Multimedia-Multimodal Final Argument Project + Presentation

What Represents Your 21st Century Great Gatsby? And Why?

In place of a final written assignment, you are invited to create an alternative genre, multimedia, or multimodal project that synthesizes what you have learned about argument writing in Expository Writing to represent your 21st Century Great Gatsby.

In other words, you will design + present a project that translates what you have learned about drafting & revising written arguments into a genre/format that is NOT a written argument. Writing is involved in other ways (in the script of a presentation—which explains how your project illustrates + supports the argument you design using images-colors-size-images-sound-video-words +/or other components that are not words.

Elements of the Essay
Motive, Stance, Thesis, Keyterms, Analysis, Assumptions, Sources, Evidence, Stitching, Rhetorical Structural Moves, and Style

 

Writing Strategies
Hook, Focus, Organization, ACE, Synthesis, They Say, I Say, Counterargument & Refutation, Diction, Lens, and Quotation Weaving


The Final Argument Project has 2 Parts

1. Final Project: A dramatic or poetic performance, a sculpture, a visual, or audio-visual object that proposes & supports an argument to support Your 21st Century Great Gatsby. Presentations should relate-refer to-riff on course texts/themes (topics, focus, arguments, keyterms, quotations), and/or draw upon papers you wrote in Units 1-2. Your project can be a multimodal or alternative genre/format/version of the argument from your Research Paper.

    • Computer-generated: short documentary or short film; computer game, commercial or infomercial, blog, web page, game, podcast, meme, .gif, or other form/genre digital/internet/computer generated project.
    • Performance: poem, speech, song, dramatic monologue, short play, impersonation, puppet show (sock or shadow), manifesto, infomercial, commercial, interview, advertisement, etc.
    • Artwork: illustration, chart, map, sculpture, painting, graphic novel or cartoon/comic strip, installation, diorama, collage, or game (i.e. board game, computer game, role-playing game), costume or poster, advertisement, print or multi-media publication. (i.e. magazine, flyer, weekly paper, etc.)

You must be familiar with + have a solid understanding of the genre or format you choose to represent the argument in your Final Project. So, do not write a soliloquy if you don’t know the formal conventions of this genre of poetry (i.e. blank verse, unrhymed iambic pentameter). Do not write and perform a Rap if you can’t sing, lack rhythm, or can’t alliteratively string words together in complexly meaningful, metaphorically, multiply significant ways. Don’t draw something if you can’t draw. 

*OPTIONAL: you can submit a “mock-up,” sketch, or draft—to Canvas if you would like feedback before you present your project in class on May 4th.

2. Final Presentation: an in-person live or pre-recorded presentation, or a streamed live or pre-recorded presentation on Zoom, that explains how the project proposes + supports an argument about Your 21st Century Great Gatsby.

    • Feel free to assume an avatar or persona in your Final Project and/or for the Final Presentation, dress in costume if applicable.
      You can cast “extras” if the Presentation requires participants other than yourself.
    • The presentation will be evaluated by its focus, organization, clarity, delivery, and diction.

The Final Project + Presentation is worth the same as the Unit 1 Writing Assignment and will count as 10% of your final grade.


Below are examples of Final Argument Projects from former Expository Writing Students. There are videos made by former students in the Final Project Assignment in Canvas. You can also Click HERE for more Final Projects from former Expo students.

  Fork Tine Mannequin Torso.jpg   Uncanny Mirror Image.png   "The Standard".jpg

 

TyLeeFP.jpg

Create a Dedicated + Evolving Blog Post or Page for PRELIM 7: Evolving Annotated Bibliography

Create a dedicated blog post on your Myth to Meme Course Blog to host PRELIM 7: Evolving Annotated Bibliography as it evolves. You will receive credit for it as a PRELIM + as one of your 10 Blog Posts.

  1. Sign in to your WordPress website.
  2. Choose “Posts” or “Add New” from the left menu of the Dashboard.
  3. Add Text or Content by copying + pasting from another document
    (i.e. MS Word, .pages, Google Docs, etc.) OR typing in the window.

    1. Dick, Philip K. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Thorpe, Ulverscroft, 2018. [Novel Chapter]

    In a future where most animals are a rare commodity, bounty hunter Rick Deckard tracks deviant androids, hoping to earn enough money to purchase a living sheep (as opposed to the robotic one that he already possesses). In the process, he falls in love with an android. Struck by this unprecedented dilemma, Deckard struggles to differentiate between humanity and inhumanity as he reassesses his situation. Since my essay focuses on the portrayal of robots in media, this classic felt like the perfect reference point. As Deckard realizes the dangers associated with making androids as human as possible, I see a chance to analyze why the androids even need to be human-like in the first place. The book also provides an opportunity to define androids in the context of classic fiction, setting a reference point for the reader audience. Plus, the novel opens the following discussions: What makes a human? What about the androids makes their emotions so uncanny? Why give them the ability to emote in the first place? Are they meant to be better than us? If so, again, why give them emotions? And so on.

  4. If you download article PDFs onto your computer, you can also add them to “Media” and include them at the end of an annotation for that source. Why might you want to do this? If you click on the link to open the PDF while you’re on your blog, you can then activate your hypothes.is extension in order to highlight and annotate on the PDF. It’s an easier and more efficient way to read/annotate your sources! You can do this for open access online books and some websites. (You cannot do this for the PDFs you read in a library or online journal database.)
  5. You will update (EVOLVE) your PRELIM 7: Evolving Annotated Bibliography at least 3 times, adding bibliographic citations + annotation for new sources, revising existing annotations, and strategizing how to use them to shape – focus – and support you argument as it develops + evolves. You will resubmit the URL for this dedicated blog post to PRELIM 7: EAB Canvas Assignment at each new due date.

Propose your Research Topic as a Movie Pitch (or Trailer)

How to Write Your Topic up as a Movie Pitch or Trailer:

* Be Brief + Detailed + Specific + Concise [1-2 minutes]
* Include significant information w/succinct language + Keyterms
* Set a Tone appropriate for the Topic!
* Incorporate Important Research Keyterms
* Write for a possible Audience . . . to Persuade them
* Use questioning or other hook strategies to draw an Audience in . . .
* Imply Motive (why is the topic/potential argument important?)
* Evoke Stance (To what extent am I invested in this topic+ why?
* Exhibit credible ethos, but be interesting, provocative, controversial
* An Audience should want to read the essay after hearing the Pitch!
* Note the Conversation(s) you are entering
* Gesture to a specific Thesis argument or possible arguments
* Don’t give it away! (No Argument Plot Summaries or Spoilers!)

You will present their Research Topic as a Movie Pitch or Movie Trailer in class on Monday, April 11th! 

If you want to sound like Movie Man Voice!

“Meet the Epic Voice Behind Movie Trailers”

 

Movie Pitch Text + Movie Trailer for The Last Sumurai

Official Movie Trailer for The Last Sumurai

 

Example Trailers

M

Pulp Fiction

Blair Witch Project

Forrest Gump

Opening for the original Star Trek TV series

Space, the final frontier
These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise
Its five year mission
To explore strange new worlds
To seek out new life
And new civilizations
To boldly go where no man has gone before

Example Student Movie Pitch as a Movie Trailer

His Life, His Way (Frank Sinatra as American Gangster)

The-Meritorious-Book-Adaptation-Study