Panel Presentation Guidelines
1. Each person will present his or her research for approximately 12 minutes. You will be graded on the length of your presentation, so you should practice it before your presentation date. This will allow the entire panel presentation to be about 1 1/2 to 2 hours long, with a 10 minute break. This will also allow for at least a 1/2 hour of question and answer after all the presentations are complete.
2. Your presentation should be an even balance between showing examples and verbal presentation. You can orally present using notes, you can read from a prepared paper, you can perform your research, or you can use classroom participation in your presentation. You should use examples to back up your research—for instance, a video clip reel, or a group of tapes already cued up, or a website(s), multimedia, overhead, powerpoint, slides, DVD, cassette, audio CD, etc.
3. You must let me know as soon as possible what your technological needs are. The room is equipped with video, DVD, slides, overhead, and audio. The computer is my laptop (Mac), which has a CD Rom drive and internet connection. If you need anything else, you must let me know.
4. You need to test the technical aspects of your presentation the week before, and will be graded on doing so. Please come to class 15 minutes early or stay after class the week before to test the technical part of your presentation or to learn how to use the podium. We won’t have time to trouble shoot during the presentations. Part of your grade is based on preparedness.
5. Abstracts are due electronically a week before your presentation. These should be emailed to me, with a hard copy handed in a week before your presentation. Use a word attachment, with the suffix  ".doc" when emailing. I cannot open attachments with strange suffixes. (For instance, DiekmanAbstract.doc, would be good-obviously your name.) These abstracts will be posted on our class website a week before the presentations—allowing you all to the visit the website before the presentation date and familiarize yourself with the topics to be presented. An abstract is a short statement (about two or three paragraphs) which explains your research topic and critical approach to the topic. Examples can be seen at the URLs which are listed on the class website.
6. Your research must use at least five sources. This should be a balanced mix of essays, books, on-line sources, videos, films, or interviews. These sources must be listed on your abstract. If they are websites, then we will make links from your abstract on-line. Look at the examples from the class website.
7. The panel members will sit together in the front of the class during the presentations. After the presentations, the panel will answer questions from the class or from each other.
8. Part of your grade is your participation in the panel presentations of others. Not only does this include attendance to all three presentations, but also your attention to what is being presented whether you are on the panel or not. You should take notes, and generate questions for the panel presenters. A good way of preparing questions is to listen for the differences and similarities between presenters, and direct a question to several panel members for discussion. You may also ask an individual a question about his or her research. But remember, much of this research is new for the panel members, and the depth of a question may exceed their current knowledge of the topic.
9. If you have any questions, ask me.