digital essay assignment

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DartWrite Digital Portfolio Project

Dartmouth's home for digital writing portfolios

Digital Essay Project (Assignment Example)

Tina Van Kley has asked her Writing 5 students to re-mediate a research essay as what she calls (borrowing from Dan Cohen) a "digital essay." Students radically reshape and rewrite their projects for a public, online audience. They work toward the early drafts by exploring public writing on the web, noticing how the conventions of academic writing are both harnessed and changed in public online writing.  Students draft and complete the project as a single page on their portfolio sites. You can see an example of student work from winter 2019: https://journeys.dartmouth.edu/rayhcrist22/digital-essay/

Tina has shared a copy of the assignment text as it appeared in a recent class:

Project 3: Digital Essay

Your final project is to adapt your topic and research for Project 2 for a new, broad audience and digital medium, using your Dartmouth WordPress site.

Historian and New Media scholar Dan Cohen defines the digital essay (or – more controversially – “blessay”) as “a manifestation of the convergence of journalism and scholarship in mid-length forms online.” He cites the kind of thoughtful, informed writing found at places like The Atlantic’s website (Links to an external site.), Longform.org (Links to an external site.), and The New Yorker (Links to an external site.), or hear on NPR shows and podcasts like the investigative pieces on This American Life (Links to an external site.). We will read and listen to examples of such work to discuss the genre and its features. Some characteristics of the digital essay, as developed by Cohen (Links to an external site.):

• Mid-length: more ambitious than a blog post, less comprehensive than an academic article. Written to the length that is necessary, but no more. If we need to put a number on it, generally 1,000-3,000 words.
• Informed by academic knowledge and analysis, but doesn’t rub your nose in it.
• Uses the apparatus of the web more than the apparatus of the academic journal, e.g., links rather than footnotes. Where helpful, uses supplementary evidence from images, audio, and video—elements that are often missing or flattened in print.
• Expresses expertise but also curiosity. Conclusive, but also suggestive.
• Written for both specialists and an intelligent general audience. Avoids academic jargon—not to be populist, but rather out of a feeling that avoiding jargon is part of writing well.

Additional characteristics:

• The writer is often "present" in the piece, via use of first-person pronouns and/or anecdotes.
• Digital essays look different from traditional academic essays. Rather than titles, they have headlines and sub-headlines that give the motive and/or thesis. Paragraphs are often much shorter, and spacing is used strategically for online consumption, which prioritizes speed, efficiency, and high degree of skim-ability.

As with Projects 1 and 2, Project 3 is argumentative, but the approach taken should be exploratory and questioning, as implied by Cohen’s phrase “conclusive but also suggestive.” The imagined audience is anyone who might find your site in a search related to your topic, i.e., general but willing to read something that would take 45 minutes to an hour to read.

Basic Requirements:

• Use WordPress site
• 1,000-3,000 words in length
• Includes both visual and/or aural content that is integrated with the writing
• Includes at least 2 primary and at least 3 secondary sources (at least 2 of which should be scholarly)
•  Is the essay clearly addressed to a broad audience?
• Does the essay make appropriate use of the digital medium (e.g., includes a/v content, hyperlinks, etc.), or does it look like a typical academic essay copied and pasted onto a web page?
• Are digital elements (such as video, audio, images, etc.) incorporated effectively into the writing, and captioned, cited, or linked to appropriately?
• Does the essay identify the most appropriate source materials and methods for researching the topic?
• Is the essay’s thesis persuasive? Is it supported with convincing evidence and analysis?
• Is the essay organized, and does it include sufficient background for audiences unfamiliar with the topic?

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Digital Scholarship staff have supported a variety of types of digital assignments that range both in digital method and skill level.

Podcasting — Students are assigned to create a short podcast episode (usually around 5 minutes in length), usually taking the place of a more standard essay assignment. DS staff led workshops to introduce audio editing software and discuss storyboarding and other project management strategies. Under normal circumstances, students were also able to check out DSC microphones and use DSC space for recording.

Video Editing —  Like podcasting, video assignments often substitute for an essay assignment or final project. In one support course, students worked in groups of four to research, author, peer review, and then record 3–5 minute videos composed of 5–6 slides that explained the significance of one object from the Pharaonic Period (3000–3332 BCE) for understanding gender in ancient Egypt. Videos included rich imagery of the object (and other images necessary to understand the object) with explanatory voiceover. These videos were similar to the idea behind the British Museum’s "History of the world in 100 objects" podcast .

Mapping — A number of instructors have assigned students to create an interactive, media-rich essay using the web-based tool StoryMaps. A more advanced course on the history of unfree migration required students to create multiple maps using the open source mapping software QGIS and the web-based ArcGIS Online. DS staff delivered workshops and developed custom tutorials for these courses.

Digital Exhibit Building —  Student-created digital exhibits are best supported as group assignments scaffolded throughout the quarter and integrating source selection, digital skills, and topic exploration. These often take the place of a mid-semester project or a final project.  Timeline exhibits have focused student attention on how temporality affects their subject.  Thinglink allows users to annotate images using text, other images, and online videos to call attention to specific aspects of that image and allow for close examination. For a more robust object-based virtual exhibit, we have hosted a quarter-long instance of Omeka , which allows the creation of object based virtual exhibits.

Visit What We Support to learn more about the digital methods and tools we can work with.

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Land Acknowledgement

The land on which we gather is the unceded territory of the Awaswas-speaking Uypi Tribe. The Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, comprised of the descendants of indigenous people taken to missions Santa Cruz and San Juan Bautista during Spanish colonization of the Central Coast, is today working hard to restore traditional stewardship practices on these lands and heal from historical trauma.

The land acknowledgement used at UC Santa Cruz was developed in partnership with the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band Chairman and the Amah Mutsun Relearning Program at the UCSC Arboretum .

• Last Updated: Apr 16, 2024 1:55 PM
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Video essays and digital storytelling

How to use this guide

What is a video/multimedia essay?

• Digital storytelling
• 1. Planning and storyboarding
• 2. Gathering images/video/audio
• 3. Video editing
• 4. Creating credits

This guide will take you step-by-step through the process of creating a video essay or digital story. The guide is laid out in the order you might approach your given assignment.  Tips, recommendations, and links to various tools are provided along the way.

You can work through each step by using the left navigation, or you can jump into the topic of your choosing.

What is a video essay?

Video essays use audiovisual materials to present research or explore topics. Like written essays, they may contain an introduction, argument, supporting evidence, and conclusion.

Introduction

Writing an essay, multi-media or otherwise, is about telling a story. Stories have a structure, and the academic structure for an essay is different than the structure for a novel or biography. Nonetheless, some of the same basic story structures apply.

Stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end, and there has to be some kind of coherence or flow to their telling. In the case of telling a digital story, this linear structure can be stretched a little because of the options that multimedia affords. And, because the story is told "on camera", there is some work to be done prior to its telling. A video essay parallels what you would do in a written essay in regards to determining:

• what story you want to tell;
• how that story will be structured (what gets included);
• what order it goes in to build your argument or thesis; and
• because it is academic, how and where you need to support your story elements with reference to the academic literature (citations).

--Introduction courtesy of Dr. Robin Cox, Associate Professor, Royal Roads University

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• Last Updated: Aug 18, 2023 1:01 PM
• URL: https://libguides.royalroads.ca/videoessayhowto

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Tips for Effective Digital Assignments

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In my previous post , I reviewed some common types of digital assignments: screencast videos, video essays, websites, infographics, podcasts, and annotated collections of resources. These assignments are both practical for remote/online learning and help students learn, review, and demonstrate knowledge of content in newer, more innovative ways. In today’s post, I will discuss some tips to complete such assignments more effectively.

Be a Student, Not a YouTuber

When I started thinking more about digital assignments, problems with video essays came to mind right away. Too often, video essayists present themselves as YouTubers, not as serious students in their field. If a video essay is for your own personal use and enjoyment, use whatever tone and language you like. But if the assignment is for school, consider the audience. Do not start an academic video with, “Hey, guys! I hope you like my video,” or speak to the camera like your pals are on the other end. Use language similar to what you would use in a written paper, unless otherwise directed by your instructor.

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With any digital assignment, follow steps similar to those you would  follow for a traditional assignment like a paper. Read the assignment carefully and make sure you understand it fully, plan your process, ensure your argument is solid, conduct thorough research, write the text of your video using appropriate language, revise and proofread, and document your sources.

Digital assignments are meant to stimulate your brain in new ways and to be highly engaging, but they are still serious work, so treat them as such.

Use Quality Resources

As with any assignment involving research, make sure to use good resources. Your instructor may specify types and quantities of sources to use; make sure to follow those guidelines. Remember, when selecting sources, just because an assignment must be completed using a computer does not mean the sources you use must all be digital, such as online books, articles, and reports. Visit the brick-and-mortar library and use real books and journals too. When you do use online sources, make sure they are of high quality. The information you get from a website or blog often comes attached to an agenda and may not be the most credible, informed, and unbiased account available.

Practice Your Best Learning Habits

When completing any assignments, digital or otherwise, you always need a few general skills such as mindful self-discipline, goal setting, and time management. Digital assignments necessitate sitting in front of the computer, often using the distracting internet. So when completing a digital assignment with heavy computer use, it is especially important to plan—and stick to a plan —to avoid going down the internet rabbit hole of distraction .

