ENGINEERING DESIGN & ENTREPRENEURSHIP

The President's Speech

Your assignment is to speak to the Congress and request a specific law. You are to cover the following points in order:

1. Identify the problem you want Congress to address and describe why it is your first priority.
2. Describe the essential features of the law you propose and how those features relate to the problem you identified.
3. Illustrate by one or two examples the proposed benefits and quantify the expected value of those benefits.
4. Explain who is to pay the costs, quantify those costs and provide a rationale for why those who are expected pay should agree to assume the burden.
5. Provide a measure or standard to be applied at a time in the future (preferably not to exceed four years) against which your proposal can be judged to be a success or a failure.

Your speech should consist of exactly five paragraphs - as outlined above. Each paragraph should comprise between two and six sentences. Each sentence should be limited to twenty-five words. Total speaking time should not exceed five minutes. You will give your speech to the class. At that time, you will also present duplicate typed copies to your instructor.

Your speech will be judged on your use of technology in your solving your chosen problem and in empowering individuals, relevance, logic, clarity, organization and brevity.

In particular, special attention will ge given to your use of technology to enhance target individual and group opportunities for success without unduly infringing on the rights and resources of others. Thus, you want to focus on making a "bigger pie" through the use of technology and creativity rather than finding a fairer way to "cut up the pie".

Suggestion: One way to organize a speech is to divide it into three parts; namely a) tell them what you are going to tell them, b) tell them and c) tell them that you told them - coupled with a call to action. Part a) could include Paragraph 1, part b) could include Paragraph 2, Paragraph 3 and Paragraph 4 and part c) could include Paragraph 5.

N.B. This is a difficult assignment that should be taken seriously.. Your success in business is going to depend on your ability to stand before your customers, your employees, your students, your subordinates, your managers, a prospective employer, a group of investors, a board of directors, a loan committee of a bank, a governmental body or a group of concerned citizens for the purpose of presenting such a message. Lastly, your performance on this exercise makes a significant contribution to your final grade.