This assignment asks students to plan and record a short video about one of the authors we’ve read this semester. This can take the form of a brief lecture or a creative adaptation of a theme or text. Public-facing platforms like YouTube are recommend to make projects more genre and audience-targeted. These videos do not need to exceed five minutes in length, though they are sometimes longer when necessary.

The assignment encourages students to think more carefully about audience and purpose. To whom are you speaking? What information are you trying to convey? What type of video are you making and what tone and/or style is most appropriate for your intended audience? Is it a creative visual project or is this video more informational in nature? Who might be interested in this video (beyond myself and the class)?

The value of this assignment is in many ways its brevity, for students must analyze a text and convey their ideas about it in condensed form and to an audience that is likely non-academic. This project also calls on students’ uniquely positioned skills with digital media tools and platforms.