items to consider
organization
- Your Oral Defense should be 25 - 30 minutes, tops
- Prior to starting, a sign will be placed on the outside Gallery door "Oral Defense in Progress. Do NOT disturb"
- There will be no Q + A's during your presentation. At the Conclusion of your presentation we have 15 minutes of Q + A's
- Make sure font is large enough and easy to read at a 20' distance
- Organize your multi media presentation to be followed easily with smooth transitions, both conceptually and visually
- Yes, you may use index cards!
- Make use of highlight or bulleted text to direct your audience to your main talking points
- Consider using your title page from your Capstone Research paper as your opening slide, noting the name of your Capstone, your name and your Committee members' names (increase names to larger or bold font), an image
- Make sure you identify yourself as a BFA Candidate on this slide
- You may wish to include some biographical information on yourself that supports and has helped fuel the foundational ideas and/or questions from your Capstone Research paper
- Reflect on the past four years of your academic life at Cazenovia College and pull in areas of study outside your Senior year's work. This may include things discovered in other classes; philosophy, in sociology, psychology, anthropology, literature, even from your extra circular activities, for example. By doing so, you are illustrating to your audience your skill in critical thinking and the ways in which you can manage making conceptual connections
- Next, followed by your Thesis Statement
- Should this be a paragraph long, you need to take excerpts from it, highlight or bullet
- Consider using main points of your introduction, thus guiding the audience to know bits of what they are about to hear
- Go through your capstone paper and hull out the main points you make within it
- Your audience does not want to hear, nor can hear, many of the finer details you might have included in your research paper
- Your talking points should be the over arching examples made within your research paper that will help defend your thesis
- Return to your thesis question often, thereby reminding audience of what your research paper is all about
- Use still visuals that assist in making your talking points clearer
- Use still visuals of the individuals you are speaking of, noting their nationality, birth and death dates and qualify them as to why you are using them, noting their work (example) and give a citation to the bibliographic source you got the info from
- Make use of video clips / audio (15 seconds max.) that assist in proving your point - this will also give you a little break from speaking and giving the audience pause as well!
- Allow your transitions to be smooth and not jarring in concept and image
- Connect an artistic or academic example made in your Capstone research paper to transition into your own work
- You may make use of process photographs of your work
- You may use examples from your earlier college career that was pivotal in making the work you on exhibition in your BFA Thesis Exhibition
- Speak directly to the work in your exhibition as well
- Your final few slides should set the tone for closure in your Oral presentation
other pointers
- Make sure your Committee members have HARDcopy of your Research papers, letter perfect, 1.5 weeks prior to your defense
- Notify me 1 week prior to your Oral Defense date should you want it videotaped
- If you do not want to use a remote while speaking at your presentation, organize a friend to do this at the Smart Cart stand for you. They should obviously know your cues
- Make sure you have enough bios/statements, cvs, etc. to distribute place your bio / statements / cvs / business cards on the front group of chairs, thereby 'reserving' them for your Committee members
- Should you get nervous, breath and remember that this will probably be the last public presentation you might make in your undergraduate degrees! Have fun with it. Show off a little
- Should you remain nervous, make eye contact with me and I will silently remind you of where you are in your presentation with gestures
