You will present, based primarily on your paper, on your chosen topic area pertaining to letter writing during our World War II segments. This can be on any aspect in which something piqued your interest or generated questions.
Learning Outcomes
- Demonstrate ability to translate written work into oral presentation
- Participate in transcription and metadata activities and understand how these practices are beneficial for analyzing letters.
- Demonstrate the ability to gauge an audience’s needs and interests
- Demonstrate the ability to discern the most important elements of a written project and summarize them in a brief presentation
- Demonstrate ability to organize, practice, and deliver a professional oral presentation
Resources
- See each week’s readings and resources
- Library Guide
Audience
Fellow FYS183 Classmates
Length of Presentation
Presentation must be 5 minutes, Pecha Kucha style. Points will be deducted for presentations that are outside this time range. Your presentation should be 15 slides, with 20 seconds per slide. The presentation must be on a cloud-based drive, such as Muhlenberg’s Google Workspace, that can be accessed on the class computer.
Prompt
While this will be based on your written paper on the same topic, this will be a visual presentation. You will be working with primary resources, including letters, newspapers, and other resources. Your presentation should include background information, relevant related information, letters and correspondence, and your overall analysis in an oral presentation.
Presenting well involves writing in various formats. One aspect may be to write out your analysis of the letters. Another aspect may be in careful consideration of the online transcription source and metadata analysis. One aspect of the presentation is what material you will actually include in your presentation. The other aspect is what material you will be presenting orally. These will obviously overlap, but should not be the same throughout.
You should include a brief biography and/or background information, including a historical, social, or cultural context that may be relevant to your presentation. Even if there is not a lot of additional information, part of your presentation can address working with primary documents and the challenges of research.
Your presentation should have a clear and concise central message, as well as supporting evidence. Examples of this include explanations, illustrations, quotations, and other kinds of information or analysis that support the principal ideas of the presentation.
The analysis you provide for your audience should represent the “how” and the “why” this central message/argument works or does not work. You may choose to analyze the rhetorical situation, the appeals, the warrants, and/or the style of the argument, the importance of letters to these individuals, the tone of the correspondence, etc. You do not have to address all of these points, but these can serve as things to include. You can engage your audience as well by having them read any letters, answer or ask questions, or do other activities.
You are encouraged to use note cards to aid in your delivery, but you should not read your presentation. EXTRA CREDIT: You should also practice your presentation in the library using the one-button studio. Submit a link to your practice video before the start of class Thursday.
Your presentations should be well-organized and clear. Part of the grade for your presentation will include effective delivery, looking at such things as posture, hand gestures, eye contact, use of voice, etc.
Each student will also provide feedback on each presentation.
Due Date
Presentations will take place in class during week 7 (firm dates will come later depending on progress of class). A link to your presentation should be uploaded to Canvas by midnight, Wednesday October 9.
