City Tech OpenLab



COM 3401

Business and Professional Communication Final Presentation Assignment

A 6 to 8 minute Oral Presentation

Overview:

The final presentations in this class are modeled after the Informative Speech assignment in COM 1330 Public Speaking, with some main differences. It is expected that your final presentations in Business and Professional Communication (which count as your oral exam) have a more formal, professional style. You are being judged on three criteria: The content of your speech; your presentation of that content; and your speaking outline.

Thinking about this assignment

We are often audiences for informative speaking: we watch cooking demonstrations on the food network, attend orientation sessions for new students or new employees, participate in classes and workshops, or find ourselves in tour groups. In professional settings, oral presentations are given during business meetings, conferences and other events. They are generally supposed to be more polished and formal than the average informative speech.

Informative speakers succeed when they are excited about the content, know it well, and make the subject important and beneficial to the audience. You should begin work on the speech by asking yourself, “What am I interested in? Involved with? What do I know a great deal about?” Keep in mind that the purpose of this class is to focus on communication in the workplace, therefore your speech should address some topic pertaining to your major, degree program, and chosen profession.

Once you have a topic, ask yourself, “What can I say or do that will share my excitement in my knowledge with the audience?” and “Why should the audience be interested in this?” and “How can I research this topic more?” Don’t pick a topic that is too broad. Always keep in mind that you are supposed to provide some information that will be of real value to your audience, even if they are on an entirely different educational and career path.

The purpose of this speech is informative, but you must also persuade the audience (through your content and performance) that you are worth listening to and learning from. This involves finding common ground and establishing your credibility through research. Dull, dry speeches are expressly forbidden!

Objectives of this assignment

Content

• To conduct internet and library research.

• To support a clear one sentence thesis (central idea).

• To utilize at least three (but no more than five) different kinds of supporting material, cited properly in three places (in-text; in the Works Cited section of your outline; and out loud while you are speaking).

• To use appropriate, professional looking visual aids with minimal text. (Reading your presentation off of the slides is not allowed.)

• To provide specific examples (facts, stories, etc.) to illustrate your claims

• To support your claims with evidence from outside sources (articles, websites, books, or interviews) as well as your own experience.

• To craft a presentation that is appropriate to the topics and themes covered in this course relating to communication in work-related settings.

• To use the most unique and interesting facts for an interesting, compelling presentation.

• You should impart to the audience some new information that will improve their understanding.

Outline

• To craft and deliver the speech using a speaking outline with an intro, body and conclusion that closely corresponds to your oral presentation.

• To organize your speech by closely following the model outlines provided.

• To provide a well written, well-organized, proof-read outline, free of spelling, grammar and punctuation errors.

Delivery

• Your presentation must be delivered extemporaneously, meaning not simply read off of a script.

• While the script doesn’t need to be memorized entirely, avoid looking at your paper too much.

• Your style of presentation should be enthusiastic while appropriately poised with a business and professional audience in mind.

• Avoid an overly informal style of delivery.

• Your presentation should be well rehearsed, free of “filler words” such as “um” and “ah.”

• All the principles of good public speaking (including eye contact, tone of voice, gestures, etc.) should be demonstrated.

• Your appearance should be impeccable, wearing an outfit you would wear to a job interview.

NOTE: Failure to meet any of these objectives will result in a grade of C or below.

Steps to building an informative speech

1) Choose a subject area based on your major, course of study, career goals and/ or intended profession.

• Include specific examples from your education and work experience

• Choose a topic that isn’t too broad.

• Focus on communication issues.

2) Conduct research on this topic.

• You should consult a wide variety of sources: newspapers, magazines, journals, brand-name websites, and books.

• Remember to gather examples, stories, rich illustrations, and statistics. Use the evidence to ground your claims in fact. Cite your sources within the outline, at the end of the outline in the “Works Cited” section, and verbally as you are giving the speech.

• Remember to include specific examples from your own experiences as well, although these don’t need to be cited and they don’t count towards the source requirements.

3) Adapt the topic and information to the audience.

• Ask yourself the question “why should my audience be interested in this?”

• Although topic selection starts with you, your thesis statement should reflect the benefits of your speech to the audience.

• Remember to explain any culturally specific words or technical terms. Remember, your audience may not have the same interests as you.

