Project 4: Interactive E Book
Goals
In this final project, we will be working in groups of 4 to create an electronic text,
[magazine or e-book] that includes images, graphs, videos, audio, hyperlinks and any other
media that works with your text to create an interactive space for the reader to engage
with your composition as well as outside sources. Each of these elements, along with the
visual design of the document should engage the reader with the text on several levels:
creatively, intellectually, spatially and visually. Your goal is to create an interesting,
professional document that incorporates and displays the concepts you’ve learned and
discussed in this class throughout the semester, with a critical eye toward space, place,
design, and the writing process.
The space of interactivity and digital media requires different and more in-depth
consideration of how, when, why and where your readers encounter your text. You will not
only have to consider who your audience is, but their daily practices, their bodies and the
physical space of the text and the devices they use to read it. You will be asked to consider
how this changes the composition itself. You will be asked to think about how we might
push our thinking about rhetoric past words or even locations to bodies and interactivity.
Your job as authors and designers is to create one cohesive book that purposefully guides
your readers through the content. You will need to be aware of how your content merges
together with your group members’ content, how your individual voices emerge and meld
together to create one cohesive voice, and how your design affects the experience of the
text. Ultimately it’s up to your group to decide which direction to take, but keep in mind
that you are making one book with multiple, interconnected segments.
The Practical Stuff
You may use any and all texts from this class that you have written this semester,
including blogs, homework, projects, spatial labs, etc. Part of your project will include
coding and grouping all of your data to combine it as a group in innovative ways. But you
will find that although you have a lot of content already among your group, you will still
need to create new content to make connections. Your book must be a cohesive text. Part of
your grade will depend on how well you combine your content as a group.
Each group will submit a proposal of your chosen theme/topic that includes a preliminary
list of sections/chapters/articles (call them what you like), as well as your rationale for the
book. The proposal must include a timeline for when individual components must be
delivered to the group, and a detailed list of who is responsible for the different aspects of
the project.
We will be working in class in InDesign to create the text. You may not use Word for your
final project, but you may choose any other program that allows you to create an
interactive text. Keep in mind that I can’t guarantee any technical help if you use programs
outside of my expertise. We will be teaching ourselves InDesign and learning how to find
appropriate and useful tutorials online. Learning to use your resources is a big part of this
final project. We will have some designated time in class to work, but it is your
responsibility to find time outside of class to complete this assignment.
Each group will create a tutorial on some aspect/process in InDesign to present to the
class. This tutorial should teach your classmates how to do something that will be relevant
to the project. You should walk us through the process and also show several examples
(you may create them or find them online) of finished products that illustrate how this
process is used in page design. Each group must also produce a 1 page (minimum, front
only) printed handout to go along with your presentation.
All media you use in your book must be licensed under a Creative Commons license
that allows use and/or edit the media non-commercially. You will be able to remix and
reuse media and images, as long as you give credit and remix responsibly. We will discuss
this further in class.
Individual Analysis and Group Evaluations
Each of you will complete a 1,000 word analysis of your final project. This will include
things like:
**Why you made the decisions that you did: Each element of your book and each
decision you make should be chosen PURPOSFULLY in order to have a certain
impact on the audience. This is your opportunity to tell me your reasoning behind
those decisions, designs, and elements of your final work. You may also include
SOME discussion of:
-what could have been done better
-what strategies you chose in order to relate to the audience
-if intended plans had to be changed for certain reasons (show your
resourcefulness)
This list is not exhaustive. The purpose of this is for you to take a critical eye to your
project. Discuss how you thought about and analyzed your decisions for this project. Talk
about the mishaps and things that could have been executed better. None of us are experts,
so it is imperative that you do your best, think deeply about your writing/design/technical
decisions, but also understand your limitations.
Group Evals: Each student will also complete an evaluation of each of their group
members that only I will see. Students who do not participate or who rely only on 1-2
people to carry the project will not be tolerated. Your grade will be affected by negative
group evaluations.
250 points Total
InDesign Tutorial Presentation and Handout: 25 points
One Complete Draft: 50 points
Group Member Evaluations: 50 points
Individual 1,000 Word Analysis: 50 points
Final eBook: 100 points
The final book, group member evals and 1,000 word individual analyses are due
On Friday, December 12th by 11:59 pm. There will be no final exam.
Non Logo-Centric Rhetoric
Students must consider
Body
The space of interactivity and digital media requires different and more in-depth
consideration of how, when, why and where readers encounter the text. Students will not
only have to consider who the audience is, but the readers’ practices, their bodies and the
physical space of the text and the devices they use to read it. Students have to think about
how this awareness changes the composition itself. You will be asked to think about how
we might push our thinking about rhetoric past words or even locations to bodies and
interactivity.
Place
Throughout the semester, this class focuses on space and rhetoric. Students
examine how people interact with public and private spaces and how design,
place and people come together rhetorically and shift each other’s course. In
this project, students are asked to consider the space between their text and
the readers’ experiences, and how their own rhetorical choices impact a
reader’s experience and understanding of the book or magazine. We look at
digital spaces including this final project in similar ways as we do the physical
spaces, in order to interrogate how they operate rhetorically.
Design
Students learn that visual design and images can be rhetorically constructed
and can enhance or take away from the words they write. Even more than that,
the focus on interactivity in this project shows them that design and media are
content and not just frosting on the digital cake. Students create their own
templates and layouts for a magazine that then evolve as they enter text and
media. In doing this, they begin to see how several components come together
purposefully to evoke a response with an audience.
students learn that designing through new software is a physical, material
process that changes how they compose.
Coding, Re-using, Un-using
Students are encouraged to use anything they’ve written during the semester in
this final project. Individually, they code all of their material by topic, then as a
group, they find threads running through everyone’s work and recategorize to
help them find their overarching theme. Students don’t just remediate their
work, but I’ve found that the process of finding reoccurring themes and
recontextualizing their work with the group’s work actually works to defamiliarize
their own texts so that they can reimagine it in new and innovative ways.
Proposals
Each group then writes a short (1 page) proposal on how they will integrate
content to create a cohesive digital, interactive text. This document is also a
plan for how they will navigate group dynamics and individual work. Proposals
include a timeline for each deliverable and the individual elements that each
student is expected to contribute to the group before due dates.
Indesign and Interruption
Technologies serve to interrupt students’ habituated composing practices.
InDesign can be intimidating at first, but allows so much more freedom than
programs most students are used to. Freedom often begets a certain awareness
that students are not merely typing sentences, but creating – makingcomposing one element of a larger arrangement. Templating works similarly in
this project. Students create layouts for each page of their final projects before
they finalize their text. As they merge their layouts with text, they begin to see
how design and writing influence and disrupt each other. Layouts change,
content changes. The final project is emergent.
Post Mortems and Evals
Finally, each student completes an evaluation of other group members and
writes a 1,000 word post mortem evaluating their own rhetorical choices and
final publication. The purpose of the post mortem is for students to take a critical eye to
the project and discuss how they thought about and analyzed their decisions. They are
encouraged to talk about mishaps and limitations. They get to talk about the gap between
what they are able to do and what they know to be good. The post mortems work hand
in hand with group evaluations because students tend to see their group
dynamic as a material part of the project and understand how that affects the
publication and decision-making during the process.
So what ? what’s great, what’s not great
What are the problems, constraints, changes in the future?
Requires a lot of planning and invention time for students
Requires a lot of group negotiation