Even the most superficial of presentations calls for some kind of preparation. An "elevator speech," which summarizes a topic in minutes, if not seconds, calls for lightning thought and reflexive application of the rhetorical triangle, grammar, outlining, content knowledge, and logic as you are standing there. For more elaborate and considered presentations, you should reflect on your topic and on the implications and potential for your message. If presenting yourself, you want to be seen as a mature professional and in the best light. If presenting discipline-related material, you want to be seen as a mature and reflective professional, who has not only laid out a mechanical and logical outline of the material, but who has linked the material, with meaning, to the audience.

For this Individual Project, you will create a sentence outline for a presentation and informally share your ideas for approaching the visual elements of a presentation.

Using your thoughts from earlier in the course and your elevator speech ideas, create a sentence outline for a 10-minute presentation about a discipline-related topic in which you propose a small project or professional action to an audience of mid-level executives.

The outline should indicate the flow and content for your anticipated presentation.

Incorporate an introduction of yourself, and link your background, experience, goals, and education to the topic. Imagine that the audience has not met you or that they do not know you very well. Assume that your own strengths and abilities, including your university studies, will be key and important to the success of your proposal for the project. Be sure the outline reflects solid organization and process.

After you complete the outline, add a paragraph or two sharing your initial thought process for determining visual support for your presentation. Consider color choice, font choice, use of white space, layout, and so on.