Quick Reminders about Presentations

You should already have, via text, a copy of our presentation schedule. If you're not on it, be prepared to go Thursday, since that's where we have the only open slots. By the way, I'll have some treats for class; feel free to bring something if you like, on any of the presentation days :) We will of course be in A271, our "normal" classroom.

Some reminders, then:

• Look at the assignment to be sure you're meeting contract requirements. I've already shared the rubric, but here it is again (click to expand it):

• Practice your talk so that it fits within the 3-5 minute range. There are word count speech calculators online, but some of it depends on how fast you talk. Try not to talk fast, please! If you speak at an "average" rate, according to the calculator above, you can fit 500-600 words in the 3-5 minute mark.
• For the slideshow part of this, here's a quick example of what I'm expecting. That's it! Just the photo, filled out on the screen, so we can all look at it while you tell us about it. No text or talking points (feel free to have notes, cards, whatever helps you--we just don't want you to read to us). I would be okay with you having an additional slide or two if a close up of the image is relevant, or if an alternate take or two is relevant. 
• More help: the example photo I shared was of Baby Jessica, famous years ago for falling down and being rescued from a well. One of my online students is writing about the photo, and here's her rough draft of her talk. Probably, it will highlight for you many challenges of the project. Using the rubric above, you can see how this one does. I think it's a very strong draft so far, from someone who is an A writer in that class. It's very specific, organized and focused, for one. It cites sources as we would in a speech, for two. But I do think it's missing a key content feature: it doesn't explore much the composition of the photo, and ultimately why the photo, in combination with the story, make that image so famous. She's going to work on that (she got bogged down, as I'm sure many of you are, in the details of the related story). Also? This is probably too long, clocking in at 750 words or so. Concision is key. My advice is to stay true to the focus, and cut out the things that aren't relevant to the conversation.
• Finally, on the day of your talk you'll submit a copy of your photo to me, along with your Works Cited page. I don't need your notes or slideshow link. Just those two documents!

MLA Activity

We're going to make some MLA entries in class today and see how you do. Make a Google doc (work together if you like), and create a Works Cited for these:

1. Off The Beatles' website, a better source for the photo that names the photographer.
2. An article I found through our library's databases.
3. This piece from BBC News.

Quickly set up your Works Cited for these. Then we'll compare and see what questions you have. This, by the way, is how mine turned out!

Thinking about Sources

One of the larger objectives this time around is developing our abilities when it comes to vetting sources for our projects. The other part is working with MLA: with documenting what we're finding according to the standards researchers in this field use.

I picked a photo for us to work with today: it's the one taken for The Beatles' Abbey Road album.

1. Would this source be okay for my photograph, or for an article about the image for that matter?
2. How about this one, as a good source for the photograph, or for other material, too?
3. What about this source, as one to help understand the image's significance?
4. Here's another source that discusses the photo shoot more. This one is similar. 
5. This one, too—also about the shoot.
6. One more!

Remember, from the assignment, what we're trying to discover here (and what you'll need to speak to in your brief talk):

• What can you find out about the photo and how it was taken?
• Regarding what makes this photo so famous or significant, what can you say about the composition of the photo or about its context (historically, socially, or whatever)? There's got to be a combination here, of the way the thing is composed as well as the time period within which it was created, that led to it becoming so recognizable, you know? 

General MLA-Style Formatting

Straight from the official Modern Language Association (MLA) handbook, here's a guide to formatting essays. Only the profile needs a Work Cited (and it will say just that, "Work," since you only have one source for that project).