visuals. Go for a calm color palette and neutral style. The aim is to illustrate your points while keeping the committee focused on what you’re saying. 

A thesis defense usually begins with an introductory presentation lasting 15 to 20 minutes, followed by discussion time. For a 20 minute presentation we recommend a series of about 10 slides. 

Make sure to include an introduction slide or title page that lays out what you’re going to talk about. Next, move on to each part of your thesis. Outline the problem, background and literature review, your research question, methodology and objectives, findings, conclusions, and areas for future research. 

A great thesis presentation should provide the panel with a summary of your research. For that reason, try to avoid dumping too much data or information onto your slides. Use Genially’s interactive infographics, diagrams and charts to highlight the most important points in an eye-catching visual format.

When it comes to the big day and defending your thesis, try to keep calm. Take a deep breath, introduce yourself to the committee and let your slides guide you. Your examiners will come armed with a list of questions, so the formal presentation will flow naturally into a Q&A.

How do I make a good final year project presentation?

If you’re an undergrad, you might be required to deliver a final year project presentation or dissertation presentation. It’s less formal than a graduate degree thesis defense, but the format is similar. You will be asked to present your research findings to faculty and peers with the help of slides. Your performance may count towards your final grade when you’re awarded your Bachelor’s degree.

A good presentation for a final year project should start with a title slide. At this point you should introduce your research question and explain why you chose the topic. If it’s a collaborative project, include a slide that introduces your teammates. 

The core part of your presentation should cover your methodology, findings, conclusions, and scope for future research. Wrap things up by thanking your contributors and invite your audience to ask questions.   

If you’re not sure how to make a final year project presentation, check out Genially’s free presentation slides for students. Choose from hundreds of professional templates that can be customized to any undergraduate or graduate project. With animated graphics and beautiful data visualizations, you can make standout slides in a matter of minutes.

If you’re submitting your presentation to your professor, try including interactive elements. Genially’s presentation builder allows you to embed online data, videos, audio, maps, PDFs, and hyperlinks in your slides. This can be a useful way to provide supporting evidence, sources, and additional documentation. 

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A Thesis Defense is an oral presentation or discussion of the thesis work. Research students and professors share their research at open platforms or academic communities. The purpose of sharing research work is to show your quality contribution in a field. It is an essential need for the degree completion of Master's or Ph.D. degree students.

For an impressive presentation, you can use thesis defense PowerPoint templates . Such pre-designed templates can guide you with text and image placeholders. This article will explain a few necessary items for a successful thesis defense. Also, you will find the top 10 thesis defense presentation templates in this guide.

In this article

• What Items Should Be Included in a Theses Defense PowerPoint Presentation
• 10 Best Thesis Defense Presentations Templates
• The Most Powerful AI Tool to Create, Customize, Record, or Live Stream Thesis Defense Presentations

Part 1. What Items Should Be Included in a Theses Defense PowerPoint Presentation

Making a thesis is hard, but defending it with facts and figures is a major hurdle. Along with making a thesis, there comes the case of presenting it. The presentation requires prior research and preparation with clear and easy-to-read content.

Do you want an impressive presentation that makes your thesis stand out? Let's go through the following factors that need to be included in a thesis defense presentation sample :

1. Well-Structured Slides

The main slides must have a concise title and a table of contents. Introduce your topic with the objectives and purposes of such conducting study. You can summarize the previous research in the literature review and method section.

Showcase your findings in results and discuss them thoroughly. The conclusion must highlight key ideas, research questions, and future suggestions. Your presentation will get good remarks by following this structure of thesis defense.

2. Identify the Presentation Theme

You might be having difficulties making a presentation on a history thesis. Defining a minimalist theme can help maintain a consistent template design. You can add relevant shapes, headings, elements, pictures, and colors to the template.

Once you have defined the theme, choose elements and graphs that best fit there. Also, use designs that show the history, evolution, chronology, and map description. Add theme-related videos or statistical information to give your slides a professional look.

3. Choose Ideas to Emphasize

In your thesis defense, you have to emphasize certain key findings. For this purpose, you can use different visual aids, like checkboxes, maps, and tables. If your thesis is on climate change, you can show your ideas on pollution using infographics.

