Oral Assignment 1

The first oral presentations begin Thursday, September 18. This presentation should be about one minute long. If the presentation turns out to take 45 to 90 seconds, that is fine. But don't take this as permission to prepare for only 45 seconds: You're likely to speak at a different rate when in front of an audience. (For reference, in one minute of reading from Rodriguez' book, I found that I read 180 words.)

The subject of your presentation is to be a story - any story, whether about yourself or somebody else, as long as the words are your own. (You might choose a story from your first essay.) I encourage you to choose a story that will interest your classmates. Feel free to be funny; and feel free to be dramatic.

The assignment objectives are for you to become more comfortable speaking in front of a class and for us to catch possible mechanical problems before later, more significant presentations. To reduce the pressure, I have assigned only 20 points to your grade on this presentation. I will not judge the content of this presentation at all. Instead, I will be asking questions like the following: Do you show evidence of being adequately prepared? Do you speak effectively to all of your audience? Are you speaking loudly and distinctly enough for them to understand? Are you speaking at an appropriate speed? Do you have any distracting verbal or visual habits? Is the presentation the right length?

You may present from memory or read from paper or notecards. If you read, then you need to be aware of the potential pitfalls with engaging your audience (maintaining eye contact and inflecting your voice appropriately).

I've randomly assigned students to the three scheduled days for presentations as follows. We'll do presentations at the beginning of the class periods.

Thursday, September 18 Monday, September 22 Wednesday, September 24
Hennek, Carrie
Minck, Andrew
Bauck, Bryan
Wegscheid, Amy
Hanson, Joseph
Suess, Courtney
Huisman, Chelsey
Schmitz, Nicole
Gunness, Lucy
Bergen, Timothy
Konold, Patrick
Hellier, Luke
Paisley, Michael
Paul, Fred
Stai, Krista
Collins, Ryan
Lovgren, Matthew
Christensen, Ashley