Lightning Talks and Abstracts Have a Lot in Common • Both condense an entire essay or research paper into its key elements. • Both use plain language when possible to communicate

with non-specialists. The items (slides, sentences) to be included include: • Title slide: title, author, date, course, instructor, university (with Loyola logo) • If an abstract: statement of the topic [the title was on the title page] • Problem statement • Your approach and why it is needed • Each main study or line of evidence (2 to 3 slides) Summary of main results Impact and/or significance . • Brief conclusion Acknowledgements and/or literature cited (not in abstract). ./nPreparing for a Lightning Talk condensed from K. Garvin 2014 "16 ways to prepare for a lightning talk" https://www.semrush.com/blog/16-ways-to-prepare-for-a-lightning-talk/ 1. Outline. Time is of the essence during a lightning talk. 3-4 minutes is not a long time. You want your points to be strong and uncluttered. Write an outline of your slides (e.g., in Word's outline function). 2. Less is more. Get rid of anything extraneous. Avoid more than 3 bullet points per slide. 3. Write a script. You don't want to sound stale or rehearsed, which would happen if you read your script, but you should be able to refer to specific points, and not forget anything important. Rehearse the script/presentation until you can remember all the points without reading.