Assignment Design
To engage in sophisticated critical inquiry
To promote responsible and interesting use of diverse media, including images, video, audio
To learn about the relationship between form and content
To promote digital literacy
Scalar encourages students and instructors to rethink their approaches to writing and presentation. In addition to linear, black and white, conventionally formatted and argued essays, students writing in Scalar can also experiment with form and content. A project on Scalar should include foremost a compelling argument and purpose. It should also be rich with relevant evidence, including textual support, images, video, audio files, maps or timelines, and links to external sources.
To make the most of Scalar's "pathing" feature, writers should consider how non-linear form requires them to make unusual connections among materials under analysis. Such connections might entail creatively linking or "pathing" a sequence of what seemingly unrelated fragments or by following interesting digressions. Research writing and reading becomes a practice of trailblazing in which writers and readers follow paths associatively, reflecting, as early programmer Vannevar Bush believed, the process of thought itself.
Collaborative projects or collections on Scalar present opportunities to exhibit a variety of materials and to make connections among diverse ideas, images, texts, and materials as well as between writers.
Writing assignments should make use Scalar's capacity for creative design, associative and experimental writing, and collaboration.
Assignment prompts should include:
♦a timeline for the assignment
♦ An assurance that time will be allotted for collaboration (if group projects) or technical training
This chapter contains several sample assignments, a suggested timeline for a relatively short and focused Scalar writing assignment, and information on collaboration spaces on campus. You can follow the links below in any order and then return to this page to follow a new path.
