Composing your Pitch
Write for your audience One of the judging criteria looks for evidence that you can explain your research to a non-specialist audience. To do this you may like to: – Avoid jargon and academic language; – Explain concepts and people important to your research (you may know all about Professor Smith’s theories but your audience may not); – Highlight the outcomes of your research, and the impact it will have; – Imagine that you are explaining your research to a close friend or fellow student from another field; and – Do not devalue your research, what you are doing is exciting and you should convey enthusiasm for your subject.
Tell a story You may like to present your 3MT like a story, with a beginning, middle and an end. It’s not easy to condense your research into three minutes, so you may find it easier to break your presentation down into smaller sections. Try writing an opener to catch their attention, then highlight your different points, and finally have a summary to restate the importance of your work.
Have a clear outcome in mind Know what you want your audience to take away from your presentation. Ideally, you would like the audience to leave with an understanding of what you’re doing, why it is important and what you hope to achieve.
Do not write your presentation like an academic paper. Try to use shorter words, shorter sentences and shorter paragraphs. You can use humor, however be careful not to devalue your presentation. Revise Proof your 3MT presentation by reading it aloud, to yourself and to an audience of friends and family. This allows you to not only check your style, but it will allow you to receive critical feedback. Ask your practice audience if your presentation clearly highlights what your research is and why it is important.
Designing Your Slide: Your Single Slide
Using a slide as part of your presentation is optional. If using a slide, before you start work on it, you should take the following rules into account: – just a single static slide is permitted; – no slide transitions, animations or ‘movement’ of any description are permitted; and – no additional electronic media (e.g. sound and video files) are permitted. An engaging visual presentation can make or break any oration, so you want your slide to be legible, clear and concise. You will be displayed side by side with your slide when making your live pitch during the competition.
If incorporating an image please use a raster effect (size) of 72 ppi (pixels/inch). This is the standard resolution for viewing an image on a screen. Doing so will help assure that all slides load quickly during the presentation.
Important slide design aspects to keep in mind
- Do not rely on your slide to convey your message - it should simply complement your spoken oration. Text and complicated graphics can distract your audience.
- Think about how your slide might be able to assist with the format and delivery of your presentation. Is there a metaphor that helps explain your research?
- It is strongly recommended to keep the slide simple! Your 3MT slide is not a poster presentation. Do not use complex composites. Make the image as big as possible, and, if possible, do not include text. Ideally, the only text is the title of the slide, but the image, not the title should dominate the slide.
- Less is more
- Show us what's most important
- Keep it visual
- Use visual hierarchy
- The focus is on the presenter's speech, which should be informative and comprehensible to a lay audience - even without a slide.
To make your slide accessible for viewers using screen readers, here are the instructions:
Make Your Document Or Presentation More Accessible
Practice Tips/Additional Resources
Add Headings and they will appear in your table of contents.
The following tips have come from past participants and winners:
You might record and preview yourself many times.
Solicit feedback from different audiences: practice live or on Zoom with friends, your advisor, your family.
Less is sometimes more. Consider giving less information and more time to explain. Breath.
Practice speed talking through your presentation. This will help you discover where your "hiccups" may occur.
Practice your transitions, especially the last sentence of one paragraph and the first sentence of the next. Your mouth will form muscle memory that will help you keep moving forward.
Practice your speech in other settings as you are doing other activities.
Recite your pitch as you prepare to sleep at night.
Script out your movements and your pauses.