T Feb 21- Draft of academic presentation due; upload drafted script and presentation materials to your forum folder by 12noon.

T Feb 21 & W Feb 22 - Dress rehearsal of presentations by individual assignment.

W Feb 22 (sec 3) & F Feb 24 (sec 8) - Peer Review of drafted presentations

Su Feb 26 - Revised presentation materials due: upload revised script, other presentation materials, and cover memo to your forum folder by 11:59pm

Week of Feb 27 in class - Delivery of Academic Presentations in class: presentation schedule posted online and sent via e-mail by 7am on Monday February 27.

The academic presentation should be approximately 8 minutes in length (you have a one minute buffer on either side, but presentations less than 7 minutes long or longer than 9 minutes will be penalized).

Your presentation should include multimedia (some use of technology that may or may not include PowerPoint). Be sure to post your Cover Memo (approximately of 300 words) with your revised presentation.

The academic research presentation is worth 30% of your overall grade to the class.

For your presentation, you must clearly convey your research argument to your audience through use of strong oral rhetoric augmented by multimedia support. You should make strategic use of rhetorical appeals, should make an argument appropriate to your context and rhetorical situation, and should utilize the five canons of rhetoric effectively.

Remember this presentation will be seen by at least two audiences: groups from the other section (who will peer review your draft) and the members of your own section (who will watch the revised version). Keep in mind both audiences (one familiar with your topic and prior presentation, and one coming to your topic fresh) as you decide upon the most effective way to structure your argument.

The cover memo is your opportunity to reflect on your process and rhetorical strategies in approaching this assignment. It can be informal in voice, but nevertheless should be clear, detailed, well-organized, and approximately 300 words long.

You should consider this memo to be a preface to your final, academic presentation. Here's what should be included in your cover memo (not necessarily in this order):

• A reflection on the process of developing your academic presentation: In completing this reflection, you would take into account the process of moving from written discourse (research paper draft) to oral discourse; the revisions you had to make to argument, language and content to accommodate this shift; the results of peer review and OCT meetings; and the process of revision.
• Reference to your trials and triumphs in creating this presentation, including tech inspirations or obstacles, questions of voice or delivery, moments of epiphany, reflections on practice sessions, etc.
• Discussion of how rhetoric factored into your work on this assignment (this part may very well be integrated with the earlier ones). Describe how your understanding of rhetorical appeals (pathos, logos, ethos), kairos, the five canons of rhetoric, and/or the rhetorical situtation factored into your drafting and revising of the presentation.

Some of these sections may be more developed than others, depending on your project. Your goal here is to give me an introduction to this presentation as a piece of research, writing, and rhetoric; however don't forget to use specific and concrete language and example in writing your memo.

Presentations will be graded based on the following criteria:

• Oral argument (clear & persuasive topic, thesis, and argument; appropriate and ethical use of source material to support argument; attention to time limitations; clear structure)
• Style (consistent use of high, medium or low style as appropriate; effective use of rhetorical strategies [narration, example, cause-effective, process, definition, division/classification] to structure argument; attention to oral style [see Lunsford-parallelism, repetition, climactic order, signposting, intros & conclusions-use as appropriate]; effective implementation of rhetorical appeals)
• Rhetorical situation (effective assessment of audience-text-author dynamic for presentation; effective assessment of kairos)
• Multimedia (appropriate choice of multimedia [i.e. props, plasma screens, laptops, poster, whiteboard, PowerPoint, Explorer, etc.]); appropriate relation to oral argument; effective design and implementation; "grace under fire" i.e. dealing with tech glitches smoothly
• Delivery (pacing, vocal intonation & projection, use of voice for emphasis)
• Embodied rhetoric (purposeful gesture and demeanor, appropriate dress, use of classroom space)
• Memory (comfortable with material; discrete use of an mnemetic aids; ability to improvise or adjust speech as needed)

Please also note:

Cover memo - there will be a 1/4 grade deduction for failure to post cover memo (i.e. from a B+ to a B/B+)

Time requirements - there will be a 1/2 grade deduction for a presentation that is more than 1 minute under or more than 1 minute over the 8 minute time limit (i.e. from a B+ to a B)

Missing presentation - there will be a 1/2 grade deduction for skipping presentation date (without e-mailing ahead of time)

For your presentation, you should review Lunsford & Ruszkiewicz, "Spoken Arguments" as well as Envision, chapter 7. Review the Presentation Tips and PowerPoint pages on our class wiki. You might also opt to attend the Advanced PowerPoint workshop on Thursday, February 16.

Feel free to e-mail me, IM me, or talk to me in class if you have any questions. What are your questions about this assignment? Let me know ...