In-Class Assignment Due Monday 12 April 2010
FOR YOUR NEXT assignment each student will make a short presentation of your favorite hobby, sport, pastime, skill, art, etc. The choice is up to you. You will explain what this consists of, the pleasures it affords you, how you participate in it, etc. For example, if your favorite sport or pastime is fishing you'll explain the step-by-step process of fishing. If your favorite sport is tennis, you'll explain the details of the game, famous tennis players, the rules of the game, the rankings (including how players are ranked), , the highlight of the season, etc.. It's all up to you how you fill up your 10-15 minute presentation. There's one more important part of this assignment you will include. That's a VOCABULARY. That may be the most interesting part. This will be a list of words that are not too technical but not too common either (house, pot, etc.). These are rather routine words used in talking about the sport, pastime (cooking), hobby (making model airplanes), etc. This will be a vocabulary shared by anyone interested in the sport, such as used on a news groups.
Here are some examples that may help.
"Today I'm going to talk about my favorite hobby, which is wine tasting. First let me explain what wine tasting is. It's not the same as getting drunk on wine. Nor is it the same as just sipping wine. Rather the wine taster explores the varieties of wine in terms of their flavor, bouquet." (Here you'll present a vocabulary and define the terms. You may wish to include the technical term for wine tasting.) You also will go into the method or process of wine tasting. For example, the wine taster doesn't swallow the wine, no more than the chocolate taster (another subject) does. The wine taster SWILLS the wine in the mouth, for example. The wine taster sniffs the bouquet (aroma) of the wine. To separate one wine from another the wine taster eats plain crackers, in order not to interfere with a sensitive palate, without which it's impossible to judge or discriminate wines.
"My special pastime is playing the piano. When people hear the phrase "play the piano" it seems simple enough. Just let your fingers run across the piano keyboard, like a virtuoso concert pianist. Perhaps one day I'll get to that point. But for now I'm quite content making slow but daily progress on the piano. To do this one must follow a routine. There are finger exercises, for example. There are even piano pieces, called Etudes, that help one practice the dexterity of one's fingers. And there's a word you might wish to know. "Dexterity" means agility, specifically agile fingers, nimble fingers. "Etudes" is another word, from the French, meaning "studies." Chopin, the famous Polish pianist and composer, wrote many etudes, as have many other great composers, such as Debussy. In Spanish etudes are called estudios. Bach, of course, wrote many etudes but he did not call them etudes, he called them Preludes. These are Preludes can range from very simple ones (such as the ones in C major, which everyone knows, or D-major. Related to etudes are scales. These are simple studies, with no musical value, where the pianist plays all the notes of the scale. Each key has its own scale, a progression of notes that make up the chords in that scale. I'll write down some words that every piano student learns early and that most music lovers will recognize." And so on.
"Traveling is my main hobby. To me traveling is more like conquering a city than enjoying it. One "does" a city, and does not simply visit it. How does one "do" a city, such as Kaoshiung or Taipei or Vienna? First, one finds out all the landmarks. These are high profile places that have historical, political, or cultural interest. If one goes to Vienna (if one "does" Vienna, to use my favorite phrase) one of course will visit the birthplaces of the great Viennese composers, such as Beethoven's house, Schubert's house, and that of the Strauss family, who popularized the waltz. Then there's Freud's house too, which shouldn't be missed if one "does" Vienna. If one does Tainan, naturally one seeks out the temples, the historical landmarks, such as places where battles were fought, the original center of the city, the old part of the city, etc. Here's a vocabulary of words you need when traveling." And so on.
"I know it sounds strange for a college student to say, but my favorite hobby is collecting comic books. Of course one doesn't collect comics, as they are also called, unless one likes to read them. But collecting is more serious than just reading them. The collector discriminates between different comics, their series, the characters, early and late edition, mint copies, and so on. One also follows the plot lines of different series, how the characters change. But for the comic book enthusiast (that's another word for lover, or one who is enthused over or has enthusiasm for something) the private language of comic books is as much fun as the comics themselves. For example, there's the splash cover. A splash cover or page. A splash page includes an entire page of a single scene (with no panels to break up the page). If the splash is on the cover, that image will not be repeated inside the comic book itself. It's more like a visual montage of action in the comic book. Each comic book page has strips, with each strip called a panel. When characters speak they speak through what is called a speech bubble or balloon. Action is usually indicated by what are called symbolia, such as Z's to show sleeping, a light bulb above the head to represent an idea that has entered the person's head, a round balloon led up to by hazy circles to suggest a thought rather than speech, which is shown by an enclosed diagonal near the lips or face, completed by a balloon with text inside representing the speaker's words." And so on.
Shall I go on? I think these examples should be enough. Keep in mind I don't have the time to refine these sample presentations; they are not perfect models of coherence, completeness, or clarity. I typed them very fast. They are intended merely as sketches to give you an idea of the direction you should go. Certainly building a vocabulary is an important part of the presentation, for you as well as your classmates. If you present on cooking, you should also present an adequate vocabulary, avoiding, of course, the most common words, such as pot, spoon, fork, etc. Rather seek out less common words and phrases, such as garnish, stir fry, broil, seasoning, etc. Obviously you need to use the Internet to help you. Usually Wikipedia would be sufficient to give you the main terms in any field of interest, whether boxing, fishing, stamp collecting, or whatever.
To develop your ideas use the commonplaces. These are "common places" where one typically expands or enlarges one's material,. One commonplace, for example, is DEFINITION. One naturally defines what one talks or writes about. Another commonplace is DIVISION. One naturally DIVIDES up a topic into different parts (shopping for the best meats, organizing one's utensils to chop up the meet, oiling the pot, etc.). Another commonplace is CONTRADICTION. One says what something is not, as in the first example, wine tasting: Wine tasting is not simply drinking wine or getting drunk. Or "doing" a city is not simply getting off a bus in a new city! Another commonplace is EXAMPLE. One gives examples, such as the rare Batman comic or first Superman comic and how much it sold for at auction. Another commonplace is TESTIMONY (more simply, quoting a reliable or trustworthy source, such as The New York Times on what travel means. CAUSE-EFFECT is another commonplace. One tells the causes of something or its effects. "Apart from the joy of cooking culinary delights, the climax of one's work is when one's sister, mother, or date tastes what one has made. There's no finer excitement than the delight on your date's face as he tastes a piece of the strawberry cake you made just an hour ago."
Another way to organize your presentation and to amplify (enlarge) it is the tried and true method of the 5 W's and H: WHY, WHERE, WHEN, WHAT, WHO, HOW. HOW does one fish? WHAT does one need to fish? WHEN is the best time to fish. WHY does one fish (peace, relaxation, getting away from the noise of the city). WHERE does one fish? Where's the best place(s) to fish. WHO can love fishing? "Don't think you have to be a male or muscular to fish, or even specially skilled. NO! Anyone can fish. One doesn't even need that much skill. After all, the joy of fishing is in the fishing, not in the catch, though I won't deny that it's a joy to catch one's dinner! Still, fishing is not all about fish. It's about rising early in the morning, driving out into a distant part of a pond or stream when everyone else is a asleep," etc.
Like all such models, one must use them rather than be constrained or limited by them. "WHY" for example can be used anyway one wishes, just so long as that word generates ideas, or helps one organize or amplify one's presentation.
Any questions, feel free to ask. Let's make this an interesting and entertaining assignment!
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