WRT 307: Professional Writing

Fall 2012, Mondays and Wednesdays, 12:45-2:05 p.m., Bowne Hall 110 Patrick W. Berry, pwberry@syr.edu, office: HBC 235 office phone: 315-443-1912 office hours: Mondays, 9:00-11:00 a.m. and by appointment http://patrickberry.com/wrt307fall12

Visual Design/PowerPoint Presentation As part of the onboarding project, you will produce a five-minute presentation. (It must not be any more than five minutes.) The topic of your presentation needs to center around Bound by Law?, a piece that explores issues of copyright and fair use. Your presentation needs to 1) find a way to introduce Bound by Law through an example; 2) present the material in a way that attends to issues of design and to the limitations raised by Parker in Absolute PowerPoint. Consider the Lessig presentation we viewed in class as an example of a presentation that is minimalistic. Your job in preparing this presentation is to ultimately teach the class about some aspect of Bound by Law. While you should be familiar with the entire reading, you will be best served by focusing on one aspect or issue. Note: You are not doing a summary but making an aspect of this reading legible to the class. PowerPoint/Presentation guidelines: Do not use templates. Select a black or white background (or some color) and work with that. Do not use bullets. Consider the Lessig presented material (link available on Blackboard). Try to incorporate a compelling example that you find outside the text. Remember that less is more. Do not put too much on the slidesjust key points. Keep your presentation focused on Bound by Law. Figure out where you stand in relation to the material youre presenting and include your stance in your presentation. Your audience is the class. Keep them in mind as you write your script. What do future professional writers need to know? You are required to write a complete script even if you dont actually read one. A 3-5 minute presentation is approximately 2 pages double-spaced. Your presentation is worth 50 points. If you are presenting on Wednesday, you should email me your PowerPoint presentation and script by 10 a.m. If you are presenting on Monday, October 1, please send me your presentation on Sunday by 8 p.m.

Presentation schedule: September 26 Elia, Rachael, Ryan, Stephen, Nicole, Kyle, and Sam October 1 Nick, Richard, Scott, John, Chris, Melissa, Danielle, Amy, Bryan, Jacqueline, Daniel, Eddie, and Samantha Guidelines: Did you provide a compelling example? Does your slides demonstrate an attention to visual design (drawing on the examples covered in class)? Did the presenter submit a carefully edited script and PowerPoint presentation on time?