Presence Assignment
The idea of presence will be discussed more fully in class. However, the general idea as related to this assignment is to increase your awareness of the way your presence impacts other people. There are two primary aspects to this assignment: 1) conducting interviews and 2) writing up your findings and reactions.
Conducting Interviews
The first part of your assignment is to interview 3 people you know personally and 3 people you know professionally about your presence. These interviews can be difficult as many people may not understanding the idea of presence and may find it uncomfortable to answer the questions. You will want to begin by identifying people to interview who you expect will be more honest with you and are more likely to have an understanding or openness to ideas related to presence. When beginning the interview, you will want to ask if they are willing to participate and briefly explain the concept of presence. Then conduct a 5-15 minute interview. Although you will likely need to adjust your questions to the individual, you may begin with something along the lines of, "What does it feel like to be in my presence?" If they do not seem to understand your questions, then you may want to explain the idea more or provide some possible examples.
The Write Up
Your write up should including 1) an overview of each interview, 2) what surprised you in the interviews or what you learned about yourself, 3) aspects of your presence you are proud of, 4) aspects of your presences you may want to be aware of, but not necessarily change, and 5) aspects of your presence you would like to work on changing. There is no minimum length requirement on the paper or maximum length; rather, adjust it to what is most meaningful and useful to you. The first part, an overview of each interview, will likely be the longest section. On parts 2-5, I would imagine you would need 2-3 paragraphs as a minimum to give a good answer to these questions.