Practice! Read your paper aloud once you’ve finished writing. You might find that some sentences are too long or complicated, or that you’ve written more than you can say in the time. Speak slowly and clearly rather than rushing through to fit more in.

Speaking of powerpoints, keep any visual aids simple and don’t cram them with text. This will only distract the audience. Use the powerpoint for key points, quotes, or images, rather than trying to add lots of additional information.

Provide a clear structure. You want your audience to be able to follow your paper, so give them a clear statement of argument and explain the structure of your paper/argument at the start. You can also use visual aids such as a powerpoint to guide the audience.

Pitch your presentation to the audience. If you’re at a conference specific to your field you don’t need to spend as much time on context, but a generalist audience will need this background. Try to avoid your audience having to make any assumptions and lay the rationale/argument out clearly.

Don’t cram too many ideas in. It can be tempting to try to summarise your whole PhD, but this simply isn’t possible within a conference paper. Narrow down your plan to one key idea and how you can best demonstrate that specific argument.

If you’re going to fully write out your paper, it’s a good idea to time yourself to get a sense of roughly how much you can say. This will give you a rough word count to guide you as you write. If you're ad libbing more, it's still a good idea to practice.

Think carefully about the time you’ve been given – a 10 minute presentation is vastly different to a 20 minute one.

You might be asked to submit other material along with your abstract.

Include your institutional affiliation and contact information. If applying to a US conference you might also want to include your stage - if you've passed your upgrade you are 'ABD' (all but dissertation) in the American system.

Once you've drafted your abstract, try to get some space from it before reviewing and editing (or if you don't have time, ask someone else to read it).

Getting across your ideas clearly but concisely can be a real challenge, and you may well want to make some changes to your initial draft.

Some other tips:
⭐ Avoid jargon (unless you're sure that readers and attendees will understand)
⭐ Finish the abstract with an impactful sentence that makes your argument / contribution clear

How much detail you provide will depend on the word count and the audience (specialist or more general). Think about:

What information do the reviewers need to understand your planned paper / argument?

Does the conference have a theme that you need to emphasise in your abstract?

Some key things to include are:
⭐A brief introduction to / context for your topic
⭐The existing literature / state of the field
⭐The intervention you're making
⭐The 'so what' question - why should people care?

Check the requirements carefully. Abstract lengths can vary a lot and you may be asked to include other information (including a CV in some cases). Once you know what's required you can start drafting your abstract.

Think about what will enable you to get the most out of the conference and your time in the lead up to it and let this inform your decision over what to propose.

Others prefer to present on a piece of work they already have a strong grasp on. Perhaps a conference would be a good opportunity to return to a part of your research that has been on the back burner or put to one side for a while.

If you’re planning ahead for a conference later in the year, you could propose an aspect that you’re planning to tackle in the coming months. This offers a goal and source of motivation to get that work done. You’ll also gain feedback on ideas that are fresh in your mind.

During the middle years it could be really helpful to gain feedback on a specific area.

Towards the end of your PhD you might find it useful to zoom out again and explain your findings as a whole.