Welcome to the Writing Across Technology: Assignment Invention Tool!

This tool is meant to help instructors explore the relationship between course move, genre, and mode, as well as develop their own assignments.

For an overview of the Writing Across Technology Curriculum and our course moves, please see our WAT Curriculum page.

In the first part of this tool, we offer examples of three genres (podcast, documentary, and website) in order to demonstrate how a project using each of the course moves might look depending on the genre. Additionally, we aim to show how the genre itself would change depending on the writing goals and course moves chosen.

We've selected podcasts, documentaries, and websites as our example genres because they all have numerous subgenres that allow for them to work with each course move. Some genres in other modes, or more specific genres, might not work for every course move.

After you are done exploring, the second part of this tool asks you to brainstorm your own assignment.

Collecting and Curating

In this move, students are asked to gather (collect) material from a site, an environment, or their lives and represent it (curate) through writing/creation. Students not only produce whatever material they can find; they carefully select what information needs to be presented to achieve the assignment’s goals and also to think critically about the way the material will be presented. Assignments emphasizing collecting and curating ask students to focus on objects, experiences, and ideas from their surroundings, environment, and/or experiences, and to visibilize them through the process of collection and curation. We might think of the ways museums and galleries curate work and artifacts, for example (and the ethics of curating existing work).

For more information, please see the full page on collecting and curating.

Engaging a Conversation

In this move, students learn to identify, describe, and interact with (engage) an intellectual conversation. This conversation need not feature “academic” (scholarly) voices necessarily, but it should feature a complex issue of critical importance. In this move, students synthesize what more than one author or speaker has articulated and make a conversation about the issue visible to their audience. They may begin situating themselves in that conversation, but they are not necessarily intervening into it. They may respond to a text or texts (of varying media), but they aren’t creating “original” arguments or answers.

For more information, please see the full page on Engaging a Conversation.

Contextualizing

When students contextualize, they are situating ideas, arguments, or practices in a larger context (e.g., a historical context, a critical context, a cultural context) in order to call their audience’s attention to that context. Contextualizing goes beyond summarizing the relevant information about an author or idea; when students contextualize, they use research in order to construct or bring into view a picture of the broad-scale situation, circumstance(s), or relationships that surround an issue, text, genre, or mode (as opposed to tracing a particular conversation within an issue, as in engaging a conversation).

For more information, please see the full page on contextualizing.

Theorizing

By theorizing, students produce new knowledge and contribute meaningfully to intellectual conversations. While research is often a first step, when students theorize, they are doing more than interpreting, summarizing, or applying others’ ideas. They are creating something that could be interpreted or applied by someone else. Of course, creating new knowledge doesn’t always mean providing answers; more often, it means crafting new questions and lines of inquiry, developing new terms, or crafting a critical vocabulary.

For more information, please see the full page on theorizing.

Circulating

FYW courses help students develop habits and skills related to writing, but they also allow students to understand how writing circulates actively in the world. An important part of circulating is understanding audiences who will read the writing and also the media the writing uses. An assignment that asks students to practice circulating creates situations where students have readers and uses for their work beyond their instructor. Circulating assignments especially focus on the relationship between audience, genre and media, and purpose by asking students to take a new and specific audience into account in their writing.

For more information, please see the full page on circulating.

Affordances of Podcasts

Podcasts are not the only type of soundwriting available to us (others include soundscapes, audio essays, etc.), but they are a common genre for soundwriting assignments. (There are also many different subgenres of podcasts.)

• Ability to layer audio, including voice, sound effects, and/or background music
• Vocal interaction - ability to have two voices in "live" conversation
• Audience can potentially hear tone and other audio cues
• A more conversational genre; allows for the audience to potentially also feel like part of the conversation (i.e. FDR's "fireside chats")

Affordances of Websites

There are many different platforms for websites, but there are common benefits or reasons as to why someone might choose a website as the form for an assignment. The affordances of the website will change depending on the platform selected, so platform selection is a necessary component of rhetorically designing websites.

• Accessibility - websites allow for an unlimited and wide-ranging audience, and have built-in accessibility features such as alt-text
• Websites allow for audiences to interact directly with the content via menus, links, etc.
• Hyperlinking - web texts can link out to other related internal or external pages and can therefore expand the conversation
• Websites allow for potentially non-linear projects that audiences can progress through in whatever order they wish
• Organization and structure - through menus, section breaks, etc., websites allow for clearly defined organization and sections

Affordances of Documentaries

Documentaries aren't the only kind of video writing (other genres may include concept in 60 videos, let's play videos, etc.), but they offer some unique affordances, and there are a wide number of documentary subgenres.

