61A00200 - (P10) Business Communication Skills, Lecture, 20.4.2022-25.5.2022

Deliverables

The assignment is divided into 2 parts as follows:

2a Presentation strategy outline, due on April 27. Submit to this submission box before class as a pdf-file and bring it to class on a laptop or as a paper copy on the same day.

2b Persuasive presentation, given in class on May 4.

Assignment details

Your main task is to prepare a 3-4 minute individual persuasive (sell) presentation that you will give to the other students in class on the presentation day, May 4. The presentations will be given in small groups, and you will get and discuss feedback on the presentations in these small groups.

Before the actual presentation (that is assignment 2b), you will need to analyze the situation and plan properly to ensure that your presentation will be effective. As an outcome of your analysis and planning, you will need to present your plan as a written outline (2a).

Please note that also Assignment 5 is related to this assignment, as it is a reflection paper on the two presentations, A2 and A4, that you give during the course. Please start working on A5 already after the individual presentation to make sure you have the presentation and the feedback that you receive fresh in your mind.


2a Presentation strategy outline (10%) instructions

Write a strategy outline which

• has two sections (presentation situation and components of persuasion) and covers the points listed below
  
• links your analysis to the theory presented in inputs 1 (communicating strategically) and 2 (persuasive techniques)
• is written using the reader-friendly writing tools introduced in the materials (input 3 and input videos) for the second session (e.g. message headings, occasional parallel lists that summarize some key issues, clear topic sentence + support structure in individual paragraphs, rather short paragraphs, clear links between paragraphs, limited number of indentation levels)
  

• Presentation topic: What is the presentation about?
• Title: What would be a catchy title for your presentation?
• Message outcome / objective: What do you want your audience to think, feel or do as a result of your message? State this as "By the end of this presentation, I want my audience to..."
  
• Audience analysis: provide a careful audience analysis. Address each of the following questions in your analysis:
  

1. Who is your audience?
2. What do they know and expect about your topic? What don't they know?
3. How do they feel about your topic?
4. How can you persuade them?

Section 2: Components of persuasion (input 2 persuasive techniques)

• Ethos: What is your initial credibility as a communicator in this situation? How will you try to enhance your credibility? Link your analysis to the five sources of credibility discussed in the input.
  

• Logos: What are your main claims? What evidence will you provide to support these claims? Why? In the paper, list your arguments clearly so that it will be easy to see what your main claims are. Underneath each argument, clearly state the evidence that you will use to support that specific argument.

• Pathos: How will you appeal to the audience's emotions? How will you attempt to overcome any possible audience resistance? What strategies will you employ?

• Persuading through structure: Can you employ a persuasive pattern?

Make sure your outline gives the reader of the outline (i.e. Christa) a concrete idea of your plan, i.e. what you will deliver to the intended presentation audience. Rather than writing "I will have three main arguments”, which is very vague and doesn't tell the reader what these arguments in fact are, you can write, for instance, "My three main arguments will be argument 1, argument 2, and argument 3. The evidence I will use for these is X, Y and Z, respectively. These arguments and evidence will help address the two main concerns, namely A and B, that I expect that the presentation audience will have.”

Length: 1-2 pages, single-spaced

Evaluation criteria

Please take a look at the grading rubric (in the submission box) before writing and submitting the assignment.