Home | WAM Fall 2019

WRITING

ACROSS

MEDIA

EXPANDING OUR VIEW OF WRITING

Welcome to Writing Across Media! This semester you will examine and create a variety of types of media, from video essays and videogames to podcasts, blogs, memes, maps and more! We'll start by considering each mode of composition individually, before delving into ways to broaden the interactivity of your compositions. Then we'll look at remixes, remakes, and revision, and you'll revisit and remediate one of your own past creations. Finally, we'll turn to intersections between digital media and advocacy, ending with a project where you advocate for an issue that you're invested in across multiple types of media. I am looking forward to working with you all this semester!

L

Linguistic

Word choice, style, organization, and sentence structure. How do we express ideas using language?

V

Visual

Color, layout, size, style, and perspective. How do images convey meaning?

A

Aural

Music, silence, tone, rhythm, and speech. How do the noises that we hear shape our environment?

S

Spacial

Location, arrangement, layout, and openness. How does our position in the world affect how we compose?

G

Gestural

Hand movements, dance, facial expressions, and body language. How do we use our bodies to accompany speech?

Where Do I Find...?

YOUR OFFICE?

My office is in room 220 on the second floor of the English building. From the entrances on the quad, take a right at the top of the stairs and go to the end of the hallway. There's an elevator in the hallway between the street side entrances.

TODAY'S READING?

Check the course calendar to find out what you need to read for class. Readings are listed beside the day you need to have them completed by, along with either a link or description of where you can find them. A complete list of readings we will discuss is posted here.

ASSIGNMENT PROMPTS?

Check here for the prompts for your weekly multimodal responses. The major project prompts are available through these links:

FEEDBACK AND GRADES?

I will keep track of your attendance, grade, and add written feedback on Moodle, so make sure to check it often. Keep an eye on your UIUC email account as well, as I may send other forms of feedback (audio files, video, etc.) to you directly. Feel free to check in with me if you have questions about your progress in the course.

COURSE POLICIES?

Check the syllabus page for attendance, late work, and other policies.

INSPIRATION?

Check the resources tab for further readings, videos, and games that may give you an idea of where you want to take your next project. Seek out creative works that you admire (or hate) and think about why. Attend an event or museum on campus and consider how those spaces were created. Try a new platform or technology to experiment with the choices it offers. Talk to people in other fields about their creative and design projects. Delve into your past work and free yourself up to play.