Designing, Writing, and Producing a Podcast

COM210
Dr. Kyung Sun (Karen) Lee
Deadline: May 15, 2022

For this project, you will be tasked with creating an informational podcast. Through a series
of steps, I hope you will create an interesting and informative podcast. As a final output, you
will submit the podcast itself along your written outline and script.

Instructions:
Be approximately 3-5 minutes in length
Be accompanied by your written outline/script

1. Making your podcast

a. Conceptualize your podcast
b. Begin researching the topic and outlining the script
c. Begin collecting your samples
d. Record the voice portion of the podcast
e. Mix your samples into a final podcast

a. Concept
Start by brainstorming to help give your project focus. Write out a few notes to yourself
describing your overall concept. Be sure to hit all angles (sense of purpose, audience,
context, statement of purpose, strategies, medium, arrangement). It may help to create an
imagined list of questions and answers between your intended listeners and you. You may
also start thinking about the about the audio samples you would like to collect. Do you want
this to sound like a regular radio show? Then you'll want to create intro and exit music.

B. Begin researching the topic and outlining the script

Like most written documents, initial planning is essential--you'll want to do an outline,
storyboard, or some kind of design plan to lay out how you will arrange material to achieve
your purpose. Your written script does NOT need to be word-for-word, but rather an idea of
each topic covered and how long it takes on the podcast. You should also include notes on
any background music or noises you will incorporate in each section. Any music or sounds
you include must be copyright free or you must have the rights to them.

C. Record Voice
You'll need to have a script for this portion of the project -- the amount of detail in the script
is up to you. It can be an outline, or it can be a word-for-word script. We'll talk about the
difference between writing for the ear and writing for the eye, if you think you want a fully-
scripted recording. Just know that it's an art to make a recording like this sound "natural."

D. Sounds
Your project must have at least two audio samples that you will manipulate or mix.

E. Mix
Now's the fun (creative!) and challenging (time!) of the project. Continue to work the script,
and put these audio bits together to form a whole. Note on the script which audio files
you've used and the relevant copyright information associated with each. Use your samples
and your concept to create a recording that reflects your communication goals. Use the
hardware and software of your choice. Have friends (or fellow classmates) listen to your
samples and give you feedback. Be sure to save your work often -- and give each version a
different file name, so that you can easily "revert" if you don't like a change.

Evaluation
Storytelling – driving question? Beginning, middle, and end follows “writing for the ear”? is
there a narrative structure in place? 60%

Sounds – two audio samples? 20% (intro, outro music, sound bytes, background sounds)
- Audio recording of Interview included? Is there a proper attribution introducing
the interview source?

Presentation – clarity in narration, not too many distracting editing errors 10%

Outline/script – 10%