PODCAST
The podcast assignment aims to help you learn how to do primary research by interviewing others about a topic and organizing your and their ideas into a cohesive piece. It will also help you learn to write for a new medium, podcasts. Here are the project components:
PODCAST (20 POINTS)
In five-student groups, you will make a 4-6 minute podcast where you:
The aim of the podcast is educational. You will instruct your chosen audience about how a particular culture interprets the notion of coming of age and how they view their own coming of age stories. You will target the podcast to meet the needs of your audience so they will be more likely to make use of it. i
- Choose between high school and college students as our audience. You will target your podcast to that particular audience. Your narrator will explain at the beginning that you have made this podcast for that audience and you will make sure to address their needs throughout the podcast.
- Define the concept of coming of age for your listeners using some of the sources we have read in class as well as new sources. Remember that your narrator should introduce your sources during the narration, providing the source’s title and type—Is it an article? A book? A book chapter?—name of the author, and something about them such as where they work, what degree they have, and/or if they are widely published authors. After the first time you use (and introduce) a source, you can use the author’s full name when referring to the source.
- Analyze how a particular culture discusses their own coming of age stories. For your culture, you can look at nationality, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, social class, profession, fans of a particular cultural work, etc. You can be creative in the culture you choose, but make sure to discuss your choice with me in advance.
- Interview three members of the culture you have selected, prompting them to share their coming of age stories, as well as discussing how they understand the idea of coming of age for their culture in general. You will use Audacity to record with your computers’ built-in mics. The recording will be of much higher quality if you use a MacBook Pro to record, so if one is at all available to you, please use it. All interviews MUST take place inside to avoid background noise. Your narrator should introduce your interviewees by their name and tell us what they do for a living and other information you deem relevant the first time we hear from them. Make sure that interviewees repeat the question in their answer so you can use the answer without using the interviewer’s question, i.e. “Where were you born?” “I was born in Michigan” instead of “Michigan.” If interviewees give you a good answer but it isn’t very polished, ask them (nicely) to try again. You will ask all interviewees to sign a voice recording release. The document can be downloaded at desire2learn. Make sure to modify it by adding your group members’ names in the specified areas. You will scan the signed releases and submit them with your final draft.
- Use Creative Commons music/sound in order to provide a soundtrack to your podcast. You can find Creative Commons music at these sites: http://www.freesound.org, http://www.jamendo.com/en, and http://ccmixter.org.
- Post your podcast to SoundCloud. You will make an account at https://soundcloud.com. SoundCloud will lead you through the upload process.
The aim of the podcast is educational. You will instruct your chosen audience about how a particular culture interprets the notion of coming of age and how they view their own coming of age stories. You will target the podcast to meet the needs of your audience so they will be more likely to make use of it. i
FIRST PROPOSAL (2 POINTS)
The assignment is divided in two stages, preproduction and production, and group members will play different roles in each stage. As you select who will play what role, make sure to go with each group member’s strengths so the group will benefit as a whole. In the first proposal, you will answer the following questions:
Podcast Content
Producers: Two group members will be in charge of finding, contacting, and staying in touch with the interviewees from the preproduction stage until you send them a link of the finished product, thanking them for their participation. Before interviewees agree to the project, make sure they read and sign the voice recording release, which you can find on desire2learn.
Researchers: Three group members will research the chosen culture, as well as the idea of coming of age. You need to use sources we have read in class and outside sources. You should have 3-4 sources. One from the web, one from print or the library catalogue, and a third and/or fourth that can be whatever you wish as long as they’re credible. The researchers will not only find the sources, but they will read them and find sections for direct quoting and paraphrasing, which they will highlight.
Production Roles
Narrator/Interviewer: This group member will conduct all interviews and provide the podcast narration. It is the interviewer’s job to make sure that interviewees rephrase questions in their answers while conducting the interviews.
Though most of the narration will be recorded at once, the narrator should be prepared to rerecord aspects of it at the editor’s request.
Recorder/Narration Writer: This group member will be present during all interviews and will record them. In order to have continuity of sound, make sure to use the same computer (preferably a MacBook Pro for quality reasons) to record the interviews and the narration. Once the interviews have been completed, this group member will write the narrator’s script. All group members should read and edit the script before it is recorded. The recorder/narration writer will have a copy of the interviews and of the project as it is edited in their computer at all times.
Editor: This group member will use Audacity in order to combine the narration and the interviews, condensing them into a 4-6 minute piece. All group members should listen to various drafts of the podcast and provide their input. The editor will have a copy of the interviews and of the project as it is edited in their computer at all times.
Assistant Editor: This group member will assist the editor in creating a cohesive, engaging piece from interviews and narration. The assistant editor is in charge of finding and adding the Creative Commons soundtrack.
Reflection Writer: This group member will write the project’s reflection (see “Reflection” below for details on the document).
NOTE: Every member must listen to various drafts of the podcast and read the reflection in order to make sure the final product meets everyone’s approval.
Proposal Delivery
In order for your proposal to receive full credit, you must do the following:
Podcast Content
- Who is your target audience?
- What particular culture will you engage with?
- Who will play each of the following preproduction roles?
Producers: Two group members will be in charge of finding, contacting, and staying in touch with the interviewees from the preproduction stage until you send them a link of the finished product, thanking them for their participation. Before interviewees agree to the project, make sure they read and sign the voice recording release, which you can find on desire2learn.
