The American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ABOG) provides certifications to obstetricians and gynaecologists in Canada and the US. Such specialists aim higher and advance their knowledge, judgement, and skills related to the field. In this regard, clinical research and ABOG thesis defence continue to be important parts. They help make impressive advances to improve women’s health. As a result, scientists can create new diagnostic treatments and imaging techniques for better outcomes for patients.
The most difficult aspect of writing a thesis is its defence on the final day. For instance, the scariest aspect is the possibility of being asked a question that you don’t know. Having a bunch of theses with indefensible claims can’t do more than fill empty bookshelves. So, you must be prepared to tackle the thesis defence challenges such as seminar preparation, topic mystery, making presentations, etc., to prove arguments.
The guide below can help you better prepare your PowerPoint presentation for your thesis defence. Keep reading to gather a list of expert tips.
How to Create Strong PowerPoint for ABOG Thesis Defence?
If you are about to graduate, you must be familiar with the terms “thesis writing” and “thesis defence”. Both of these phases are equally crucial and challenging. For many students who find it burdensome to write a thesis as they are not aware of academic writing technicalities, availing of thesis writing services in the UK can be a wise choice for them. However, to beat the complexity of your thesis defence, you can consider the below tips.
- Choose the promising highlights of your project to be part of your presentation.
- The slide transition should be smooth to ensure the organised delivery of ideas.
- Practice the ABOG thesis defence presentation so that you don’t lose confidence on the day you present it.
- Make use of infographics to enhance the visualisation of text.
- Prepare for the possible questions that the research committee can ask.
- Ensure the coherence of the text.
- Know the room setup and make sure the text is prominent to be visible from a distance to the audience.
- Try to cover the information in 20 slides, highlighting the main section of the paper.
- Don’t overlook your audience while defending the ABOG Thesis.
The better you organise your arguments in the slides, the easier it will become to deliver your intent to the audience. Keep reading to learn the details about how to ace the ABOG thesis defence presentation.
Choose Which Ideas to Present
When making your ABOG thesis defence presentation, make sure that you are not supposed to cover everything on a few slides. It is not possible to write a 300-page dissertation on PowerPoint slides. So, you must focus on the ideas that best illustrate your research findings. Think of the main points and key findings and brainstorm how to craft them on slides in a visually appealing way.
Here are the highlights to keep in mind when choosing the key arguments of your paper.
- Focus on the big picture and leave the details for Q/A session.
- Remember, the total time for defence is 45 minutes, and you will have only 10 minutes per project.
- Don’t saturate your presentation with too much information, data analysis and other related details. You have already written it in your thesis document.
- Use minimal text in slides as the research committee is not interested in reading the long blocks of text.
- Each slide needs to be a cue for discussion. For instance, it should highlight a point that you can discuss in detail while presenting it.
- Narrow down the ideas to statistics and findings.
1. The Slide Transition Must be Smooth and Logical
The smooth transition of your ABOG thesis defence slides is necessary. For instance, it will connect the ideas to remind the reader what you are talking about and what is to come next. It can make a difference in how your audience perceives and retains the information.
The points mentioned below explore the importance of such a transition to ensure that the presentation is informative and engaging.
- It creates a natural flow that allows the audience to follow up the array without feeling disjointed.
- A sudden transition can disturb the audience’s attention, while a smooth transition maintains the flow and increases the likelihood of retaining information.
- It showcases the professionalism and reflects the positivity of the presenter.
In this regard, some phrases can be used for a good transition. Here are a few examples.
- As we have discussed in the previous slides.
- Let’s move on to the….
- Let’s delve into the…
- Considering the previous point.
- Let’s turn our attention to the…
- As we move forward, let’s consider the point…
2. Practice Your Presentation
After spending months writing your thesis and drawing out conclusions, you don’t want your hard work to go to waste. For the effective organisation of your arguments in the final document, you may also acquire assistance with your dissertation from experienced writers. However, practice can be helpful in keeping pace with its good ABOG thesis defence presentation.
No academic panel will be impressed if you stumble through the text or read the lines straight from the slides. You need to be confident so that the committee can agree that you are well aware of what you carried out in an extensive research project.
Find below tips for effective presentation practice:
- Don’t be tempted to memorise the presentation like a speech.
- Pull out the key ideas to practice the presentation.
- You can memorise some visual cueing to remember the key points.
- Instead of reading the whole presentation again and again, just practice the part which is challenging for you.
- You can record yourself while rehearsing to take note of your confidence level and expressions.
3. Incorporate Data Visualisations
For the effective presentation of your arguments in the ABOG thesis defence, the key is the clarity of your expression. The incorporation of visuals can achieve it. People respond well to engaging visuals as they make information easy to grasp. Such visuals can be the original pictures that you captured during data collection and analysis. It may also be the stick graphics that can deliver the information.
Here are the eight common types of infographics that you can use.
- Statistical Infographics: It shows the stats visually appealingly using flow charts and graphs.
- Timeline Infographics: It is the representation of the event in a chronological manner along with the x and y-axis.
- Process Infographics: A unique infographic which is designed to simplify the process.
- Comparison Infographics: It uses charts, graphs or other graphic elements to make comparisons between two contrasting figures.
- Geographic Infographics: It is designed to convey complex geographical concepts comprehensively.
- Hierarchical Infographics: It is designed to present order and ranking in a horizontal or vertical array.
- Interactive Infographics: They accompany some elements of interactivity such as animation to retain and engage the audience’s attention.
- Resume Infographics: It is also called a visual resume to convey your academic excellence via charts, graphs, charts, images, etc.
