Presenting Your Project

Following the resources in Writer/Designer, Chapter 8, you will document and present your remixed story. You will have approximately 7-10 minutes for your class presentation. If you’d like, you can ask your classmates to preview your story on your WordPress site as homework.

In your presentation, you will focus on sharing details about how you worked and the decisions that you made. Use the information on pp. 132–135 of Writer/Designer to determine what information to include. As the book explains, your job will be to show-off your hard work, but also you will help your audience understand your major design and rhetorical choices. Look particularly at the guiding questions on pp. 132–133 for an idea of the kind of details I will be listening for.

You will create some kind of digital presentation (using Google slides, Prezi, Present.me, etc.). If you go with slides, the maximum length is 28 auto-advancing slides to ensure your presentation fits in the 7-minute time slot.

Turning In Your Project

You should aim to have your project finished by April 24. You might still tweak things or make minor proofreading changes, but you should ideally be done with all the hard work. After that class session, our class time will be devoted to oral presentations.

By the end of the day on Wednesday the 7th, you should have gone to the Assignments tab in Scholar, completed a reflection memo, and given me the link to your project and your presentation slides. You must have your work submitted by 11:55 PM on Wednesday, May 7. There is no grace period on this project.

Your reflection will be slightly different this time since part of your goal will be some self-analysis of your project and an explanation of the effort and risk you put into the work. I will open the assignment open in Scholar and talk about all this more on the 24th. (That’s next week! EEEK!)

In-Class Writing for 4/17

Be sure to write and publish a blog post for today that talks about what you have accomplished since your last post and why you did what you did.

• We will rearrange in the classroom so at least one person giving feedback is someone who hasn’t been sitting near you as you worked on the project.
• Feedback groups will take turns following this process:
  • I will set the timer for 15 minutes so each person gets roughly the same amount of feedback.
     
  • The project author will introduce the project, giving a summary of the project’s rhetorical situation, using the questions on pp. 111–112 of Writer/Designer. You need to be ready to explain about your audience, purpose, and design choices.
     
  • The people giving feedback will read and explore the project, using the guidelines in the section of the book on “Providing Feedback as a Stakeholder” (pp. 112–115 of Writer/Designer) to structure their comments.
     
  • When the timer goes off, you will switch and another project author will introduce her work.
     
• Once everyone has received feedback on her project, you will each write a first draft of your revision plan for the project as your blog post for the day. See pp. 116-118 of Writer/Designer for details on writing a revision plan. If your project is online in a place where I can see it, please be sure to include the link in your revision plan.

Homework/Class Plans

For Thursday, 04/17

• Read Chapter 8 of Writer/Designer for details on how to set up the final version of your project. I want you to know the parameters you need to think about before you have to make your decisions.
• Review the section of the Project 3 Assignment that talks about your oral presentation. We’ll spend time during the 04/17 session talking about your oral presentations so that you can begin thinking about what you will share and say.

For Tuesday, 04/22

• You will have time to continue work on your project, implementing your revision plan.
• You will sign up for an oral presentation time slot.

• You still have THREE more class sessions to work on your project in class, in addition to the peer feedback you will get on Tuesday.
• You should have your assets in place for the peer feedback session on Tuesday, but don’t worry if one is missing or things still need a bit more editing.
• Remember that you need to listen to and implement the feedback you hear on Tuesday. You may end up changing a section, replacing an image, changing some words, and so forth. Don’t obsess with the idea of perfection until after Tuesday.
• Use the checklist in Writer/Designer on page 110 to figure out what you need to have ready.
• Realize that during peer feedback you can ask your classmates about options. For instance, perhaps you have two fonts you’re trying to decide between. Make a sample using both, and ask your classmates what they think.

In-Class Writing for 04/10: Progress Report

For your blog post today, you will create your progress report for the project. Usually a progress report has 3 parts:

1. What you have accomplished.
   Be honest and straightforward here. Never claim to have accomplished things you haven’t.
2. What you still need to do.
   Again, be honest and straightforward. You do not need to list things on a microscopic level, but you should provide enough information for the reader to see how much remains to be done.
3. Any needs, questions or concerns.
   If you have concerns about completing the project on time, say so, but also talk about how you will solve the problem or what you might change to get back on schedule. Generally, this section either explains you are confident to complete the project on time, or talks about how you are going to adjust to finish on time. If you need something from your manager or client, you ask for it in this section.

For your post, create related headings, and clearly explain the information for each section. A progress report should be succinct but include enough detail for your manager or client to understand the status of the project. You can use bulleted lists, but make your report flow smoothly. Aim for something stylistically between a to do list and a narrative description.