Understand the Technology You Use

I am quite used to the way Microsoft Office works, and when I first used Google Docs I found it a little tricky to navigate the menus and find needed tools. Writing students of mine also struggled with Google Docs tools, and at first turned in work littered with spelling errors. I could not figure it out. Sure, they were bad spellers, but this was ridiculous spelling. It turned out spelling errors were not being highlighted because the feature was not being switched on, and so my students thought there was nothing to fix.

It is easy to get used to one type of software and expect other programs you use to function the same way, and thus you may fail, at first. Because many digital assignments will involve using a new program, browser extension, and the like, you many find yourself in new technological territory.

When I started using Loom to make short videos for students, it took quite a few tries to produce a decent-quality presentation. Should you have a new modality in which to operate for an assignment, taking some time to practice before starting on your official assignment can save you considerable time in the long run, as you are less likely to have to start over repeatedly if you already know what you are doing.

Remember, digital assignments can be especially engaging and more “fun” than traditional papers, but do not get carried away with the fun and lose sight of the more serious, academic purpose of  the task at hand.

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Assigning and Assessing Multimodal Projects

The what and why of multimodal projects.

What are multimodal writing assignments?  Unlike traditional writing assignments, which feature only text, multimodal writing assignments ask students to compose across a range of media. Students might be asked to combined text with data visualization and images to create an infographic, or to script and produce a podcast or video. Multimodal assignments are becoming increasingly common at both the high school and college level, driven by the dramatic expansion of such texts in professional and extra-academic settings, as well as the expanding array of tools available to facilitate their production. Multimodal writing is on the rise in academia as well, with an increasing number of peer-reviewed journals such as  Kairos  and  Digital Scholarship in the Humanities  featuring such work exclusively.

Why should we consider assigning multimodal writing in our courses?  While many faculty like the idea of multimedia writing assignments, they often worry about whether such projects are worthwhile. How can a podcast or website support the same learning goals as traditional writing assignments — and with the same level of rigor? But constructed thoughtfully, multimodal assignments can challenge students to engage more actively with rhetorical considerations such as audience, purpose, and context. They also allow students to tap into their existing literacy skills in new ways, drawing from their own experiences as consumers and producers of multimodal texts outside the classroom to showcase the information learned in the course. In fact, multimodal assignments often ask  more  of students, requiring them to break out of their default approach to writing assignments and and make more deliberate, conscious rhetorical choices.

Below we’ve collected some resources about multimodal writing assignments that provide more in-depth discussion of these two questions, as well as some basic initial directions for thinking about how to incorporate such work into the classroom. In our next post, we’ll look at best practices for designing these assignments, and provide some resources for getting started.

“The Importance of Undergraduate Multimedia: An Argument in Seven Acts”  by Justin Hodgson, Scott Nelson, Andrew Rechnitz, & Cleve Wiese: This article from the online digital rhetoric journal Kairos uses a multimedia format to present its case for the value of assigning digital writing to undergraduates. (Requires Flash – make sure it’s enabled on your browser before watching.)

“Seeing the Text” by Stephen Bernhardt:  This article focuses specifically on visual layout of traditional text, presenting an in-depth example of how considering the visual presentation of textual information can significantly increase its readability and accessibility to a general audience. Originally published in 1986, it functions now as a compelling argument that writing multimodally does not need to be digitally intricate to be rhetorically effective.

“Why Teach Digital Writing?”:  From Michigan State’s Writing, Information, and Digital Experience Program, this comprehensive site provides a look at why we should teach digital writing, what digital writing encompasses, and what tools we might use to teach digital writing effectively.

NCTE Position Statement on Multimodal Literacies:  In 2005, the National Council of Teachers of English published this position statement on multimodal literacies. In addition to defining multimodal literacies, this document also reviews the benefits and challenges of teaching digital forms.

Assessing Multimodal Projects

How do I evaluate multimodal assignments?  Evaluation is a common concern about introducing multimodal writing to a course for the first time. Instructors often feel they lack the experience or expertise to grade writing that isn’t primarily alphabetic, since it’s not what they themselves typically produce. And since most of us have years of experience grading essays, we have set methods and expectations for what an “A” paper looks like – but may not have a fixed idea of what realistically constitutes an “A” podcast or website.

There are a variety of different approaches to evaluating multimodal writing, many of which adopt or build on best practices for standard grading. For example, many instructors advocate using some form of student-generated grading criteria or rubrics to assign grades to multimodal assignments; this approach engages students in reflection about what rhetorically effective communication looks like in the assigned modes before they begin producing their own work. Another common strategy is to include a reflection component in the assignment, such as a cover letter in which students reflect in writing on the choices they made in composing their multimodal work. This letter can then be used to guide the instructor’s evaluation, based on the degree of thought and sophistication behind those choices. This allows instructors to focus on what we are experts in: how well students respond to the rhetorical situation in which they’ve been asked to write.

For more detail about applying these strategies, as well as further discussion of the unique challenges and opportunities posed by evaluating multimodal assignments, check out the resources linked below. We’ve rounded up some articles and posts by other experts and experienced instructors that address this common anxiety about multimodal assignments. In our next post, we’ll hear from some instructors here at Georgetown about how they’ve incorporated multimodal writing into courses here.

“Integrating Assessment and Instruction: Using Student-Generated Grading Criteria to Evaluate Multimodal Digital Projects,”  Chanon Adsanatham: This article from  Computers and Composition makes a case for scaffolding multimodal assignments with discussions that ask students to evaluate the mode they’ve been assigned to compose with before beginning to compose themselves.

“Evaluating Multimodal Assignments,”  Elizabeth Kleinfeld and Amy Braziller: This final installment in a 3-part series on digital assignments discusses some practical tips for evaluation, including reflection and rubrics.

“Evaluating Multimodal Work, Revisited,”  Shannon Christine Mattern: Published by the  Journal of Digital Humanities , this essay addresses a simple question: when it comes to multimodal assignments, how do we know what’s “good?”

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• Designing Essay Assignments

by Gordon Harvey

Students often do their best and hardest thinking, and feel the greatest sense of mastery and growth, in their writing. Courses and assignments should be planned with this in mind. Three principles are paramount:

1. Name what you want and imagine students doing it

However free students are to range and explore in a paper, the general kind of paper you’re inviting has common components, operations, and criteria of success, and you should make these explicit. Having satisfied yourself, as you should, that what you’re asking is doable, with dignity, by writers just learning the material, try to anticipate in your prompt or discussions of the assignment the following queries:

• What is the purpose of this? How am I going beyond what we have done, or applying it in a new area, or practicing a key academic skill or kind of work?
• To what audience should I imagine myself writing?
• What is the main task or tasks, in a nutshell? What does that key word (e.g., analyze, significance of, critique, explore, interesting, support) really mean in this context or this field?
• What will be most challenging in this and what qualities will most distinguish a good paper? Where should I put my energy? (Lists of possible questions for students to answer in a paper are often not sufficiently prioritized to be helpful.)
• What misconceptions might I have about what I’m to do? (How is this like or unlike other papers I may have written?) Are there too-easy approaches I might take or likely pitfalls? An ambitious goal or standard that I might think I’m expected to meet but am not?
• What form will evidence take in my paper (e.g., block quotations? paraphrase? graphs or charts?) How should I cite it? Should I use/cite material from lecture or section?
• Are there some broad options for structure, emphasis, or approach that I’ll likely be choosing among?
• How should I get started on this? What would be a helpful (or unhelpful) way to take notes, gather data, discover a question or idea? Should I do research? 

2. Take time in class to prepare students to succeed at the paper

Resist the impulse to think of class meetings as time for “content” and of writing as work done outside class. Your students won’t have mastered the art of paper writing (if such a mastery is possible) and won’t know the particular disciplinary expectations or moves relevant to the material at hand. Take time in class to show them: 

• discuss the assignment in class when you give it, so students can see that you take it seriously, so they can ask questions about it, so they can have it in mind during subsequent class discussions;
• introduce the analytic vocabulary of your assignment into class discussions, and take opportunities to note relevant moves made in discussion or good paper topics that arise;
• have students practice key tasks in class discussions, or in informal writing they do in before or after discussions;
• show examples of writing that illustrates components and criteria of the assignment and that inspires (class readings can sometimes serve as illustrations of a writing principle; so can short excerpts of writing—e.g., a sampling of introductions; and so can bad writing—e.g., a list of problematic thesis statements);
• the topics of originality and plagiarism (what the temptations might be, how to avoid risks) should at some point be addressed directly. 

3. Build in process

Ideas develop over time, in a process of posing and revising and getting feedback and revising some more. Assignments should allow for this process in the following ways:

• smaller assignments should prepare for larger ones later;
• students should do some thinking and writing before they write a draft and get a response to it (even if only a response to a proposal or thesis statement sent by email, or described in class);
• for larger papers, students should write and get response (using the skills vocabulary of the assignment) to a draft—at least an “oral draft” (condensed for delivery to the class);
• if possible, meet with students individually about their writing: nothing inspires them more than feeling that you care about their work and development;
• let students reflect on their own writing, in brief cover letters attached to drafts and revisions (these may also ask students to perform certain checks on what they have written, before submitting);
• have clear and firm policies about late work that nonetheless allow for exception if students talk to you in advance.
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Visual Literacies: Digital Essay

The documents for this digital essay assignment were created for a second year integrative perspectives course, UNIV200.09 “Visual Literacies in a Digital World.” The course was taught in the spring of 2016.

