In this project, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following competency:
In this project, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following competency:
Communicate a position related to a complex issue in a civic context
Scenario
Training opportunities in the workplace (professional development) have become a sound investment for employers. In addition to reducing recruiting and retention costs, professional development has been demonstrated to boost productivity and job satisfaction. For employees, it also offers new opportunities for enhancing their skills and offers additional opportunities for positioning themselves for new opportunities within the organization outside of regular promotions. For the past seven years, your company has sponsored a professional enrichment program (PEP). Each year a small group or cohort of six to eight employees is chosen to participate in special professional enrichment activities in both group and individual formats. The participants are paired with mentors from leaders across the company. Employees each submit a letter and career plan that serve as their “application” to the program.
Update: You have just passed the mid-year mark of a professional enrichment program you were selected to participate in, and you are eager and ready to face new challenges directly. Your leadership has just announced they want to introduce a new aspect to the program. They will pilot this aspect with your group this year. The intent of this aspect is not just to grow you professionally within the organization but in broader settings as a member of larger communities. You have been requested to identify an issue that impacts the quality of life within a community of your choice and create a proposal to present in a civic setting to your audience. You strategize with your mentor and agree that once you select an issue, you will put together a proposal and presentation plan and draft presentation. This provides you with the opportunity to receive feedback from your mentor prior to presenting to your audience (the individuals or group who would have a vested interest in this issue).
Directions
Part 1: Proposal and Presentation Plan (approximately 1,000 words)You will draft your proposal and your plan for communicating it prior to beginning to create the presentation itself to ensure you are establishing a clear narrative for your audience. Your mentor has also requested that you provide an analysis of your audience and how you will be addressing them (i.e., the location and format) to ensure that your presentation is suitable for this audience. This will ensure your mentor can provide you the best possible feedback.
Complex Issue: Select a complex issue from the provided list. Describe the “who” and “what” behind the issue you have selected so that your mentor can provide you feedback on the appropriateness of how you’ve situated the problem and your proposal for addressing it for your audience:
Issue explanation
Sociopolitical and historical context of the issue
Importance to the stakeholders in impacted community
Annotated Bibliography: Remember, your mentor has been very clear that an appeal to your audience’s passions is not sufficient in addressing your complex issue. Provide research and evidence that supports your explanation of the complex issue and your recommendations around this issue:
Use relevant and credible sources that represent a variety of perspectives
Explain how sources inform potential and logical next steps based on resources
Your Position and Course of Action: Next, address the “why” behind the issue in your proposal ensuring you:
Explain your position on this issue
Describe a logical course of action or actions aligned with your proposal and supported by evidence
Audience Analysis: Lastly, look carefully at the “who” again and “where.” Potentially there will be individuals in your audience from diverse cultures aside from your primary audience. Discuss the following and how you will ensure your visuals and verbal or text narrative will address:
Norms for the public venue and civic context in which you are presenting
Communication strategies appropriate in addressing your primary audience
Communication strategies appropriate in addressing multicultural audiences that differ from your primary audience (for example, are there linguistic preferences or nonverbal signs that would be preferable or not preferable?)
Part 2: Proposal Presentation (10–15 slides with speaker notes in slide deck, or 15-minute video with transcript)Now that you’ve completed your plan and have a concrete approach around your idea, you feel even more confident about communicating your position! You have many choices for presenting yourself (slide deck with speaker notes or video with transcript). You know your choice will be the “how” behind communicating your position. Your choice of vehicle (slide deck or video) and the information you include in the speaker notes or transcript must address all of the following:
Presentation of Issue: Set the stage for your audience:
Situate your issue by clearly identifying it
Briefly describe the sociopolitical context (local, regional, national, or global)
Recommendation: Ensure you concisely and clearly cover:
Main IdeaArticulate your main idea
Discuss why it is important
Use relevant and credible sources
Call to ActionDescribe a logical course of action or actions aligned with main idea
Include potential benefits and drawbacks
Communication of Explanation: Ensure you are using your speaker notes or video narration/transcript to ensure your narrative:
Aligns to the norms of the public venue in which you are presenting
Addresses cultural needs and expectations of the group
Appropriate Practices: Use conventions that are:
Appropriate to persuasive argumentClear and logical
Suitable for a variety of cultural backgroundsEliminate figurative language such as metaphors, idioms, similes, etc.
Enhance the accessibility of your information with alternative text or transcripts that identify verbal or visual content
Necessary to avoid communicating bias, either intended or unintended
Articulation of Response: Clearly convey meaning, demonstrating an understanding of audience and purpose:
Correct grammarAvoid slang and jargon
Sentence structure
Spelling
What to Submit
Every project has a deliverable or deliverables, which are the files that must be submitted before your project can be assessed. For this project, you must submit the following:
Proposal and Presentation Plan (approximately 1,000 words)
Draft your proposal and your plan for communicating it prior to beginning to create the presentation itself to ensure you are establishing a clear narrative for your audience. Your mentor has also requested that you provide an analysis of your audience and how you will be addressing them (i.e., the location and format) to ensure that your presentation is suitable for this audience. This will ensure your mentor can provide you the best possible feedback.
