Presentation-18th Century Scandals
What counted as a scandal?
The eighteenth-century, as today, had an abundance of scandals and widespread concerns about the spread of information due to the new access that the printing press and cheaper paper options afforded. Some scandals were “star scandals” and involved the lives of famous people. Some were institutional and revealed the underbelly of government, military and business institutions. Finally, as in the Elizabeth Canning trial, “psychodrama scandals” involving unusual events in the lives of ordinary people burst into the media scenes. You will be researching a scandal from the 18th century and making a digital project surrounding the scandal.
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Researching the Scandal
To find information on these events, you will want to find a few primary sources using online or tangible archives. You’ll also be looking for more general background as well. To discover more about that, you will need to avail yourselves of the internet and the libraries databases. You should expect to spend a bit of time just slogging through the information to find relevant sources. I would suggest the following as a way to start.
1. GTS: Google That S#*!—odds are no one in the class has even heard of these events before. Find some basic information.
2. Wikipedia: there’s a references and external sources section. Maybe start where they did?
3. Letters and Journals: Frances Burney wrote INCREDIBLE letters and journals meant to share with one of her sisters. Samuel Pepys diary is CRRRAAZZZY. James Boswell wrote the Life of Johnson, which reads more like 1000 pages of gossip about Samuel Johnson and his friends than a biography; he also wrote several travel “journals” which are much the same. Most of these are easily accessible in book form with detailed indexes. There are many others also available in published forms or through archives.
4. ECCO (Eighteenth Century Collections Online): May contain things on your scandal but also may not. Go check.
5. Gentleman’s Magazine (through the Hathi Trust): It’s probably got something mentioned in the Chronicle section. Find relevant months and do a search.
6. Other online archives: the Hathi Trust also includes editions of Town & Country, which included an incredible Tete a Tete section that is straight gossip but often in coded terms (https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000493943); the Old Bailey archive gives proceedings for lots of court cases (https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/); Hannah More’s letters are searchable online (http://hannahmoreletters.co.uk/Letters/); I’m also looking for access to the Bon Ton but have been unsuccessful so far.
7. Library databases: Project Muse and MLA are my favorite databases of secondary sources on literature; they may or may not be useful, depending on your scandal.
8. Library book search: many of these individuals have their own biographies written on them. Many of the events have books about them. Check them out.
The Presentation
The presentation itself should tell us a story about the scandal but also include some interpretation of what that scandal tells us about the 18th century and the literature we’ve been reading. While the length of these will vary a bit, the basic rule of thumb will be 12-20 minutes per paired group and 7-8 for a single presenter. The format will be some sort of audio-visual that can be shared digitally. My suggestions are a prezi with voiceover OR a youtube video using screencast-o-matic. Both are quite easy to navigate and I have included links to videos below. I have used both of these previously with very few issues. I am also open to other options but I would be of less help should a technology problem arise. No matter what form, your presentation should include a bibliography of sources.
Assignments for research:
1.John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester
Options for presentation:
1. A prezi with voice over. Pros: make slides very similar to any powerpoint, many templates to pick from, free “education” subscription, makes separate voiceover options for each slide (so less worry about “messing up” the audio), easy to make those voiceovers on your phone in notes (I just make voice notes on my iPhone and email those files to myself to save on a computer).
a. Basic idea of prezi: https://youtu.be/QadFvf3D8P8
b. How to add voiceover: https://youtu.be/oBq-x0LFJUw
2. Adding a voice over to powerpoint. I haven’t actually done this but it seems really easy and has some of the same pros of the prezi.
a. Powerpoint: https://youtu.be/selYsj94RQg
3. Adding voiceover to google slides also seems somewhat similar.
a. https://youtu.be/unkp_kpf1-Q
4. Using screen-cast-o-matic with whatever you want on your computer screen. This might be a little trickier to figure out but is a super useful thing to know how to do. Go to screencastomatic.com and make a free account. There’s a video about how to use it right on the front page.
5. Podcast: you’ll need to make a recording of your voice(s). Audacity is the easiest and best way to do this, imo.
a. https://youtu.be/xl-WDjWrTtk
6. If there is an additional option you’d like to pursue, please request approval from me.
