Your final for this semester will be a proposal describing what you plan to do for your project. This proposal will have two components:
- A written document, outlining what you plan to do
- An oral presentation in front of the class (on finals day) describing your plan.
Types of projects
You will create your own assignment, and there are many, many possibilities.
The project can be a traditional research-based essay, a creative adaptation in the form of a screenplay or musical, or maybe you will create a detailed specifications for a proposed theme-restaurant called Indian Island Bar and Grille. There are unlimited ways to show your knowledge and skills. Here are some possibilities below. For any of these, you would need to use one of the books we are reading in class as your source material.
- Screenplay
- Stage Play
- Short film
- Comic Book or story board
- Annotated edition of a book we’ve read
- Audiobook
- Theme Park Design
- Web Page
- Television Series Pitch
- Sitcom
- Cop drama
- Panel discussion
- Jerry Springer-esque
- Reality show competition
- Children’s musical
- Video game
- Short Story
These are only a few possibilities. You are certainly welcome to come up with your own format.
IMPORTANT: You are certainly allowed to do your project on something we will be reading next semester, such as The Crucible (a play by Arthur Miller) Chew on This (non-fiction book about the fast food industry or Romeo and Juliet.
How will my proposal be graded?
Written
The written proposal is worth 50 points. At the end of this document is an example of what it might look like.
Your proposal must cover the following:
| Objective | Short statement explaining what your project is and what book it is based on. |
| Checkpoints | Four separate bullet points explaining what you will have accomplished by each checkpoint. Each checkpoint must represent a significant effort on your part. |
| Final Product | Description of what your project will look like when you turn it in. If it is a written work, what sort of cover will it have? If it is a web page, will you turn in a disk with a few sample pages printed out? If you build a scale model of Dr. Jekyll’s street, how big will it be? |
| Literary Analysis | Although your work will be highly creative, it must be fundamentally connected to one of our texts. Make it evident in your proposal how your project will show a deeper understanding of the text. At least half of your grade for the project depends on this category. When creating your proposal, make sure that the work you plan to do depends on the text you’ve chosen. |
| Research | Your project must be designed in a way that makes it necessary to consult other sources. For instance, if you decide to create a Jekyll and Hyde board game, you will need to research how many board games out there have similar themes. Or, you could research late 19th Century British architecture in order to draw the write types of buildings on your board game. |
| Format and Professionalism | At each check point, as well as when you turn in the final project, your work must be presented in a professional way. For projects that are pure writing (research paper, screenplay, etc.) all you need is a nice report cover or binding. Anything digital (sound, video clips) should have a printed label and envelop, and attached to a short written document explaining what it is. |
Oral Presentation
This is worth 20 points.
You will speak to the class for 8 to 10 minutes about your plan.
Do not read from your written proposal. You may refer to it so you can remember to cover everything, but you will speak extemporaneously.
You only need to talk for about three or four minutes. The rest of the time you will open it up for questions from the students. This should turn into a brief discussion in which the students give you ideas to help you shape your plan.
Example of a written proposal
Biff Student
English 10
Project Proposal
Overview
I will write a screenplay version of The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Literary Analysis
This project is appropriate because I will have to understand the book on a deep level in order to write the screenplay. Because movies condense everything down to only a couple hours, a screenplay must use only the most essential parts of the book. Finding those essential parts will require strong literary analysis skills on my part.
Checkpoints
- Checkpoint 1 – Film Treatment competed. The treatment will describe in narrative form everything that happens in the screenplay. It will also show how I am altering certain elements of the characters and setting to make the movie more accessible to today’s audience. But the essence of Oscar Wilde’s story will be preserved.
- Checkpoint 2 – I will turn a detailed scene-by-scene outline.
- Checkpoint 3 – I will turn in the first half of the script
- Checkpoint 4 – I will turn in the second half of the script. At this point I will ask the teacher to provide notes for my rewrite.
- FINAL – I will turn in the rewrite of my script.
Research (Due at checkpoint 1)
I will find out how many other film versions of this book have been made. I will find out whether these movies were successes or failures by looking at reviews.
Format
The script will be written in traditional screenplay format.
