in powerpointYou have worked on conducting empirical research, analyzed your findings in the Literature Review, and now you will use this knowledge to advocate a position in a multimodal project inten

in powerpoint

You have worked on conducting empirical research, analyzed your findings in the Literature Review, and now you will use this knowledge to advocate a position in a multimodal project intended for a specific language.

This assignment is a visual expression that seeks to stay factual and represent reality. It includes a message, moral of some sort, or ideological ambition – in short, a wish to make a difference or change perspectives.

Specific Guidelines

For this assignment you will film and edit a documentary that creates awareness and advocates for a change in thinking or behavior concerning a topic. Your documentary should attempt to persuade a specific audience.

All factors of your documentary are sources—from each image to each song so choose carefully in order to create a cohesive point.

Consider your style. You are free to use any style or tone that is appropriate to your audience and cause but remember that appropriate is the key word. Do not create humorous work about deaths caused by drunk drivers, for example.

Your film should follow a similar structure to this:

Title Page: Show the names of procedures and title of film.

Introduction: State or show background, history, or general status of issue.

Claim: State and/or show your side of the issue, what you want to persuade your audience to think or do.

Support: State or show reasons to support your claim using appropriate evidence. Again, remember that all your choices from music to images are part of your source material you will use but you will also want expert opinions to back up your points.

Advocate: What the viewer can do, who to contact, how to organize, solutions to enact. Be very specific about the course of action you want viewers to take. Be specific and make sure that your course of action is, in fact, a possibility.

Conclusion: Bring the documentary to a close and give your viewers something more to consider. Some options to consider might be how the issue would look if this particular problem were solved or even what the next problem to solve would be. IN OTHER WORDS, offer a vision of how the audience’s participation can/will make a difference.

Important Requirements

Be vigilant about editing to maintain focus and keep the interest in your film.

You need to support the documentary with a substantial amount of research to support any claims you make.

Be clear about your persuasive purpose—what the position/claim is and what you would like the audience to do about it.

*Consider creating an outline for your ideas. Outline sample below

Creating an Outline for your Documentary

The Topic: Traditional burials vs. Green Burials Intro

 Define what traditional and green burials are.

 Provide Statistic on how many Americans die a year and how 80% prefer traditional

method.

 Provide statistic on how much embalming fluid, non-biodegradable materials are buried.

 Introduce the Green Burial Council, their ideology, and their mission

 Green burial was the method used before Civil War and made embalming popular.

Position/Advocacy: Traditional burials should be laid to rest, and use green burials instead. Opposing point of view to my position:

 People are embalmed because they believe it is required by law, it slows down decay, it is a disinfectant, and they look life-like for their funeral viewing.

 People feel comfortable with a traditional burial since it is normal in society.

 People want their coffin and funeral service to represent them: luxurious coffin, ornate

urn or headstone, nice and pretty cemetary.

 People think cremation and traditional burials are the only option

Transition into my Argument: First Reason: Preserve land/cheaper costs

 Compare price of green vs. traditional burial

 Not enough land for cemeteries, so less natural wild-lands—use United Kingdom as

example

 Green cemeteries will preserve and protect lands as natural as they are, and for people

to enjoy.

 Bodies will return to the earth naturally and give back to nature.

Second Reason: Safer (humans and environment)

 Inform that embalming is not required by law and any diseases and bacteria die right after death.

 Embalming fluid harms morticians and workers, increase of cancer-related deaths.

 Embalming fluids and bio-degradable materials pollute ground water and earth

 Existing carbon emission from cremations

 Green caskets, shrouds, and urns will decompose with body in 1 year and prevent pollution. (Show Examples)

 The only ‘safe’ green cremation is a reef ball which houses underwater creatures. Advocacy

 Existing traditional cemeteries can become hybrids certified by the Green Burial Council

 Use Dry ice or refrigeration to preserve body for a viewing, instead of embalming.

 Use natural embalming fluid instead of chemical based embalmers

Research I will refer to/include:

 Provide info about El Paso not having a green cemetery, closest is in George, Texas.

 Provide graph of online survey and explain results.

 Interview with Howard Holderfield from Sunset.

Provide resources/contact information if interested in going green.