Welcome to the home page for Biology 405 - Biology Seminar at Old Dominion University.  Satisfying both the writing-intensive and oral communications requirements of the general education curriculum, this is a capstone course in which advanced biology majors complete an independent research project and report their results as both a formal written report and as an oral presentation.  I hope the information here is helpful -- and if you know of links I should add, please let me know! Syllabus Oral presentations Technical writing Forms on line General research  [ top ] [Dr. K home] [ ODU Biology ] [ Old Dominion University ] Forms on line Forms are included in the course syllabus, but you can also download and print extra forms in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format: Faculty sponsor sheet Bibliography form Talk outline form Paper outline form Seminar critique form Resources for preparing and delivering oral presentations The course syllabus includes an outline of advice on preparing and delivering oral presentations.  Start there for a review. The following are  good comprehensive sites (covering both  "public speaking" and preparation of graphics) .  Effective Presentations homepage , from Jeff Radel at KU Medical Center. The Virtual Presentation Assistant - University of Kansas-Department of Communication Studies takes you step-by-step through the process of preparing your talk. Penn State offers an excellent on-line workbook at  Welcome to the SpCom 100A Online Resource Page! .  Presenters University has in-depth advice on all facets of preparing and delivering oral presentations.  The site also offers PowerPoint templates for download. Suffering from anxiety over public speaking?  Join the rest of us, and get some good advice at  Overcoming Speaking Anxiety in Meetings & Presentations .  Then, just for fun, check out Oral Presentation Advice and learn how to do it wrong! In addition to the sources, above, you can find excellent tips for designing visual aids (transparencies, slides, etc.) can be found at  Effective Visuals - Initial comments.102 . Want more help with PowerPoint?  Check out these on-line tutorials:  Microsoft PowerPoint Master Class   Power Point 2000 Tutorial · FGCU Technology Skills Orientation  Or you can go directly to Microsoft's PowerPoint site Would you like some practice? Review the PowerPoint slides that accomany the class lectures. Then try to develop a PowerPoint using this sample lecture (and check out my efforts).  How did yours compare? finally, check out these two student presentations.  What, if anything, would you differently? DNA vaccine for HIV Estuaries and metals [ top ] [Dr. K home] [ ODU Biology ] [ Old Dominion University  ] Resources for technical writing   Old Dominion University Libraries - Library Assistance - Ask a Librarian  has links to on-line writing/style guides and to guides for properly formatting literature citations.  Note that  many of the citation guides are geared toward the social sciences and humanities -- but they will still be useful when you're citing electronic sources (web pages, etc.).  The editors of the Journal of Mammalogy offer their author guidelines at ASM | Journal of Mammalogy (at the lower left of the screen); Appendix II is an excellent guide for properly citing a wide variety of sources.  Two sites with specific guidelines on scientific writing are  Writing Guidelines for Engineering and Science Students and, from Bates College, How to Write Guide: Introduction to Journal-Style Scientific Writing. For general writing tips, see the classic  Strunk, William. 1918. The Elements of Style (select "Strunk's Style" from the drop-down menu).  [ top ] [Dr. K home] [ ODU Biology ] [ Old Dominion University  ] Good information about general research The Perry Library's web site has a number of good resources to help you organize your research project and find appropriate information.  Start with   Old Dominion University Libraries - Library Assistance - Tutorials, guides and how-to's and work up from there.  [ top ] [Dr. K home] [ ODU Biology ] [ Old Dominion University  ]
	Kerry S. Kilburn, Ph.D Department of Biological Sciences Old Dominion University Norfolk, VA  23529