New Media: Gender, Culture, Technology » November 25th: Presentation Discussion

November 25th: Presentation Discussion

This will be the only webpage for the week, and it’ll cover your Final Presentations.

Plan for the Day

I always try to give students the opportunity to do some kind of public speaking in every class I teach. The pandemic lockdown and post-lockdown facial coverings affected this assignment, but it’s now back! Although this isn’t a public speaking class, presenting information to an audience orally is germane to the spirit of the field rhetoric. Most of you will have to do some kind of public presenting in the future, so it’s a good idea to get all the practice you can. You’re welcome.

You can send me your PowerPoint or links to videos before class. We will not have time for everyone to log off, log on, download, present, log off, etc. If you can put your stuff on a flash drive, get here early to transfer files to the main computer.

Visuals

Your oral presentations must have appropriate, effective visuals. We’ve already discussed that appropriate visuals, such as tables, charts, graphs, pictures, etc., enhance the message you’re communicating. Incorporate a few visuals into your presentation. Your visuals and their incorporation will be ranked on the following criteria:

  • Visuals Exist–do you have a visual component to your presentation
  • Relevance–do the visuals match your research topic
  • Enhancement–did the visuals add to the presentation or were they simply outlines you read
  • Aesthetics–did you incorporate a decent visual or one of poor quality
  • Citation(s)–did you properly cite your visuals if you “borrowed” them from other sources

Remember, the visuals and this oral presentation are your way of showing that you highlighted appropriate areas of your topic to give me a glimpse at what you researched. You can’t possibly show us everything in 4-5 min–be selective. Instead of video clips, which can pad your presentation, only incorporate still images. I’ll entertain exceptions with very good arguments.

Oral Presentations

Although your presentations for this class aren’t the exact format you can expect throughout your careers, it’s important to practice public speaking whenever you can. Let’s discuss some questions about presentations from Elizabeth Tebeaux and Sam Dragga’s The Essentials of Technical Communication (Ch. 11) for more information:

  1. What are some common presentation pitfalls?
  2. Why is understanding your purpose so important?
  3. What are some questions you should ask about your audience?
  4. What type of delivery method will work best for you or you and your group—memorized, reading (scripted), notes, or impromptu?
  5. What are some advantages and disadvantages of the above delivery methods?
  6. What’s important to keep in mind about visuals (which you must use?
  7. How should you manage your presentation style?

Finally, what should you include in your presentations? Obviously, you can’t discuss every detail of your project, and some parts of a project lend themselves better to oral presentations than others, depending on the following:

  • Background information
  • Your interest in the project
  • What your project explains

Please have an overview. Spend 15-20 secs telling the audience what you’re going to discuss in your presentation. Introduce the topic and give a roadmap of what you’ll be covering.

Presentation Issues

I will score your 4-5 minute presentation on a scale of 1 to 20 for the five categories below (100 pts total):

  • Appearance of preparation
  • Eye contact
  • Voice Projection
  • Relevance
  • Time—don’t go over five minutes and don’t go under four minutes (practice so you get it just right)

Remember, you can’t possibly convey your entire project in the time you have. Therefore, you must choose your points wisely. You’ll actually be amazed at how quickly time goes. Before we leave for the day, let’s analyze a short presentation…

Presentation Schedule

Monday, December 2ndWednesday, December 4th
1) Slade1) Mina
2) Julia2) Celeste
3) Alexis3) April
4) Will4) Dyamond
5) Lonnie5) Darius
6) Nathan6) Zara
7) Karla7) Marian
8) Deonna
9) Brendan

Final Exam Fun

The Final Exam will be a closed book, closed note, closed partner, closed internet (except, of course, for logging onto Canvas to take it). You can do this in 45 minutes, but you have the entire final exam period of 2 hours and 30 minutes (150 minutes) to complete the exam. Although this number may change after I revise a bit, you’ll have 60 questions worth the following:

  • 40 Questions @ 2pts
  • 20 Questions @ 1pts

Some questions might be partially answered by a response choice, but you need to consider the entire question and choose the BEST response based on class readings, discussions, and resources (e.g., the class web page).

How about a couple more example Final Exam questions:

Example Question #1: In the novel An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, Andy Skampt explains that April ______________________________.
a) saw herself as a tool
b) dehumanized herself
c) was a weapon in a cultural war
d) all of the above
e) none of the above

Example Question #2: In the novel An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, the Defenders were all ______________________________.
a) neo-Nazis
b) politically conservative
c) assassins
d) all of the above
e) none of the above

Example Question #3: In Misunderstanding the Internet, the authors explain that many assumed the internet would ______________________________; however, that assumption didn’t take into account the complexity of both the technology and the cultural forces shaping it.
a) give subaltern groups an equal voice to effect change
b) usher in a new economic paradigm that privileged consumers over capitalists
c) end monopolistic control
d) all of the above
e) none of the above

Evaluations

Unlike many English professors, I don’t do the paper-based evaluations because it’s 2024, and we have online tools for that. Please fill out the evaluations online based on your section.

Next Class

On Monday, 12/02, we’ll have the first group of students go. You’ll just come in and do your presentations in rapid succession. I’ll open your Final Exam up on December 9th, and you’ll have until December 11th (at 11:00 pm) to finish it. I think that’s plenty of time to work out any conflicts, so set that reminder now.