English 12 2016

Writing/Recording Your Podcast

Write and record a podcast for your topic and submit it. Use your research paper as a guide. Be sure to include both the history of the problem, why it needs to be solved and the potential solutions. Include a poem about your issue in your podcast. (It may be a poem that you write or one that suits your issue particularly well.) Highlight parts of your research paper that you think are the most convincing and then talk about what legislation might help solve the issue (this would bring in parts of your letter to your Representative) and you could also include any references to the issue that you see in other media. It basically should read/sound like you are having a conversation with the audience even though they cannot respond. Like you're talking to a group of friends about the issue.

After you record it and post it here as an MP3 file (if you want, I'll make it available to the rest of the class). For those of you who have the proper Media Release Forms signed we can make it available on iTunes. You might also want to consider making it available on your blog (Yes, you should still be posting those entries).

The podcast should be approximately 10 min. long.

Because this is a whole different type of writing from what you've done so far, you may want to learn some more about various writing techniques to improve your delivery.

Do not submit until you're sure it's what you want to be heard.

If you need audio recording software I suggest using Audacity; GarageBand or any other recording software. For a browser tool, you can record audio if you sign up for an account on SoundCloud, once you sign up and confirm your email account there is an option to upload audio with a recording feature. You could also broadcast to the web from any phone with iPadio. There is another tool that works on any device called AudioBoom. If you're not sure what to use you could email me which device and operating system you use and I can make some other recommendations.

(If you have reservations about this and just can't do it for whatever reason you can upload your transcript of what you would say for reduced credit.)

After your submission, assign yourself a grade. Why do you think that you've earned that grade? Is there a part of your submission which could be improved?

Note: (514 words/200 seconds) X 60 seconds/min = 154 WPM (the average rate for an American speaker is 150 WPM). Let's say I want to give a 10 minute speech. My estimated word count is 154 WPM X 10 min = 1540 words. So, if I write a speech of approximately 1540 words, then it will be about 10 minutes long. Source.

Next Step: Assignment: Letter to the Editor