Research Paper Remix
In Rewriting, Joseph Harris makes the argument that digital platforms have opened up avenues for writers to reach a wider and more diverse group of readers, and that sometimes taking a draft and “remixing” it (often digitally) has the effect of spurring the project forward toward a new objective or audience. This assignment asks you to remix your research paper, by presenting the content or ideas that you’ve generated in a different form. Doing so is designed to encourage you to think about how a change in medium, or a different means of presenting similar ideas, might shift both the audience and effectiveness of your work.
In short, your assignment is to take your research paper and to present it in a different form. How might an academic research paper about online education look as a blog (or “vlog”)? What would a paper about mental health and social media look like as a social media campaign? What would a paper about digital photography and media literacy look like as a series of digital photographs, or a “public service announcement”? How would your paper work as a podcast? An infographic? A magazine spread? A series of web comics?
The form of your paper is wide open, but as the rubric below indicates, you’ll be assessed based upon your ability to remix your research paper with attention to purpose, genre, and audience. Does the purpose shift when you change the paper’s form? If so, how? Can you identify and meet the expectations associated with a new genre? Does the new form successfully appeal to a different (particularly, “non-scholarly”) audience?
