Half of this symposium was dedicated to helping us through questions we might have about the creative mixed media essay, and ways in which we might go about structuring it. I’m not sure that all of the tutors even agreed on this, but since my tutor is Betty and it’s her that will be marking mine, here’s some pointers from her:
– If your essay is about network literacy, it is relevant and perhaps suggested that you use a website with links and pop-ups and the like to demonstrate your own network literacy. That is, so long as it makes sense to do so and doesn’t leave her sitting there thinking, ‘why is there a link out here?’
– Footnotes are useful in demonstrating you have a wide knowledge of the topic you are writing about
And then Adrian discussed how a traditional essay will start broadly in terms of structure and then narrow in to point to conclude, like a cone. He then asked that instead we consider thinking about this ‘cone’ the other way around, in that you start with one point/idea and then expand this as you write, exploring the idea and not forcing yourself to exclude something because it doesn’t fit in or aid in your developing of a finite conclusion.
