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COMMUNITY RHETORICS:

Writing in the Service-Learning "Contact Zone"

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Multimedia Oral Presentation on One Compelling Aspect of the Research or Community Writing Project

We're looking forward to hearing about and seeing some of what you discovered in your research!

DATES AND TIMEFRAMES FOR PRESENTATIONS

Each student will give a multimedia oral presentation during the final week of class. Whether your presentation will be scheduled for Tuesday, December 2 or Thursday, December 4 we'll determine by drawing lots. You may elect to do an individual presentation or a collaborative presentation with other students in your CWP agency group.

For individual presentations, each student will have a total of only 12 minutes. Your actual presentation may run no fewer than 8 and no more than 9 minutes; allow the rest of your time for questions from your audience. Rehearse your timing very carefully! I will be ruthless about cutting your presentation off at 9 minutes!

If you do a collaborative presentation, you may combine times, but I'd advise against strictly doubling or tripling times. For a two-person collaborative presentation, I'd suggest perhaps a 15-minute presentation, with 5 minutes for questions; for a three-person collaborative presentation, I'd suggest a 20-minute presentation with up to 10 minutes for questions.

Especially considering the limited amount of time each student is alloted to present and the number of presentations we will have, it is absolutely essential that you be completely ready to go when your turn comes. This means not only being prepared to speak; it also means being confident that the technological aspects of your presentation are up and ready. Time that you take in class getting your powerpoint presentation up and running, for example, will be deducted from your total presentation time.

PRESENTATION SCHEDULE...

Tuesday, December 2 Kim José Francisco Chrissie Nick Sandra

Thursday, December 4 Desi Pamela Chris Anish, Lindsay, Robert (collaborative) Baiju Debbie

PRESENTATION TOPICS

Focus your presentation on one particular aspect of your research paper topic, your Community Writing topic, your experience as a community-based learner, or your experience as a researcher. You will not have time in this brief presentation to cover your entire topic, your entire paper, or your entire experience, so don't try! Choose one aspect, and plan to make no more than three major points about it.

 

USE OF MULTIMEDIA

Plan to use at least one form of visual or audio media to support your presentation effectively. PowerPoint slides themselves count as one of these sources, although you are welcome to add and combine other media -- for example, internet hyperlinks, or audio or video files or sources.

To ensure the effective use of multimedia in your presentation, I'd suggest two things in addition to rehearsing your content, oral style, and timing carefully in advance:

First, have your powerpoint presentation mounted in advance. This can be accomplished in one of several ways:

From our classroom, upload it from floppy disc or CD to the Everyone Folder before your presentation day or well before class begins on your presentation day;

Send it to yourself via email attachment and download it to the Everyone Folder prior to your presentation day or well before class begins on your presentation day; or

Store it on your leland space and download it to the Everyone Folder prior to your presentation day or well before class begins on your presentation day.

Second, make sure that the teachnological aspects of your presentation (for example audio or visual adjuncts) work smoothly in the classroom (so as not to discover any glitches in the middle of your actual presentation!). This can be accomplished by testing it during the following times:

Tuesday December 2 OR Thursday, December 4, in Wallenberg 123 (the twin to our classrrom) between 1:00 and 1:30 p.m.;

Tuesday, December 2, OR Thursday, December 4, in our classroom, Wallenberg 125, just prior to our class, between 3:05 and 3:15, and just after our class, between 5:05 and 5:15; or

Tuesday, December 4, in our classroom, Wallenberg 125, just prior to our class, between 3:05 and 3:15 p.m.

RESOURCES

The Multimedia Studio on the second floor of Meyer Library can porvide you with both equipment, software, and consultants to help you, if you need help, in developing multimedia projects, including this one. This might be especially useful if you want to try anything fancy, like incorporating audio or video into your presentation. Check online for the quarter's consultants' schedule.

The Speaking Center of the Center for Teaching and Learning provides students with coaching on oral presentations, services that are provided during specific hours, both at the Speaking Center, located on the fourth floor of Sweet Hall, and at the Stanford Writing Center, located in the basment of Margaret Jacks Hall, as well as at Green Library and in some residences. For coaching hours, appointments, and more information, check online.

Please check out Carolyn's Power Point Presentation on Oral Presentations for guidelines on conception, organization, writing, and delivery of oral presentations supported by multimedia. But beware! Although solid in content and advice, these PowerPoint sides feature the kinds of mistakes in design that are typical of first-timers users of PowerPoint! See if you can spot them! ; )

 

FINALLY...

Please remember: I will ask you to submit this presentation (along with your reading presentation) on disk or CD, or in the form of print-outs of slides and notes, with your portfolio at the end of the quarter.