I have encountered the digital medium
before, but this is the first time since eighth grade that I have encountered
it as a writer. What many people do not
realize is that writing in the digital medium requires a different way of
thinking than writing an analytical research paper.
Even
though I had worked on a website of sorts before, the digital storytelling
project was much different. My previous experience with websites and blogs was
from eighth grade and we did not actually write for our website. Rather, my
teacher allowed everyone in the class to design their own webpage where we
would publish work that we had already written in print. This meant that I did
not ever have to consider enhancing my writing with things such as hyperlinks
to sounds or images.
Not
having the experience writing specifically for a digital medium coming into the
storytelling project made it a little more difficult than I would have thought.
While writing a story requires creativity, it is not necessarily a hard thing
to do. What made it hard for me was trying to fit sounds and images and other
enhancements into the story in a natural way. By this point, naturally incorporating
quotes into a research paper comes very easily so it was quite an adjustment working
with something I was rather unsure of.
This
adjustment to the way I write was especially challenging because when I went to
work on the digital storytelling project I was still in the mindset of writing
an analytical paper. There was nothing we had to prove with this story, no
evidence needed to back up the claims we might have made. The only thing we had
to do for the story project was to make sure it was interesting and could keep
the readers engaged until the end. Keeping the readers engaged was especially
important for our group because we wrote the last page and did not want to lose
any readers before they had a chance to read the very end.
Our way of keeping the readers
interested was to make sure we had plenty of hyperlinks spread throughout the
story. The hyperlinks add an element of mystery because the reader does not
know what they will lead to. Sure, the reader could click on all the hyperlinks
without actually reading the story, but then some of those images or sounds
would probably make no sense and they would wind up reading the story anyways
to make sense of these things. Using hyperlinks in the context of the story is
actually quite similar to using quotes; the reader generally needs to read the
surrounding material for the quote or hyperlink to make sense. A big difference
is that a writer will rarely use quotes in the conclusion of their analytical paper.
This is because they do not want to introduce new information when they are
trying to summarize the arguments they have made in the body paragraphs. In the
digital storytelling project my group used a hyperlink in the very last
sentence, keeping the reader interested until the end.
Writing for an analytical research paper
is very different from writing a story in the digital medium. While these
differences can make it challenging when switching between the two styles, the differences
are necessary and are ultimately what allows the two forms to serve such very different purposes.
I think using hyperlinks with this assignment was very interesting, which wasn’t something I was really expecting. Almost all stories create some type of visual imagery, and the reader’s idea of what the scene may look like could be very different than how the author had imagined it. Incorporating hyperlinks into the digital storytelling assignment allows you to picture it exactly how the author wants you to, which is very unique. I thought that was a very cool feature to this assignment. I agree that this assignment is different and easier than a formal paper like the ARP. It was a fun experience!
ReplyDeleteI agree with your comment on the difficulty of making the hyperlinks feel natural in the story. I definitely had the same problem because it was hard to not make them seem awkward or like interruptions. Your explanation of the process you used for embedding hyperlinks was helpful and I wish I'd thought about it that way when my group was writing our page. I also agree that writing in the digital medium is more fun than a formal paper, I personally think it is more difficult.
ReplyDeleteI also agree on the difficulty of making the hyperlinks feel natural. I was in the group that did the very first page of the story and we had no experience with hyper-linking. We also had no clue about what was expected of the story and so we did most of the story while learning how to incorporate things into the story. Going back and seeing other pages there are parts that I wish we could change. It was a learning experience and while I agree parts of the creative writing assignment were not easy, I also found that I had the most fun in the class while working on the story.
ReplyDeleteWhile writing the digital story, I did not put much thought into the purpose and importance of the hyperlinks in the story. I agree that incorporating the hyperlinks was sometimes a difficult task. I was sometimes unsure as to where the hyperlinks would work best. I really like how you related the hyperlinks to quotes in a research paper. The two are very closely related, but hyperlinks definitely allow more freedom when you write. I also agree that switching between creative writing and analytical writing is challenging. The two types are different in so many ways, but both types will be useful in future writing.
ReplyDeleteI never have had to included hyperlinks in a writing before. I agree that having to do so was sometimes a difficult task. Although I feel like using hyperlinks was not the only way to keep the reader engaged in the story. Yes, it did help keep the reader reading the story, but the story itself had to also keep the reader interested. He/she would never make it to the hyperlinks if the story was not captivating. Although I do like that you guys had the idea to use a hyperlink in the last sentence. I agree with you about having your mind still set on writing the analytical paper while trying to write the page to the creative story.
ReplyDeleteI fully agree with what the author of this piece stated in their post. Writing can take on many different forms and oftentimes if is difficult to switch between varying types in a brief instant successfully. This is especially true when the two methods of writing are so distinct and dissimilar. The methods required for an analytical research paper are immensely different from a creative writing piece. But it is truly important to take the time to ensure you are noticing the differences in each and implementing them because successfully addressing the key points in each are what is going to make the piece successful. For example, citations and respectable sources are necessary for a good analytical piece and if you weren’t to insert these, the piece would ultimately be weak.
ReplyDeleteHyperlinking is an interesting new dimension to the digital medium. It does, like you said, add to the story. It creates a new way to learn and to get involved. However, I do not think this new style is compatible with people tendencies when it comes to reading. I, personally, would rather read a printed book where I do not have to interact constantly. This may just be because I’m somewhat lazy or it might be because I’m so used to the reading method I’ve always used. Digital reading/writing is probably more suited for a younger generation who is more adept to technology.
ReplyDelete