Book Projects are Due 9:30 on Wednesday, December 17th (with a rather larger grace period of 8pm-ish a.k.a. before I go to bed)

–All work (including blog posts) from this class must be submitted by end of the day on Wednesday, December 17th, unless you have met with me and worked out a different date.—

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Book Project Write-Up and Bibliography:  What it says about the Book Project in the the assignment section:

“You may choose the form you wish to present your project. You may write a paper, which would likely need to be around 10 pages.  However you may also decide to make a web page, do a PowerPoint, or a video.  Unless you do a paper, you will be required to submit a one paged double spaced page articulating your overall claim and main project objectives and why you chose your medium.  You must submit a bibliography, which will have at least three sources (the text you are working on, a piece of relevant literary criticism, and relevant historical source).”

1) All Book Projects require a bibliography (with at least 3 sources, see above) and must properly cite any quotations in the project.

2) If you are not writing a paper, you must also submit a 1 paged double spaced evaluation.  In this evaluation you should A) tell me your overall claim (think your thesis or argument);  B) tell me why you chose to use the form you chose (i.e. painting or powerpoint) to present your project; and  C) explain what you were trying to convey and why you made the choices you made.

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Book Project Assessment:  I will assess the presentation based on the following:

1) Project Presentation– (not related to your in-class presentation) -Does it look well put together?  Does it stand on its own?  Is it complete?  Does the form make sense given the project’s overall aim?

2) Argument – Does this project express a central claim?  What is that claim?  Is it arguable? Is it based in the text?  Is it within the realm of what is arguable in a literature course?  Is it well supported with the materials provided in the presentation?

3) Engaging Scholarship – Does this project engage at least one peer-reviewed scholarly source in a clear and thoughtful way?

4) Engaging History- Does this project accurately contextualize the text(s) within appropriate historical moments?  Does this project illuminate how a particular aspect or aspects of history might change the way we  read this particular text?

5) Engaging the Literary Text- Does this project offer analysis of the literature’s text and/or visuals?  Does this project put interpretive readings of the literature in conversation with scholarship and history?
I will provide a grade for each of those five sections, and the total grade will be an average of those 5 assessment categories.

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NOTE: For those of you making a power point and wondering whether or not the presentation stands alone (without aid of a presenter), you should consider showing the presentation to a friend. Have them go through the presentation without telling them anything about what you’re doing, and then asking them (in your own words) a version of the question I have in the assessment.   I don’t recommend asking all the question or even asking it exactly in my language (though you could); I recommend asking one of the questions from each category but worded in your own language.  If your friend can answer the questions satisfactorily, you should be fine. If not, then you know where you want to do a little more work.