Faculty of Arts,
Chulalongkorn University
2202208
English Conversation and Discussion
Puckpan Tipayamontri
Office: BRK 1106
Office Hours: M 1–3
and by appointment
Phone: 0 2218 4703
puckpan.t@chula.ac.th
Section 5 (BRK 311 and on Blackboard)
W 8:00–9:00, F 9:30–11:00
Group
Work
You will be working with three or four
other students (from any combination of sections) in two related kinds
of group work at the end of the semester: 1) a presentation, and 2) a
paper. Both involve your group choosing a short story from the fiction list, close reading it, engaging in
high-spirited critical discussion of it with your members, and looking
up any relevant cultural reference, literary term, vocabulary and
topical issues or background.
Group
Presentation
Instructions:
- Preparing
- Pair your fiction choice with a
nonfiction piece.
- Prepare a 20–25-minute oral
presentation on them, focusing on the fiction. No PowerPoint
presentation.
- Allocate responsibilities so that
each member of your group has comparable prep work and speaking
content and time.
- Practice delivering your
presentation together from your various venues to iron out any
technical issues and to check that you are making effective use of
your time and staying within scheduled limits. Other groups before
and after you need their full slot as well.
- Presenting
- Join your two graders on Zoom (using the Join Meeting link or Meeting
ID given) at the scheduled
date and time.
- Give your presentation.
- Answer clearly and thoughtfully
any post-presentation questions your graders may have.
- Celebrate a job well done! Treat
yourselves to a warm virtual group hug and reward yourself with a nice
carrot.
Grading: Your grade will
primarily depend on your critical and analytical engagement with the
texts. What this means is you want to show that you are perceptive and
thoughtful in looking at
- The construction of the short story
and the nonfiction: how they are structured, how they convey their
ideas and create their impact, how they use logic, language and
literary/rhetorical devices, etc., what it does well and what it does
not so well; and
- The ideas in the works: what ideas
are mentioned or omitted, which aspects of the ideas are discussed
extensively, which cursory or superficially; what inherent biases
there are in a particular idea and whether or not they are
acknowledged; the implications of the ideas
Guidelines:
- Pairing your fiction with a
nonfiction piece
There are several ways you can create an exciting relationship between
the two pieces with your pairing. The nonfiction can be a provocative
counter-argument to the stance or ideas of the fiction, it can provide
another angle on the same issue, it can be an elaboration of the
issue, with background, contexts, and extensive discussion of it, or
it can be a presentation of the same situation but in nonfiction form,
for instance. Before you can decide on what to pair your fiction with,
it is useful to read the story carefully, take notes, and discuss
among yourselves about it. Some things to consider as you study the
story for pairing and for presentation and paper:
- Text: What is noteworthy about
the short story? What is unique, fascinating or defining about it?
- Diction, style: Is the
language odd, poetic, moody, obscure, irrational, frustrating,
ironic, funny, playful, or characteristic in any particular way?
Is the manner of storytelling suggestive of a genre/subgenre, time
period, type of text, region, culture, class, personality? Does
the language or style clash with the content of the story? What
effect does the language and the telling have on what is being
told?
- Plot: What about the
narrative design? How is the story told from beginning to end?
Does it start at predictable place and move to unexpected ones?
What twists and turns, parallel plots, subplots occur? Is there
high physical action or is the adventure internal (psychological,
emotional, spiritual, philosophical), or both? How does the story
use time?
- Character: Perhaps the most
memorable aspect of the story is its character(s)? Who are
depicted and why are they essential to the story that unfolds?
What information is given about them and how? Do they change? In
what way? Are they striking because of their age, profession,
role, relationship, looks, talent, how they speak or act, what
they think, what happens to them, what doesn't happen to them, or
something else?
- Scenes: Which moments are
special in the story? Where do they occur? What happens? How do
they fit into or affect the story?
- Point of view: Who tells
the story? How does this perspective shape the story? How common
or rare is this point of view? Why?
- Context: What is noteworthy
about how the story came to be? What is impressive about its
genesis, author, or history?
- Conception: Was the idea for
the story unusual? What kinds of things, events, or people
inspired the writing? Where, when, and how was the story
conceived?
- Author: Who is the author
and why might his or her identity be relevant to appreciating the
story? Where has the author lived, what are their experiences,
what kind of education have they had, or training in writing? How
has this influenced how they write and the text they have
produced?
- History: Is the history of
the story an illuminating one? Was it difficult to write? Why?