The use of infographics will convey a complex term in easier words to your targeted audience. Moreover, you should use different soft colors to differentiate and emphasize concepts.  

4. Visualize Statistical Data

Emphasize your findings by visualizing your statistical data using charts and graphs. In a certain case, you would have collected a bunch of survey responses on a medical condition. Consequently, you can show your result analysis with the help of test-run infographics and pie charts.

Make sure that graphs and shapes are labeled with clear units and instructions. This way, your audience will comprehend the content of your thesis. Plus, using infographics can make the audience remember your study's facts.

5. Consistent Design 

To maintain consistency, you must keep certain things in mind while editing slides. Ensure your font size, graphics, layout design, and colors remain the same. Keep your template layout consistent, as it provides visual harmony in presentations.

Avoid overly detailed slides as they distract your listeners from the research. To achieve it, you should maintain equal white spacing between text and objects in the slides.  

6. Professional Font and Formatting

You should focus on the thesis defense PPT formatting because it carries certain grade points. For example, social science research uses APA style and deducts marks without such formatting. They consider standard font sizes of 12-14 with Times New Roman or Calibri fonts.

Proper formatting makes it more professional and readable to the audience. Thus, consistent alignment and spacing make the text accessible for backbencher participants.

7. Summary Slide or Citation Slide

In the ending slides, it makes a good impression on the audience to include a summary slide. It has been discovered that students struggle in writing down the citations in the ending slides. To make the perfect ending slides, you can highlight the key points of your thesis.

Make sure you write down your references with proper alignment, separate lines, and the same font size. These last slides are the key takeaways of your thesis presentation, which provide clarity.

Part 2. 10 Best Thesis Defense Presentations Templates

Research work in every field is a complex and time-consuming process. The presentation of the research proves boring for most of the listeners. Therefore, making a captivating presentation is demanding in almost all fields. For this purpose, you can access thesis defense PowerPoint templates to save resources. 

1. Professional Thesis PowerPoint Templates

This thesis defense presentation sample is designed to showcase your final research. It offers a comprehensive 22 slides with a creative layout to engage your audience. This PPT template includes elements such as diagrams, charts, and graphics. It covers all aspects of your thesis, from the introduction to the conclusion.

It provides options to customize backgrounds, color themes, icons, and objects. The structure of the template helps present research findings in a logical flow. Plus, find certain infographics that include factual data and evidence. The template is compatible with different presentation software such as PowerPoint. It also follows a modern 16:9 aspect ratio.

2. Master’s Thesis Defense Free PowerPoint Template Design

As the name suggests, this template is used in Master’s dissertation presentations. With 28 slides, it offers guidance on creating concise but impactful presentations. This is a reliable template for performing quantitative research and adding results. You will find customizable slides to insert your content and images.

The sample master's thesis defense presentation PPT includes images and a widescreen layout. You can access unlimited theme colors to match your brand's voice. It features vector objects and icons and offers over 110 pre-made theme colors.

3. Minimalist Thesis Defense

People often prioritize simplicity and focus on concepts when it comes to architecture. With over 30 pre-made slides, you can maintain the layout and customize colors and fonts. The template provides a wide selection of charts, frames, lines, and shapes for the content. Moreover, it offers an image placeholder slide to add a picture of a thousand words.

This template is compatible with Google Slides, PowerPoint, and Canva. By using this template in Canva, you can find resources for graphics, icons, and images. Users can perform brand customization and add animations and emojis to the slides.

4. Pestel Analysis Thesis Defense Presentation

Business students can get help from this template to show strategic planning. Through this thesis defense PowerPoint template , you can easily assess all external factors affecting businesses. This creative design features many colorful geometric illustrations on a clean white background. It includes editable elements like graphs, maps, tables, timelines, and mockups.

Moreover, there are bar charts and global maps to highlight important locations. One of the slides offers a colorful table that shows monthly tasks and schedules. Toward the end, users get to over 500 icons in ending slides to extend the template.

5. Black Doodle Thesis Defense

This template can be used in the textile industry to validate your thesis research. With the help of such a template, textile professionals can share thesis findings. It is customizable, having a black doodle background. You can find it in 10 simple slides, avoiding clutters and grabbing attention to the contents.

