COM 1010

Goldstein

Informative Speech Assignment:

New York City Museums

The Task:

  • A group presentation (3 people per group), 15-20 minutes long, in which you play the role of art or history experts on a talk show about New York City cultural sites.
  • The talk show will inform the audience of viewers in an engaging and effective way about an art or history related exhibit you attended at a New York City museum of your group’s choice. You may not choose an exhibit designed for children. You can find a list of all New York City museums with links to their websites at
  • Your job is to teach the audience about the content of the exhibit, including main ideas, themes, chronologies, as well as examples. This means you’ll have to take careful notes when you visit the exhibit. You’re responsible for figuring out how to organize the concepts, themes, and details from the exhibit into an outline. You are not responsible for covering every detail mentioned in the exhibit.

Details:

  • The presentation must be delivered extemporaneously.
  • The presentation must be based on an outline as discussed in class.
  • Each participant must speak for about the same amount of time.
  • The presentation must include verbal citations from at least 5 sources. Your main source will be the exhibit itself (you’ll need to find out who the curator is). A second source will most likely be the museum’s website. Two sources must bearticles from scholarly journals or book chapters. The remaining source might be from a newspaper, encyclopedia, a website, etc.
  • Includes a PowerPoint or Prezi (prezi.com) presentation as discussed in class. You may use other kinds of visual aids in addition if you see fit.
  • Must be delivered with the use of index cards.

Preparation Outline Requirements:

  • 3-5pages, single spaced
  • Follows the outline format discussed in class (see text book for example)
  • Includes the following elements, clearly labeled:
  • A title
  • An introduction
  • Body paragraphs
  • A list of main points and sub-points (and sub-sub-points if appropriate)
  • Transition statements or connectives that indicate how you will transition between points
  • A conclusion
  • A bibliography

Recommended museums to consider:

The Met

MOMA

Guggenheim

Museum of the City of New York

International Center for Photography

Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art

Tenement Museum

Museum of Chinese in America

Brooklyn Historical Society

Weeksville Heritage Center