Monika Rydygier Smith/ F 2016 Office: Cle D325

Email: monikasm@uvic.ca ph. 721-6172

Office Hrs: MR 2:30-3:30; TW 12:30-1:30

Oral Presentation Assignment (10%)

Due Dates: Week 3 Task + Audience Analysis/ Speech Skeleton Workshop/

Document Design Workshop
Week 4 Vocalization Workshop
Sign-up Dates In-class Oral Presentations: submit print copy of Leave-Behind
and Slides (in handout format)

Length: 5-6 min. talk. (It normally takes about 2 mins. to read roughly 250 words).
Stay within time-limit to successfully complete this assignment; youll be timed.

Topic: Your oral presentation should be related to some aspect of engineering

communication. You can look through technical writing handbooks (Ive got lots
in my office, Cle D325), or look online if you prefer. Team up with one other
person, select a topic from the Sign-Up sheet outside my office (Cle D325), and
present an informative 5-6 minute talk on that topic to your classmates (who are
all here to learn about technical communication) on that assigned day. Youll have
only 5-6 minutes to present, so narrow your topic.

Goals and
Objectives: Working in twos, your primary goal is to work closely together to generate a
professional presentation on some aspect of engineering communication
something you all have to learn about to maximize your success as technical
professionals. The expectation is that youll (a) learn about your selected topic
sufficiently well to be able to teach your peers about it and (b) collaborate fully
on all aspects of the presentation from research to delivery, working jointly to
plan, prepare, produce, practice, and deliver a talk to the rest of the class, each of
you taking turns speaking.

For short presentations, successful speakers extemporize: they do not read. To

meet requirements for this assignment, the idea is that you should be so familiar
with your topic that you can talk about it smoothly and conversationally for 5-6
minutes without relying on a prepared speechie. without reading from a piece
of paper (or simply reading your slides). Your PowerPoint slides can assist, of
course, as brief prompts. But, if you just read your presentation, youll have
missed a core learning outcome and wont be able to earn a high grade.

More than just teach and inform, successful presenters also aim to engage their
audience. You should therefore think about how to create rapport with your
audience (in this case your peers), pique their interest, and keep their attention
from wandering. You dont want your audience to feel like theyve wasted their
time listening to a poorly-prepared 5 minutes of ums and ahs. Respect your peers
by giving them something worthwhile to listen to.
 One powerful way to keep an audience engaged and focused is to convince them
of the practical value, benefit, or importance of your topic. Why do they need to
know about this topic; how persuasive can you be in conveying its relevance to
their future success in the workplace? Be sure to make your topic meaningful by
supplying specific details and examples that illustrate its relevance in the
professional workplace.

A secondary goal of the assignment is for you to create supplementary materials

that support your contentand also showcase your mastery of design principles
so far covered in the course. Your supplementary materials will take two forms:
1. A set of 4-6 attractive, well-designed presentation slides to accompany
your talk. Aim to produce at least one visual slide and one text-based
slide, making sure all lists follow proper principles of listing; I might also
suggest using one humorous slide to help engage your audience
2. A Leave-Behind, a brief one-page handout for your audience that, like
your slides, outlines key points from your talk in a clear, well-designed
way, again making use of doc design principles covered in the course.
Make only ONE leave-behind for me (not 30 for the class!).

Review my slides on Doc Design, plus student samples on CourseSpaces, to

do well on this part of the assignment

Preparing
Content: To help prepare your topic, research and review relevant information online
(including the ENGR 240 Library Research Site), or look through handbooks on
technical communication in my office. To guide you in organizing what you want
to say and how best to deliver it, review my slides and handouts; check websites
on public speaking; observe public speakers and other public figures; go online or
to a public meeting in your area; watch your professors to see what works and
what doesnt.

Although you want to avoid reading a fully prepared speech, you could still draft
one to help you get to know your topic. This is called writing to learnand
knowing a topic is what gives speakers confidence. Drafting a speech could be
part of your preparationbut once you know your topic, through researching it,
writing it, and rehearsing it ahead of time, you should be able to dispense with a
prepared draft. This is called extemporizing, and its what most public speakers
dothough you get to this point only by carefully processing your content till
youve learnt it and are thoroughly familiar with it.

Preparing
Delivery: As youve got only 5-6 minutes, rehearse your presentation ahead of time.
Rehearse aloud, first on your own, then with your teammate. Practice pacing.
Focus on slowing down to let your audience digest what youre saying: well-
timed pauses are key to effective public speaking. Practicing delivery ahead of
time will help you get familiar with what you need to say and make your talk
sound conversational, not stilted.
 Rehearsing ahead of time will not only build confidence and familiarity with the
topic, thus ensuring smooth delivery and flow, it will also ensure that youve
prepared just enough contentnot too much, not too little. Practice aloud, then
do it again. And again.

