A. Class Participation: 5% - Show up to class. Attendance will
begin being kept the beginning of the third week of the semester. Every missed
class deducts 0.5% from your course grade.
B. Preliminary Concept: 2% - Due on Tuesday, September 23 (week 4). Initial
concept of Paper/PowerPoint topic.
C. Bibliography: 3% - Due on Tuesday, October 2 (week 5). Preliminary annotated
bibliography.
D. Prelims: Two, 15% each - On Tuesday, October 7 (week 6),
and Tuesday, November 4 (week 10); both in class.
E. Final Exam: 15% - On Wednesday, December 17, 7:00-8:30 p.m.
F. Term Paper: 20% - Due on Tuesday, October28 (week 9). A paper based on the
general theme of “A Day in the Life of ...” 7 pages.
G. PowerPoint: 25% - Due on Monday, December 8 (study week). Turn your term
paper into a PowerPoint presentation.
It is a general rule of thumb that for every hour of course
credit, you should spend two hours working outside the class. The work load
for this class is designed with this rule in mind. Expect to spend ca. 4 hours
per week on readings and 2-3 on the Paper/PowerPoint presentation.
Course attendance is mandatory. The University recognizes
excusable absences only for family emergencies, medical situations, religious
observances, away-game varsity sports events in which you participate,
presenting at a conference, and job interviews. If you will miss class for any
of these reasons you must email me and let me know. I do not guess if people
will miss class due to religious observance (this is racial profiling). If a
student is 10 minutes or more late to class that is counted as an absence.
The equivalent of ½ letter grade will be subtracted for each
full class session the term paper or any writing assignment is late. That is,
if an assignment is due on Tuesday it is late if it is handed in after the
next class session on Thursday. If an assignment is due on Thursday it is late
if handed in after the next Tuesday class. Think of this as an automatic
extension granted to all students. There are no "extra" extensions beyond
this. The same ½ point penalty applies for each day the PowerPoint
presentation is late.
How to understand your grade(s).
During the course of the semester you will receive back exams, assignments,
and a term paper which will list two scores: the score for the particular
exam/assignment, and a score marked CCG. CCG stands for Current Course Grade.
If for some reason you had to have a grade for the course on that day, that
would be the score used to compute the grade. The CCG is a composite of all
your work and attendance to that date.
A score of 70.0 to 72.9 is a C-, 73-76.9 is a C, and
77.0-79.9 a C+, and so on. There is no rounding of scores (either up or down).
The only exception is for those students who have shown steady and marked
improvement over the semester. Such a student, who has, for example, a score
of 89.6 (B+), may be nudged up to an A-.
If you are taking this course S/U you must have a final
score for the class of at least 70.0 to pass.
Grades for this course are never changed after the final
grades are posted. If, based on your assignments and/or exams, you are worried
about your final class grade, the time to see me is not long after the term
paper is graded and handed back. Do not wait until the last week of the
semester!
I strongly encourage every student to see me during my
regular office hours, or at some other convenient time, to discuss his/her
work, especially to get advice on the term paper or PowerPoint presentation. I
am also happy to review preliminary versions of papers or PowerPoint
presentations no later than four days before they are due (preferably
earlier). Getting feedback from the instructor, and implementing it in a
thorough and thoughtful fashion, is far and away the best way to improve your
course grade. I do not hand out extra assignments or make-up work (this is
unfair to the other students in the class).
If you have any type of impairment (e.g. bi-polar disorder)
which may affect your performance in this class you should let me know during
the first week of the semester and provide me with proper university
documentation for the impairment. If any such temporary condition should arise
during the course of the semester I should be notified of it immediately. You
should not come to me after the final grades have been posted and ask for
extra consideration. The same applies to any sort of family related crisis
such as a grave illness or death. You must notify me immediately if any
situation arises which may or will affect your performance in the class.
If you are on any sort of academic probation you should let
me know about this as soon as possible.
