ENGL 408 | Spring 2019 | 1

ENGLISH 408
Spring 2019
Writing Digital
Tues / Thurs 11 am – 12:15 pm Environments

Dr. Sheila Liming
sheila.liming@und.edu Office hours:
701-777-2782 MW 10 am – 12 pm,
Office: Merrifield 1B and by appointment

Course Description

We’ve all heard the complaints: no one reads anymore. But the reports of reading’s death have been
greatly exaggerated. They overlook the fact that most reading today just happens to be done on a
screen, not in print. In this course, we will confront this reality head-on by experimenting with
writing in and for digital platforms and by creating content that is designed for this kind of reading.

This class is not only for English majors: any student who would like to learn new techniques for
producing and distributing their writing will benefit from experimenting with writing for a multitude
of digital platforms. Likewise, the projects for this course do not presume advanced technological
literacy, but they will require students to practice new skills and develop new proficiencies. Learning
to write in “medium-specific” ways will help hone your writing for professional contexts and/or
graduate school by encouraging you to communicate to new audiences in a variety of different
media formats. Students will work on a linked, semester-long project of their choosing that will
require them to think and produce creatively within a number of different media formats (including
digital documents, presentations, and exhibits).

This course is an Essential Studies Capstone Course, and fulfills the goals of
Communication and Information Literacy.

Course Objectives

• Introduce students to new methods for composing, designing, and distributing their ideas.

• Model process-based learning strategies for the composition, revision, and preservation of digital
projects.

• Familiarize students with multimodal methods for composing narrative and argument
in accordance with changing expectations in the workplace and graduate education.

• Encourage students to tinker with do-it-yourself and do-it-together strategies for composing,
spreading, and remixing digital media.

• Enable students to reflect on the practical relationship between producers,

designers, marketers, and audiences of digital writing.

• Foster proficiency in a wide variety of multimodal genres including digital journalism, infographics,
videos, technical reviews.
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Required Texts
[to be purchased]

Carroll, Brian. Writing & Editing for Digital Media, 3rd Edition. Routledge, 2017.

Moody, Rick. Hotels of North America. Morse Books, 2016.

Additional Texts (available on Blackboard)

Gorbis, Marina. “New Workers, New Skills.” Educause, 2 May 2016. Accessed 8 December 2018,
https://er.educause.edu/articles/2016/5/new-workers-new-skills.

Hobbes, Michael. “FML.” Highline – The Huffington Post, 14 December 2017. Accessed 8 December
2018, https://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/poor-millennials.

Jenkins, Henry, et al. Selections from Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked
Culture. New York University Press, 2013.

Miles, “Rick Moody’s Hotels of North America.” The New York Times, 18 December 2015. Accessed 8
December 2018, nytimes.com/2015/12/20/books/review/rick-moodys-hotels-of-north-
america.html.

Tufte, Edward. “Mapped Pictures,” Beautiful Evidence, Graphics Press, 2006: pp. 12-35.

Ventimiglia, Phil and Pullman, George. “From Written to Digital: The New Literacy.” Educause,
March / April 2017. Accessed 8 December 2018,https://er.educause.edu/500.html?
aspxerrorpath=/articles/2016/3/from-written-to-digital-the-new-literacy.

Ward, Megan. “The Problem with Feedback.” The Atlantic, 11 November 2018. Accessed 8
December 2018, https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/11/why-ratings-
and-feedback-forms-dont-work/575455/.

Required Media / Screenings

“Nosedive.” Black Mirror, Season 3, written by Charlie Booker, directed by Joe Wright, 2016.

Assignments and Grading (see individual assignment sheets for more information)

Daily Assignments / Blog Posts / “Editor’s Statements” [3 pts. each]

graded according to the 3-2-1 grading scale (see details, below)

I. Yelp Review Assignment [20 pts.]

Draft: 500 words (2 pgs.)

Final: 1,000-1,200 words (4-5 pgs.)

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II. Problem Pitch Assignment [10 pts.]

