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ENG 112: Prof. Kerrigan Oral Presentations – Poetry Analysis

Ø This speech will be graded by the instructor according to the Evaluation Criteria Ø This speech should be 5-7 minutes in length. No visual aids are permitted.

Ø An outline and bibliography must also be submitted when you present (bring two

copies to class – one for yourself to use, the other for me to use). This is worth an additional 25 points on top of the 50 points earned for your actual presentation.

Ø These speeches will be held on Wednesday, November 12, Friday, November

14, Monday, November 17, and Wednesday, November 19. We will draft our order of presentations in advance; everyone is expected to be prepared on the first day of presentations. Makeups will only be allowed for excused absences (valid medical/emergency reasons) that are communicated in advance; students who are unprepared or absent when we get to their number will be first up the next day of presentations and will be assessed a 10% penalty to their grade. Wednesday, November 19 is the final day for presentations. You are expected to be present and be prepared each day of presentations.

Assignment: Present a three-part presentation:

1) a brief biography of the poet, (approx. 1 ½ - 2 minutes) 2) read a poem of his/hers, and (approx. 1 minute – times will vary) 3) offer an analytical perspective of the selected poem. (approx. 2 - 3 minutes)

Outside research is required. Use the poetry criticism databases available through the library. If you use open-internet sources, make sure that they are credible. Since this is an oral presentation and not a paper – you will submit an outline of the ideas you will cover (do NOT turn in a paper), and a bibliography (list the sources you used in proper MLA formatting). These items must be typed and submitted in hard-copy on Wednesday, November 12. We will select the poems, and the order of presentations in class on Friday, October 31. You will gain one full class period (Monday, November 10) as a work day.

The Impact:

Per the course syllabus, your presentation is worth 10% of your final grade.

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Remember when presenting your speech: ü Stay within the time guidelines ü Speak loudly and clearly (so that everyone can hear and understand you) ü Don’t read verbatim from your notes ü Maintain eye contact with your audience (and look around the room at different

audience members, don’t ignore a section of the audience) Remember when others are presenting:

ü Show common courtesy and respect ü Do not fall asleep, work on other assignments, make rude comments, noises, etc. ü Do not get up and leave the room or enter the room ü Keep all cell phones off and away

ü Poets and Poem Combos Available to Select:

Poet Poem Page in text Emily Dickinson “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” 545 “I Felt a Funeral in my Brain” 811 “The Soul Selects Her Own Society” 815 “Success is Counted Sweetest” 815 Robert Frost “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” 548 “Desert Places” 741 “Birches” 844 “After Apple Picking” 843 Thomas Hardy “The Man He Killed” 548 “Channel Firing” 617 William Shakespeare “Sonnet 55” 555 “Sonnet 130” 628 “Sonnet 18” 663 William Wordsworth “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above…” 557 “Daffodils” 595 “The Solitary Reaper” 710 William Blake “The Lamb” 581 “The Tyger” 647 Robert Burns “A Red, Red Rose” 648 Lewis Carroll “Jabberwocky” 581 E.E. Cummings “next to of course god America I” 584 “anyone lived in a pretty how town” 895 John Donne “Holy Sonnet 14” 585 “A Valediction” 649 “Holy Sonnet 10” 897

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A.E. Housman “To an athlete dying young” 585 “When I was one-and-twenty” 913 Edwin Arlington Robinson “Richard Cory” 590 Theordore Roethke “Dolor” 591 “My Papa’s Waltz” 706 “The Waking” 751 Elizabeth Barrett Browning “Sonnets from the Portuguese, Number 14” 611 “Sonnets from the Portuguese, Number 43” 892 Samuel Taylor Coleridge “Kubla Kahn” 612 T.S. Eliot “Preludes” 613 “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” 900 Gerard Manley Hopkins “Spring” 620 Ezra Pound “In a Station of the Metro” 627 “A Girl” 933 John Keats “To Autumn” 654 “Ode to a Nightingale” 745 “Ode on a Grecian Urn” 914 Walt Whitman “Facing West from California’s Shores” 667 “I Hear America Singing” 949 “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” 730 Robert Browning “My Last Duchess” 892 Langston Hughes “Theme for English B” 861 “Harlem” 856 “The Weary Blues” 862 Sharon Olds “The Planned Child” 702 Robert Pinsky “Dying” 703 William Butler Yeats “When You are Old” 713 “The Second Coming” 792 Dylan Thomas “Do Not Go Gentle Into the Good Night” 752 Andrew Marvell “To His Coy Mistress” 784 Sylvia Plath “Daddy” 870 “Mirror” 877 Amy Lowell “Patterns” 921 Alfred Lord Tennyson “Break, Break, Break” 664 Countee Cullen “Yet Do I Marvel” 692 Elizabeth Bishop “Sestina” 737 Bob Dylan “The Times They Are a-Changin” 899 Edna St. Vincent “Travel” 924 Millay Dorothy Parker “Afternoon” 928 Adrienne Rich “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” 934 “Living in Sin” 934

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Student Name: Speech Topic:

Grading Criteria for Speeches

Each of the following 10 points will be graded on a 5 point scale (5 being excellent) – making your speech worth a total of 50 points (so to translate to a percentage grade, double the number).

1. Extemporaneous versus read. Was the speech extemporaneous or read verbatim? Did the mode of delivery seem effective?

2. Volume. Was the speaker loud enough? Or too loud? 3. Pace. Was the speech given at the proper speed? 4. Articulation. Were the words clearly enunciated? 5. Audience Awareness. Did the speaker code-shift appropriately for the

audience and situation? Were you able to understand what the speaker said? Did the speaker’s comments seem to reach out to the audience and include its members? Was the speech formal enough for a classroom presentation?

6. Body language.

a. Posture. Did the speaker hold him/herself in a way which seemed poised, relaxed, and confident? Or if the speaker had some other affect, such as tense, or excited, or angry, etc., did that style seem appropriate to the occasion?

b. Gestures. Did the speaker use any hand gestures? Were they helpful or distracting?

7. Eye contact with the audience. Did the speaker look at the audience? 8. Organization of speech. Was the speech put together in a logical order? 9. Evidence of Preparation. Was it evident that the speaker was adequately

prepared? Was the speech within the time guidelines?

10. Content. Was it clear that the speaker understood the material? Did the speaker cover major ideas?