Preparing a Seminar Talk on a Published Paper

Paper Title:

Presenter:

1. Analyze the paper

  1. What problem was investigated? What research question did the authors try to answer?

    2.  

  2. What was the primary motivation for investigating the problem?

    3.  

  3. What background information (context) is relevant to understanding the problem?

    4.  

  4. List the paper's key points

    5.  

  5. What method(s) or experimental design did the authors use?

    6.  

  6. Which of the results reported in the paper are the most significant?

    7.  

  7. Did the authors note any unexpected results? If so, were those results explained sufficiently?

    8.  

  8. What were the authors' conclusions?

    9.  

  9. What were the implications of this work? How did this work influence future work?

    10.  

  10. What, if any, were the weaknesses of the paper?

 

2. Adapt the paper for your audience.

  1. Why should your audience be interested in this particular topic?

    2.  

  2. What do they already know about it?

    3.  

  3. What terms or definitions will be new to them?

    4.  

  4. Which key points or concepts will be the most difficult for them to grasp?