Newspeak Presentations

The Newspeak Presentations were a creative and interesting way to have presentations without the crutch of PowerPoint. It was interesting to watch people do presentations without being able to just read a bulleted list and it made me realize just how hard it is to organize presentations in the absence of PowerPoint. Some people were creative and managed to have some interaction with the audience while simultaneously illustrating the point of their word, but others basically had PowerPoint-lite where they just read a script off a piece of paper. Another interesting thing to note was that nobody hit the time limit, including myself, and most presentations fell into the 1-2min time slot rather than the 4-6minutes Alex had hoped for. Some people got really creative about their word (handupdontcare and virjective for instance) while basically everyone else just mashed together a couple words and hoped for the best.
I liked this assignment, but it had much to teach me about presenting without PowerPoint and the idea that I could write a few things down on a note card and have that carry me the full 5 minutes. I've always thought of myself as a good presenter, but really that should be qualified as being a good PowerPoint presenter. While I am under no uncertainty that my grade on this presentation was poor, I do like to know my faults and this presentation brought this particular failing to the surface.

Markel Chapter 21 - Oral Presentations

Markel Chapter 21 seems shoehorned in compared to the rest of the book. A very short chapter (clocking in at around 15 pages minus the graphics), the writer goes into brief detail on creating a presentation. It's funny that he acknowledges how reliant people have become on PowerPoint to give presentations and then spends most of the chapter dealing with graphics and PowerPoint slides. In hindsight I wish I would have paid more attention to the Calming Your Nerves section of the chapter because I was so nervous going into the presentation (which is odd because I usually enjoy presenting). The chapter also would have benefited from having a list or section that outlined what should be in a presentation.
For instance, when I've done technical presentations on a piece of equipment I followed a typical outline like this:

• Intro/Discussion of Problem
• Technical Background
• Similar Devices/Solutions (If applicable)
• Research/Evaluation Methods
• Conclusions/Comparisons to Similar Devices/Solutions
• Recommendations
• Summary 

This chapter would have greatly benefited from something like that (especially considering that he has a whole section on making designs in PowerPoint). On an unrelated note that slide with Darth Vader is pretty funny.

Markel - Chapters 16 and 19

Reading Markel after taking classes that require technical writing is like taking a time machine to see all the stuff I did wrong as I lurched through my upper-division classes. Even basic stuff like knowing the difference between an abstract and a letter of transmittal had to be learned through doing. Basically the Markel readings reminded me why it's absurd to not have English 402 as a requirement for the engineering design courses, as technical writing comprises a majority of the work. Obviously this reading wasn't a page-turner like 1984 but I appreciate that Markel spruces things up with figures and examples. Also the checklist on page 535 seems pretty handy. As an engineer, technical writing like proposals and recommendations are a large part of my work. In my internship I'd say that it is already about 40% of the work that I do on any given day, and I see no reason why that would decrease as I gain responsibility. For instance, I've written a technical instruction manual on the operation of several pieces of equipment and am currently working on a project that involves a significant amount of technical writing (I don't know if I can say specifically what it is due to NDA). Thus the recommendation chapter seemed really relevant to me (I've only written a couple proposals and those were for class).

Instruction Manual Critique

Overall, I thought the Instruction manual assignment worked well. It showed how difficult it is to write unambiguously as well as writing in such a way as to prevent inferences from the person following the directions. I liked that we couldn't assign revealing names to the various components and that we were given time in-class to collaborate on the directions. I wish we had more time to spend working on following other group's directions because I wanted to see what other groups did. The assignment was creative and fun which I thought was a nice twist on something that could've been very dry and boring.

1984 - Finished

I finished up 1984 last night and I want to say how much I love the ending to this book. Orwell could have made the ending a happy (and implausible) one, but instead he maintains the continuity and near-omniscience of the thought police. The shop owner being a member of the thought police is such a beautiful turnabout, and the best part is that it's completely unexpected: the reader never sees it coming. Their torture methods are brutal and pinpoint Winston's fears: rats. Then Winston and Julia meet up after they've been reeducated, which is so brilliant. Their exposition, where they come to the realization that they didn't love each other (and maybe never knew what love meant) was so perfect and concise that I have a hard time putting into words how much I loved that scene. The ending is fantastic, there's no great overthrow of the Party, no revolution occurs, nobody ends up better off, it's just a completely brainwashed Winston waiting for his eventual execution (the part where he recognizes that he loves Big Brother was brilliant).

1984 - First 1/3rd

So for the reading this week, we were assigned the first 1/3rd (or so) of Orwell's classic cautionary tale Nineteen Eighty-Four. The book deals with an oppressive and controlling government at the head of which is the mysterious figure only known as "Big Brother." Posters everywhere remind people that he's always watching them, always searching for treachery or revolutionary thought amongst the populace. I'm going to stop this summary here, and presume knowledge of the text from here on out. I really enjoyed the way Orwell set up this world, I thought he did an excellent job of portraying the society and adding in the small details (such as the uniforms or the taste of the gin). I thought it was quite funny where Winston imagines smashing Julia's head with a rock, and his immediate presumption that she must be a member of the thought police- right up until she tells him she loves him, and suddenly his opinion does a 180. That seems to be the tipping point for Winston: before his only heresy was writing his thoughts in his journal (along with visiting that shop), but after Julia's encounter he opens himself to more 'devious' actions (such as staying in the room with no telescreen for extended time periods).
I also appreciated how other characters were also fleshed out, particularly Syme, the linguist who Winston correctly predicts will be vaporized. I thought it was hysterical how Syme bragged about reducing the size of the vocabulary in an effort to take the subjectivity out of language. His neighbors are portrayed as being terrorized by their children, who are completely brainwashed and would turn Winston, or even their parents, in to the thought police in an instant. Sometimes the themes come across a bit heavy handed, for instance I found the Two Minutes Hate to be a bit forced, although it was funny to see even Winston get drawn into that display of blood-lust.


Honestly there's a reason this book is considered a classic and it's because of the excellent writing, situations, and atmosphere.