English oral presentation

[RAfter]

I am doing my presentation on Wuthering heights and Like water for chocolate. Do i just need to read out the presentation. My topic is role of supportive characters

can this include any characters other than the protagonist.

Can you please give me ideas

Edited December 27, 2008 by Justin_250200

[Hyperbole]

You should -never- read out a presentation. Ever. It's the worst idea you could ever attempt. You need to know your material and work from a few keywords when you present your topic.

As regards the actual topic, doesn't "supportive characters" mean "characters that aren't the main characters" anyway? Which would mean that you should definitely focus on the characters who aren't leading. (Unless I'm completely mistaken here: I guess it could also mean "characters with supportive personalities"... in which case I have no idea since I haven't read either of those novels yet! But I'd say that you could include characters other than the protagonists; it'd be a bit flat otherwise, no? Unless there's a great deal to say about the protagonists alone, using other characters too may allow you to speak for another few minutes. I always fall short myself...)

Good luck!

[biochem]

One of my classmates read out the oral. And I can tyell you right now, I think he got the vocabulary section and that's it. My teacher uttered to me that, she cant give him credit for anything since it wasnt a "presentation". So I think he can sleep tight at night knowing, that he is in jeopardy of scoring low in English.

In all honesty, some teachers do let you read. I read somewhere on an IB official guide, some french word - that stands for reading the oral from a written paper. It all depends on your teacher. So ask her what she thinks.

[Ashika]

Hah, for me I was up there doing my presentation, kicking ass... and then I realized I had left the other half of my presentation at home and I was thinking "oh ****" and so I basically had to make up 5 minutes of presentation on the spot hahaha.

Got a 6, so I'm not complaining

[KiwiFruit]

I just did mine 3 weeks ago, my teacher said it was amazing. I had no sheets, nothing, I used a powerpoint and I got a 'wonderful job andrew' up from my teacher because I was enthusiastic and presented with ease and confidence. Teacher gave me a really really good (7) indications, I wasnt really suprised I practices my presentation with my dad over 60x the weekend before and I started preparing months ahead of my class. I really never understood the rewards of working hard until I finished this presentation with flying colours.

The reason why I tried so hard is because my exam marks were 48% in english (commentary and essay).

So i needed to do good in this, I needed to kick ass and I did.

I cant help you with the content, but just a little adive.

1) If you read off the sheet your doomed

2) Its only your class dont get nervous

3) Look forward to the feeling of awsomeness once you have completed it with FLYING COLOURS, dont walk back to your seat saying " O god I messed that up".

Good luck

Andrew (DrewRow)

[RAfter]

how do you make it creative . there is close to 10 marks.

[RAfter]

did you quote from the text. in your ppt did you just have your points. honestly how many points do you require for the presention

[Vvi]

We (as a class) didn't know what the presentation entailed, so we all got up and read off sheets of paper. The teacher didn't really explain to us that it should have been like a TOK presentation (interactive). But we all got high marks anyways, I guess she marked more on the content.

Talk TO the audience. I kept eye contact with everyone as much as possible and used hand gestures. Beware of a monotone. A few people in my class have one when they read/present, and that's why we all fall asleep. If you notice people drifting off, jump (literally) into action and raise or lower your tone of voice and volume/pitch. Act something out as you explain it. Anything.

[bomb]

try to understnad your material, and present it,

dont memmorize, dont read

do something in between and appear as you kno whwa tyou're tlaking about,

cheers

[clare.is.rice]

Decide on a structure beforehand, like in an essay; intro, at least three main points, and conclusion . Then write down bullet points for each "paragraph". Take out any unnecessary words and use that as your note card(s). Whatever you do don't memorize it, if you do and then mes-up it will be difficult to salvage.

also if you are having difficulty focusing it, don't be afraid to cut it down to one book.

good luck

[RAfter]

Decide on a structure beforehand, like in an essay; intro, at least three main points, and conclusion . Then write down bullet points for each "paragraph". Take out any unnecessary words and use that as your note card(s). Whatever you do don't memorize it, if you do and then mes-up it will be difficult to salvage.

also if you are having difficulty focusing it, don't be afraid to cut it down to one book.

good luck

If i did it on 1 novel i feel that i will ramble in order to talk for 12- 15 minutes . is it better to quote more than 1 example to support your point.

[KiwiFruit]

Justin at the end of the day your going to have to write and present this yourself, my advice for right now would be to go and brain storm all the ideas you have before coming on here and expecting us to help. Start a mind map, just throw ideas out onto paper. Once you have that elaborate while looking at the marking criterion that your teacher should have given you if not look on the net for it. Try to find literary features and dont just explain what happens explain how the author used this literary feature and why he used it. Try to discuss themes and be creative in the sense do some research maybe find some historical or authors background that is used in the text. I would say the most important part of the presentation is the introduction and the conclusion, you need to be able to say these like your talking to your friends about soccer, it needs to be smooth and interesting enought that will grab your teachers attention because by now she probably already been listening to many of your classes works.

From other posts I saw that your worried about the time, the minimum is 10min and maxium 15 in our class, trust me 10minutes sounds long on paper, I could talk for hours unscripted on a single book, I reccomend after you brainstorm, look for the one that has the most points and you think you have the greatest knowledge on. Start doing this now and give yourself one week before the presentation to give it to your parents, cats, dogs or even an imaginary friend. Because what I learnt from doing this experience that at the end of the day when your up on that stage with dozens of eyes looking up on you, the only thing you have is practice, practice is what will make your teacher say "wow gosh", even if you have crap content a amazing presentation will pull you through, same as if you have amazing content but if your unable to get your ideas accross then what was the point of the presentation and you will feel sad and not happy with your self. If you do well in this, youll be taking some pressure off your final exams, knowing that you already have a 7/6 in the bag. Regarding the post ^above, quote when you feel nessacary to make your ideas known, remember its like a debate, with every new statment you have to back it up with evidence (the book).

So go forth, think, think, think..theres only so much we can help you with,

Remember when you walk out of the room knowing you have done well because of practice, I can tell you there is no more satisfying experience to my knowledge.

Goodluck,

DrewRow

[RAfter]

thanks for the advice. I have got quite number of points and i have structured it. But how do I talk abt literary features considering my topic is on the role of supportive characters

In what sense can I talk abt literary features.

[KiwiFruit]

Ok, my teacher says that if literary features dont apply to your topic then you dont need them, the use of diction to explain the character..im not too sure but at the end of the day you have to do most of the work for yourself, just think, youve got a brain...you dont ours.