History Paper Presentation Assignment
For The History Paper Presentation assignment, you will pick a discrete, concrete and historically locatable object (person, place, event, or thing) from the novel assigned to your group. You will conduct outside research on the history of object. The purpose of the research is to contextualize the cultural and material effects of this object in order to enrich our understanding of why or to what effect the author chose to include it in the narrative (as opposed to some other object). The purpose of the assignment is twofold: 1) The assignment should help you complete your Monster Paper assignment in which you will use this research to help you do a close reading analysis of how the author’s presentation of a particular object affects our understanding of what’s at stake in the text. Where the History Paper Presentation will focus on providing a compelling contextually relevant history of the object, it will end with a conclusion that suggests how that historical knowledge might affect the way we understand that novel. In this way the conclusion of The History Paper Presentation assignment can be a starting point for The Monster Paper assignment, and much of the research needed for The Monster Paper should be included in The History Paper. 2) Your History Paper Presentation should crafted in a manner that will allow you to communicate the material clearly, out loud to your classmates (with some accompanying visual aid). In this way the presentation of your History Paper will allow you to share the labors of your research with your classmate.
Presentation: Every presentation of the History Paper should be accompanied with some form of visual and/or phonic aid (i.e. a movie clip, a PowerPoint, a photograph, a handout, a song recording, etc.). Your presentation should be around 7 minutes long. I will try to give you a 1-minute warning. I will try not to cut you off, but if it goes too long I will have to so that 1) we have time for discussion and 2) all the other presenters can present. You can either read your paper as is or you can talk from notes or an outline.
Formatting: This paper should be 3 pages, double spaced, 1-inch margins and 12 point Times New Roman font with page numbers and your whole name listed in the footer. While there is some degree of flexibility, I imagine that you would spend roughly 2.5 pages on the history and the final half suggesting how that history might changes the way we read a specific part of the novel and then consequently the novel as a whole.
Grading Rubrics
Research
Is the object you chose to focus on clear, discrete, concrete, and historically locatable object from the novel assigned to your group? Is your research on this object focused to the most historically likely time and place to influence the way the author, the characters, the readers, or any combination of the three experienced the object? Do you use at least three, distinct reliable sources? Do you have clear and accurate citations?
Relaying the History
Does the way you order and present information about this object seem cogent? Have you made thoughtful choices about the scope and manner in which you present the history? Is there a central organizing point for your history? [Meaning you may not have a fully worked out thesis for The Monster Paper, but you should have some sense of the neighborhood you want us to focus on. Here I’m looking to see when you talk about the history of stray animals in Lorain, OH are you highlighting a particular theme (the way the community saw the animals and the rescue organizations as an annoyance or the way funds were in competition with human welfare associations). I want to see you preparing us to appreciate some particular aspect of the history.] Do you explicitly suggest the questions and/or ideas this history raises in our understanding of the novel?
Presentation
Do you communicate your paper well orally for an audience? [One way to satisfy this aspect is to write your paper in a manner that allows you to read it out loud word for word. Another way is to write your paper as you normally write a paper, but then to make sure before the presentation, you have highlighted the parts you can read directly, and made notes where you need to speak directly to the audience in your own non-written speech. Does your presentation include some form of visual and/or phonic aid (a flyer, a PowerPoint, a video clip, etc.)? Does your visual and/or phonic aid relevant and complementary to your paper presentation? Is your presentation within the allotted time limit?
Grammar & Style
To be clear, you will turn in a paper, but I am largely grading you based on the presentation. What I will be looking for in terms of grammar and style then is whether or not your spelling is correct, your thoughts are clear, your language is clean, and your citations are accurately formatted.