I will check in with the adviser of any student who misses a
substantial number of class (10+), or who gets a D grade (70<) on any prelim
or the term paper, to evaluate if any special steps need to be taken on the
student’s behalf.
You will find the following sources invaluable in preparing
your term paper. Many selections from these works are in the electronic
reserve for this course already.
A. Bible For papers relating to daily life in Israel the
Bible can often be an important source. A modern translation (not KJV), and
not a paraphrase (e.g. The Living Bible) should be consulted. Note: No Bibles
were placed on order through the campus store. Many students own Bibles, or
have particular preferences for translations, or want to keep costs down. Most
book stores carry a variety of translations in a budget that anyone can
afford. Virtually every translation/version of the Bible is available on line
somewhere. Just search around! One example is BibleGateway at
http://www.biblegateway.com/
The Anchor Bible Dictionary (below) has an extremely useful and searchable
Biblical text.
B. Freedman, D.N. ed.
1992 The Anchor Bible Dictionary. New York: Doubleday. BS440.A53.1992, Olin
and Uris Reference. There is a CD version of this work in the Electronic Text
Center in Olin. It is much more useful than the printed version due to its
free form search capabilities. This is definitely a student’s key
bibliographic resource for this class.
C. Meyers, E.M. ed.
1997 The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East. New York: Oxford
University Press. +DS56.O19.1997, Olin Reference. Short general articles on
many subjects.
D. Redford, D. B. ed.
2001 The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt. New York : Oxford University
Press. DT58 .O94x 2001 +, Olin Reference. Various articles on Egypt.
E. Sasson, J. M. ed.
1995 Civilizations of the Ancient Near East. New York: Charles Scribner’s
Sons. DS57.C55x.1995 Uris Reference. Longer articles on a more restricted
range of subjects.
F. Stern, E. ed.
1993 The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land.
Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society. DS111.A2.E612.1993, Uris Reference.
Excellent coverage of archaeological sites in Israel and Jordan.
G. Biblical Archaeology Review (Olin + BS620.A1 B583)- This
is an extremely useful popular magazine which covers all aspects of biblical
Archaeology and is profusely illustrated. You may find it helpful when looking
for illustrations for your paper and presentation.. For issues from 1975-1997
there are index volumes under the BAR call number. If you are very interested
in either subject you may want to subscribe to it. You may find out about how
to subscribe by going to the Biblical Archaeology Society web page at:
http://www.bib-arch.org/ BAS used
to put out two additional publications (ceased in spring 2006) that may be of
use: Bible Review (BS410 .B565 +) and Archaeology Odyssey (not owned by
Cornell). All three are at least partially available on-line; search the
university catalogue for “Biblical Archaeology Society online archive” and you
should get the following URL. Note that this seems to only work on computers
running from/through the university. You might not be able to access it off
campus. http://encompass.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/checkIP.cgi?access=gateway_no-med%26url=http://www.basarchive.org/
H. Electronic and Hard Copy Publication Indexes
1. Arts & Humanities Citation Index:
http://www.webofscience.com/ (Goes back to mid-80's)
2. Periodical Abstracts:
http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb (Goes back to mid-80's)
3. Religion Index I: ATLA religion database on CD-ROM (Olin Reference
non-circulating; Disk Z 7753 .A88). Also available in hard copy (Olin Library
Oversize + Z 7753 .I38)
4. Uncover: http://uncweb.carl.org/
(You can sometimes buy the articles on line and have them sent to you)
VI. A Note on the Web, Google and other Online Sources:
The Web/Internet is a great source of information, but the old Latin
expression Caveat Emptor! (Let the buyer beware!) is even more applicable to
the world of internet resources than it was to ancient merchants. Anyone with
access to the Internet and basic web authoring skills can put up a web site.
Because these sites are not peer-reviewed by scholars there is no telling what
the real quality of the site will be. Always, always check the credentials of
the person who has created the site. E.g. you might Google on the creator’s
name and find that he/she is a respected professor somewhere. Also, if the
material you find on the site seems to be a variance with what you are finding
elsewhere, you might think twice about it and do a bit more research to check
out its conclusions.
