Oral Presentation Tips for MCS-378: Operating Systems (Fall 2001)
Several years ago, I taught a First Term Seminar course, where one of the
goals was to build oral communication skills. What I did was have the
students attend some of the Nobel Conference lectures and then, based
on that, held a class discussion of what made some of the lectures
better than others -- what did some of the lecturers do right and
others wrong. Based on that discussion, we as a class came up with a
list of questions that were to be used in evaluating the students'
presentations. The point is to revise your presentation plans and
practice your presentation until you are convinced that the answer to
each question is "yes."
Looking over that list now, the only one that I see that is clearly
not applicable to our operating systems course is number 11: relevance
of topic -- I picked those for you. It may be tough to do much with
number 1, appropriate use of humor, except if you interpret it to mean
"Do you avoid using humor inappropriately?" That would be the minimum
-- if you can find an appropriate use, all the better.
- Do you use humor appropriately?
- Do you use visual aids that are readable?
- Do you comment on visual aids, rather than read them?
- Do you state your main points at the beginning?
- Do you highlight key points as you deliver them?
- Do you summarize your key points at the end?
- Does your presentation come to a graceful conclusion?
- Does your presentation have discernible structure (rather than
being a strung together succession of remarks)?
- Do you change your vocal inflection?
- Does your presentation approximately fit the given time period?
- Is your topic relevant to the course?
- Have you chosen a realistic breadth of scope?
- Are your expectations regarding audience background realistic?
Course web site: http://www.gustavus.edu/~max/courses/F2001/MCS-378/
Instructor: Max Hailperin <max@gustavus.edu>