WE GIVE ACADEMIC credit to students who prove they can create engaging content for online audiences. To guide their efforts, a portion of our curriculum unpacks the principles of fluency, authority and novelty.
I point to traditional works such as The Boys of '67 (above) and the online writing of Dave Delaney and Dervala Hanley as examples of best practice in narrative. Andrew Weist is an approachable historian. Dave Delaney runs the vibrant New Business Network Radio. Dervala Hanley is an online diarist whose ghost work has elevated major brands.
True to its etymology, "fluency" suggests a nice flow. As I write this, I can see smoke rising from chimney flies. A deep piece on my Windows Reading List describes flues carrying water in mines and rice paddies. Online writers who personify fluency also create streams of words that flow when you read them. If scripted for presenters, the spoken words flow without tripping.
Someone with authority has respect from listeners, readers and viewers. The challenge for my third level students is to box above their weight class while appearing to offer a sense of authority about their chosen interest. In my experience, this means attributing the source of an inspiration or hyperlinking to a related piece of content. In our copy and paste culture, this often feels unnatural to young students.
A truly novel thought lingers. A novel twist of phrase remains in the mind. A unique avatar can actually serve as a registered mark. Sometimes a novel hat, lovely nails, dress sense or logo worn as an accessory embellishes the wearer with novelty. I try to accentuate the importance of creating novelty as part of online expression and then extending the essence of that novelty into physical space.
Stay tuned for examples.
[Bernie Goldbach is the senior pilot creative multimedia lecturer at the Limerick School of Art & Design.]
