Wendell Berry and the Power of Story

The Power of Story

What makes information interesting to people? As communicators, our power is not only in what we have to say, but how we can engage people and entertain them while we are saying it. One of the greatest ways of keeping an audience engaged is by telling stories. People remember stories. People are changed by stories. Learning how to tell stories to convey your message is an important tool that you can use to complicate other people’s thinking about the world, change minds and be heard. Plus, they are fun.

A good story has:

·    A beginning, middle, and end

·       Conflict and characters

·       Vivid imagery and detail

·       Delight, emotion, humor, beauty
      Personal content- elements your audience can relate to through shared human experiences

          Characters that speak or do things
     

     

     David Foster Wallace
     The View from Mrs. Thompson's

     

      In Class: Write a flash story (roughly 500 words or less) that makes some statement about a place that matters to you. Choose a place you know and that you can describe in detail. Your task is to tell a story that will teach us something about that place. Be as surprising, genuine, funny, and vivid as you can. This can be fiction or non-fiction.

      Free writes work best if you keep your pen moving (or fingers typing) the entire time. After the free write, you will share your stories with a small group. The group will describe what they liked, what they learned about the place, and anything that still confuses them. You will have the rest of class to finalize your story. Make this time count, and finish the story by the end of the class period.  On Thursday, you will turn these in as your last quiz grade. You will also be reading them in class as part of the final class period.

     Homework: Assignment 5 is due posted to Blackboard by end of day 4/26. Please post it as one cohesive word document.

Revision for Assignment 5

In class Activity:
Share your five most common errors with the others in your group. List ten issues for your group. Under each issue describe what it is, give an example, describe why it makes the writing weaker, and fix the example (if applicable). Share that list in a google doc with me. Make sure to include the names of your group members.

Peer Response
Prescriptive peer response. On the electronic copy of the essay you are revising for assignment 5, list the 5 errors common in your writing. Then list any questions or concerns you have with the piece that you would like help with. (for example, if your organization was a problem, you might ask your responded to suggest ways to improve it).

Peer responder will answer the questions, identify and fix (using track changes) any instances of the 5 major issues listed by the author.

Homework:

1) Assignment due 4/26 posted to blackboard by end of day.
2) Read Wendell Berry “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front”

American Earth p.505 by 4/24

3) Have a fun, safe VEISHA!

Barbara Kingsolver and Group Work Response

In Class:
We will be responding to your group work projects, and reflecting on how they went. We will also do class evaluations.

Homework: 
1) Work on Assignment 5 due 4/26 by end of day

2) Look back at your old essays and peer response sheets. create a list of at least five of the most common errors you have made in your essays in this class. They can be macro-level like organization, or micro-level such as passive voice. Bring your list to class. Also make sure you have an electronic copy of the essay you have chosen to revise for assignment 5 on Thursday 4/19. Make sure to eliminate the grade and any comments you wouldn't like your classmates to see from the copy you bring to use in class on Thursday.

2) Read Wendell Berry “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front”

American Earth p.505 by Tuesday 4/24

Presentations April 10th and 12th

April 10th
Lauren, Danielle, and Olivia's Group
Kristi, Tyler, Phil, and Daniel's Group
Thomas, Becca, Maggie, and Adam's Group
Jenna, Tianyu, Amber, and Josh's Group

April 12th
Steven, Alex, Ashley, and Ben's Group
Mary, Michelle, and Evan's Group
Victoria, Issac, Jeremy, and Mitch's Group

Homework:
Assignment 4 Due April 12 posted to Blackboard
Look Toward Assignment 5

Read Barbara Kingsolver: “Knowing Our Place” American Earth    p.939-947 by 4/17

Rachel Carson and Kinesthetic Presentations

Rachel Carson





Kinesthetic Presentations
"I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand"
-Confucious

Learning Styles


Auditory Learners: learn best by hearing something said, or by discussing ideas. They can learn best in a lecture, by listening to a tape or video, and by talking with group members. They can lose concentration if the tasks involves reading or writing tasks without discussion or speech.


Visual Learners: learn best through written language, reading, and writing tasks. They can learn best using text, maps, videos, and visual cues (eye contact, and body language) during discussions. They can lose concentration if there is nothing to look at or read.


Kinesthetic Learners: learn best while touching and moving. The can learn best if it involves movement, such as drawing images, building a model, using their hands, and moving actively. A kinesthetic learner would love to have something to touch during a presentation or be able to move or engage physically with concepts. They can lose concentration if there is no external movement or engagement.

Example of a Kinesthetic Learner making a presentation
Theo Janesn http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/theo_jansen_creates_new_creatures.html


Example of a Visual Learner making a presentation
Hans Rosling http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/hans_rosling_on_global_population_growth.html
Its not about numbers, it is about what they mean.


