Note: Pick a presentation you thought was relatively good; do not choose a presentation that you thought was crap. There is really no point to writing a paper that lists a bunch of things not to do during a presentation; we all know not to kick puppies in the middle of a presentation... So, if you go to one that really isn't all that great, stick around for another until you find a pretty good one. You'll get a lot more out of writing about a presentation that you liked and thought was well-planned.

You will probably want to bring a notebook and pen / pencil / crayon with you to the review so you can take notes while you are there. Be sure to take thorough-enough notes that you'll be able to recall details of the review you are going to assess.

Things to Notice in a Presentation
Think about the important parts of a presentation, and provide your assessment of how well the presenter did in these areas:

• Thesis / Organization (just like in an English paper)
  • How well organized was the presenter? Did the information in the presentation flow well? Did the presenter keep on topic or skip around a lot?
  • Were the parts of the presentation delivered in a logical order? Were you able to follow the design process s/he chose?
  • Did the presenter give you an overview of the project and the presentation before describing specific details?
  • Did all of the components of the presentation fit together? Did the presenter tie all of the ideas together well? Were there parts that were out of place?
• Materials / Appearance
  • Did the presenter have adequate materials to explain / portray his/her design ideas? Was the significance of these materials explained clearly?
  • Were the materials the presenter showed in the presentation useful in understanding the presenter's design choices? Did these materials help you visualize the presenter's ideas? Were there unnecessary materials that weren't explained or tied in with the presentation well?
  • Did the materials directly relate to the topic the presenter discussed? Were the verbal and visual components of the presentation consistent?
• Presentation / Delivery
  • Were the presenter's materials arranged neatly and carefully? Did the presentation look professional?
  • Could you understand the presenter? Did s/he speak clearly / loudly? Was the presenter composed?
  • Did the presenter face the audience? Did s/he maintain good eye-contact?
  • Did the presenter seem interested in / passionate about being there and discussing his/her work? Did s/he provide real insight into the motivation / concept behind the design s/he chose?

You may—but don't have to—choose to focus on:

• What parts of presentations do you feel are the most interesting, insightful, and useful to audience members / critiquing professors? Why? What is it about these parts that you find valuable? How do these parts contribute to yuor understanding of the work / the concept / the artist?
• Why do we have presentations of your work? How do these presentations help instructors understand your work? How do they help you understand your work? Think about the presentations we had in English class... Which of those were the most interesting? Why? How did the presentations contribute to your understanding of people's design choices?

Presentations You Could Attend
You are not limited to this list, but if the presentation you want to attend is not on this list, be sure to get your presentation approved before you go:

• Tuesday, October 8^th, at 6:00pm
  • Design Building, 3^rd Floor Center
  • Design Building, 3^rd Floor Triangle
  • Design Building, 4^th Floor Center
  • Design Building, 4^th Floor Triangle
  • Design Building, 5^th Floor Center
  • Design Building, 5^th Floor Triangle
  • Design Building, Room 596
  I would strongly recommend going to one of the above presentations for a couple of reasons:
  • the people presenting will be your peers and classmates
  • the work being presented will be the same type of thing you will be doing
  • you can see what other people in your classes are doing and get ideas
  • each presentation will only last about ten minutes...
  
  
• Any of the Extra Credit seminars would probably qualify also; if you choose this option, you may also write an extra credit paper (so you could go to one presentation and get double credit for going), but you must do both assignments separately—turn in a "Presentation Critique" paper and an "Extra Credit" paper.

This paper is due Tuesday, October 22^nd.