Throughout this Integrative Perspectives course–taught by two faculty from different disciplines–students explored what it means to be a visually literate person in a digital age. In the second half of the semester, students created Digital Essays. The topic of the essay, “The Rest of the Story,” pushed students to think about the frequent disconnect between the curated image or online identity and the underlying influences or story that lead to the representation. In an increasingly visual culture, students often struggle to apply a critical lens to movies, television, commercials; however, they do so with ease when engaging with texts. Professors Mann and Sherwood selected the digital essay format in order to help students develop their ability to think critically about multi-modal work by understanding how image and sound impact our experience. In making choices to strengthen their written/spoken argument through the incorporation of images and sound, students begin to understand how others use such stimuli in order to impact their experiences and understanding.

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• Final Draft Peer Review

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Multimedia Writing Assignments in East Asian Visual Culture

Professor Adam Kern - East Asian 433 / East Asian 833

Description of Course Writing Goals

A secondary goal of the course is to help each student research, write, and publish online an academic digital essay presenting his or her research. Toward this end, training for beginners as well as tips for more advanced students will be provided as part of the course itself, drawing on the expertise of staff members from DoIT / STS, Engage, the library system, and the Writing Center.

Each student will present his or her final research project in the form of an approximately ten-minute digital essay (worth 60% of the course grade) by publishing it on YouTube. Each student will also be required to submit a brief prospectus (10%) and a storyboard (20%) laying out a preliminary thesis, research, and findings with an eye and ear to how these will be integrated into the digital essay.

Digital Essay Assignment

The digital essay should answer the question “What is early modern Japanese visual culture?” in a way that makes sense in light of each student’s particular research interests. Students of EA 833 should make demonstrable and meaningful use of Japanese-language materials in their research. The essay of each student, however, should make an original contribution to knowledge. The essay should deploy such components as still images, video clips, a soundtrack, voiceovers, animation, subtitles, and so on. Essays should include a title, student’s name, course title, instructor’s name, institution title, date, and complete list of all sources (including music). Most crucially, each project must obtain proper permissions for these sources. Although a workshop session will be devoted exclusively to this topic, an idea of what is involved can be gleaned from: http://www.library.wisc.edu/copyright/#copyright-basics.

In addition to meeting these criteria, essays will be assessed for originality of argument, clarity, and persuasiveness, as well as for technical polish. Essays should contain a readily discernible thesis statement, germane supporting evidence, and a conclusion that does more than merely regurgitate said thesis statement. Completed digital essays must be published on YouTube and its embedded link sent to me via email. Each essay must also be finalized in .mov form, burned to a disk, and physically placed in the plastic bin on the door to my office.

Storyboarding Assignment—Simulated Multimedia Drafting

A storyboard is a comic-book like script for a multimedia project (e.g., a digital essay, animation, or feature movie). A storyboard consists of a sequence of images or illustrations accompanied by notes about transitions between images, the soundtrack, text, and so forth. Its purpose is to help you “pre-visualize” your project. Pre-visualization is a way of drafting the project before committing too much production time to aspects of the project that ultimately might not prove viable. The storyboard is thus a kind of simulated draft of your final multimedia project. With a draft, you of course can—and inevitably will–change any of its components as you move toward the finished product. Ideally, however, your storyboard should be complete enough to give your reader a clear idea of how your final project will look, sound, and feel.

Key Components:

1) Title Slide(s) . Your title proper should convey your topic (e.g. “Such and such in Eighteenth-Century Japanese Visual Culture”) or, if you know it already, your thesis (e.g. “Eighteenth-Century Japanese Pornography: You Might Not Know It When You See It!”). The title slide should also include your name .

2) Visuals . A storyboard needs to lay out a sequence of images (e.g. captured images, photographs, video clips, animation) or illustrations (e.g., your own doodles) that represents actual visuals to be included in the project. Although the ideal would be to use actual visuals for which you have obtained permissions, in practice it is perfectly acceptable to use a “place holder” to indicate a generic image (e.g. “ shunga image here”) even if you do not have the actual image yet. A storyboard should also indicate notes about such things as the estimated timing of visuals (e.g., “five seconds”), transitions between visuals (e.g., “fade through black, .5 seconds”), and even any special effects to draw attention to a portion of your visuals (e.g., Ken Burns effect).

 3) Text . A storyboard also needs to coordinate your visuals with your text . While the ideal would be to use an actual script , to be conveyed to your audience as a voiceover and/or subtitles , it is okay—and sometimes even necessary—to use generic notes about what you intend to say or to have said here (e.g., “First interview here”). When using subtitles, be sure to specify type, timing, special effects, and so on.

 4) Soundtrack . While it is not necessary to include a soundtrack (consisting of music, sound effects, voices, and so on), a soundtrack can help to provide a rhythmic frame for cuts among pictures, supporting ambiance, even vital information, even if only used as background sound.

 5) Credits . You absolutely must have credits at the end of your project. Credits convey necessary information about your visuals and soundtrack, like permissions , but also can indicate other important information, like title, authorship, year made, and so on.

Locally Sourced: Writing Across the Curriculum Sourcebook Copyright © by Professor Adam Kern - East Asian 433 / East Asian 833 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Digital Writing Activities Students Actually Want to Complete

Distance learning at the end of second semester. That’s quite the challenging combination for middle and high school students! Many of them are already reluctant writers. Combine that with the inherent challenges of virtual learning, and we really do have a difficult task of engaging them. In this post, you’ll find three different digital writing activities students actually want to complete!

1. WRITING PROCESS WITH A SENTENCE

The writing process doesn’t always stick for students. One major reason, I believe, is because when we teach it in the context of an essay, it’s too drawn out for students to really put all the pieces together. What are the benefits of teaching the writing process with a sentence ?

Reduce overwhelm.

Focus on quality, not quantity.

Chunk writing and its stages out over a week. This helps students understand the writing process without becoming frustrated!

Give yourself time to provide helpful feedback. And, with one sentence, it’s so manageable!

Transfer skills from an isolated sentence to an entire essay.

Basically, what are the disadvantages? None. That is all.

All joking aside, students really do need time to breathe with writing. Just as we use picture books and short mentor texts as a concise way to model reading strategies for students, we need to use short writing assignments to model the writing process .

Doing so helps build confidence. Whether we do that at the beginning of the year, before a large essay, or as a recap at the end of the year, the writing process is important. Students need to see it played out. One day doesn’t cut it, and one month can be too long, but a week of chunked practice is the Goldilocks serum.

2. PLAYLIST OF MY (?)

Year? Month? Season? Life? Novel? Insert your own time period as necessary!

What’s more engaging than music? It’ll do the trick for older students - even in December or May. We can combine elements of grammar, theme, and reflection by asking students to create playlists .

Music can transform a boring lesson into a much more powerful one.

After identifying songs that are fitting for students’ playlists (be it a playlist of their year, their semester, or a special time period), we can engage students with discussions . What songs did they select? What theme do the songs all have in common? Which grammatical elements were the easiest or most challenging to incorporate?

Musical playlists allow us to differentiate for students. We can alter the number of songs, the number of connections, the type of grammar to be incorporated, and the length of the extended response, for example.

Teaching virtually? Have students post their playlist theme and favorite songs on FlipGrid or Padlet, and encourage other students to respond!

This Playlist of My Year assignment is popular with middle and high school students. Play students’ tune selections as they work, and let them share with peers!

Read more about using this assignment to engage middle and high school students in meaningful writing in this blog post .

3. EMAIL ETIQUETTE

At first, it was emails from students about missing assignments and grades. More recently, it’s been emails during school closings due to COVID-19. Regardless, emails are becoming a more popular way for teachers and students to communicate.

It’s not surprising.

Emails are a ubiquitous element of twenty-first century communication. Yet, the ability to email professionally is not inherent . We must teach students how to handle their questions, concerns, and frustrations eloquently. Generally, when I speak with a student about an inappropriate tone in an email, they are surprised. They just haven’t been taught!

Luckily, students enjoy responding to scenarios and having an authentic audience . Students can write thank you letters, show appreciation to teachers or coaches, write words of encouragement, and express concerns…whatever is weighing on their minds and hearts.

We can engage students with humor - with good examples and bad examples of how to communicate online. We can hyperbolize reality to make their learning sticky and keep them coming back for more.

Consider having students participate in an email etiquette unit (this is the one you’ll need if you want a distance learning Google Drive version ) if you want to sneak in some writing practice that doesn’t feel like work! My students have never walked away disappointed.

The best part? Hearing teacher friends tell me how much they enjoy receiving well-articulated emails from students. It’s a writing unit that shows visible growth and keeps on giving.

Read more about the invaluable lesson of email etiquette - how we can approach it and why it’s game changing - in this post .

Whether you’re teaching students virtually or trying to win over reluctant writers, these three writing lessons are sure to help you deliver both in growth and engagement with middle and high school students.

