English for Academic Purposes Course VV041 SESSIONS II - V A) General Characteristics A1. WHAT IS PUBLIC SPEAKING? WHAT ARE PRESENTATIONS? A2. Discuss the following points: What is the point of a presentation? What are the features of a good presentation? What are the most important don’ts in presentations? A3. TYPES OF PROFESSIONAL PRESENTATIONS Characterise the following types of professional presentations and say which of them you meet most often. 1. INFORMATIVE 2. PERSUASIVE 3. DEMONSTRATIVE 4. GUIDING 5. DIRECTIVE 6. PROCLAMATIVE A4. WHAT IS ACADEMIC PUBLIC SPEAKING? Who? Who is speaking? Who is the audience? What? What is the talking about? Why? Why is the speaking done? A5. WHAT IS POSTGRADUATE ACADEMIC SPEAKING? Find major differences between undergraduate and postgraduate academic speaking. A6. PRESENTATION AS A PROCESS Read the parts of the presentation process below, order them according to how you would proceed from the first step to the last one. 1. preparing the presentation area 2. preparing written notes 3. delivering the presentation 4. structuring the presentation 5. choosing the main idea 6. handling questions 7. research of the topic 8. writing down the speech 9. choosing the topic 10. rehearsing the presentation 11. preparing any audio-visual aids 12. setting aims and objectives 13. audience analysis 14. developing main points and supporting arguments B) PREPARATION B1. TIME MANAGEMENT How do you organise your time when preparing a speaking task? Is there any relation between the length of a presentation you are going to give and the preparation time? B2. TOPIC In general, people agree that it is wise to know WHAT you would like to talk about before you actually start talking. That is why the choice of a topic has usually a clear priority in one’s preparation. Can you choose topics of your presentations or are you usually given one? B3. AIMS and OBJECTIVES Before speakers begin to prepare their presentations, they should decide not only WHAT they would like to talk about but also WHY they should talk about it. In other words, they should know what they want to achieve while paying special attention to the relevant and efficient aims and objectives of the speech. B4. Which of these purpose statements could serve as a basis for a presentation relevant to this course? 1. “I hope to convince the lecturer that the topic ‘My Laptop’ is the best and most scientific one, so that I can get over the presentation part of the course smoothly.” 2. “I plan to show the audience a new web-based language software and convince them about its prominent position on the market, so that they buy it.” 3. “I hope to illustrate the audience one of recent ethnographical approaches to cultural issues related to software development so that they understand the importance of human issues in software quality management.” 4. “I hope to communicate the greatness of free software movement, so that the audience can admire and love it as much as I do.” 5. “I hope to inform the audience about the difference between adaptive order statistics based filters and transform domain filters for image restoration; and agent-based distributed security control system for traffic on the internet. B5. AUDIENCE ANALYSIS Although most will agree that it is vital to know WHAT to talk about and many will support the idea that knowing WHY talking about something is also essential, fewer speakers are aware of the fact the WHO you are going to talk to is equally important. Therefore, it is critical that the preparation efforts include some degree of audience analysis where one should consider at least the following four points: 1. Who are they and how many will be there? 2. What is their knowledge of the subject? 3. Why are they there and what do they expect to learn from me? 4. What are my needs as the speaker? What are their needs as the audience? Carry out an audience analysis for the following examples. a) As a member of a project team, you are going to present a new project in your field to the Dean’s Project Committee (5 people) at the Dean’s Office. (15’) b) As an FI MU student, you are going to present your branch of studies at the Night of Science. (30’) B6. RESEARCH Very often, the most difficult part of the presentation process is actually getting started. After presenters have thought about the presentation topic, the aims and objectives of the speech and about their audience, they have to make the first step - careful background research which consists of two main stages: 1) gathering material 2) selecting information Watch the presentation of Jan Chipchase on mobile phones and discuss the quality of the materials gathered for the presentation and the quality of his information selection. (http://www.ted.com/talks/jan_chipchase_on_our_mobile_phones.html) B7. PREPARING NOTES Most people find notes helpful when giving a presentation because they usually give the speaker confidence. There are various types of notes that different people use; there is one essential thing, though, the speaker must never prepare the script with the intention of reading the whole presentation because it typically ruins all other quality features of the talk and undermines speaker’s credibility. What type of notes do you use and why? B8. REHEARSAL Rehearsal is an essential process of each presentation preparation. Why? How many times should you rehearse? How can you rehearse? C) TITLE C1. When preparing your presentation, it is important not to forget about its title. What is a title? C2. Discuss the most important characteristics of titles from an academic perspective. C3. In academic titles, we typically avoid the following features: 1. redundant words and phrases such as “a study on” or “an investigation of” 2. questionable abbreviations and jargon 3. “cute” or sensational titles 4. being too vague or general C4. Decide which titles could be of high quality from an academic perspective and which could not. Explain your opinion. 1. Information in organisations: a comparative study of information cultures 2. Statistics for ESC in AO, PO and IO 3. Dynamic collaboration 4. An investigation of the use of object-oriented models in requirements engineering practice 5. How Resilience Works 6. The Effect of Institutional Culture on Change Strategies in Higher Education: Universal Principles or Culturally Responsive Concepts? 