Welcome to the Symposium
So the Symposium Presentation seems to (needlessly) stress
students out. Maybe it’s because the assignment is in a different format than a
traditional essay, but let me tell you, the Symposium Presentation is
incredibly doable and can be a lot of fun. Take a deep breath with me.
Iiiinnnnn. Oooouuutttt. See? We’re all good here.
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| Feel free to use this during Finals Week |
The Symposium Presentation is similar to a PowerPoint
presentation or Prezi. (Although we’ll be using Adobe Spark this semester for
the first time. Prepare for a learning curve, but we’ll make it!) The two major
components of the Symposium Presentation are:
- Your Images+Citations
- and Your Text, both related to your specific Class in America Today research angle that you’ve been working with on your ARP.
You’ve already been collecting images throughout the
semester for this presentation. You’ll end up with 15 images—no more, no less—with
citations for those images included at the end of the presentation.
Along with your images, you will have 50-65 words of text—no
more, no less—accompanying each image. Try to not make the text just a list of
facts. You want to engage the audience and show how all your images help create
the larger picture of your Class in America Today Topic.
Some of you maybe choose to record your narration, so when a classmates views your Symposium Presentation, they’ll hear your recorded voice accompanying the images. Some of you may choose to load your text onto the presentation, so it will look more like a web page and there will be no sound. Whichever you choose is a-okay!
There will be more details on how to use Adobe Spark (I’m
learning the new program along with you, but ask questions if you have them,
and I can always forward them to our English Dept. tech guru if it’s beyond my
expertise).
A lot of students end up getting a lot out of the Symposium
Presentation because you are able to view and present feedback in a totally
different format. Sometimes it helps you see gaps or connections you would’ve
otherwise missed in the plain old written format.
Comment below answering one of these questions OR responding to two classmates.
Tell a short story about a presentation you've given. What went well? What went not so well?
Are you a fan of presentations or would you rather write a paper?
What do you enjoy in a presentation from the audience perspective?
Tell a short story about a presentation you've given. What went well? What went not so well?
Are you a fan of presentations or would you rather write a paper?
What do you enjoy in a presentation from the audience perspective?
I took a course, German fairy tales, and made a presentation in the form of cartoon last semester. It was my first time to create a presentation that showing like a cartoon, which is different from the simple and normal PowerPoint one. At the beginning of making the presentation, I felt a little bit confused because there are so many new "buttons" with variety functions. However, it gave me huge satisfaction after I finished it. In addition, I felt pretty happy when my classmates reflected that they love my presentation. Also, from the perspective of an audience, I enjoy others presentation. This is because they always give interesting and attractive one with their efforts.
ReplyDeletePersonally I don't have a preference on writing either a paper or giving a presentation. The only caveat is if the length of the presentation is too long I wouldn't want to do it because I don't enjoy talking for a prolonged period of time. Although in order to prepare us better for the professional world I think presentations are the way to go because I've made more presentations than I care to count in the few months I've Co-Oped. Doing both seems inefficient especially when everything thats been said in the paper is going to be reiterated in the presentation. Papers are useful because it is easier to outline and flesh out your points and you are able to go more in depth.
ReplyDeleteI took the English 1902 course which focused on English writing and speaking last semester. In the final, we had a presentation to talk about the final essay we wrote. Since the final paper had been revised and written for the whole semester, the content of the presentation was kept in my mind and the presentation went fluently and specifically. What went not so well was that because of nervousness, I lacked the eye contact with my audiences and my instructor suggested me to add more gestures. In fact, I like to watch other people presenting and I am afraid I would forget about my words and could not do well in presentation. I think I prefer to simply write, but I hope one day I could be a nice presenter as well. As an audience, I want to see the confidence of the presenter and the interesting and convincing presentation contents.
