The presentation and associated write-up counts for 20% of your mark.

Prior to the presentation: By noon of the day before your presentation, you will need to circulate 2-3 discussion questions to the group.

Presentation:

You will do one presentation and associated write-up during the year. The in-class presentation, which should normally be live, is your chance to introduce an aspect of the readings for the week in which you will present. Second-year students are encouraged to present on one of the primary texts, while finalists are encouraged to work closely with the critical and theoretical readings for the assigned week. If you wish to present on a topic broached by the readings but not directly tied to it, please email me for prior approval. You are welcome and encouraged to coordinate with other presenters for that seminar, but you will need to submit your own write-up for marking. If there are multiple readings for a specific week (e.g. short stories), you may choose to cover one, some, or all of these.

You will be asked to speak for no less than 10 and no more than 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, I will ask you to stop. During or at the end of your presentation, you will need to engage the class in discussion, either by doing the presentation in an interactive fashion or by asking the group some questions for response. Some students also find it helpful for their write-ups to hand out an evaluation sheet to the group at the end of their presentations.

Your presentation SHOULD NOT offer a summary of the text(s), but should offer an analysis of one or more aspects of the work. You are not required to do outside research on your chosen topic, but you certainly can do so, if you so wish. You may want to base your presentation on a particular historical, critical, or theoretical approach drawn from (but not limited to) the critical readings for this course. Or you may wish to edit or write a Wikipedia entry on one of the readings and make this process the basis for your presentation.

Write-up:

The write-up is due BY WEEK 10 of the term in which you present. (If you are planning to do a presentation in week 10 and would like an automatic extension of the write-up, please let me know.) You should submit your write-up via Tabula and may submit it before the Week 10 deadline.

The write-up (1,500 words) for this assignment is a reflective piece and as such, it should not repeat the content of the presentation.

One of the most important elements of this write-up is your commentary on the presentation itself: on how effectively you feel you made your points, on your peers' reactions to your ideas, on what you learned from the experience, on how your presentation contributed to your own and others' understanding of key themes of the module and/or of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, etc. You may either integrate these comments into your write-up as a whole, or you may present them as a separate section of at least one paragraph in length. Integrating the comments into the write-up is harder, but it also forces you to consolidate your ideas more fully. You should not prepare the write-up in advance of your preparation, since reflecting on the actual classroom experience is an essential part of this task.

N.B.: The write-up should not reiterate the material you presented in seminar, although you may wish to present a brief summary of your argument. The main goal of this exercise is to reflect on your presentation within the context of the module as a whole and in terms of your learning experience.

The write-up process is designed as a whole learning experience by asking you to reflect on your thinking and processes—your pedagogical interaction with your peers, but also your own learning experience.

Please note that the focus on process, rather than the content of the presentation, leaves you free to use the material from your presentation as a springboard for your essays. YOU MAY THEREFORE WRITE YOUR ESSAY ON THE SAME TEXT(S) SO LONG AS THERE IS NO REPETITION OF CONTENT WITH THE WRITE-UP.

SAMPLE WRITE-UP Link opens in a new window(Note, however, that the word count is now 1,500 words.)

ADDITIONAL SAMPLE WRITE-UP Link opens in a new window