UMGC The Warrior Achilles Presentation and Reflection Essay

• Identify and describe a unique, specific way in which you see a myth (that we have studied) influencing contemporary culture.
• Explain how contemporary culture and your own culture are impacted by that component of myth.

A key reason to study ancient literature is to make connections to our contemporary lives. In this Final Project, you will be analyzing your world and determining where you see specific influences held over from these ancient mythological stories. You may explore art, literature, film, architecture, places, or people, among other subject areas (pick just one focus). Explore the influence of myth within our contemporary society rather than locate a myth’s remains. For example, in Greece it is obvious that the physical remains of the Parthenon still stand. However, if a popular tattoo on Earth were an image of Zeus, then you would have found a contemporary connection to the ancient myths, and you could do a presentation, for example, on tattoos with mythological meanings. If you choose instead to look at how a myth has been re-imagined into a film, do not just summarize the similarities/differences. You need to focus on how the film reflects the modern world.

In this final assignment, you will be creating the equivalent of an in-class, multimedia presentation and also submitting a reflection essay on the development of that presentation. The final project will demonstrate your analysis of a form of myth studied in this class and how it is reflected in society and your culture. You will develop an in-class presentation—that could be delivered to a face-to-face class–with both a visual component and an aural component. Examples include: a video screencast of yourself delivering your presentation along with visual/textual aids; or a slide presentation (PowerPoint, Google Slides, Prezi, etc.) with audio recorded (i.e. oral portion of what you would have said to a live class). Here are some resources to help you with the presentation:

• Sample PPT with Notes
• LinkedIn Learning’s 5 Best Practices for Making Awesome PowerPoint Slides
• Good example of a slide presentation on literary analysis
• Convert Slide Text to a SmartArt Graphic

If you would like to use a multimedia format that varies from these examples, please consult with your instructor. The presentation should be about five minutes long, so you should time your audio component (your recording, your script, a digital file) to see if it is an appropriate length.

The essay part of your assignment will involve a written essay (500-750 words) explaining the presentation and the key concepts you focused on for your project. In the explanation, describe your process of identifying, researching, and developing the presentation. The essay should also consider what you learned from doing the project. An MLA-style Works Cited page for the sources used in both the essay and presentation should be the last page of the essay (but not included in the word-count requirement).

This assignment is due by 11:30 PM ET on the last day of the academic week. Extensions cannot be provided. But, if you feel that you would like to consider an Incomplete and are eligible for one, please contact the instructor in advance of the deadline. The UMGC policy on incompletes can be found in our class syllabus.

Final Project Requirements:

Two components—a presentation and a separate reflection essay—must be produced. The focus of the project (from above) is the following: Identify and describe a unique, specific way in which you see myth (that we have studied) influencing contemporary culture. Explain how contemporary culture and your own culture are impacted by that component of myth.

• The PRESENTATION requirements are as follows:
  • The presentation must be the equivalent of 5 minutes in length. It must be the equivalent of an in-class presentation.
  • The presentation must look professional and be engaging.
  • The presentation should not be solely based on research into ancient myth and contemporary sources, so most of the presentation should center on your own insights into how myth can be seen influencing your current culture.
  • Any graphics, sources, text, video or other resource (which you do not create yourself) must be documented in MLA style on a Works Cited page at the end of the reflection essay.
  • The presentation may be uploaded to the Assignments Folder; it may be uploaded to a reliable cloud platform (such as YouTube) and the address given in the Assignments Folder; it may also be uploaded to UMGC’s Microsoft OneDrive server, and the address given in the Assignments Folder.
• The ESSAY requirements are as follows:
  • The reflections essay must be completely separate from the presentation—it should not be combined with a script or any other component of the presentation.
  • The essay must reflect upon how and why you created your project as you did: How did you identify the focus of your presentation? How did you research and develop your presentation? What did you learn from creating the presentation?
  • The essay must have at least an introduction, one body paragraph, and a conclusion.
  • No lengthy quotes (in excess of four lines) should be used; quoting should be done only sparingly. No more than 20% of the essay should be made up of quotation.
  • The essay must be formatted in standard MLA style (no cover page).
  • Sources used in the essay must be correctly cited and documented in MLA style.
  • The essay must be 500-750 words in length, carefully proofread and largely free of grammar, punctuation, and usage errors. Errors should not distract the reader.
  • The completed essay should be uploaded to the Assignments Folder by the due date.