ReplyDeleteI took 1902 this summer and we were ask, same as this course, to give a presentation at the end of the semester. I receive a positive feedback about my final presentation and what not went well is that I first choose the wrong topic to give a presentation. For short paper, paper shorter than 4 pages, I’d prefer to write a paper rather than giving a presentation. However, a longer paper is harder for me than presentations. It’s not easy when you want to convey all your points in a 15-page powerpoint because the amount of words is limited. From an audience perspective, I may enjoy the presentation because I can clearly see the flow of the writer’s thinking.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI don't really think I have a preference between presentations and papers. It depends on the assignment. A lot of times, a paper has a presentation component. For these cases I enjoy the presentation because I already did all the hard work when I was writing the paper. As far as the audience perspective goes, I enjoy learning about what my classmates have chosen to present on. I feel like I get to know them a little better and I enjoy learning about what others are passionate about. In my senior high school english class, we did a research paper somewhat similar to the ARP, except the topics were more free and it involved a lot more research because it spanned the entire school year. The final presentations were definitely my favorite parts because I got to see all my hard work over the year come together. It also meant that I was finished with the assignment which was exciting because it had lasted so long.
ReplyDeleteI took 1902 last year, an ESL writing class. Students were also asked to give a presentation to show their research paper. The research was through the whole semester and it's free to choose the topic, so I was very familiar with and interested in the topic I was going to present. I memorized a lot from my paper and tried to show my confidence. However, it turned out to be that I forgot to have enough eye contact with my audience since I always looked up or down to recall what I memorized. That made my presentation look unconfident. My instructor suggested me not trying to memorize all things and it's okay to put something on the slides. I learned a lot from that class. It is difficult to say I prefer presentation or writing. I love presentation since it's time to show your potential, but it really takes time to prepare it and to do a good presentation. But when you finish it, you will be super proud of yourself. On the other hand, even though writing is boring, it is relatively a simple work and less nervous. I also enjoy others' presentations, which always inspire me to think.
ReplyDeleteHello, Xiaoqi Yang.
DeleteI totally agree with you about the confidence in the presentation, which is specific in eye contact with the audience. In my formal presentation, I often make eye contact with the audience and the instructor to relax myself or to ask some questions about the slides to relieve.
I like presentation better that I can cut the things into segment and display them piece by piece. That way there won't be too much information given t the same time and it is easier to follow up with me. And there is more space for visual assistance which can be helpful when learn something new. The last thing is while doing presentation, the language is more casual, which make me fell less stressful. On the contrary a paper is less fun and information densed. So I am a fun of presentation rather than paper.
ReplyDeleteI agree completely! I think presentations are a lot easier to organizes. Images also allow the audience to learn through visual and auditory methods during a presentation. However, the formality or language is largely dependent on the topic and the audience. For an extremely formal presentation, I think I would rather do a paper.
DeleteI took English 1902 last semester and made a presentation about the Parents’ education with high-tech by PowerPoint. It was my first time to make the presentation which was based on the final essay. So I was nervous and finished my presentation fluently. When I was on the stage, I could not make eye connection with audience and instructor. However, I expressed the context clear and add a video quotation to improve my presentation. I enjoyed the applause and smile from the audience, and I felt proud to finish my presentation.
ReplyDeleteFrom my perspective, presentations are much more interesting than writing a paper but it is more challenge. Before the presentation, we need to prepare a lot of resources and images based on theme. At the same time, we need to figure out how we can make our presentation more attractive, which I consider it is one of the most difficult parts. From audiences' perspective, I prefer presentation to reading a paper.
ReplyDeleteHello, Huang Xinyu
DeleteI think you are right about the making some foundation in researching of the presentation. However, I think making a writing also requires these steps of researching. As for me, I think the advantage of making presentation is that you can actually learn the response of the audience towards your main idea. And for those question they asked, you can make them deeply understand your topic.
I gave a presentation about my final essay in my 1902 class last semester. To make the presentation successful, I tried to put all important notes on the PowerPoint, so I didn't worry about whether I forgot or missed anything. But when the presentation day came, I just felt so nervous and always looked down at my PowerPoint; therefore, the teacher said that I could have more eye contact with audience rather than staring at the screen. Actually, I don't have a preference over presentation or paper, but I would prefer presentation if the paper is too long. From the audience perspective, I enjoy the process of learning most because everyone has an unique and fresh idea.
ReplyDeleteI have never been the best at public speaking, so I usually prefer spending time on writing a paper by myself. However, I like the thought of prerecording a speech/presentation to get rid of most of the nervousness that arises when I am tasked with presenting something live, in front of a class. I also think that presentations are more interesting and can be played around with a little more than a paper, so I enjoy that aspect of a presentation assignment. In the end, I think my preference depends on the certain criteria of an assignment.