Draft: 750 – 1,000 words (3-4 pgs.)
Final: approx. 1,000 words (4 pgs.)

III. Digital Story [20 pts.]

Draft: 1,500-2,000 words (6-8 pgs.)
Final: approx. 2,000 words (8 pgs.)

IV. Video Exegesis [20 pts.]

Script and Storyboard: 6-8 pgs. written material + visual material
Final Video: 3-5 mins. total

Course Participation
Midsemester [15 pts.]
Final [15 pts.]

Please note that all major assignments (I-IV) must be submitted in order for a student to receive a passing grade in
this course.

The 3 - 2 - 1 Grading Scale

Most daily assignments (like Wiki “Keywords” entries, in-class written assignments / responses, and
“Class Notes”) will be assessed using a 3-2-1 grading scale.
Here’s what that means:

3 Excellent Work
The student appears to have a firm understanding of both concepts and keywords, and the
writing is polished, clear, and comprehensible.

2 Good Work, But Could Be Improved

The student demonstrates a general, if perhaps not nuanced or detailed, understanding of
both the concepts and keywords and the writing is satisfactory. The student may need to
offer more detailed explanations of concepts / keywords, or to hone aspects of grammar
and syntax in their writing.

1 Needs Improvement
The student completed the assignment but has not demonstrated understanding of the
keywords or concepts, or else the writing is poor.

Note: I am always happy to talk to you and to offer additional explanation about the scores that you
receive on assignments. Please feel free to visit my office during my regularly scheduled office hours
if you would like to know more about a score that you received.

Course Policies and Procedures

Attendance
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Since this is a discussion-based course, attendance is mandatory. Students in upper-level courses

should view course attendance as part of the job of being a student; missing class should only
happen under rare and exceptional circumstances, much like missing a day of work.

You are generally allowed three absences without penalty— following your fourth absence, your
grade in the class will begin to drop by a half-a-letter grade per absence (5% of your total grade).
Plan ahead if you think you might miss class for religious holidays or for other scheduled events. I
do not distinguish between excused and unexcused absences. You are allowed two absences
– be they excused or unexcused – before your grade begins to decrease, unless other special
arrangements have been made with me ahead of time.

If you have extenuating circumstances significantly affecting your attendance throughout the
semester (such as an illness or a family emergency), please get in touch with me so we can discuss
your specific situation. If you miss more than the allotted days due to such extenuating
circumstances, we will discuss whether it’s prudent for you to continue in the course.

Late Arrival
Arrive on time. You will not receive an A in this class if you do not arrive on time. Lateness not only
disrupts the class but also demonstrates disrespect for your peers and for your instructor. If you are
more than 15 minutes late to class, you will be marked absent for that day.
Class Participation
Since this is a discussion course, it’s important that you participate in class. Participation, which
includes both classroom involvement and physically being in class, makes up roughly 15% of your
total grade. While your class participation grade falls to my discretion, there are several steps you can
take to ensure you achieve a satisfactory grade:

• Come to class prepared, having read the required text(s), and ready to volunteer
comments, thoughts, or questions about them. This includes taking notes on the
required reading and using those notes to prepare you for in-class discussion with
your peers.

• Plan to participate. You should anticipate contributing to course discussions on a

regular basis (at least twice per class).

• Be courteous toward your peers. When you raise disagreement in class – either
with the instructor or with your peers – try to do so respectfully. Articulate your
reasons and grounds for disagreement and direct them towards an idea, rather
than a person. Failure to show adequate respect towards your peers or towards
your instructor may result in your being asked to leave the classroom. Such a
request will, in turn, affect my assessment of your class participation, and
possibly your attendance record as well.

• Respect your peers (and your instructor) by staying focused in class. We will be
using laptop computers and devices on a daily basis in this course, but that ought
not to prevent you from listening when your peers speak, or from following
instructions and paying attention to the class discussion. Practice respectful laptop
use; take notes, review the reading, or look up answers to questions that relate to
 ENGL 408 | Spring 2019 | 5

the class discussion. Other uses of your laptop constitute a misuse of time and
resources in this class.

