Guidelines

Be aware that you will be speaking to a general audience. At best, your audience will be trained in general areas, such as Social Science or Natural Science. For this reason, you will have to briefly define terms that you may take for granted, and you should do this definition at the point where you use the terms, rather than starting with a kind of mini-dictionary. Give a brief, non-technical statement of the background and nature of the problem and then your piece of it; how your study relates to the general issue. State the objectives of your research in a clear, simple language. You should state the context, goals, what you did and your results. Be analytical, not just descriptive. Tell your audience what this research or problem means, its implications and significance. Clearly organize your results and then explain the implications of your results.

There will be two juries for each College category, and each college will have an undergraduate and a graduate division. At the competition, each student will have ten minutes to present his or her work and five minutes to listen to and respond to jury questions. It is not expected that you will read your presentation directly from your written summary. Entrants in the Creative Arts and Design category may present an audio and/or visual record of a performance they have given or a work of art they have created; their oral presenatation should focus on the rationale and historical context underlying their interpretation of the material.

Each entry (oral presentation and written summary) will be judged on the following:

• clarity of purpose - 15%
• appropriateness of methodology - 15%
• interpretation of results - 15%
• value of the research or creative activity - 15%
• ability of the presenter to articulate the research or creative activity - 15%
• organization of the material presented - 15%
• presenter's ability to handle questions from the jury and general audience - 10%