The Crayon Assignment

The following assignment asks students to answer the same question--what is multimedia writing--in three different media. They are then asked to reflect on their responses. (Adapted from Wysocki)

Part One: crayons + paper

Provide students with crayons and paper in class. Then provide the following directions: Using your crayons answer the question--what is multimedia writing?

Part Two: Computer screens, Ink, and Paper

This assignment should be completed for the next class meeting. Write a short response (about 1 pg. single-spaced) to the previous question.

Part Three: Choose your own Adventure

Once you have composed your text-based response, try to answer the same question using another medium. (Feel free to be creative. I encourage you to think about writing broadly.)

Part Four: Blog and Reflect

Assign the following reading response to be completed prior to class.

Consider how your medium affected your answer to "what is mutlimedia writing." Don't just talk about the limitiations of a certain medium;did it make you think
differently about writing? How does it compare to your expectations coming into this class? (When answering your question, draw from some of the assigned readings and apply what you learned from them to your current analysis.)

Recommended reading assignments

• William Covino's "What is Rhetoric?"
• Denis Baron's Technologies of the Word: Reading and Writing in the Digital Age
• Selections from Good magazine (Sep/Oct 2007)
  • "Better-than-it-has-to-be Design" (p. 64-87). Be sure to follow all of the links at the bottom of the web page. Pay particular attention to
    • "How do we make our mark?" (68-69),
    • "How do we understand each other?" (74-75), and
    • "How do we work with the machines?" (76-77)
  • "Designs on the White House" (116-117)
  • "Type and Token: A Note on Typefaces"