Project #3 Interview

Adapted from a project by Dr. Charlotte Thralls

Interview an individual working in your future career field (or one that interests you). This project is the next step in the process you began in Project #1, conducting your interview. From the interview, you will create two different compositions to convey to your audience what you learned from your interview about digital writing in the workplace. The first of these will be an xtranormal movie containing the most informative portions of your interview. Your second composition will be a blog post reporting what you knew beforehand, what you learned during the interview, and your overall impressions following the interview.

Due Dates
Different parts of the assignment will come due at different times. Review the class schedule for planned due dates and the class blog for any changes.

Required Technologies
Interview Recording Method (e.g., voice recorder, built-in computer microphone, Convore) Xtranormal Google Docs Blogger DropBox GoToMeeting Convore ELI

Audience
Your audience for this project will be your peers. In this case, we will define your peers as students who either have the same major as you (or may be interested in your major), but have no real knowledge of digital writing in the workplace.

Research
For this project you will need to arrange an interview with a professional whose current position reflects the career path you intend to follow after graduation (or a career path that you are considering if you havent yet declared a major). The person you interview should hold a position that you could likely attain within five years of graduation - were not looking for the CEO of a multi-million dollar corporation. This individual should also not be someone with whom you have a prior relationship. If necessary, you can interview a casual acquaintance. However, if your interview recording reflects a relationship more substantial that a casual acquaintance, your final grade will automatically be deducted 20 points. You should use the Interview Request that you created for Project #1 to initiate the process of arranging the interview. During the actual interview, you should use the Interview Questions that you created for Project #1. Remember, to attain a substantial amount of information, your interview should likely last at least 30 minutes. However, respect your interviewees time restraints by taking no more than an hour. Disclosure Agreement An important part of this project is openness with your interviewee about the reasons for and intended uses of your interview as well as your integrity in representing your interview to your audience. To ensure these goals are met, you and your interviewee will be required to sign a Disclosure Agreement

(available on the class website). You will not receive a grade for this assignment if I do not receive a copy of your disclosure agreement signed by both you and your interviewee. After signing the disclosure agreement, you are honor bound to stick to the terms of your agreement in finishing your project. You will also not receive a grade if your project does not adhere to the disclosure agreement. If your rough draft does not adhere to the disclosure agreement, you will be notified and directed to correct the issue. If the issue is not fixed in your final draft, you will not receive a grade. In addition, you will potentially lose points on your final project. This is non-negotiable. Do not miss this crucial step!!!

Part I Xtranormal Movie

This part of the project requires you to edit your interview to create an Xtranormal movie. Your movie must be 4-6 minutes long. Because your actual interview will last at least 30 minutes, you will have a wealth of information. Your task then becomes choosing the portions of the interview that provide the most valuable information for your viewing audience in order to create a cohesive, informative representation of your interview. You are not permitted to add material, change statements made during the interview or change the context/meaning of any statements made during the interview. If it wasnt actually said during the interview, it cannot appear in your movie. Your goal here is to teach your audience as much as you can in a short time span while still respecting your interviewee and the disclosure agreement you are required to sign as part of this assignment. In the interest of time and because they do not read well in the context of Xtranormal, you do not need to include umms, uhs, and false starts (where you or your interviewee start a statement, stop, and then restart). You will be graded on your effective use of time in presenting information, your effective use of Xtranormal, and how accurately you represent your interview.

Part II Blog Report

Along with your Xtranormal movie, you will need to create a blog post to report on your findings. This report can provide more background information about yourself and the interview, your initial thoughts on digital writing, your response to the interview as a whole, if/how the interview has changed your mind about digital writing in your future career, etc. You should carefully consider the audience of your peers and use this as an opportunity to communicate with them directly about your interview. You should also have your Xtranormal movie embedded in the blog post.

Process
Review the class schedule for specific dates related to these activities. Also review the class blog on a regular basis for any adjustments to the schedule. 1. 2. Discussion. Class discussion through Convore where we will answer any questions about the project. We will also discuss methods for finding an interviewee. Find an Interviewee. Once theyve agreed to the interview, send me a brief email telling me a little bit about your interviewee. Before conducting the interview, you must provide your interviewee with a signed copy of our Disclosure Agreement. You will then need to instruct your interviewee to sign the agreement and send a copy to me as an email attachment. The email should be sent to my MSU account with the subject line [Your Name] Disclosure Agreement. This is a small, but very important step. If I do not receive a copy of your disclosure agreement signed by both you and your interviewee, you will not be able to receive a grade for this project.

