What Do Guest Speaker Lectures Look Like?

Sample Presentation #1

Guest Speaker: A. C. (Chet) McQuaide

English 15: Rhetoric and Composition
Instructor: Ashley Bonin
Donald H. Ford Rm 201
Wednesday April 20, 2016

Introduction: (5 min)

• Self introduction: Name, PSU BS year, GA
• Talk about writing experiences in my 45+ years as an engineer and R&D manager
• Writing is SO important – letter to HS English teacher 2 years ago!
• A bit about my career
  • BS EE Penn State ’65 made possible by NROTC scholarship
    • 51 years ago
    • 5 years as USNavy officer – nuclear project engineer
    • Night courses in telecommunications engr at GWU
  • Began a 40 year career in telecom network and applications engineering
    • Bell Labs, AT&T, BellSouth, AT&T Labs  Patent Attorney anecdote
    • MS EE – Stanford University ‘71
    • 35 years in management at various levels
    • MS Adv Management at Pace University ’84  Mid-career management training
    • 38 patents over the course of the career
    • I’ve done a bit of consulting since retiring from corporate life
    • Volunteer as EE Mentor, PSU College Fair Rep, Board of Directors of PSEECS

Learning about Writing in each stage of my career Career Stage: (10 min)

• Naval Officer (Division of Naval Reactors – NR)
  • Appropriate format of Navy correspondence
  • Grammar, spelling, punctuation
    • Rickover secretary anecdote
  • Managing contractors:
    • Program Approval (with comments)
      • “NR Considers” – ensure that contractor maintains “responsibility” for work
        done under contract
    • Procedures and Specifications
• Engineer/Member of Technical Staff
  • Technical Memoranda
    • Format, style, attribution, references
    • Team writing as problem solving in systems engineering
      • anecdote about Systems Prospectus, architecture documents, …
  • Annual Accomplishments
    • Factual
    • Personal advocacy
      • Basis for raises and career advancement (importance of good
        records)
  • Patent Applications
    • Patent proposal to gain corporate sponsorship for patent application
      • Sells patentability to employeer
    • Collaborating with patent attorney
      • Clarity and content must come from inventor
      • “Claims” – legal established in dialog with patent attorney
      • Descriptive material makes case for patentability (uniqueness, non-obvious, value of invention)
        • Sells idea to USPTO
• Technical Supervisor
  • Assignments – either oral or in writing
    • Importance of getting employee buy-in
  • Editing of work of direct reports (esp. ESL or international employees)
  • Performance appraisals
    • Feedback to employee
    • Advocate employee to supervisor peers and senior management
  • Work program proposals
    • to clients and senior management
  • Preparation of technical material for AT&T regulatory filings with FCC
    • collaboration with regulatory attorneys and executives
• Senior Manager/Executive Director
  • Staffing and budget proposals for organization
  • Executive reports and presentations
    • Know your audience: values and priorities of executives
    • Brevity is essential: “Get to the point!”
• Citizen
  • Letters to representatives, editor of AJC, recommendations
    • discipline of 150 character limit

Keys to Persuasive Writing: (10 min)

ISSUE
ENGAGEMENT
CLARITY
BREVITY
CLOSURE

• Issue Definition
  • Define the issue for yourself
  • Focus – Avoid extraneous tangents
• Engagement
  • Understand reader/audience
    • Position/Role – relevance to the position/role
    • Values and Priorities – Why does this matter to him/her?
  • First Sentence Matters!
    • Capture reader attention – “I care about this!”
    • Clear, concise, and positive
• Clear and Credible Presentation
  • Organization/structure
  • Spelling, punctuation, grammar
  • Flow of ideas and arguments
  • Factual and logical
• Brevity
  • Draft and review
    • Is this sentence needed?
    • Can it be expressed more clearly in fewer words?
    • Read aloud – if you stumble, rewording or simplification is needed.
  • Use word count
• Closure – Tie conclusion to introduction

Questions? (5 min)

Workshop:
Ok, now it’s your turn to do a little work. Remember what I said about the importance of the first sentence of a proposal in terms of clarity, brevity, and engagement of the reader? You’ve all chosen a topic for your proposal. I’d like each of you to quickly write a first sentence for your report which concisely introduces your proposal in a positive and engaging way. Miss Bonin will ask a few of you to read what you’ve written as an opportunity for class feedback.