When you’re not sure what to do and students are fading, go back to the basics. Build confidence, chunk the learning experience, and tie in authentic audiences for the ultimate writing experience.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Get Your Students to Read Like a Writer (Teach Between the Lines)

5 Alternatives to the Traditional Essay (Bespoke ELA)

Creative Writing Activities for High School (Language Arts Classroom)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Melissa is the author of Reading and Writing Haven  and a collaborative blogger on Teachwriting.org . 

A middle and high school English teacher for over a decade now turned instructional coach, Melissa is an avid reader and writer, and she loves sharing ideas and collaborating with fellow educators. Melissa use her degrees in English, Curriculum & Instruction, and Reading as well as her Reading Specialist certification to ponder today’s educational issues while developing resources to help teachers, students, and parents make learning more relevant, meaningful, and engaging.

Visit Melissa on Instagram ,  Facebook , or Twitter  for English teacher camaraderie and practical, engaging teaching ideas.

Michael Schwartz Library

Digital Literacy for Teaching

• Digital Literacy at CSU
• Listicle Assignment
• Multimodal Assignment
• Portfolio Assignment
• Teaching Multimodal Composition
• Integrating Blogs Into Your Teaching
• Digital Tools and Support
• Faculty and Student Consultations

The Multimodal Assignment: An Overview

According to Takayoshi and Selfe (2007) , a multimodal text is one that "exceed the alphabetical and may include still and moving images, animators, color, words, music, and sound” (p.1). Multimodal texts can be digital or non-digital. Examples of a digital multimodal text include websites, podcasts (with supplemental materials), infographics, or video. Non-digital multimodal texts include collages, print magazines, or research posters. 

Asking students to produce a multimodal text (digital or non-digital) provides them with an opportunity to compose using a variety of tools, extend their digital literacy skills, embrace diversity and explore what it means to create for a specific audience. 

Multimodal projects can easily be adapted for all disciplines and integrating into a variety of curricula. To do so, an instructor might take the following steps: 

Determine what goal(s) a multimodal assignment would help them reach (e.g., targeting an academic audience, practice data visualization skills, remediate existing print-based texts into digital ones, etc.)

Consider the amount of time needed to prepare the students for the assignment, the type of skills they need to draw on, and the resources that are necessary to complete the project. 

Develop an assignment sheet that explicitly states the goals and expectations for the assignment including whether the final multimodal text will be digital or non-digital, public-facing or private. See a sample Multimodal Assignment (with rubric) here.

Formulate a rubric that assesses discipline-specific content requirements (e.g., demonstrating understanding of how to conduct archival research or illustrating the results of an experiment) as well as design/multimodality. For help adding multimodal components to a rubric, visit the "Digital Writing Assessment and Evaluation" link here .  

Sample Assignments:

The Multimodal Project: Addressing a Discourse Community

"'I'm just glad it's not an essay!': A Poster Presentation in Music"

Technologies to Consider for Digital Multimodal Text Production

Website creator (Wix, Weebly, Google Sites, Wordpress)

Recording device (smart phone, recorder)

Audio editor (Audacity)

Video editor (iMovie, Windows MovieMaker)

Open access images

Open access music 

Technologies to Consider for Non- Digital Multimodal Text Production

Color printer

Printer for large scale projects (e.g., research poster)

Campus Resources

Digital Design Studio

Digital Design Studio Consultations

Outside Resources

"Thinking about Multimodality" by Pamela Takayoshi and Cynthia Selfe 

"Multimodality in the Science Classroom: A Focus on Multimedia Representation and How Students Learn" by Natalia Suflita

• Assignment Sheet Template
• << Previous: Listicle Assignment
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• Last Updated: Aug 18, 2022 12:41 PM
• URL: https://researchguides.csuohio.edu/digital-literacy

• Digital Storytelling Resources

Paper 3/Digital Essay

• Writing Links
• Schedule of Readings and Assignments
• About the Course Blog
• Response Paper Assignments
• Paper Assignments and Guidelines

Paper #3: An Investigation!

Step One: For your final paper of the semester I would like you to select one specific poem by one of the authors we’ve read or will read in class . If you would like to pursue something not on this list, please let me know and be prepared to convince me why you should write a paper on this topic or individual.

Some sites you might visit to find poems…

The Poetry Foundation

Electronic Poetry Center

Pennsound (audio & video recordings)

Step Two: You must do some research on your chosen topic (person or poem). Visit the library, search JSTOR and other databases, find at least one article or source on your writer or poem. What do these “critical” sources tell you about your topic? What thesis is proven in these sources? Do you agree or disagree with the point of view presented? Why or why not?

Step Three: What made you pick the poem you’ve chosen to write about? The answer to this question should help you to formulate a thesis or opinion about the work , an argument that makes an opinionated statement about your chosen subject.

Keep in mind that this assignment is purposely vague—I wanted our last paper of the semester to really give you some room to explore a topic of your own choosing. That said, please make sure that your paper is specific and opinion-driven. You should think about how to use the research you’ve done in order to support your own ideas.

It is not acceptable to think of a thesis as a statement like: “Anne Waldman is one of the best living poets because her work is strong and powerful.” A more successful thesis might be something like: “Anne Waldman’s Fast Speaking Woman is a poem that has stood the test of time, presenting a litany-esque critique of women’s roles (in all their variousness) in society—an open form that is timeless in its assertions of gender equality and a poem that should be a mantra for all women growing up in American society.”

Cover Letters: At this point in the semester, I think you know what I expect of cover letters. Each draft must have one. Each cover letter should serve as an opportunity for you to tell the reader what you think you achieved in the paper and what you need help with.

ROUGH DRAFT DUE:  Tuesday, May 1 (5-7 pages, bring 3 copies to class)

INDIVIDUAL CONFERENCES:  Thursday, May 3

FINAL DRAFT DUE: Thursday, May 10 (5-7 pages typed)

I will not accept any papers later than May 10, 2012.

I will not accept this final draft via email.

You MUST hand this paper in on May 10, in class!

Final Project Prep :

It is hard to believe that we have only a month left of the semester! And, I know you might feel a little bit overwhelmed by all the work that is expected of you. If you follow the steps and assignments outlined here, hopefully the process of completing both the digital project and paper 3 will be a breeze.

Preparation # 1/Response Paper 3:  Select one poet or poem that you are particularly enthusiastic about and use this freewrite to figure out why.  What is it about this work that you like? How does the poet do what he/she does? What feelings does it evoke? What purpose does a poem serve?

(Think of this as a space to begin your brainstorming for the final paper.)

Due: Thursday, April 19

Preparation # 2:   Please post or comment some kind response to the “digital” part of this assignment (i.e. What are you thinking about in terms of the digital essay? What questions do you have?). I’d suggest that you make use of our blog more and more as we near the close of the semester. Any questions or problems you have, your colleagues will probably have as well! Help each other!

Due: Please post to the blog no later than Monday, April 23, by 12PM.

**Continue to post ideas and questions as your projects develop!!**

Preparation # 3: Reflective Annotated Bibliography for 2 Sources

A bibliography is a list of sources (books, journals, websites, periodicals, etc.) one has used or is considering using in order to research a specific topic.

An annotation is a summary or evaluation.

Therefore, your annotated bibliography must include the following:

• Complete bibliographic information about each source (cited correctly following MLA format).
• A summary of the source. (What are the main arguments? What is the point of this book or article? What topics are covered? If someone asked what this article/book is about, what would you say?)
• Your thoughts on the source. ( Did you find this reference to be helpful? What intrigued you about it? Will you use it? If so, what information will you continue to think about?)
• All annotated bibliographies should be typed, single-spaced.
• Bibliographic information should follow MLA format (see http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/). Please bold the bibliographic information as well.
• Your summary of the source should be no longer than two paragraphs.
• Please italicize your thoughts (or response) on the source. This segment of the bibliography should be no longer than one full paragraph.

Kozol, Jonathan. “The Human Cost of an Illiterate  Society.” Lead, Follow, or Move Out of the Way ! Eds. Monique Ferrell and Julian Williams. Dubuque: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 2006. 562-569. Print.

Jonathan Kozol begins his essay by clarifying that “the number of illiterate adults exceeds by 16 million the entire vote cast for the winner in the 1980 presidential contest” (562). He then goes on to share a personal dream he has about what it must be like to be illiterate. This portrait of illiteracy is then followed up by a litany of illiteracies, delineated in a list that repeats the following format: “illiterates cannot…”  The essay then continues to go into more and more detail with each example of the seemingly normal daily routines that illiterates cannot partake in. Finally, Kozol arrives at the idea that, “this is the nation that we live in. This is a society that most of us did not create but which our President and other leaders have been willing to sustain by virtue of malign neglect” (569). The collage of quotes and statements of the effects of illiteracy build tension until they reach this final moment of awareness of the governing responsibilities of the state.

I am slightly confused by Kozol’s essay because it seems as though he is blaming the government entirely for illiteracy. Doesn’t some of the responsibility fall on the individual? I think that this piece is certainly quite powerful, Kozol uses details and quotes so well—I almost feel as though I am witnessing the moments of not knowing and dismay that he describes. I think that this essay might be useful to me in considering an individual’s responsibility over his or her own life situations and life choices. Could I use Kozol to help me to devise a counterargument?

DUE: Thursday, April 26

Rough Draft #3 Cover Letter

For Rough Draft #3, please write a letter, addressed to your readers, in which you answer the following questions and address any other concerns that you have.  Think of your draft letter as an opportunity to request exactly the kind of feedback you need.  All cover letters should be typed and about one page long.

