MYTHS AND HEROES Classes 1e

Oral presentation : MAFIA GANGSTERS

The course “mafia gangsters” can be related to the notion of

“Places and Forms of Power”or “Myths and Heroes”

You can choose either one, just make sure the angle of your argumentation takes the difference into account… Indeed, your essay will not be oriented in the same way.

Notion: Myths and Heroes

Myth

a story from ancient times, especially one that was told to explain natural events or to describe the early history of a people

something that many people believe but that does not exist or is false

Hero

person who is admired for his/her courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities; or it can be the main character in a book

Modern hero = faults, the same problems and the same lifestyle as everybody, not superpowers or super qualities → it’s a normal person so readers can better identify with him and anyone can imagine that it’s him, that, even though he is an ordinary man, he is a hero

Question: How are mafia gangsters represented in fiction?

Key words

The Mafia: secret organization of criminals, that is active especially in Sicily, Italy and the US.
mafia: a group of people within an organization or a community who use their power to get advantages for themselves
represent:

= show / depict

= present or describe sb/sth in a particular way

fictional: not real or true; existing only in stories; connected with fiction

ESSAY (dissertation/rédaction)

=> draw an outline /a plan

Introduction

1. introduce the notion you have chosen and define it.

2. Introduce your topic

3. Introduce your question:

After that, analyze the key words of the question, it will help you find how you want to answer it (it will give you some ideas about your development)

4. introduce your 2 parts and the documents you will use to illustrate your argumentation (pictures, trailers, books, texts, films, documentaries, recordings, radio programs, news articles,… You can use the documents studied or produced in class, or any documents of your own (personal culture)

Development

Part 1

2 or 3 ideas, develop each one a little

Part 2

2 or 3 ideas, develop each one a little

Conclusion

a brief reminder of what you tried to show in your speech

1. a short conclusion :

give the essential message to retain

2. a commentary

give a message that logically comes out of the ideas developed in your speech.

3. an opening (a quote, a question, a new idea...)

thanks to the audience for listening
an invitation to ask questions, make comments or open a discussion.

Useful expressions

outline ( plan)

I'm going to talk about the notion

To begin with, I'd like to give a definition of the word

We may wonder …

First, ...

Secondly, ...

To get a better grasp of this question we will first talk about

Then, we will use...

I will present

The second document is

The document shows

As a consequence,

To conclude

I think

I plan to talk about...

Today I'm going to talk about...

The subject of my presentation is...

The theme of my talk is...

In order to illustrate this question I have chosen …. documents.

You want to keep the outline simple so 2 or 3 main points are usually enough:

I have divided/broken my presentation/speech down/up into X parts.

In the first part I give a few basic definitions.

In the next section I will explain In part three, I am going to show...

In the last part I would like/want to give a practical example...

Make a transition between the introduction and the body

Now let us turn to point one.

Let us now move on to the second part, which is, as I said earlier….

Later on you may find these expressions useful:

Have you ever heard of...?

You may already know…

I feel sure that you…

Every day you encounter...

You may have wondered...

If there is one thing I'd like to get across to you today it is that…

Rhetorical questions

What is a rhetorical question? It is a question that you ask without expecting it to be answered. Why use such a question? In using such a question the speaker appears to be having a dialogue with the listeners. It also should catch their attention. Have you ever seen/heard/experienced...? How can we explain this? What does that mean? What can be done about that? What does this imply for you, as a consumer?

Make a transition (between the introduction and the body)

Now, let us turn to point one.

Let us now move on to the second part, which is, as I said earlier….

Emphasizing/highlighting (Say something is important)

The important thing to remember is...

The essential element is... (Stress verbs with your voice)

Add auxiliary verbs for emphasis => We did see a noticeable difference.

Change the word order => What I'd like to show today is the difference between the two products. / Good it may be, easy it isn't.

What is very significant here

What is important to remember...

I'd like to emphasize the fact that...

I’d like to stress the importance of...

to highlight...

to underline...

What I tried to bring out...

What we need to focus on...

Repetition

As I've said before...

Let me repeat

As I have already said earlier...

As we saw in part one...

To repeat what I've said already…

To refer to what you will say:

We will see this a little later on

This will be the subject of part 3.

We will go into more detail on that later

For now, suffice to say...

To refer to what an expert says:

I quote the words of ...

In the words of…

As Dr. Shukri says in his book...

According to...

There is a famous quotation that goes...

Here I'd like to quote…

To refer to common knowledge:

As you all may well know...

It is generally accepted that...

As you are probably aware (of)...

Sequencing your ideas Here are a few possibilities for organizing your ideas:

logical

chronological order

from general to specific

from known to unknown

from accepted to controversial

cause/effect

problem/solution

Keeping the audience's attention

The beginning and the end or the first and last parts of a talk are what listeners will remember best.

Guide the listener by using expressions to tell him/her where you are going.

That is to say, first announce what you are going to say (give an example)

and then say what you want to say.

This is very like verbal punctuation.

Indicate when you have finished one point and then go on to the next one.

It is redundant in text but very useful in oral presentations.

Experienced presenters will also clearly pause, change their stance and the pitch of their voice as they move from one part of a presentation to another.

Listing information

Lists are often a necessary thing to do oral presentation.

Vary your language whenever possible and avoid reading directly.

There are three things we have to consider: one, two, and three. A, B, C.

Now let us look at the first aspect which is...

First of all,…

In the first place…

Linking ideas, sections/making transitions (Indicate the end of one section and the beginning of the next)

That's all I would like to say about... (subject of part A)

and now let us turn to ....

Now that we've seen... let us turn to…

Outlining options (If there are alternative ways of looking at a topic or proposal, outline them to show you are familiar with the different ways of dealing with a situation)

There seem to be two possible ways of dealing with this...

A number of options present themselves at this point....

To be clear and concrete (use examples, rephrasing, summaries etc.)

To give an example

Now let's take an example

An example of this can be found...

To illustrate this…

Let's see this through an example.

For example,

For instance,

To rephrase:

Let me rephrase that,…

In other words….

Another way of saying the same thing is…

That is to say….

To summarize

To sum up,

Let me summarise by saying

In conclusion

So that concludes my overview

Briefly said

What I've tried to show in this part...

In short,

To recap what we've seen so far...

I'd like to summarise/sum up

At this stage I would like to run through/over the main points...

So, as we have seen today....

As I have tried to explain

As a result

In the light of what we have seen today I

In conclusion I would like to say that...

My final comments concern...

I would like to finish by

INTERACTION

Dealing with difficult questions Make sure you understand the question.

Ask a question to see if you understand.
Repeat the question in your own words to check that you have understood
In answering: delay the answer (ask for time and/or repeat the question)

examples: Just a minute please.

What is a...?

How can I put it?

I'm glad you asked that question.

That's a good question/point/remark.

Agree but give an alternative point of view.

I agree with you but there is another way of looking at it