You have been asked to select a novel from the reading list in order to write an essay in the form of a ‘descriptive interpretation’ of up to 1,500 words, making a classroom presentation on the subject also, to be conducted either by reading the whole or selected portions, or by speaking of its contents in a more informal way.

In doing either you should aim to convey a clear but not necessarily rigid view of the significance of the text, its subject and the manner of its treatment, together with any information needed for its proper appreciation as a piece of record of experience, a piece of literature and, if appropriate, a post-colonial intervention.

In the written version you should also aim to demonstrate the effective use of reading, writing and research skills both in the body of your essay and by means of references (footnotes & bibliography) indicating clearly the source of passages quoted, and/or critical sources involved in its preparation.

Grading of the presentations and the printed versions that ensue from them will be conducted on the basis of a consensus reached in the seminars themselves unless the latter is widely at variance with the former. Opportunities will be provided to revise and emend submissions, especially with a view to inclusion on the module web site.

As part of the Assessment Method, you are required to make a class presentation on any one novel from the Module Reading List - either Primary or Secondary Texts - and to follow this up with a written submission of up to 1,500 wds based on the same material.

The presentation is to be made at a seminar during the semester and should give an account of the work in question incorporating appropriate methods of summary, description and appraisal, as well as any biographical and historical information felt necessary for its proper interpretation and evaluation as a contribution to postcolonial literature and fiction-writing in the English language.

A written version should then be submitted to me for marking within two weeks of the delivery of the former. This should take the form of a printed essay complete with text, footnotes and bibliography laid out as indictated in the English Course Handbook. Grading will be conducted according to the English Marking Scheme, as copied in your own Module Handbook.

Whether you write your essay to be delivered at the presentation or compose it afterwards from notes prepared for that occasion, the two-week period allowed between presentation and submission will allow you to benefit from feedback from me and from your peers in the seminar-room as well as any second thoughts on your own part. Use it well!

FAQs on presentations

What should it sound like?
Like yourself ... speaking in your capacity as an intelligent reader and a critic. As to length, it should be possible to deliver a term paper paper within 15-20 minutes by reading clearly and steadily at the seminar, or else to deliver a summary of the whole indicating the structure of the written paper and its contents in a more impromptu fashion over the same period.

What should it look like?
In its oral-presentation form, the way you want it to: either notes for oral delivery or a printed paper, ready for submission in fulfillement of the first component of the Module Assessment. When submitting the printed version, be sure that you have followed the Composition Guidelines of the English Course Handbook.

How should it be submitted?
The printed version must be submitted to me by hand or mail to me (at the English Office, B255) within two weeks of presentation, together with a disk-copy to facilitate marking and feedback but also to permit me to place the essay on the website as a resource for other students. (No paper will be placed on the website which is not a good example.) Please use the standard methods for Seminar essays in formatting your paper (e.g., footnotes, bibliography and normal lay-out rules.)

Any special requirements?
Special care should be taken with quotations and quotation marks. (The latter always necessary unless you are paraphrasing - and even then, a borrowed phrase should be marked with inverted commas.) Make sure to introduce the author and/or source distinctly and to add your own comments before or after indicating the view you take of the passage quoted (“As Ashcroft shrewdly says ...”, &c.). Any passage quoted at more than one-sentence length should be indented in your text with single spacing only. Your own text should be printed in one-and-a-half or double space just like real books.

How will it be graded?
A guideline to the grade will be supplied by those attending the seminar in consultation with the the Seminar Tutor. The grade thus arrived at will be expressed in terms of the degree-course marking bands in use at the University of Ulster and elsewhere in Higher Education (i.e., 1, 2.i, 2.ii, 3 - equivalent to 80-70, 69-60, 59-50, 50-40% respectively).

What should it sound like?
Like yourself ... speaking in your capacity as an intelligent reader and a critic. As to length, it should be possible to deliver a term paper paper within 15-20 minutes by reading clearly and steadily at the seminar, or else to deliver a summary of the whole indicating the structure of the written paper and its contents in a more impromptu fashion over the same period.

What should it look like?
In its oral-presentation form, the way you want it to: either notes for oral delivery or a printed paper, ready for submission in fulfillement of the first component of the Module Assessment. When submitting the printed version, be sure that you have followed the Composition Guidelines of the English Course Handbook.

How should it be submitted?
The printed version must be submitted to me by hand or mail to me (at the English Office, B255) within two weeks of presentation, together with a disk-copy to facilitate marking and feedback but also to permit me to place the essay on the website as a resource for other students. (No paper will be placed on the website which is not a good example.) Please use the standard methods for Seminar essays in formatting your paper (e.g., footnotes, bibliography and normal lay-out rules.)

Any special requirements?
Special care should be taken with quotations and quotation marks. (The latter always necessary unless you are paraphrasing - and even then, a borrowed phrase should be marked with inverted commas.) Make sure to introduce the author and/or source distinctly and to add your own comments before or after indicating the view you take of the passage quoted (“As Ashcroft shrewdly says ...”, &c.). Any passage quoted at more than one-sentence length should be indented in your text with single spacing only. Your own text should be printed in one-and-a-half or double space just like real books.

How will it be graded?
A guideline to the grade will be supplied by those attending the seminar in consultation with the the Seminar Tutor. The grade thus arrived at will be expressed in terms of the degree-course marking bands in use at the University of Ulster and elsewhere in Higher Education (i.e., 1, 2.i, 2.ii, 3 - equivalent to 80-70, 69-60, 59-50, 50-40% respectively).