• What are the biggest problems you are having at this point in the writing process?
• What’s the number one question about your essay—its thesis, structure, use of evidence, persuasiveness, style, etc.—that you’d like your readers to answer for you?
• What do you envision your final step towards revision for the Final Draft to look like?

Due:  Tuesday, May 1 (5-7 pages, bring 3 copies to class)

Final Draft #3

Please bring in your final draft (5-7 pages with a Works Cited page).  It must be stapled with your final draft cover letter attached to the front.  Also, please include your previous drafts and cover letters.  Submit the entire packet bound with a paperclip.

Paper # 3–Final Draft Cover Letter

For your Paper #3 Final Draft, please write a letter, addressed to your readers, in which you answer the following questions and address any other concerns that you have.  Think of your draft letter as an opportunity to share how you feel you have improved your paper.  All cover letters should be typed and about one page long.

• What is your thesis?  What are you hoping to achieve in this paper?
• What are some problems you faced when writing and how did you try to or succeed in resolving them?
• What idea or point do you feel you’ve made the most successfully?  Least successfully?
• Do you consider this draft to really be your “Final Draft?”  Why? Did you do anything while revising that could be described as a “re-seeing” of the paper?
• What grade do you think you deserve on this paper and why?
• How do you imagine this paper connects to and enhances your digital essay?

Due: Thursday, May 10, 2012 (5-7 pages with a Works Cited page)

THE DIGITAL ESSAY

Digital Essay Assignment : For the final paper of this semester, I would like for you to select one poem to investigate at great length. Your paper will take the form of an extended critical close reading. In order to further explore the visual and auditory possibilities a poem holds, you will also be composing a “digital essay” on the same piece.

What is a “digital essay”?

A digital essay (in the context of this course) is a piece of work that uses audio, video, text, and/or images . Your goal for this project should be to create a short film that essentially illustrates the thesis of your paper visually. Your digital essay should be short…no more than two to four minutes long.

How do I do this? I don’t have a camera! I don’t have the right software!

Video Cameras: You may borrow a Hitachi camcorder from the Newman Library. All you need to do is go to the Circulation Desk on the 2 nd Floor and request one. You are permitted to borrow it for three days , with the possibility of renewal.

Production Information:

• As you know, a movie is a short video or film that includes actors and has some semblance of a narrative or plot. To do this successfully you might want to ask some friends to help you out and draft a “script” or choreograph what will happen when and where.
• Select the tools you will you use create, edit, and share your project. We will review these tools in class. The tools that are available are all free and user friendly, so do not worry if this is your first digital project!
• I would encourage you to do this project in small groups (no more than 3 people per group). This does not mean that your final papers have to be on the same poem, but rather that you are interested in a similar argument or idea.
• You will post your “digital essay” on our blog. I suggest that you do this by creating a youtube account (if you don’t already have one) and then embed the video on our site.
• Make sure that you use the “digital essay” category when posting your video.

Project Proposal due—post to the blog no later than Monday, April 23.

FINAL DUE DATE:  THURSDAY, MAY 10!!!

This means that all projects must be posted to the blog before class meets that morning!

NO EXCUSES!

A few examples of digital projects from past classes:

“Tell All the Truth But Tell It Slant”

“Mistaken Identity”

“We Real Cool”

“I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud”

“The Barbie Complex”

“McDonalds”

“Everest Dream”

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ASSIGNMENT – Personal Narrative Audio Essay (lower division)

For resources to help students with audio essays, check out these category and tag archives:

• HOW TO: Record & Edit Audio
• audio narrative
• SAMPLES – Audio Narratives & Essays
• RESOURCES – Digital Storytelling

ASSIGNMENT OVERVIEW

You will write an essay that is designed to be delivered via an audio recording rather than via text on the page or screen (although you will also turn in a text version). The essay will follow the general principles of essay composition, but it will also make use of some of the principles of audio composition, including the strategic use of sound effects and silence to establish a mood or theme, convey transitions, inspire certain feelings, and so on. The final version will be an mp3 file that you can embed into your blog as well as share with others. The strongest audio essays may be featured on the Digital Students main site.

RHETORICAL SITUATION

An audio essay is a particular mode of communication that works better for some types of messages than for others. The mode works particularly well for the genre of personal essay, which is what you’ll be working on regardless of which approach you take. A personal essay contributes to the readers’ or listeners’ understanding of a larger issue by drawing on the writer’s personal experiences and reflections rather than on facts, studies, or expert opinions.

Readers often enjoy reading personal essays because they use vivid examples from personal experience and tell stories the reader can relate to, but these essays become even more appealing when they’re delivered in an engaging audio style that allows the speaker’s personality to emerge in a way that entices listeners to keep listening.

Writers also often discover that they enjoy writing essays meant to be delivered out loud because hearing their own essays enables them to identify ways to improve them that are difficult to identify in print alone. When you listen to the first draft of your audio recording, you will most likely find it easy to recognize how you might revise in order to better incorporate familiar features of storytelling, such as foreshadowing, building suspense, offering vivid details about places and people, using dialogue, working up to a central conflict, resolving the conflict, and so on. Even students who at first strongly dislike hearing the sound of their voice often get over that quickly and go on to make projects they’re particularly proud of.

Within the mode of audio essay and genre of personal essay, you have two options for approaches: a “This I Believe” essay or a “Digital Literacy Narrative.” You may choose whatever topic most interests you, as long as it’s appropriate to the approach you select.

“THIS I BELIEVE” ESSAY

If you choose this option, you will follow the guidelines on NPR’s “This I Believe” web site, but your essay will need to be longer than what the guidelines call for, in order to meet the length requirement above. See these pages:

• “This I Believe” Guidelines
• The “Original Invitation” for “This I Believe” essays

Rhetorical Situation: Your TIB essay will be directed to two primary audiences: the original audience for the TIB series (NPR listeners) as well as a specific target audience you will define, based on your topic and who you’d like to share the essay with. Your secondary audience will include your classmates and the instructor, but we should not be your only audience. The purpose of your TIB essay will be the same as what’s outlined on the NPR web site: to reflect on a specific belief.

Sample TIB Essays

• “This I Believe” essays from NPR
• “This I Believe” essays by students in Michelle Albert’s WRTG 3020 class (Michelle is one of my PWR colleagues)
• “This I Believe” essays by students in Nancy Hightower’s WRTG 1150 classes: Section 56 , Section 66 , Section 710 (Nancy is one of my PWR colleagues)

DIGITAL LITERACY NARRATIVE

If you choose this option, you will write an essay that is similar in concept to those showcased on the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives , but instead of writing about how you developed print-based literacy skills (reading and writing traditional alphabetic text), you will write about how you developed digital literacy skills.

“Digital literacy” refers to the ability to “read” and “write” in digital environments. I put those words in quotation marks to indicate how the nature of reading and writing in digital environments is notably different than in print environments. “Reading” includes figuring out how computers work, finding your way around new applications and web sites, and learning to find, evaluate, and interpret messages conveyed in hypertext as well as in audio, visual, or audiovisual modes. “Writing” includes inputting material into computer applications and web sites, communicating with others using a variety of digital tools, and composing messages in hypertext as well as audio, visual, or audiovisual modes.

Rhetorical Situation: Your Digital Literacy Narrative will be directed to whatever primary target audience you define, based on your topic and who you might like to share the essay with. One possible primary audience includes teachers, scholars, and technology experts who are curious to learn more about how today’s “digital natives” developed digital literacy skills as they were growing up. Your secondary audience will include your classmates and the instructor, but we should not be your only audience.

Topic Ideas: To explore possible ideas for a Digital Literacy Narrative, use the strategies describe on this handout on Discovery and Drafting Strategies . Here are some specific topics you might focus on as you engage in discovery activities:

• You might brainstorm lists of “first time” experiences you’ve had with digital technology, like the first time you used a computer or cell phone, the first time you went online, the first time you sent an email or text message, the first time you created your own account on a web site, the first time you met a new person online, the first time you had an argument by email, and so on. These “first time” experiences might provide you with some interesting material to reflect on in your essay.
• You might also brainstorm lists of notable or controversial events that happened in your family, community, school, or dorm. For example, maybe you or someone you know got in trouble for something posted online, maybe someone you know was the perpetrator or victim of cyberbullying, maybe someone in your school was the victim of an online “stalker,” or maybe you had an argument with your parents over your privacy.
• You might also brainstorm some thoughts on how using computers and the internet has shaped your reading and writing skills and habits (which are a central part of what “literacy” refers to). You might even interview your parents about how they learned to read and write (presumably without computers or the internet), to see how their experiences compare and what kinds of observations you might draw about them.
• Other possible topics to explore through brainstorming include your experiences with using technology in grade school, in summer jobs, in college, or for personal interests. You might also interview friends and family members to get their perspectives on their own digital literacy, which you could compare and contrast to your own (particularly across generations).

