9.0 Overview of Week 9

2. Special Note about the presentation

I often get this question about the final presentation: Is it the same as the essay?

Yes. And no. The idea here is that you'll write an essay about a topic that you're interested in and care about (or at least want to know more about). Then, you'll create an overview -- something about 5 minutes long -- for the class to view that helps us understand your process. So, for example, if I research the health effects of television for children under age 5, my paper would be about that. I'd argue for or against it, with plenty of research to back up my argument.

Then, I'd also put together, say, a short video that explains what I found to my classmates. The video would answer the questions laid out in the assignment sheet -- so it's not a video of you reading your paper. It's a video of you saying, "I wanted to find the answer to ____" and "what I found was ______" and "I found this by doing ______" etc.

I am absolutely open to creative presentations: I have had people do fake interview videos before, songs, a poem once, a cartoon... it can be made into something that's fun. It can also be just Powerpoint or Google Slides, though if you go that route, set aside some time to find good images or ways to design your slides so that they aren't just copies of what you wrote in your paper. 

Please, please let me know as soon as possible if you have questions about this!