Presentation+Suggestions

1. Use the introduction to //establish context and provide the main topics// that you will address in your presentation. An author biography is not necessary in most cases; only bring forth information that will help in the audience’s understanding of the poem, not just impress them with facts (which you are probably just repeating from Internet research anyway). Eliminate unnecessary information; they are just fillers.
 * Oral Presentation Suggestions **

2. // Focus on a specific, particular message // that you feel the author is trying to deliver. You, in a similar way, are trying to deliver the same message to your audience. For example, if you think the writer is promoting individuality as a supreme ideal that should not be sacrificed for anything, you should also present that point in your presentation.

3. Be sure your presentation //actually supports your thesis.// A good deal of information, such as how many lines per stanza, is not exactly indisputable evidence that the author feels that, for example, love is both a healer and a destroyer. Make sure that the information you provide relates back to the main point you are trying to make, much in the same way that a poet’s use of alliteration suggests, for example, the redundancy of mistakes that people make when growing up.

4. // Analyze each aspect // you select in your presentation. Simply identifying a simile does little to prove insight or thought. Examine individual words or techniques rather than just pointing them out.

5. // Embed your knowledge of literary techniques, style and structure // within the presentation rather separate into categories. When you are first working with the poem or story, those aforementioned items (also including sound devices) could be helpful as a checklist so that you examine each realm, but they are not necessarily the best way to show your understanding of the poem.

6. // Decide on a logical sequence of presenting analysis. // After preliminary background information and main points are established, consider the order of the supporting points. In some cases, larger items (such as motifs or tone) can be addressed first to provide your audience with a foundation for them to build upon as you examine smaller (but connected) details. In many cases, a chronological or linear pattern is easiest to follow, for both you and your audience.

7. // Use the conclusion as a final opportunity to emphasize your main point, not as the place for your grand finale. // Too many closings seem like tell-all revelations that your audience will not see coming. Don’t keep them in suspense, or worse, in confusion. The rest of your presentation will seem like you were procrastinating or just warming up before you finally arrive at the good stuff…and maybe run out of time.

// 8. // // Make sure that your presentation demonstrates not just your understanding of the poem or short story, but of literature as a whole. // This course is not just about becoming familiar with a few writers’ works. Hopefully, you will become more astute students of literature as an art, as a means of communicating ideas, as a social and historical record, and as a source of entertainment, relaxation, knowledge and, perhaps, a method of understanding

// Breathe. Relax. Have fun. //