Usage
Project Presentation
There are two
participant roles in presentations: the presenter and the audience.
Both have responsibilities in making presentations useful.
Presenter's responsibilities:
You have read
what usage and style guides and dictionaries have to say about your
usage error or dispute; you have collected five incorrect usages from
printed writing; and you have interviewed five MTU students and five
MTU teachers about what they believe is the correct usage. On the date
assigned, you will give a 10-minute presentation to the class on the results of this research.
In your presentation, you should cover the following points:
- explain the usage error or debate, giving examples;
- summarize what the usage guides and dictionaries say about its history and the reasons for it and what they recommend;
- explain what the examples of the usage you found tell us about
the status of the error or debate, tell us where you found the
examples, and show us the examples;
- explain what your interviews with MTU students and teachers tell
us about the status of the error or debate: show us the list of
sentences you used in your interviews, tell us whether or not there
were differences between students and teachers responses, and tell us
what they said they had been told about the correct usage;
- on the basis of your research, state what you believe to be the correct usage.
Your audience is your classmates, so make your presentation as clear and as interesting as possible.
Note: If you use Power Point in
your presentation, use it appropriately and effectively. (In other
words, avoid using templates and make charts and tables only if they
help us understand your results.)
Audience's responsibilities:
You are interested in the status of usage errors and
disputes because you are preparing to be professional communicators
(all of you, regardless of major, will be using writing and speaking a
lot in your future profession) and because questions on usage errors and disputes will form a significant part of the final examination in the course.
To prepare for each of the presentations, you should read the discussion of the usage error or debate in The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Style and think about questions you may wish to ask.
You should take notes at each presentation and ask questions about anything you find unclear or interesting.
You will fill out a brief response form for each presentation to give feedback that will help the presenter develop an excellent final report.
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