Final Paper Assignment
Please see below for your final paper assignment.
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Final Project Resources
Alan Levine, 50+ Web 2.0 Ways To Tell a Story
3-D Animation Programs
Xtranormal
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Midterm project resources:
Here are some tools to help you while you finish up your midterm projects:
Pixlr – web-based photoshop alternative.
Jing – create screencasts
Flickr Creative Commons Image Search – search for images licensed under Creative Commons
Picnik.com – free online image creation and manipulation tool
Free Icon Sets – great, free icon designs. Make sure that you examine the license on whichever icon set you choose — you may need to give attribution if you use a set.
Image Map creator – use this to create navigation bars on wikis. On WordPress, you can use built-in page listing widgets.
Remember:
— You should not break copyright! Make sure that the images you’re using are either used with permission of the creator or are licensed under Creative Commons. If you use a CC image, make sure that you fulfill the Attribution requirement of the license by giving credit to the creator of the image.
— You can use many sorts of media to create your manual. Options include videos, screencasts, wiki pages, blog posts, and others. You can create an entirely new blog devoted only to this project and you can use pages (as opposed to posts) for each section of your manual.
Remember: Have fun, be imaginative, and be creative!!h
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Lessig Readings
For Wednesday, May 6: From Lawrence Lessig, Free Culture (available in many free formats): Chapter 1, “Creators”, Chapter 5, “Piracy”. Also check out the Flash Presentation
For Monday, May 11: Lawrence Lessig, Remix, Chapters TBA
For Wednesday, May 13: Remix readings TBA
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Final Project Guidelines
Technical Subject:
Audience (language/jargon, explanations/examples of technical terms, tone/mode of address):
Borrowed Style/Conventions/Genre:
Ways in which your project takes issues of audience into consideration:
Reminders:
— Include an introduction that orients readers/viewers to the project
— Writing style, grammar, and mechanics
— Document and cite your project. Don’t break copyright. Look for creative commons material or material in the public domain
RESOURCES:
Video:
Internet Archive: http://www.archive.org/details/movies
Audio
Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
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Final Project Assignment
For your final project, I would like you to produce a technical writing document that adapts the conventions and aesthetics of a specific cultural object or genre to a technical writing document. The choice of the cultural object is up to you, as is the choice of the technical writing document.
Examples of cultural objects include music videos, phonebooks, take-out menus, company brochures, musicals, novels, poems, slasher films, radio programs, road signs, paintings, and grammar books.
Whatever technical writing product you create (manuals, procedures, instructions, quick reference cards, reports, proposals, or memos) must adapt recognizable conventions of your chosen cultural object.
Your project will have three parts:
— A blog post (no less than 250 words) that sets out the technical subject about which you will write (Due April 29)
— A blog post (no less than 500 words) that includes links and images to examples of the cultural object whose conventions you will reproduce (Draft Due May 4; Final Post Due May 6)
— A technical writing document (or video) that uses those conventions to convey technical information (Due May 18)
— A formal essay of not less than three pages (Due May 20)
sample project ideas:
— use the conventions of a baseball box score to present technical information
— use the conventions of a comic strip to present technical information
— use the conventions of an action film to present technical information
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Project Resources
Here are some tools to help you while you finish up your midterm projects:
Pixlr – web-based photoshop alternative.
Jing – create screencasts
Flickr Creative Commons Image Search – search for images licensed under Creative Commons
Picnik.com – free online image creation and manipulation tool
Free Icon Sets – great, free icon designs. Make sure that you examine the license on whichever icon set you choose — you may need to give attribution if you use a set.
Image Map creator – use this to create navigation bars on wikis. On WordPress, you can use built-in page listing widgets.
Remember:
— You should not break copyright! Make sure that the images you’re using are either used with permission of the creator or are licensed under Creative Commons. If you use a CC image, make sure that you fulfill the Attribution requirement of the license by giving credit to the creator of the image.
— You can use many sorts of media to create your manual. Options include videos, screencasts, wiki pages, blog posts, and others. You can create an entirely new blog devoted only to this project and you can use pages (as opposed to posts) for each section of your manual.
Remember: Have fun, be imaginative, and be creative!!h
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Zotero Guide
Some of my contacts on Twitter recently tweeted about a new how-to guide to using the Zotero social citation service. Check it out.
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Tags: coolsites, howto, manual, zotero
Embedding Video in a Post
To embed a YouTube video in a post, follow these steps:
1. Identify the video you want to add
2. You can add a simple link to a video
3. Click “insert video button and add URL, following directions for adding YouTube post.
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Tech Communication Movies?
A friend just pointed me to Xtranormal, a site that allows users to create movies easily. I wonder whether some of you will be able to use that site — or something like it — in your projects? Why not tell your tech-writing story through cartoons or animation? or film?
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Midterm Project
Before you start: pick a subject – a technical process or product that you will consider/explore/examine
Part 1: Literature Review
— First step: find at least three tech writing documents that already exist for your subject
— Second step: compare them and analyze them using criteria found in A Concise Guide to Technical Communication
Perform an analysis on each document that critiques the way it is constructed — the way it is written, designed, disseminated. What works well in the document, and what doesn’t? Does the document use images and text? How do they fit together? Does the document adhere to the principles of usability?
Required Length: roughly 1000 words/equivalent of a three page paper
Format: MLA. But posted on the blog and conceived of AS a blog post. Include links, images, screen captures, etc.
DUE NEXT WED 18
Part 2: CREATE YOUR OWN TECH WRITING DOCUMENT
Purposes:
— to address the weaknesses you’ve identified in the existing documentation.
— to make use of the social web in some way, given what we’ve learned from Here Comes Everybody
— think creatively about format. This can be images only, text/images, a movie, a blog or a series of blog posts, a song, a tv show, a series of text messages, a video game, a book, a manual, a wikipedia article
— think creatively about distribution. How will you make your project available? Ideas include posting on a blog, advertising, YouTube (viral video), games
Assignment: Recreate a piece of technical writing for your chosen topic.
DUE: MONDAY, MARCH 30
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Advanced Technical Writing 