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Guidelines for Chemistry 410 Presentations
Oral Presentation Requirements
Doctoral Students. Three full seminars are required during a
Ph.D. graduate career. Two of these are to be based on literature and
the third one may be a research talk as part of the final defense. One
of the literature seminars usually is based on material related to the
proposal which is submitted as part of the comprehensive exam. Normally,
the other literature seminar is presented by graduate students during
their second year.
Masters Students. Two full seminar presentations are required.
One of these should be based on literature and the other one should be
based on research (thesis defense).
Full Seminars
Topics. From any area of organic chemistry. The topic should be
of current interest. After an initial screening of possible topics and
before investing a great deal of time into literature research, your
choice of topic should be discussed with your research advisor and,
later, with the seminar coordinator.
Abstracts. A written abstract should be submitted to the seminar
coordinator no less than two weeks in advance of the event. This will
allow for enough time for review, possible revision, and distribution of
the abstract. Abstracts will be distributed one week before the event.
Failure to follow this procedure results in cancellation of the
presentation, the grade 'I' and the request to repeat in the following
semester.
Presentation. Overhead transparencies are recommended as visual
aids. You should plan for a 35 minute talk; roughly 20 - 25 slides would
be about right. Carefully prepare your slides. They should not be two
cluttered with information. One slide -- one idea. If material from
journals is to appear on any slide, such material should be enlarged
before inclusion on the slide.
Grading. Your seminar will be graded on content, demonstrated
understanding of the material, and presentation skills. The elan and
expertise will be important with which you handle the Q&A session after
the seminar.
Short Talks
The schedule of 'full' seminars will be supplemented by 'short'
seminars. In these 15 minute presentations usually a recent
communication will be presented and discussed. I would like to see a
focus on discussion in Chemistry 410 in general.