PowerPoint Presentation 8 – 10 slides Substantive content on each slide (4-5 bul

PowerPoint Presentation
8 – 10 slides
Substantive content on each slide (4-5 bullet points)
Presentation should have a singular focus (like a research essay) – not a collection of random thoughts.
Graphics/images should be carefully chosen – no cheap “clip art” type graphics – use high quality graphics that serve the theme of the Presentation
Choose or create a theme that is tasteful and reflects the weight of the chosen topic – do not have gaudy images or color schemes
Provide embedded audio for each slide – narrate the presentation
There’s the possibility that your presentation might be too large to be accepted by Moodle. If that’s the case, then upload a version without audio to Moodle and then upload a version with audio to YouTube or Vimeo. Include a link to the video version at the end of your version without audio.
For your final project for our course, you are required to produce a project of some kind (either a creative project or a more traditional research paper) where you present on one or more of either the required works for this class or any work in The Seagull Book of Literature. So, for example, if you wanted to write on a Shakespeare play, you could choose either King Lear (which we read for this class) or on Hamlet, which is included in The Seagull Book of Literature. If you wanted to write on a short story writer, you could choose Flannery O’Connor or Eudora Welty (who are required) or on, say, John Updike or Kate Chopin (who are not). Or you could choose one writer included in the course (say, Emily Dickinson) and one who is not (William Blake, for example). Any writer included in the course or in The Seagull Book of Literature is fair game (so, sorry, no J. K. Rowling or Stephen King).
This could be in the form of a website, a narrated video screencast (like the videos for this class), a PowerPoint, or Prezi. You could also write a group of poems (3 – 5), a short story, or an original song (performed, with lyrics and lead sheet provided). And although a creative project is welcome, you are also more than welcome to write a more traditional research-based paper (with no penalty or shame attached in doing so). The paper’s thesis would need to be approved by your professor, with the final product being 4 – 5 pages in length, following MLA or APA format for both design and documentation.
If you choose the paper option, you would also need to make sure you have a strong persuasive thesis, not merely informative. You would need to have some main point that you wish to prove – no “book reports” or summaries. You would also be expected to do outside research for the paper, with 3 – 5 peer reviewed sources in addition to the primary texts (in other words, no web pages – use the CU library to find sources to help support your argument).
Depending upon what you choose to present, you could focus on a specific work, offering a precise, significant point (a thesis) where you explore something we did not focus on during the course (though relating it, in some way to Augustine is encouraged, unless, of course, it is on Augustine itself). You could also engage in a comparative project of some kind (e.g., comparing Augustine’s journey to faith with, say, Orual’s journey to self-realization in Till We Have Faces).
Ultimately, you would want to produce a project that aligns with both your interests and strengths. While you are encouraged to take some chances, if you can’t sing in tune and barely know two guitar chords, likely best not to choose the original song choice. If you’ve never read, studied, or written poetry, that might not be the best option either. All that said, it’s best to consult with your instructor if you have questions or concerns.
One caution from the outset – don’t think that you can open up PowerPoint, select a pre-made template, throw on a few bullet points, and submit that with no consequences. This is a significant project worth 20% of your final grade, so you’ll need to put in some time working on it. Expect to put in 10 – 15 hours on this project over the course of the term. So please, do not wait until the last minute.
During Week 5, you will be asked to submit a brief discussion of your ideas for the final project in detail.
A good thesis proposal would be around 2 -3 sentences, summarizing your argument and how you wish to go about proving that argument.