Attendance Limit:

To allow each student sufficient time to speak, the class is limited to 13 students.

Overview

This course contains both lectures and labs. In the labs, students willcreate slides and give speeches.  If a dozen people each make presentations on the same afternoon, how will your presentation be the one that everyone remembers?  This one-day seminar helps you write sharper slides, speak with more confidence, and feel more comfortable making presentations.  Along the way, you’ll learn how professional writers attack slides and how professional performers hold audiences.

Each student is required to bring a laptop to the class in order to work on the written exercises. Laptops will not be provided.  Student laptops should have PowerPoint or other slide-creation software already installed.  Although not optimal, students without PowerPoint can still do the exercises with Microsoft Word.

Target Audience:

This course is aimed at technical professionals aiming to improve their presentation skills.  

Benefits of attending:

• Deliver presentations that convey your message.

• Engage your audience.

• Improve the quality and professionalism of your slides.

• Gather constructive feedback about your speaking skills.

• Emerge as a more confident and comfortable speaker.

Detailed Outline

• Speech Ice Breakers

  - Introductions

  - Posture

  - Breath

  - Projection

  - Enunciation

  - Confidence

  - First impressions

  - Eye contact

  - Exercise: deliver a short speech; the class will provide constructive feedback.

   

• Writing Individual Slides

  - Slide titles

  - Information density per slide

  - Parallelism

  - Terminology

  - Active voice vs. passive voice

  - Audience definition

  - Graphics

  - What to write vs. what to speak

  - Exercise: revise slides that the instructor provides

   

• Verbal Pace and Variety

  - Discontinuity vs. Rhythm

  - Vocal changes: louder, softer, higher, lower, faster, slower

  - Pauses

  - Hand gestures

  - Posture shifts

  - Exercise: deliver a 30-second speech on a dull topic… and be fascinating

   

• Organizing Large Presentations

  - Time allocation

  - Introductions and conclusions

  - Visual discontinuities: pace and variety between slides

  - Suspense and mystery

  - Exercise: organize a stack of PowerPoint slides

   

• Stage Fright

  - Why a little stage fright is beneficial

  - Calming panic attacks during presentations

  - Reducing fear in the days preceding a presentation

  - Exercise: practice relaxation techniques in front of a live audience

   

• Preparation

  - How to practice effectively

  - How to edit your slides

  - Exercises: deliver a one-minute speech; the class will provide constructive feedback.

   

• Professional Secrets (if time permits)

  - Humor

  - Facial expressions

  - Character

  - Pre-Show

Each student will get a copy of the speaker’s  book, Spring Into Technical Writing for Engineers and Scientists (Addison-Wesley, 2005). Students will also receive printed copies of  course notes.

Special Note:

Please wear casual, comfortable clothing and footwear.

Speaker Bio:

Mr. Rosenberg has parallel careers in hi-tech and show business.  On the technical side, Mr. Rosenberg got a Masters in technical writing from RPI and have written over 60 manuals, including Addison-Wesley’s, KornShell Programming Tutorial.  He has taught many technical courses on topics ranging from physics to programming. At MIT, he taught an advanced technical writing course (21W.780), which focused on improving the writing and speaking skills of engineering and science students. Finally, his most recent published book, Technical Writing for Engineers and Scientists, devotes a chapter to PowerPoint presentations. On the show business side, he has worked as a professional juggler for over 20 years, performing over 1,200 shows in the United States, Canada, Japan, and Europe.  This September, he helped Steve Martin develop a scene for Pink Panther Deux, and had a small role in the film.

Decision (Run/Cancel) Date for  this Courses is Monday, March, 24, 2008

Course Fee Schedule:

On-line Registration and Payment

On-line registration is closed for this course, but registration is still available on-site between 8:45AM - 9:00AM, Wednesday, April 2, 2008 at the Holiday Inn Select, 15 Middlesex Canal Park, Woburn or by contacting the office at 781-245-5405.

Copyright © 2008 IEEE Boston Section. All rights reserved.
Maintained by R M Stelting

Updated Monday March 31, 2008