assignments ENGL 226 Writing About Writing: SUPER FAST CAREER PRESENTATIONS
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OVERVIEW
I used to ask students to work in groups and present on writing in and publishing in different genres. I realized, though, that most students needed a different sort of information. They needed help envisioning a career or tackling specific and mysterious parts of what it could mean to write for a living. One thing I learned in my career is that there are jobs out there that in a million years I didn’t know existed and didn’t know I could do—and didn’t know involved writing. I learned how to write in college reasonably well, but the real leap was when I entered the professional world. The same will be true for all of you, whether you think that’s possible or not. And so I have put together a list of specific presentation topics that are meant to help, as is everything in the class, move you from a student writer to a professional writer. They are:
Presentations should be, as the title says, super-fast.
DETAILS:
How You Will Be Evaluated
This assignment is worth 10% of your final grade. There are only two grades to be earned for this assignment: an A or a C. The grade is assigned to the group not to the individual, meaning whatever grade the presentation earns is the grade each member earns (with one exception, see “one final evaluation note” below).
To earn an “A” grade for 10% of your final grade you must:
To earn a “C” grade for 10% of your final grade you must:
One final evaluation note: While it’s my hope that all of you earn an “A” for this assignment, and past experience tells me that it’s highly likely you all will earn and “A,” if a group member fails to meet bullet number one (Be a good group member to your colleagues in your group and hold up your end of the presentation), that one person (not the whole group) will fail this 10% of the final grade.
I used to ask students to work in groups and present on writing in and publishing in different genres. I realized, though, that most students needed a different sort of information. They needed help envisioning a career or tackling specific and mysterious parts of what it could mean to write for a living. One thing I learned in my career is that there are jobs out there that in a million years I didn’t know existed and didn’t know I could do—and didn’t know involved writing. I learned how to write in college reasonably well, but the real leap was when I entered the professional world. The same will be true for all of you, whether you think that’s possible or not. And so I have put together a list of specific presentation topics that are meant to help, as is everything in the class, move you from a student writer to a professional writer. They are:
- Journalism.
- Technical & Professional Writing,
- Self-publication ebooks & Freelancing
- Graduate School for Writers (MA, MFA, PhD)
- Publishing and Editorial Careers
Presentations should be, as the title says, super-fast.
DETAILS:
- Presentations should be eight minutes long.
- You should give your classmates a handout of relevant and useful information (like websites, the names of journals, of people, resources, schools, etc).
- If it’s possible to talk about how much a person can earn doing a particular kind of work, include it.
- It it’s possible to name specific titles of jobs include it.
- If there is a kind of education or degree or certificate or kind of experience that you need to be successful in a particular field, include it.
- If there are entry-level jobs or internships or places to publish that could help you prepare for a job in a field, talk about that.
How You Will Be Evaluated
This assignment is worth 10% of your final grade. There are only two grades to be earned for this assignment: an A or a C. The grade is assigned to the group not to the individual, meaning whatever grade the presentation earns is the grade each member earns (with one exception, see “one final evaluation note” below).
To earn an “A” grade for 10% of your final grade you must:
- Be a good group member to your colleagues in your group and hold up your end of the presentation
- Come prepared on the day of your presentation
- Have a thoughtful, good-looking, useful handout for your classmates
- Cover as much of the bulleted list of things to include as is possible to do
- Keep your presentation to 8 minutes.
- Not be boring.
To earn a “C” grade for 10% of your final grade you must:
- Be a good group member to your colleagues in your group and hold up your end of the presentation
- Come prepared on the day of your presentation
- Have a handout
- Allow your presentation to run two or three minutes under or two or three minutes over eight minutes
- Be boring.
One final evaluation note: While it’s my hope that all of you earn an “A” for this assignment, and past experience tells me that it’s highly likely you all will earn and “A,” if a group member fails to meet bullet number one (Be a good group member to your colleagues in your group and hold up your end of the presentation), that one person (not the whole group) will fail this 10% of the final grade.