Sample Digital Literacy Narratives

• Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives (search the archive with the keywords “digital literacy” and “digital native”)
• Digital Literacy Narratives by a few of my WRTG 1150 students

REQUIRED CRITERIA

Regardless of which topic you choose, your essay should meet the following criteria:

• Length : Between 600-1400 words (with a target of around 800-1000 words). That translates to about five to eight minutes of recorded audio narration without any sound effects, or up to a maximum length of ten minutes with sound effects.
• Structure : The essay should have three distinct parts: an introduction that prepares listeners for the purpose and scope of your essay; a body that focuses on the details or examples that help to illustrate your overall main point; and a conclusion that brings closure to your essay.
• Storytelling Techniques: The essay should make use of the principles of storytelling, as we discussed in class.
• Text File Format : The text version of your draft, revision, and final essay should be in Word or Google Docs format and should follow the standard principles of how to format college papers.
• Text File Name : For the final version, use this file name format: Lastname audio essay final for a document created in Google Docs) or Lastname-audio-essay-final.docx for a document created in Word or exported in Word format out of Pages or OpenOffice. For earlier versions, replace “final” with “draft” or “revision,” as appropriate.
• Audio File Format : Regardless of what application you use to record and edit your audio essay, the final version must be in mp3 format. Both Audacity and GarageBand can export files in mp3 format, but if you use other applications, you may need to also use a converter to convert the file into mp3 format.
• Audio File Name : For the final version, use this file name format: Lastname-audio-essay-final.mp3 For earlier versions, replace “final” with “draft” or “revision,” as appropriate. (This is the same file format as for the text version, but the extension .mp3 will distinguish this file as an audio rather than text file.)

For more information on structure, storytelling techniques, and other aspects relevant to this essay, see the file titled Developing Your Personal Essay , which is in the Amy’s Handouts folder in our class collection on Google Docs.

PERSONAL ESSAY STRUCTURE

Below is an overview of the kind of structure typical of personal essays, regardless of topic.

Introduction

The introduction might span more than one paragraph, particularly if you decide to open with a story or example. But by the end of the intro section, readers should understand the scope and purpose of your paper. In other words, they should understand that they’re about to read (or listen to) a personal narrative that explores a particular topic (as opposed to some other kind of paper). Double check your intro to see if it fulfills that purpose.

Readers will assume that whatever comes last in your intro is what you meant to be your thesis, or main point. If the last sentence contains several points, readers will assume that’s a preview of the points you plan to cover in the body. Double check the last sentence of your intro to see if it accurately presents your thesis. If the sentence would mislead readers about the point of your essay, revise it.

The body section should be organized into sections that cover specific ideas or examples that illustrate your thesis. Each section should span as many paragraphs as you need to develop the idea or example. Use sub-headers or a clear topic sentence to help readers identify the start of a new section.

Paragraphs should stay focused on one idea each. When you start to explore a new idea, start a new paragraph.

In most cases, readers should be able to tell what the main point of a paragraph will be within the first few sentences, even if the main point is simply to describe an example. In some cases, the main point might not appear until the end of the paragraph. The main point should not appear in the middle or readers will miss it.

When you give examples from your own experience, consider that your readers weren’t there at the time, so give them plenty of context and detail. Slow down and tell a story, rather than rushing through the example. Give readers details about the people involved, the setting, the equipment, the time period, and anything else that might be relevant.

Also offer some analysis of your examples, to help readers see how the examples and details relate back to your thesis. In other words, what does the example suggest about what you believe in or how you developed digital literacy? Or how does it relate to your larger point? Your analysis will help readers see how your examples are all connected, so that they don’t seem to be a random collection of memories.

The conclusion should wrap up your discussion by offering closing thoughts on the issues you raised. You might put the issues into a larger context or comment on how they relate to where you are right now or something along those lines. Be careful not to make generalizations that can’t be supported based only on your own experience.

Readers should be able to tell from the opening sentence of your conclusion that you’re moving into your closing thoughts, but avoid using the overused phrase “in conclusion” for this purpose. Here are a few ideas for alternatives: As I look back over ___, I find it particularly interesting that… or A common theme in all of my stories about ___ is… or Ultimately, the most important thing I learned is…

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HELP & HOW-TO

• HOW TO: Capture & Edit Video (18)
• HOW TO: Find & Edit Images (13)
• HOW TO: Make Screen Recordings (7)
• HOW TO: Record & Edit Audio (16)
• HOW TO: Use Google Drive (19)
• HOW TO: Use iMovie (13)
• HOW TO: Use Social Media Tools for Class (3)
• HOW TO: Use the Class Blog (Wordpress) (35)
• HOW TO: Use Your WordPress.com Blog (12)
• INSPIRATIONS & FYI'S (21)
• NIFTY APPS & TOOLS (7)
• PLANNING & DRAFTING New Media Projects (23)
• RESOURCES: About New Media Writing (7)
• RESOURCES: Animations & Comics (9)
• RESOURCES: Apps for Creating New Media Projects (22)
• RESOURCES: Digital Storytelling (17)
• RESOURCES: Presentations & Information Design (6)
• RESOURCES: Storytelling Prompts (14)
• RESOURCES: Writing for the Web (4)
• TECH TIPS (28)

STUDENT SAMPLES

• SAMPLES – Academic Analyses (9)
• SAMPLES – Audio Narratives & Essays (16)
• SAMPLES – CDS-Style Digital Storytelling (30)
• SAMPLES – Educational Presentations & Web Sites (9)
• SAMPLES – Educational Visuals (14)
• SAMPLES – Graphic Storytelling (16)
• SAMPLES – Mini-Documentary (15)
• SAMPLES – Multimedia Commentary (8)
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Project #2:

Digital essay,  english 205, assignment overview, there are multiple parts to project #2:, reading a novel, participating in discussion boards, creating a digital essay, writing an annotated bibliography.

The first step of this project is to choose a novel to read. I have pre-selected several options for you to choose from and hope you find at least one that appeals to you. When you decide, you will post your choice on the discussion board. Have a second choice ready because if no one else chooses the same novel as you, you will need to choose another (so you can participate in discussions together). Below are the 7 options you have to choose from. Click on the cover image to read a synopsis of the novel from amazon.com.

START READING ASAP!

Once you have chosen your book, you need to either buy it or check it out from a local library and begin reading right away. Remember to look in both the County library system as well as the City library system.

Discussion boards

Once we figure out who's reading what book, we will form discussion groups so your group and you will be able to discuss the novel together. Below are the expectations for the discussion boards.

At three points in the novel, you will participate in discussion boards with peers reading the same novel as you to discuss various elements of your text. Your responses to the prompts should be at least 200 words and must include at least one quote from the novel. If you are working for an “A” grade in the class, your response should be more like 250-300 words, include more than one quote from the book, and may embed an outside source as well.

Once you post in the discussion board, you must also respond to at least one peer (50 word minimum). Your response should not be something like, “Great point, I agree.” Instead, initiate a discussion between the two of you. If you were sitting together having a conversation in class, what would you say to your classmate and what questions might you ask them? The goal of the peer responses is to create a community of conversation around your novel.

Discussion board #1: Brainstorming for Essay Topic

What arguments do you notice in the text? What do you feel is the main argument? What other topics are coming up in the book that you or others may consider writing about? Why do these topics stand out to you?

Discussion board #2: Stand-out Information

What information has stood out to you in the text? What sections intrigued you? What is some new information that you learned while reading? What facts to do feel are most relevant to your individual research?

Discussion board #3: Concluding Response

Once you have finished the novel, write a response to the text. What did you think of the book overall? What parts did you like or not like? Would you recommend this book to someone? If so, who and why? If not, why not?

Digital essay

As you read, begin thinking about what topic you will create your digital essay on. Lots of questions about what a digital essay even is? Read the following section carefully to understand digital essays and the specific assignment for this project!

While reading the novel, you will choose an argument addressed within the novel to explore. You could analyze the main argument addressed in the book or another topic that was presented but calls for further explanation (discussion board #1 should help with this). Topics will be chosen by students and approved by the instructor.

You will research the topic and create a digital essay arguing either for or against the topic you chose. Your thesis should be persuasive, which means you are stating an opinion and arguing it. It should be controversial, something that others might disagree with. For example, if your book is about mass incarceration, you might write an essay arguing that funding should be cut from prisons and given to education. Even though this topic is not directly related to the main topic in the novel, it is supported by the text. Either way, make sure your thesis is an argument, not informative.

Once you have identified your augment, think creatively about how you are going to support your argument. What supporting points do you need to make in order to support your argument? What kind of rebuttals and counter-arguments can you address to support your claim? Think about the Toulmin model we covered in the Critical Reasoning Techniques PPT.

Now that you know the information you should be including, what is a digital essay ?

What is a digital essay?  

A digital essay is an essay that uses various multimedia tools such as visuals, sounds, videos, animations, etc., in addition to words. This is not an essay that is meant to be printed and should not be created on Microsoft Word. Instead, it is a more interactive form of communication and would be created on various websites/programs. For a digital essay, the author could create a blog site with various entries using WordPress.com. They could build a website using Google Sites with embedded videos and external links to support your argument. For those who are really tech savvy, maybe it would mean creating a video that combines visuals with written text. There is a lot of flexibility here! 

How can you create yours?

Create a blog site with various entries using WordPress.com

Build a website using Google Sit

Produce a video that combines visuals with written text

Develop a Tumblr page

Create a Prezi interactive presentation

Turn your essay into an e Book that could be sold on Amazon Books

Digital essays are still centered in writing . While you will be expected to put time into choosing the best multimedia options to support your argument, remember that this is still an essay that needs to have strong, developed, well thought-out text to make your point. Your essay must be 1,500-2,000 words, quote at least three outside sources, and include quotes from your novel. These are in addition to the videos and images you embed in your essay.

