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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.