Perhaps it was rejected an extraordinary number of times? Who
decides to publish it? Why is this revealing or worth noting? Does
the story undergo very many versions or have other forms in its
publishing history? Why should you consider this fact in examining
this version or form? When was the story printed and why might
this be an important context for viewing and assessing the story?
- Preparing a 20–25-minute oral
presentation
In planning and practicing your oral presentation, keep in mind that
you want to talk to your graders. These are people who have read the
story and have reasonable world, life and textual knowledge. For the
presentation to be informative and enjoyable both for you and your
graders, consider the following.
- No PowerPoint: The reason for this
oral presentation is for you to communicate your insights and
opinions about the texts to people who also like the story and would
enjoy hearing your observations about it. Focus on speaking directly
to your graders. A PowerPoint presentation would take time to design
and will also take the attention away from your speaking and
immediate communication with your audience who would rather look at
you and hear your analysis rather than look at PowerPoint slides.
- No reading: Think of the
presentation not like a speech or a reading of a paper, but rather a
discussion that you are having among yourselves that you are sharing
with the graders. But because this is an oral presentation, it is a
prepared discussion that is organized rather than impromptu. After
reading the story and making sense of it for yourself and discussing
its various aspects, controversies and merits, design a talk where
you highlight the features of the story that most grabbed your
attention, explain your processing and coming to terms with
difficult and troubling issues that the story presents, and share
with the graders what you individually and your group as a whole
have gotten from the experience of reading it and pairing it with a
nonfiction counterpart.
- Be detailed: Instead of
recounting the plot, give specific information, lines, or scenes and
elaborate on how they function in your engagement with the text.
Share with the graders particular aspects of the text that made you
stop and think or ask questions or cry or rage or laugh or yell and
dance. Explain the development of your ideas regarding the texts,
its overall structure, particular passages, this word or that
punctuation.
- Be challenging: Provoke the
graders to look at parts of the text that they might not have
attended to very carefully. Take the graders on an oral journey with
you to discover anew a short work that both you and they have read.
Where to begin? How do you want to set up your exploration so that
they can travel with you? What can you show them about the story,
its ideas, and the ideas of a nonfiction piece that challenges,
complements or extends it? Ask yourselves penetrating and difficult
questions (questions that you don't know the answer to but would
like to find out) about the story and the values and concepts it
conveys, its creativity, care and craziness, and in working through
them yourself and with your group (There might not be answers to
every question and that's part of the discovery.), you will move and
surprise your audience too into territory that they didn't realize
was there to be found.
Group
Paper
Instructions:
- Focus on the fiction.
- 4–5 pp.
- MLA
style format and citation
- Due Friday, May 1 by 4 p.m.,
e-mailed to your two presentation
instructors
Grading:
Like the presentation, your grade will depend on your critical and
analytical engagement with the texts, but in the case of writing, it
will also depend on your communicating your textual examination in
clear, logical, coherent, well-substantiated prose.
Checklist:
Some things to keep in mind as you write, proofread, and edit your work.
- Instructions: Have I followed
the assignment requirements and instructions?
- Title: Does my title show
that I have a point to make?
- Clear and interesting points:
- Do I have a clear point to make in
each of my paragraphs, and in the paper as a whole?
- Do the paragraph points support
and develop the paper's main point/argument/thesis/idea, resulting
in a coherent and unified essay?
- Aside from clarity, are these
ideas/points/arguments sound and interesting?
- Am I making obvious points,
clichéd readings, false or inaccurate claims, oversimplified
observations, personal assumptions, and formulaic conclusions? Am I
giving common knowledge or information that is readily available
elsewhere?
- Substantiation: Have I
supported my ideas with compelling textual evidence?
- No retelling of plot: Have I
avoided plot summary? Have I organized my discussion logically and
appropriately for my argument, not according to the the
structure or the plot of the story? Have I mentioned only plot points
that are necessary to my argument? Am I precise and detailed when
elaborating on them to develop my argument?
- Language and style:
- Is my language clear, consistent,
and suited to the subject matter?
- Are my sentences varied,
interesting, and effective?
- Am I succinct in what I have to
say rather than wordy, rambling, digressing, or circuitous?
- Mechanics:
- Grammar: Do my verbs agree with
their subjects? Pronouns with their nouns?
- Typography: Is my paper free of
capitalization, spelling and other typographical mistakes?
- Academic conventions:
- Literary present tense: Am I
using the literary present tense in speaking about the fiction?
- Last names: Do I refer to authors
by their last names?
- MLA style format and citation:
- Does my paper follow MLA
format?
- Have I cited my sources
properly according to the MLA citation style?
- Others:
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Last updated April 22, 2020