Blog Post 3.3
I’m currently brainstorming for my hybrid essay. I really liked the idea of the interview. I was thinking of maybe engaging senior citizens and children and asking them what they think is the best advice whether it was given to them or they came up with this piece of advice on their own. I’m debating if I want to narrow this advice to focus on “love” or just advice broadly. I’d like to juxtapose the wise, dated or crotchety advice of a senior citizen with the innocence of a child whose advice can potentially be wise, naive, something their mom told them or just plain hilarious.
In terms of really pinpointing where I want this essay to go I personally, like to start with a simple idea and decide where I’d like to take it once I begin. Right now, I’m thinking I would like for this hybrid essay to be purely audio, but depending on the answers I get I will determine the final direction I’d like to go in. I find it difficult to predict the mode in which I’d like for this essay to appear and need a little inspiration before I can commit.
That said I particularly like the idea of voices as a mode for this essay because the voices of a young and old person are drastically different. The inflection of someone’s voice tells a story in itself and lends itself to assuming a certain age and level of experience or intelligence.
4 responses so far
Hey Rebecca, I need more information from you about your ideas to really be able to respond in a formative and useful way. On the assignment, I asked you to consider pretty specific questions in your proposal. What form are you thinking of working in? Is your idea for this to be an audio project? if not, how would you make this “lyric” or “hybrid”? In a project in which you want to interview several people, the results–the data and material you gather–are very VERY uncontrollable. That is to say: it’s hard to know what message your essay might end up making until you gather your material and see what people say, what especially lovely and evocative and intriguing connections, juxtapositions, and surprises emerge. This is actually the cool and fun part of doing an assignment that brings in the voices and ideas of outsiders. It’s a crap-shoot–but I’ve found it’s a very rich crap shoot. It’s essay serendipity.
So, you should write up your questions and decide who you will interview soon, and try to do those interviews soon, so you have some time to work with the material you gather, to decide how you will shape it into an essay with an arc, an essay that develops toward something–some point and meaning. You want to pace and arrange and introduce and reflect on your material in interesting and meaningful ways.
Hi Rebecca,
It seems like you’re still a bit uncertain about what your third essay will be about, but I really like the idea you’ve mentioned here. But if you keep it open and simply ask people, “What’s the best advice you’ve ever gotten?” the the responses you get will vary a lot, and it can go so many ways. I suggest that you try to narrow your focus and be more specific with your topic, in terms of what kind of advice you want to ask people about. You mentioned love here and I think that’s a good way to go, too.
-Nakeisha
Hey, I love the idea of interview and its always interesting to watch many people talking about one issue. You could mix short answers to make it more vivid and interesting. You should definitely concentrate on one side of life and ask them about it. Hope you will figure out answers to which questions might sound funnier.
Hey Rebecca,
I feel like once you’ve narrowed down your ideas you will be able to pinpoint a focus for your essay. Getting the thoughts of the older generation about love is interesting, but vague. Adding humor is a good way to lighten it up and engage the audience.
-Cass