Organizing
Your Talk Here are some tips for organizing your talk:
Introduce yourself; greet the audience: make strong opening contact.
Present an opening Power Statement and stick to that focus for the rest of
the talk.
Explain why the topic is important and stress this to your audience right
at the outset. (Youll have to believe it yourself to make it convincing . . .)
Divide your topic into several sub-points, and use transitions (first,
second, next, lastly, and so on)
Present specific examples to help illustrate your points and relate them to
real world scenarios
End your talk with a Power Conclusion: mirror the opening Power
Statement and underline how the topic will help your audience succeed in
their careers. End strong: audiences remember the last thing they hear!
Remember to ask the audience for questions
Dont flee when questions are done. Direct some closing remark, thanking
the audience or offering some other comment to acknowledge their time
and attention

Evaluation: Evaluation is based on evidence of preparation (familiarity with the topic;

extemporizing; creating an engaging presentation); informative, relevant
content; clear organization and sequencing; use of transitional signals; effective
delivery (projection; pacing; use of pauses; eye-contact; self-presentation); well-
designed presentation slides and Leave-behind.

Review the Grading Grid below for a breakdown of the assignments

evaluation criteria

See me during office hours for

guidance or assistance as needed
Names: Time:

Engr. 240 Oral Presentations: Evaluation Criteria and Feedback

CRITERIA Yes; Yes; Somewhat; Not really;

Excellent Good Satisfactory Needs
work

Self-Introduction establishes strong audience contact

Clear Power Statement indicates what the audience

can expect to hear about

Topics value or importance is underlined

Handy signaling orients the audience, making the talk

easy to follow

Concrete examples are used to illustrate abstract

points

Strategies have been mapped to make the topic

engaging and interesting, as well as informative

The talk is extemporized (rather than read)

Use of cue cards is unobtrusive

Slides are referred to directly, with the presenters

facing the audience at all times

Slides are relevant, useful, well designed

Concluding recap clearly summarizes key points

Final words underline the value or benefit of the topic

Presenters appear co-ordinated, with effective

transitions

Questions are requested; responses are relevant,

well-expressed

Courteous exit comment to acknowledge the audience

Talk appeared well-prepared overall

Presenters seemed confident, relaxed, personable

All assignment requirements have been meet

DELIVERY

1 = weak 2 = fair 3 = good 4 = very good 5 = excellent

(These do not represent % values)

Pace Projection
Enunciation Modulation for emphasis
Eye-contact Audience contact
Overall Self-presentation

GRADE:
Grade Description
Excellent! Professional presentation in all respects. Confident, relaxed, well-planned, and extemporized
A delivery creates effective rapport with audience; speaker provides an accurate and complete explanation of key
concepts or facts; well-developed explanation of topic with relevant concrete examples; transitional cues
create a seamless flow of ideas; presenters act as a team, establishing strong rapport with the audience;
80-100% questions are handled with confidence and clarity. Speakers DO NOT READ. Speakers use vocabulary and
style appropriate to audience. Excellent visual aids and handout help the audience visualize and remember
important ideas: slides are clear, informative, and well-designed; leave-behind makes excellent use of
document design principles in terms of font, whitespace, headings and listing, outlining key points in a clear,
well-formatted, one-page layout. Audience feels confident that they have fully understood the topic and are
glad they came!

B Good to very good presentation! Generally confident and relaxed, with few to very few references to notes or
cue cards; mostly clear and accurate understanding and explanation of topic with helpful concrete examples;
mostly seamless flow of ideas, but maybe one or two overly-mechanical transitions or occasional loss of
70-79%
direction and fumbling for words; audience may very occasionally feel a bit confused; questions handled well.
Presenters work well together; keeps audience attention; establish rapport. Mostly appropriate vocabulary and
style for the audience. Visual aids (slides; leave-behind) are informative and well-designed for the most part,
though some design elements (eg. font style and size; listing; spacing) may need attention. Audience feels
fairly well informed about your topic, and feel their time was well spent.

C Pretty good presentation, showing good content, but not entirely confident in presenting (stammering,
mumbling, awkward pauses, do not face audience, too quiet, etc) or not sufficiently familiar with topic; topic
explanation may need a bit more clarification or more concrete examples; flow of ideas is mechanical or
60-69%
awkward at times; visuals (slides; leave-behind) could be better organized or designed. Presentation could use
more practice, more thorough understanding of topic, or better visuals. Audience may not feel adequately
informed about your topic, and may have been a bit bored at times.

D Barely competent to fair presentation: content is sketchy or notably short; presenters speak inaudibly or
unclearly at times, losing audience attention; material sometimes inaccurately or unclearly explained;
examples are too vague, unclear, or sometimes inaccurate or entirely absent; flow of ideas is mechanical at
50-59%
best, sometimes jumpy or occasionally difficult to understand. Visuals (slides; leave-behind) need more detail
to make them useful and/ or formatting. Some required criteria may be missing or incorrectly presented.
Vocabulary and style may be either too simple or too technical for the target audience. Audience learns very
little and feels like time has been wasted.

F Information may be inaccurate, imprecisely presented, and/or incoherently organized; presenters may be
difficult or impossible for the audience to understand because of language and/or vocabulary errors, or
because of lack of adequate preparation; visuals/handouts may be lacking, irrelevant, confusing, and/or
0-49%
inaccurate; criteria may be missing; delivery shows a lack of preparation; logic of presentation is not clear.
Presenters fail to give the audience an opportunity to ask questions, or presenter is unable to address questions
with meaningful responses. Listeners have not learned anything valuable about the topic.