Choose a topic that you believe will be of interest to other members of the class. It may be professionally related but doesn't have to be. Your talk may be informative, persuasive or entertaining (Of course it may be all of these at the same time, but should have a dominant purpose). For example, you may choose to provide a briefing (about some new technological development or some event of interest to you), or a story, a short lecture, a demonstration, or even an inspirational piece. If your talk is informative, it may demonstrate, define, teach or explain. If it is persuasive, it may convince, refute, redefine, sell, or motivate. If you choose to tell a story, your purpose may be to entertain or it may have a persuasive or educational bent to it.
Plan your talk to be between 3-4 minutes long with an additional minute allowed for questions (maximum of 5 minutes in all). The presentations will be strictly timed and will not be allowed to exceed the time limit.
Visual aids will be helpful if they are visible and enhance the presentation. They may also direct attention away from yourself, if this is a consideration. The best presentations, I think you will agree from having listened to many, are those where the presenter simply talks to the audience. Using this as your model, try to restrict any notes to one or two 3x5 index cards.
If you wish, two people may join together to do a presentation as a team. If it is a team of two, you will have 7 minutes, but it doesn't have to be equally divided (although each person must say something).
Two weeks before the talk (on Apr. 3), turn in or email me your selected topic (The experts suggest you give your talk a title to help you think about it) and tell me whether your talk will be informative, persuasive or entertaining. There will be a sign-up sheet on my bulletin board outside my office door for you to sign up for one of the three presentation dates: Apr. 10, Apr. 15, Apr. 17.
I will provide a feedback form for some of the audience to provide feedback to you on your presentation and a separate form to you for you to evaluate your own performance. Please turn in one week after your presentation a 1-2 page analysis of your presentation, the response from your fellow students, and your sense of how you will try to improve your presenting ability in the future. Your presentation will not be graded but the analysis will be worth 10% of your final grade.