English 550.001 - Comparative Grammar
Edwin Duncan - Spring 2010

GRADUATE CREDIT ORAL REPORT ASSIGNMENT

The oral report, along with the research paper, is a requirement for graduate credit in English 550. Performance on the oral report is not graded separately. Instead, it is figured into the research paper grade to produce a combined result accounting for 20% of the course grade.

Assignment:

Using your own experience and information gathered for your research report, present a ten- to fifteen-minute talk to our grammar class on your research paper topic.

Visual Aids:

Since verbal presentations are more difficult to follow when they are presented orally, a simple list of the main areas of your discussion listed on a handout or the blackboard may be helpful to your audience. Other visual aids, such as graphs, tables, charts, or objects, may also be helpful if they apply to your subject. If you need any audio-visual equipment for your presentation, please let me know in advance.

Your Audience:

You'll be addressing a group of people who are not strangers. All of them know you by sight, and many of them know you by name. Without it altering the tone of your discussion or the informative purpose of your presentation, keep this relationship with your audience in mind, and act accordingly. Assume that your audience will know little about your specialized area of research. However, since many in your audience are current or future teachers and all know something about grammar, assume that they will be interested in what your have to say about your topic and will also be sympathetic to you personally.