Informative Presentation 1 AssignmentPrepare a four- to five-minute speech about the topic you have been assigned, keeping in mind the four general purposes of informative presentations: to describe, toinstruct, to explain, or to report. The preparation (sentence) outline is worth 100 points and must be turned in through Blackboard by the deadline for you to receivecredit for any part of the presentation. The presentation is worth 150 points. Your self evaluation (see the back of this sheet for the questions) is worth 50points.Requirements:1. The speech must be four to five minutes in length. Be sure to sufficiently narrow your topic so you can cover your main points in the time limit. For each 10seconds you are under 4 minutes, you will lose 1 point off your score. You will not be allowed to speak for more than 5 minutes.2. You should use a variety of supporting materials (e.g., definitions, examples, statistics, studies, testimony, comparison, contrast, anecdotes, etc.) in yourspeech. You cannot use a visual aid or technology (e.g., PowerPoint) for this speech.3. You must research your topic, finding information from books and articles accessed via the librarys databases. You may have no more than one website as asource (articles from databases are not from websites), and that website must be demonstrably credible. Refer to the Guidelines for the Use of Sources handout andthe librarys tutorials for more information.4. You need to orally cite at least three credible sources in your speech. You must have a minimum of five citations from those sources. Not citing sources willresult in a grade no higher than 70%; not having all of the required three sources and five citations will affect your grade to a lesser extent. As the speaker, youare not a source. You may use personal anecdotes and experiences, but those are not citations from academic sources.5. You must speak extemporaneously, rather than write out your speech and read it. You should prepare a speaking outline, which will differ from the outline youhand in, on note cards before the day you present. If I see you preparing note cards in the classroom on presentation day, I will deduct 20 points from your speechgrade. You may have a maximum of five note cards with you at the lectern.6. By the deadline stated on the syllabus, you must upload a typed self-evaluation of your presentation (minimum one page) to Blackboard. See the next page forthe questions you can use as a guide (do not use the questions from the self introduction assignment sheet). Be sure to spell check and proofread your paper. Formatit using Microsoft Word and the Paper Format Guidelines in the syllabus.Guidelines for the Use of SourcesThe quality of the information you find during your research, your ability to integrate the information into your presentation, and the correctness of the citationsyou provide (both orally in your presentations and in writing on your outline) comprise a large part of your grade for each presentation. You will not earn a passinggrade for a presentation if you disregard the requirements for and restrictions on sources.To clarify, a source is any place you get information from. Examples of sources include books, magazine articles, journal articles, experts you have interviewed,pamphlets, television shows, and web sites. A database is not a source; its a tool for finding sources.A citation is the sentence that appears on your outline and that you say in your speech that references the information you acquired from the source. The citationshould name the source, including, as appropriate, the authors name, the name of the article, the name of the publication, and the date of publication.
Source: New York Times
Citation: According to Beth Frerkings April 2007 article For Achievers, A New Destination in the New York Times, Big as it is, with four fullcampuses in two counties, Valencia prides itself on individual attention, especially for new arrivals.Notes:
Your best option for finding credible, reliable sources is to use the online databases to which you have access because you are a Valencia student. Valenciapays for access to these databases because they allow you to access information electronicallywhich means quickly and accurately. Information from databases is notto be confused with information from the World Wide Web. Databases house electronic versions of newspaper, magazine, and journal articles that have appeared in print.In general, these articles have been written by professional writers, have been copy-edited and peer-reviewed for accuracy, and have bibliographies.
General encyclopedias and dictionaries are not considered sources in this class. They can, however, provide basic background information that you can use as astarting point for further research. Although you will find titles such as Funk and Wagnalls New Encyclopedia and World Book Online available in the librarysdatabase listing, you cannot include these in the required number of sources or citations for a speech. You may use one specialized encyclopedia (such as GaleEncyclopedia of Cancer) as a source; consult me with questions about what encyclopedias qualify as specialized.
Web sites are sometimes not reliable or credible. Anonymous discussion board postings, blog entries, and sites created by an individual represent the opinionsof those writers and not necessarily researched, reliable data. Sites like Wikipedia.org or TripAdvisor.com, which depend heavily on contributions from anonymouswriters, are not credible for academic purposes and should be avoided for even basic information. Sites for organizations and associations (e.g., the American RedCross or the National Society of Nurses) are usually credible, but one must consider the purpose of the organizations web site and take the information with a grainof salt. You may have a maximum of ONE credible web page (that is, one page from a web site that may have multiple pages) as a source per speech. Use the suggestionsin Chapter 4 of The DK Guide to Public Speaking and make sure you evaluate a web site with the checklist on page 69 before you decide to incorporate material from theWorld Wide Web into your speech.
Your friends, acquaintances, and family members are not to be used as sources. In specific instances, a friend or family member who has an experts level ofexperience with a subject or issue can be used as a source, but the audience will consider your apparent lack of effort to find another experts testimony a weakness.You can talk about your own experience with a topic, but that information doesnt count as citing a source.
When you are required to have several citations from several sources, its best to have a variety of sources. Do not rely on a single journal or newspaper,and certainly not on multiple articles by the same author. You can, however, use the same database for finding your sources; again, the database is the tool, not thesource.How to Access the Research Databases1. Using your preferred Internet browser, log in to Atlas.
2. On the Courses tab, find the channel named Libraries and click on the Search the Library link.
3. Click on Databases A-Z or Databases by Subject at the top of the page.
4. Choose a database or subject area to search.
5. Once you have accessed the search page of a database, begin your research by using keywords. Spell the keywords correctly, or youll get invalid results. Besure to select the Full Text limiter in whatever database you choose so your searches return only those articles that can be viewed entirely online.Useful Databases to Get Started? Academic Search Complete
? Communication & Mass Media Complete
? Americas News (NewsBank)
? InfoTrac Student Edition
? Issues and Controversies (particularly for persuasive presentations and debates)
? Opposing Viewpoints in Context (particularly for persuasive presentations and debates)