Reporting Presenting

Defending

Reporting
Although this chapter is placed at the end, it does not
mean that you should consider the writing of your report
as the last step in your project.
Writing should be considered a continuous process,
carried out throughout the duration of the project. Why?
It represents the means for disseminating results and
experiences to other people (it is also a proof of project
existence).
An excellent way of structuring your thoughts.

Therefore, writing during the different stages of your

project helps you to keep the focus in the project.

Reporting
When you proofread your writing you should ask
yourself, Have I said what I wanted to say?
The best researchers spend significant time making sure
their presentation is excellent, often rewriting sentences
and paragraphs numerous times before they are
satisfied.
Poor writing will undermine your authority in the readers
eyes, and good writing will strengthen it.
However, remember that you should always write to be
understood, not to impress!

Reporting
Who is the Report for?

We strongly suggest that you write down a list of who your reader groups are,
and what you think they require from the report.

Requirements of the Report

Concise. Delete unnecessary redundancy in your report omit needless words,

phrases and paragraphs.
Focused. Only include things that are explicitly related to your project, and which
are necessary in order to understand and evaluate your work.
Clear. Avoid unnecessarily complicated terminology, and write at a level you are
comfortable with.
Properly typeset. If you are familiar with general rules and guidelines for
typographical typesetting and formatting, you might consider individualizing the
typesetting of your report. If not, we strongly recommend that you use already
developed templates.
Well structured. Order the contents of your report in such a way that it reads well
and the reader knows where to find things.
Well written. The report should contain no spelling, grammatical or other
language errors.

Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Motivation
1.2 Problem Statement
1.3 Scope
1.4 Objective
1.5 Benefit
1.6 Proposed Approach
1.7 Thesis Overview

Chapter 2: Theory Perspective

Should be Literature Review
The main problem comes first
Advanced preliminaries and/or theoretical part
of solution
Use most of the references
Do not only (copy and) paste a book chapter
Ignore the tools description or manual, but
how to relate them

Chapter 3: Analysis and Development

Approach and Method(s)
Approach Requirements
Only the necessary requirements
Input? Process? Output? Software? Hardware?
Implementation Scope

How to solve the problem

Algorithm
Flowchart
Data Flow Diagram
Use Case
Hierarchy plus Input-Process-Output
Method(s) implementation

Chapter 4: Result and Discussions

Result of each process of input
Discussions
Output explanation
Comparison to other results
Comparison to conventional approach
Summary of the works

Chapter 5: Conclusions and Future Works

As Reminded before

Abstract, References, Appendix

Abstract is a synopsis without keywords
References is better sorted alphabetically
Sure name comes first
Samples? >> (open file)

Appendix is only additional page, and if

utilized, it is supposed to be referred.
Figure
Data
Etc.

Oral Presentation
One of the main difficulties with planning a good
oral presentation is how to find the right balance
between
(1) including enough detail to make the project
understandable to the audience, and
(2) not including so much detail that the presentation
fails to fit within the time assigned for it

A good oral presentation is characterized by

being clear, to the point, interesting, and, of
course, inspiring.

Slide Preparation

20 minutes presentation
Maximum 2 minutes per slide

Slide Preparation
Slide Guidelines
Layout. Try to use a consistent layout on all (or most) of your
slides.
Font size. One of the worst mistakes is to use a font that is so
small that the audience cannot read the slide.
Portrait or landscape orientation. Which orientation is most
suitable will depend on the content of the slide.
Language. Use short expressions. Instead of the sentence
The evaluation of the implemented method shows that it was
22% slower than the current standard method, write
something like Implemented method 22% slower than
standard.

Emphasis. Sometimes, having a lot of text on a slide is

unavoidable, for example when showing quotes. Bold or
Underline it.
Figures. To help the audience interpret what you are saying,
make use of visualization techniques instead of relying just on
text.
Number of words. Handbooks on how to make presentations
will give you different advice on approximately how many
words you can have on each slide.
Numbering of slides. Put a small slide number in the lower
right hand corner of each slide.
Use of headings. It helps the clarity of your presentation if
each slide has a short heading, showing to which part of the
presentation it belongs.
Tool use. You are an Informatics Student
Notes or manuscript. Think beforehand about what to say.
Only for practicing.

Presenting
Guidelines
Talk to the audience. Avoid talking to the floor, to the wall or to
the projector screen.
Show the slides properly. Avoid showing a slide for just a second
or two before going on to the next one.
Explain things. For each slide you have to explain clearly to the
audience what it shows.
Avoid reading word by word from the slide.
Keep an eye on the time. Use your allocated time well.
Monitor the tempo. Do not talk too fast, or too slowly.
Use a glass of water.
Do not block the view.
Use a pointing device.

Question Handling

Be as clear as possible in your replies.

Clarify the question if necessary.
Do not take criticism personally.
Get your point across.
Do not try to avoid answering the question.
Do not brush off the question as irrelevant.
Do not retaliate.
Prepare for the Best, Ready for the Worst.

If You want to be a defender,

try to understand how to be an
attacker

Some things that just not do [1]

You avoid having meetings with your supervisor and keeping the
supervisor up to date on the current status of your project,
particularly in those phases of your project where communication
is crucial to its outcome. Further, you do not inform your
supervisor that the project is getting behind schedule.
You give only brief responses, e.g. it is under control, just fine
to your supervisor when asked how the project is coming along.
In the worst case, after a long period of time you go to your
supervisor and say nothing is working any more I dont know
what to do
You miss scheduled meetings without previously informing your
supervisor.
You consult friends and other students, asking for their advice on
important matters, rather than consulting your supervisor.
You have an excessive use of different terms with the same
meaning in your discussions, report, and presentation just to
have variation.

Some things that just not do [2]

You develop a solution/implementation etc. first, then define a
problem that fits what you have developed. When writing the
literature analysis, you enthusiastically document the process
and any adventures experienced when searching for related
literature in the library.
You ask your supervisor, at short notice, for detailed comments
on a lengthy report, and require feedback within a day or two.
You hand in reports that have severe presentation problems, e.g.
bad grammar and spelling, due to the fact that your reports have
not been proofread.
You hand in revised versions of your report without marking
changes made in the document since its previous version.
You present failed projects as being a consequence of failure on
your supervisors part (while successful projects are, of course,
always due to your own brilliant effort as a student).

Simple writing sample