Your Own Research Project

You will see from the timetable that participants in the workshop are expected to give a brief presentation (5-7 minutes) on their own projects. This will be done in small groups, hopefully with postgraduates working in cognate areas. The exercise is meant to be constructive and normally the other group members can provide a fresh viewpoint on a project. There is no set format for the presentations, although we encourage you to bring visual aids, be they some overheads to show your project structure or a lump of the particular rock-type you are working on.

To help with the presentations we have listed below some of the points you may wish to include. This list is neither exhaustive nor prescriptive and you should adapt your talk to your project. Please note that it will not be possible to show 35mm transparencies, or (probably) use PowerPoint presentations*, although we hope that there will be an ohp in each of the discussion rooms.

Suggested points to consider:

• Who are you, where are you from, what is your background?
• Title of project?
• Aim and objectives of your project?
• Expected Results (ie what you think you will achieve rather than what you wrote under 'Aim')?
• Where (or if) this project fits in with previous work?
• General types of method you expect to employ?
• How important is fieldwork? Does this pose problems, impose constraints?
• How important is labwork? Does this pose problems, impose constraints?
• Do you see yourself being able to finish in three years?
• If not, what do you expect to be the biggest delay?
• Have you discussed delays and finishing 'on time' with your supervisor?
• What do you see as your own weakness(es) in doing this research?
• Do you intend to produce an all-embracing thesis or have you other ideas?
• Do you now need to revise your views on 'title', 'aim', 'objectives' and 'expected results'?
  
  That is quite a list and you will probably not know the answers at this stage, although some may be clearer after discussions and presentations in the workshop - this is what it is for.

* There is a tendency to make over elaborate PowerPoints and to put material on to use space. Experience shows that this can be detrimental to thinking about the project. Bring no more than 5 PowerPoint slides with you on a data stick by all means but we cannot guarantee that you will be able to show them.

WBW 1.12.09