Presentation Assignment

Each student is required to do at least one presentation once during the semester (some will be permitted to do more than one).  The date and text for the presentation is assigned ahead of time, based on student preference whenever possible.

There are three basic goals the oral presentation must achieve:

1. to articulate the major points of the day’s topic and reading, without being a summary 
2. to develop one or two (at most) concepts or questions in the reading  
3. to direct a meaningful discussion

You will be graded on these criteria.

Content and style guidelines:

To elaborate on the first goal: The presentation must first provide a brief overview of the text. It should not be a piecemeal presentation (i.e. "In Chapter 1 he says this ... in Chapter 2 he says this ...”), but the text presented as a cohesive whole with its primary concepts. In other words you are responsible for explaining what is the author's main concern and how he or she argues for it—in your own words. You are graded not on thoroughness in details, but on synthetic completeness (showing how concepts are linked together to the main concern). No more than 2 slides (not including a title slide) and 140 characters a slide (i.e. Tweet length).

Second and third goals: The presentation is intended to teach others, and that happens through developing a concept (or two) and provoking discussion about it.  In order to do that you must present a simple set of slides presenting these issues graphically, from which you can extemporize. To extemporize means to speak freely, without looking at notes or reading prepared text. No more than 6 slides and ~140 characters a slide.

Each student should put concepts and ideas into her own words as much as possible, although she should also refer to the text frequently. No videos. Avoid images, which are not required.

Dress comfortably but well. Don’t wear sweatpants (ever, if you can avoid it). While speaking you should address your peers and not primarily the professor. Do not hide behind the podium. Do not hide behind excessive information, deluging your audience with facts or data.

Most importantly: Be interesting, creative and energetic. Do not be dull!

For preparation:

1. You will want to be prepared with a selection of passages from the text that focus on different aspects of this concept or question.
2. You will also want to have come up with a series of examples that illustrate your point, either from previous class discussion or from contemporary life. You will need to do some brainstorming to come up with these. 
3. Lastly, you will want to have some questions prepared. Do not phrase questions in the sense of “what do you think about …?” Instead, phrase them concretely, like, “how would you explain …?

For submission:

Students should use PowerPoint (or Prezi, etc.) for their presentations and then submit the PowerPoint file to the class through the Blackboard. If you use Keynote or an alternate presentation app, you should save your file as .pptx or .ppt for submission. The presentation must be posted 24 hours before the class meeti