Cell Phones, Laptops, etc.

You are welcome to use your cell phones and laptops in class whenever they
prove helpful to your education. However, if your personal devices become
distracting – to either you or to your peers – you may be asked to put them away,
or to leave the classroom. I will issue an emailed warning the first time a student’s
use of their devices is found to be creating a distraction; the second time it happens, they will be asked
to leave the classroom and will be marked absent for the day.

Scholastic Honesty, Plagiarism, and Cheating

At the University of North Dakota, we believe in the excellence of our students and in the integrity
of our academic programs. We also believe that your good ideas become better when you test them
against the ideas of others. So for this course, feel free to discuss your ideas about the major writing
assignments with other students. Collaborating on question/answer homework assignments or
open-book quizzes, however, is not acceptable; these types of assignments are designed for me, your
instructor, to monitor how you are handling specific parts of the course material. Blatantly taking
someone else’s words, ideas or concepts, and using them without citing your source is plagiarism.
So is using another student’s essay, or part of his or her essay, as your own. In the world of writing
(academic writing especially), this is a serious crime, and is treated as such. Anyone who uses non-
documented material from another source, including online sources, will receive a failing grade for
the entire course and will be referred to university administrators for possible further disciplinary
action.

These policies are concurrent with the University of North Dakota’s policies regarding scholastic
honesty. For more information about these policies, please refer to the “Scholastic Honesty” section
of the Undergraduate Academic Information materials available online at und.edu.

All final versions of essay assignments will be submitted to Blackboard, which runs digital
comparisons of submitted assignments in order to identify possible cases of plagiarism. For this
reason, you must submit final versions of papers to Blackboard. You may additionally submit versions
of your assignment through other electronic means (via email, for instance), but if you fail to
submit your paper to Blackboard, it will be treated as late, and lateness penalties will apply.

In this course, we will talk about the differences between plagiarism and the misuse of sources. If
you have any questions regarding the appropriate use of source material (readings, critical opinions,
or supplemental research), please feel free to ask me. In my experience, those students who
plagiarize are also those who feel overwhelmed by the assignment and thus compelled to use
someone else’s work as their own. If you get so frustrated with an assignment that you feel like your
only option is to plagiarize, come see me. My role as a teacher is to help students, not to punish
them— please use me as a resource to help you write, brainstorm, or work out assignments and
essays.

General Guidelines for Submitting Assignments

All papers submitted in this class – including short, type-written homework responses (“Reading
Responses”) – must comply with Modern Language Association (MLA) guidelines and citation rules.
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This means that you must provide MLA compliant documentation for the use of additional sources,
including:

• a Works Cited page, providing correct bibliographic information for each source
cited, quoted, or consulted in your paper

• correct in-text citations for each source cited, quoted, or consulted in your paper

If you are unsure of MLA guidelines, I suggest you either consult or purchase a current
MLA Style Guide, or consult the following online source:

The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University

àhttps://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style
_guide/mla_formatting_and_style_guide.html

In addition to proper citation,

• All papers, including short response assignments, must be typed, double-spaced, with 1”
margins.

• All papers completed as homework – including “Wiki Entries” – must be

digitally submitted via Blackboard, unless otherwise specified.

• Include page numbers on all assignments longer than one page.

• Carefully edit and proofread all texts to eliminate problems in grammar, spelling, and
punctuation.

• Digital copies of all final papers must be cleanly edited and readable. This means that
you must remove all digital comments/suggestions, including highlighted or underlined text,
and including all comment balloons.

• Spell-check your documents.

Documents that do not meet these and other assignment-specific requirements will be returned to you and will not
be graded until they are in compliance with these guidelines.

Deadlines
All written assignments must be submitted on the due date, and missing the class when the
assignment is due doesn’t mean your assignment isn’t late. Turning in an assignment on time is part
of doing the assignment, and late work will be penalized, regardless of how well it’s executed.