Proposal Presentation (10–15 slides with speaker notes in slide deck, or 15-minute video with transcript)
Choose a vehicle (slide deck or video) and include information in the speaker notes or transcript. Your choice will be the “how” behind communicating your position.
Please help me Finish This is my feed back after submission
1. State clearly your challenge as a question first.
2. Set this section up to address each of the following bullets:
Demographics of the individuals/group affected by challenge
Magnitude of the issue in community affected by challenge
Commonly held assumptions or obstacles around this issue
Social conditions that exist specific to this challenge
Cultural or societal issues specific to this challenge
Discipline-specific subject or branch of knowledge
As you address each of these six areas, you will address key areas required for discussion. We need to better understand the population(s) that you are evaluating. Based on the research, is this an issue felt more by employees in some organizations compared to others? Do specific industries see greater challenges with this issue. Would you say this was more a global or national issue? Which cultures are experiencing the greatest challenges in the workplace? Pre-pandemic? Post pandemic?
More is needed to understand the sociopolitical and historical contexts that impact the issue.
Sociopolitical Context
Is this issue a recent issue or did a specific event contribute to more issues found in diverse workplace environments (i.e. Financial Collapse, Great Depression)? Additionally, as you consider the sociopolitical aspects, consider the following questions. Does the challenge impact specific industries, cultures, or occupations more than others? Is this a global, regional, or national issue? Be sure to cite your sources as you incorporate these insights from the research.
Historical Context
More is needed for the historical context is to show how over time this challenge initiated and evolved to being an issue today. For example if you were focused on climate change you would be able to trace back to 1800s, human activities became the main driver of climate change, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels (like coal, oil, and gas)…in 19XX the auto industry added to the emissions issue, 19XX when more factories were being built, 20XX presented a rise in housing developments; cutting down forests to create new homes or commercial properties, or for other reasons.
That historical context is needed to show a longitudinal advancement of the issue over the course of time. Having multiple instances/dates in history help tie the cause and effect in a way that helps to explain why your topic is so important to your audience.
Clearly evaluate each of your sources against these five (5) criteria:
Authority: Authority refers to the credibility of the author or creator of the information. A person with authority is an accepted expert in his/her field.
Accuracy: Accuracy refers to how factual the source is. An accurate source has reliable references to back up its claims – references that can be verified.
Currency: What is current varies from subject to subject. Medical research relies on a shorter time period for currency than literary or historical studies.
Relevance: Is the source really relevant to your topic? Does it strengthen your argument? Some sources may only relate to your topic in a loose way, especially topics with multiple subcategories.
Objectivity: The point of view and purpose of a source can help you determine how objective a source is and how much bias plays a role
Please addressed the criteria, for every source in this section, and clearly state why it meets or does not meet that criteria by asking these questions.
Are the authors an authority? Why or why not?
Is the information presented factual? Why or why not? How do you know?
Is the information current? Why or why not?
Is the source really relevant to your topic? Does it strengthen your argument?
Is the point of view objective You are off to a great start in this, however please take another look at this area to provide a set of prescriptive steps for your course of action/solution. In your resubmission consider putting in your proposal a well-laid out plan that has recommendations supported by the sources that you have researched. As you address this area it does not have to be exactly like the example below, however it will help you to ensure you have provided a comprehensive list of recommendations. You must provide sources to support your recommendation(s) (in-text citations from the sources). This will provide credibility to the recommendations as well as show how each connects to the research. For example:First I propose X (action/solution), according to Y (source) this is beneficial…Second….Third…Fourth…Fifth…
Audience analysis is a critical part of any presentation. Without an accurate and thorough analysis, your presentation content and delivery can be ‘off’, your message will not be understood.
Here are some guidelines to follow for this project:
It is important to identify your specific audience (i.e. business leaders) and the venue where you will present (i.e. conference room or community center). It is important to consider your audience and venue as both will help to determine the norms that will guide your presentation. For example, there are different norms for presentations in a conference room versus those in a community center. Please provide specific discussion of how your visuals and messaging will support the needs of a multicultural audience.
As you consider this area, please remember that some of your audience may be multi-lingual, so how can your visuals and messaging support their needs? How will you avoid issues with language or bias (i.e. using jargon or slang)? What needs might your audience have (i.e. hearing impairments, language barriers). How will your presentation support these needs?
You must also discuss the communication related to your audience. You need to discuss how you will ensure your narrative aligns to the norms of the venue and meets the cultural needs of your audience. Be sure to discuss where you are presenting and identify your audience. Discuss the norms of the venue and how your presentation will support these norms. This item aligns to your communication using your PowerPoint Presentation. Please consider how you can use Speaker’s Notes, narration, or video transcript to meet the needs of your audience. What needs might your audience have (i.e. hearing impairments, language barriers). How will your presentation support these needs?
Chapter 6: Understanding Your Audience found in the Reading: “A Student’s Guide to Presentations: Making Your Presentations Count” discusses the purpose, function, creation, and delivery of an effective presentation which will assist you in analyzing your audience.