Report Oral guidelines There is not much time to speak during the oral report; I nd it a good idea to focus on one or two of your most interesting topics rather than rush through a comprehensive presentation of your entire report. Do not worry if these elements are not statisticalthe main reason for an oral report is not to demonstrate your statistical prowess, but to obtain practice conveying technical information. Having said that you should concentrate on only one or two topics, take care that you do not spend too much time on these elements. In the past, I have recommended specic elements of their reports for students to discuss. Almost invariably, students go into too much detail on these elements and end up exceeding their time limit. Usually I get the blame for having encouraged them to discuss a topic in detail. Be aware that a short time limit has to be enforced in order that all students have the opportunity to present their talks. John Spurriers referenced page has a lengthy list of dos and donts. The mechanical mistakes I commonly observe in a short presentation mostly involve a failure to engage the audience. Students like to address the overhead projector, talk to the screen, stare out into middle distance, stare at a corner of the roomanything but talk to the audience. Some of these problem can be addressed through adequate practice; students often seem surprised or are caught unaware by their PowerPoint slides. This is a good sign you needed at least one more practice session. You can refer to your overheads or note cards as a reminder, but be sure step to away from the overhead and talk directly to your classmates. In addition, idiosyncrasies that are acceptable for a long lecture should probably be avoided for a short talkdont put your hands in your pockets, balance on the outside edges of your shoes, hold your hands behind your back, rock back and forth, etc. Make sure everyone in your group speaks. I sometimes neglect to mention this in class and nd that a group member is not scheduled to speak, particularly in a large group. I want everyone in the class to have an opportunity to practice oral presentations. The amount of information on any single overhead should be minimal. Copying an entire page of computer output directly to an overhead is never eective; pull out the relevant information only and reproduce it using a large font. Be sure to trust your graphics and your text. If you have put alot of work on the slides, you need to let the slides do your work for youdo not ov...