Presentation
One.
Your topic proposal, on its feet. Then: who you're really talking to, and how to sharpen a topic into an objective.
Last week, in brief.
- The slide serves the audience, keywords, ≤7 lines, 2 to 4 colours.
- CRAP: Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, Proximity.
- Describe a figure in four moves: Introduce, Explain, Emphasise, Discuss.
Presentation 1 ready, hook, thesis, structure, one described visual.
You deliver it. Then we turn from research toward writing.
This week.
- Run of show & timing
- What you're graded on
- Deliver your topic proposal
- Give structured peer feedback
- Who is your real audience?
- Tailoring the message
- From topic to research objective
- Self-reflection on your delivery
Workbook Ch 2 to 3, Knowing your audience (pp. 12 to 14) and narrowing a topic into an objective (pp. 15 to 17).
How today runs.
Going long is a grading criterion, not a small thing. Practise to 3:30 so a nervous pace still lands inside four minutes.
Four things I'm listening for.
Content
A clear topic, a defensible position, a sense of why it matters.
Structure
Hook, thesis, preview, body, close, in that order, signposted.
Delivery
Eye contact, vocal variety, posture, pace. No reading.
Visuals
Clean slides, one well-described figure, cited sources.
This is a proposal, you're convincing us the topic is worth your semester. You don't need final answers yet.
Hook. Thesis.
Preview. Evidence. Close.
Five beats, in order. Open by earning attention, end on a line you chose on purpose. Breathe before the first word.
You're an audience with a job.
Over to you.
Presentations begin. Speakers in drawn order, eyes up, breathe, and trust the hours you put in.
Who are you
really talking to?
Every choice, vocabulary, evidence, examples, answers to one question: who is listening, and what do they already know?
Three questions before you write a word.
Classmates and a professor across many majors, not specialists in your field.
General academic background. They will not know your field's jargon or its debates.
A reason to care, defined terms, and a clear line from evidence to claim.
You know your topic too well. What feels obvious to you is new to them. Define one term they'd stumble on, every time.
Same finding, two audiences.
| A specialist audience | A general academic audience | |
|---|---|---|
| Vocabulary | Field terms, unexplained. | Plain language; define on first use. |
| Evidence | Method & statistics in detail. | The headline number, well framed. |
| Examples | Edge cases & nuance. | One vivid, relatable case. |
For this course, write for the general academic column. It is harder, and a better skill.
Explain your topic to the person beside you, who is not in your major, in thirty seconds.
- → Which term did you have to stop and define?
- → What did they find interesting that you thought was obvious?
- → What would you cut for a general academic room?
From a topic to
an objective.
A topic is what you're looking at. An objective is what you intend to find out about it, and it's what makes research possible.
A research objective does three things.
A bounded slice you can actually cover, not “AI,” but “AI in Korean radiology.”
Something a reasonable person could answer differently. Tension lives here.
It hints at the evidence you'll need to settle it.
If you can't say what evidence would change your mind, you have a topic, not an objective.
Topic → objective.
| Track | Topic | Research objective |
|---|---|---|
| STEM | Semiconductors | Determine whether Korea's chip lead rests on policy or on private R&D investment. |
| HASS | The Korean Wave | Assess how far Hallyu functions as deliberate state soft-power rather than market success. |
| BIZ | E-commerce | Evaluate whether Coupang's logistics, not its pricing, reset consumer expectations. |
- Which of these objectives is closest to yours, and what single piece of evidence would change your mind?
After Presentation 1
Honest reflection is graded for thought, not for self-criticism. Answer in your Writing Journal:
- What worked in your delivery, and how do you know?
- Where did you lose the audience, and why?
- One concrete thing you'll change for the final presentation.
Re-read your peers' feedback forms before you write. Patterns across three readers are worth more than your own memory.
Homework & what's next.
- Write your Presentation 1 self-reflection
- Turn your topic into a one-sentence objective
- Re-read Workbook Ch 1 & 7 before the writing unit
Into the writing. Essay types in depth and developing your thesis, the spine of the paragraph (Wk 8) and the essay (Wk 11).
This week in one slide.
- Presentation 1 delivered, proposal, not final answers
- Graded on content, structure, delivery, visuals
- Write for a general academic audience
- Define the term they'd stumble on
- A topic names a thing; an objective asks a question
- Reflect using your peers' evidence
Now, the writing.
Week 05 · Next, Essay Types & Thesis Development