Instructions on Term-Paper Presentations

ENGL 3373

Modern English Syntax

Dr. Min-Joo Kim

In this course, in addition to writing the final paper, you'll also be sharing your research findings by giving an in-class presentation on them. And here are my suggestions on how to give the best possible presentation you can give in this course.

Note: Your presentation will be graded based largely on how closely you follow these instructions as well as the evaluation criteria stated in the course syllabus.

1. Length: Your presentation will be 10 minutes long in total: 7 minutes for the talk and 3 minutes for the Q&A. You must prepare your presentation with this time restriction in mind and practice your talk so that you won't go over time. That said, going undertime will also lower your grade  since it'll be taken to suggest that you have not done much research to present on your paper as yet.

2. Handout: You're welcome to use powerpoint but your presentation must also be accompanied by a 1-2 paged, audience-friendly handout (please bring 20 hard copies). Your handout must be concise but should list all the key points of your paper and contain some linguistic data that will help illustrate the points you’re making, modeling after the Lecture Notes  I have provided for this course. Additonally, there must be full bibliographic information on some of the key works you're citing in your paper.

3. Delivery: You don’t have to dress up for this occasion but your presentation has to be done in a professional manner, and this applies to the decorum you use also.

4. Organization: Well-organized talks are easier to follow than unorganized ones, so  try to make your presentation as well organized as possible. And to this end, I suggest that you divide your presentation into 3-4 different subparts, with a clear introduction, the main part, discussion/analysis, and/or conclusion parts of the paper, although this may vary depending on the content/topic of your paper. Note: You can use the same format for your final papers.