Discussion Post: Week 11

NOTE: You can follow my election night coverage, updated minute-by-minute throughout the evening, on our sister blog, which I continued from a previous semester of COM 315.

It’s about time for Presentation III! How has your presentation been coming along? What have you learned from Presentation II that you’re planning to apply here? And how do you expect the challenge to be different than what we’ve faced in our first two presentations?

Well, America’s fateful day is almost upon us. On Tuesday, citizens across the nation will cast their ballots for the next president of the United States. Democratic incumbent Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney have been hard at work over the final weekend of campaigning, both sides hoping to swipe as many votes as they can in order to pull out what may be a narrow win in two days.

Discussion Post: Week 10

Now that Presentation II is behind us and you’ve been able to watch your presentation video, what do you think of your performance? Did it go how you expected, or were there some surprises in your presentation? How will you adapt to the challenges of Presentation III, when you’ll have to pitch yourself to your audience? And what about Presentation IV, which will come immediately afterward?

It’s worth a quick reminder that your group should be well on its way to finishing Presentation IV by this point, as there won’t be much time left after Presentation III concludes to play catch-up. Don’t forget to submit your topic for Presentation IV before the November 20 deadline, and also remember to send your Presentation III topic over Blackboard before the start of this Tuesday’s class.

Going into the third and final presidential debate on Monday, most major polls had Barack Obama and Mitt Romney effectively tied, with the difference between them within the margin of error. With the momentum swinging toward Romney, though, some analysts argued that Obama needed to completely dominate the last debate in order to stem the tide. But despite Obama’s best efforts, such dominance was nowhere to be found as the two candidates fought to a draw over foreign policy.

Discussion Post: Week 9

We’re almost done with Presentation II! How has the challenge been compared with Presentation I? Did it seem a little easier since you had more time with which to work, or was it harder to juggle your visual aid along with the more complicated content you strove to deliver? What did you learn from watching others’ presentations, and what lessons will you take from Presentation II as you move forward?

After the second presidential debate, only one thing was clear: it was not a repeat of round one. President Barack Obama took the affair seriously, fighting back against Governor Mitt Romney in a stark contrast with the passiveness he displayed in the first debate. Many analysts and polls suggested that Obama a stole the advantage in round two thanks to a few Romney missteps, of which the most egregious was a mistaken claim about Obama's response to the Benghazi embassy attack. However, the reported win was, at the very least, less clear than Romney’s round one triumph, with Romney making several compelling points and imploring voters not “to settle” for the current economy.

With the narrower win in mind, the Obama camp has to be nervous about Romney’s momentum across the nation. While early vote totals have been quite high, suggesting an advantage for Obama in the November election — in recent years, more Democrats than Republicans have filed absentee ballots — the margin by which he leads those early votes is much smaller than the lead he held in 2008. With even major media outlets that supported Obama four years ago openly shifting toward Romney, the presidency may be within reach for the challenger.

Discussion Post: Week 7

I hope you’re enjoying the long break, everyone! In the meantime, with Presentation II right around the corner, how do you feel going into our second round? What changes, if any, do you intend to make to your approach? How will you handle the challenges of giving your demonstration while keeping your attention on your audience, or distilling complicated technical content in a manner that everyone can understand?

Looking ahead, what web portfolio areas have you identified as key trouble spots that you’ll want to work out on our last lab day this semester? And how is your group progressing on its Presentation IV preparations? Remember that there won’t be a lot of time between our next few presentations, so you probably won’t be able to just, say, wait until after Presentation III ends before devising your last presentation. You’ll likely want to front-load your work when possible, instead.

As always, please remember to submit your Presentation II outline via SafeAssign at least 24 hours before your scheduled presentation, and bring a printed copy of your outline and rubric to class on your presentation day. I would also recommend that before your presentation, you test any visual aid that involves the computer — and don’t save the visual aid on your H:\ drive, since logging in and out of everyone’s accounts to access different H:\ drives will take more time than we have for most of our presentation days. Flash drives, CDs, E-mails, or cloud storage are all better ways to make sure that you have the files you need for your presentation.

Discussion Post: Week 3

At last, our first round of presentations is underway! What did you think about the presentations you have seen so far? Was it what you expected? Did you pick up any techniques that you can use in your future presentations (or, for that matter, anything that you want to be sure not to do)? And for those of you who already delivered Presentation I, how was the experience? What would you like your peers to know about your preparation and the presentation itself?

Andy Roddick’s run at the U.S. Open finally ended on Wednesday, as a rain-delayed four-set loss to Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro — 6-7 (1-7), 7-6 (7-4), 6-2, 6-4 — finished his career. As we discussed last week, Roddick announced that this tournament would be his last, so this loss effectively closed the book on his time as a professional tennis player. Roddick was one of the most consistent players in the game, holding a top-ten ranking nine years in a row, and was indubitably the top American man for most of the past decade.

Over the course of his career, Roddick made it to a total of five Grand Slam finals but had the misfortune of losing four of them to Roger Federer, his nemesis and the man currently ranked #1 in the world. In fact, while the shining moment of Roddick’s career was probably the only Grand Slam tournament he won (the 2003 U.S. Open), many say that his best match was the tremendous 2009 Wimbledon final against Federer, where Roddick fell short in a marathon 5-7, 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (7-5), 3-6, 16-14 defeat.

Discussion Post: Week 2

It’s about time to start Presentation I. How has your preparation been going? If you’re presenting this week, hopefully your outline is close to complete so that you can start your rehearsal. I’ve been eagerly anticipating the array of presentations that are in the works, so I can’t wait to see what you’ve developed. Just as a reminder, don’t forget to submit your presentation outline via SafeAssign at least 24 hours before the class period in which you signed up to present.

So, it’s official. At last week’s Republican National Convention, Mitt Romney accepted the Republican nomination for the presidency, confirming what we’ve known for months: that this November would feature a head-to-head showdown between Romney and Barack Obama to see who will lead our country for the next four years. The Republicans spent their time pushing Romney as a devoutly religious, successful businessman who will generate more jobs for the starved economy. Much like Obama was framed as the anti-Bush candidate during the 2008 election, Romney has portrayed himself as the antidote to Obama for voters disillusioned with his leadership over the last four years.

However, Romney’s focus on attacking Obama led some analysts to question whether he was able to build his trust with voters who still don’t know him very well. As the Obama team argued, even as Romney went on the offensive, he offered very little information about what he would do if he won the election. Furthermore, Romney’s recent moves have taken him further and further away from the moderate voters to whom he’ll have to cater if he hopes to triumph this November. Worse yet was the inconsistent focus among many of the convention speakers, who spoke about themselves and their own families as much as they did about Romney, and contradicted one another in turn about whether Romney was loving, respectful, or like “a nasty doctor.” (Gregory “Romney” House, anyone?) Let alone Clint Eastwood’s chat with a chair, for which “bizarre” is one of the kindest descriptions I’ve seen.