4. Be Prepared to Answer Questions
As we discussed earlier, one of the challenging parts of the ABOG thesis defence is being asked a question and losing confidence in your answer. This part will project a very bad image in front of the research committee.
Here is what you need to know to tackle the questions being asked.
- Take a look at your thesis and jot down the possible questions that can be asked. This way, you can practice the answer in advance.
- Know which topic you are likely to focus on.
- Attend other defences to get an idea about the questioning style.
- The research committee is there to challenge you. However, you need to be confident in your findings so that you don’t tremble in its delivery.
- You will be on the right track if you remain confident.
5. Maintain Consistency Throughout
Having consistency in your write-up can provide a professional look to your ABOG thesis defence presentation file. It showcases that you have invested time and effort in the good organisation of the arguments. It might be about the consistency of the text meaning and formatting details.
For instance, capitalisation, punctuation, use of numbers, spellings, or overall punctuation must be consistent so that it must not draw the attendance out of the central theme.
Let’s explore some practical tips to achieve it.
- Determine your writing style to reflect your preferences.
- Think of your writing tone as something that will shine throughout your words.
- If you are providing a list of countries, alphabetise them.
- Highlight similar ideas to avoid repetition in your slides.
- Read the text aloud to get an idea of whether the text is consistent.
- Getting feedback can be immensely helpful. A new reader can catch issues that you may have overlooked.
6. Consider the Presentation Room
Remember that the presentation room settings are also noteworthy in the whole process. For instance, if the audience is sitting far away from the ABOG thesis defence presentation board, then the text needs to be bold and in large font. Just listening to your words can’t grant them comprehension of your research topics. You have made a big effort in making those infographics, headings and bullet points.
If you want the audience not to squint at your slides, here are the essential tips.
- Make use of sans-serif font.
- Consider and maintain the contrast ratio of the text.
- Try to use dark text on the light background to make the visualisation prominent.
- Highlight the section in various shapes or simply put it in bold.
7. Avoid More Than Twenty Slides
Many students are concerned about how many slides they should prepare for the ABOG thesis defence. Generally, it depends on the university guidelines or the complexity of your project. Also, it is about the time you are allocated to speak.
To address this confusion, it is better to divide your paper into its major sections.
- Cover Page
- Introduction
- Literature Study
- Methodology
- Findings
- Conclusion
Consider this array and try to cover one aspect per slide. However, each chapter is lengthy and covers all the information on one slide, but try to remain concise. If you are supposed to add multiple slides per section, try to avoid the points that would not put any weight to your arguments. Therefore, it is recommended not to exceed 20 slides except when it is a compulsion.
8. Know Your Audience
The ABOG thesis defence presentation needs to be in a formal environment. The research committee needs to ensure that you have conducted in-depth research to draw the conclusions that you are presenting. A well-prepared presentation will not leave the committee in doubt that you are ready for the next step. Hence, the presentation design is important to ensure the evaluation team that you take the program seriously.
Here are the helpful questions to ask before you put your fingers on the keyboard for making the presentation.
- Who is the audience? (Professor, supervisor, project team, co-supervisors, students).
- What do you want your audience to know after you deliver your words?
- What does your audience already know about your topic?
- Why does the research committee care about this research project?
- What do they expect you to speak about the topic?
How to Dress for ABOG Thesis Defence?
In many universities, there are no hard and fast rules for how to dress up on defence day; you just dress up with dignity and respect. Dress up like you are at a job interview and is supposed to deliver the paper with confidence. In general, students are required to wear a white shirt, black tie, and brown or black leather shoes. Just make sure that your clothing should not be showy from head to toe.
How to Handle Nervousness in ABOG Thesis Defence?
It is perfectly normal to feel stressed and nervous during the presentation. However, you must be able to control your nervousness and present your arguments confidently in front of the research committee. Please keep the below-mentioned useless tips in mind if you don’t want to mess up your thesis presentation.
If you get a chance to sit in the defence, see how others have presented their arguments.
- Keep practising to boost your confidence.
- Get feedback to ensure that you delivered a nervous-free presentation.
- Engage in activities that make you feel calmer, relaxed, and more focused.
- Knowledge is power. So, master the content of your presentation.
- Keep your slides simple so that they do not confuse the listeners.
How to Introduce Yourself in ABOG Thesis Defence?
To start a thesis defence presentation, here are some effective tips for you.
- Introduce yourself with an appropriate language that must be approachable and natural.
- Avoid using informal language.
- Introduce your name and give a short description of your academic background.
ABOG Thesis Defence Questions
The thesis research question is the main stance of the researcher about whom the arguments need to be presented. No matter what, the question must be argumentative, defensible and thought-provoking for the reader.
Here are the good research question ideas which can be considered for your research project.
- Does the abortion is essential for the health care?
- How can you console adolescents about contraception?
- What are some effective interventions to promote breastfeeding?
- What is the early diagnosis of ovarian cancer?
- What are the ethical issues in obstetric and gynecologic practice?
- How to do screening for fetal aneuploidy?
- What is the viral hepatitis in pregnancy?
Conclusion
ABOG, the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, is a not-for-profit organisation that provides certifications to obstetricians and gynaecologists. Several practitioners write their thesis and go through the ABOG thesis defence to prove their key stance. For the effective delivery of arguments, they need to write a compelling thesis and then defend it by making an engaging presentation. Some of the brilliant minds purchase dissertations online and spend their time in defence preparation to earn the grades they dreamed of for years. Once they get such organised samples, it will be easier to make a PowerPoint presentation out of it.
In this article, we have shared top tips that you can implement to make engaging presentations. Remember, all of the hard work that you put into data collection and analysis is of no use if you fail at defending it on the final day. So, take note of the above highlights so that you remain confident on defence day.