• Time Required
• 4–5 hours, including reading time

Welcome to Week Seven of the course. This week we begin work on your oral presentation, which takes the form of a long elevator pitch. You will submit your presentation as a video recording with voiceover. This week you will prepare for your presentation by learning about pitch presentations and designing presentations.

Holidays & Events This Week

• Black History Month in American and Canada continues through February 28.
• Saviours' Day is a holiday for the Nation of Islam, celebrating the birth of the religion’s founder, Master Wallace Fard Muhammad, on Feburary 26.
• Women’s History Month lasts for the entire month of March.
• The Hindu holiday of Holi, the Buddhist holiday of Māgha Pūjā Day, and the Jewish holiday of Purim all take place during Spring Break.

If you observe these holidays and need me to adjust your due dates, send me a message in Canvas.

 

Objectives for this Module

After completing this week’s activities, you address the following course objectives:

• Analyze the rhetorical situation and determine the appropriate audience or users of written communication, considering the needs of global audiences and people with disabilities. [CLO 1]
• Use conventions of various workplace genres, such as proposals, instructions, correspondence, reports, and slide decks, with understanding of how the genre conventions can be used as heuristics and as principles of arrangement. [CLO 4]
• Collaborate with classmates in planning, researching, writing, revising, and presenting information. [CLO 5]

Activities to Complete

📚 To Read This Week

• What Is a Pitch?
• The Elevator Pitch (video, 3m 32s)
• Designing a Presentation (Video Assignment, 56m)
• Markel & Selber, Chapter 20, “Making Oral Presentations”

📝 To Write This Week

• Begin planning your Pitch Assignment, using the these resources:
  • Recommendation Report Topic Overview (Decide on a topic for your Recommendation Report.)
  • Pitch Criteria
  • Tip Sheet: Pitch

 

💬 To Discuss This Week

• Optional ways to discuss class issues:
  • Post public questions in the General Q&A Discussion in Canvas if it can be shared with the class.
    
  • If you have a private question, send me a message with the Canvas Inbox.
  • Ask a question or make a suggestion anonymously with the Anonymous Questions & Suggestions form.

 

📓 To Check-In This Week

• Fill out the Week 7 Check-In Survey to let me know how you are doing in the course.

 

 

Photo credit: Online presentation setup by Michael Sauers on Flickr, used under a CC-BY-NC 2.0 license.