ReplyDeleteI agree that presentations are more interesting than papers (from the perspective of both the audience and the presenter), though this does depend on the topic of the presentation/ paper. I also struggle with public speaking, but I'm unsure about prerecording my voice. On one hand, it's not as nerve-wracking and I can rerecord if I mess up. On the other hand, if I do a live presentation, I can get it over with quicker.
DeleteI personally like to write papers more than making a presentation. This is mainly because I do not like speaking in front of a lot of people. Also, there is much more work that go into making presentations. You have to memorize and be able to keep the audience interested in your topic while presenting. This can be one of the hardest parts. An aspect of presentations that I do like though, is that I believe the feedback is much better than if you got feedback from a paper that you wrote.
ReplyDeleteWell I will be honest and say that I really dislike having to do presentations. The last time I enjoyed giving a presentation was when I did an oral book report, with props, for Diary of a Spider in 3rd grade. It's been downhill since then, and I'm especially dreading having to figure out Adobe Spark. Frankly, I would rather write five extra essays than do a presentation.
ReplyDeleteI had to do a presentation about my senior project. The slides were made well, I believe I spoke clearly, and my partner and I made the presentation flow nicely. I get nervous standing up in front of people sometimes and having to talk, but once I start talking, it is usually fine. I like presentations because the preparation is just different and you can explain out loud what you are trying to say about a topic. From an audience perspective, presentations are nice because there are usually visuals along with the information which makes topics easier to understand for me.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the organization and preparation for a presentation is completely different than it is for an essay. I think that including many images within a presentation is extremely important in keeping the audience engaged with the topic.
DeleteWhen I went the college in South korea, I took a course about English class. In this class, I made the presentation about dangerous of traffic realted accident such as jaywalking, drunken driving and finally made a video about this within the group working. But, the problem was coming to me, when I did a presentation in front of audience and instructor, I quivered and forgot about what I was talking about. And I was perplexed and messed up the presentation. After doing presentation in this way, I thnk I 've had some phobia about making real time presentation. By doing this Symposium, I wanna get out of my phobia.
ReplyDeleteI did a presentation last spring semester where I was instructed to read and analyze an article about mirror neurons and their affect on learning. I had to summarize the article, present the main points and infer the major impacts of the researchers' results. I think I did a good job at presenting the information but I was still confused about certain parts of the results going into the presentation and I think that made answering questions very difficult. I think if I had more time I would've been able to clarify some on my questions. Overall, most people were responding to the questions that I asked at the end of my presentation so it sounded like they understood what I presented.
ReplyDeleteRecently, I have had to give a presentation in a competition. I was representing someone in sales and trying to get the judges to want to "buy" the product I created. This went well because I enjoy meeting with people, and part of sales is just having a conversation. I had good word choice, tone, speed and was personable. What went not so well was that when I started to present, I started saying all the facts and didn't pause enough to let the information sink in. In general, i enjoy presentations, but I think writing papers is easier. In a presentation, from a listener's prospective, I enjoy presentations with nice looking slides or handouts with a lot of pictures.
ReplyDeleteI can't really remember the exact details of the last presentation I gave my I do remember giving a presentation on a poem in English in High School. We did our presentation on a poem about the Maldives. It was a powerpoint presentation explaining the various aspects of the poem. It went really well because of the relationship we had and our confidence in knowing the poem. I really enjoy doing presentations and would choose to do one over a paper. I feel like I am better explaining things better in words than in text. In presentations, I enjoy not having to read a lot of information and or having a lot of information to read per slide.
ReplyDeletePersonally I prefer doing presentations instead of writing papers. This is because I feel it is difficult to get my tone across when I write papers. Its also harder for me to connect to my audience when I write a paper. However, when II give a presentation in person I can make eye contact with my audience, smile at them, and just connect a little more. This is going to be a little more difficult to do in this class though because this presentation is all online. Its going to be difficult to have a one on one connection with my peers.
ReplyDeleteFor my AP Chinese class presentation, I had to present to my class what dish my partner and I created and what its significance was to the Chinese Culture. We were able to present the materials to answer the significance, however the time we took to spoke was very short and we weren't assessed well on that part. Personally, I enjoy doing presentations because it allows the audience to obtain more information from what you hear from an audio perspective rather than a written perspective.