• Visual representations - either by filming on location or by providing image or video examples of the topic, authors can represent or illustrate their points visually or draw contrast/juxtaposition
• Ability to layer sound, images, and video - authors can demonstrate a point or question through multiple modes simultaneously
• Live titles, captions, and subtitles - audiences can read the captions in real-time with the other content in videos, and/or authors can create text-only videos without using their own voice if they choose
• Documentaries potentially allow authors to create visual (and auditory) narratives of their argument, point, or central question through transitions, titling, different kinds of shots or clips, etc.

What does a podcast format afford for collecting and curating?

• Collection and curation of a wide variety of audio assets
• Recognizing audio in environment as a text
• Considering pacing, selection of audio assets, and audio layering as aspects of curation and assemblage
• Allowing audience to experience and think through a curated assemblage of sound without an explicit explanation or theory

Sample Podcast Collecting and Curating Assignment

Ask writers to collect sounds from their immediate environment, then have them create an "audio tour" podcast in which they briefly introduce their location, then curate the audio they've collected into a tour.

What does a podcast afford for Engaging a Conversation?

• Capturing improvisation and multiple voices building on each other in ways other formats can't, so the conversation is built in "real time"
• A conversational tone that more nearly matches how audiences might imagine a conversation
• Focused engagement on single topics or themes, which can then highlight a given conversation more specifically
• Layered audio to include other aspects of conversation (aside from the "live" vocal interaction)

Sample Podcast Engaging a Conversation Assignment

Ask writers to record short interviews with different people from different contexts on a particular topic of interest. The writer then creates a podcast identifying or tracing a major conversation they see happening between all of those interviews and situates themselves in relation to that conversation, and/or discusses what interests them about that conversation.

What does a podcast afford for contextualizing?

• Able to include many voices to provide context about a topic or issue
• Many genres of podcasts already contextualize
• Allowing for a broader approach to context by including many voices, sounds, and interviews
• Creating interesting narratives or stories out of or around a particular context that builds throughout the podcast

Sample Podcast Contextualizing Assignment

Ask writers to collect a wide variety of sound assets describing the historical or critical context surrounding an issue or topic. Writers then construct a narrative about or around a particular context using a variety of assets (and may discuss what context they've found that they feel has been missing from other understandings of that context).

What does a podcast afford for theorizing?

Due to their more narrative and conversational natures, involving multiple or many voices, podcasts may not be ideal for theorizing, but it is still possible to potentially imagine ways one might theorize via podcasting. If you have examples of theorizing podcast assignments, please send them to First-Year Writing!

• Prioritizing voice—authors are able to state their own argument or opinion clearly
• If the point or question being raised is building off of audio, the author can layer the audio in their podcast

Sample Podcast Theorizing Assignment

What does a podcast afford for circulating?

• Podcasts are designed for circulation - to be shared, reviewed, and posted on online platforms
• Podcasts are often episodic, connecting to one another and also referencing other podcasts in circulation
• Podcasts are often aimed at particular audiences, both due to their circulation and due to their usually narrow topic focus

Sample Podcast Circulating Assignment

As a whole class, writers construct a series of episodic podcasts clustered around a similar topic, theme, or idea, aimed at a particular audience. Each podcast builds on and/or connects the others and then is shared on a circulating platform.

What does a website afford for collecting and curating?

• Ability to collect and display items/assets in many modes
• Organizing curations
• Hyperlinking as curation
• Ability of audience to interact with curations via clicking or typing

Sample Website Collecting and Curating Assignment

Ask writers to collect items of various modes (image, sound, video, website/hyperlink) relating to their experiences, and then curate them in a digital format on a webpage. Writers curate these assets and arrange them in a meaningful way, taking advantage of the possibilities for organization and interaction provided by the website form.

What does a website afford for engaging a conversation?

• Ability to connect/link directly to voices or texts in a conversation, and/or embed media from a conversation into the website
• Organizing aspects of a conversation in a non-linear way via menus, subpages, and/or widgets/plugins/etc.
• Options for personal engagement with or reflection on a conversation in formats such as a blog

Sample Website Engaging a Conversation Assignment

Ask writers to identify a conversation through texts of various media, then make a conversation between those texts visible by embedding them into a website about that conversation. Writers may then reflect on or respond to that conversation via a blog post, a separate page on the website, or under each text they discuss or embed.

What does a website afford for contextualizing?

• Ability to embed many different sources of various media for a context
• Organizing features of a context in different headings or subpages
• Hyperlinking directly to sources for a context and/or discussion of a contact
• Opportunities to explore/reflect on a context simultaneously or side-by-side with embedded or hyperlinked media

Sample Website Contextualizing Assignment

Ask writers to research a historical or critical context, paying particular attention to various aspects of that context (i.e. contemporary current events of the time, sociopolitical events or issues, etc.). Writers then organize their findings on a website, taking advantage of its organization and arrangement features such as menus, font, etc. to draw attention to these different aspects of their context and also draw connections between them.

