PHILADELPHIA UNIVERSITY
L354.479 & L354.480 - Area Studies: Africa
Guidelines for Oral Presentations
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The course theme for class presentations this spring is contemporary African leadership. Each student group will make a 30-minute presentation (please do not exceed your time limit) on one of the following topics:
- Nelson Mandela (South Africa) & Thabo Mbeki (South Africa)
- Olusegun Obasanjo (Nigeria)
- Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe)
- The Rwandan Holocaust
- Hassan al-Turabi/John Garang/Riek Machar/Omar al-Bashir; also the Darfur Crisis (The Sudan)
Each group presentation should accomplish 5 objectives:
- Give a succinct and coherent account of each leader’s career
- Provide relevant context for understanding that career.
- Discuss how external factors (forces outside of Africa) contribute to either solving or intensifying Africa’s problems.
- Explore the relationship between effective or dysfunctional African leadership and African political and economic development.
- Provide extensive historical background.
Keeping to time will be important and running over the allotted time will influence the final grading of a group’s work
Requirements:
1. Each presenter must consult at least 12 sources, excluding encyclopedias and other reference works. These 12 sources must include some internet, some database and some print materials. All students also must turn in a bibliography in the proper MLA format of all their sources on the day of their presentation.
2. Each group must track all stories about their topic throughout the semester in the following newspapers and wire services which can be found on the internet: The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Guardian (U.K.), and Reuters. Material from this exercise should be incorporated into the group presentation.
3. Each group must use the case studies of African leaders contained in Wrong and Berkeley as a basis for comparison with their leaders. The effective use of these two books to strengthen a group’s presentation will result in a higher mark.
Suggested format for presentation (feel free to use other formats):
1. Introduction of subject
2. Cultural and Political Background on the African nation whose leader you are studying
3. Biography of Leader
4. Analysis of objectives 4 & 5. Be sure to give multiple points of view.
5. Conclusion
Extra Credit Opportunities
There are two opportunities for extra credit on this assignment.
1. Individuals who go to the Learning Center to have a session with the tutor on how to give a better oral presentation will have 5% added onto to their individual grade for a presentation.
2. During other group’s presentations, students may volunteer for the following two positions: discussion facilitator or group evaluator. The discussion facilitators will ask questions about the presentation and will relate it either to previous work in the class or to other presentations. The group evaluators will suggest how a presentation could have delivered its information more compellingly and efficiently. In order to get credit for this work, each student must type at least one double-spaced page of comments or questions. Each facilitator and evaluator will have 5% added onto their individual grade for their presentation.
Missing a scheduled presentation: If any student member misses a presentation for any reason, they will have to write a 5 page typed paper on their topic. I will assess penalties on a student’s grade depending on the reason for missing a presentation. Students should be aware that these penalties could be extremely harsh.
Schedule of Presentations:
Each group will deliver their presentation twice. First, before the mid-term, each group will present a rough draft of their report to me alone. The rough draft is like a “finished version”, though it is unnecessary to have supporting visual materials. The second version will be one given to the entire class at the end of the semester, incorporating my suggestions and additional research.
RoughDrafts:
February 9 – Oral Presentation #1
February 14 – Oral Presentations # 2 & 3
February 16 – Oral Presentations 4 & 5
TheFinalVersion:
April 18 – Oral Presentations # 1 & 2
April 25 – Oral Presentations 3 & 4
April 27 – Oral Presentation # 5
Grading: Both the “Rough Draft” and “The Final Presentation” will be graded in similarly. Each student will receive two grades for the presentation. One grade will be the group grade based on smooth organization, overall coherence, and tight teamwork (the group grade is derived from your grades on both the rough and final versions). That will represent 40% of a student's grade. The second grade will be on each student’s part of the group presentation based on depth and accuracy of research and efficient delivery of appropriate information (the individual grade is derived in the same fashion as the group grade). That will represent 60% of a student's grade. The average of the two grades will comprise a student’s final grade on the presentation.
Remember:
- Audiovisual aids are a plus but are not compulsory.
- Get your facts right by checking multiple sources. Be sure you spell African names correctly (don’t worry, though, about pronouncing them in the right way). Students will be severely penalized for presenting incorrect information
- Be current in your information. Students will be severely penalized for presenting out of date information.
