ASSIGNMENT SUBMISSION AND ASSESSMENT ________________________________________________________________________ OUMH1303 ENGLISH FOR ORAL COMMUNICATION JANUARY 2013 ________________________________________________________________________ INSTRUCTIONS TO STUDENTS

1. This assignment contains TWO (2) tasks that is set in the language of the printed module for the course. Answer ALL. 2. Answer in English.

3. Download the language version of the assignment template concerned from the MyVLE for preparation and submission of your assignment. Your assignment should be typed using 12 point Times New Roman font and 1.5 line spacing. 4. Your assignment should be between 2500 to 3000 words excluding references. The number of words should be shown at the end of your assignment. Do not copy the assignment question and instructions to your answer. 5. You must submit your assignment TO YOUR FACE-TO-FACE TUTOR. You are advised to keep a copy of your submitted assignment for personal reference. 6. Your assignment must be submitted between 15th 17th March 2013 or Tutorial 4. Submission after 17th March 2013 or Tutorial 4 will NOT be accepted. 7. Your assignment should be prepared individually. You should not copy another persons assignment. You should also not plagiarise another persons work as your own.

EVALUATION This assignment accounts for 30% of the marks for the course mentioned and shall be assessed based on the Rubrics or Answer Scheme. You would be informed of the assignment mark before the Final Semester Examination commences. PLAGIARISM : MARKS DEDUCTION Warning : The submitted assignment will automatically undergo a similarity check. If plagiarism is detected, marks would be deducted as follows:

Assignments with 10 - 30 % overlap with others: 20% deduction from the total marks scored. Assignments with 31 - 50 % overlap with others: 40% deduction from the total marks scored. Assignments with more than 50% overlap with others: Zero mark would be given.

ASSIGNMENT QUESTION

Public Speaking is the communicating of knowledge that is understandable. Through informative speeches, people are able to give others the benefit of their learning and expertise. For this assignment you are given two tasks: (a) write an informative speech; and (b) present your speech. QUESTION You are invited to give an informative speech to a group of people. Pick a topic that is interesting to you, that you think will interest your audience, OR you can pick any topic from given below. 1. Eating Healthily With A Busy Lifestyle. 2. Laughter Therapy - An Effective Treatment. 3. Overcoming shyness.
A. WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT (20 Marks)

1. You can write using the guidelines below: Introduction: (Show relevance to the audience during this section) Attention-getter: story, actual or rhetorical question, quote, surprising fact or statistic, etc. Thesis statement: the main point or idea of your speech Preview of Main Points: Preview your upcoming main points

Be sure to transition smoothly from attn-getter, to thesis & preview of main points, to the body (Main Point 1). Continue to use transitions to move smoothly from one point to the next and on to the conclusion. Body: Main Point 1. - Supporting Ideas/Subtopic of Main Point 1(a) - Supporting Ideas/Subtopic of Main Point 1 (b) These are backed up by Supporting Material: definition, statistics, example, illustration/story, testimony, compare/contrast. Use vocal citations when appropriate. Main Point 2.
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Supporting Ideas/Subtopic of Main Point 2 (a) Supporting Ideas/Subtopic of Main Point 2 (b) These are backed up by Supporting Material: definition, statistics, example, illustration/story, testimony, compare/contrast. Use vocal citations when appropriate.
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1. Additional supporting ideas 2. Additional supporting ideas Main Point 3. - Supporting Ideas/Subtopic of Main Point 3(a) - Supporting Ideas/Subtopic of Main Point 3(b) These are backed up by Supporting Material: definition, statistics, example, illustration/story, testimony, compare/contrast. Use vocal citations when appropriate. Main Point 4. - Supporting Ideas/Subtopic of Main Point 4(a) - Supporting Ideas/Subtopic of Main Point 4(b) These are backed up by Supporting Material: definition, statistics, example, illustration/story, testimony, compare/contrast. Use vocal citations when appropriate. Conclusion: Summarize Main Points: Provide closure (closing statement, quote, story, etc.): Note: Each point should be elaborated with significant examples. You may add any other points deemed appropriate

2. Reminder: you must conduct research on chosen topic, and have at least 4 sources in your bibliography.

B. ORAL PRESENTATION (10 Marks) 1. You need to prepare 8 (min) -12 (max) MS PowerPoint slides based on the content of your paper (written assignment) for a 8-10 minute talk (oral presentation). 2. Use phrases rather than whole sentences to write the text of your slides. Use numbered/bulleted lists to organise and present main/supporting ideas on a given slide. 3. Make your slides visually interesting by using suitable colours for the background and embedded symbols and pictures as appropriate. 4. You can prepare a presentation slides using the guidelines below: Slide 0 Slide 0 Slide 1 Slide 2 Slide 3 Slide 4 Slide 5 Slide 6 Slide 7 Slide 8 Slide 9 Slide 10 Slide 11 Self-Intro Title Introduction Introduction Main point 1 + examples Main point 1 + examples Main point 2 + examples Main point 2 + examples Main point 3 + examples Main point 3 + examples Main point 4 + examples Main point 4 + examples Conclusions [Total: 30 marks]

