McKinnon Secondary College

Berühmte Leute aus deutschsprachigen Ländern Famous people from German-speaking countries

Research and write a report about a famous person from a German-speaking country. Here is a list of some people you could choose from. Why not look at a person you haven't heard of before? Introductory links are given for selected people in the list.

Use search engines to find relevant information about a person.
You could use Encarta Encyclopedia Online.

To: Task instructions

To: More links (all external links open in a new window)

Other short introductory biographies

Hyde Flippo's A-Z list of Famous Austrians, Germans, Swiss - See also his list at About German.

Austrian National Tourist Office's Famous People

Austrian Personalities (AboutAustria.org)

The German Corner's alphabetical list of biographies of significant German-Americans

Robert Shea's links on Famous German-Americans

Inventors from Germany - A Sampling of German Inventors and Inventions

Task instructions

The following aspects should be covered and other relevant information may be included:

• date and place of birth/death (if appropriate)
• early years
• family influences
• education
• personality
• examples of work/achievements/ideas
• evidence of the person’s fame/reputation and impact on the world today, or of society's recognition of the person's achievements
• your opinion of this person / why you chose this person
• any other relevant points

Also important:

• Write a self-evaluation statement at the end: you write briefly what you got out of doing this research, what you've learnt from it.
• Include a bibliography. In the case of websites, your bibliography must state the complete URL of the site, and the date on which you accessed it. The easiest way to get the URL accurately is to copy/paste it while you have it on screen: Click on the address in the "Location" / "Address" box to highlight it; use the key combination of Ctrl and C to copy it; start the word processor; with a word processor document on screen click the cursor to where you wish to paste the URL; use the key combination of Ctrl and V to paste it there.
• You may include pictures. If you use a word processor, set text size at no less than 12 point.
• This is to be written in your own words; i.e., it is not acceptable to copy sentences or paragraphs of text from a book or website and pass them off as your own words. You must express your chosen information in your own words. If you do use a sentence from a book or website as evidence to support what you have stated, it must of course be in "quotation marks" and you must spell out where it's from in a way that matches up with your bibliography, to show that you have quoted someone else’s words.

Assessment Criteria

• depth of information
• 1) explanation/analysis of achievements; 2) self-evaluation statement
• written information presented in a clear and logically sequenced manner
• English expression, punctuation, spelling

Compiled by D Nutting

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McKinnon SC LOTE 2001