Giving Academic Presentations, Second Edition
Giving Academic Presentations provides guidance on academic-style presentations for university students. A goal of the text is to make presenters aware that giving an effective academic presentation requires mastery of a broad range of skills.
The presentation genres addressed in the book are: making introductions, describing and comparing objects, explaining a process, defining a concept, and giving a problem-solution speech. Among the many academic skills and concepts addressed in the book are:
- Examination of major speech types and the accompanying organizational strategies
- Discussion of speech overviews and suggestions for designing them and creating visuals to accompany them
- Suggestions for speaker-listener interaction including checking for understanding, soliciting questions from the audience, preparing for and responding to questions, and interrupting the speaker to ask questions or request clarification
- Discussion of the importance of using evidence in academic speaking and the advantages of using certain types of evidence
- Suggestions of ways to qualify claims and strategies for making weaker or stronger claims
- Strategies and practice to improve pausing, stress, and intonation
- Practical advice about preparing and practicing speeches
- Opportunities for presenters to evaluate their own and others’ work
The Second Edition includes many new tasks and additional speeches; more attention to working with and using visuals; information about computer projection and using PowerPoint; and new sections on presenting biographical information, referring to handouts, and giving research presentations.