Your essay should be complete . Although many digital sources are ongoing, and made to be edited as issues change, this digital essay should be a cohesive thought. That means that you should have an introduction, body sections supporting your thesis, and a conclusion where you wrap up your argument.

This is YOUR argument . While your essay should have substantial research to support your argument, remember that this is still an essay in your words. A general rule of thumb is about 15% of your essay should be quoted text, and the rest should be your words.

Be creative! Remember, the by fulfilling the basic requirements, you are working toward earning a B in this class. Strive for an A by going above what I’m asking you to do here. Your written work counts, but the creativity and effort you put into the formatting of your digital essay are also extremely important in this assignment. Have fun with this!

Why a digital essay?

Digital literature is a major shift in how people read and write. People are reading on screens more than books these days. When reading a digital essay, readers are given more freedom to follow their own path in reading, it’s not as linear as written text. There are also many ways to enhance your reader’s experience, with multimedia approaches. How often do you read digital texts and jump to images or videos rather than reading the full text top to bottom? It’s a much more interactive form of reading and writing, a skill that can benefit you as a reader and writer in the digital age. The challenge of this assignment is to write creatively as an author in a digital environment.

Your text should include:

An introduction with a clear thesis.

A brief summary of the text and the argument it presents.

Multiple supporting points making the case for your argument – be sure to include quotes from the text and outside sources as evidence to support your claims.

At least one rebuttal section – what would the “other side” say about this topic and why should we still agree with you?

A conclusion – restate your thesis and main points and end with a concluding sentence.

Requirements:

Your essays must be between 1,500-2,000 words

Must include q uotes from the novel

Embed q uotes from at least three outside sources (in addition to your embedded multimedia) - these are in addition to your novel, so four sources in all.

At least two multimedia forms (images, hyperlinks, videos, audio files, embedded slides, music, etc.)

A works cited page will not be required but outside information should be cited within the text (hyperlinked to the source, MLA format parenthetical citation, or a footnote with the MLA citation)

English Center

As a reminder, to earn an A in the class you must work with the English Center at least twice in the semester. When you are drafting your text (likely in Word), you may want to work with a peer tutor for help in developing your thoughts or revising your draft.

Submission guidelines:

Your digital essay will be submitted through Canvas, either uploaded or hyperlinked (depending on the format you choose). The final draft of this project is due at the end of week 11.

Annotated bibliography

As you research for your essay, you will also create an annotated bibliography based on your research. This part of the assignment is due at the end of week 9 (two weeks before your digital essay is due).

When conducting research, it is important to check the validity of sources before including them in your papers – especially with digital resources. An annotated bibliography helps researchers distinguish whether a source is worthy of citation. Purdue Owl explains an annotated bibliography well:

A bibliography is a list of sources (books, journals, Web sites, periodicals, etc.) one has used for researching a topic. Bibliographies are sometimes called "References" or "Works Cited" depending on the style format you are using. A bibliography usually just includes the bibliographic information (i.e., the author, title, publisher, etc.).

An annotation is a summary and/or evaluation. Therefore, an annotated bibliography includes a summary and/or evaluation of each of the sources. Depending on your project or the assignment, your annotations may do one or more of the following.

Some annotations merely summarize the source. What are the main arguments? What is the point of this book or article? What topics are covered? If someone asked what this article/book is about, what would you say? The length of your annotations will determine how detailed your summary is. 

After summarizing a source, it may be helpful to evaluate it. Is it a useful source? How does it compare with other sources in your bibliography? Is the information reliable? Is this source biased or objective? What is the goal of this source? 

Once you've summarized and assessed a source, you need to ask how it fits into your research. Was this source helpful to you? How does it help you shape your argument? How can you use this source in your research project? Has it changed how you think about your topic?  

In addition to the digital essay, you will create an annotated bibliography with at least 5 sources. You may not end up utilizing all five sources in your writing, but you should be reviewing at least 5 sources while conducting your research, likely more. On your annotated bibliography you will:

Cite your source in MLA format

After each source, you will write three brief paragraphs (likely 150-200 words total) where you summarize, assess, and reflect on the source – as described above.

What’s the difference between an annotated bibliography and a works cited page?

Your annotated bibliography will be completed during your research. You can use any five sources for this, as long as they relate to your topic. If you look at a source but don’t gather any information from it, you can still use it for your annotated bibliography and explain why it didn’t fit your research. The purpose is to show that you are thinking about the validity of sources and whether they actually relate to your text or not, before you use it.

In case you haven't caught on to it, this assignment sheet models a digital essay! I used Google Sites to create this page, just as you can use it to create your digital essay. There are hyperlinks, images, and a video embedded in here, just as I'm asking you to do. There's also plenty of text (about 1800 words!) on here. I hope this assignment sheet helps give you a better idea of what you're creating. Please contact me with any questions!

Home » Blog » Digital Marketing » 10 Ways to Improve Your Digital Marketing Assignment Writing Skills

10 Ways to Improve Your Digital Marketing Assignment Writing Skills

Are you overwhelmed with digital marketing assignments with your poor academic writing skills? If so, read everything you need to know to improve your digital marketing assignment writing skills in the upcoming lines. 

In the current century, digitalisation has taken over every aspect of our lives, and its advancement is rapidly increasing, including marketing. Marketing is one of the essential aspects of today’s era, mainly digital marketing. 

What is digital marketing? Digital marketing is a crucial component of traditional marketing techniques in which marketers use online-based digital technology containing mobile devices, personal computers, and laptops for running digital marketing campaigns through social media marketing and websites while using the internet.

Also, developing new strategies and digital marketing plans for online marketing and online advertising products. 

According to Oxford Reference: 

“Using digital technologies such as websites and multimedia, e-mail and digital media including mobile, and wireless, and delivering digital television for promotion, development, and distribution of a brand product and services is called Digital Marketing.”

Ever-Rising Scope of Digital Marketing 

Marketing is the most essential part of our society, and no business or brand can be successful without it. As a dynamic and promising career, digital marketing is increasing rapidly. In any case, you have seen ads on the Internet like “ do my chemistry homework ” or something similar, this is an example of marketing in fast-growing niches.

Noble Desktop represents its growing charm:

“The field of digital marketing is projected to grow up to a 10% growth rate from 2021 to 2031, with advancements in artificial intelligence, email marketing and content marketing, virtual and augmented reality for driving more revenue. Digital marketers increase the average wage of a beginner is $51,000 with 0-1 years of experience, $55,000 for 1-3 years, $61,000 for 4-6 years, and $68,000 for 7-9 years.”

All the facts and figures attracted many students to specialising in marketing, and most of them enrolled in digital marketing courses, seeking employment in sales and marketing. Even some of those who come without any prior background in marketing eventually learn the skills and knowledge to make ends meet by working in marketing departments. 

But when they encounter assignment writing, they find it hard to manage and seek a detailed guide and some proven tips. Furthermore, they can also get help from assignment writing services to tackle all the assignment writing hurdles. 

10 Tips to Improve Your Digital Marketing Assignment Writing Skills

Yes, you can get professional help from Digital Marketing Assignment writers to make your writing process effortless. But before that, you can follow our top 10 ways to improve your digital marketing assignment writing skills to get high scores. So let’s first with the most essential one: 

1. Know the Prompt and Instructions

Before you get started, it is essential that you have a complete understanding of the question that is being asked in the assignment. To understand the prompt, read it multiple times and focus on the critical phrases and action words.

Also, look over other instructions that mention the guidelines. If you find something confusing, ask your professor through email or communication for better calcification. 

2. Plan Your Digital Marketing Writing Process 

Most of the students skip this part and then try to complete the assignment with ambiguous planning till the date of submission. Therefore, it is crucial to make a schedule or a plan by dividing your whole process into small sections.

RMIT University Library represented a writing process planning followed by multiple steps from analysis to submission, shown below. 

This section will allow you to address your research question logically. You can also make a Grant chart of sculling assignments by giving these tasks a dedicated time to complete them. 

3. Choose Topics Wisely 

Topic selection seems like a tiny step in writing a digital marketing assignment, but it is the only step determining the rest of the assignment writing process. Because a wrong topic selection creates difficulties for your assignment completion, this is why students should give their full attention while selecting a topic.

For this purpose, you need to consider the following aspects: 

• Your personal interest and expertise 
• Fulfil the assignment requirements 
• Your instructor’s expectations and suggestions 
• Available research sources 
• Complete before the due date 

Further, here are some digital marketing fields you can consider to choose the topics:

• PPC (Pay Per Click) Advertising
• Social Media Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Content Marketing
• Affiliate Marketing
• Influencer Marketing

By focusing on these steps, you will be able to select the best topic on which you can write your assignment easily. 

4. Brainstorming and Mind Mapping 

After selecting a topic, critically think about the topic, gather more and more digital marketing project ideas related to the prompt and then create a mind map. In this step, just sketch your brain, thinking about how your mind relates your ideas with the main topic. For generating a strong mind map, develop three to four main ideas around the subject matter. 