Homework

For Tuesday, 04/15: Peer Feedback Day

• Have a rough draft version of your text that you can share with two other people in class for feedback.
• Prepare a summary of the project’s rhetorical situation, using the questions on pp. 111–112. You need to be ready to explain about your audience, purpose, and design choices.
• Prepare to provide feedback on the project your classmates are sharing. Review the guidelines in the section of the book on “Providing Feedback as a Stakeholder” (pp. 112–115). Tuesday might be a good day to have your book in class.
• After you share your project and get feedback, you will write a first draft of your revision plan for the project as your blog post for the day. See pp. 116-118 for details on writing a revision plan.

For Thursday, 04/17

• Read Chapter 8 of Writer/Designer for details on how to set up the final version of your project. I want you to know the parameters you need to think about before you have to make your decisions.
• Review the section of the Project 3 Assignment that talks about your oral presentation. We’ll spend time during the 04/17 session talking about your oral presentations so that you can begin thinking about what you will share and say.

For Tuesday, 04/22

• You will have time to continue work on your project, implementing your revision plan.
• You will sign up for an oral presentation time slot.

Where You Should Be

By this point, your project should be beyond ideas in your head (or on paper). You should have completed your outline (or storyboard or mockup) for your project, you should have most of the assets you need to collect, and you should be in the process of making any final assets you need to create yourself and pulling the pieces into a rough cut.

Project To-Do List/Schedule

• Today
  You can continue to work on your rough draft in class, and once again, I will check with everyone and provide whatever help I can. By the end of today’s session, you should review the “Planning Your Rough Cut” section of Chapter 7 (pp. 107–109), and check your progress against the lists of the kinds of decisions usually in place for a rough cut. In your blog post for today, I’d like to see a similar list of things you have decided for your own project. You can also list things you haven’t decided yet, but will figure out very soon.
• Thursday, 04/10
  You should be moving toward a complete rough draft. I’ll ask you to use the checklist on p. 110 to check your progress and provide me with a progress report.
• Tuesday, 04/15: Peer Feedback Day
  You should have a rough draft version of your text that you can share with two other people in class for feedback. You will need to be prepared to provide your classmates with a summary of the project’s rhetorical, using the questions on pp. 111–112. When you provide feedback on someone else’s project, you’ll use the guidelines in the section of the book on “Providing Feedback as a Stakeholder” (pp. 112–115). Your blog post for the 4/15 class should be a first draft of your revision plan for the project.
• Thursday, 04/17
  Read Chapter 8 of Writer/Designer for details on how to set up the final version of your project. I want you to know the parameters you need to think about before you have to make your decisions. We’ll spend time during this session talking about your oral presentations as well.

In-Class Writing for 4/8

Be sure to write and publish a blog post for today that talks about what you have accomplished since your last post and why you did what you did.

Chapter 7 of Writer/Designer suggests that the different phases of work on your project are separate and definite, but in truth they rarely are. During the next week or so, you may find yourself tweaking your storyboard or mock-up while you are placing assets in your rough cut and at the same time searching for more assets. Creativity can be messy. Don’t be surprised if your process is a little different from the general version in the textbook.

Project To-Do List/Schedule

• Today
  By the end of today’s session, you should have a storyboard or mock-up for your project. You should also have a very good idea of what assets you have and what you still need to gather or create. I’m going to visit everyone in class today and ask to see what you have at this point.
• Tuesday, 4/8
  For next session, you should review the “Planning Your Rough Cut” section of Chapter 7 (pp. 107–109), and check your progress against the lists of the kinds of decisions usually in place for a rough cut. Create a similar list of things you have decided for your own project as part of your blog post for Tuesday, 04/08.
• Thursday, 04/10
  You should be moving to the rough draft stage. I’ll ask you to use the checklist on p. 110 to check your progress and provide me with a progress report.
• Tuesday, 04/15: Peer Feedback Day
  You should have a rough draft version of your text that you can share with two other people in class for feedback. You will need to be prepared to provide your classmates with a summary of the project’s rhetorical, using the questions on pp. 111–112. When you provide feedback on someone else’s project, you’ll use the guidelines in the section of the book on “Providing Feedback as a Stakeholder” (pp. 112–115). Your blog post for the 4/15 class should be a first draft of your revision plan for the project.

In-Class Writing for 4/3

Be sure to write and publish a blog post for today that talks about what you have accomplished since your last post and why you did what you did.

Goal for the Week

At this point, your topic, genre, and design should be solid. If you are thinking of changing something, put your name on the board, and I’ll come talk to you.

