The syllabus says that 20% of your grade is based on a group presentation. It describes the presentation as follows:
Presentation: Individually, or in a group two or three, choose an autobiographer, and present his or her
work to the rest of the class. This presentation can take a variety of forms, but is limited in time to
between ten and fifteen minutes. You will also prepare and turn in an annotated bibliography of the
sources you used to create this presentation. This assignment is where you might want to use PowerPoint
or a video creation software. But you don’t have to. This presentation is not just a report; it needs to argue
for a thesis about the author’s writing. I will have more information about this assignment as the semester
progresses.
It is now time to start work on this project. I’ve cut and pasted a fuller description below and attached it at the bottom of this page as a Word document for downloading. But here is a quick summary of the four stages of this project:
1) Form a group or decide to go it alone. Your group is to choose an autobiography and read it. You get to pick any autobiography you want: by a Nobel prize winner, a sports star, a great statesman or hero from the past, a pop singer. 2) You then find an article on a NCC database that analyzes, discusses, or critiques that autobiography. It should be about the book, not just about the person. 3) You put together a correctly formatted MLA bibliography of those two works and write a brief paragraph about each one saying what it told you and what you found interesting. 4) You then create a presentation about the autobiography and prepare a presentation for the rest of the class.
Here is a more detailed description of the project:
Autobiography Oral Presentations
Given via Zoom, or through a recorded video that you post to our Brightspace page.
Individually, or in a group two or three, choose an autobiographer, and present his or her work to the rest of the class. This presentation can take a variety of forms, but is limited in time to between five and ten minutes.
You may organize your presentation in any way you like: using visual aids, staging debates, adding humor, skits, or audience participation strategies, or simply presenting the information. But remember your primary duty: to educate the class about the autobiography produced by your author. In particular, the goal of your presentation is to get our class interested in your author so they ask questions about the author once your presentation is done.
Your grade will be based on the following criteria:
Written material: Annotated bibliography: An annotated bibliography is just what it says it is: a bibliography, or a list of books, articles and other sources presented in MLA works cited format. After reading these sources you will annotate that list by writing a paragraph about each one. Your annotated bibliography will be produced by the group, and will have at least two citations. You will probably need to read more, as some material you will find won’t be useful. Here is a breakdown of what your bibliography needs to contain:
One autobiography by your author. This needs to be a substantial autobiography.
At least one review, article, or a critical essay on the author’s autobiography. It must be from an NCC database such as Infotrac or Bloom’s. This criticism can be analyses of the author’s autobiography looking at its story, its style, or its impact.
Approximately 50% of your presentation grade is based on the bibliography. It needs to do the following: a) Correctly cite sources using MLA format. B) Have sufficiently deep summaries and analyses of the texts in the annotation.
Presentation:
This portion of your project will be graded on the following three criteria:
Have you discussed the actual writing your author has produced? Look at specific passages in the book. We need to have some sense of what the author’s writing is actually like as well as a sense of his or her importance to literary studies.
Is your presentation well organized and rehearsed? It should be as clearly organized as a paper. Each presenter will be evaluated on organization, clarity, depth of thought, and delivery. Have you thought about the visual as well as the temporal aspects of your presentation? Does your presentation give a clear idea of what the author’s writing is actually like? You’ll need to include at least three quotes from your author and analyze them.
Have you come up with a creative way to keep the students’ interest yet which also manages to present a fair amount of information?
Parameters and “Don’ts” for your presentation:
No more than four minutes of your presentation can be a Power Point.
No more than three minutes can be of video. I will be timing. If you show a video, you must discuss what it means and use it to illuminate the autobiography. It is important that any video connect seamlessly with Brightspace. There have been problems in the past. You’ll need to store your video in a discussion board post using the process outlined in this video if it is to successfully run during your presentation. Be sure to try it out before the big day.
Don’t just give summary of the autobiography. You can describe the events, but you should focus on talking about the themes, issues and literary qualities of your author’s work. Use some of the theoretical and analytical readings from this semester to illuminate the autobiography you have chosen.
Don’t just read versions of your annotated bibliography entries.
To achieve the above, the following might be of help.
a) Look at specific passages in the autobiography, or at aspects of the author’s life which are especially important, controversial, or puzzling.
b) Highlight main concepts/terms, especially those which may be new/confusing/in-need-of-explanation.
c) Provide contextual connections: relate the author to others we have studied. Make connections to your writer’s historical context. How might where and when they were born, what their career choices were, and who they associated with, have influenced their writing?
d) Be sure that your spoken presentation satisfies the requirements for citing sources. You should indicate when the words and ideas of your presentation are from other writers in the same way you would for a written paper.
Below is a link to a Word version of the above:
Click here for the presentation assignment.
From Customer (Justin):
I am asking for this assignment to be typed out and then I will have to record a video that should be about 5-10 mins in length about the autobiography. For the source from the NCC database (The Review, Article, or Critical essay) please contact me and I will find a source on whichever autobiography you choose. You will also have to let me know by May 7th (tomorrow) which autobiography you will be doing this assignment about. If you have any questions please message me and I will assist you. A tip will be included for good work. I need this to be perfect. I’ve attached the instructions and a sample for the bibliography bellow as well. Thank you.
