Presentation

The main project you will produce for this class is a 50-60-minute team presentation on one of the short story writers that we will discuss this semester. The main objective of your presentation is to introduce the stories to the class in terms of the author's biography, the historical/cultural moment out of which the writer wrote, and the stories' contemporary critical reception and current critics' readings of the book. Based on your research, you will also give us a synthesis of what issues and topics are significant for studying the book. The presentation should be formal, but I encourage you to use your creativity to hook your audience and keep our interest. You can use music, visuals, props, drama, or whatever means you think would be effective and appropriate.

The purpose of this activity is to test how well you can gather information from a variety of sources and synthesize it into an organized, coherent, and engaging presentation. These skills will be particularly useful for those of you planning to attend graduate or professional school, to teach at any level, or to get a job where you will need to independently acquire expertise and inform and engage colleagues.

Here's a breakdown of the four parts:

Biographical Context: Give an overview of the author's life with particular attention to the time around the author was writing the stories. Avoid simply giving us dates and timelines (though these tools might be helpful), but gather anecdotes to create a narrative that will help us understand how the author's lived experience may have influenced the book. Incorporate photographs of the author and important people in the author's life into your presentation (whether with posters or slides). As PART of the web component, provide an annotated bibliography of the sources you use and give us a sense of the biographer's approach (textual, psychoanalytic, cultural, etc.) in each entry. You might also consider using autobiographies, letters, and memoirs to construct your biography. Limit this part of your presentation to 10-15 minutes. In the past students have come up with VERY creative ways to do this part of their presentation--authors have been raised from the dead to tell the stories of their lives, author's family members have told stories, videos have been made, etc.
Historical/Cultural Context: Give us a sense of the historical, political, and cultural events and ideas that influenced the writer and the stories. What important ideas and events surround the stories and why or how do you think they influenced it? Don't just consider political events (i.e., the Civil War's influence on Ambrose Bierce's stories), but also consider cultural ideas and events related to publishing, music, visual art, theater, film, etc. (i.e., influences of horror stories, naturalism, and impressionism). Produce an annotated bibliography of at least four cultural historical sources. Limit this part of your presentation to 10-15 minutes. Again, make sure to come up with a creative and engaging way to deliver your information.
Critical Context: A) First give us a sense of the author's and stories' critical reception at the time of their publication. Read at least four book reviews from diverse publications. Quote from the reviews and synthesize the prevailing attitudes about the stories. Consider who the reviewers are if possible (particularly any relationship with the writer) and pay special attention to her/his rhetoric, values, and criteria for evaluation. Produce an annotated bibliography of your sources for the web page. B) Then survey more recent critical articles and book chapters on some of your stories (focus mostly on the total book, but with collections you may use some articles on individual poems). Each person on your team should read two articles/chapters and write a one page précis (with MLA entry) for each piece for the web page. Give a basic summary of each writer's argument and comment on his/her approach, the quality/helpfulness of the piece, and its most interesting ideas. Limit this part of your presentation to 20-25 minutes. You will probably need help finding materials for this section.
Key Issues Overview: Based on your own readings and the readings of other scholars, present a synthesis of the important issues in the stories. What ideas/techniques/concepts/themes make your author and her/his stories significant? Spend at least ten minutes on this portion. Also, try to connect your discussion to other writers that we have discussed that may use similar techniques or have similar approaches.

The Web Site

You'll be delivering the information you gather and synthesize it in two different forms--the oral presentation and the written web site. You have great flexibility in how you deliver the information in the live presentation. Your web site, though you have some flexibility, should have a front page that introduces your writer, and five additional sub-sections. The first four sections will correspond to the sections above (Biographical, Cultural/Historical, Critical, and Key Issues) and you will have an additional annotated resource page with the TOP TEN web resources on your author. Here's a breakdown of what you should have on each web page:

Homepage: Title of page, picture of author (documented and source credited), brief overview of author and her/his work, links to sub-pages.
Biography Page: Clearly written biographical essay on the author's life with focus on period around which short stories were written. Emphasize the biographical events that influenced author's work. Document sources (particularly direct quotes) and include annotated bibliography at the end of the essay.
Historical/Cultural Context Page: Give overview of the key social, political, and historical events that influenced the author and her/his stories. Then bullet out and describe these events/movements in individual detail referencing your sources in the copy. Include an annotated bibliography of four sources at the end of your page.
Critical Context Page: Begin with an overview of how the author's work was considered in the past and how it is considered in recent years. In section one of this page, provide an annotated bibliography of four contemporary reviews. In section two, provide two abstracts/precis per team member.
Key Issues Page: Write a summary essay with introduction describing the most significant features of your author's short stories. Incorporate your views and the documented views of others to support your essay. Make sure to include quotes from the stories.
Top Ten Web Resources: Make an annotated list of the top ten web pages that your group has found on your author. Start with the best and make sure to describe the web sites and why they are so good.

