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Week 9: Revising Tap Essays and a Peer Critique Workshop

As we discussed in class yesterday, our goals and expectations for the Tap Essay project just got upgraded a bit. I hope you’re excited about the potential of connecting with a much bigger audience than we originally anticipated, and I have confidence that all of you can produce first-rate tap essays that deserve to be seen by a lot of people. At the same time, I realize that the prospect of putting your work out there for the world to see can be intimidating, so I want to make sure that you have the necessary time to produce work that you’ll be proud to share. Hence, I have pushed back the due date for this project from March 27 to April 1, which will give you an extra day of class time to work through technical challenges and get feedback from other people in the class.

Here’s a quick overview of how we’ll spend our time next week and what you need to do to prepare for each class session:

  • On Monday, we will spend the entire class in workshop mode, and I will pair you up with another student so you can share the tricks you’ve learned for working in Tapestry. In addition, I will meet briefly with each of you to review your script and answer any questions you have about your project. Before you come to class, all of your text should be added to your Tapestry draft, and you should have collected all of the images you think you’ll need for your project. (Use the links on the Resources page to find appropriately licensed images.)
  • Our entire class session on Wednesday will be devoted to a peer critique workshop. You should come to class with a completely finished tap essay, not just a rough draft. In order for this critique session to work well, everyone needs to attend, and everyone needs to take it seriously. We will focus our attention on polishing your essays and fine-tuning the technical aspects of your work, but we won’t be able to do that unless your project is almost perfect.

If you have any questions about these plans, don’t hesitate to contact me. And if you would like additional help with your tap essay, please come see me during office hours (T 1–4, W 9–12).