Project Assignment: Web page/presentation

Web page due: Jan. 31, 2005
Presentation due: on the day we discuss your chosen writer or topic
Percentage of grade: 15% for webpage + 10% for presentation = 25%

1) Each student is expected to put together a web page¹ displaying research on a topic of their choosing. Resources will be made available for those who are less experienced. Since this is not a web design course, my focus, when evaluating your work, will be on content rather than presentation. These pages will be linked to the course blog.

Web pages can include links, visuals, attached documents (bibliographies, articles, etc.), and written text. They should be a combination of concrete information and links for further research. Any bibliographical material is expected to follow MLA format.

If you are doing a page on a writer:
• Find at least one portrait of your subject.
• Include biographical material (keep the focus on your subject as a writer).
• List/include information on her works.
• Have something more substantial about the work that we will read in class.

If you are doing a page on a literary subgenre:
• Include a useful definition,
• a brief history,
• examples, and
• a section that focuses on our course text(s).

If you are doing a page on some historical background:
• Include a brief overview, then focus on material pertinent to our course texts and/or authors.
• Note any tie-ins to literary culture.

Everyone:
• Include a print bibliography of pertinent contemporary books and articles.
• Make an effort to list all the important sites about your subject, if there are many, and all the sites, if there are few.
• You are encouraged to link to each other, where appropriate.
• Give me a short written report telling me at least one thing that your page does that none other does.

You can either
• give me the material electronically or on disk (RTF format preferred), for me to format and post,
• give me the HTML file electronically or on disk, for me to directly post, or
• give me the URL to your own site, for me to link to the course site.

Web Pages will be evaluated on:
i) breadth, depth and quality of research;
ii) inclusion of both concrete information, and resources for further research;
iii) organization of materials;
iv) accessibility/user-friendliness; and
v) presentation.

¹ Please note: If you really don't want to do this assignment, you may hand in an annotated bibliography on your subject (electronically or on disk, preferably, so I can post it online).

2) Each student will make a brief presentation (15-20 minutes) at the beginning of the class in which their chosen topic is being discussed, focusing on the text(s) we have read. At the end of each presentation, the presenter will have some questions to initiate class discussion. Give me a hard copy of your outline and/or handout; handouts to the class are welcome but optional.
(*Note:* please give the instructor any a/v requests at least a week before.)

Presentations will be evaluated on:
i) focus;
ii) organization;
iii) appropriateness of material; links to course texts and/or discussions;
iv) quality of research;
v) effectiveness of questions; and
vi) presentation.

The Gothic II: short stories

Scene from The Old English Baron by Clara Reeve

Reading: From Nineteenth-Century Stories by Women:
Alcott's "A Whisper in the Dark" (PDF),
Braddon's "Good Lady Ducayne" (PDF),
Gaskell's "The Old Nurse's Story" (PDF),
Lee's "Dionea" (PDF/can't print) and
Shelley's "The Parvenue" (PDF).

On-line:
Barbauld's "On the Pleasure Derived from Objects of Terror, with Sir Bertrand, A Fragment," and
Eliot's "The Lifted Veil."

Also have a look at Curtis's "The Unknown" (PDF/can't print),
Gore's "The Red Man" (PDF/can't print),
Landon's "The Bride of Lindorf," and
Wilkinson's "The Mysterious Novice" (PDF/can't print) and "The Spectre" (PDF/can't print).

And at least glance at Tales of Superstition and Chivalry by Anne Bannerman.

Presentation(s): Amanda on Louisa May Allcott; Mark on Elizabeth Gaskell.

Deadline: Web pages should be up before the beginning of class.

Links/e-texts:

Anne Bannerman.
Anna Lætitia Barbauld.
Mary Elizabeth Braddon.
Catherine Gore (and here, and here).
Vernon Lee.
Ann Radcliffe.
Sarah Wilkinson.
"Writing for the Spectre of Poverty: Exhuming Sarah Wilkinson’s Bluebooks and Novels" by Franz Potter.