WRITTEN PAPER (20 marks): Assessment Criteria (Marks Allotment) Descriptors Marks

Very Good to Excellent: Substantive and knowledgeable development of assigned topic; ideas are relevant to topic; ideas appropriately and interestingly selected; ideas logically and coherently stated; supported and sequenced; overall cohesiveness achieved. Average to Good: CONTENT & Some knowledge of assigned topic; adequate range of ORGANISATION ideas; ideas are mostly relevant to topic but lack details; loosely organised but main ideas stand out; limited (12 marks) support; logical but incomplete sequencing. Poor to Fair: Limited knowledge of the assigned topic; ideas are of little substance and inadequate; ideas are somewhat confused or disconnected; lacks logical sequencing and development.

9-12

5-8

0-4

Very Good to Excellent: Very effective use of complex sentence structure; sophisticated and effective range of vocabulary; appropriate register; few grammatical errors. LANGUAGE (8 marks) Average to Good: Effective simple sentences; adequate range of vocabulary; several grammatical errors but meaning not obscured. Poor to Fair: Major problems in use of simple sentences; limited and repetitive choice of vocabulary; frequent grammatical errors causing unclear meaning. Total Marks

7-8

4-6

0-3

20

1. ORAL PRESENTATION (10 marks): Component Effective Presenter Descriptors Excellent presenter who presents ideas coherently and clearly; uses appropriate voice volume and intonation; uses suitable linguistic expressions; communication is not at all affected by minor errors; natural and no reading of prepared slides. Satisfactory presenter who is able to present ideas coherently and clearly most of the time, uses acceptable voice volume and intonation; uses some suitable linguistic expressions; communication generally not affected by errors; some reading from prepared slides but not too obvious. Less than satisfactory presenter; some ideas are lost or confusing, uses inappropriate voice volume (too soft) or intonation; uses poor linguistic expressions; communication sometimes affected by major errors; some reading from prepared slides. Poor presenter with little or no communication taking place; shows inability to perform task; cannot respond to audience; incoherent and poor use of language features; total reading from prepared slides. Total Marks Scores

9-10

Good Presenter

7-8

Fair Presenter

5-6

Poor Presenter

0-4

10 TOTAL= 30 marks

GUIDE FOR STUDENTS

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Refer to Module Topic 7 which discusses Group Interaction Skills for writing the speech. You are advised to come up with your own examples for each situation mentioned. You could refer to Topics 8, 9 and 10 of your Module to guide you in writing the introduction, body and conclusion of the speech. You could start your speech with quotations, questions, life experience etc. Search the Internet using Google, Yahoo or any other suitable search engine for more information on group interaction skills. Use various combinations of the keywords taken from the notes given under each sub-heading in the assignment question. Remember to source information from reputable websites such as university or college sites. Note the URL or web address of useful websites that you access. Write down also the author and page title (if available), and the date you accessed the page so that you can include the information in your references page at the end of your paper. Use a uniform colour scheme for the background in your MS PowerPoint slides. Make sure that your text in the slides is not too wordy. In other words, do not merely copy and paste paragraphs or even whole sentences from your paper. Summarise and use numbered lists and/or bulleted lists to present your main ideas and supporting points. Remember that you are preparing the slides to talk about the ideas contained in them, not to read continuously from the slides! Use pictures and/or drawings to make your slides interesting but these graphic elements must be relevant to the content of your presentation. If you want to link short video clips to your presentation, do talk with your tutor to see if it may be feasible. You could refer to Topic 9 of your Module to prepare the slides

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GUIDE FOR THE TUTOR

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Please help the students structure both their paper and the MS PowerPoint presentation slides. Check to see that the headings and sub-headings of the speech and the slide presentation form a coherent whole. Advice students on aspects of content and organisation as well as (academic) language style so that they are able to revise their work accordingly. When possible, assist students with accessing the Internet for relevant information that they can use in their speech or presentation. Advise them about how they can avoid plagiarism when sourcing information i.e. by summarising, paraphrasing, quoting, commenting on and documenting the information that they obtain from various sources. Tell them how to use the APA style (6th ed. if available) of documenting resources/references. Examine/Mark student assignments and enter the respective students marks into the OMES.

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