English 120 Project #2 The YouTube Commentary Minimum length: 5 minutes. Issue Report due date: second half of class time, 10/17. Video draft due date: __________ This is the date you sign up to present your draft to the class. Final version and Peer Evaluation due date: __________ Maximum points possible: 30   (27-30 = A; 23-26 = B; 19-22 = C; 15-18 = D; below 15 = F)

Fall 2014

 

Preliminaries

Visual and audio media are everywhere and virtually saturate our environments at school, work, and home. Smart phone screens, tablets, electronic city billboards, TV, the Web at large, music players, even plain old fashioned signs and bumper stickers are continually in our line of vision. Even clothing has become a form of mass media, with its often flashy product logos or political messages that reach anyone whose physicil space we share. Many educators have thus come to understand "literacy" as much more than the ability to comprehend and produce verbal language; it means fluency in visual and electronic language as well.

For this second project you'll make your own verbal-visual, multi-media argument designed for YouTube. YouTube has become a huge resource for DIY impromput videos as well as amateur and professional work of all genres, and is full of commentary (often humorous) on controversial subjects. Your commentary can certainly include humor, but it will fall on the amateur-to-professional end of the spectrum (i.e., "semi-professional").

Together with your groupmates, you'll research an issue of interest to you, then develop an argument for your position on that issue which stretches your multi-media know-how. This assignment will give you further understanding of argument in its many forms, and help you to assert and defend your own views in multiple ways. It will also help you to assess your own viewpoint as well as viewpoints different from your own. (Remember that it's crucial to understand multiple perspectives on the issue at hand. If you attempt to make an argument built on ignorance, blinkered vision, or ill will, that argument will almost certainly be ineffective—not to mention unethical.)

 

 

Instructions

1. Select any meaningful, current, controversial topic of interest to you. This issue can be local, national, or international, and may involve substantive, evaluative, or policy arguments.
2. Divide up group roles: Point Person, Scribe, Equipment Person, Artist, Devil's Advocate
3. Focus and formulate your topic as an "issue" or a tentative question (a yes-no questions is sometimes easiest). Your question will be "tentative" because you may need to eventually re-frame or reformulate it based on what you discover in research. I.e., you may need to focus more broadly or narrowly, or simply state the question differently to ultimately develop a do-able argument.
4. Locate plenty of background info:
   • Key terms and definitions
   • Key spokespersons
   • History of the issue (how long has it actually been an issue? Is it currently in the news?)
   • Any pertinent legislation.
   • Alternative ways of focusing the topic or stating the question.
5. Research the specific claims and grounds offered by each side. You should end up with at least 5 sources, not counting Wikipedia. You should have a very clear understanding of what claims are typically made and what evidence or grounds are commonly used to back them up on any side of the issue. (You'll hand in an "Issue Report" during the research phase of the project.)
6. Develop your own position on the issue and an argument in which you attempt to convince a hostile, opposed, or undecided viewer that your position is best.
7. Browse YouTube intensively for political videos, both serious and funny.
   
8. Develop a semi-professional YouTube video or Power Point presentations which makes your argument verbally, visually, and aurally. Minimum length: 5 minutes.
9. Post your film to YouTube in the account of one of your group members. If you run into snags, then just post your work in Bb, as instructed in class.
   
   Note:

   • You will need to start early and avoid procrastinating. Because you may be using complex equipment or software, this project can be very time-intensive.
   • I'll take into account, in my evaluation of your work, your degree of experience or inexperience and the relative complexity of your tools.

 

Process Narrative

Each group will hand in a 1 to 2-page, typed and double-spaced narrative of your experience which includes the following:

 

Evaluation Rubric

CLICK HERE FOR THE RUBRIC.

 

Group Member Evaluation

Click here for the group member evaluation sheet.

 

Deadlines

 

Late Drafts

Each group will sign up for a whole-class critique of their video draft. If any group members are missing on the critique day, then arrangements should be made by the group for those people to make up the work in some way which benefits everyone.

Late Final Versions

Late finished versions will be accepted up to a week late. There is no need for a late form, in this case, because all projects will be posted electronically in Bb.

NOTE! NOTE! NOTE! NOTE! NOTE! NOTE! NOTE! NOTE!

• Because your topic options in this assignment are so broad, I need to help each one of you fine-tune your project plans. This means I may require you to make specific, mutually agreed-upon adjustments to the size or development of your project as you go along, to ensure that everyone in class is doing an equal amount of work. If you use a design template, for example, for a Power Point presentation or film, I may expect considerably more in some other area of the project (since the design was pre-made).
• Be sure to apply Chapter 17, "Designing" (along with any other assigned passages of the book on visual language and any Power Point presentations on design). To do well on this assignment, you'll need to read this material carefully, paying close attention to the elements of a good argument as well as the basic principles of visual design.
• During the research and drafting process, each group will hand in an "Issue Report"--a list of claims and evidence for each position on the issue in question. Remember that, to construct an effective argument, you should understand and be very familiar with all positions, not just your own!
• Each group will share a draft of their work with the class and undergo a group workshop/critique session.