The slides have editable features where you can edit photos and change colors. Its graphics let you duplicate, delete, or place them in your desired place. After compiling, this thesis defense PowerPoint template allows you to download it in various formats.

6. Engineering Thesis Defense PowerPoint Template

This template fulfills the necessity of engineers in making their thesis and research. The template comprises 42 slides in HD quality. Its first slide holds the audience's attention with machine gears and compelling visuals. These slides have editable graphics, mockups, charts, and maps to impress your audience.

It shows a user-friendly interface and compatibility with other software. You can also add a timeline to highlight the differences following the years. Moreover, there are global maps and other infographics to represent statistical data.

7. Economic Thesis Presentation

In business administration, researchers have dealt with numerical data sets. This thesis defense presentation sample proves fruitful in turning their challenging process into a breeze. Its dynamic design, structure, and layout let users justify their findings. These 37 modern illustrations are available in 6 pre-designed optimistic colors.

The elements and graphics are related to economics with an option of adjustment. Also, weekly schedule tables and methodology tables display factual data. Furthermore, it provides users with additional icons to customize the slides further.

8. Blue and Yellow Colorful Geometric Thesis Defense Presentation

Unlike its name, each slide of this template contains different color combinations. Mathematicians and physicists can use this template to make their complex concepts digestible. These slides are 10 in number with full customization features. The robotics elements in the template give a 3D effect and get viewers absorbed in it.

You can further alter the color, font, and size of this template according to your needs. Moreover, it allows you to perform both qualitative and quantitative research types. Conclusively, you can find these slides to be concise yet effective for explaining important concepts.

9. Sample PPT For Thesis Defense PowerPoint Presentation Slides

It's very important to impress clients and authorities for marketing thesis defense. This compelling sample master thesis defense presentation PPT free download plays a vital role in boosting the marketing process. The template comprises 34 slides and has well-researched content on important defense topics. It includes all the necessary layouts, icons, and graphs with easy customization.

Moreover, you can show statistical analysis using columns and pie charts. It provides pre-made additional slides for introducing your team in the ending slides. Also, there are tables of different layouts to explain future suggestions and references of the study.

10. Beige and Brown Scrapbook Thesis Defense Presentation

Fine art students can use this template in the form of a scrapbook. All 10 slides of this presentation are designed creatively to fulfill the needs of artists. Mainly, it combines beige and brown colors with different layouts on each slide. This clutter-free template allows you to insert the main information and draw the viewer’s attention.

Moreover, it allows users to add a picture with a proper description, eliminating confusion. You can add your study objectives by inserting relevant pictures. Afterward, the study implementation can be showcased by navigating arrows and circles.

Part 3. The Most Powerful AI Tool to Create, Customize, Record, or Live Stream Thesis Defense Presentations

Students and researchers need a thesis defense presentation template to display their findings. The thesis defense presentation is not limited to inputting data in certain templates. Instead, researchers also require visually compelling slides to engage their audience. This leads to a stage where Wondershare Presentory enters as a lifesaver.

It is the most powerful AI presentation tool to help you present your research. People might get confused about understanding difficult concepts without a proper description. Unlike other platforms, it lets you present on streaming forums along with your slides. With this tool, connect on popular platforms and present slides with your video.

Free Download Free Download Try It Online

Highlighting Features of Wondershare Presentory

• Polished Templates: This tool provides you with high-quality, stunning templates. In addition, you can modify text formatting in slides as per the style for the thesis. Users can also import your thesis defense PowerPoint template and enhance its visual appeal. It offers multiple text styles and allows you to add stickers, characters, and numbers to your PPTs.
• Recording and Live Streaming: It allows you to record videos for educational and other explanatory purposes. This recording can be shared over the globe via a link that promotes active learning. Plus, you can live stream on popular platforms like Zoom and Google Meet. Also, it can enhance your facial features and remove blemishes during presentations.
• Teleprompter: You might get confused and forget the statistical results while presenting. This AI tool provides a teleprompter that enables you to display your script in front of you. Presenters can adjust the size of the text and teleprompter’s position on the screen. The opacity settings in that section allow you to adjust the text, color, and alignment.
• Rich Resources: You can enhance your slides' quality with this AI tool's rich resources. Using animations and transitions will elevate the visual appeal of your presentation. Moreover, users can define the order of animation actions on various objects. Also, it allows you to modify the slide background with classical indoor and gradient colors.

