presentations 5%
Because oral communication is an important skill and will be the capstone of students’ EN 102 experience, one of the four major projects will accompany an individual or group presentation. Students might present their best Project III research sources in groups, providing an overview of the most relevant sources of information about a topic or problem. Students might present in small groups on a small field research project connected to their research topic. They might present a rhetorical analysis of their Project IV paper, explaining the rhetorical choices they made in the project to appeal to their chosen audience.
In many classes, groups of 4 or 5 will be formed based on chosen essay topics of project III. Each group presentation will last about 15-20 minutes. Each group member will present one or two of their best sources (along with a discussion of how they found them). The group will also report on the results of a small field research project. These presentations provide a general reader (not an expert) with an overview of the most relevant sources of information about a topic or problem. Groups presentations will be evaluated primarily on their source selection but also on the clarity and organization of the presentation; it is thus in the group’s best interest to help individual members choose their best sources to present. In general, group members all receive the same grade for this assignment. However, each member will evaluate other member's participation at the end of the project, and members who didn't fully participate in the field research project and presentation design will receive a lower grade. Presentations created by 3 or 4 fully participating members will be better than those in which only 1 or 2 members were active, and I will take this into consideration when grading