IOP IOP topic help

[JMG2032]

I have my IOP coming up in Mid January and I'm a little nervous. I don't have my idea yet. I'm thinking about doing something on Persepolis or I know why the cage bird sings. But I'm leaning more towards Persepolis. My problem is I don't have a question developed yet to even start my work on my presentation. I'm nervous about it because I don't think I'll be able to talk for 10 minutes. In class we've been doing things to prep us like 5 minute presentations but each time I do it, my grade hasn't been we're I want it to be which is frustration.

My main questions are just what can I do to keep myself calm leading up to, and on my presentation day.

And can someone give me some ideas for my presentation idea, and formulating a question.

Thanks.

[Samster]

Trouble is that I haven't studied Persepolis but I have studied "I know why the cage bird sings" by Maya Angelou.

Perhaps you could study one of the motifs and talk about its significance.

Or even the use of narrative, writer's style, etc.

My IOP topic was the significance of the love triangle between the 3 main characters in Never Let Me Go.

So mine wasn't really phrased in a question to begin with.

TIPS FOR KEEPING CALM: (NB: I had to go first in my cohort)

• Start writing your IOP as soon as you can and in little spurts. This way, you get it out of the way and you get to spend plenty of time familiarising yourself with what you're saying and making sure that you are not under or over the time limit.
  
• If you write your IOP a couple of days before you have to present it, it's a lot more stressful and it's harder to think of points. Just jot down anything as you go
  
• Practice your IOP by talking really really slowly and make sure that when you are presenting, you are not mumbling or talking too fast.
  
• I don't know if you are presenting in front of the whole class or just your teacher (I did mine in front of my teachers only) but make sure you look around.
  
• Pace yourself if you can (it stops you from freezing up if you walk around a little)
  

TIPS FOR PRESENTING:

• For my IOP, I did a dramatic monologue and then I went into analysis.
  

Honestly, try something creative because plain analysis doesn't go too far unless you're legendary at English.

Edited December 28, 2012 by Samster

[Gaby]

We cannot come up with a topic for you, sorry. Think about it yourself/research/consult your teacher, but at the end of the day, it's your topic. We can only say if it's any good.

Offtopic....

My IOP topic was the significance of the love triangle between the 3 main characters in Never Let Me Go.

I'm not even doing English A, but I'd so love to do your topic for my IOP. lol. Sad thing is, I can't. I so love Never Let Me Go....

[musashi]

I did my IOP on Persepolis; my topic was "How conflict between fundamentalism and social liberalism is portrayed visually in the text through the use of various motifs/themes." I spoke about the dichromatic nature (black and white) and how each colour could represent a social ideology and just elaborated on that for 12 minutes. I used a keynote presentation to show some of the panels that I was considering, but otherwise didn't use any other sort of presentation material. There was another person in my class who also did Persepolis - she did how social class difference was depicted in the novel. We both got good marks (28 and 26 out of 30) due to the fact that our topics were quite focussed and we could "participate in some in-depth analysis" (our English teacher is madly in love with that word). I would suggest finding a particular aspect of the book, the relationships between some of the characters for example, form a hypothesis and then merely justify it. Another suggestion I would make is would be to look more at the illustrations rather than the narration as it is, first and foremost, a graphic novel.

Our class is also doing "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", but for our IOCs instead of our IOPs. I don't particularly like the text, but some of the things that you could talk about would be the theme of religion, or perhaps the growth of the narrator as a result of a specific event. The prologue of that novel is particularly interesting - you could do how it foreshadows the events in the rest of the book (albeit implicitly, but nonetheless) and explore some of the language features seen there as well.