In summary, a well-structured presentation leaves a positive impact on listeners. Thus, you should use templates for consistent themes and visual data representation. It is important to maintain professional font and formatting in thesis defense slides. That's why we have shed light on the top 10 sample master thesis defense presentation PPT .

Apart from using templates, a successful thesis defense also requires good content delivery. For this purpose, you can use Wondershare Presentory, an innovative AI tool. Presenters can confidently explain their research using its teleprompter feature. Moreover, authors can present their findings using its live-streaming option.

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Swath and Dive: A pattern for PhD defense presentations

In recent times I’m having the fortune of seeing several of my own doctoral students approach the end of the doctoral journey (yes, it does end!). As they submit the dissertation and prepare for their defense, there is one piece of advice I find myself giving again and again, about how to tackle the impossible task of presenting multiple years of research work in less than one hour. In this post, I describe a “presentation design pattern” for thesis defenses, which builds upon classic conceptualization exercises advocated in the blog. I also illustrate it with an example from my own thesis defense presentation, more than ten years ago (gasp!).

I still vividly remember when I had to prepare my defense presentation, how I tried to shoehorn tons of concepts into an impossibly small number of slides… which still were too many for the 45-minute talk I was supposed to give at the defense. After several rehearsals (with an audience!) and lots of feedback from my colleagues and advisors, I finally stumbled upon a solution. Later on, I have found that a similar structure was also helpful to other doctoral students preparing their defenses.

The rest of the post takes the form of a presentation design pattern , i.e., a description of “a problem that occurs over and over again in our environment, and […] the core of the solution to that problem, in such a way that you can use this solution a million times over, without ever doing it the same way twice." 1 (a concept originally proposed in architecture, and later used in software engineering, pedagogy and many other fields). I have called this pattern Swath and Dive (for reasons that will become obvious in a minute).

The context: when is this pattern applicable?

When you have to prepare an oral presentation for a doctoral dissertation defense. This pattern is especially helpful if the research is a bit complicated (e.g., composed of multiple contributions , multiple studies, or using multiple research methods) and it is not obvious what contents to include/exclude from the presentation.

What is the problem? What forces are at play?

The main problem this pattern tries to solve is the seeming impossibility of showing 3+ years of research work in less than one hour. While time restrictions and structure for the defense are different in different countries, typically 25-60 minutes are allocated for the presentation. This limited time is a key force at play, but there are others as well:

• The sheer volume of a thesis dissertation’s contents (typically, a 100-500 pages document), which itself is a condensation of years of hard research work.
• Defending PhD students need to prove to the jury that they are now competent, independent researchers (i.e., they master the literature of their topic, are able to apply a research methodology and think critically about the results ).
• The varying levels of expertise and familiarity of the jury members with the concrete thesis topic.
• The varying levels of knowledge that jury members have of the dissertation materials (i.e., did they read the dissertation document in full? with what level of attention?). While all members are supposed to have read the document, in practice there is a lot of heterogeneity in compliance.

The typical end product of these forces is what I call the “skimming” approach to the defense presentation (see picture below): The presentation provides only a very high level overview of the main elements of the dissertation document (sort of like a table of contents). More often than not, too much time is spent in the introductory and related literature parts of the presentation (which are somehow “safe”, less likely to be criticized – another instance of avoidance at work in the PhD ), and time runs out when the student is getting to the really interesting part for the jury (the student’s own work). This approach of course has the critical flaw of not showcasing enough of the student’s own abilities and research outcomes.

Skimming: A typical approach to selecting thesis defense content

How to avoid “skimming” your dissertation? Enter Swath and Dive .

