Your Digital History Narrative

What are we doing?

The Digital History Narrative is a digitally-focused version of a personal history with an
emphasis on texts like videogames, online video, music, social networking sites, and other
digital content. For this project I want you to revisit and examine the digital texts (i.e.
sitcoms, cartoons, movies, music/music videos, eBooks, ads anything digital!) that have
influenced or shaped your character. You may also want to analyze or reflect on the ways in
which these texts appealed to you (what kinds of language, aesthetic, plot, or images did
they use?). Think about how these texts have fostered your understanding of the world as
you've come to know it. Also, examine how your most influential texts have changed over
time and how these changes have influenced/reflect your personality and your knowledge
of the world.

How are we doing it?
In short, youll
1. Pick a topic relating to a series of digital texts and/or hardware you experienced them
through.
2. Craft a story (or connect together several) illustrating the history and/or progression of
your experiences with these digital texts.
3. Combine details and specific moments and anecdotes to bring your story to life.
4. Make connections between your experiences with digital texts and a facet of your life
and/or development as a person.

How should I do this?
You might create a narrative about your progression of favorite movies from the time you
were young up until the present: from The Lion King when you were eight, to Mean Girls
when you were in middle school, to Inglorious Bastards during your senior year of high
school. You could also create a television narrative tracing your history from the Rugrats, to
The Simpsons, to South Park. Why did your tastes shift in this way and what might it say
about you?
You might create a musical history narrative by tracing your grade school infatuation with
country music and how that fed into your decision to start playing guitar and listening to
Rage Against the Machine.
You might also create a sports history narrative by tracing the films or movies you watched
over a period of time (for example, Friday Night Lights) that portrayed a sport you
play(ed), one that has been deeply influential to your personal development.
Another option includes approaching this assignment as a progression, exploring the most
memorable and developmentally important digital texts and hardware that have influenced
you over the years (early emailing or early IMing, first game consoles, first cellphones,
Photoshopping images, developing web pages, and far more than I can list here!). Consider
them carefully: why were they important to you? Did these things affect your desires,
friendships, purchases? Why did you like them at a particular moment? When did they "get
old," or if they never did, why? How did you change over time, and how did your early
experience as well as changes in the media alter your perceptions? What changes did you
notice in the games/sites/interactions?

***These are, of course, just a few suggested approaches; there are many ways of
approaching paper one. The only restriction that I will give you is that this paper does need
to be analytic in nature. It's fine for you to relate to me your experiences with your digital
history, but I want you also to be able to interpret and critique the visio-cultural texts that
have influenced you to see how they have contributed to the overall development of your
character.

Why are we doing this project?
This is a common, and typically unspoken, concern Why are we doing this in an English
class? Good question! Throughout this semester we will be diving into a few different
genres of composingpersonal narrative, textual analysis, visual analysis, and multimodal
composition. Throughout them all, we will be maintaining a focus on digital texts and how
they function in our daily lives and the role they played in shaping who we are. Therefore,
our first assignment will serve as a bridge between your experiences before coming into
this classroom and the kinds of analysis we will be doing in the coming weeks as well as the
kinds of critical analytical skills you will need as both a college student and in your future
careers.

Logistics
You will complete three drafts, followed by a final draft. All (4) will be due to me on the
final due date, clipped and marked, if appropriate.
Length: 4-6 pages
Formatting (VERY IMPORTANT): 12 point size, MLA header, Double spaced. (This
means 1 margins all the way around. If you have questions about this, see me.)

Assessment Model
1. Does this project clearly connect the writers real world experiences with digital
texts? (In other words, is there clear, coherent, and adequate analysis?)
2. Does the writer successfully integrate written details into the text to highlight
specific moments in the narrative?
3. Is there a strong and clear central theme connecting the narrative of this project
together?
4. Does this project illustrate mastery over fundamental elements of writing, such as
structure/order of content, grammar, punctuation, word choice, and use of sources
when/if applicable?
5. Does this project show clear signs of the drafting process, including multiple drafts,
decision-making skills in adding or altering content, and proofreading content?

This is whats known as a heuristic model of writing assessment and focuses on the parts
of what youve done and how they come together holistically to create a complete project
rather than breaking it up exclusively into individual parts.

Drafts and Due Dates
(Shitty) First Draft Workshop: 9/3
Second Draft: 9/8, 9/10, and 9/12
Third Draft Workshop: 9/17
FINAL DRAFT AND ALL PREVIOUS DRAFTS DUE: 9/22