PG Week: Communicating Complex Research at the Symposium

If you are presenting at the PG Symposium on Friday, you’re probably busy memorising your main talking points, finalising your slides, and rehearsing in front of the mirror.

You may also be thinking about who your audience will be, and how to talk about your research in a way that will appeal to experts and laypeople alike.

At last year’s Symposium, we asked some of the presenters for their tips on communicating complex research at a non-specialist event. Here’s what they had to say:

As you finish your preparation, there are a few things you may like to do:

  • Check the PG Symposium Programme to make sure you know where and when your presentation will be held
  • Visit the room you’ll present in, if you can, to familiarise yourself with the layout
  • Read this Thesislink post about how to beat presentation stage fright
  • View our YouTube playlist of previous years’ PG Symposium talks to see how other students have tackled the task of presenting their work

What’s coming up tomorrow?

Thursday is all about connecting with others. There will be a Gender & Diversity panel from 10:30am – 12noon in WU524. Come along to hear the student panellists discuss their work at the Gender & Diversity Research Group. More information is available here. There’s also an open meeting of the NZ Scholars and ASEAN Students Peer Mentoring Group at 1:30pm in WF711. Check out the flyer for details.

About Anaise Irvine

Dr Anaise Irvine is the Editor of Thesislink and leads the Researcher Education and Development team at Auckland University of Technology. Her PhD research analysed how contemporary films and novels represent genetic engineering as a social justice issue. These days she works with researchers at all levels to improve their research skills, and the most obscure of her own research skills is being able to turn novels into phylogenetic trees!

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