Tips for Developing Your Presentation Topic
by Prof. Greg » Sun Sep 18, 2011 10:28 am
Class presentations must be specific and focused and they must fall within the purview of a general heading, i.e., the topic must be relevant to the course content.
Think of your topic as a research question or hypothesis that will be explored during a 15 to 20 minute presentation.
Many of you are struggling with this because your ideas are far too broad. Many of you have good ideas for the foundation of your presentation but you need to develop them further into specific research topics or questions.
Let's say that I travel a great deal for work and the two foreign countries that I visit the most are Greece and England. Without ever really having given the reasons for it much thought, I know that I much prefer Greece over England. Herein lies the foundation for a great topic in Human Behavior in a Cross-cultural Context.
It would be far too broad and even non-responsive to the assignment if I created a simple comparative presentation on what I like and dislike about Greece and England.
What I need to do first is engage in some introspection and critical thinking towards developing a research hypothesis:
1) What is it about Greece that I, as an individual, prefer over England? Is it the people and, if so, what is it about them specifically that I like? Is there some cultural characteristic to the way the Greeks communicate in business that is familiar or similar to the way Middle Easterners think and communicate?
2) With my general idea in mind, I now review the various general headings in the Intercultural Competence textbook and I come across (in chapter 8) the section on Nonverbal Intercultural Communication (p. 204): Body Movement, Space, Touch, Time, and Voice and BOOM!!! it suddenly hits me. It occurs to me, like an epiphany, that the main reason I prefer doing business in Greece is because Greek people are far more expressive and communicative non-verbally than are the British, not unlike people from the Middle East. Now I finally have my presentation topic: An Exploration into Cross-cultural Similarities in Non-verbal Communication between Greece and Emirati Nationals.
3) Now I start conducting searches in Google Scholar for articles on nonverbal communication in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern countries. I will also conduct literature reviews on business etiquette (in Greece and Middle East) to see how this might relate or tie into nonverbal communication.
Update September 24, 2011
Many of you are submitting general headings and not research questions. Your research topic MUST address some specific aspect of the larger topic based on personal or professional interest.
For example, "anxiety disorders" is not a topic, it is a general heading. Simply talking about what anxiety disorders are in your own words is not responsive to the requirements of this assignment. "Stress at work" is not research question or a valid topic. "Italian culture" is not a research question or a valid topic.
You MUST keep your focus very narrow. For example, instead of "anxiety disorders," you could explore whether there are cultural differences in how anxiety disorders are diagnosed or treated. Instead of "clinical depression," you could explore if middle children (children who are born second in order of three children) are more likely to suffer from clinical depression than their older or younger siblings.
Your research topic must be limited in scope and highly focused. General headings are NOT research topics and if you simply define diagnoses, concepts, and terms for 15 minutes without exploring some narrow part of the overall heading, you cannot receive more than a grade of 70 percent for your presentation.
Think of your topic as a research question or hypothesis that will be explored during a 15 to 20 minute presentation.
Many of you are struggling with this because your ideas are far too broad. Many of you have good ideas for the foundation of your presentation but you need to develop them further into specific research topics or questions.
Let's say that I travel a great deal for work and the two foreign countries that I visit the most are Greece and England. Without ever really having given the reasons for it much thought, I know that I much prefer Greece over England. Herein lies the foundation for a great topic in Human Behavior in a Cross-cultural Context.
It would be far too broad and even non-responsive to the assignment if I created a simple comparative presentation on what I like and dislike about Greece and England.
What I need to do first is engage in some introspection and critical thinking towards developing a research hypothesis:
1) What is it about Greece that I, as an individual, prefer over England? Is it the people and, if so, what is it about them specifically that I like? Is there some cultural characteristic to the way the Greeks communicate in business that is familiar or similar to the way Middle Easterners think and communicate?
2) With my general idea in mind, I now review the various general headings in the Intercultural Competence textbook and I come across (in chapter 8) the section on Nonverbal Intercultural Communication (p. 204): Body Movement, Space, Touch, Time, and Voice and BOOM!!! it suddenly hits me. It occurs to me, like an epiphany, that the main reason I prefer doing business in Greece is because Greek people are far more expressive and communicative non-verbally than are the British, not unlike people from the Middle East. Now I finally have my presentation topic: An Exploration into Cross-cultural Similarities in Non-verbal Communication between Greece and Emirati Nationals.
3) Now I start conducting searches in Google Scholar for articles on nonverbal communication in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern countries. I will also conduct literature reviews on business etiquette (in Greece and Middle East) to see how this might relate or tie into nonverbal communication.
Update September 24, 2011
Many of you are submitting general headings and not research questions. Your research topic MUST address some specific aspect of the larger topic based on personal or professional interest.
For example, "anxiety disorders" is not a topic, it is a general heading. Simply talking about what anxiety disorders are in your own words is not responsive to the requirements of this assignment. "Stress at work" is not research question or a valid topic. "Italian culture" is not a research question or a valid topic.
You MUST keep your focus very narrow. For example, instead of "anxiety disorders," you could explore whether there are cultural differences in how anxiety disorders are diagnosed or treated. Instead of "clinical depression," you could explore if middle children (children who are born second in order of three children) are more likely to suffer from clinical depression than their older or younger siblings.
Your research topic must be limited in scope and highly focused. General headings are NOT research topics and if you simply define diagnoses, concepts, and terms for 15 minutes without exploring some narrow part of the overall heading, you cannot receive more than a grade of 70 percent for your presentation.
- Prof. Greg
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