Engineering 100-980

Lightning Talk

Contents

• Lightning Talk
  • Contents
  • Purpose
  • Task
  • Criteria for Success

Purpose

The purpose of this talk is to prepare you for future presentations in our class and other engineering classes, as well as professional presentations. You’ll practice research skills and, likely, paragraphing skills as well. Finally, you’ll practice timing and public speaking.

Task

Your task is to give a two-minute argumentative talk to your teammates about a space company of your choice. You’ll want to give a very brief introduction to the company and a brief overview of their products/mission/achievements. You’ll want to spend most of your talk using one element of the company – their products/patents, their business model, their history, their current market share and strategies, their charitable initiatives, etc. – to convince your teammates that the company is “better” than others.

Note that “space company” is a loose term. You can pick a company that launches satellites, but you can also pick a company that designs or manufactures sensors used on satellites, a company that handles data in any capacity for satellites, or a company that does anything else space related. You can also pick a government agency, nonprofit, NGO, or other corporate entity.

Your talk should not use any slides or visual aids. You can use a note card to help organize your thoughts and talk itself.

You are required to use at least one reputable source from outside of the company you have picked. Note the word reputable. Your source does not have to be scholarly, but it should be appropriate for your rhetorical situation, i.e. your audience and purpose.

After each team member has presented their lightning talk, you will select one company as the “best.” This means all team members must pick different companies. Being selected has no impact on your grade.

Here are some hints to keep you from doing extra work and to help you earn the highest possible grade:

• Have the research lecture slide deck open to help when conducting research and selecting a source

• Have the effective paragraphing slide deck and the document org/integrating evidence and citation/PEEL paragraph slide deck open to help when writing

• You must verbally cite your source when presenting to your teammates. This is done by saying “According to [source], [evidence]”

  • e.g. “According to The New York Times, pizza is the favorite food of subway rats across the city.”

Criteria for Success

This ten-point activity will be assessed for completion. To earn completion credit, you must:

• Submit the notes you complied for your talk to Canvas before class

• Deliver your prepared talk

• Engage thoughtfully and respectfully with your classmates’ lightening talks