As I'm sure you have observed, there are some clear distinctions between excellent, decent and mediocre presentations. Most notable is the tendency of some presenters to READ OFF OF THE SLIDE!!!
Don't we all hate that?
Can we try not to do that anymore?
An audience will forgive many other common foibles such as a presenter inserting too many ums in their narration, accidentally skipping ahead two slides and then doubling back, even typos peppered throughout the slides, but boring them by saying the exact words that they can read for themselves is the number one way you will lose their attention.
Don't do it.
Also, can we try to be a bit more consistent in the time notations? Sometimes the presentation skips around in time, or certain events aren't labeled with years or references to other years and it gets really confusing. Think of the basic structure of the presentation as a TIMELINE...with events in the author's life on one side, and the works the author produced on the other, and YOUR ANALYSIS of how the two sides are connected as the key narration.
Finally, make sure you really understand all the information you present so you can answer any clarifying questions. Don't quote another author's comments ABOUT your author, for example, without knowing something about that other author.
Good luck to those whose presentations are still to come...I expect to see higher caliber work after these suggestions are sent out (see, there ARE advantages to being an early presenter).
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
4 comments:
Also. Get at least 6 hours of sleep of the night before, and don't compensate lost hours with caffeine. :D
You know, one of the reasons I set a 24-hours-prior-to-presentation-deadline is so you DON'T pull this crap.
It's more due to habit than anything else, really.
I was researching my author and found this. It was the article of the day on the McSweeney's website. I wish the real AP test was this entertaining...
ESSAY PROMPTS
FOR THE 2009
SENIOR ADVANCED PLACEMENT HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH EXAM FOR WOMEN.
BY WENDY MOLYNEUX
- - - -
1. In the novel The Great Gatsby, the character of Daisy hopes that her daughter will be "a beautiful little fool." What is F. Scott Fitzgerald saying through his character's speech about the position of women during the era when this novel takes place? Also, why are you a fool?
2. Shakespeare's Hamlet, Flaubert's Madame Bovary, and Tolstoy's Anna Karenina share the trope of the suicidal female. What is your favorite nail polish color and why?
3. In Toni Morrison's Beloved, how does the physical female body become a placeholder for the collective female unconscious? Now, look around the room and write down the name of all of the girls you think are too fat.
4. In the space provided, draw a picture of a cute bunny.
5. Read the following passage from Tillie Olson's I Stand Here Ironing, and then answer the question below:
She was a beautiful baby: the first and only one of our five who was beautiful at birth. You do not guess how new and uneasy her tenancy in her now-loveliness. You did not know her all those years she was thought homely, or see her poring over her baby pictures making me tell her over and over again how beautiful she had been − and would be, I would tell her − and was now, to the seeing eye. But the seeing eyes were few or non-existent, including mine.
In the passage, the speaker refers to her daughter as "homely." Write an essay making fun of her, then post it on Facebook.
Post a Comment