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Jon Mattern
English 250 Section SE
Assignment #5
Samantha Futhey
December 11, 2015
OVE Reflection
Have you ever witnessed a speaker that flawlessly held your attention and fascination
while discussing a certain topic? What kind of things did they say and do in their presentation?
Did they use any visual aids, electronic or non-, to supplement their arguments? This semester in
English 250, we attempted to crack the code of the perfect presentation through various group
and solo assignments. Throughout the course, weve discussed the various components of oral,
visual, and electronic communication. With the use of verbal explanation, handouts and
brochures, and slideshows, there are lots of ways for an individual to discuss an argument with
an argument. The most successful and fruitful assignment regarding OVE content was
Assignment 4, the mediated research project. The discussion I gave and presentation I put
together put me in a position to improve on my communication skills, and learn better ways to
present and argue my points.
Assignment 4 was a project in which each of us chose a topic that interested us, created a
thesis, and argued our points in the form of a paper and oral presentation, which we gave to the
rest of the class. The topic I discussed was renewable energy, specifically solar and wind power,
and the most efficient ways to implement each. In my opinion, this was the most involved
project, in that it heavily covered each aspect of literacy discussed in the class: written, oral and
visual communication. I chose this assignment for this reason, and also because that caused me
to learn more from this assignment compared to some of the others we had in the class. In
comparison to the other oral, visual, and electronic assignments, there was so much more that we

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did on our own, rather than through group work, which allowed us to shape things exactly the
way we wanted to shape them. Because I was working on my own project, I found that I have
certain strengths that came out when working on and giving my presentation, as well things I
need to improve as far as skillset and attention to detail goes.
Some of the aspects of my presentation that I successfully established early on was my
organization and substance. This was an important part of my presentation, but not a greatly
involved one, as a lot of the substance and organization came from my paper. However I did
change substance in some areas in order to complete the picture of the points I was trying to
make for the audience, as I didnt have my whole paper to do so. The end product was a
presentation and slideshow that followed a format that was easy to follow and understand. I have
always been very organized in the way I complete my work in general, let alone my literary
pieces. This is a great benefit to me as I can often work much faster as I have previously outlined
what I want to say and the points I want to make.
That being said, there are some changes I would make with my presentation, specifically
the amount of content per slide. When giving my presentation, I felt that the points on my
presentation slides were slightly wordy. These points werent necessarily sentences, but they had
enough words to keep the audience from completely following the points I was trying to make.
Also as a presenter it was sometimes hard to find the point I was supposed to be discussing, as it
was surrounded by less important phrasing. Conciseness helps both the audience with following
the points the presenter is making, and the presenter by giving prompts that they can glance over
and follow in a instance unnoticed by the audience.
After evaluating my strengths and weaknesses and how they were brought out in this
assignment, I find that I can explain my thoughts in a logical and effective way, while

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accommodating for the knowledge level regarding the topic. I prefer structure, planned
comments, and statements in order to give an effective presentation. Assignment 4 allowed me to
showcase my abilities and pull out the skills that need work, because it gave me the chance to
present on a topic of my choosing and the chance to do all of my own work. I didnt have to
argue on a topic and follow a format chosen by a group Id potentially be working in. This way I
was able to see exactly what success and what problems were brought about by my work.
Eliminating group members also eliminated variables as to who was moving the project along
and who was holding the project back. I was able to grow a lot from Assignment 4, and see what
I did well and needed to work on as a presenter in oral, visual, and electronic literacy.