TIPPINST -- After spending part of a sunny Sunday grading exam scripts from my first year Media Writing course, I'm scribbling a few reminders as revision notes for the next cohort. It looks like everyone who took the final exam passed the course but only because of compensatory marks earned during continuous assessment. This is the first time in four years that people have failed the final exam. It means the final exam requires a tough revision.
- Those who opted to answer Michel Foucault's question--"What makes an author?"--finished in the top third of the final exam results.
- We teach how writing an idea helps protect it. When we tested various kinds of protection, students could define a trademark better than a copyright, registered mark and patent. Few could list distinctions between a copyright and a creative commons copyright.
- Film review session feature in the Media Writing course. Most students wrote well about dehumanising elements of Bladerunner. But when comparing Bladerunner to "I, Robot" fewer than 20% of the essays cited names of actors, characters, or directors.
- One of the most valuable skills in writing for the web is writing for placement. Although students understand the importance of hyperlinks in creating visible content, some could not elaborate on the role of a title and a headline on a web page. Most students know their Googlenym--it's surprising that nearly 20% did not know how to find their content on the internet (without citing an exact URL or without using their name in the look-up phrase).
Tipperary Institute's Media Writing Course is available without a key but requires payment of enrolment fees for tutorial assistance.