ReplyDeletei did a presentation in a photography course. So from the comment, the instructor says i did a good job in the content and draft writing while the part of pronunciation need to be improved. An interesting thing is that task didn't ask for eye contact so i didn't feel quite nervous. Actually i prefer writing paper to giving presentation. By the way i also don't like being a audience of presentation since most of the content made by students are a bit boring.
ReplyDeleteI've made presentations in many GE courses as well as my engineering classes. I would say that preparing for presentation is a hard pathway. But every time I make it, I would hope for more challenges like this. It is a great way to improve my speaking skills and build my confidence.
ReplyDeleteI did presentation in many different courses. I'm used to prepare speaking notes, which is not totally same as the sentences on my slides. I believe this makes my presentation better than just reading the content on my slides. I like presentation better than paper. Because I believe that I could show my idea better by explaining them by myself instead of the sentences in paper.
ReplyDeleteI took Comparative Study 1100 last semester. We had a group presentation in the final and our topic was preparing for end of world. This is a very novel theme, so my partner and I spent a lot of time to make the Power Point. Although our speech was well received, I did not like it myself. Because the subject of the speech is decided by my partner and most of the ideas were provided by him, I hope I can talk about my stuff next time.
ReplyDeleteIn a biology class in high school, I had to work with a partner and give a presentation and create study guides about a certain GMO (golden rice). My partner hated public speaking and I hated making study guides, so she did the research and made the note sheets while I made the powerpoint using mostly her research and presented the entire thing. That teamwork worked out really well for us and we got an A. There wasn't any problem with it as far as I can remember.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a fan of presentations because they are kind of built to be seen by a larger audience. I know that papers are read by other people as well, but it seems more individual and personal. Since I don't like other people seeing what I've done, I prefer writing papers. However, I do think presentations are fun to make because they are a bit more relatable. And while presentations still have a formal aspect to them, they are more informal than a paper and I also enjoy that about presentations compared to writing a paper.
ReplyDelete- Brianna Lewis
I don't mind doing presentations but I would much rather write a paper. From the perspective of the audience, I enjoy watching presentations where the presenter is relaxed and not reading off a power point like a robot. When the presenter is engaging and mindful of the audience it makes for a much better viewing experience. At the end of my senior year of high school we had to present a year long research project to a panel of teachers. Our research was about the effects of social media on social skills in young adults. Overall, the presentation was about 20 minutes but it went by very fast. Afterwards the panel of teachers asked us questions about or research. This was the hardest part of the presentation because we could not prepare for the questions they would ask.
ReplyDeleteI agree that watching presentations are relaxing especially if the presenter knows the topic well, but actually being the one to present is stressful. The questions that are asked at the end of presentations are tough to prepare for, usually if the presenter has extensive knowledge on their topic.
DeleteI took the English 1902 last semester and it had a presentation in the final. Actually, we did not have to make a presentation in front of classmates, we made a video and submitted it as the final work. I think haven't made a real presentation yet. I prefer writing a paper than making a presentation. Because in my opinion, preparing a presentation is more comprehensive than writing a paper. As an audience, I'd like the presenter to make the presentation interesting.
ReplyDeleteI've given many presentations as seminars before, mainly at the previous university I transferred from. I presented topics and research in Chemistry, and it was far more meticulous than I originally thought it would be. Things like considering one's audience, tonality and pacing all come into play, but what can make such a task difficult is the execution of it all. Writing a paper is static; it occurs on page and the reader determines the pace and other elements. Presentations on the other hand happen in a dynamic space and time, so what one might've practiced last night may not come to fruition in the actual presentation. A person may forget a word here or there, or speak too fast from nervousness from having more people than just one or a few people to practice in front of. Any changes that are made to a paper the days before submission remain on that paper.
ReplyDeleteIf I am choosing between a presentation and writing a paper, I would more often choose to write a paper. I do not enjoy presenting my work to audiences because I get nervous and I am not able to say everything that needs to be said because I am focused on how I am wording things or how I sound when I am talking to everyone. This presentation is different because I am able to write out my thoughts instead of speaking them, which makes me like the thought of a presentation over an essay. In this format, I would rather be doing a presentation than an essay because sometimes I struggle with how to say things in an essay. Presentations are nice because you are able to express your thoughts in different ways, using pictures and other things to strengthen your words.
