Reading Presentation Guidelines

Due Dates:   Due dates for individual readings are indicated on the course Schedule and Readings pages.
Points: 150 points (15% of course grade)
Grading:  Grades for your reading presentations is based on both the content of your handout (100 points) and your delivery of the presentation (50 points).

 

Purpose: The reading presentation is designed to enable each student to become highly familiar with recent thought and/or scholarship on one issue discussed in class. It also requires each student to practice critically reading an information source. Finally, the presentation of the reading to the class provides each student with practice in preparing and delivering oral presentations. 

 

To obtain a copy of your reading, please contact the instructor well before the date of the reading presentation. 

 

Read the article, book chapter, or Web page carefully. You will not be held accountable for every detail in the reading, but you will be expected to understand and convey its basic meaning. 

 

Prepare a one page handout for the class. The handout should include the following information: 

Your name and the date of the presentation.

A complete citation to the reading (its title, author, and publication information. See http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/apa.pdf and http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/mla.pdf for two different styles of citing resources.

A one sentence summary of the main message of the article. (Note: Some articles will advocate particular remedies to situations; others simply seek to persuade readers that certain situations exist.)

A listing of the five most important points of the reading, along with the "evidence" the author uses to support these points. 

A couple of sentences giving your evaluative reaction to the reading. This evaluation should state what you think is the author's point of view on the topic, what assumptions underlie the author's conclusions, and how well s/he makes this point. [Note: This is NOT where you say the reading was boring, stupid, etc. Your evaluative reaction should be more sophisticated. Imagine you are a professional working in the same office with the author. How would you respond to her/his arguments when you were both in front of your boss?]

Bring 26 copies of the handout to class with you on the day of your presentation.

 

In your presentation of the reading, do not simply read from your handout. Introduce your classmates to the main points of the reading and your reaction to it, as presented in the handout, but feel free to encourage discussion with/by them. You may use PowerPoint or other presentation media in presenting the reading to the class, but you are not required to do so. 

Assignment developed by Kate Manuel, Instruction Coordinator

You are welcome to use and make a print copy of these materials for educational purposes, but please credit the source as: LSC 311: Information Literacy, New Mexico State University, and cite the individual author of the modules you use. Please do not copy the source code of any of these pages and load them locally. All commercial rights are reserved. Send comments or suggestions to: Susan Beck at susabeck@lib.nmsu.edu. 

Page last updated on Thursday, August 14, 2003.