New Media Writing Project

Assignment Made: February 13
Text due: February 27
Web Version due: March 11

Sample Ideas | Paper Guidelines | Web Site Guidelines | Step by Step | Resources

Description and Rationale

This project will ask you to begin a new media project by first working in an old medium--writing. You will write an argument, narrative or explanation about a topic you know and care about in a three-to-five page "paper." Then you'll repurpose and "remediate" that material to create a Web site that fulfills the same purposes except in a digital environment.

Rationale: Print-based writing and New Media writing operate by entirely different rules. Both have their strengths. Often in work on New Media projects, the development of the content and the depth of thought become a lower-tier priority, partly because we're distracted by the many choices and challenges of working in the electronic medium, and partly because the piecemeal nature of writing (see Nielsen's Chapter 3, "Content Design") for the screen doesn't allow us occasions as creators of a text for sustained, uninterrupted elaboration of emergent ideas and lines of thought in a voice. Basically, when "designing content" for the screen we don't have a chance really to cook our ideas-to combine, meld and synthesize them, to put them into an ongoing discussion or narrative, as we do in verbal writing-before we present them. This assignment, therefore, will allow you to develop and realize an idea in both forms of writing, ideally combining and integrating the strengths of both. It will also help you begin consciously to chart and learn to navigate the line between print and digital ways of thinking and being-a line that you'll be crossing and recrossing in work throughout your careers and lives.

Some Sample Paper Ideas

Write an autobiographical piece about an experience which has a point (a trip to California/a realization about life in Minnesota)
Tell the story of a local place or landmark (the Lakewalk, the Congdon mansion)
Take a side in a public issue or controversy and make an argument for your side, taking care to consider, respect and speak to the other position (public funding for a baseball stadium to save the Twins)
Describe in detail how to do something that requires some thought/taste/judgment--avoiding purely mechanical step-by-step directions (painting a picture, or taking a really good photograph, of the ship William Irvin)
Make a recommendation of a particular decision or course of action-addressed to the person or group who would make that decision (choosing the best laptop with the right features for students on a budget to buy)
Make up your own: as long as you follow these general guidelines that apply to any of the "New Media" Papers:

Guidelines for the Paper

has a point (a thesis that you're proving, a position that you're arguing for, an insight achieved),
uses lots of supporting, concrete detail that support and illustrate your ideas,
written in a strong but appropriate voice that speaks to an audience,
written with some sustained reflection or analysis that considers ideas

Guidelines for the Web-based Project

realizes the purpose and effects of the paper project but in the discourse of the Web
presents multiple Web pages with a clear links among them
includes some kind of menu system on all pages which is easy to find and understand (this is key since you'll be turning over responsibility for sequencing and coverage of the topic to the user)
combines and coordinates graphics and text
includes content on every page
makes wise use of screen real estate and minimizes scrolling
includes links to external resources
follows Nielsen's guidelines for "content design"

Step by Step

1. Decide on a topic to write your "paper" about. Don't think right now about how you'll repurpose this in a Web-based project. In fact, the more difficult the content is to repurpose, the more credit you'll get. The more obvious and easy the job of repurposing, the less you'll have to do. The main consideration is to chose a topic that you are engaged with and already know some things about (and want to find out more)

2. Write your formal 3-5 page paper, following the guidelines above and turn it in on Wednesday, February 27. In class that evening, I'll have you compose and send me an e-mail message with the subject line "5230 New Media concerns" in which you can informally consult with me about your concerns with the paper and its content, and looking ahead to the task of recreating the purpose and effects of the paper in an appropriately Web-based project

3. I will read your paper and respond to it as well as to your "5230 New Media concerns" e-mail message. We can e-mail back and forth if you have further questions or issues.

4. Between February 27 and Monday, March 11, you'll develop a Web site following the guidelines above

5. Bring to class on Wednesday, March 13 a self commentary on the entire experience of the project: writing the original paper, repurposing the paper into a Web site including finding additional resources (e.g., graphics, external Web sites). The self commentary should also reflect on the larger issues/problems/conflict, raised in some of our readings in the Trend book (Landow's piece, for instance) involved in the process of "remediating" (to recast in a new medium) a written, print-based work for an electronic, screen-based medium.

Resources

Peter Morville's article on the ethics of labeling and granularity

Link to the completed projects from the URL page.