Two of the most important values that you will encounter in the Communication Arts Department are that (1.) STORIES are one of our most valuable human resources and that (2.) LISTENING to understand is one of the best skills you can develop while in college.
While this Oral History project will develop your skills in summarizing, researching, interviewing and planning (all very marketable skills)-- the MAIN focus of this project is to help you become BETTER LISTENERS who VALUE STORIES that other people tell (skills which are both market-friendly, and, more importantly HUMAN skills).
With the help of one of your peers, you will collect an oral history from someone that you will find and work with across the course of the semester. An Oral History is a recording of a someone’s own personal recollections about a particular time, theme, topic or place. Oral Histories are usually archived in libraries, museums and on the internet; the oral histories you collect will be archived in these kinds of institutions, too. This website does a fantastic job talking about the history and current practices of oral history. This website is the assigned reading for class. You only need to read until you get to the sixth blue box -- the one that says: "Transcribing Oral Histories." If you want to keep reading you may (of course). And if you keep reading even further -- our assignments are most like assignments "C" or "D" -- though it won't be precisely and only that.
While this Oral History project will develop your skills in summarizing, researching, interviewing and planning (all very marketable skills)-- the MAIN focus of this project is to help you become BETTER LISTENERS who VALUE STORIES that other people tell (skills which are both market-friendly, and, more importantly HUMAN skills).
With the help of one of your peers, you will collect an oral history from someone that you will find and work with across the course of the semester. An Oral History is a recording of a someone’s own personal recollections about a particular time, theme, topic or place. Oral Histories are usually archived in libraries, museums and on the internet; the oral histories you collect will be archived in these kinds of institutions, too. This website does a fantastic job talking about the history and current practices of oral history. This website is the assigned reading for class. You only need to read until you get to the sixth blue box -- the one that says: "Transcribing Oral Histories." If you want to keep reading you may (of course). And if you keep reading even further -- our assignments are most like assignments "C" or "D" -- though it won't be precisely and only that.
After researching the topic of your speech, you will record an oral history of about an hour in length on video, transcribe it and eventually develop individual speeches which will contextualize portions of the interview.
This project will include four assignments (click on each of them for more information):
3.) the collected interview
4.) the listening paper
You will find one other student and that student will act as your “assistant” during the recording of the interview -- you will also act as as the “assistant for that student during the interview they collect. Throughout the history, the two of you will also serve as resources for each other’s projects.