Researchers: Three group members will research the chosen culture, as well as the idea of coming of age. You need to use sources we have read in class and outside sources. You should have 3-4 sources. One from the web, one from print or the library catalogue, and a third and/or fourth that can be whatever you wish as long as they’re credible. The researchers will not only find the sources, but they will read them and find sections for direct quoting and paraphrasing, which they will highlight.
Production Roles
- Who will play each of the following production roles?
Narrator/Interviewer: This group member will conduct all interviews and provide the podcast narration. It is the interviewer’s job to make sure that interviewees rephrase questions in their answers while conducting the interviews.
Though most of the narration will be recorded at once, the narrator should be prepared to rerecord aspects of it at the editor’s request.
Recorder/Narration Writer: This group member will be present during all interviews and will record them. In order to have continuity of sound, make sure to use the same computer (preferably a MacBook Pro for quality reasons) to record the interviews and the narration. Once the interviews have been completed, this group member will write the narrator’s script. All group members should read and edit the script before it is recorded. The recorder/narration writer will have a copy of the interviews and of the project as it is edited in their computer at all times.
Editor: This group member will use Audacity in order to combine the narration and the interviews, condensing them into a 4-6 minute piece. All group members should listen to various drafts of the podcast and provide their input. The editor will have a copy of the interviews and of the project as it is edited in their computer at all times.
Assistant Editor: This group member will assist the editor in creating a cohesive, engaging piece from interviews and narration. The assistant editor is in charge of finding and adding the Creative Commons soundtrack.
Reflection Writer: This group member will write the project’s reflection (see “Reflection” below for details on the document).
NOTE: Every member must listen to various drafts of the podcast and read the reflection in order to make sure the final product meets everyone’s approval.
Proposal Delivery
In order for your proposal to receive full credit, you must do the following:
- Send the proposal as an attachment to [email protected]. The proposal should be a Microsoft Word file. The subject of your email should be Podcast Proposal 1, followed by the last names of every group member separated by commas and in alphabetical order. The name of the document should be Podcast Proposal followed by the reflection writer’s last name, i.e. Podcast Proposal 1 Hidalgo.
- Every group member needs to be Cc-d in the email.
SECOND PROPOSAL (2 POINTS)
In the second proposal you will:
Proposal Delivery
In order for your proposal to receive full credit, you must do the following:
- Provide a list of your selected 3-4 sources in MLA Works Cited format.
- Name the three people you will be interviewing and provide biographical information about them such as where they are from and what they do.
- Submit a list of 8-10 questions you will ask all three interviewees. Questions must be open ended. Don’t ask “Did you like your coming of age experience?” but “Can you tell us what you liked about your coming of age experience?” You should ask questions that cannot be answered with “yes” or “no,” but that require the interviewee to spend some time explaining their perspective.
- Provide an interview schedule where you list when and where each interview will take place. Remember that all interviews must be recorded inside, in a room where you can be the only occupants and where you can close the windows and doors to capture better sound.
Proposal Delivery
In order for your proposal to receive full credit, you must do the following:
- Send the proposal as an attachment to [email protected]. The proposal should be a Microsoft Word file. The subject of your email should be Podcast Proposal 2, followed by the last names of every group member separated by commas and in alphabetical order. The name of the document should be Podcast Proposal followed by the reflection writer’s last name, i.e. Podcast Proposal 2 Hidalgo.
- Every group member needs to be Cc-d in the email.
REFLECTION (6 POINTS)
The final draft of your podcast will be accompanied by a 1,200-1,500 word reflection, which will address the following questions in essay form:
Reflection and Podcast Delivery
In order for your reflection and podcast to receive full credit, you must do the following:
I will deduct two points if you do not follow the delivery instructions above.
- What rhetorical choices did you make in order to meet the needs of your particular audience? Make sure to refer to the rhetorical concepts we have discussed in class and how you have employed them in order to craft a text that is geared toward educating your target audience about your topic.
- What aspects of your final product work particularly well and why do you think your group succeeded in making those parts of the podcast work?
- What aspects of your final product are problematic and what caused the issues? What could have been done in order to avoid the problems you had with the project?
Reflection and Podcast Delivery
In order for your reflection and podcast to receive full credit, you must do the following:
- Send the link to the podcast in the body of an email and attach the reflection to [email protected]. The subject of your email should be Podcast and Reflection, followed by the last names of every group member separated by commas and in alphabetical order. The reflection should be a Microsoft Word file. The name of the document should be Podcast Reflection followed by the reflection writer’s last name, i.e. Podcast Reflection Hidalgo.
- Every group member needs to be Cc-d in the email.
- Attach the scanned Voice Recording Releases. Title each release with the name of the interviewee, followed by Release, i.e. Alexandra Hidalgo Release.
I will deduct two points if you do not follow the delivery instructions above.
ASSIGNMENT CALENDAR
The assignment is worth 30 points. Below is a breakdown of the assignment components, their point value, and when they are due.
Assignment | Due Date |
---|---|
First proposal (2 points) | 2/20 by midnight |
Second proposal (2 points) | 2/27 by class time |
Begin recording interviews | 3/11 |
Finish recording interviews | 3/21 |
Podcast draft Bring a copy to class and email it to [email protected]. |
3/27 by class time
Incomplete drafts will count as a missed quiz (1 point) for all group members |
Podcast final version (with scanned voice recording releases) (20 points) Reflection (6 points) |
4/3 by midnight You will submit the podcast, your reflection, and your scanned releases together |
QUESTIONS
If you have questions about the podcast assignment, feel free to email me, stop by my office hours, or make an appointment.