For researchers preparing a group-meeting presentation, a practical question is: if the paper is already read and the notes are ready, but only half an hour remains to make slides, how can that understanding become a coherent presentation?
Marx Max now supports editable presentations. Place the relevant materials in the project, and AI can help organise the content, create the presentation and revise it in real time in response to feedback. The reading and thinking researchers have already done becomes the starting material.
Assuming the paper is read and the materials are ready, allocate five minutes to deciding what to say, fifteen to organising and generating a draft, and ten to checking and rehearsal. This is a preparation plan; actual time depends on material length, generation waits and revisions. Getting an inspectable draft early lets you spend the remaining time on what most affects the talk.
The first five minutes: provide the paper and the question you want to discuss
The paper and your reading notes serve different purposes. The original supplies the authors’ question, method and evidence; your notes identify what matters to you and where you have doubts. Give Marx Max both, along with the audience and speaking time, so the presentation can be organised around this particular meeting.
For an empirical paper, you may want to focus on identification. Say that background can be brief while comparison groups, assumptions and principal findings need attention. An audience unfamiliar with the field needs more context before reaching those points. The same paper can support different presentations because the discussion has a different purpose.
A direct request could be:
Use the paper and reading notes I provide to make slides for tomorrow’s group meeting. The audience is my research group, and I have about twenty minutes. Focus on the research question, how the authors address it, the main evidence and the questions marked in my notes. First propose an outline; after I confirm it, create the presentation. Distinguish the authors’ conclusions from my comments. Use the supplied materials for numbers, figures and references, and identify any missing information.
The request establishes materials, audience, time and emphasis. You need not rewrite the paper as a complete script or specify every slide’s layout. The most valuable judgements in your notes should shape the main argument. Mark unconfirmed ideas as questions so their status survives drafting.
The next fifteen minutes: turn the outline into a draft you can revise
Review whether the outline develops the question you actually want to discuss. Why does the paper matter, what evidence does it use, which finding is central and what do you want the group to consider? A continuous argument matters more than an impressive-looking number of sections. Checking this early avoids spending the available time on a complete deck with the wrong emphasis.
Once the direction is clear, ask Marx Max to create the presentation. AI organises the supplied content and produces the draft; you can then request specific changes. If the methods section omits the comparison, ask for it to be explained. If your concern appears as an author conclusion, separate them. If background crowds out the findings, change the balance.
Feedback can stay close to the purpose of the talk:
This draft spends too much time on background. Shorten it and give more attention to identification and the main results. Place my two questions after the evidence they concern. Preserve the original conditions and sources, then generate the revised presentation.
These instructions identify what should change and why. Your main contribution is selecting content: which evidence supports a statement, what can wait for discussion and what still needs checking. Connecting outline review with draft revision gradually turns completed reading into a focused talk.
The final ten minutes: check the key evidence and rehearse
Start with the points that could alter the conclusion: central numbers, the relationship between a figure and its interpretation, and the distinction between the authors’ findings and your comments. Check uncertain points against the original. A claim that cannot be verified in time can remain a question or be removed. The audience will hear the slides as your account, so you decide which content to adopt.
Then spend a few minutes rehearsing the opening, main result and ending, including the transitions between them. Does the opening explain why this paper is worth discussing? Does the method lead naturally to the results? Do the final questions follow from the evidence already shown? Speaking exposes these issues more readily than silently viewing pages. If a section is clearly too long, remove material less connected to the main argument and explain the strongest evidence fully.
Open the file you will actually use and check its contents and order. The purpose of a half-hour preparation plan is to turn existing understanding into usable presentation material quickly. You still need to understand the paper’s central issues; AI can help with organisation and production, leaving room for checking and delivery.
A group-meeting presentation you can inspect
The AI Agents for Economic Research presentation case contains an actual deck. Based on Anton Korinek’s paper, it prepares an English talk for research-group members with limited familiarity with AI, covering concepts, research applications and limitations. The page lets you browse twenty-five slides and inspect the original task requirements.
The case shows how source material becomes a particular talk: establish the subject, develop its research uses and return to questions requiring human judgement. Compare that organisation with your own paper and audience. The case also includes an “Open in Marx Max” entry point for trying the task.
Try creating a presentation in Marx Max
The group-meeting case lets you inspect the task and output, then choose “Open in Marx Max”. The Beamer report entry will become available when its case is published. For your own presentation, place the relevant materials in the project and replace the materials and requirements with those of your current task.