Voice Memo

Set-up: Imagine you just read something amazing and can’t wait to share it with a friend. They are not available, so you leave them a voice message describing what you read. (You might have to suspend your disbelief on this set up, since even people still left voice messages, a 5 minute message would probably be a bit much).

Task: For this project you will create a 2-5 minute voice memo summary of a piece of academic writing of your choice. The summary should be tailored to a randomly assigned classmate.

Goals: The first goal is to get you started recording and editing audio. Practicing speaking into a microphone and listening to the recording will help you get more comfortable with the medium and will help you sound more comfortable in the final podcast episode. You will also do some basic editing for this assignment.

The second goal is to practice thinking about content in terms of non-specialist audiences and how to get across the core excitement and import of a piece of academic research.

The third goal is to get to know someone in class.

Process:

You will be assigned a partner for this project.

Choose an academic article or book chapter that you find fascinating. You can choose something you read for another class, something related to a research paper or thesis. It can be in any subject on any topic, but should be something written for an academic audience.

Have a conversation with your assigned partner to find out what they are interested in and how they might connect to the article you choose.

Write and record a short summary of the article, focusing on getting your partner interested.

You will share the result with your partner and they will give you brief written feedback.