GRSC6004 Effective Academic Presentations

Content:
This course teaches students the skills required to make an effective academic presentation in English. It provides students with the opportunity to practise presentations in front of a small audience. It teaches students how to select appropriate content for a presentation, how to organize that content, how to use appropriate visuals to illustrate the presentation, how to present naturally in front of an audience, and how to answer questions.

Organization:
This is a 12-hour module, consisting of one 3-hour session per week over a period of four weeks. Students are expected to view two websites between sessions and to prepare parts of their presentation between each session. In each session, students will review what they have learnt from the websites, practice their presentations and be given feedback by peers and teachers.

Enrollment:
Each offering of the module is limited to a maximum of 30 students. Students who did not graduate from an English-medium university have to pass an assessment test conducted by the Centre for Applied English Studies to confirm a place on this module. Please refer to the flyer or the Graduate School homepage for detailed information. Exemption from the assessment test could be granted if students could produce certification from their supervisors that they are proficient in oral English.

Assessment:
Each student is expected to give a 7-minute presentation related to his/her field of research in the final session. Students must make their research understandable to an educated but not expert audience. Given the short length of the module, students are expected to have achieved a reasonable standard of proficiency in spoken English before they enroll for the module.

Outcome:
At the end of the course, students' awareness of what a good presentation involves should be enhanced and they should be able to prepare for presentations systematically.