Things to remember:

Use pictures, charts, and graphs purposefully--don't just add them for the sake of adding them, but use them to improve the content/information
Document the pictures (see Grove Dictionary of Art help page for more on documenting pictures).
Document all sources carefully and correctly using MLA style.
Reference specific stories throughout the web site--make direct connections to the content your developing and the stories the author wrote; incorporate quotes from the stories into your web site.
Make sure your web site is easily navigable.

A Very Special Note on Appropriate Sources

The bulk of the sources you use for this assignment should be from books and peer reviewed journals. If you can demonstrate that a web site was developed by a reputable, credible expert, then you may use a few of these sources. Librarian Matt Antoline has developed a useful handout for evaluating web sources.

Criteria for Evaluation

I will grade your presentation on completeness (did you include all the required components), thoroughness (did you have details supported by research?), accuracy (was the information accurate?), organization (did the presentation have a logical structure and flow?), coherence (did the presentation make sense?), engagement (was the presentation interesting? Did the group consciously try to capture our attention?), clarity (could we understand the group?), energy (did the group vary its tone and pace? Where they enthusiastic about their presentation?), and esprit de corps (did the teammates work well together? Did they complement one another?).

An A presentation will not just provide all of the required information, but the presenters will present their information in a truly engaging and creative way. The presentation will not just include the presenters talking, but they will have effective dramatic and visual components to their presentation as well. The presenters will be masters of the subject, stimulate our interest, and will be able to answer our questions. An A presentation will balance the information and not give us too much from one area or another. Each of the teammates will contribute in nearly equal amounts, will not step on each other's toes, and will complement the others' contributions. Presenters will look professional and organized, will speak so that we can hear and understand them, and will have sincere enthusiasm and energy for their project. An A presentation will have all of the required materials neatly organized in an engaging web site.

A B presentation will provide all of the required information, but will not have as creative or engaging of a hook to keep us engaged. B presenters will know their material but may not have mastered it as completely as A presenters. B presenters level of engagement will not be as consistent as for an A presentation. Teamwork will be balanced, but there may be a few moments were teammates step on each other's toes. The look and feel of professionalism will not be as high for a B presentation, but the group will attempt to create professional impression. B presenters will be easy to understand, but they may not have the consistent energy and enthusiasm that an A presentation has. A B presentation will include all of the required materials, but they may not be as well or engagingly organized.

A C presentation will have all of the required information, but will not have a creative or engaging hook. Basically, the team will deliver all of the information accurately, but team members will not have mastered their material. The presentation will probably come across as 2 or 3 smaller presentations—the team will not use transitions between points nor will teammates complement each other's ideas. We will be able to understand the group, but there will be little enthusiasm or energy in the presentation. The group will not create a professional, organized, completely prepared impression. The team will include all of the required materials.

Hopefully work below C level will not be an issue, but D and F work will generally be incomplete, carelessly presented, and poorly produced.

Annotated Bibliography Guidelines

The annotated bibliographies for your presentation should follow the MLA format. See a recent edition of The Bedford Handbook or The MLA Style Guide for guidelines for documentation and sample bibliographic entries. Limit yourselves to book chapters and articles from journals, magazines, or anthologies--note that the format will vary depending on the type of journal you use. You should alphabetize each bibliography by the authors’ last names (you will one for biography, history, and contemporary book reviews—you'll write longer précis for critical articles). Ask the librarians for help in locating these articles (they’ll show you how to use the network. The annotations are simply brief (3-5 sentence) descriptions which follow the entries and summarize each article. For example:

Click here for a sample Annotated Bibliography of biographical sources.
Click here for a sample Annotated Bibliography of historical/cultural sources.
Click here for a sample Annotated Bibliography of critical sources.
Click here for a sample précis.