Designing and performing presentations as a process of rewriting － Student activities in liberal arts writing classes at universities

The purpose of this article is to examine the principles and direction that university presentation courses should adopt, based on a case study. This study reinforces the necessity of expanding beyond mere “oral presentation competence” to a “comprehensive presentation process” for students to perform high-quality presentations. Key elements such as “topic” and “structure,” which hold the highest hierarchical importance in a presentation, are not fully realized during the presentation itself. Instead, these elements must be continually reviewed and expanded throughout the pre-presentation, execution, and post-presentation phases. University level presentation courses should be designed to help learners internalize the essence of communication through active engagement in the processes of “rewriting and rereading,” enabling them to form a foundational framework for this comprehensive presentation process. To achieve this, students must be provided with extended opportunities to experience constructing and revising higher-order macrostructures such as “topic and structure” within writing. This process should incorporate opportunities for students to identify and generate latent core information that may share the same or a higher hierarchical level as the visible results of their thinking, allowing them to recognize and internalize such information. The experience of expanding one’s cognitive processes and undergoing qualitative improvement within the comprehensive presentation process is essential for developing the cognitive and behavioral competencies required for an effective presentations.