That being said, there are a few useful on-line resources
that are accessible through the Cornell University Library:
JSTOR
RAMBI: Index of Articles on Jewish Studies
Biblical Archaeology Review is partially available on-line (1998-2001); check
the catalogue
Google Scholar is available from anywhere and also worth consulting
A special warning on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page)
This resource is in a constant state of flux. Articles are written by anyone
who wants to write about the subject, but they can be altered by anyone else.
Even a student in this class could add an article, and then find it changed
sometime later. If someone does not have the knowledge/savvy (or is just plain
too lazy) to create his/her own web site, that person can just add an article
to Wikipedia. So, if you look at this resource, be doubly sure you double
check the data you retrieve. Some of it is very good, other parts are pure
trash.
A. Food Section
1. Weeks 1-3 August 28 - September 17: Introduction and Plant Use
a. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel.
b. Electronic Reserve for weeks 1-3
c. Optional for weeks 1-6 King & Stager, Life in Biblical Israel. Chapter
3:85-122
2. Weeks 3-5 September 18 - October 4
a. Borowski, Every Living Thing: Daily Use of Animals in Ancient Israel
b. Electronic Reserve for weeks 3-6
Preliminary Concept of Paper topic due Tuesday, September
23.
Preliminary Annotated Bibliography due Thursday, October 2.
Prelim #1 on Tuesday, October 7.
B. Shelter Section
1. Weeks 6-10 October 5- November 4: Building Materials, Types of Structures,
Techniques and Decoration, Water Installations, Family, Furniture(?)
a. King & Stager, Life in Biblical Israel.
(1) Chapter 2:21-61, 63-64.
(2) Chapter 3: 122-129
(3) Chapter 4: (Warfare section optional, but recommended).
(4) Chapter 6: 319-338, 363-381 (339-363 optional but recommended).
b. Electronic Reserve for weeks 6-10
Fall Break: October 11-14
Prelim # 2 on Tuesday, November 4.
C. Clothing Section
1. Weeks 10-14 November 5 - December 5: Clothing, Perfumes and Spices,
Metallurgy and Mining, Jewelry, Writing and Literacy, Medicine and Health,
Glass, Games and Sport, Music and Dance.
a. King & Stager, Life in Biblical Israel
(1) Chapter 2:68-84
(2) Chapter 3: 129-176
(3) Chapter 5: All
b. Electronic Reserve for weeks 10-14
Visit to Corning Museum of Glass on Sunday, November 16,
12:00-5:00. http://www.cmog.org/ is
their web site. $7.50 cost for the visit; optional glass making workshops at
CMOG are $7-$24. Details at:
http://www.cmog.org/dynamic.aspx?id=152
Thanksgiving: November 26 - 30.
Final Exam on Thursday, December 17, 7:00 - 8:30 p.m.
Please note that I will not be giving any early Final Exams except per normal
university regulations. This means that you should not make plans to leave the
university before the end of this exam.
Note that the following requirement are those necessary to
achieve a C grade for the course. Those who want better grades will do more.
Remember though that “more” C level work still only earns a C grade. Quality
is more important than quantity.
A. Purpose:
Most term papers are focused on a fairly narrow topic; not so this class! In
the first part of the semester each student will write a term paper around the
theme “A Day in the Life of a ...” In the last part of the semester the
student will turn this paper into a PowerPoint presentation. Each student will
pick some profession from the ancient Biblical/near eastern world and develop
his/her paper as an exploration of the activities of a single practitioner of
that profession over the course of a day (or other short period of time). The
reason for this approach is to have a more holistic knowledge of the culture
than would be obtained from a paper devoted only to a profession itself. The
only real “hard” limitation is that your character must come from a literate
society (or come from a non-literate society that is documented by a literate
society) in order to insure that both literary and artifactual data be
included in the reconstruction of the individual’s life.