Draw lines by connecting each map idea to its supporting details and brainstorm digital marketing assignment ideas, tasks, and questions for each. As a sample, you can see the below mind map example presented by Agus Masrianto in “Model for Improving Firm Digital Marketing Capabilities Based on Adoption Eco-system Readiness and Digital Transformation.”

5. Conduct Extensive Research 

Conduct extensive keyword research on your specific topic to cover every query relevant to the subject matter. While doing research, collect both types of data: 

• Primary information 
• Secondary information 

Your primary data is first-hand data for better evaluation that comes from your self-observation. On the other hand, utilise secondary sources of information, which include internet search engines, library books, encyclopaedias and databases. 

6. Follow a Global Assignment Structure 

While writing any type of assignment, from essay to case study, there is a general digital marketing assignment structure that is standard to compose an effective academic paper. It includes three main sections: 

• Introduction
• Main body paragraph 

Conclusion 

Begin with a captivating introduction by stating your personal statement, continue it with a detailed explanation in the main body paragraph, and finally, conclude your assignment on digital marketing by summarising all the key points and emphasising the importance of your topic and its application. 

7. Add Reference and Citations 

If you want to make your work more authentic and trustworthy in front of your reader, then add references and citations. It is one of the best tips that enhance the worth of your assignment. There are different types of citation styles that are mostly used by institutes, such as: 

• Vancouver 
• Chicago 
• Harvard 

But in cases where your professor is guiding you to follow a specific referencing style, then make sure to follow the instructions. 

8. Filtered Your Digital Marketing Assignment 

After completing the writing process, do not submit it for revision multiple times. Filtered your assignment first against minor mistakes you skipped while drafting your work. In this step, look over the following: 

• Grammatical flaws
• Punctuation 
• Capitalisation 
• Typos errors
• Spelling mistakes

After removing all the above mistakes, you create a refined form of your digital marketing assignment to impress your professor. 

9. Check Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the most serious offence that can result in various serious consequences. To overcome all the barriers to stand out from the rest of the class, you must cross-check your content against plagiarism. Checking plagiarism is not a task to handle manually. But for this purpose, you can use a plagiarism checker or a detector. 

Submit your document by uploading it from your computer, or you can also copy and paste content. Go to get a percentage of unique and plagiarism content with just one click. You will get plagiarism reports in just a few seconds. If work is caught as plagiarised somewhere, remove it and create plagiarism-free content. 

10. Ask For Feedback 

Our last tip that makes a big impact is to look for a third eye for a bird’s eye view of your assignment. For this purpose, ask for feedback from your class fellows or any other expert. 

If you want to check your work from a professional in digital marketing, make an impressive email to deliver your message with a humble request and ask for honest feedback. This is the best way to improve your mistakes and learn from your flaws. 

Digital marketing assignment writing is a most technical process because, with the advances of digital marketing, its theory concepts and technologies become more advanced, giving a tough time to most students. Students face many difficulties in understanding its prompts and composing a good piece of paper because of a lack of good academic writing skills. 

If you are one of them and struggling with your assignment on digital marketing, follow the above ways to improve your digital marketing writing assignment skills. But if it still makes you upset, then avail yourself of beneficial assignment writing help from a suitable firm.

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CMNS 223 Essay assignment (12) (1) (1)

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Argument & Digital Writing

It’s not all about the essays, and though they are likely to be an important part of most college classes,  digital writing  is likely to play a role as well. You may be asked to create an argumentative presentation to supplement your essay, or you may be asked to create a web page or photo essay instead.

When you enter the world of digital writing, the same rhetorical principals will apply: You have to think about your  audience ,  purpose , and  voice , and you have to consider your persuasiveness by thinking about how you will appeal to  ethos ,  pathos , and  logos . It’s just the medium of presentation might be different.

The following pages will offer some important tips on creating arguments in digital environments and link you to some additional resources, which can be helpful as you work with the technology.

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ChatGPT essay cheats are a menace to us all

Students who outsource their thinking to ai tools pose a risk to future employers and more.

The number of students using AI tools like ChatGPT to write papers was a bigger problem than the public was being told. Photograph: Stefani Reynolds/Getty Images

The other day I met a British academic who said something about artificial intelligence that made my jaw drop.

The number of students using AI tools like ChatGPT to write their papers was a much bigger problem than the public was being told, this person said.

AI cheating at their institution was now so rife that large numbers of students had been expelled for academic misconduct — to the point that some courses had lost most of a year’s intake. “I’ve heard similar figures from a few universities,” the academic told me.

Spotting suspicious essays could be easy, because when students were asked why they had included certain terms or data sources not mentioned on the course, they were baffled. “They have clearly never even heard of some of the terms that turn up in their essays.”

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But detection is only half the battle. Getting administrators to address the problem can be fraught, especially when the cheaters are international students who pay higher fees than locals. Because universities rely heavily on those fees, some administrators take a dim view of efforts to expose the problem. Or as this person put it, “whistleblowing is career-threatening”.

There is more at stake here than the injustice of cheats getting an advantage over honest students. Consider the prospect of allegedly expert graduates heading out into the world and being recruited into organisations, be it a health service or a military, where they are put into positions for which they are underqualified.

So how widespread is the cheating problem?

Panic about ChatGPT transforming educational landscapes took off as soon as the tool was launched in November 2022 and since then, the technology has only advanced. As I type these words, colleagues at the Financial Times have reported that OpenAI, which created ChatGPT, and Meta are set to release souped-up AI models capable of reasoning and planning.

But AI’s exact impact on classrooms is unclear.

In the US, Stanford University researchers said last year that cheating rates did not appear to have been affected by AI. Up to 70 per cent of high school students have long confessed to some form of cheating and nearly a year after ChatGPT’s arrival that proportion had not changed.

The auto-enrolment pension scheme seems good on paper, but how will it actually work?

At universities, research shows half of students are regular generative AI users — not necessarily to cheat — but only about 12 per cent use it daily.

When it comes to the number of student essays written with the help of AI, rates appear relatively steady says Turnitin, a plagiarism detection software group that has a tool for checking generative AI use.

It says students have submitted more than 22 million papers in the past 12 months that show signs of AI help, which was 11 per cent of the total it reviewed. More than six million papers, or 3 per cent of the total, contained at least 80 per cent of AI writing.

That is a lot of papers. But the percentage of AI writing is virtually the same as what Turnitin found last year when it conducted a similar assessment.

“AI usage rates have been stable,” says Turnitin chief executive Chris Caren. And as he told me last week, just because you are using ChatGPT does not necessarily mean you are cheating.

“Some teachers and faculty allow some level of AI assistance in writing an essay, but they also want that properly cited,” he says. “AI can be incredibly useful for doing research and brainstorming ideas.”

I’m sure this is correct. It is also true that university faculty are increasingly using AI to help write lesson plans and I know of some who have tested it to mark essays — unsuccessfully.

But I still find it worrying to think a sizeable number of students are using tools like ChatGPT in a way that is potentially risky for employers and wider society.

Some universities are already increasing face-to-face assessments to detect and discourage AI cheating. I am sure that will continue, but it would also be useful if academics were encouraged to expose the problem and not deterred from trying to fix it. As the scholar I spoke to put it, the purpose of going to university is to learn how to learn. These institutions are supposed to teach you to think for yourself and evaluate evidence, not just recite facts and figures.

Anyone who outsources their thinking to a machine is ultimately going to hurt themselves the most. — Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2024

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WTO TRAINING COURSES

The “Trade in the Digital Era” interactive training course is available from the WTO e-Learning platform , one of the key capacity-building programmes provided to WTO members and observers by the WTO's Institute for Training and Technical  Cooperation.

“The move to digital trade gives developing economies opportunities to leap forward and some have done so with mobile payment and banking solutions,” said DG Okonjo-Iweala. “To do so, however, access to modern information and communication technologies is not enough. They require a deep understanding of the digital trade landscape, its opportunities, challenges, and the role of policies and trade rules.” Her full video message can be found here.

Designed for trade government officials, policymakers and the public at large, this new series provides essential tools and concepts for improving participants' knowledge of digital trade. It will comprise a total of five courses, to be rolled out consecutively over the coming months. The first course gives a general overview of how the digital revolution is transforming trade, as well as the benefits and challenges of the digital economy.

Topics covered by the four other courses will include policy issues and WTO rules and discussions, the role of new technologies in international trade, especially artificial intelligence and blockchain, and provisions in members' regional trade agreements that relate to trade and the digital economy.

Also speaking at the launch ceremony was WTO Deputy Director-General Xiangchen Zhang who stated: “During the 13th Ministerial Conference, many of you expressed concerns about the digital divide and the need to build developing economies' capacities so that they may seize the benefits of digital trade. The WTO Secretariat is well aware of these challenges, which is why we have been stepping up our technical assistance activities related to digital trade to help bridge the digital trade gap between WTO members.”

Rwanda's WTO Ambassador, James Ngango, said: “I sincerely hope that this capacity-building opportunity will attract many participants from across regions and contribute to further unlocking the potential of digital trade.”

Singapore's Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the WTO, Hung Seng Tan, said: “Singapore recognises the critical importance of capacity-building and sharing of technical knowledge on digital trade for developing and least-developed country  members. Singapore is committed to continue working with partners, including the WTO, to deliver on the development dimension of digital trade.”

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