English 497 Project 5

Rhetorical Context. You should assume that our class is an interested audience but not a technical one, such as the audience at a large conference or a meeting of managers. As such, you must introduce your listeners to your problem and discuss your project in terms that intelligent lay people can understand. Remember that your listeners will tune out if your talk is EITHER too technical or too superficially general.

Contents

Most talks in academics and industry are of two kinds: progress reports or problem-solving stories. Accordingly, your talk may be based on either your progress report or your final report, depending on when in the semester you give it. In either case, the talk should contain the following components:

1. a compelling statement of the problem

2. a review of the steps you have taken to address the problem

3. the major results--so far

4. the implications--or future work

Talks are generally times to tell a story of your current or completed work toward solving a problem. They are not travelogues. Leave out the detours and shortcuts. Focus on the big picture and the bottom line, not on excruciating details of method and results.

The success of a talk often depends on visuals both to outline the talk and to show results. You should either plan to provide handouts or to use the overhead projector. We will discuss strategies for these visual aids in class.

Evaluation Criteria

Does the talk give a good overview of the project?

Were the visuals appropriately chosen and designed (i.e., uncluttered and accessible)?

Was the talk smoothly presented?

Due Dates? We will schedule the presentations during the last five weeks of class.

English 497 Assignment 5

Select a journal, magazine, house organ (I will supply many examples in class) that publishes work on topics related to your proposal (paper #1) or whose readers would be interested in the latest developments in your field. This magazine, newspaper, or journal should be carefully edited and technically accurate: but its audience is not researchers but the informed general public. Again, look for a statement of guidelines for authors: xerox it and submit it with your article. Include as well a sample bibliographic page so that I can see the conventions for documentation followed by the journal.

Evaluation Criteria

1. Does your article fit the conventions of the journal you chose in focus, tone, style, documentation, graphics? Is your sense of audience appropriate?

2. Does the article highlight an interesting question or problem and show how you have investigated or solved it?

3. Does the article present technical information at the appropriate depth of explanation, including graphic aids as appropriate?