Sample Presentation #1
Guest Speaker: A. C. (Chet) McQuaide
English 15: Rhetoric and Composition
Instructor: Ashley Bonin
Donald H. Ford Rm 201
Wednesday April 20, 2016
Introduction: (5 min)
- Self introduction: Name, PSU BS year, GA
- Talk about writing experiences in my 45+ years as an engineer and R&D manager
- Writing is SO important – letter to HS English teacher 2 years ago!
- A bit about my career
- BS EE Penn State ’65 made possible by NROTC scholarship
- 51 years ago
- 5 years as USNavy officer – nuclear project engineer
- Night courses in telecommunications engr at GWU
- Began a 40 year career in telecom network and applications engineering
- Bell Labs, AT&T, BellSouth, AT&T Labs Patent Attorney anecdote
- MS EE – Stanford University ‘71
- 35 years in management at various levels
- MS Adv Management at Pace University ’84 Mid-career management training
- 38 patents over the course of the career
- I’ve done a bit of consulting since retiring from corporate life
- Volunteer as EE Mentor, PSU College Fair Rep, Board of Directors of PSEECS
- BS EE Penn State ’65 made possible by NROTC scholarship
Learning about Writing in each stage of my career Career Stage: (10 min)
- Naval Officer (Division of Naval Reactors – NR)
- Appropriate format of Navy correspondence
- Grammar, spelling, punctuation
- Rickover secretary anecdote
- Managing contractors:
- Program Approval (with comments)
- “NR Considers” – ensure that contractor maintains “responsibility” for work
done under contract
- “NR Considers” – ensure that contractor maintains “responsibility” for work
- Procedures and Specifications
- Program Approval (with comments)
- Engineer/Member of Technical Staff
- Technical Memoranda
- Format, style, attribution, references
- Team writing as problem solving in systems engineering
- anecdote about Systems Prospectus, architecture documents, …
- Annual Accomplishments
- Factual
- Personal advocacy
- Basis for raises and career advancement (importance of good
records)
- Basis for raises and career advancement (importance of good
- Patent Applications
- Patent proposal to gain corporate sponsorship for patent application
- Sells patentability to employeer
- Collaborating with patent attorney
- Clarity and content must come from inventor
- “Claims” – legal established in dialog with patent attorney
- Descriptive material makes case for patentability (uniqueness, non-obvious, value of invention)
- Sells idea to USPTO
- Patent proposal to gain corporate sponsorship for patent application
- Technical Memoranda
- Technical Supervisor
- Assignments – either oral or in writing
- Importance of getting employee buy-in
- Editing of work of direct reports (esp. ESL or international employees)
- Performance appraisals
- Feedback to employee
- Advocate employee to supervisor peers and senior management
- Work program proposals
- to clients and senior management
- Preparation of technical material for AT&T regulatory filings with FCC
- collaboration with regulatory attorneys and executives
- Assignments – either oral or in writing
- Senior Manager/Executive Director
- Staffing and budget proposals for organization
- Executive reports and presentations
- Know your audience: values and priorities of executives
- Brevity is essential: “Get to the point!”
- Citizen
- Letters to representatives, editor of AJC, recommendations
- discipline of 150 character limit
- Letters to representatives, editor of AJC, recommendations
Keys to Persuasive Writing: (10 min)
ISSUE
ENGAGEMENT
CLARITY
BREVITY
CLOSURE
- Issue Definition
- Define the issue for yourself
- Focus – Avoid extraneous tangents
- Engagement
- Understand reader/audience
- Position/Role – relevance to the position/role
- Values and Priorities – Why does this matter to him/her?
- First Sentence Matters!
- Capture reader attention – “I care about this!”
- Clear, concise, and positive
- Understand reader/audience
- Clear and Credible Presentation
- Organization/structure
- Spelling, punctuation, grammar
- Flow of ideas and arguments
- Factual and logical
- Brevity
- Draft and review
- Is this sentence needed?
- Can it be expressed more clearly in fewer words?
- Read aloud – if you stumble, rewording or simplification is needed.
- Use word count
- Draft and review
- Closure – Tie conclusion to introduction
Questions? (5 min)
Workshop:
Ok, now it’s your turn to do a little work. Remember what I said about the importance of the first sentence of a proposal in terms of clarity, brevity, and engagement of the reader? You’ve all chosen a topic for your proposal. I’d like each of you to quickly write a first sentence for your report which concisely introduces your proposal in a positive and engaging way. Miss Bonin will ask a few of you to read what you’ve written as an opportunity for class feedback.