Think of the stories that most captured your attention over the past year.  What made them so engaging? Often the most successful narratives combine text, video, music, sound, and images to tell a story and make a lasting impression. From today’s most compelling documentary films to political messaging to reporting by citizen journalists, storytelling is evolving in this digital age.  This course will give you the chance to get creative and practice the art of self-expression using much more than just a pen and paper. Learn craft, process, and how to use digital media to tell the stories that matter most to you.

Communicate effectively for our digital world

• Develop your unique voice and  express your ideas using writing, sound, and images
• Learn a process for creating, developing, reviewing, and revising ideas that will help you succeed in college and beyond
• Develop your writing skills across essay genres, from expository to personal, and practice selecting a topic, shaping a subject, and writing with purpose
• Receive input on your work from Brown University faculty and your peers

Explore the creative potential of digital storytelling

• Deepen your understanding of technical and aesthetic approaches to designing video narratives
• Learn how to “read” a multimedia text closely and critically
• Practice creative and critical thinking as you review your peers’ work and receive feedback from them

Produce an autobiographical video to tell your own story

• Transform a written personal statement into a mixed media narrative using an array of both traditional and digital media
• Learn from Brown University undergraduates about their writing challenges and successes
• Create a video project that you can use in the process of college admissions

Students will focus first on the written text for each project, and will be guided through a series of drafts, receiving peer and instructor feedback each step of the way.  As you integrate sound and image into each project, you will explore both the technical logistics and the intellectual/aesthetic considerations inherent to producing coherent work in this medium.  Students will read and view a wide range of exemplary and instructional texts, learning to read and view closely and critically.

In addition to opportunities for technical and intellectual growth, this course provides you with the chance to produce work that you can use in the process of college admissions, whether as a form of the personal statement or as representative work.  The course site will serve as an online journal for the posting of select work of every student.

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