Class, Tues, 12/06

Some Important Forms

Arcade

Display your Medium essay on your laptop. Walk around. See what other people have done. Talk with them. Jot down the authors and titles of at least five pieces that impress you. (Let’s make a rule: These pieces cannot be from members of your workshop group.) Note down some common strategies of digitizing that all (or at least most) of these writers use. But also try to note at least one distinctive aspect of each of the pieces you discuss.

Digitizing Worksheet

To Do

Nothing! Wait for an email from me early next week informing you of your final grade. Consider taking another writing course, or even enrolling for the Writing Minor. Say hi to me if we pass each other on The Green or in Memorial!

Digital Writing

For your final assignment for this course, I’d like you to revise one of your two final essays in ways that make thoughtful use of the affordances of writing in a digital space. An affordance is something that a particular medium allows you to do easily or well. The affordances of digital writing include

  • incorporating images into your writing;
  • linking directly to other online texts;
  • quoting audio or video clips in your essay; and
  • adding audio or video clips that you have produced to your essay.

Your task is to use some of these affordances to revise and re-present your second essay on Medium.com.

I will be especially impressed if the changes or additions you make lead to some new writing. If you insert an image into your essay, don’t let it just sit there—comment on it, analyze it. If you link to other texts, tell us what it is you want us to notice about them. If you use audio or video, be thoughtful in editing the clip; go right to the moment in the song or film that you want to focus our attention on.

Be creative. Take some risks. If you try something and it doesn’t work—no worries, your grade won’t be affected. Simply for doing this assignment, you will receive 10 extra points. But if you rethink or develop your essay as you post it to Medium, you will receive 20 extra points.

To post your work to Medium, you will need to set up a free account on the site. I will walk you through the actual mechanics of posting in class—it’s straightforward and easy—and we’ll also look at some examples of what other writers have done on the site. I’ve also posted a brief set of hints on Formatting on Medium. I hope that, like me, you’ll find Medium an elegant and appealing platform for writing.

Post your essay on Medium by 4:00 pm on on Monday , 12/05.. Please email me the link to your essay, and bring your laptop with you to class. If you feel you have significantly revised or developed your piece, please outline what you have done in the body of your email.  I will review your note to see if I agree that you  have earned an extra 10 points.

We will use much of our class on Tuesday, 12/06 to view your digital essays in a kind of electronic “arcade” .