By the end of the week, you should have a strong outline of what you plan to include in your project. You don’t need to have all the piece created, and you may even change your outline as time goes on, but I would like to see everyone with a firm idea of the elements and the order they will appear in by the end of class on Thursday. If you are having particular trouble organizing your ideas, again, put your name on the board, and I’ll come talk to you.

Mock-up Tools

Mock-ups are usually used for websites, projects that are “static” (like posters or brochures), and texts that are primarily linguistic or visual in nature. Wireframes (if you’re familiar with the term) fall into this category. Be sure to use the Mock-up guidelines on p. 95 of Writer/Designer to guide your process.

You could use one of the tools that was reviewed in class: Froont (Christopher’s review) or Codepen (Jay’s review). You can also use a tool specifically designed for mock-ups like Mockflow, Invision (30-day free trial), Frame Box, or Pencil Project.

You could try a flowcharting tool (like Gliffy or Lucidchart) or mindmapping tool (like bubbl.us or Coggle).

Storyboarding Tools

Storyboarding is usually used for projects that move through a series of pieces, places, or points in time—like a video, comic book, or graphic novel. Be sure to use the storyboard guidelines on p. 97–98 of Writer/Designer to guide your process.

Storyboarding is, essentially, visual outlining your text, so you may be happy with creating a simple outline in Google Docs. For online tools I’ve made, I created storyboards with PowerPoint, because it was simple and I had a copy. If you do go this route, Google Slides would work too.

If you want to try something specifically created for storyboarding, take at look at these resources for creating and organizing storyboards:

• StoryboardThat
• Amazon Storyteller
• Shotbox
• Toon Boom Storyboard (30 day trial)
• WeVideo (video creation with built-in storyboarding)

In-Class Writing and Homework

• Today is the close of the course request period for Fall 2014. If you haven’t made your requests, please take time to do so.
• Check out the Awards for Professional Writing Majors & Minors. Deadline is April 18.
• Be sure to write and publish a blog post for today that talks about what you have accomplished since your last post and why you did what you did.
• Keep making progress on your project. Once you have your outline in place, you should begin finding or making the assets you will use in the project. Read Chapter 7 of Writer/Designer for details on moving from mock-ups/storyboards to a rough cut.

Remember that the goals for this project include participating excellently and being an excellent scholar. To that end, as your classmates pitch their ideas, please listen politely. Your attention should primarily be on your classmates, and not on your computer screen. As appropriate, you may ask questions about another student’s project, make suggestions, and offer support.

Project 3 Checklist

There are a lot of little things due as you work on Project 3, so I have made a checklist in Google Docs to help you keep track of what you have (or still need) to do. We can talk about it at more length next week.

For now, you can view the checklist online, and then go to the File menu and choose Make a Copy to save a copy to your Google Drive. Be sure to change the document name to include your first name, and add your name in the body of the document. Once you have a copy, you can either track things online, or print it out and track it on paper. At the end of the project, you will have a list of everything you have done.

Writing and Homework

• Be sure to write and publish a blog post for today that talks about what you have accomplished since your last post and why you did what you did.
• For Tuesday, April 1, be sure you have read Chapter 6. Most of the class time will be spent working on the project. By this point, you should be ready to work on mock-ups and storyboards in class, as described in the chapter.

Course Sign-up Reminder

It’s course request time for Fall 2014. Please be sure to sign up for your classes now to ensure that the courses are available when you need them! Courses that don’t “make” after course request period are often cancelled.

Additionally, if you are a professional writing major or minor and need to take technical writing (English 3764), I will be teaching two sections of course online this fall. I also have an online section this summer that still has seats available.

Here’s what we will focus on in class today:

• Answer any lingering questions about last week’s work.
• Consider an inspirational remix: Sorting 19th Century British Novelists Into Hogwarts
• Check out the blogroll in the right sidebar to see what your classmates are working on.
• Discuss how to track your sources and assets and comply with copyright laws:
  • Take advantage of your own creativity. Anything you make, you can use freely.
    Consider the approaches of The Christmas Snake or The elevators in my dorm are sealed off by two heavy doors or What Is Celiac Disease?.

