“The Wife of Bath’s Tale”
By Geoffrey Chaucer
Persuasive Response
Choose one of the persuasive projects below. Your project must incorporate some form of technology (electronic poster, PowerPoint, video, audio, etc.). Include a works cited page with your project and a summary of your group’s process: What did each person contribute?
Ø All options are for 1-2 people. Time constraints: 5-12 minutes
o minimum of 5 minutes for 1 person; minimum of 10 minutes for 2 people
1. Research the current laws and punishments for rape in the US (look at several states) and at least one other country. Give a multimedia presentation persuading the audience what a just punishment for rape should be. You may choose one of the punishments you find in your research or come up with your own. You should incorporate your research into your presentation.
· (1-2 people; 5-10 minutes)
2. Read at least one other tale from The Canterbury Tales. Persuade the audience to read (or not read) the tale. You will need to give an overview of the tale you read. You may have an argument with your partner, if you work with another person, over whether the audience should read the tale!
3. Present closing arguments as if the Knight from “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” is on trial for raping the maiden. Represent both sides of the case and have the class vote to determine guilt or innocence. You will need to do some research on how to present a closing argument and incorporate details from the tale into your arguments.
4. Research capital punishment laws in the US and at least one other country. Deliver a persuasive argument for or against capital punishment. Incorporate your research into your presentation.
Research Design
The research design must be typed. It can be single-spaced.
1) Name your topic.
2) Describe what you know about your topic (Without consulting anything, go to the keyboard and free
write what you already know. Let it sit a day or so, then come back and edit for redundancies and refine for specificity). You can do this as bullets, if you want.
3) Tell what you want to learn about your topic.
4) Describe the origins of your research. What sparked your interest in the topic? Why do you want to
know more about it?
5) List at least ten open-ended questions you have about your topic (or twenty or fifty). *|WHO|WHAT|WHEN|WHERE|WHY|HOW|*
6) Describe your plan for collecting information about your topic.
7) Provide a preliminary bibliography (works cited).
Persuasive Scoring Guide
9-8 Presentations meriting these scores persuasively defend, challenge, or qualify the argument through a well-reasoned presentation of evidence from observation, experience, or reading. Evidence from reading does not, of course, automatically put presentations in this scoring range. Presentations in this category aptly support what they have to say and demonstrate stylistic maturity by an effective command of sentence structure, language, and organization. The speaking reveals an ability to choose from and control a wide range of the elements of effective speaking, but it need not be without flaws. The presentation is within the time limits.
7-6 Presentations earning these scores defend, challenge, or qualify the argument through a coherent presentation of evidence from observation, experience, or reading, but lack the more detailed development of examples of 9-8 presentations. Some lapses in grammar may be present, but the speaker demonstrates sufficient control and presents ideas clearly. The arguments in these presentations are sound, but may be presented with less unity or persuasive force than presentations in the 9-8 range. The presentation may be up to 1 minute short.
5 These presentations present a position that attempts to defend, challenge, or qualify the argument but do not maintain a reasoned presentation. They are adequately presented, but may demonstrate inconsistent control over the elements of effective communication. Organization is evident but may not be fully realized or particularly effective.
4-3 Presentations earning these scores do not respond adequately to the question's tasks. They may not define a clear position or may attempt to develop a position with evidence that is not well chosen or well integrated for the purpose. The presentation is sufficient to convey the writer's ideas, but may suggest weak control over wording, sentence structure, or organization. These presentations may contain long pauses and be several minutes short.
2-1 These presentations fail to respond adequately to the question's tasks. Although the speaker attempts to respond to the prompt the response exhibits little clarity about the speaker’s attitude or only slight or misguided evidence in its support. These presentations may be poorly written on several counts, be unpersuasively brief, or present only assertions without evidence. They may reveal consistent weaknesses in effective speaking. Presentations that are especially inexact, vacuous (lacking ideas), and/or mechanically unsound should be scored 1.
0 This is a response with no more than a reference to the task or no response at all.