Lateness penalties are as follows:

• Papers / Projects: for every day that a paper/project is late, you will lose five points, unless
other arrangements have been made in advance.
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• Daily assignments. All late assignments may receive a maximum of half-credit (50%),
regardless of how late they are.

Campus Resources

Disabilities
If you have a learning disability that could impair your progress in this course, please contact
Disability Services. Students are encouraged to register through Disability Services in order to
receive recommendations for learning accommodations.

Disability Services
http://und.edu/disability-services/
McCannel Hall Room 190

We can arrange to accommodate your learning style based on DS recommendations. Please notify
me at the start of the semester if you have specific needs, or if Disability Services has provided you
with a Verification of Needs for Disability Accommodations.

Writing Help
All students are encouraged to take advantage of UND’s Writing Center to receive help in preparing
writing assignments.

To make an appointment or speak with a tutor, visit their website, or the visit the Writing Center
itself.

UND Writing Center

http://und.edu/academics/writing-center/
Merrifield Hall Room 12

Communications

You can reach me via email, office phone, or a note in my mailbox in Merrifield Hall. The best way
to reach me, of course, is through email – I check it frequently and, while I cannot guarantee an
immediate reply, it is certainly the fastest way to get in touch.

If you have questions about the policies of this class, review the syllabus first, and then make an
appointment to speak with me.
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Course Schedule
January 8 Introduction and Course Overview

January 10 DUE: Carroll, vii- 28 (Introduction and Ch. 1)

Blog Response [6 words]: Exercise 1.2 (Six-Word Story):

be prepared to share yours in class (in addition to posting it
the course blog). You need only post your Six-Word Story; it should
stand on its own, so no additional explanation should be added to the
blog post itself.

January 15 DUE: Jenkins, “Spreadable Media” (BB)

January 17 DUE: Carroll, 29-59 (W&E)

Blog Response [250 words]: Summarize Carroll’s definition

of digital writing and digital editing. In your opinion, what is
the most single most useful piece of advice he gives for each
category (i.e. one for digital writing, one for digital editing)?
Finally, compare his definition to Henry Jenkins’: which do
you prefer? And, why?

January 22 DUE: Ward, “The Problem with Feedback” (BB)

In class: introduce Assignment I: Yelp Review

January 24 DUE: Blog Reponse [500 words]: Yelp Review (draft)

Moody, Hotels of North America (pp. 1-66 / thru La

Quinta Inn, Tuscaloosa, AL)

January 29 DUE: Moody, Hotels of North America (pp. 67 – 123 / thru

Norse Motel, Story City, IA)

January 31 DUE: Moody, Hotels of North America (pp. 124- end, plus
“Afterward”)

February 5 DUE: Blog Response [1,000-1,200 words]: Yelp Review

(final). Post your completed Yelp Review assignment to
the course blog in addition to submitting it (as a Word document) to
Blackboard. Your finished assignment should feature a
set of linked posts; each post should be clearly separated and
dated, with the location / name of business specified; each
post should also include a star rating (1-5).
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Carroll, pp. 149-172

Introduce Assignment II / Problem Pitch; set conference

schedule for Tuesday 2/12

February 7 DUE: Hobbes, “FML” (BB)

February 12 NO CLASS: mandatory individual conferences

February 14 DUE: Blog Response [750-1,000 words]: Problem Pitch

(draft)

In class: peer Editing Session Following Carroll’s Guidelines

in Chapter 2

February 19 DUE: Blog Response [250 words]: Editor’s Statement

Respond to your peer’s pitch (from the Thursday 2/19
workshop) in the form of an Editor’s Statement addressed to
both your peer and your instructor (see Assignment Sheet for
details).

In-class: screen Black Mirror, “Nosedive” (2016)

February 21 Introduce and experiment with software (Thimble, Juxtapose,

Storyline, Piktochart, Scalar, etc.)

