For anyone interested in doing an extra credit assignment, here is one!
First, please watch the 12-13 minute video on the following website: http://thewritingcode.com/ and WHILE YOU ARE WATCHING it please take notes in order to respond to the following questions:
1. What is the structure of this video? How many sections are there? Is there a title for each section? Is so, what is it? If not, what might it be? (make a numbered list of the sections with section titles included)
2. What did you learn? (make a list)
3. Given the subject matter of the video, what words or images did you see/hear that were expected? (make a list)
4. Given the subject matter of the video, what words or images did you see/hear that were UNexpected? (make a list)
5. What did you think of the video generally? (Was it Entertaining/interesting/intriguing/boring? Please write one paragraph explaining what you thought of it and why.)
6. What did you think of the video as an introduction to writing? (Please write one paragraph explaining why it was or why not a good introduction to writing.)
7. If you were to remake this video, what would be your approach? How would you structure it? What types of content would you include? (write one paragraph describing your approach/video) Would you keep any parts of this video? If no, why not? If yes, which sections would you include? Why? (write one paragraph comparing and contrasting your video to the existing video)
8. Compare the video you watched above to the following official PBS trailer for the same series and assess how well or how poorly it functions as a trailer first, in general, and then, specifically, in relation to the content you viewed in the earlier video (three paragraphs: 1/ describe the content of this trailer; 2/ assess it as a successful/unsuccessful trailer in terms of the rhetorical purpose of trailers in general, i.e., to make people want to watch something; 3/ assess it as a successful/unsuccessful trailer in relation to the film it is meant to be enticing viewers to watch. Does it accurately represent the content of that film? Why or why not? :
