- Assignment Description and Directions
- FAQs
- Posting Guidelines
- Where can I find external sources?
Assignment Description and Directions
For students not submitting a critical review paper that week: starting the week of March 20, after reading the week’s assigned texts, find an outside source (work of art, newspaper article, video, podcast, website, peer-reviewed journal article, Instagram post, tweet, archival source, etc.) that you think relates to the week’s readings. Write a post for the eportfolio site that describes the source, explains your rationale for choosing it, and relate the source to the week’s topics, themes, or the course overall. Publish your post along with your source and explanation to the eportfolio by noon on Wednesday before class meets on Thursday.
This is a low-stakes writing assignment — your post should be more casual or informal than your critical review paper and still provide original insight or reflect your understanding of the course material. As you progress with your research for the final research project, you might find sources relevant to both the class as well as your individual research project and use these posts as a write-to-learn exercise.
Sample posts:
- “Outside Resource: podcast episode “How Urban Planning Works” (30:18 min)”
- “Outside Resource: the art of Gordon Matta-Clark and New York in the 1970s”
Benefits
- Develop critical thinking and writing skills when selecting a source and explaining its connection to the course readings.
- Be more prepared for class and ready to contribute with a richer understanding of the texts.
- Gain in-depth understanding of the research for your research assignment by writing annotations of sources that relate to both your assignment and the class topics.
- Increase digital literacy and research skills by researching and selecting sources.
- Broaden writing skills by writing low-stakes posts intended for a public audience.
- Enhance creativity and broaden your comfort zone by writing about something you don’t write about too often like a work of art or movie.
- Contribute to creating a lively and supportive class environment (in class and digital).
- Collaborate with classmates to a unique digital project that can be used as a resource for future Seminar 4 students.
FAQs
What counts as an outside source? What do I write about?
Literally, anything: videos, songs, works of art, photos, archival resources, tweets, Instagram posts, podcasts, academic articles, newspaper articles — whatever the internet has to offer. Be creative, find some interesting connections, and explain those connections to the audience.
You can compare this assignment to writing an annotation for an annotated bibliography: briefly describe the source, and explain the source’s key concepts or relevance to the topics covered in class. It should be clear to your reader why you chose this source: does it relate to the historical moment described in the readings? Does it remind of you of a particular quote from a text? Maybe it’s a song that captures the mood or tone of the readings. By the end of the semester the sources and posts will function as an digital and multimedia annotated bibliography that can be organized by category (video, song, article, etc.) or subject (zoning, history, and so forth).
Who will complete this assignment? When is it due?
Any student whose group is not submitting a critical review paper for the week’s reading must write a post about an external source with an explanation for their choice for the rest of the semester. Starting the week of March 20, external resource posts should be published by noon on Wednesday (the day before class) so everyone in the class as well as Prof. Alonso can read posts prior to class and Alexis (ITF) can troubleshoot any problems with the eportfolio. Your external resource post can also pose questions about the readings or course concepts that can be addressed during class on Thursday.
Does this count towards my final grade?
Yes! Writing one post during the weeks when you’re not turning in a critical review paper counts as part of the participation component of your final grade.
Posting comments on other people’s posts also counts as participation! There’s no set number of comments that you have to make but remember, more is more! Create what you want to see in the world by taking the time to write a few smart comments on stuff posted by your classmates, and you’re doing your part to create an awesome digital environment. Read the course guidelines for commenting on a post here.
Posting guidelines
- Make sure you’re signed up as a site user. If not, please click here to sign up.
- Write for a public audience. Write concisely, clearly, and assume your audience doesn’t know anything about what you’re writing about. I like to tell students to pretend as if you’re writing for your mom (or sister, or friend, etc.).
- Embed the media source. Whether you’ve chosen an audio source, video, or photograph, please use the WP plugins to embed your media. For example, when I posted the sample post (here), the plugin WPAudio turns all .mp3 links into an embedded audio player. If you post a journal article, embed the document into the page. Note: if your chosen source is a movie and only available through a paid service like Netflix then find a trailer for the movie via Youtube/Vimeo and provide a link.
- Cite your source and link to it. Give credit where credit is due: good research practice and good manners!
- Include the class. If your post references a post previously published by a classmate, link back to it; if your explanation includes a comment that was said during class, paraphrase the comment, name the person who said it, and clearly explain the relationship between that comment and your chosen source. By including the class discussions and linking back to related posts, the eportfolio becomes a space that acts like an extension of our class.
- Title your post. A simple title is a million times more helpful than a “catchy” (or “clickbait-y”) title. A good title will tell the reader what the post is about and your angle.
- Categorize your post. Before you publish your post, click the “Student Post” category along with any other relevant categories.
- Add tags to your post. Adding tags helps people navigate the site and find all content related to, for example, “videos.” Generally speaking, tag your posts with your name, student post, the title of the resource, the topic, what type of resource it is, etc.
- If your post is long, use the “Read More” option. Above the space where you write a post, look for the icon (see figure below) that adds a break to the post with a “Read More” link that, when clicked, opens to the entire post.
Check the sample posts as they appear on the Homepage for examples of the “Read More” option. - Comment on someone else’s post. Commenting on another person’s post (or several posts!) helps ground this assignment because it won’t feel like you’re writing and into the void. When you comment on a post, that reminds all of us that we’re writing for an audience and that audience cares. Don’t know how to comment? Check here.
Where can I find external sources?
Anywhere! Be creative! You might start at the Resources section of the website but don’t be afraid to go deep into Youtube, Ubuweb, or check out the following sites that offer tons of video, photo, text, and archival evidence.
- Brooklyn College Library Subject Guide Page including Archives & Special Collections, NYC, Political Science
- Ubuweb – great for arts and film!
- Open Culture – aggregates open-access educational resources!
- New York Public Library Digital Collections – digitized items from NYPL’s collection
- The Smithsonian Institution Archive Collections – tons of great archival stuff from the nation’s archives
- Harvard Law School: What do Public Domain & Creative Commons Mean? – excellent, readable guide to crediting digital content along with guides for finding images, audio, and video on the web
- Internet Archive – non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more.
- NYC Urbanism – Twitter list of 100+ accounts pertaining to NYC, urban planning, politics, and history along in addition to historical archives.
- Netflix/Hulu/Amazon Prime/etc. – any of the streaming services have a number of documentaries and movies that might relate to the readings but might not be embeddable for the post. Simply link to the source at the streaming site and try to find a representative example (trailer from Youtube or article about the source) to help “show” it to your audience.
