NCLC 375 - Writing for Multimedia
Fall 2001

Required Texts

• Timothy Garrand, Writing for Multimedia and the Web, Focal Press (Paperback, 2000)
• Myst (UBI Soft) (NOT Myst: Masterpiece Edition or Myst III)
  

Supplies

• Discs suitable for use in the Johnson 311
  (UCIS recommends that you avoid the clear colored plastic discs: they frequently stick in the lab. computers)
• Newsprint pad or large sheets of card or file cards
• A writer's handbook (choose your own)
• Patience and a sense of humor (not compulsory but it helps)
  

Course Description

Welcome to the Fall 2001 semester and Writing for Multimedia, where the literary traditions of the twentieth century meet the cybercultures of the twenty-first. This workshop course explores the writing tasks facing the multimedia professional, whether as a concept and story writer, a producer or as a hands-on creator of multimedia presentations and narratives.

Course Goals

• to increase your awareness of the multiple roles of writing in multimedia production
• to expose you to the different styles and formats of writing you might encounter as a multimedia writer
• to practice those styles and formats and to choose the appropriate writing to achieve your goal
• to help you 'read' an audience and tailor your writing to your specific audience at each specific stage within a production

Assignments

In this course, you will write three mini-assignments, and two longer scripts (due at regular intervals throughout the course) and collaborate on one group project, due at the end of the semester.

Mini-Assignments and Scripts
Writing for multimedia means being able to write for many media (such as print, radio, television and video) and blend those different types of writing together into seamless presentations. Multimedia also demands writers who are fluent in many different forms of writing (such as scripts, flowcharts and storyboards). Regular assignments let you practice all these writing skills. As we move into the more complex assignments, we shall also study work created by fellow students to give you some ideas about how you might develop your own work.

Be as creative and original as you have always wanted to be. Each assignment will usually develop work you have already begun and practiced in class. I shall assign a range of subjects for the first three mini-assignments, but you have free choice of subject matter and presentation for the final two assignments. You may revise each assignment once if you would like to try to improve your grade.

Collaborative Project
I hope the collaborative project will give everyone the chance to work in a mixed-skill group, where some participants may be adept at designing multimedia while others may be embarking on their first project.

Each group will run the project as if it were working for a real client, and gain points for the quality of the various types of writing it delivers throughout the collaboration. For example, you will begin the project with a 'pitch' attempting to convince me (as your client) of the commercial (or educational or entertainment) value of your project. And you will conclude it by issuing to the class a press release which 'sells' your project to the jaded newshounds of the local and national media. Choose your own subject & your own approach. See the project page itself for a breakdown of deadlines and grading.

Experiential Learning

This course includes one compulsory credit of experiential learning. The experiential learning segment includes online and real world research, and an interview assignment to complement the work we are completing in class. See the Schedule for a detailed breakdown of assignments.

Grading

Class Participation

Writing for Multimedia is a workshop class. You need to attend class regularly, because the work you complete in one class prepares you for your homework, which prepares you for the next week's class which prepares you for your assignment which prepares you for.... And so on. Class participation thus forms a significant segment of your grade. I am not looking for instant expertise in every workshop. I am just looking for assiduous attendance, thorough preparation and generous participation in class discussions and exercises. Anyone can achieve A-grade participation, regardless of background knowledge or skill.

Important Dates