Presentations
The purpose of the presentations is to give you experience working with a large
group, as well as to cover important contextual material. You are responsible
for doing one presentation during the semester, which you'll sign up for in
the first week.
The presentations should be succinct and well-focused. There is of course a
lot that could be said on any given topic; your job is pare the material down
and shape it for our needs. You shouldn't talk for any longer than ten minutes.
We'll discuss the relation of the material you've presented to literary work
we're considering, so you might want to do some work at the end of your presentation
raising questions about that relation. This will help get us started.
Considerations:
- Strive to make your presentation exemplary in its lucidity: speak clearly
and audibly, don't ramble, and, if you decide to use visual aids, make sure
that they contribute to our grasp of your points rather than merely distracting
us with fancy graphics. Sometimes a simple handout works better than a PowerPoint
presentation with dynamic images and sounds.
- Please let me know in advance if you need to use a computer, overhead or
other piece of equipment so that I can make arrangements.
- Use a variety of sources--the internet, the library, and the resources in
the reading room. For American topics, consult The Oxford Companion to
US History, and A People's History of the US, both in the reading
room, or relevant books in the library. For Singaporean topics there
are a wealth of materials in the reading room, in the library, and on the
Singapore Web
and the PoCo
web.
- The presentations will contribute towards your participation grade. I will
base your grade on how effective your presentation has been pedagagically--how
effectively have you taught the material and related it to the literature
we are studying? how effectively have you synthesized diverse materials, making
links to other relevant topics, in order to create a thorough presentation?
how effectively have you engaged the other students in the class?
- Produce a short write up of your presentation, along with a complete bibliography,
for posting to the class web.
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