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Conduct the Interview. You can conduct your interview in person, on the phone or over the Internet. Keep in mind that you will need to record your interview in some way either through an audio recording or a chat session transcript. Rough Draft. Submit your rough draft through ELI for our peer review. Your rough draft must be at least 75% complete to receive credit. For this project, you will need to include the text for your blog post as well as a link to your Xtranormal movie. Discussion. We will have another class discussion through Convore to decide what type of feedback would be most helpful from the peer review. ELI Review. I will set up a peer review based on our class discussion in ELI and assign review groups. You will be required to provide meaningful feedback for the members of your group. Discussion. We will have a GoToMeeting where we will discuss the ELI Review, highlight areas of excellence, and go over areas that need improvement as you move forward with the project. Revision Strategy. Use your group members responses to your writing as well as the class discussion in GoToMeeting to develop a Revision Strategy in ELI. Final Draft. Your final draft will take the form of a blog post on your personal blog for this class. You will need to embed your Xtranormal movie within the body of the blog post as well as email me a separate link to your Xtranormal movie. Project Analysis. This will be submitted directly to me through DropBox. You must use the file name [Your Initials]Project3Analysis. The file extensions .doc, .docx, and .pdf are acceptable. For example, if I were turning this in, my file name would look like CERProject3Analysis.doc, CERProject3Analysis.docx, or CERProject3Analysis.pdf

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4. 5. 6.

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If you do not use the correct file name, I may not receive your project analysis and you will not receive credit. If it does not appear in my DropBox, I did not receive it. It is your responsibility to use the correct file name and an appropriate file extension.

Deliverables/Grading
This project is worth a total of 100 points. Points will be awarded according to the following guidelines: 1. Signed disclosure agreement. You cannot receive a grade for this project if I do not receive a signed disclosure agreement or if you do not adhere to the disclosure agreement. Email describing interviewee (5 points) Automatically receive 5 points for completing this task.

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Interview Recording (5 points) Automatically receive 5 points for completing this task. If you do not complete this task, you will automatically receive 0 points for your Xtranormal movie final draft. Rough Draft (5 points) Automatically receive 5 points if you turn in a substantial rough draft (at least 75% complete). Feedback for your group members in ELI. (20 points) 20 points 15 points
Provide useful, slightly less-detailed, meaningful feedback for each group member.

4. 5.

10 points
Provides at least some useful feedback. Additional feedback may be somewhat vague or of little value for revision strategy.

5 points
Provides some level of feedback for each group member.

0 points
Does not participate in review or provides inappropriate feedback.

Provides sophisticated, detailed, and significant feedback for each group member.

6.

Revision Strategy through ELI (10 points) 10 points 7.5 points

Uses feedback from ELI review to develop a meaningful revision strategy. Evidence of its use in constructing final draft.

5 points
Creates a revision strategy that uses at least some feedback. Some evidence of its use in final draft.

2.5 points
Submits some form of revision strategy that may or may not use feedback from ELI Review. Little or no evidence of its use in final draft.

0 points
Does not submit a revision strategy.

Selects meaningful feedback from ELI review to develop a sophisticated revision strategy. Clear evidence of revision strategy in final draft.

7.

Final Draft: Xtranormal Movie (15 points) 15 points 11 points

Meets all basic requirements. Writer does a good job in creating an accurate and informative representation of the interview. Uses the affordances of Xtranormal to create an understandable movie. Editing choices clearly consider the movies intended audience.

8 points
Meets most basic requirements. Writer creates an accurate and somewhat informative representation of the interview. The movie may be unclear and difficult to follow. Editing choices show little consideration for the movies intended audience.

5 points
Meets most basic requirements. The movie represents an unclear and uninformative. The movie may be difficult to follow. Editing choices show little or no consideration for the movies intended audience.

0 points
1) Does not submit a final draft of the Xtranormal Movie or 2) Submits a final draft of the Xtranormal Movie, but does not submit a record of the interview.

Meets all basic requirements. Writer does an excellent job in creating an accurate and informative representation of the interview. Uses the affordances of Xtranormal to create a seamless and understandable movie. Editing choices effectively consider the movies intended audience.

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Final Draft: Blog Report (20 points) 20 points 15 points

Writer makes an effort to provide a sophisticated analysis of their experiences with the interview in a way that is clearly and appropriately directed towards the intended audience. Blog post has a clear and understandable layout that effectively embeds the Xtranormal movie.

10 points
Writer makes an attempt to provide a sophisticated analysis of their experiences with the interview in a way that is clearly and appropriately directed towards the intended audience. Blog post has somewhat confusing layout that awkwardly embeds the Xtranormal movie.

5 points
Writer presents a simplistic analysis of their experiences with the interview and does not consider their audience for the blog post. Fails to embed the Xtranormal movie at all and uses formatting that is ineffective and confusing.

0 points
Does not submit a final blog report through their individual blog

Writer makes a significant effort to provide a sophisticated analysis of their experiences with the interview in a way that is clearly and appropriately directed towards the intended audience. Blog post has a clear and aesthetically sophisticated layout that effectively embeds the Xtranormal movie.

9. Project Analysis (20 points) Review requirements for project analyses on class website.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Ive said it previously, but it bears repeating - you will not receive a grade for this assignment if I do not receive a copy of your disclosure agreement signed by both you and your interviewee. You will also not receive a grade if your project does not adhere to the disclosure agreement. If your rough draft does not adhere to the disclosure agreement, you will be notified and directed to correct the issue. If the issue is not fixed in your final draft, you will not receive a grade. You will also lose points on your final project. This is non-negotiable. Do not miss this crucial step!!! Dont Forget to Review the Class Schedule and Blog for Due Dates!