FTS-100 349 Project 3: The History of Electroacoustic (Fall 2016)

Start: Friday, 10/14. Essay due: Wednesday, 11/9, in hard copy, by the start of the class. Presentation ready by Wednesday, 11/9, presenting 11/9 - 11/30

Bare Bones Description

In this project, you will write a summary on a randomly assigned section in the textbook (please see the assignment below). You will also give a 20 minutes presentation on the corresponding textbook section.

You are to do this project individually.

What This Project Accomplishes

You will practice, via this project, summarizing an original text in both written and oral format. The mastery of this will be useful with writing the introduction, motivation, and related work sections of an academic paper.

Project Detail

Summary allows you to reproduce another writer's thoughts in shorten form. In writing a summary, you focus on the most important points the author is trying to make and eliminate the less important material.

To rewrite a longer piece in short form, you must first understand the piece you are working with. Begin by reading your assigned section of the textbook, make sure you absorb and understand the material. If there are concepts you do not know, look them up or ask professor Yu. If some sentences are confusing, paraphrase them. Identify the main ideas and determine how the less important materials relates to the main ideas. In short, read. I will grade you on your comprehension of the assigned material.

Once you understand the material, you must decide which parts you are going to include in the summary and which you are going to leave out. The key to writing an effective summary is combining the material you choose to include into concise, coherent sentences and paragraphs. Please note that if you choose to quote a sentence from the textbook directly, you must cite the corresponding pages in the textbook. Otherwise you can not directly copy any part of the original text. For this project, I would even avoid directly quoting from the textbook.

For your presentation, you should make good use of audio and visual aids. Try playing some pieces by the artists mentioned in the textbook or display some pictures. You may even consider using resources outside of the textbook. Your presentation should not only summarize the corresponding section in the textbook, but also spark interests and discussions from your classmates; I will grade you on that as well.

Grading

Points total: 15

Your summary essay is well structured. There is a clear introduction section, a few paragraphs summarizing the corresponding section in the textbook, and a conclusion section: 2 points.
You summarized all the important concepts: 3 points.
Your summary is concise. You did a nice job paraphrasing (instead of copy from the textbook): 2 points.
It is apparent from your summary and presentation that you understood all the concepts: 2 points.
Your presentation was ready by Wednesday, 11/9 at the start of the class: 2 points.
Your presentation is clearly structured. There is an introduction and a conclusion. All the important concepts are presented: 2 points.
Your presentation makes good use of audio and visual aids: 1 points.
Your presentation is engaging and sparks discussion: 1 points.

Due Dates

Your summary should be printed and stabled together; it is due on Wednesday, 11/9, by the start of the class. Your presentation should also be ready to go by Wednesday, 11/9 . I will check on it at the start of the lecture.

You will take turns giving presentations between 11/9 and 11/23. Please see below for presentation schedule. If you would like to present a different section in the textbook, talk to me about it.