I will admit, I did procrastinate when doing this project but it did teach me time management.

I honestly do not remember what led me to picking F. Scott Fitzgerald. I thought maybe he would be difficult because everyone already knew so much about him that there was nothing new I could bring to them about him, which would make for a very boring presentation. Thinking about that really stressed me out so I felt I had a lot riding on this presentation and a lot to prove. After I chose Fitzgerald, I went on searching for a book to read. Basically I ended up picking a short story to read as well as a novel to meet the page requirement, then I ended up picking another short story because I read an article that said Fitzgerald had three main writing periods so I picked a piece from each to form an effective comparison. In the beginning, I was feeling VERY overwhelmed by the amount of work that hung over me. I made countless lists, emailing them all to myself each day. You should see my inbox, every other email for the past month and half is from myself. The back of all my extra papers in my notebook are also full of lists 90% of them having to do with this project. My friends and I (Wajihah Baig, Anna Wirth, Jessica Hastings) even made a group message dedicated to this class so we could keep each other on track and ask questions. This actually helped a lot, because feeling behind is a horrible feeling, and if I saw that Anna, Jess, and Waj were ahead of me at all, I would focus more and it would motivate me to get more work done, we kept each other paced, although Anna was usually leading us. This helped me all the way up to the day I presented.

Looking back at my presentation, I obviously could have improved upon a multitude of things, but from a positive perspective, I am very pleased with myself. When I was presenting, even though I was nervous and my voice was probably shaking, I was confident in my knowledge, which I think is the most important thing. I knew what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it right off the bat. I had only practiced my presentation once the night before and even then I did so very easily. I honestly do not think I can do anything about the way my voice shakes. It does that when I am really excited about something, for example if I am telling my friends an exciting story, I do not know why it happens but it is not always because I am nervous, even though obviously in this situation it played a factor. I really liked how Hailey made her tweet so unique. It was clever and cute and very insightful also because each detail had a specific reason as to why it existed that way. I also wish I had planned out my business cards farther in advance because the free ones from vista print would have been considerably more professional. Next time I would budget my time better. Too much freedom with this project really took me for a loop. I know this skill will help me in college and hopefully I will not underestimate projects. I do not want to be that person who takes all AP classes and thinks they are smarter and better and capable of achieving things without putting in the work. I also wish maybe I expanded a little on the themes within the book I think I focused a little too much on the autobiographical allusions.

Comment #1: Taylor Telford http://hideousdavidfosterwallace.blogspot.com/2014/02/david-foster-wallace-pp.html Responded to PowerPoint Taylor, your presentation was so engaging, mostly because you could really tell how much passion you had for your author! You knew every little minute detail pertaining to David Foster Wallace's life. I wish you would have explained a little more about his death, suicides in literature often tell us a lot about the authors thought processes ans shed some perspective on their life. Your slideshow was very concise and informative. You did not simply read off of if you knew all the information on it and went into great depth. Although your presentation was overall very good, you did tend to stray a bit and I don't know if it was because you were nervous or because you had a great deal to talk about but it did cause you to rush your presentation at the end, and you only got to explain one of your poems clearly. Overall though, your thesis was clear (and very well thought out I might add), and you obviously had a very firm grasp of who your author was inside and out. Very well done.

Comment #2: Taylor Doan http://finalexamapenglish.blogspot.com/2014/01/powerpoint.html#comment-form Responded to PowerPoint Taylor, I told you you could do it! Your presentation was so good! The cake you made was beautiful (and delicious). Your tweet cracked me up and really summarized the essence of your presentation in a humorous way. The way you related the current events of her time to her works and how if affected them was helpful in the audiences understanding of why Austen chose to use "romantic frameworks" and "satire through irony" to make light of a not so lighthearted situation. These two observations really proved your understanding in how your author used her very unique language to create deeper meaning within her pieces. In your presentation, you did talk very quickly which was a little hard to follow at times, and I was convinced you were going to finish too early, but you had so much information you finished exactly on time and said everything you needed to. Lastly your poems related perfectly to your topic and you explained them very well! Good job, Taylor!

