CJVA2M PRESENTING 1 A. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS Discuss your experience with delivering presentations: 1. On what occasions did you have your presentations? What were the topics? 2. What did you manage to do well during your presentation? 3. What didn’t you manage to do so well? 4. What advice can you give from your experience? 5. Have you ever presented a poster? B. STRUCTURE OF THE PRESENTATION – ASSERTION-EVIDENCE MODEL Where in a presentation (beginning, main body, ending) would you expect these parts? What should they contain? ● Entry point ● Review ● Comprehensive explanation of the key topic ● Establish credibility ● Ending with impact ● A map/outline of the presentation ● Final appeal Exercise: Watch the presentations using the link below, and find out how the presenters introduce their topics. How did the last speaker establish her credibility? https://www.assertion-evidence.com/models.html (0:00-1:25 Andrew, Holy; -0:56 Nicole) Exercise: Watch another presentation about TeX and note down a) the way the speaker establishes his credibility b) how the speaker makes his points in the main body. Delivering as a non-native speaker (http://www.nature.com/scitable/ebooks/english-communication-for-scientists-14053993/118520916#book ContentViewAreaDivID ) Exercise: Read the conclusion part and identify its three subsections. So, what to remember? TeX is a markup programming language. And that may very well scare you away, but if you get through the unavoidable learning curve, then you’ll get power, flexibility, reliability. And you want to know one more thing? TeX is free. That’s exactly why so many of you haven’t heard of it. There is nobody out there to promote it commercially. And that means that right after this presentation you can all go back to your offices, download it, install it. And if you call yourself a scientist, try it. Chances are you too will love it. C. TOPIC SELECTION Students are expected to create a presentation covering “specific problems/questions/issues in an engaging way”. One of the most common mistakes considering presentations is that students choose too broad topics and they treat them in a superficial way, i.e. the information they provide is way too general. There are some examples of successful topics from previous semesters: - How Archivists Bring Historical Documents to Your Computer Screen - A Short History of Brewing in Brno - The Early Days of Video Art - Heraldry: A Dying Art, or a New Direction for Graphic Design? - Some Surprising Recent Applications of Gamification - Key Differences Between the Ancient and Modern Olympic Games - Translation “Anti-Awards”: Who “Won” This Year? - Popularizing Czech History: Successes and Difficulties - Do Animals Attempt Suicide? - Comparing Four Important Translation Strategies Exercise: Improve the following very broad and unsuitable topics. Narrow them down using the given example. EXAMPLE Too broad: Archeology in Czech Republic Better: Archeology in Brno Much better: Some Recent Exciting Archeological Discoveries in Brno Singapore Culture Shock Napoleon Bonaparte Points of Interest in Poland Montessori Schools Stanford Prison Experiment Karel Čapek D. PURPOSE STATEMENT By stating your presentation’s purpose in the first few minutes, you shape your audience’s expectations. You also make a commitment to achieving that purpose. This adds to your credibility as a speaker. Exercise: Only one of these sentences serves as a good purpose statement for a presentation relevant to this course. How could the others be modified to make them more suitable? a) “My purpose is to persuade the teacher that the topic ‘My Hometown’ is the best and most scientific one, so that I can pass the presentation part of the exam.” b) “My purpose is to illustrate the impact* of Brexit on the Czech Republic in light of student mobility.” c) “My purpose is to inform the audience about concepts of feminism in Great Britain, the USA, France, Italy, and Spain, all compared to Czech feminism, so that they understand the situation in this country.” d) “My purpose is to communicate the greatness of ancient philosophy, so that others can admire it as much as I do.” Exercise: Brainstorm verbs that are appropriate/inappropriate for purpose statements. E. THE QUESTION OF FORMALITY and ACADAMIC ENGLISH Exercise. Rate the sentences below on a scale from 1 to 5, where 1 is completely informal and 5 is extremely formal. Think of more examples for 1 - 5: 1 Dude, do you wanna come over to my house to watch movies later? 2 Would you like to watch a movie later? 3 Would you be interested in purchasing a guarantee with your new phone? 4 It’s unclear why the organizers tolerated the problem for so long. 5 You know, the homework is a lot harder than it looks. 6 According to many students, the assignment was much more difficult than it first appeared. 7 Can I get a cheeseburger and fries? Exercise. Listen to Martin Hewings in a coursebook promotion video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29nizxc8k5k ) and take notes on the following: 1. What is the main difference between vocabulary used in general English and academic English? 2. Which academic skills are mentioned? 3. According to Martin Hewings, what is the most important academic skill? 4. What does he say about the usage of „I“ in various disciplines? Exercise. What do you think are the most common errors in written academic English? Work in pairs/small groups to make a list. Exercise.Then watch the following video make notes and compare your answers to what is said in the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZQgd2sPxpk F. REVISION Exercise: Brainstorm some general Do’s and Don’ts for presenting. DO DO NOT