  • Make a copy of the Project 3 Source List Template and track your sources there (or use your own system).
  • Read Copyright Fair Use and How it Works for Online Images, from Social Media Examiner, for an explanation of how and when you can use images that you find online.
  • Visit these tools to explore whether images you find online are copyright protected and whether your use is fair use:
    • Digital Slider, from the American Library Association.
    • Copyright Genie, from the American Library Association.
    • Fair Use Evaluator, from the American Library Association.
  • If you are unsure, you can look for copyright and media use guidelines online. For instance, NASA has posted guidelines on Using NASA Imagery and Linking to NASA Web Sites, and the U.S. government has posted this explanation of Copyright and Other Rights Pertaining to U.S. Government Works.
  • If you are looking for images, here are some good starting points:
    • Finding Public Domain Images for Multimedia Projects, from EdTechTeacher. Note that some of the links on this page are out of date.
    • The British Library Puts 1,000,000 Images into the Public Domain, Making Them Free to Reuse & Remix, from Open Culture.
    • Selected Internet Resources — Government Resources for
      Science Images and Video, from the Library of Congress.
    • Creative Commons Search.
• Talk about your class pitch for Thursday, March 27:
  • See the list of questions on p. 56 of Writer/Designer.
  • Watch and evaluate an example: Matt Wendling, Pitch (you will need to set up access to get to this video)

Writing and Homework

• Be sure to write a blog post for today that talks about what you have accomplished since your last post and why you did what you did.
• Be ready to give your pitch to the class next session. If you do have slides or a webpage you want to display in class (it’s completely optional), send me the link by 8 AM on Thursday, March 27.
• For Tuesday, April 1, be sure you have read Chapter 6. Most of the class time will be spent working on the project. By this point, you should be ready to work on mock-ups and storyboards in class, as described in the chapter.

For Thursday, March 20, you will focus on gathering sources for Project 3. At the end of your work for this session, you should have completed the project’s “Step 2. Do some preliminary research on your story.” You can look back at the description of Step 2 in the assignment for additional information and an example. Here are the tasks that I want you to complete for Thursday, March 20.

Reading

Read Chapter 4 of Writer/Designer. The chapter covers how to collect multimodal sources and assets, ethical issues to consider when collecting assets, and ways of citing multimodal texts depending on a project’s genre and rhetorical situation. We will talk about the issues of fair use and permissions more next week. You can hold any questions you have about those topics until Tuesday, 3/25.

Researching

Go to the library or go online and find three different (and credible) versions of the story you will explore. Evaluate the credibility of your sources with the information on pp. 58–60 in Writer/Designer. At least one of your resources needs to rely primarily on the linguistic mode of communication.

You will also need to find assets (see pp. 61–62) as you work on this project. Depending upon the story you are remixing and upon the form, genre, and tools you are using, you may need to find sound clips, video clips, photographs, cartoons, and so forth. As you conduct your research to locate three credible versions of the story you will remix (your sources), go ahead and collect any assets you find that you think you will use later.

I suggest you create a Google Doc named something like “Possible Assets” and just add links and a short annotation to that page as you find resources. Alternately, you might clip info to Evernote or use a bookmarking service like Diigo. Use whatever method you like, but save any cool things you find so you don’t have to search for them later. See the assignment on pp. 62–63 (“A Multimodal Annotated Source List, Part 1”) for the information to include in your annotations. NOTE: Finding assets is not a requirement for this week, but you will find it pays to keep track of possible assets that you find. Nothing is more frustrating than knowing that you saw something you could use and then not being able to find it again.

Writing

You need to write a blog post about the research you’ve done. Here’s what I will be looking for in the two parts of your blog post:

• What I Did
  Tell us what sources you found for your story. You need a minimum of three versions of your story, at least one of which should rely primarily on the linguistic mode of communication.
  If you have done extra work (like finding some useful assets), you can list or describe that information here too.
• Why I Did It
  Tell us why you chose the sources that you did for your story. Reflect on the credibility of your choices (see pp. 58–60) as you talk about why you selected the resources.

Again, some tips for your blog post

• Some of the WordPress themes are not displaying the HTML tables properly, so if you run into trouble just use headers for this week.
• Don’t stress about your posts. They don’t need to be perfect. They are public, so make sure you write things you are comfortable with others reading—but don’t spend hours writing them. I would expect you to spend no more than 15 to 20 minutes writing (30 as the absolute maximum if you have lots to say).
• If you’re not sure about something, make your best guess. Try your best, and you’ll be fine.
• Your choices are not permanent. If you realize later next week that you need to change one of your sources, you can adjust. People often need to revise their plans once they have begun work on a project, but your primary sources should be solid by Thursday, 3/27.

Sharing

Once you have written your blog post, add the link to your blog post for Thursday in the Project 3 discussion area. To help organize the posts, add the date and a few words on your topic with your link. For instance, I might post something like “For 3/20, I found three resources related to The Gettysburg Address.”