The solution: Swath and Dive

What I propose in this pattern is to structure the presentation in a different way, a way that tries to balance the need for an overview of the dissertation and (at least some of) the richness of the investigation and the hard work the student has put behind it. The proposed structure goes like this:

A swath is “a long broad strip or belt” of grass, often left by a scythe or a lawnmower. In the context of a dissertation defense presentation, this is where the student gives the overview of the main elements of the thesis: key related scientific literature , main research questions , contributions to knowledge the dissertation makes, etc. Long-time readers of the blog will recognize these key elements as the components of the CQOCE diagram , one of the key reflection exercises in the “Happy PhD Toolkit” to (iteratively) understand and discuss with supervisors the overall view of the thesis. Aside from those key elements, probably some notes about the research methodology followed (which are not part of the canonical CQOCE diagram exercise) will also be needed.

In a sense, the Swath is not so different from the typical “skimming” mentioned above. There are several crucial differences, however: 1) when developing the Swath , we need to keep in mind that this is only a part (say, 50%) of the presentation time/length/slides; 2) the Swath should give equal importance to all its key elements (e.g., avoiding too much time on the literature context of the thesis, and making the necessary time for the student’s own research questions, contributions and studies); and 3) the Swath does not need to follow the chapter structure of the dissertation manuscript, rather focusing on the aforementioned key elements (although scattering pointers to the relevant chapters will help orient the jury members who read the dissertation).

Then, within this high-level Swath describing the dissertation, when we mention a particular contribution or study, it is time to do…

This part of the presentation is where the student selects one study or finding of the thesis and zooms in to describe the nitty-gritty details of the evidence the student gathered and analyzed (if it is empirical research), how that was done, and what findings came out of such analysis. The goal here is to help the audience trace at least one of those high-level, abstract elements, all the way down to (some) particular pieces of the raw data, the evidence used to form them.

How to select which part to Dive into? That is a bit up to the student and the particular dissertation. The student can select the main contribution of the dissertation, the most surprising finding, the largest or most impressive study within the work, or the coolest, most novel, or most difficult research method that was used during the dissertation process (e.g., to showcase how skillfully and systematically it was used). The student should give all the steps of the logic leading from low-level evidence to high-level elements – or as much as possible within the time constraints of the presentation (say, 30% of the total length/time/slides).

An essential coda: Limitations and Future Work

Although this didn’t make it to the title of the pattern, I believe it is crucially important to keep in mind another element in any good defense presentation: the limitations of the student’s research work, and the new avenues for research that the dissertation opens. These two areas are often neglected in crafting the defense presentation, maybe with a single slide just copy-pasting a few ideas from the dissertation manuscript (which were themselves hastily written when the student was exhausted and rushing to finish the whole thing). Yet, if the student convinced the jury of her basic research competence and knowledge during the Swath and Dive part, a big part of the jury questions and discussion will focus on these apparently trivial sections.

When doing the limitations, the student should gloss over the obvious (e.g., sample could have been bigger, there are questions about the generalizability of results) and think a bit deeper about alternative explanations that cannot be entirely ruled out, debatable aspects of the methodology followed… squeeze your brain (and ask your supervisors/colleagues) to brainstorm as many ideas as possible, and select the most juicy ones. For future work, also go beyond the obvious and think big : if someone gave you one million dollars (or 10 million!), what cool new studies could continue the path you opened? what new methods could be applied? what experts would you bring from other disciplines to understand the phenomenon from a different perspective? what other phenomena could be studied in the same way as you did this one? Try to close the presentation with a vision of the brighter future that this research might unleash upon the world.

Swath and Dive: a different way of structuring your defense presentation

To understand how this pattern could look like, I can point you to my own thesis defense presentation, which is still available online . This is not because the presentation is perfect in any way, or even a good example (viewing it today I find it overcomplicated, and people complained of motion sickness due to its fast pace and Prezi’s presentation metaphor of moving along an infinite canvas)… but at least it will give you a concrete idea of what I described in abstract terms above.

If you play the presentation , you will notice that the first few slides (frames 1-6) just lay out the main construct the dissertation focuses on (“orchestration”), the structure of the presentation and its mapping to dissertation chapters. Then, the bulk of the presentation (frames 7-117) goes over the main elements of the dissertation according to the CQOCE diagram , i.e., the Swath part of the pattern. Within this high-level view of the dissertation, I inserted a short detour on the research methodology followed (frames 25-28) and, more importantly, several Dives into specific findings and the evidence behind them (frames 43-48, 66-72, and 99-112). Then, frames 118-136 provide the conclusive coda that includes the future work (but not the limitations, which were peppered through the Swath part of the presentation – a dubious choice, if you ask me today).