Example of an Auditory Learner making a presentation
Chimamanda Adichie http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html


Qualities of Engaging Presentations

Source:http://www.graphics.com/modules.php?name=Sections&op=viewarticle&artid=925

This website uses Steve Jobs as an example of a good presenter

• Develop rapport with the audience. Jobs usually walks out on stage, all smiles, without any formal introduction over the PA. Jobs shows his personality, which is confident but humble, on stage. People are attracted to confidence — but it must be confidence combined with humility. He uses natural movement on stage, eye contact, and friendliness to establish a connection with the audience.
• Give them an idea of where you’re going. You do not need the ubiquitous and infamous agenda slide, but give people an idea where you’re going, a road map of the journey you’re taking them on. In Jobs’s case, he may give a simple welcome, build a little rapport with a humble thank you, and then boom! “I’ve got four things I’d like to talk about with you today. So let’s get stated.” He may not say what the four things are, but just knowing that there are four major parts helps the audience. Jobs often structures his talks around three or four parts with one theme.
• Show your enthusiasm. You may want to curb your enthusiasm at times, but most presenters show too little passion or enthusiasm — not too much. Yes, a presentation on medical treatments by a researcher is different than a CEO’s keynote. But in each case the appropriate level of enthusiasm can make all the difference. In just the first few minutes on stage Jobs may use words such as incredible, extraordinary, awesome, amazing, revolutionary. You can disagree with him. You can say his language is over the top; you can call it hype if you want. But Steve Jobs believes what he says. He is sincere. He is authentic. The point here is not to be like Steve Jobs but to find your own level of passion and bring that honest enthusiasm out in your work for the world to see.
• Be positive, upbeat, humorous. Jobs is a very serious person, but he is very enthusiastic because he really believes in his content. He is upbeat and positive about the future even in bad times. You cannot fake this — you must believe in your content or you cannot sell it. Jobs also brings a little humor to his talks. This does not mean telling jokes. His humor is more subtle. Making people laugh with relevant, subtle uses of irony is engaging.
• It’s not about numbers, it’s about what the numbers mean. A business keynote by a technology company is different from a scientific presentation at a conference. But isn’t it always about what the numbers mean rather than just the numbers themselves? So your cholesterol is 199, the national average. Is that good or bad? Up or down? Is “average” healthy or unhealthy? And compared to what? When Steve Jobs talks about numbers in his keynotes, he often breaks them down. For example, he may say that four million iPhones sold is the equivalent of “20,000 per day” since the units went on sale. 20 percent market share? In and of itself that does not mean much, but the meaning becomes clear when he compares it to others in the field.
  

  Photo credit: Macworld.com

  
  
  
• Make it visual. Jobs uses high-quality graphics. The images are clear, professional, and unique, not from a template. Charts and graphs are simple and beautifully clear. There is no “death by bullet point.” He uses the screen to show visual material and only occasionally for displaying short lists. He displays data in a way that the meaning is clear.
• Introduce something unexpected. Jobs’s presentations, of course, always have something new. But he also surprises audiences just a bit each time. Humans love the unexpected. We love some element that makes us go “aah!” The brain loves novelty and the unexpected.
• Include only what is necessary. Jobs separates his talks into clear sections, usually no more than three. He makes a clear decision not to include too much. You cannot say everything; you must choose what is most important for now and leave the rest out. Most presentations that fail do so because they include too much information and display it in a cluttered way that does not engage the brain.
• Vary the pace and change techniques. Jobs is good at varying the pace from fast to slow and changing the flow by using different techniques. He does not stand in one place and lecture, a very bad way to present. Instead, he mixes in video clips, images, stories, data, different speakers, and live hardware and software. Just talking about information for one or two hours is much too boring for the audience (and for the presenter). If the talk is only about information and new features, it is more efficient to give that info out in a paper to read.
• Save the best for last. People will assess your performance in the first two minutes, so you have to start strong. But you have to finish even stronger. People best remember the first part and the last part of your presentation. The middle stuff is important, of course, but if you blow it at the start or at the end, all may be lost. This is why you have to rehearse your opening and your closing so much. Jobs is famous for his “one more thing” slide where he saves the best for last — after it appears he has finished.
• Go the appropriate length. Jobs never includes unnecessary details and makes it a point to finish on time. He is aware that presentations cannot go on too long and gets to his points smoothly and quickly. If you cannot explain why your topic is important, interesting, and meaningful in 20 minutes or less, then you do not know your topic well enough. Try to make talks as short as possible while still making the content meaningful, keeping in mind that every case is different. The key is not to fill your audience up; you want them wanting a little more.

In Class Activity:

In your assignment 4 groups discuss and answer the following questions. Write your answers and be prepared to turn them in for your group:

1) Evaluate the presentation we viewed in class. What of the qualities of an engaging presentation does it meet and in what ways? Choose at least three qualities listed above, and describe how the presentation succeeded or failed to tap into these principles.

2) Based on the different learning styles, how did this presentation incorporate the kinesthetic learners? How did it incorporate auditory and visual learners?

3) For your own presentation, how will your group incorporate the seven ways to engage the brain and the learning styles into it? Brainstorm with your group and come up with as many ideas as you can for how you might engage your audience including kinesthetic learners. Come up with the funniest, wildest ideas that you think might still work, and be prepared to share at least one of these with the class. 

Homework:

Read Rachael Carson: From Silent Spring, American Earth p. 366 by 4/3

Work on Assignment 4. Presentations are next week and there will be no required readings for those two days.