It’s important to remember that a multimodal presentation isn’t just an essay in spoken form. By falling into the trap of writing an essay as your script, you might end up:
This means that you need to adapt your language and structure so that it resembles the text type actually identified on your notification. Believe it or not, HSC English is about more than just essays!
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Now if you’re writing a speech and accompanying it with visual aids, or you’ve chosen to do a video or vlog, there are obviously going to be some visual aspects to consider.
You’ll also need to double check if it’s a requirement for your multimodal presentation to involve some type of visual representation!
Ensure your visual aid is not text-heavy and is not a crutch to your presentation. It should supplement not substitute what you have to say.
If you’re spending half the presentation reading off your visual aid or staring at it then you’re doing it wrong.
Remember, you’re being assessed on your ability to present information , so that means making eye contact with the audience but also having the appropriate body language.
There are various programs you can use to edit your video and make it engagin g. You don’t need to be a professional YouTuber to make something great for your multimodal presentation!
Some of the programs you might want to look into using include:
For audio, a simple voice recording is often enough. Otherwise, your teacher may recommend audio editing platforms such as Audacity or VoiceThread , both of which are incredibly straightforward and easy to use.
Now that we’ve covered everything you need to consider before creating your multimodal presentation, it’s time to walk you through actually making it!
Step 1: get into the details of the task.
You don’t have to start writing your presentation right away but at least do the following little things to help get in the right mindset for approaching the task:
Make note of the due date and task weighting. Read over the question and look up any unfamiliar words in a dictionary, to ensure you understand it fully. Underline key words of the question — and make sure you are able to define them. Not just literally, in a dictionary sense but also critically too — are there any other ways in which the word or phrase might be interpreted? Read and annotate the marking criteria. What do you need to do to get a Band 6? Clarify definitions with a teacher or tutor if necessary.
Remember, this is a chance for you to be creative and there’s plenty of flexibility with how you can complete the assessment!
However, you’ll need to ensure that you’re covering all the aspects listed in the marking criteria. No matter how wonderfully you present, it’s not going to matter if you haven’t got the criteria right.
Next up, start gathering notes on your text/s. You’ll likely be talking about both your prescribed text and a related text so it goes without saying that you should know them well.
Start by compiling a classic TEE table for each text. Rather than having one giant table, which can get unwieldy, consider having separate tables divided up by theme or section.
Consider the following guiding questions as you work through the Effect (effect = analysis) section of your TEE table:
What human experience is being represented? How? What type of human experience is this? How do we know this? What is this significance of this human experience — for the character, for the author and for the reader? How do we know this? Is there anything different or unusual about this experience? Does it reveal any inconsistencies, anomalies or paradoxes in human behaviour? How do we know this?
One of your TEE tables may look something like this (this is one used for the text 1984 by George Orwell ):
This is an extremely effective way to analyse key ideas and provide effective evidence.
What it gives you is a really powerful framework to aid your analysis within your Multimodal presentation.
It simplifies the concepts and lets you look at them clearly. This will help you if you’re trying to communicate them in a form that’s not as elaborate as an essay, such as a speech.
It also means that if you have to write an essay later, you have your ideas broken down and they can be easily applied.
Now’s the time to start writing your first draft.
Your first draft, more often than not, will not be your best work.
Give yourself enough time to write multiple drafts, get feedback on your drafts (from a teacher, tutor, family member, etc) and apply that feedback in writing a new draft.
This process of revision is crucial as it can help you to spot weaknesses that you might not have noticed otherwise — or that you might not have noticed until too late.
Most importantly, don’t let your first draft be your last draft.
As you write your drafts, make sure you are continuously and relentlessly answering the question. Put simply, you will lose marks if you don’t. That question is there for a reason; it’s not just there for decoration, it’s not there as a “starting sentence”… it’s there to be answered!
Have the assessment notification beside you as you write so you can see the question at all times ; alternatively, you might write it out on a post it note and stick it on your laptop or you might even title your document as the question itself.
Multimodal presentations are interesting in that they’re often caught in the middle of formal and casual writing. On one hand, you want to sound sophisticated, perceptive and insightful… on the other hand, you don’t want to put your audience to sleep.
Try and strike a balance between formal and casual language. Don’t include hashtags or the word “yeet” in your script for example, but also don’t use unnecessarily big and obscure words that do nothing other than make it obvious that you’re showing off.
Example A Daldry yeets Billy as this mirror which we can use to connect with the idea of being an edgy teenager lol #relatable
Example B Billy is posited by Daldry as a specular, empathic character with whom viewers such as ourselves and other audiences across temporal dimensions can find correspondence in the notion of being a transgressive adolescent human.
Example C Billy is therefore positioned by Daldry as a kind of mirror through which viewers can empathise with the paradoxical experience of adolescent rebellion — something we’ve all been through in one way or another.
Which example do you think is the most appropriate for a multimodal presentation?
The correct answer is Example C.
While it is still relatively formal and sophisticated, it is not so dense or archaic that we can’t understand it. It’s easy to follow and easy to engage with, which is what you should be aiming for in connecting with your audience — something that is often addressed in marking criteria.
If you’re studying Billy Elliot for English, you can check out our list of quotes from the text!
One of the trickiest parts about multimodal presentations is their length.
Students are usually required to present for somewhere around 3-6 minutes which is really not that long . It’s less writing than the average length of an essay (around 800 words) so you will need to do some chopping.
Consider instead writing more of a mini essay — focussing more so on your time limit rather than word limit.
Need some extra help on editing, polishing and revising your multimodal presentation? Check out our awesome article ! Or reach out to our Hills District Tutoring team who can provide personalised support at our Campus, in the comfort of your home or online.
If you’re doing a video or a podcast, you can have as many takes as you need to get it right.
But honestly, if you’re delivering a speech, don’t wait until the night before to practise it.
You need to pretend you’re actually presenting to your class and consider the timing of your use of visual aids, the pacing of your delivery, and using different dynamics in your voice (such as tone and volume).
If you look through your assessment notification, you will have marks allocated towards your ability to present. That’s going to make a difference.
So in the lead up, don’t leave it until the night before. Give yourself more time, so you can actually run through presenting it a number of times.
Practise delivering and presenting your presentation to family members, to friends, to a tutor, so that you can get some feedback on what you’re doing well.
You might find that you’re:
And these are just a few examples!
So practise, practise, practise and show it to someone else so that you know which areas you can improve on, and you’ll already have that exposure to presenting it to others!
Now that you know exactly how you can ace your multimodal presentation, it’s time to go as make it as awesome as it can be! You’ve got this.
If you’re on the hunt for other HSC English resources, you can check out some of our other articles/guides below:
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