Kentucky Kernel Research and Remix
Assignment
For this assignment, you will explore past editions of The Kentucky Kernel and remix articles into social media posts in order to practice your research, analytical, and writing skills. Using Explore UK, select a year that interests you (consider historical events like WWII, the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam era, etc.) and peruse a copy of The Kentucky Kernel from that year. Then, choose an editorial or opinion article from that copy to analyze and remix to another genre. You will then summarize, contextualize, analyze, and re-write your article as a social media post in a final product composed in Adobe Spark, which we have practiced using in class.
Learning Objectives
- Demonstrate an awareness of strategies that speakers and writers use in different communicative situations and media
- Recognize and address differing genre and discourse conventions
Process
First, select your article. Then, create an Adobe Spark project that contains the following:
- A citation of your newspaper article (MLA, APA, Chicago, or whichever citation system is used in your major)
- A 350-400 word introduction of your project including
- An explanation behind your article choice
- A contextualization of the newspaper you read
- What types of articles, topics, and themes did you find?
- A summary of the article you chose
- A 500 word rhetorical analysis of the article, focusing on the rhetorical appeals. Demonstrate why it is or is not an effective article.
- A remix of the article in a social media post. You may make a new account or use an existing one and create an Instagram caption, Facebook post, YouTube vlog, series of tweets, or some other post that effectively conveys the main ideas, attitude, and tone of the article while reformatting its language and organization for a 21st century social media format. You may take a screenshot of your social media post and embed it into your Adobe Spark project, or you may link your post to your project.
Rubric (200 points)
- Citation (25 points)
- Introduction (50 points)
- Engaging explanation as to why you chose your article (10)
- Contextualization of edition (20)
- Summary of article (20)
- Rhetorical analysis (50)
- Social media post (50)
- Creative and effective use of social media platform and format (25)
- Effective translation that maintains original article’s ideas while reimagining formatting and language choices (25)
- Formatting and appearance (25)