• Although you may find it interesting, you always need to find ways to persuade the audience that your presentation is worth listening to and will benefit them. In this sense, there is a rhetorical or persuasive aspect to the informative speech.

4) Choose suitable visual aids using Microsoft PowerPoint

• Keep it simple.

• Absolutely no long passages of text/ long bullet lists on the slides.

• If your slides contain text at all, confine the text to labels/ names or up to three short bullet points.

• Let each visual aid relate directly to the point you are discussing.

• Consider having only a few slides, with colorful photos, models and charts/ graphs.

o Charts and graphs must be explained. Tell the audience exactly what each axis represents, pointing directly to the elements on the screen you are talking about. Explain exactly what you believe that your chart or graph illustrates.

• If you are using a prop or object, place it securely on a surface while talking about it. NEVER pass it around the room, because this is distracting.

• DO NOT use flashy animations, animated gifs, or animated transitions because these distract from your oral presentation.

• Remember that your presentation is mostly about you, your content and presentation. Visual aids should assist you in presenting but should not be the main focal point.

• Remember that sometimes, when it comes to visual aids, “less is more.”

5) Include at least three different kinds of support material from three different sources.

• In other words, your three sources can’t all be from one website.

• Use a diversity of sources including online newspaper articles, online magazine articles, books and even in-person interviews.

• Always ‘back up’ your claims by providing specific examples. These examples be hypothetical; they can come from your own experience; and they can come from outside research. But any facts outside of your own experience must be cited meticulously in three places (according to APA style):

The three places to cite your sources:

I. In-text, meaning, immediately after you mention an outside source on your outline. In-text citing means that, after each fact you type, put the author and year in brackets (Lee, 2015) immediately after it so that your reader can look up your complete sources in the “Works Cited” section at the end of your outline. If your source doesn’t have an author, you may use the title (of the webpage) or the first few words of the title, in quotation marks. For example:

According to UNAIDS, Namibia has around 260 K people infected with HIV (“Namibia” no date).

II. In the Works Cited section. The Works Cited section is also known as the References or Bibliography. In this section you list all of your outside sources (at least 3, but no more than 5). However, unlike In-text citations, the citations in your Works Cited must contain, at minimum, all of the following details:

Author’s Name; Date; Title of Article or Webpage; Title of Website; Newspaper, Magazine or Other Source; Retrieved from: URL

For example:

Parker-Pope, T. (2008, May 6). Psychiatry handbook linked to drug industry. The New York Times. Retrieved from 

Note: If there is no author or date, you must include:

“Title of Webpage” (no date). Title of Website. Retrieved from: URL

For example:

“Namibia” (no date). UNAIDS (Countries). Retrieved from:

III. Finally, you should say your source out loud while you are speaking. This is to help establish your credibility in the eyes and ears of your audience. The rules here are not as strict. You don’t need to include all of the information about your source. Instead, you can mention the name of the publication, organization or website.

6) Prepare your outline.

• All of your key information should be included on the outline, although it doesn’t have to be written out in full sentences. You should the key phrases in full sentences, with (quotation marks around them) on your outline but when you go into a story or anecdote you can summarize, briefly, what the story or anecdote is about and what it illustrates (see my model outline on health com).

• It is expected that your outline will contain ALL of the components provided on the model outlines (including, for example, an Introduction where you grab the audience’s attention; state your topic and thesis; establish yourself as credible; give a preview, etc. etc. etc.)

7) Revise your outline.

• Now that you have a draft of your outline, practice saying it a few times. Now consider, how to make it even better. How can you simplify the thesis into one, clearly written sentence? Does the speech seem consistent? Or are you talking about two completely unrelated topics? Do you provide transitions or segues that lead the audience unabruptly into the next part of your speech? Study the outline checklist at the end of the Blank Outline provided. Does your outline meet all of the requirements on that checklist? Study the evaluation form. Does your outline have what it takes to meet those criteria? Revise and revise, again and again.

8) Rehearse!

• You should rehearse your speech, at minimum, three times out loud. Try practicing in front of the mirror; recording a video of yourself on your phone; and speaking in front of your family and friends.

• Time your speech and make sure that your speech is within the 6-8 minute time limit! NOTE: Presentations that are less than five minutes or more than nine minutes are considered unacceptable and will receive a letter grade of F.

*This assignment was adapted from SPC 2600, A Student Handbook. 2008, Catawba Publishing

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