Variations and related patterns

As you can see from the example above, one does not need to follow the canonical version of Swath and Dive (mine is rather Swath and Three Dives ). Yet, paraphrasing Alexander, that is the point of the pattern: to have the core of the idea, which you can use to produce a million different solutions, tailored to your particular context and subject matter.

It is also important to realize that this structuring pattern for thesis defense presentations does not invalidate (rather, complements) other advice on preparing scientific presentations 2 , 3 , 4 and thesis defenses more specifically 5 . It is all very sound advice! For instance, once you have the structure of your Swath and Dive defense presentation, you could use the NABC technique to ensure that the Need, Approach, Benefits and Competition of each of your knowledge contributions are adequately emphasized. And you can rehearse intensively, and with an audience able to come up with nasty questions. And so on…

May you defend your thesis broadly and deeply!

Do you know other defense presentation structures that work really well in your discipline? Have you used Swath and Dive in your own defense successfully? Let us know (and share your examples) in the comments area below! (or leave a voice message)

Header image by DALL-E

Alexander, C., Ishikawa, S., & Silverstein, M. (1977). A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction (Vol. 2). Oxford University Press. ↩︎

Carter, M. (2013). Designing science presentations: A visual guide to figures, papers, slides, posters, and more (First edition). Elsevier/Academic Press. ↩︎

Anholt, R. R. H. (2009). Dazzle ’Em with Style: The Art of Oral Scientific Presentation (2nd ed). Elsevier, Ebsco Publishing [distributor]. ↩︎

Alley, M. (2013). The craft of scientific presentations: Critical steps to succeed and critical errors to avoid (Second edition). Springer. ↩︎

Davis, M., Davis, K. J., & Dunagan, M. M. (2012). Scientific papers and presentations (Third edition). Elsevier/Academic Press. ↩︎

• Dissertation
• Communication

Luis P. Prieto

Luis P. is a Ramón y Cajal research fellow at the University of Valladolid (Spain), investigating learning technologies, especially learning analytics. He is also an avid learner about doctoral education and supervision, and he's the main author at the A Happy PhD blog.

Google Scholar profile

The Ultimate Guide to Preparing Your PhD Dissertation Defense Presentation

January 12, 2023

Chances are, you’ve been waiting years for this moment: preparing your PhD dissertation defense.

You’ve made it this far in your doctorate journey, so you’ll really want to nail the final thing standing between you and your PhD.

We’ll break down everything you need to know, from what the dissertation defense is to how to prepare and more importantly, succeed.

Here’s our ultimate guide for preparing for your PhD dissertation defense.

What Is a PhD Dissertation Defense Presentation?

A PhD dissertation defense is your chance to defend your work in front of the academics analyzing your research. You might also hear this called a “thesis defense.” 

Although the thought of having experts critique you in a cross-examination setting, a dissertation defense is just an opportunity for you to show off your best work .

What Is a PhD Dissertation Committee?

A PhD dissertation committee is a group you assemble to guide you through the dissertation process, from preparation to the revision of your dissertation. 

You choose the members of the committee after all the academic work is finalized. Usually, members will be trusted faculty — people you know well who you might consider a mentor. 

How to Prepare for Your PhD Dissertation Defense Presentation

Preparing for your PhD dissertation defense doesn’t have to be stressful. 

Try using Yoodli , an AI-powered speech coach that analyzes your speaking patterns and identifies areas in which you can improve. By practicing your dissertation defense presentation through Yoodli, you’ll be able to not only improve your speaking, but boost your confidence as well. 

For example, you can take an in-depth look at the filler words you use, including which ones come up the most often and precisely how often they come up.

Here are three more tips for preparing your PhD dissertation defense.

1. Don’t wait around.

One of the best things you can do for yourself when preparing your PhD dissertation defense is to start the work early. You won’t regret starting “too early” like you would regret starting the preparation too late in the game. 

Designing your presentation slides will take time and isn’t something you can slap together in a pinch. Right after your thesis is finalized, start on the slides. Your aim is to impress the committee with a thought-out, clear presentation that presents your work in a good light.

