Assignment 6:
Visual and Multimedia Arguments
Proposal: Aug. 7
Rough Draft: Aug. 11
Final Draft: Aug. 12
For this assignment, you will draw on your studies so far in English 15 to produce a visual or multimedia argument that was featured in your position paper or proposal using the communicative mode of your choice. You are welcome to use another topic or modify your position.
The other key part of this assignment is to choose an appropriate mode for your argument. Will it be oral? Visual? Will it be made available online? Recorded live? Another option is to work in the opposite direction: that is, begin by choosing the mode in which you would like to work and then ask to what message or action or audience that mode might suggest. Your assignment must be presentable and it must be able to be submitted online. There will be class time dedicated to view everyone’s presentations.
Students are welcome to work in groups for this project. In addition, each student/group will submit a one-page justification of the medium and audience chosen. Thus, the choice itself needs to be a rhetorically sound, deliberate, and it should be based on the conditions under which your desired audience will encounter the argument. The range is wide open: a short video, a speech of some sort, a podcast, a photo essay, a public performance, a visual flyer or poster, some sort of flash performance, the list of possibilities could go on and on.
The aims of this assignment are:
- To revise a written essay by transferring it to a different medium
- To demonstrate an awareness of what constitutes effective visual rhetoric.
- To show a strong awareness of the rhetorical benefits of different modes of communication as well as their weaknesses.
A version of your project should be submitted in an ANGEL Dropbox.
If you don’t mind—this is completely voluntary and will not affect your grade!—Consider submitting your work for the next edition of Penn Statements.