B. Preliminary Drafts:
It is strongly recommended that students submit preliminary drafts of their
papers and PowerPoint presentations to me no less than four days (but
preferably earlier) before their due dates. There is usually little chance of
making substantive changes to such work on drafts turned in later. Students
who thoughtfully implement changes to their papers/projects due to written and
oral feedback often receive at least a half letter grade better score than
they would otherwise.
C. Preliminary Conception.
On Tuesday, September 23, a preliminary paper concept is due (1-2 pages). This
should explain what profession you have chosen, the gender of the character,
the time period and the geographic region in which he/she lives. Additional
information like a name (please, nothing so banal as Abraham, David, etc.),
age, name of settlement are also good to include. Explain in a short paragraph
what aspects of this individual’s life you will focus on and why you have
chosen these. E.g. maybe your person is a chariot warrior and in this paper
you will deal with three issues: problems with getting his damaged chariot
repaired, preparations for an expected expedition, and preparations made at
home for the marriage of his daughter. You have chosen these because you want
to show that the life of a warrior is not all killing, something of the
geographic and ethnographic knowledge a soldier might have, and the marriage
will allow you to explore the nature of his home life including both typical
and atypical elements. This preliminary work will help me better focus your
research and suggest ways to organize your material. You must clear your topic
with me before you begin work on the paper itself. If you do not clear the
paper topic with me through submission of a preliminary conception the highest
grade you will receive for the course is a C. You may not change the topic of
your paper after you hand in this preliminary statement, though the issues you
address can be altered. If you have ANY questions please check with me. Pick
wisely!
D. Preliminary Annotated Bibliography
On Thursday, October 2, an annotated bibliography of preliminary sources you
have located for your topic is due. This bibliography should contain at least
4 sources. Course readings and the Bible do not count toward this 4 source
limit, but should be included where appropriate. An annotated bibliography
contains standard bibliographic citations, each with a short paragraph (a few
sentences) explaining the general nature of the source, and its importance for
your paper. An annotation should not be something so banal and generic that it
says nothing about the value of the source. E.g. “This work provides valuable
insights about Mesopotamian laws,” is not very useful, and in fact, could be
simply lifted from the title of the work. This preliminary bibliography will
help me to steer you to additional or more useful sources. See below for
additional details on the final bibliography.
E. Term Paper Requirements:
Student papers will revolve around the theme: “A Day in the Life of a ...” You
may pick any ancient profession, ethnic profile or gender you prefer from the
ancient Near East (if you have any doubts, just ask!) and then write a paper
describing a day in this person’s life. You will pick a proper ancient name
for this person (again, nothing so banal as Abraham, Sarah, David, etc.), the
time period in which he/she lives (e.g. Late Bronze Age, or the 15th year of
Ramses II), and the settlement in which he/she lives (i.e. give the name of an
actual site, avoid using modern place names). In your paper you should
incorporate data on such things as the type of settlement in which the person
lives (village, town, city, fortress, isolated homestead), his/her dwelling
(palace, house, tent), clothing, age, place of work, types of
tools/installations used, etc. Include anything which you believe will help
the reader develop a feel for this character’s life. You may describe a
“typical” day, or include elements such as festivals, births, deaths,
journeys, etc. The idea is to be creative and have fun, but also include the
results of serious research. However, please do not “invent” things for which
we have no corroborative data and dot not add unnecessary filler, such as
describing the types of rocks/flowers the character might see while on a walk.
Trying to fill out the paper with “fluff” is a sure way to receive a lower
grade. Treat this as serious academic research and you will do well; if not,
well ...
A list of a variety of examples of ancient professions is at
the end of the syllabus. Do not be limited by this list. If you can think of
another career please feel free to follow it.
