Tips and requirements for class presentation:
• Do not feel stressed. It is a chance for you to shine.
• You will give your presentation at the beginning of the class. It shall last 15 minutes.
• Read one or two outside sources if you consider them helpful.
• Tell the brief biographical information of the writer, then his or her major works.
• Then tell the larger social, historical, and possibly international backgrounds to set off that particular author. No one exists in a vacuum.
• Tell something about the writer’s personal background when necessary. But do not dig deep into privacy.
• The next important segment is to summarize the artists’ intellectual or literary commitment. Or tell what their artistic visions are. Their ideas may change during their careers.
• Then say something about their reception. Be aware their reception also changes over time. That is especially true regarding women writers. Some writers are received differently in different regions, too. Let me use Lu Xun as an example. Scholars in different regions evaluate him differently due to various concerns including ideological, artistic, or personal. Cover changes in their receptions in different regions and eras if possible.
• The focus of your presentation is the last segment: questions for discussion (five or six would suffice) that you have thought out for the whole class. In this way, everyone can engage in conversations.
• Finally remember to cite your sources. If you have found scholarly bibliography for that author, put it there for the benefit of the whole class.
• During the process, if you feel comfortable, you can also elicit responses from the audience.
• When doing your presentation, remember that many of these writers are new to you and new to the class. Therefore, try to find ways to relate them either to broad intellectual/artistic topics at hand or to the authors or artists that the class has covered before them.
• We will be formally doing presentation from the Enlightenment Movement on. Therefore, you can point out how the author converses with the prevalent concerns of a particular movement. But you can also point out where the artist differs from or transcends that movement. Great writers often talk both within and beyond their times.
• You can be as creative as you wish in choosing your format. Printed materials, Powerpoint, or multimedia, it is up to you to decide.
• Lastly, if you experience difficulties, I am available for consultation.
• Last but not least, you do not have to follow my Lu Xun example. I have spent quite a few hours on it because he is very difficult even for the Chinese to understand. Two to three hours on the presentation would be reasonable. Remember, you will earn 15 points for it.
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Created by Xianfeng Mou, spring 2009, All Rights Reserved. Added on 08/26/09.
