Pretend that you are an academic job seeker giving a job talk to a prospective employer.  The class will represent members of the department at the college where you are having an on-campus interview.  Your job is to impress us with your poise, your speaking ability, and your command of the material, in the hopes that we'll hire you.  Each speaker will be given a central question to use in shaping his or her talk.  The time you should take for your talk is between 10 and 12 minutes.  There will be two such talks per class period, which makes it crucial that each speaker stick to this length. I will be keeping time, and stopping the formal presentation after that time to allow for questions and discussion. 

Here are some of the guidelines you should follow:

• Begin with an introduction, in which you introduce the question on which you’ll be expanding.  You can be personal about it ("As I was thinking over this question . . .") or more objective, but you need a hook to grab people's attention and set them up for what is to follow. 
• Structure your material so that your analysis builds subordinate points and examples around the theme of the question.  Do not simply repeat what is in the book, but expand upon it. 
• Introduce a personal angle.  How do you as a reader of this work respond to it?  In considering the light it sheds on the Renaissance, what does this work say to you about our own world as well?  Why might a class be interested in it?  
• In closing, open the floor to questions.  The class will then have its job to do as well: while you are speaking, your classmates will be jotting down questions to ask you.  Fielding them is part of your presentation. 

What I'm hoping is that you'll have fun with this exercise at the same time that you take it seriously.  The task is one that many of you will be facing when you leave college, not necessarily in exactly this form, but in circumstances that are similar.  Here's a safe place to get a start on developing the necessary skills. 

Laurel Carrington carringt@stolaf.edu
Most recent update: January 29, 2008

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