English 12 AP Author and Historical/Literary Context Study Presentation
This presentation is intended for you to practice delivering an academic presentation with a
partner—a skill that you will most likely use at the university level. It is one of two author
presentations that you will give this year; a third presentation will be will be your senior
project presentation. Embrace these five minute presentations as practice for the longer ten
minute presentation that you will deliver at the end of the school year.
This presentation is broken into two sections for you and your partner to research: author
background and historical/literary background. You must use a minimum of three sources,
and your textbook can be one of those sources. Do not use Wikipedia, MSN Encarta, or
any other internet encyclopedia for your second source. However, Wikipedia often lists
bibliographic references linked at the bottom of its entries that could be helpful. Anything
.org or .edu or articles linked from academic journals or are good sources to investigate.
http://scholar.google.com/ is also a good search engine for academic sources.
For the author material, give a brief biography of the writer and how the author’s life may
have impacted his or her work. Include a minimum of two visuals—photographs or paintings
of the author—in your presentation. Questions you should probably answer in your
presentation include: When was the author born? Where did the author grow up? What kind
of schooling? What was family life like? When/why did s/he decide to become a writer? Are
there any unusual facts about the author? Any scandals? Mysteries? Unusual quirks?
The historical/literary context material will focus on the literary work, itself, and the culture that
produced it. Include a minimum of two visuals that represent the time period to enhance
your presentation. Questions that you should answer in your presentation include: Why is
this piece of literature important? What was new or exciting about this piece when it was
published? Did the author set any literary trends with this writing piece? Did this text cause
any controversy during its time? Was it extremely popular? Was this work part of a larger
literary movement—the renaissance, the metaphysical poetry movement, or modernism, for
instance? What was happening in the UK when it was written? War? Peace? Puritanism?
Colonialism? How did society influence the writer’s work?
Partner Work:
I will give you no more than two days out of class to work in the library, and you will be
responsible for any missed work on those days. The bulk of your work (research, organizing
the facts of your research into notes/bullets, works cited info) will be done outside of class.
You and your partner need to meet the first time to decide who will cover which side of the
material and a second time to review one another’s work and finalize your presentations.
You can choose one of two options for the final presentation:
1) Create two separate presentations that will be delivered together on the day that we cover
your author. This is for students who have access to Powerpoint/Prezi at home and want to
simply transfer it to my laptop on the day that they deliver their side of the presentation.
2) One presentation in which the two students’ work is merged. This is best for students who
do not have access to presentation software and need to add their notes to a presentation
format here at the high school.
Audience:
Remember who your audience is. If something interests you, it will most likely interest your
peers. Likewise, if it bores you…
Delivery:
Basically, you are giving notes to your peers, so be mindful of how you present the
information. Use bullets for the most essential information and leave the elaborate details to
your speaking. For some students, it helps to have a written script of what they will say with
cues to remind them to click to the next frame of the presentation. Other students use one
note card for each frame and click after they have presented the material. Experiment and
see what works for you. See p. 491 of your textbook for some tips on delivery and review the
presentation rubric.
Organization/Works Cited:
You must have a title frame and works cited frame for this presentation. The rest of the
frames, however, will be arranged however you see fit. Use MLA rules for your works cited
frame. Your citation for the textbook, for instance, would look like this for articles on
background information:
Wilhelm, Jeffrey D., Douglas Fisher, Beverly Ann Chin, and Jacqueline Jones Royster, eds.
“The English Renaissance: 1485-1650.” Glencoe Literature: The Reader’s Choice
British Literature. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007. 242-249. Print.
and for the author’s text:
Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Glencoe Literature: The Reader’s Choice British Literature.
Ed. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Douglas Fisher, Beverly Ann Chin, and Jacqueline Jones. New
York: McGraw-Hill, 2007. 317-402. Print.
Final Words of Encouragement:
I understand that there is no way that you can deliver everything there is to know about your
author/time period in five minutes. I am not looking for you to be a complete expert on your
topic, and I am aware of the limitations of this assignment. Your job is to simply do your best
with the material and I will fill any informational gaps that I perceive. Please do not hesitate
to speak with me privately if you have any questions or need guidance with this assignment.