Managing your project

By this time, you have chosen topics for your group

projects. Each member will present one whole book. You
must read the entire book before presenting!
You should not include too much of biographical
information about the author; you should rather focus
on important issues in the book you have chosen. All
must bring in Islamic perspectives in their discussion.
It is your responsibility to verify information that you
may come across in various sources. Remember what
Malcolm X said:
Allah swt says:
“Believers, if a troublemaker brings you news, check it
first, in case you wrong others unwittingly and later
regret what you have done.” (Qur’an, 49: 6, trans. Abdel
Haleem)

“O YOU who have attained to faith! If any iniquitous

person comes to you with a [slanderous] tale, use your
discernment, lest you hurt people unwittingly and
afterwards be filled with remorse for what you have
done.” (Qur’an, 49: 6, trans. Muhammad Asad)
So my advice:
Please use your discretion when
consulting various sources and
collecting information from
them. Do not believe whatever
you come across in various
materials.
 1. Each presenter will have 5 to 8 minutes. One
may not stop before 5 minutes and may not go
beyond 8 minutes.

 2. As a greeting, 'Assalamu Alaikum....' is enough

since all in the audience are Muslim.

 3. Please note the use of the words 'present' and

'presentation' in the following examples: Our
presentation is on ‘Muslims in Britain.’ Or, we are
presenting ‘Muslims in Britain’. The expression
“we are presenting on ‘Muslims in Britain’ is
wrong.
 4. Please be mindful of the choice of colours of your
slides so that your writing does not become hard on
our eyes and does not give us headache!

 5. Remember there will be a class test on all

presentations. So be attentive when others present
because there may be question/s from their
presentations.

 6. I will divide each section into two clusters. One

cluster will attend presentations during the class-
time, and the other in the evening. It is compulsory
for all members of a cluster to attend all sessions of
that particular cluster. If needed, I will provide excuse
letters.
 7. Please show respect to the presenters by not
talking or whispering to your neighbours during
presentation. In other words, respect them when
they present, as they respect you when you
present: be attentive to what they say.

 8. Within four days of your presentation, you will

need to email me your edited and polished slides.
I will send you instructions on that later.
 9. While presenting before the class, you must put
your ideas in bullet points and do not put too much
text on the pages of your slides. However, after you
have presented and before you email me your
presentation slides, you may edit and expand your
ideas and write in sentences.

 10. Please bear in mind that this is a formal

presentation so do not use informal expressions like
‘guys’ or ‘hi’……….

 11. Please try not to stare at the ‘Lecturer’ during your

presentation because if you do so the ‘Lecturer’ gets
really scared…….! You should look at the entire
audience.
 12. While presenting, try not to read from the slides.
Rather look at the bullet points and then speak to the
audience.

 13. While moving from one page of your presentation

slides to another, please do not keep saying ‘next’,
‘next’, ‘next’…….

 14. Please try to be inclusive when you address the

audience. In other words, use ‘we’ where appropriate.
For example, instead of saying ‘when you are in a
difficult situation you should seek Allah’s help’, it is
better to say: ‘when we are in a difficult situation we
should seek Allah’s help’.
 15. You should not copy and paste from wikipedia
or from any other sources when you prepare your
slides. You need to paraphrase and write in your
own words. If there are traces of plagiarism in
your slides, your marks will be significantly
deducted.

 16. You do not need to circulate any handouts or

hard copies of your presentation to me or to the
class.

 17. If you want to re-emerge after your first

appearance, please inform the audience about
this.
 18. For health reasons, do not stand in front of the ray
of LCD while presenting.

 19. Try not to be too informal, as this is a formal

academic presentation.

 20. Try to make a good synchronization of your spoken

words and physical gestures. Do not stand like a
statue when presenting! Move around and use body
language.

 21. Do not use indecent and inappropriate images in

your slides. Try to maintain decency in choosing
images if you want to do so.
 22. Use only very short video clips if you choose to play
any.