Choose the posts for 3/20 of at least 2 other people, and read their related blog posts. Add a response on G+ to their plans for Project 3. You can give them encouragement, share some ideas, ask questions, and so forth.

I want to make sure everyone gets a response, so please comment on the link of one person who hasn’t had any replies yet and one person who has had no more than 1 comment. You may read and share feedback with more than two people, of course. Participation and collaboration will help with this project.

Getting Help

I will be in sessions and presenting on Thursday, March 20, so I may not see any questions you have about this activity until late in the evening. Email me if you have a question, and I will respond when I can. Generally though, just do your best work. Guess if you’re not sure. You have until 11:55 PM on Saturday, 3/22 to get your blog posted. Be sure to email me your informal pitch by 11:55 PM on Sunday, 3/23.

Homework

• By 11:55 PM on Sunday, 3/23, email me the details on your topic. Consider your message an informal pitch. Tell me your topic, the form/genre you have chosen, and anything else you think I should know about your choice. I want enough information to “approve” your topic and plan for the project.
• Read Chapter 5 of Writer/Designer. Since you are working independently, you do not need to worry about the information in the reading on assembling and working with groups.
• We will also talk about your pitches, which you will give on Thursday, 3/27, so review “Step 3. Pitch your project” from the project assignment (and the related pages in the textbook).

For Tuesday, March 18, you will focus on what you will do for Project 3 (the content) and how you will do it (the form and design). At the end of your work for this session, you should have completed the project’s “Step 1. Choose a story.” You can look back at the description of Step 1 in the assignment for tips on focusing your ideas. Here are the tasks that I want you to complete for Tuesday, March 18

Reading

Read Chapter 3 of Writer/Designer. For Tuesday, you will focus on everything but “The Pitch.” We’ll come back to that idea later, but go ahead and read it all now.

Thinking and Planning

If you haven’t thought about your project over break, spend some time doing so now. You need to choose a story and decide on the kind of project you want to make.

If you are having difficulty deciding how you want to retell your story, check out the list of Story Remix Possibilities. It is not an exhaustive list. There are many more possibilities. If you want to add ideas to the list, you can add a comment to that post.

Writing

You need to write a blog post about the decisions you’ve made so far and what you were thinking as you made them. What you write for 3/18 should help you as you plan the pitch you will present on 3/27. As I explained before break, your blog post for each class needs to have two parts: (1) What I Did, and (2) Why I Did It. Here’s what I will be looking for in each section of your blog post:

• What I Did
  Tell us what story you have chosen to focus on (the content), and tell us you how you will do it (the form and the design). If you have done extra work to choose your story or look at alternatives, you can list or describe that information here too.
• Why I Did It
  You can subdivide this response into two parts. First, tell us why you chose the story you did and why are focused it the way you have.
  Second, tell us why you have chosen the form and design you have. Think back to the list of modes in Chapter 1—linguistic, visual, aural, spatial, and gestural—and the design choices in Chapter 2—emphasis, contrast, organization, alignment, and proximity. Apply any of those ideas as you describe and explain the reasons for your choices.

Some tips for your blog post

• Some of the WordPress themes are not displaying the HTML tables properly, so if you run into trouble just use headers for this week.
• Don’t stress about your posts. They don’t need to be perfect. They are public, so make sure you write things you are comfortable with others reading—but don’t spend hours writing them. I would expect you to spend no more than 15 to 20 minutes writing (30 as the absolute maximum if you have lots to say).
• If you’re not sure about something, make your best guess. Try your best, and you’ll be fine.
• Your choices are not permanent. If you realize later in the week or even next week that you need to change something about your focus, the form, or the design, you can adjust. People often need to revise their plans once they have begun work on a project.

Sharing

Once you have written your blog post, add the link to your blog post for Tuesday in the Project 3 discussion area. To help organize the posts, add the date and a few words on your topic with your link. For instance, I might post something like “For 3/18, I am focusing on the story of The Gettysburg Address.”

Choose the posts for 3/18 of at least 2 other people, and read their related blog posts. Add a response on G+ to their plans for Project 3. You can give them encouragement, share some ideas, ask questions, and so forth.

I want to make sure everyone gets a response, so please comment on the link of one person who hasn’t had any replies yet and one person who has had no more than 1 comment. You may read and share feedback with more than two people, of course. Participation and collaboration will help with this project.

Getting Help

I will be on the road Tuesday, March 18, so I may not see any questions you have about this activity until late in the evening. Email me if you have a question, and I will respond when I can. Generally though, just do your best work. Guess if you’re not sure. You have until 11:55 PM on Wednesday, 3/19 to get things done.