Laptop computers will be provided for in-class use, but if you have access
to a personal laptop, it is recommended that you bring it to class.

February 26 DUE: Problem Pitch (final draft: submit to Blackboard)

Share / discuss project ideas in class.

February 28 DUE: Carroll, pp. 59-91

March 5 In class time to work on digital stories / experiment with

software.

March 7 In class time to work on digital stories / experiment with

software.

March 11 – 15 NO CLASS: Spring Break

March 19 DUE: Blog Response [1K-1,500 words] Assignment III:

Digital Story (draft, incl. explanations of dreams / plans for
additional interactive/digital content – see Assignment Sheet
for details).

In class: peer review / editing sessions

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March 21 NO CLASS: UND WRITERS CONFERENCE

Extra Credit Opportunity: Attend an event at the Writers

Conference and submit a 1-page analysis of how the author
or authors engage with, define, or talk about one key term
from our course discussions this semester. (Submit EC essay
to Blackboard).

March 26 DUE: Blog Response [250 words]: Editor’s Statement

Respond to your peer’s story post in the form of an Editor’s
Statement addressed to both your peer and your instructor
(see Assignment Sheet for details).

Tufte, “Mapped Pictures” (BB)

March 28 Carroll, pp. 197-228

March 28 DUE: Blog Response [250 words]: post a link to the

FINAL version of your digital story on the course blog;
then, explain the choices you made en route to creating it in
the form of a short (250-word) blog post. You must also submit
a link to the finalized version of the story to Blackboard, via the
assignment upload link.

In class time to review each others’ stories / posts.

April 2 Ventimiglia and Pullman, “From Written to Digital: The New

Literacy” (BB)

Introduce Assignment III: Video Exegesis

April 4 Carroll, pp. 261-300

April 9 DUE: Blog Response [500 words + visual content /

storyboard / scene overview): Video Script and
Storyboard

In class: peer editing / workshop

April 11 In class: work on troubleshooting and editing video

Set video presentation schedule.

April 16 DUE: Blog Response [250 words]: Editor’s Statement

Respond to your peer’s video script / storyboard post in the
form of an Editor’s Statement addressed to both your peer
and your instructor (see Assignment Sheet for details).
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Gorbis, “New Workers, New Skills” (BB)

April 18 Carroll, pp. 229-260

April 23 Video Presentations: Group I

April 25 Video Presentations: Group II

April 30 Video Presentations: Group III

May 2 Video Presentations: Group IV (if needed)

Last day of class: in-class time for evaluations, course
overview, wrap-up discussion

May 7 Final video projects due to Blackboard by 5 p.m.

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Weekly Assignments and Blog Posts [3 pts. each]

Weekly assignments—including specific tasks, like “Editor’s Statements,” as well as general blog
posts—should be posted to the course blog and formatted according to specifications outlined in
the course schedule.

You will receive an email invitation to join the blog (and WordPress.com). After accepting
that invitation, you can set your user preferences, choose a display name and image, etc. All of this
will help to make it easier for your peers in the course to find and identify the content that you add
to this blog.

After your user preferences are all set up, you can plan to return to the blog site on a weekly basis in
order to compose and post your blog entries, and in order to comment on yours peers’ posts.

Here’s how to go about doing that:

• Click the “Blog Posts” tab on the home menu (left).

• Compose and post your blog entry in response to the criteria outlined in the syllabi. Blog posts
should adhere to stated length specifications and should follow specific instructions for a particular
assignment (i.e. “Editor’s Statement”), drawing specifically from the text and readings, or else from your peer’s
drafts / posts, where necessary and appropriate. For detailed instructions about composing blog posts, see
the course syllabus.

• Be sure to categorize and file your blog post so that it will be easy to find. Categories can be
found under the “Categories and Tags” tab on the the right-hand toolbar (made visible by clicking
on the image that appears at the top of the page when you are logged in to WordPress and
composing a new post). Categories are listed by date / subject matter (i.e. “Blog 1/17 Carroll
Response”).

