Testimony Assignment

Overview

Have you ever wanted to be a teacher? Now’s is your chance! Demonstrate your overall understanding of how an expert witness should prepare for presenting their testimony.

Instructions

Using only the assigned textbook chapters (5 &7) and ‘Drafting Expert Witness Reports: Pitfalls and Best Practices’ from the assigned reading for this module…

1) Define these confusing terms for the novice expert witness (see chapter 7/glossary):

Data-Ink

Chartjunk

Enthymemes

Chewbacca Defense

2) Based on chapter 5, name at least two common issues experts and lawyers face when communicating with each other and how we can overcome these two issues.

3) Based on the assigned reading titled Drafting Expert Witness Reports: Pitfalls and Best Practices’, explain two things to avoid when writing an expert witness report and give examples (both a bad example and a good example).

You must cover all three areas. The ‘level’ of education is up to you. For example, you can teach me as if I’m in elementary school or as if you are presenting at an academic conference.

Requirements

You must only use the approved sources listed above.

Failing to use the required material or the use of any other sources will result in a lower grade.

You must put everything in your own words. Plagiarism (see FAQ and the syllabus), academic dishonesty, or the inappropriate use of AI (see below for the acceptable uses of AI) will result in an academic complaint.

APA citations/reference list must be used when appropriate (see Formats section for details).

You must cover all three areas (definitions, communication issues, things to avoid in your expert witness report). While there is no word count minimum, you need to clearly demonstrate you understand the material.

Formats

You are allowed to use any form of presentation you can upload to Canvas (see the Acceptable File Types section). Here are some suggestions:

• Video presentation (oral presentation, skit, music presentation, etc.). Reference list must be provided.
• Pamphlet/poster/infograph. APA in-text citations and reference list must be provided.
• Executive summary (a short overview of the topic). APA in-text citations and reference list must be provided.
• Radio broadcast/podcast (voice recording with no visuals). Reference list must be provided.

Presentations to avoid include (but not limited to):

• PowerPoints with no voice over or video recording. Either your PowerPoint slides will be too cluttered or you won’t have enough content to demonstrate you understand the material.
• Vague bullet points with just key words or phrases. You won’t have enough content to demonstrate you understand the material and it will look like you used AI to generate your submission (which is not acceptable).
• Confusing or inaccurate information.
• Any presentation that does not demonstrate you have read and understood chapters 5 & 7 of your textbook and the assigned materials for this module.

Acceptable File Types

Your submission must be readable/accessible by me. Any inaccessible/unreadable file will automatically be assigned a 0 for the grade. Here are the acceptable file types:

• documents: PDF, doc, docx, rtf, ppt, pptx
• video/audio: mp3, mp4, Canvas media recording
• URLs. If you use YouTube, Zoom or anything similar, make sure you check your privacy settings to allow me to view the video. If I can’t watch the video, your submission gets a 0.

Emailed submissions will not be accepted. You must be able to upload your submission to Canvas by the due date.

Use of AI

You are only allowed limited help from AI for this assignment (see the details below) and must include an acknowledgement of what AI program you used in your submission. Inappropriate use of AI (including failing to acknowledge the use of AI) will result in an academic complaint.

AI allowed for…:

• Background images/music
• Basic spell-check (EX: Microsoft Word spellcheck).
• Avatars/animated characters

Cannot use AI for…:

• Creating your script, lyrics, paper, etc.
• Research
• Voice (no AI voice-overs allowed)
• Citations
• Programs like Grammarly or any other AI writing assistance program
• Any attempt to present AI generated/assisted work as a demonstration of your own understanding of the materials and assignment.

The ‘substance’ part of your submission (EX: finding the appropriate information in the approved sources; summarizing and applying the information to complete the assignment; correctly giving full credit to the original author of the information; clearly conveying your thoughts, etc.) should be generated by you and you alone.

Reminder: all assignments have a 48-hour grace period. After that grace period, submissions will not be accepted.

Grading

You will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

• Correct use of APA citations. See above for which format requires in-text citations or just a reference list. If you are not sure, email me!
• Adequately cover all required information in a way that demonstrates a mastery of the topic/assigned material.
• Use only approved sources (Chapter 5 & 7 of your textbook and Drafting Expert Witness Reports: Pitfalls and Best Practices).
• Accessibility of your teaching material (EX: readability, clarity, consideration for your targeted audience, etc).

Extra credit

Engaging your audience is very important when trying to get out important information. Extra credit will be given based on creativity and engagement of your submission. For example, a video that includes a song made up by the student is more likely to get extra points than someone who just submits a PowerPoint presentation with just the slides.