ReplyDeleteI think when I give presentations, I typically just feel uncomfortable with how I literally am "presenting" the information verbally. I become conscious that I will sound uneducated on the topics I'm discussing due to stuttering or saying "um", etc. I think that presentations are very important to do and improve on, I just get nervous about them for pretty common reasons. I think I could do pretty well with this one, because it's not a live presentation, and I can make it as fluid and organic as I want.
ReplyDeleteI gave a presentation about graphene in my last college in India for a subject named speech, which dealt with the various aspects of public speaking and helped students to overcome stage fear. The presentation was full of images that helped me to describe the structure of graphene and its purposes. The best part of the presentation was the way I showed how graphene is made. I told the audience that I have a material that will change the world and pulled out a box of graphene pencil lead and used scotch tape to peel off a layer of graphene. My professor was very impressed by the experiment. The power point presentation was mostly images and just eight words; I tried to explain every aspect of the graphene instead of writing bullet points on the presentation because speaking makes the presentation more engaging for the audience.
ReplyDeleteI prefer making a presentation because presentation require me to speak up in front of a lot of people. This is a good opportunity to exercise my public speaking ability and walk out my comfort zone. One of my presentation example is in my 1902 writing class, I did a presentation of culture difference between America and China.It included 9 page of presentation,which I spent a little time on them.I successfully attracted audience's attention and impressed instructor by my voice and confident posture. But if I write paper,I always make a lot of grammatical error and take longer.
ReplyDeleteI took a general chemistry 1620 course last semester, and because it is a major class, we need to do a different lab than 1220 students. In the lab, we did a small research during the whole semester. The lab required us to learn the properties of perovskite and find a new perovskite that is good for making solar cells. We also need to give a presentation about our research at the end of the semester to the instructor of that class and other scholars who is interested in. In that presentation, we did a good job on clearly illustrate our research purpose, methods, results and so on, but because of the nervous, we didn't communicate with our audiences, and that is important when giving a presentation.
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ReplyDeleteI took the course ENGR 1181 last semester, which let us represent our designed project. Because I am not a native speaker, my accent make me unsatisfied with the presentation though I tried my best to pronounce correctly. Fortunately, we did prepare a lot for the presentation, so the result was not bad. I am not a fan of presentation. However, if the presenter is humorous enough, he will attract me a lot.
ReplyDeleteLast master I did a final presentation in my biology class. I took nearly a month to prepare it.The result is really successful but I still made some mistakes because of no experience.So for mass of my documents was not matching the projector thus my power points cannot be presented in front of everyone. It’s that time I was really nervous. however the professor gave me a smile and let me feel really relaxing, after a deep breathe, I finished my presentation. Although it only took me five minute, it almost like a century.
ReplyDeleteLast year, I did a presentation for my ENG1902 class. My topic was about Chinese food. It took me about half week to prepare. Some people may feel nervous when they are giving presentation. For me I really enjoy the process of presentation because I think it is a precious chance to share your ideas. On the day of presentation, I could not open my power point in classroom's computer due to the version of software. Still, I tried my best to give a presentation. Hopefully, it was not bad. This experience reminds me to be more prepared next time.
ReplyDeleteI did a lot of presentations before. But I would rather write a paper. For presentation, we need to create some nice slides, focus on the reactions of audiences, and also need to prepare speaking notes. Sometimes I would nervous when I am presenting, even make some mistakes. Paper is more detailed. Although presentations are funnier and easier to catch audiences attention.
ReplyDeleteI prefer writing essay rather than giving a presentation. One of reason is that on paper I can provide more materials and details of the topic then on presentation. Usually, presentation has time limit so some details have to be removed to control the time cost within that limit. It is fun and important to make discussion with audience on presentation since a lot can be learned. But, just in term of presentation limitation on time and details, essay is going to be better for me.
ReplyDeleteI prefer writing essay instead of a presentation because I cannot do well on it. I used to do presentation many times. However, I would always forgot my words and made the situation embarrassed. As a result, I really prefer a paper rather than presentation. But I enjoy being an audience in a presentation
ReplyDeleteIn high school I gave a presentation about nuclear energy. I enjoyed it because it allowed me to research on the subject and gave pretty interesting results. The presentation went well, but I was pretty anxious during the delivery. I think that I probably prefer a paper to a presentation because there's less anxiety with that.
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