CS595
Professional Ethics and Communication in Computer Science
Spring 2014

Presentation 2

The purpose of this presentation is to give you experience persuading a technically savvy audience to adopt a policy you select. The presentations are to be between fifteen and twenty minutes. This is a substantial range, so I expect each student's talk to be within these time limits, and deviating from these times will be penalized. Questions do not count against your talk's overall time.

Schedule

You must send me a copy of your slides before the end of April 14. I will send you feedback on your slides.

April 16, 21, 28, 30 and March 5 will be used for presentations.

Checkpoint Assessment

Prior to presenting, you will be asked to share a copy of your slides with me. The primary purpose of this is to encourage you to prepare your slides well in advance of the actual date of your presentation, which will allow you time to practice your presentation with your slides.

Your slides will be graded on how effective and how complete they are. Effective slides minimize the amount of text, using the slide primarily to present pictures, movies, and other visual display aids.

Presentation Format

The purpose of this presentation is for you to persuade the audience to take your point of view. In support of that, your presentation should follow this general format.

State the resolution, and make it clear precisely what you are going to be talking about.
Quick outline of your talk
Point out the major arguments as to why one would take the opposite side as you
Discuss why each of the major arguments is problematic, or otherwise incorrect.
Discuss the major arguments as to why one should take your side
Wrap up with a summary of the strongest points, which can be a combination of your strong points, or why your opponent's points are weak.

Presentation Assessment

You will be graded on how effectively you present the material on the topic you selected. Keys to an effective presentation include having the presentation be the correct length (going over or under will be penalized), effectively communicating the important ideas in your topic, and how well you handle yourself in front of the group.

I cannot stress this enough: Practice, Practice, Practice! Practicing will help you to deliver a much better presentation. Practicing will also allow you to precisely control the amount of time your presentation takes, helping you to fit the presentation into the allotted time. Practicing will also help you avoid the awkward, "surprise slide" that sometimes occurs if you have not practiced enough with your final slides.