7. Pretty Feet Hit the Street 8. This is a multiple case study exploring an alternative method of evaluating the effects of ERP. 9. Creative, Convergent, and Social: Prospects for Mobile Computing C.5. Create your own title for your presentation. Discuss the suggestions with the whole group. D) INTRODUCTIONS D1. STRUCTURE GREETING POSITIVE COMMENT NAME POSITION TOPIC / TITLE / SUBJECT PURPOSE OUTLINE TIME AUDIO-VISUAL AIDS QUESTIONS D2. Introductions can become repetitive. It is important to have a choice of words and expressions at your fingertips. Use one of the following expressions to replace each of the expressions in italics in this introduction. don’t hesitate a chance I take care I’m delighted sections divide go through in more depth my purpose is finally Good morning, everyone. If I may have your attention, please? Thank you for coming. It’s a pleasure to be with you today. My name is Ian Cottrell and I’m in charge of the research team communication. We are here today to review the key purposes of the project. So what I intend to do is to break down this presentation into three parts: first, a deeper understanding of the ideology and work practices of free and open source software development, second, the characterization of the free software movement as a new type of computerization movement and, third, a presentation of a conceptual diagram and framework with an analysis showing how the free software computerization movement has evolved into an occupational community. If you have any questions, please feel free to interrupt me, but I should also say there’ll be an opportunity to discuss issues at greater length after my talk. Adapted from: Elliott, M.S., Scacchi, W.(2008): Mobilization of software developers: the free software movement, Information Technology and People:21:1, pp. 4 – 33 E) MAIN BODY E1. STYLE Academic speaking is similar in many ways to academic writing, however, it differs in…… E2. STRUCTURE What are the possible layouts for effective presentations? E3. TRANSITIONS / SIGN POSTING LANGUAGE The primary purpose of a transition is to lead your listener from one idea to another, therefore they form an integral part of a smooth flowing presentation. Yet many speakers forget to plan their transitions. Three common mistakes made when using transitions: - NO TRANSITIONS - TOO SHORT TRANSITIONS - THE SAME TRANSITION THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE SPEECH F) AUDIO-VISUAL AIDS F1. Which audio-visual aids do you use and why? What are their advantages and disadvantages? G) ENDING G1. STRUCTURE SIGNAL TO END SUMMARY CONCLUSION CLOSE INVITATION FOR QUESTIONS G2. Complete the following conclusion with words from the list. comments To sum up argued that’s all issues then listening insight sustainability On the whole currently facilitates Well, __________ I wanted to tell you today. I hope that has given you a reasonable __________ into the area of resilience. __________ here are the most important __________ related to IT-based innovations: First, we __________ that organizational resilience needs to be understood more broadly than is __________ the case in the literature, and __________ we showed how resilience applies across levels of analysis and changes over time in the particular context of adoption of IT-based innovations. __________, I'd like to emphasise that this approach leads to an understanding in which resilience __________ swift and productive adoption of IT-based innovations while at the same time implicates tensions that endanger further diffusion and the long-term __________ of the innovation. Thanks for __________ and if you have any questions or __________, I’ll be happy to answer them. Adapted from: Cho,S., Mathiassen, L., Robey, D. (2007): Dialectics of resilience: a multi-level analysis of a telehealth innovation, Journal of Information Technology, 22, pp. 24–35. H) QUESTIONS The after-presentation discussion is a social situation where the presenter’s role is to encourage the audience to express their opinions and ask questions. Each answer should serve as an invitation for other questions and comments. A polite audience always reacts in some way to what has been said in the presentation. Which different functions of questions can you think of? H1. STRUCTURE INVITE QUESTIONS LISTEN CAREFULLY RIGHT TO THE END WELCOME THE QUESTION REPEAT, PARAPHRASE, OR CLARIFY IF NECESSARY TAKE TIME TO THINK BEFORE ANSWERING ANSWER THE QUESTION RELEVANTLY CHECK WHETHER THE QUESTIONER IS SATISFIED I) DELIVERY I1. VOICE I2. BODY LANGUAGE STANCE FACIAL EXPRESSION EYE CONTACT GESTURES BODY MOVEMENT J) CRITICAL LISTENING and EVALUATION J1. JOHARI WINDOW J2. FEEDBACK GIVING & ACCEPTING FEEDBACK GIVING · GIVEN ON REQUEST Feedback is effective when it is given on request. Both ends should agree with feedback giving. · THE RIGHT TIME AND PLACE Feedback giving needs at least basic privacy and adequate time – it should never be given in a hurry. · DESCRIPTION NOT EVALUATION Feedback describes what a person has done or said, it does not evaluate if it is right or wrong. · BE CONCRFETE, NOT GENERAL Concrete observed situation should be described, feedback does not generalise form the particular situation. · CONSEQUENCES Feedback summaries all reactions of the people involved and/or consequences of a person’s behaviour in the given situation. · BALANCE Positives and negatives should be in balance. FEEDBACK ACCEPTING · LISTEN ACTIVELY It is important to listen carefully and remember (even take notes) the information. · MAKE SURE YOU UNDERSTAND Open questions or asking for more examples can help you to clarify unclear and vague information. · DO NOT DEFEND YOURSELF There is no need to explain why you have done certain thing the way you have. · TAKE TIME FOR EVALUATION It is important to take enough time to think about the information and analyse critically which areas are to be changed and why. · SAY “THANK YOU” Honest and well-given feedback is a useful gift that deserves acknowledgement, even if negatives prevailed.