ASSIGNMENT

Research your assigned topic, create 6-10 PowerPoint content slides (.ppt or .pptx), to illustrate your a “speech” about your topic. Also include a cover slide and a works cited slide, so that the total number of slides is 8-12.

This presentation is given online. If given live in class, it would take an estimated 3-5 minutes to present.

Post your presentation to the Blackboard DB.

Comment on at least two other students’ presentations.

Research requirements:

A minimum of three reliable sources for “speech” content is required. 

Reliable sources include the textbook (or its supporting website), which you can use as one of your sources. Additional reliable sources are reliable specialized web resources (such as Victorian Web and author sites run by .org associations) and college library electronic or print resources.

Unreliable (not-to-be used) sources include Wikipedia, student web pages, blogs, or similar sources).Images can come from general sources, such as Google, provided that they are not copyright protected.

Keep track of where you find your content, as it needs to be cited within your “speech” (in text citations) and on a works cited slide, using MLA works cited citation format.

Image requirements:

Each content slide should include at least one image.

Content slides can also include links to external audio or video media.

Unlike the “speech” content, the images and audio/video media may be obtained from any appropriate source, including Google, YouTube, commercial websites (for pictures of book covers, for example), and clip art.

Images do not need to be cited on a works cited slide. Instead, simply cite them on the slides where they are used. To cite them, write the word “Source:” (without the quotation marks) and identify the source by name or URL.

“Speech” requirements:

Your “speech” is written in the form of notes for each content slide.

However, do not write these notes in the body of the slide (use images there instead, and keep the writing on the body of the slide to a minimum.

Write one or more paragraphs of notes per content slide (no specific word count) and write them in the “notes” area below (outside) the body of the content slide.

These notes therefore will not be visible in the “slide show” view, but can be seen in other views. These notes are your “speech,” that is, what you would say about each slide.

To gauge whether your “speech” is long enough, check that it would take about 3-5 minutes if given live in a class. If you have written enough content into your speech, it should come out to about that length.

Other presentation requirements:

Include a cover slide that has your name, the presentation title, and the due date. 

Include a works cited slide that cites the sources used for your “speech.” Use MLA format for the citations.

(Remember: images do not need to be cited on the works cited slide.)

Requirements for commenting on others’ presentations:

Provide “audience feedback” to at two other students’ presentations. Unlike the readings discussion boards, there is no word count minimum. However, your comments must be specific and address one or more features of the presentation. In particular discuss what you liked about or learned from the presentation.

GRADING:

The presentation is a 50-point assignment. Comments on others’ presentations (two required) are worth a total of 20 points (10 points each).

Presentations are graded based on meeting the requirements for research sources, length, slide design, and the other expectations provided in this assignment. In addition to the number of slides, organization, grammar, spelling and mechanics on slides and in the notes count in the grade.

Presentations will be considered for an A or B if they respond to the assignment topic, and are well designed (attractive and consistent design and uncluttered slides), complete (contain the required number of slides, media elements, notes, and documentation), and well written (well organized, with good grammar and mechanics). Presentations that do not have the required minimum number of slides, and/or lack the required notes will receive a grade of C or lower.

Comments are graded on providing substantive and specific feedback. Grammar and mechanics count as part of this grade.

Presentation Topic Sign-up

Choose a topic for your presentation.

If you choose an author, include basic biographical information and information about what the author wrote (especially what the author is best known for). The rest of what you include is up to you, but may include interesting, strange, or wonderful biographical information about the author or the author’s family; interesting, strange, or wonderful information about one or more of the author’s works; or information about film or other adaptations of the works.

Use this same approach if you have chosen a topic other than an author (such as a book, an artist, or a political figure): find basic information and supplement it with other relevant information that fits the context of this class. 

Choose one of these topics. The topics on this list are the only topics that can be used.

Write your choice in a reply to my thread. Write out the name of your choice, not just the number. I will reply to your reply to confirm your choice.

Once a topic has been picked, it is no longer available, so choose early.

TOPIC (listed in approximately chronological order, beginning with Anglo-Saxon period): 

1. Beowulf (author unknown)
2. Geoffrey Chaucer 
3. Marie de France
4. William Langland
5. Margery Kempe
6. Sir Thomas Mallory
7. Sir Thomas More
8. Edmund Spenser
9. Queen Elizabeth I
10. Mary, Queen of Scots
11. Sir Walter Raleigh 
12. Sir Philip Sidney
13. John Donne
14. Ben Jonson
15. John Webster
16. Sir Fancis Bacon
17. John Dryden
18. Samuel Pepys
19. John Locke  
20. Aphra Behn
21. Mary Astell  
22. Henry Fielding
23. Samuel Johnson
24. William Hogarth  
25. John Gay
26. James Boswell
27. Olaudah Equiano
28. Oliver Goldsmith
29. William Cowper