Drafts of major assignments (i.e. I. Yelp Review Assignment) will likewise be treated as weekly
assignments / blog posts and graded according to the 3-2-1 scale (see details in “Assignments and
Grading” section, pp. 2-3).
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I. Yelp Review Assignment [20 pts.]

Draft: 500 words (2 pgs.)

Select a local business in the Grand Forks area with which you are familiar. Compose a
review in the style of a Yelp.com post, creating a detailed portrait of an experience you had
at this establishment (i.e. What did you eat or drink? Who were you with? What was the
service like? How about the ambiance / décor / interior? etc.).

Your post may be true (i.e. based on actual experiences) or fictitious (i.e. featuring made-up
characters or fictional events), but in it, you must work to develop a character. This could
be a real person (yourself, a friend, your mother, your significant other, etc.) or a fake
person, but the idea is to work on developing their presence throughout the story and to give
us a sense of their identity, in addition to describing your experiences at this establishment.

à Upload your draft and post it to the course blog in addition to submitting it to Blackboard
(as a .doc / Microsoft Word file).

Final: 1,000-1,200 words (4-5 pgs.)

Return to your original review draft and expand it by adding at least two more reviews of
local businesses.

Your new reviews should feature some of the same characters that appeared in your original
post and, in them, you should work to develop a “story” about these characters. Once again,
this story could be true or it could be fictitious. Either way, the idea is to use the format to
develop subtle details relating to a particular character (or set of characters) and an event (or
set of events).

Look to Rick Moody’s Hotels of North America for inspiration in this assignment and see if
you can develop portraits of your characters that evolve from post to post and, eventually,
add up to some kind of narrative.

à Upload your draft and post it to the course blog in addition to submitting it to Blackboard
(as a .doc / Microsoft Word file).
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II. Problem Pitch Assignment [10 pts.]

750-1,000 words (3-4 pgs.) + annotated bibliography

As we’ve discussed this semester, there are a lot of ways to say what needs to be said. Conversely,
there are a lot of things that need to be discussed by expert researchers like you. This first
assignment will be your chance to start envisioning the problem that you’d like to write about for the
rest of the semester. The topic is up to you; it can arise from your academic major, the local
community, the national scene, or even an outside interest. It’s essential, though, that you pick
something that you’re invested in and can imagine working on for the rest of the semester.

You might think of this assignment as the first step towards crystallizing your interests. As in all
writing, you need to know what others have said in order to make an important contribution to the
discussion. Use this paper as a place to stake out your interest and expertise in something you would
like to know more about.

The subsequent assignments for this class will ask you to create original arguments by synthesizing,
repurposing, and adapting other high-quality research material for a larger
public audience. Creativity is best thought of as a dialogue. This short writing assignment asks you to
explain what dialogue you’d like to enter into and why. As such, you should aim to outline:
• the nature of an important problem
• the relevance of this problem to a (relatively) broad, public
• discussion of some important projects (articles, surveys, films, documentaries) that are
already working on defining and solving the problem
• an argument to why and how you can use your expertise and interests in order to do treat
this problem effectively

In addition to 3-4 typed pages of written discussion, you’ll also need to include an annotated bibliography
listing at least 3 sources. The type of source will be based on your problem, but high-quality research
materials will give you the most material with which to work. Your annotations can be short (1-2
sentences describing the source, its author, its major arguments or ideas, it’s tone or approach, etc.),
but I’d like to see you reinforcing why you think that these are good examples and resources for
your take on the problem.

Questions to ask yourself in advance of writing this essay:

• What does the public need to know about my issue in order to care about it?
• Can I imagine thinking about this problem for the next 8 weeks? Is it complicated
• enough? Is it too complicated?
• How will I be able to use multimodal writing strategies to adapt expert data and arguments
for a broader public audience?
• Where will I find out more information about this issue as the semester progresses?
• Is my problem primarily an intellectual, political, cultural, or social problem?
• What is unique about my problem?
• How will I be able to spread information about my problem?
• What can my experiences and expertise add to the public’s understanding of the problem
that hasn’t already been covered?
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III. Digital Story Assignment [20 pts.]

