Week 4: Presentation

Overview

Prepare a brief (3-minute) sales presentation that you will deliver to the class next week. Pick a topic that you can adequately present in the time-limit and that will showcase the various skills that we have discussed in class. Unless the instructor approves otherwise, assume that your audience is the class itself. Keep the following things in mind:

Examples

• Persuading the audience that the store brand item is as good as the name brand

• Persuading the audience that the more expensive, long-life light bulb is actually the better buy

• Persuading the audience to invest in a certain mutual fund

• Persuading the audience to buy textbooks from a certain source

• Persuading the audience to adopt a particular exercise regimen

Tips

• Remember you only have 3 minutes. Make careful choices. For example, don't try to convert us to Shintoism in three minutes--you don't have enough time.

• Keep it simple. Find a simple, believable, real product that you're sold on and sell it to us.

• Have fun and remember the importance of psycho-logic. Don't just use logic; use a wide variety of appeals to get our attention and move us to the conclusion.

• Identify the key issues in your audiences mind.

• Consider the motivated sequence. Using it is not a requirement, but I rarely see a speech without it that would not have been better with it.

Time Limit

The time limit for this presentation is 3 minutes. I will let you know when you have reached the time limit, but I will not give any advance warning (you wouldn't get one on the job). 

Don't get phobic about the time limit. It's simply another part of meeting an audience's expectations. I impose these time limits to teach you communicative discipline and to better manage the class.

I do not give any penalty for going under-time, but I begin to assess a penalty for presentations that go more than 30 seconds over the time limit. That penalty can vary depending on how well the student does on the presentation overall, but it may be as much as one-third of a letter grade for every 30 seconds over the time limit. For example, if a student goes 5 minutes for a 3 minute speech, he would be 1 1/2 minutes overtime and may loose as much as a full letter grade (1 third for every 30 seconds). I usually don't take off that much, but that's the benchmark I use.

Week 4-7: Present Report, depending on size of class. Check with instructor.

Overview

Each student will be required to read at least one outside book for this class and prepare a 1-2 page written report to be given to the entire class along with a brief oral report. In most cases, the instructor will provide the book for the student. The student may substitute a text other than those suggested by the instructor with the instructor’s prior approval. See a list of books.

The student should approach these reports as he would a report on the job, that is, giving essential information and analysis for others who do not have the time to read the material. However, these reports should be more than merely informative; they should evaluate and critique the book relative to the topics we will discuss in class. A successful book report will give a brief overview of the book’s material, but will primarily focus on analysis. It should demonstrate that the student understands the author’s arguments and is able to evaluate them.

Tips

• Ten minutes may sound like a lot. But you are summarizing a whole book. Be selective in what you choose to say. Summarize. Synthesize. Boil it down to the essentials.

• If you find yourself with a report that gives a chapter by chapter summary of the book, stop! You're going down the wrong road. If you were sitting in front of your boss giving him a summary of an important book in your field, he wouldn't sit still long enough to hear you say anything past, "And chapter two is about . . . ." This isn't high school. Tackle the authors ideas. Get under the hood of the book and see how well it runs. Don't be passive (Look at all the metaphors I've thrown at you in this paragraph to get my point across! Do you get the point? If not, talk to me. I want you to learn from this assignment).

• The best book reports not only grapple with the author's ideas, they also deal with the communication issues we raise in class. Most of these authors have assumptions about communication that they may not make explicit. Bring them to the surface and critique them. Are they in line with what we've discussed in class? Do you agree with them?

• Remember your audience. Your goal is to get us interested in the issues the book raises, even if it does it poorly. Give us a good review.

• In short, make connections—between the class ideas and the book, between your experience and the authors, between the audience and the text and your interpretation.

Time Limit

The time limit for the oral presentation is 10 minutes. See my previous comments on how I approach time limits.

Week 6: Précis Due

Week 8: Presentation

On the day of the presentation itself, there is not standard written requirement. This will be negotiated between the student and instructor prior to the presentation.

Overview

The final research project for this class is a persuasive presentation the form and content of which will be negotiated with the instructor after the third week of class. The purpose of this negotiation is to find a topic that will meet the requirements of the course and also be of practical benefit to the student. In other words, the student should determine how this assignment can best improve his or her communication skills and should tailor it to meet his or her needs with the instructor's guidance. Students generally get more from this assignment if it becomes a practice situation for a real-world communication situation they are facing. This is your chance to choose your own assignment. Make it work for you.

While the requirements for this assignment are rather broad, there are several guidelines that may help you choose a topic. 

• The best topics are real-world topics, something that you are experiencing at work or in your community. Try not to make something up. 

• In addition, you may target this presentation for an audience other than your class. We can "role-play" your co-workers, investors, board of directors, county council. You can select another communication situation if you wish.

• The format or media for this presentation is usually an oral presentation in front of a group, but that formula can vary. It may be mostly a written message, if that is most appropriate. It may be a one-on-one sales presentation. It can take different forms. You should discuss these issues with the instructor.

You should be prepared to discuss possible topics and approaches with the instructor on week 3. By week 6 (at the latest), you should have given the instructor, in writing, a précis of not more than 1 page that discusses the following items:

• Topic

• Purpose (be specific)

• Target Audience

• Issues

• Basic Outline

• Preferred Medium (oral, written, etc)

• Length

The instructor will coach you on your choices based on this précis. 

On the day of the actual presentation, you do not need to hand in any additional materials to the instructor unless they are part of your presentation (letter, handouts, etc.). Be prepared to give the class a brief description of the communication situation you have chosen before you leave your seat to give your presentation.

Examples

• As the ROTC Director of a small private college, you are persuading the faculty in the athletic department to take advantage of ROTC scholarships to bring additional athletes to the school

• You are persuading the managers of your high-tech company that the increasing stringency of the particulate standards in the clean room is excessive and should be held to government standards.

• You are persuading a group of medical equipment sales people not to sell tele-radiology products at this time.

• You are persuading members of your church board to begin a small college scholarship program for the church's young people.

• You are persuading the county council not to change the zoning in your neighborhood.

• As a pharmaceuticals sales person, you are planning a campaign to persuade local radio stations to announce to pollen count on behalf of one of your allergist customers.

• You are persuading the head of a high school cafeteria to purchase her kitchen equipment from your restaurant supply company.

Tips

• Again, manage your time carefully.

• Your goal isn't simply to get a good grade. Your goal is to learn. If you work hard to learn with this project, you will get a good grade anyway.

• Put some thought into the topic. Choose a situation you are actually facing at work or that you may face soon.

• Choose a real situation instead of one that's contrived. Reality is easier to sell. This isn't a course in fiction.

• Remember all the things we've discussed in the class about effective communication strategies. Make them work in this presentation. Consider the audience's issues; use structure persuasively; try repetition; choose your words carefully.

• Again, consider the motivated sequence.

Time Limit

The time limit for this presentation will be negotiated with the instructor. Typically, these presentations are 10 to 15 minutes depending on the situation and the size of the class. See my previous comments on how I approach time limits.