Comment #3: Shreetej Reddy http://scientificphilosophyapenglish2014.blogspot.com/2014/02/powerpoint-with-tweet-on-titleslide.html#comment-form

Responded to PowerPoint Shreetej, Your presentation was so in depth and had so many different layers and factors to it I don't even know where to start. Well, first of all, you sounded very professional when giving your presentation. If you were nervous, it didn't come through at all. Honestly, I was very impressed with the books you read because the way you explained them, they sounded very hard to follow let alone to deconstruct the way you did so you should be very proud of yourself on that note. The satire, allusions, free indirect discourse, and restriction on character developement examples you found within you text were all top notch and masterfully explained. I learned a lot more than I thought I would during your presentation and it was definitely a good review for me in some literary terms. Each and every one of your slides had so much detail and them and anyone could tell the amount of hard work and research you put into your topic. All I could say is to try to sound a little more enthused about your work, I know inside you obviously were because just look at the tremendous amount of work that went into your presentation. Outwardly though, you seemed to drone on a little so my only suggestion would be to put a little more pep into your demeanor. Excellent work though!

Comment #4: Austin Spiker http://cloudatlasdavidmitchell.blogspot.com/2014/02/3-powerpoint-with-tweet-on-titleslide.html#comment-form Responded to PowerPoint Austin, The book you chose sounded so difficult when you were explaining it and even after class when emily told you that you barely "scratched the surface" of all the difficult and meaningful part of the text my mind was blown. I do not know how you completed such an extensive project or let alone read this book. You seemed to know your book very well and your author too, you sort of made me want to go watch the movie but I don't know if I possess the mental fortitude for that. The only thing I could really say is to improve upon your time management. Granted, I know you had a very difficult book to explain and if you had made you summary any shorter your audience probably would not have known what you were talking about, but still. On another note, a little less significant, your citations in your piece were probably the most thorough I saw during all of the presentations, I laughed a little when I saw you cited yourself on the last slide... Great job Austin!

Comment #5: Jack Lund http://lundgrapesofwrath.blogspot.com/2014/02/presentation.html#comment-form Responding to PowerPoint Jack, First of all, thank you for my comment on my presentation you're a peach. Second although not really relevant, I enjoyed the touches of purple all throughout your presentation. On to more important things... I really liked how you discussed the union of religion and politics. I feel like those themes were not completely prevalent in your book -- I don't really know because I have not read it yet -- but I really think it was very observant of you to pick that up it is not a theme that was found commonly within these presentations and yours really stood out to me. The Biblical allusions you picked up on were also excellent. You definitely went into a lot of depth with your presentation and I really appreciate that. The only real flaw I saw in you PowerPoint was your failure to follow the (6x6) rule -- its okay I did that too -- but it is important so that your audience is listening to you speak rather than trying to decipher your slide behind you. :-)

Comment #6: Andrew Schwitzgebel http://aschwitzgebelslanderingslavery.blogspot.com/2014/01/powerpoint-with-tweet-on-titleslide.html#comment-form Responding to PowerPoint Andrew, First of all, I really loved your poster/slideshow background the patterns are amazing. I liked your introduction ;) but seriously the questions were a good way to engage the audience and to introduce your topic at the same time. I think just like in an essay, an effective introduction can keep the audience more interested in your topic rather than just jumping directly into the thesis and topic sentences. The thoughtfully placed quotes also were a very good portion of your presentation because some things are hard to visual unless you read it yourself, they provided insight and you cited them correctly so that was another plus. Like Jack (Lund) you also included Biblical illusions into your piece and identified them all correctly. I think I have learned more about the Bible in AP Lit than I have in my 17 years going to church... you explained them very well which added depth to your presentation and to the audiences understanding. The fact that you pointed out inconsistencies in your authors writing was cool because no one else thought to do that. Not only does this showcase your knowledge of your topic, but it also shows the research you put into finding these inconsistencies, which is no easy feat. To improve upon... I believe the only thing was that the presentation portion was supposed to be professional so the little "duhs" probably could have been left out but it is not really a big deal.

