You will present, based primarily on your final long read project, on your chosen topic area pertaining to letter writing. This can be on any aspect in which something piqued your interest or generated questions.
Learning Outcomes
- Demonstrate ability to translate written work into oral presentation
- Demonstrate the ability to gauge an audience’s needs and interests
- Demonstrate the ability to discern the most important elements of a written project and summarize them in a brief presentation
- Demonstrate ability to organize, practice, and deliver a professional oral presentation
Resources
- Each week’s readings and resources
- Library Guide
- Your own research
Audience
Fellow FYS183 Classmates
Length of Presentation
Presentations must be no longer than 8 minutes. The presentation must be on a cloud-based drive, such as Muhlenberg’s Google Workspace, that can be preloaded on the class computer.
Prompt
While this will be based on your written post on the same topic, this will be a visual presentation. You will be working with primary resources, including letters, newspapers, and other resources. Your presentation should include background information, relevant related information, letters and correspondence, and your overall analysis in an oral presentation.
Presenting well involves writing in various formats. One aspect may be to write out your analysis of your letter topic. One aspect of the presentation is what material you will actually include in your presentation. The other aspect is what material you will be presenting orally. These will obviously overlap, but should not be the same throughout.
You should include a brief biography and/or background information, including a historical, social, or cultural context that may be relevant to your presentation. Even if there is not a lot of additional information, part of your presentation can address working with primary documents and the challenges of research.
Your presentation should have a clear and concise central message, as well as supporting evidence. Examples of this include explanations, illustrations, quotations, and other kinds of information or analysis that support the principal ideas of the presentation.
The analysis you provide for your audience should represent the “how” and the “why” this central message/argument works or does not work. You may choose to analyze the rhetorical situation, the appeals, the warrants, and/or the style of the argument, the importance of letters to these individuals, the tone of the correspondence, etc. You do not have to address all of these points, but these can serve as things to include. You can engage your audience as well by having them read any letters, answer or ask questions, or do other activities.
You are encouraged to use note cards to aid in your delivery, but you should not read your presentation. EXTRA CREDIT: You should also practice your presentation in the library using the one-button studio, where you can practice and record your presentation on a USB drive. Submit a link to your practice video before midnight on Sunday.
Your presentations should be well-organized and clear. Part of the grade for your presentation will include effective delivery, looking at such things as posture, hand gestures, eye contact, use of voice, etc.
Each student will also provide feedback on each presentation.
Due Date
Presentations will take place in class during week 14 (firm dates will come later depending on the progress of our class). A link to your presentation should be uploaded to Canvas by midnight, Monday, November 27.
