jones | courses

Assignment description

For this assignment, students will work in groups of 3–4. Each group will create a multimedia text—such as a mini-documentary, typographic text incorporating images and other multimedia elements, a website, or podcast, etc.—that will serve one of the following two goals. Either it will 1) address the impact of a new media tool(represented by web 2.0, blogs, wikis or any of the other specific tools that we have covered in the course) for a particular audience (such as their department or field of study) or 2) propose a new or expanded use of a particular writing tool for some particular audience.

You might find it fruitful to to think of this assignment as an act of interpretation; not a literal interpretation from one language to another but a figurative one where you transfer ideas, information, maybe even another text, from one media to another, from one audience to another. Perhaps your group will want to explain how a tool for writing has changed the way a particular field or group or business works. Perhaps you will want to interpret the workings of a particular digital writing tool for one of these audiences. In any case, you will want to choose a method of delivery—audio, video, website, etc.—that will help you best convey your message to your chosen audience.

You will have a wide latitude in your choice of subject for this assignment as well as in the mode of its presentation. The only restraints will be that your project focuses on a theme associated with the subject matter of the course, and that your work adheres to academic standards for citation and use of source material.

Copyright

All material presented in the work should either be copyright free (in the public domain or covered with a CC license) or clearly fall within the bounds of fair use. (For more information about copyright and fair use, see this document.)

Length and format

Whatever format, the work for the assignment should be the equivalent of 800–1,000 words. Website projects should represent a similar word count, while purely audio and video projects should be 3–4 minutes in length.

The author(s) and source of all outside materials should be acknowledged in the body of the text in the form of a references section. For audio and video projects, this will mean including a list of credits acknowledging the creators and sources of all materials.

Evaluation

Once their project proposals have been accepted, individuals or groups will create a specific set of criteria for evaluating their project.

The assignment will be turned in twice (3.1 and 3.2). The second version (3.2) should represent a substantial revision of the first in response to peer and instructor feedback.

Due dates

Consult the course schedule for due dates.