What does a website afford for theorizing?

• Websites can host multimedia projects, allowing writers to intervene via text, video, sound, and image
• The ability to hyperlink allows authors to directly link to what they are intervening to or diverging from
• Websites allow for interaction, giving writers the ability to directly engage their audience in their intervention

Sample Website Theorizing Assignment

Ask writers to develop a new line of inquiry relating to the course inquiry or a recent project. Through the website structure, writers may point to what locations they are diverging from or adding on to via structures like menus and subpages, or they can direct their audience more linearly to their conclusions through these structures as well. Writers can structure the theme, headings, etc. on the site of inquiry or important new questions they are asking.

What does a website afford for circulating?

Circulation is the move that perhaps works the best for websites (although all writing, of course, circulates), since, by nature, they are meant to be publicly available and they circulate among audiences via sharing, hyperlinks, web searches, etc.

• Websites are hosted online and accessible to the public unless they require log-in or registration
• They link to other websites or resources, creating a traceable "map" of circulation
• Whether it's a group identity, company identity, or individual identity, websites convey a digital presence or identity, and provide an opportunity to reflect critically on how one constructs such a presence
• Via menus, websites can circulate within themselves

Sample Website Circulating Assignment

What does a documentary afford for collecting and curating?

• Documentaries can collect and curate visual and sound assets without necessarily creating an overt narrative; examples include poetic documentaries
• A number of different assets can be collected, curated, and layered on one another for unique juxtapositions, combinations, and meanings

Sample Documentary Collecting and Curating Assignment

Ask writers to collect visual assets from a surrounding environment. They can then curate them into a poetic documentary with music and/or other sound assets.

What does a documentary afford for engaging a conversation?

• Documentaries often include commentary from many different people reflecting on an event, issue, or person, so a conversation can be curated, presented, and traced
• Interviewees could also be placed in live/direct conversation with one another
• Text can be used or overlaid to either include quotes from print-sources or to direct or guide audience's engagement with a conversation

Sample Documentary Engaging a Conversation Assignment

Ask writers to find participants in, and potentially experts of, a given conversation surrounding a topic or issue. They can interview these individuals or find assets of them speaking. By ordering these assets in a particular way with strategic text and sound usage, writers can develop and trace a conversation in a narrative style over the course of their documentary video.

What does a documentary afford for contextualizing?

Many documentaries that engage history also contextualize, as they return to events and points in history to offer or gesture to potentially forgotten or overlooked contexts. (For example, Thin Blue Line.)

• Documentaries' narrative structure allows them to provide narrative context
• The ability to layer video, image, sound, and text allows documentaries to draw contexts from many different assets

Sample Documentary Contextualizing Assignment

Ask writers to collect assets about a historical or cultural context surrounding a particular topic or issue. These assets can include interviews, film from archived sources, text overlay from print sources, voiceover, etc. Writers then assemble those assets into a narrative about that context that explores why others need to know about that context

What does a documentary afford for theorizing?

Several documentaries theorize, especially those which are discussing activism or trying to effect some sort of social change. (For example, An Inconvenient Truth, or Tough Guise 2.)

• Since documentaries allow for voice overs and/or interviews, a person can be filmed intervening into a given issue live (by engaging with other assets in conversation) or in response to pre-recorded/collected assets.
• The ability to incorporate and layer many different types of media allows documentaries (and videos more generally) to explore trends and patterns, and give evidence, quickly while making a point that diverges from existing conversations, or offers new ways of thinking through an issue.

Sample Documentary Theorizing Assignment

Ask writers to develop a new line of inquiry from a chosen issue or create a theory exploring how or why something occurs. Writers then collect assets demonstrating commonplaces, assumptions, or existing thoughts on the chosen issue/conversation, and through layering these assets as well as their own clips or voice overs, they pose questions and challenge assumptions in order to extend the conversation to new areas.

What do documentaries afford for circulating?

• All documentaries are created with the intention of circulating. They have particular audiences in mind whom they are trying to persuade, galvanize, or trouble.
• They are often made in response to other documentaries or reference them.
• Sites that play or host the documentary affect how people access and view it.
• The relationship between the director and the subjects of a documentary are often topics of importance.
• Documentaries often cull large audience or fan followings and have tangible impact on topics or issues, or at least perceptions of them.

Sample Documentary Circulating Assignment

Ask writers to choose an existing documentary (potentially related to a topic or issue they've been exploring all semester if possible). Writers can then gather assets related to that documentary's circulation, such as fan responses, news releases, information about its release date, the director, the documentary's website including extra material relating to it, etc. Writers can then assemble those assets into a documentary that analyzes how it circulated, what audience it was targeting, how audiences actually responded, and how it circulated through popular media.