You may write this essay as a straight biographical account,
or be a bit more creative. You could write it as a diary (e.g. the log of a
ship’s captain). You could try to write in the form of an ancient letter (or
letters) written to the king, or perhaps frame it as part of a lawsuit. You
could present a specific event from the perspective of a main character, but
also include how the event seems from the vantage of others (similar to
Kurosawa’s Rashômon). You could write from the vantage of a modern scholar who
has discovered the home and personal archive of an ancient Israelite and who
is trying to reconstruct that person’s life. Perhaps you have another way to
approach the topic? The instructor appreciates creativity.
The Bible will be an important source for many professions,
as will texts and artistic representations from neighboring cultures such as
Egypt and Mesopotamia. You should also look to the archaeological record from
the appropriate region(s) for examples of the buildings and artifacts which
formed part of every day life.
Your grade for the paper will be based partially on research
and partially on writing skill. You may have an excellent idea, and have done
dozens of hours of research, but if your grammar is atrocious, word choice
poor, notes inadequate, and bibliography haphazardly formatted, you will
receive a lower grade. Conversely, an extremely well-written and formatted
paper with no real research done, and full of vague generalizations will also
receive a lower grade.
The body of the paper must be at least 7 pages in length;
bibliography, notes, illustrations, etc. are not included in these 7 pages.
Use 1" margins on all sides. Do not use a font larger than 12 point or smaller
than 10. Double space throughout, except foot/endnotes. All pages must be
numbered. The first page must have your name, the course number, date, and the
title of your work.
Do not use contractions (e.g. “aren’t,” “didn’t”) in formal
writing. You will be graded down for this
The bibliography must contain a minimum of 7 sources which
you have consulted in the preparation of your paper. At least 3 of these 7
must be articles from journals, encyclopedias, or dictionaries. You may not
use more than 2 electronic sources (e.g. CD’s, web sites, e-mail) if you have
only 7 sources. You may use additional electronic resources if your
bibliography contains more than 7 sources (it’s too easy to rely on dubious
material located through Google!). You may cite the assigned course readings
and Bible, but these do not count towards the 7 required sources. Hint: check
out and follow up on the bibliographies found in the assigned readings and in
the reference works listed above. If you list a work in your bibliography it
must be referenced/cited in the body of the paper; i.e. if it is important
enough to list in the bibliography it must have provided you with some
significant data for your paper topic.
I will help you with your bibliography. However, before
coming to me for help in finding references you must do a little work
yourself. Look through the bibliographic material in the course readings,
check through the reference works cited above, check the university computer
catalogues, consult with the university librarians. Once you have taken these
first steps you should come to me, explain what you have done so far, and
explain any difficulties you are having finding references. I will not give
help on bibliography the week the paper is due, so ask early on.
You must document the sources of your data and ideas, even
if you choose to write the paper in a non-standard way (e.g. as a diary). You
should use the MLA (Modern Language Association) standards for all
bibliographic entries and references/notes. Note that any illustrations you
use must be credited to the proper source, just like a text citation (E.g.
Fig. 1 (Zorn Fig. 312); or (Zorn 23, illustration in top right corner)).Papers
with improperly formatted bibliographies and inadequate documentation of ideas
will receive lower scores than they would otherwise receive. If you have
questions about this please see me. If you took a First Year Writing Seminar
you no doubt already own a style guide. MLA style guides can also be found
on-line:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/01/
http://www.lib.usm.edu/research/guides/mla.html
http://dept.sccd.ctc.edu/cclib/Research_Tools/Citation_Style_Guides/mlacite.asp
You must include a photocopied title page or print out of a
web home page at the end of the bibliography for each work listed, excluding
Bibles. Some students consult only a single work for their papers and then
simply copy the citations from that work. I resort to asking for photocopies
of title pages to insure that students have at least looked at everything they
claim to have used.
F. PowerPoint Presentation Requirements:
1. Background
Our society is being driven more and more by alternative forms of presenting
information; plain old books and slides are not always enough anymore! In the
old days to get a head in the world it was sufficient to be a decent writer.
