

For example, a presentation at a conference normally aims to present recent advances, whereas a presentation at a Ph.D. In contrast, presentations can have more specific purposes. Papers can be forwarded in unpredictable ways and may be read many years from now, so they should be lasting and largely self-contained. The audience might still be diverse, but less so than for papers. Unless they are recorded or broadcast, presentations have a more clearly defined audience than papers: They address "the people in the room," here and now. These three differences affect the selection of a presentation's content.

In contrast, presentations differ from papers in at least three ways: They are more localized in space and time, they impose a sequence and rhythm to the audience, and they normally include some level of interaction. Also like papers, they must aim to inform, not impress. To this end, oral presentations - like papers - must emphasize both the motivation for the work and the outcome of it, and they must present just enough evidence to establish the validity of this outcome. They, too, must convince the audience that the research presented is important, valid, and relevant to them.

Like scientific papers, oral presentations at a conference or internal seminar are for sharing your research work with other scientists.
