Step 2: Choosing How to Remediate Your Project

 

When remediating your project, consider how you will expand it beyond its original form to account for all five modes. As we’ve discussed before, some of these modes may be backgrounded or foregrounded, but you should give some thought to how each is operating in the remediated version of your project. You can build on your work in the nonlinear unit by creating a project that consists of a string of interconnected pieces of media, rather than a single narrative, or you may choose to delve more deeply into one form of media that you want to explore. I strongly encourage you to go beyond the modes, media, and technologies that you already drew on in your first major project, both because that flexibility is one of the goals of the course, and because it is helpful for building skills and portfolios. Plus you may find a new medium that you enjoy working in!

 

When choosing the materials, technologies, and media that you want to draw on to remediate your work, consider how the changes you’re making contribute to the exigence of the project. For instance, perhaps you want to draw on a kind of media that allows you to reach a new audience. While a research paper may be more accessible to college students and professors, you could represent the same content in a children’s book to reach a younger audience. Perhaps you want to make it possible for a reader to choose where to engage with your project rather than needing to read through it from beginning to end, so you transform it into a wiki, or a website. 

 

As you imagine the possibilities, think about what can be gained or lost through each remediation. What does a podcast offer that a Powerpoint presentation might not? How do the constraints of a video essay differ from those of a lab report?

 

Step 3: Make Your Remediation Transformative

 

My main expectation for this project is that your work should be truly transformative. In other words, the experience of interacting with the new version of your project should feel distinct from interacting with the old. At the end of your process, you should be able to clearly argue for the transformative nature of your remediation. This will look different for each person, but it may include broadening your goals from the original project, tailoring your work to fit an audience with a different background or expertise, updating your argument to reflect new research, or experimenting with new technology that changes your organization completely.

 

Every project will be a mix of old writing and new, and part of the choice-making process is deciding what content to keep, what content to revise or remix, and what content to leave behind. If you’re looking for a guide to help you work through the rhetorical tools and multimodal resources of your remediation, refer back to the table in the prompt for Multimodal Response 6.

 

In fitting your Statement of Goals and Choices to this project, you should consider how your goals shifted in remediation, as well as how you had to adapt your choices when working with existing material. Ultimately, your SOGC should demonstrate how and why you transformed your original project using new media and modes. In other words, the new product should accomplish something that the original did not, and you should articulate what that is in your SOGC.