This is no longer the case. Having a certain amount of computer savvy is also
important. A significant, relatively new tool for presenting information,
especially in a lecture-type environment, is the PowerPoint Presentation. You
may discover that having done some PowerPoint at Cornell will be a benefit in
your post-graduate job life.
PowerPoint is a MicroSoft program that allows various kinds
of media to be deployed in a graphically enhanced type of slide show.
PowerPoint presentations can include movie clips, music, charts, and various
special affects designed to grab and focus the viewer’s attention on the
material being presented; the hope being that such a rich media environment
will help viewer’s retain more of what they are experiencing and persuade them
of the presenter’s position.
PowerPoint comes bundled with many computers now and is
widely available in campus computer labs. If is a fairly intuitive program and
reasonably easy to learn how to use on one’s own. There are many web sites
which can help one to learn the program.
There is an introductory PowerPoint class taught in Uris
library. It’s only two hours. The schedule for the fall is:
Tuesday, September 30 -- 10:00am - 12:00pm
You can see this and other courses offered at:
http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/workshop.html
You must register for the course on-line from this page.
Warning. Creating a PowerPoint Presentation is not as
difficult as creating a web site, but it does take time, especially gathering
whatever graphics you plan to use. Fine tuning it to get just the right feel
can also absorb much time. This is not a project that can be thrown together
over a weekend, so be sure you use the time allotted after you finish your
term paper to begin learning how to use the program.
Your PowerPoint presentation is essentially a second or
final draft of your term paper, but with the intent that you would present it
orally (relax, you won’t actually have to speak in front of the class, just
prepare material as if you were). Your grade will depend partially on how well
you design and implement the presentation, and also on its content. If changes
or recommendations were made on your term paper these should definitely be
pursued in the presentation. If you receive a C on the term paper, then do not
expect an A on the presentation, no mater how slickly handled, unless you
improve upon your basic text. Also, do not feel that you cannot continue to do
research on the topic once the hard copy term paper is done. You should
continue to strive to improve the content while you repackage it for
PowerPoint. On the other hand, a series of nondescript images, presented
against a murky background with unreadable text, even if associated with the
most brilliantly written essay, will also suffer a lower garde.
2. Specifics
PowerPoint Presentations are essentially slide shows, and as
such the images flashed across the screen are usually accompanied by verbal
narration. That is, the “slides” are mostly visual images/graphics with
relatively little text. Most often the text takes the form of short but
dynamic comments that grab the viewer’s attention, or titles, or (bulleted)
lists.
In this class you will not be asked to give a talk. Instead,
you will add indicators to your paper to show when the next slide should be
shown (e.g. SLIDE 1, SLIDE 2) and the slides will correspond to what your text
is covering. The trick is in coming up with a sequence of slides that have
just the right combination of text and images so that your audience will
benefit both from your spoken word, and from the material in the slides. That
is, slides and text should compliment each other.
For a 7+ page paper you should plan to create 20 slides, at
least 15 of these should have some sort of image. Images can be maps, building
plans/reconstructions, general views of landscapes, living things, objects or
texts, etc. As you prepare your PowerPoint presentation you may find that you
want to revise or in other ways change you paper so that it makes for better
oral delivery. That is perfectly fine and even encouraged if it results in a
better final project. However, the paper turned in with the presentation must
still have proper textual citations/references and a bibliography. Remember,
it is a final draft. You must also provide a source bibliography for your
images. That is, you must document where you obtained the images you use in
the presentation. Most often this is handled as a separate bibliography at the
end of the paper.
