How to give a class presentation

A class presentation is a short argument you say out loud, not a paper you read in a hurry. Start by deciding the one claim you want a classmate to repeat after you sit down. If you have three claims, you have a chapter, and the clock will punish you. For a six or seven minute slot, use the claim, two examples, and a last line that matches the claim in simpler words. Put the sources you were assigned on a card with the author and the year so you can say them without squinting at a paragraph. Practice standing, with the clicker or the papers you will really use, and time the run once from the first word to the last. Cut until the timed run fits the slot with twenty seconds left over for a breath. You are not there to sound like a textbook. You are there to make a point a person can hear.

Arrive early enough to see how the board, the screen, or the bare wall actually looks from the back row. If you are using slides, open the file before class so a login screen is not your introduction. Stand to the side of the screen so you are not talking to your own shoulder. Hold notes at a height where your face stays up, and number the cards in case you drop them. Ask the teacher whether questions come at the end or in the middle, and plan your ending for that rule. Look at different classmates for each example so you are not delivering the whole talk to the friend who smiled first. If you lose the room to a late arrival, pause half a second and continue, without a joke at the person's expense. Speak a little louder than you think you need to, because nerves make people get quiet right when the claim appears. Drink water before you start, not during the only example that matters.

Say the claim in the first two sentences, in words a classmate can copy into a note. "I am Luis, and my claim is that the town grew because the bus line arrived before the factory did." Do not open with "um, so my topic is basically about history." Do not open with a definition you copied when the claim itself is clearer. Tell the room the two examples you will use, by name, so they can feel the shape. "I will use the nineteen forty map and the interview with the depot clerk." That roadmap takes one breath and saves you from wandering. If the assignment requires a question, ask a real one you will answer, not a fake one you abandon. Skip a long story about why you picked the topic unless the teacher graded that story. Your interest matters less than the claim.

Claim, map, example, example, and a last line are the whole talk when the slot is short.

Give each example a job. The first example should show the claim in action, and the second should show what would be missing if the claim were false. For the bus line, the map shows streets filling in beside the route, and the clerk's memory shows a factory that opened later and still needed those streets. Say where each fact comes from, in a few words, and do not read the citation like a spell. Explain one term the class might not know, then use the plain term after that. If a slide has more than a few words, you are asking people to read while you talk, so cut the slide or stop talking while they read. Do not add a third example that repeats the first. When you hit the middle, glance at the clock or your card so you still have time for the last line. If you are running long, drop an adjective and keep the fact. A fact you skip cannot be asked about later, so keep the fact the teacher is most likely to check.

Restate the claim in a shorter sentence than the one you opened with. "The streets followed the bus, and the factory followed the streets." Then stop on that line. Offer to take questions if that was the rule, and answer the question you were asked rather than the speech you wish you had given. If you do not know an answer, say you do not know and point to where you would look. Do not invent a figure, a quote, or a date to escape a pause. Thank the class in three words if you want, and sit down while the last line is still in the air. A long thanks gives people time to forget the claim. If there is a group, hand off with the next person's name and do not summarize their part for them.

Cut the paragraph you wrote to sound formal and that you cannot say without stumbling. Cut slides that repeat your sentences word for word. Cut apologies such as "I am really bad at presenting." Cut a joke that needs homework the class did not do. Cut any sentence that says the topic is interesting without showing the interesting part. Here is a practice sentence made for this guide, and it should come out of a real draft. "There are many many factors and it is all connected in a way that is sort of hard to explain so I will just talk generally." That sentence hides the claim. Replace it with the bus, the map, and the clerk. If your notes say "talk more here," write the actual sentence or delete the cue.