discussion

Broadly speaking, the purpose of a text is to educate an audience. This education may inform or entertain or (as we’ve done) argue, but the interaction between the writer and his/her/their audience is paramount.

Now that you’ve got a functional draft of Essay Two, your final project is to “translate” your work into some new medium. We’re calling this a “multimodal remix.” Remixing asks you to take your completed work and translate it through new media. Although the purpose and argument will remain, the manner in which you present your claims will change drastically—as you will have images, videos, hyperlinks, audio, GIFs, memes, etc. at their disposal. This is considered a multimodal approach to writing. (The dominant mode of expression will likely be a presentation on PowerPoint, Google Slides, or Prezi; however, students should feel encouraged to make films, record music, construct and caption photo essays, etc.)

Here is a professional example of multimodality from Jay-Z:
https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000004642370/jay-z-the-war-on-drugs-is-an-epic-fail.html (Links to an external site.)

Here are some student examples:
https://guides.library.vcu.edu/multimodal-assignments/examples

To get you thinking creatively, respond to the following by Thursday at 11:00 PM. In an initial post of about 250 words, try answering the questions I’ve listed below. Then, by Sunday, give two of your classmates some words of encouragement.

1) Who is the audience for your project? How would you describe them?

2) What are some of the best ways (other than writing an essay) to reach this audience? What types of communication might they like best — and why? Verbal? Visual? Audio?

3) Do you have any special skills that you might utilize here? (For example, are you a talented artist? Are you a game/program designer? Are you a budding photographer or songwriter? Are you good at making charts, infographics, or collages?)

4) Can you think of an entertaining and effective way to build this project? Where is your head right now? What are you considering?