syllabus
calendar
blackboard
student.email resources

last.updated 5.31.05

Group Presentation (50 points)

Purpose
To demonstrate your own understanding of rhetorical principles and contribute to the class's understanding of these rhetorical theories. To learn how to collaborate with others through electronic media.

Overview

On the day of your assigned group presentation, you and your group will be responsible for...

• generating a Rhetorical Principles Table (RPT) for the readings,
• presenting this RPT table,
• being the primary respondants for the day's conversation

Generating the RPT

The instructions for generating the RPT are as follows:

• As you read through the assigned texts, pay close attention to the theorist's discussion of rhetoric and how they explain or understand all of the rhetorical principles that we will be studying in this class–not just the ones we are studying during a given week. Note the places in the
• You may also want to note how the theorist applies these principles in their text. While it is good to note these examples of the rhetorical principles, you will want to focus on the discussions of these principles.
• At this point start communicating with your group members about the principles that you found. As a group, you should be generating a pool of points where the principles.
• You are encouraged to provide more than one point per group for each of the principles on the table. The more points you find and present, the more useful this resource will be to your peers. However, for some readings you may not find any points for a few principles. Do not worry about this.
• As a group fill in the RPT.
• Use Blackboard to email a copy of your RPT to the entire class. This is due by 5pm on the day of class. As the recipient of this document, you should print it out before class.

Presenting the RPT

In 10-20 minutes, your group will want to teach your peers about the reading by...

• briefly summarizing the text focusing on the writer's main take on rhetoric or how rhetoric fits into the writer's argument. You will also want to explain how this gets supported.
• presenting the key points that the writer makes about each rhetorical principle. You can do this any way that you want. You can take turns reading parts of the table; you can use PowerPoint; or you can do anything will help you convey the information to your peers through the Teletechnet media.
• answering your peers' questions about the text.

Note that your presentation will come prior to the instructor's discussion of the text.

Being Respondants for a Day

Throughout the rest of the class discussion, the instructor will be ask the students questions. Students in the presenting group will be responsible for engaging in this discussion. Other students are welcomed and encouraged to participate, but it is the assigned group's responsibility to prevent silences.

Groups

Criteria

The group presentation is due on the assigned day.

You will be evaluated on...

• an informed understanding of the rhetorical principles we are learning
• an informed understanding of the text you are working with
• the usefullness of the RPT that you generate–in terms of being complete and presentable
• your ability to present the material in an interesting and informative manner
• your ability to answer questions about the text
• your ability to engage in the discussion of the text