You did VERY well and should be proud of your accomplishments this trimester!

Comment #7: Hailey Spencer http://haileyspencerfinalproject.blogspot.com/2014/01/powerpoint-with-tweet-on-titleslide.html#comment-form Responded to PowerPoint Hailey, Let me start off by saying I am still obsessed with your tweet you put so much thought and effort into it and it was so unique from the others in the class. The fact that each and ever single aspect of the tweet had a certain purpose was very impressive and also just perfect. On an unrelated note, I am also still obsessed with your shoes and how you came to school and presented even when you were sick so props to you for that. You also explained your poems very clearly and I could easily draw the connections between them and your pieces even without reading the pieces. I was a little confused about your title I don't think you ever really explained it in detail and I am fairly sure I was paying close attention during your presentation and all I remember you saying was that you would get to it later. I also think that when you were explaining your pieces you may have been a little flustered because I never really understood the main premise of them but its okay because I'm sure I did the same thing, just things to think about.

Comment #8: Joanna Li http://oscarandlucindaapenglish2014.blogspot.com/2014/02/blog-post-3-powerpoint-with-tweeton.html#comment-form Responded to PowerPoint Joanna, I think out of all the PowerPoints yours was definitely one of the most organized and appealing. Not only what it looked like, but the information on your slides was relevant and well explained. I also loved how you ended your presentation with a quote rather than a run of the mill conclusion summary like everyone else. Later in the presentation you went into more detail on each subtopic you wanted to discuss and I believe that gave the audience a refresher on some literary terms and also more ideas for topics to write about on the AP tests. I also appreciated how you linked the history and time of when the book was written and made an arguable thesis out of it. Perfect. Content wise, I think your presentation was very solid. All I would suggest is that you had one slide that was very tiny print and I believe it was a quote, in situations like that I am sure not

every word was necessary and ellipses could have been used, or you cold have just read the entire quote out loud and only left the pain points or a summary on the slide. Very well done Joanna, also, I appreciated your advice before I presented it was very helpful and helped me finish my work in a timely manner. :-)

Comment #9: Redi Llapi http://curecrazyllapir2014.blogspot.com/2014/02/powerpoint.html#comment-form Responding to PowerPoint Redi, Since you had to go first and were basically presenting blindly, you did exceptionally well. I think people sort of forgot to comment on yours simply because you went so long ago. You served as a model to the rest of the class when it came to how our presentations should go and you did so very well. I learned a great deal from your presentation, not only about the author but I also learned you are crazy talented reading such a difficult book from a completely different time period with barely any context to gain your understanding of it from. This shows the incredible amount of work I assume you had to put into not only your presentation but you research paper too. I also commend you for attempting at pronouncing all of those names :) My obvious suggestion: relax. You obviously had a very firm grasp on your topic and had no reason to be nervous at all. In class you are so outgoing and confident and those mannerisms should definitely come out when you are publicly speaking because that not only makes for a better stage presence but it makes the audience confident in your knowledge and abilities. I would try to keep that in mind. I have very little room to speak though because I could definitely use some work in that department.

Comment #10: Angela Lee http://agathachristieapenglish2014.blogspot.com/2014/01/promotional-poster.html#commentform Responding to PowerPoint Angela, I really like the overall premise of your presentation, it was fun to follow because of all the interactive elements to it. I liked how you formatted your presentation as if you were solving a case. For that reason, I found your proposal slide interesting but I think you could have gone into more detail and analyzed each factor a little more because you should easily be able to talk about your pieces for 20 minutes. I felt like my own presentation was five minutes I was actually shocked when I looked down at my phone and saw I was 50 seconds past finished. I have no

doubt in your knowledge of your pieces at all, I just think maybe you should have explained a little bit more instead of reading the slides. There is no way of saying that without sounding mean but I promise I do not mean that viciously. :) I also think you should have included your poems on you slides but that is completely trivial. When you summarized your books it made me want to watch these movies or read the books because you talked about them with such enthusiasm and delight it was precious.