1,000-1,500 words (4-6 pgs.) written

+ multimodal content (images, maps, graphics, text design, etc.)

For this assignment, you will be creating a born-digital attempt at telling a story using data, images,
maps, comparisons, and/or interactive elements. We’ve already reviewed examples of this kind of
storytelling in class: for example, in his essay “FML,” author Michael Hobbes explores the financial
issues that plague the generation known as “Millennials.” If you revisit Hobbes’ essay, you’ll notice
that it features the following elements:
- animation
- textual design features (like “pull quotes,” boxes containing definitions of key terms, etc.)
- hypertext links to other articles written on similar subjects
- statistics and data, plus a built-in scrollbar for the display of these elements
- images and graphics (as in the “Becky” scenario)
- interviews
- anecdotal evidence and narrative
- charts and graphs
- repeatable design / text elements that help to make the story read like an Infographic
- vocabulary gleaned from social media (FML; FTW; FWIW; LOL; etc.)

Draft: 1,000-1,500 words (4-6 pages)

For your draft, you will need to create the written, or textual, component of your digital story.
This will be in the form of a critical essay (though you may include elements of personal and
creative writing in it). Your draft will be composed as a separate document and then posted
on the course blog so that you may receive feedback from your peer editor.

Final: 1,000-1,500 words (4-6 pages) + multimodal content (images, maps, graphics, text design, etc.)
Your final draft must be made and submitted using creative presentation software (like
Scalar, Prezi, or some of the other examples reviewed in class). Follow these steps for
submission:

1) Create a new blog post and copy the link to your completed story, which must be
stored online and accessible to everyone in the class.

2) In addition to posting the link, prepare a short blog post (250 words) narrating the
choices you made in creating your story and the particular format / software that you
chose to work with.

3) Submit a link to your completed story to Blackboard, using the assignment upload
page.
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IV. Video Exegesis Assignment [20 pts.]

Having taken your “problem pitch” from the proposal stage to a completed, digital story, you will
now transform it into a video exegesis – that is, into a filmed (or animated), graphic, visual narrative.
In this assignment, you will work towards completing your video exegesis, the final version of which
should be about 3-5 minutes in length, by completing the following steps.

Step 1 Initial explanation / blog post (500 words) and storyboard draft.
Compose a blog post in which you (a) outline and describe your plans for the video
exegesis assignment working from the text of your digital story and (b) provide an
overview of the film in the form of a storyboard. The storyboard can take the form
of a rough scene outline (describing what happens in each scene, specific camera
shots or visuals), graphics (hand-drawn / scanned images, stock images, etc.), or
notes, but it must present a complete and organized view of what the finished
exegesis will look like, and it must contain a clear narrative, or story.

Step 2 Receive feedback from peer editor on blog post / storyboard draft; offer feedback on
your peer’s storyboard / draft (in the form of a blog post).

Incorporate feedback into your plans for the exegesis. Use it to create your video
script, or else a completed version of your storyboard, which will help to keep you
organized during the filming process.

Step 3 Begin filming or gathering video material for the exegesis. If you have chosen to film
scenes, you will need access to a camera (or you can use your cellphone, if you wish)
and will need to schedule / arrange filming dates. If you are using stock or found
footage, you will need to collect and store excerpts (no more than 30 seconds each,
as per fair use requirements) and prepare to upload them into your editing software.

If necessary, you will also need to distribute and collect release forms for any actors
who appear in your video exegesis, if they happen to be students at UND.

Step 4 Edit and arrange your footage to produce your video exegesis. You may work with
Adobe Premier (provided on departmental laptops / through the Union’s Mac lab)
or other video production software, such as iMovie.

Step 5 Submit completed video exegesis, which should be no more than 3-5 minutes
total in length, to Blackboard as an .mp4 or .mov file.

Step 6 Present your finished film in class.