After I have a firm list of student topics I will email them
to everyone in the class. Look for individuals whose characters come from the
same period and region as your own. Once you begin designing your presentation
try to incorporate the work of these other students into your own. E.g. maybe
your character is an Egyptian ship captain of the time of Ramses III. Other
students might be an Egyptian barber and a Canaanite cloth merchant. In the
post term paper development of your presentation you might include material on
how you went for a hair cut at the barber before your next voyage, saying a
few words about that character. A few days out on your voyage maybe your sail
is torn and you have to put in at a coastal town to either buy a new sail or
have the old one repaired. Again, you would provide material that ties you
into that other student’s work. These two students would likewise include
elements of your visits with them. In other words you will be creating a
tie-ins to generally related material. From this you will learn a bit more
about other topics being developed in this class. Do not worry if your topic
does not at all relate to what anyone else is doing. Stand alone presentations
will be fine. However, if a few minor adjustments will allow your project to
fit in with another, please do make the effort.
The reason your “term” paper is due in the middle of the
term is to allow you time to learn and play with the PowerPoint program. Make
use of the time! You may not ask another person to design the presentation for
you. This is the equivalent of buying a term paper and is regarded as
“cheating” However, if you have friends with more computer savvy than you
possess, do not be afraid to ask for help with mechanical procedures such as
getting an illustration in one part of the slide to appear before or after
another image on the same slide. You can also check out the MicroSoft web site
(and others) for information about the program and potentially useful
plug-ins.
In PowerPoint you can package your presentation so that it
can be used on any other computer. This means that all your graphics, fonts,
anything else that might not be on the computer which will run the
presentation are included with your presentation. That is, it’s plug and play,
ready to go. For this class you will burn your presentation to a CD so that I
can view it on my machine. You can also give it to me on a Flash Drive, just
be sure your name is on it! Be 100% certain that you have tested your packaged
presentation on some other computer than your own to make sure it works
properly! Every semester there are at least a couple students who fail to do
this and end up getting a lower grade because they turn in a project that
doesn’t work on any machine but their own, and then have to redo it and hand
it in late.
When all is complete you will turn into me one CD/Flash
Drive with your packaged presentation and a printout of the final form of your
term paper with proper notes for slide show order/timing.
3. Considerations
There is always a temptation when learning a new technology
to try to use everything it is capable of in a single project. After all,
you’ve just learned how to make the text appear on the slide in 20 different
ways, why not use all of them? The same for all the different types of
backgrounds, colors, etc. that can be used. From a design perspective trying
to incorporate too many different elements leads to discordance for the viewer
and serves to repel rather than attract him/her. Simple and elegant is usually
the best approach. For example, you might have one way of making text appear
on most of your slides, but reserve another special affect to use on those
where you especially want to focus the audience’s attention. In a way you are
trying to seduce your audience into following you; you are not trying to
cudgel them into submission.
Think about the overall appearance of the slides. If you
have a black/dark background, avoid using a dark font. Light colored fonts
(pink, orange, lime green, etc.) generally do not look good against any
background. If you use a background image be sure that it does not distract
the viewer from the content. Background images that are very “busy” should be
avoided. Try to come up with back ground images and colors that work well
together with the type of font you want to use, and the font’s color. Maybe
your pages will have simple decorative motifs on them that help link the
entire project together.
While web sites are not the same thing as PowerPoint
presentations (though a web site can incorporate one) they often require the
same sorts of design considerations. So, as you peruse the Web pay attention
to successful web site designs and think about what it is that makes them
work. This may help you in your own design efforts.
One of the most time consuming parts of the project will be
finding suitable illustrations. When you are reading up on your topic keep
your eyes open for appropriate images. Note that small images (e.g. 15KB) will
not show up well when blown up on a big screen (many images on the Web are
often too tiny to be of real use for this project). You will want images on
the order of several hundred KB in order to have sufficient resolution. Many
labs around the campus have scanners that can be used to obtain images from
printed media.
You may use, but are not required to use, sound files or
video clips if they are relevant to your work.
As with the term paper on which it is based, I will be happy
to review any student’s PowerPoint presentation no less than 4 days prior to
the deadline. This will almost certainly improve your grade and is highly
recommended.
Again, the above standards are the minimums necessary for a
C type of grade. The more and the better the work, the better the grade.