2. Practice, practice, practice.

It doesn’t matter how confident or comfortable you are with regard to your work and the actual PhD dissertation defense — you need to practice like your life depends on it. 

Be sure to practice not only the presentation, but also your body language, like hand gestures . You don’t want to seem too stiff or anxious during your dissertation defense, and practicing all these elements at once gives you an idea of what you need to work on. 

You’ll also want to work on your tone, to make sure you don’t come off as sounding monotonic . You want the committee members to feel interested and engaged. 

Taking one of Yoodli’s free public speaking courses — such as the fundamentals of public speaking — can also build on your confidence and make you feel more comfortable during the dissertation defense. 

Check out Yoodli’s 10-minute course here:

3. Check out other candidates’ presentations.

Sometimes, universities will offer open PhD dissertation defense presentations. If your university is one of them, it’s a great idea to attend a few . If your university doesn’t offer open dissertation presentations, check out other local universities that might offer these.

Watching other candidates’ presentations can help you not only get a firsthand look at how a presentation should (or shouldn’t!) go, but also to affirm that dissertation defense presentations aren’t as awful and scary as you might think they are. You might even get some insight or a few ideas for your own presentation while you’re at it.

The Bottom Line

Preparing for your PhD dissertation defense presentation doesn’t have to be overwhelming. After all, it’s all part of your doctorate journey . With preparation and practice, you can use this opportunity to shine and show off your best work. 

Start practicing with Yoodli.

Getting better at speaking is getting easier. Record or upload a speech and let our AI Speech Coach analyze your speaking and give you feedback.

PhD Dissertation PowerPoint Template

The PhD Dissertation PowerPoint Template provides a professional structure and layouts designed for dissertation presentations. A dissertation is the work submitted to support the conclusion of an academic degree or professional qualification, presenting the author’s research and findings in an area of study. The PhD Dissertation PowerPoint Template is designed as an academic presentation slide deck where the PhDc will compile it work in a supporting document of their message.

The educational PowerPoint template of PhD dissertation contains 9 slides, with diagrams, charts, and shapes for describing your research and thesis. These PowerPoint templates will help prepare a compelling dissertation defense. The comprehensive slide deck of dissertation covers a structured approach of documentation. All the diagrams and data charts will be useful for documenting a PhD dissertation following the traditional sections structure:

• Abstract – Discuss the abstract model of what you are trying to prove. Implemented as a Text slide with abstract background graphics
• Introduction – A background of work, basic terminologies, and problem description. The layout is created as an Hexagon picture including placeholders and the dissertation presentation agenda theme.
• Literature Review – Discuss related work, analysis, and interpretation. Designed as 4 segments with infographic icons to discuss thesis literature.
• Methodology – Describe the methodology used in your research. You can use the 4 steps curved timeline diagram for the research model.
• Research Findings – It involves proof of model, type of study and tools to gather supporting data. Magnifying glass 4 steps puzzle diagram research metaphor
• Results – Data collected from various sources and analysis for proof of thesis. Custom stacked data-driven chart template for reports
• Discussion – 4 sections to display presentation discussion points
• Conclusion – 6 sections for research questions, answers, contribution, and future work

Every dissertation has its specifics, but this structure will help you diagram your presentation, following best practices. You will be able to tell your dissertation story in a compelling way, which will engage your audience.

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We know how much work involves completing a thesis, and that is why it is also important that you get to impress the committee when making your final presentation. If you are looking for something simple but at the same time formal, take a look at this proposal from Slidesgo. With a beige background and waves and geometric shapes, it mixes illustrations and photos to make your exhibition more entertaining. It includes schedules, tables and graphs that you can easily edit.

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PhD Dissertation Defense Slides Design: Additional Resources

• Tips for designing the slides
• Presentation checklist
• Example slides
• Additional Resources

Video resources

• Presentation Skills - CMU GCC
• Design Effective PowerPoint Slides - Part I
• Design Effective PowerPoint Slides - Part II
• THE “SNAKE FIGHT” PORTION OF YOUR THESIS DEFENSE
• << Previous: Example slides
• Last Updated: Jan 9, 2024 11:18 AM
• URL: https://guides.library.cmu.edu/c.php?g=883178