Finding Assets for Your Project

Permissions for your assets fall into three categories, all of which require documentation:

• Protected by Copyright—You will have to ask the owner for permission or prove Fair Use. Use the Copyright Genie.

• In the Public Domain—You can use these freely, without seeking additional permission.

• Protected by Creative Commons—You need to check the license. See p. 68 of Writer/Designer.

Use the Where can I find graphics that I can use in my projects? FAQ for links to public domain and creative commons assets.

Documenting Your Asset Sources

The point of documentation is to give credit to the author/maker and to show your audience where to find the original version.

No matter what kind of assets, you need to cite your sources. Here’s a little flowchart that tells you everything you need to know:

Yes, that is a little reductive, but generally, if you didn’t make it, you need to say who did. Use the flowchart on the blog post Can I Use that Picture? The Terms, Laws, and Ethics for Using Copyrighted Images, by Curtis Newbold, to decide what you need to cite and whether the use of the resource falls under fair use.

Here are some other important tips:

• Google is not a source. It’s a search engine. Citing Google is like citing the library for a book.
• "Linking to it" isn’t documentation. You can link to it as part of your documentation, but you need more than just a link.
• Use these Best Practices for Attribution to guide the information you include in your citations.

Designing Your Documentation System

Following the information in Writer/Designer (p. 70), your need to accomplish two things with your documentation:

1. Provide enough information about each source so that readers can find it themselves.
2. Use a citation style that is credible within the context of the genre you’ve chosen to produce.

You have to decide what works best for your project. If you ask me "Is it okay if I [insert whatever you want to do] for my documentation?" I am going to ask you how the system you are proposing accomplishes those two things.

You need to think about both where you will include the citations and what format you will use for those citations.

In-Class Writing

Go to the "Documentation Plan" quiz in Canvas and explain how you will design and present the citations for your project. See the information on pp. 70–76 of Writer/Designer for help.

Homework

For today, do the following:

• If you didn’t complete your "Documentation Plan" quiz in Canvas, please use the grace period to finish by 5:30 PM Tuesday (11/10).

For Wednesday, do the following before class:

• Check online to be sure we are still meeting in the classroom.
• Read Chapter 7 of Writer/Designer. We’ll talk about rough cuts and rough drafts.

Important Dates

• October 16: Fall Break (no class meeting)
• October 21: Project 3 Peer Review
• October 26: Project 3: Interrogate a Story Source due by 11:59 PM

What to Track and How

For Projects 3 and 4, you will need to find sources and assets, like sound clips, video clips, photographs, cartoons, and so forth to include in your project.

1. To start, we’ll talk about sources and assets.
2. Be sure to consult Chapter 4 of Writer/Designer, which has lots of information on gathering resources, permissions and fair use, and tracking what you find.
3. Make a copy of the Project 4 Source List Template and track your sources there. See the assignment on pp. 62–63 (“A Multimodal Annotated Source List, Part 1”) for the information to include in your annotations.
4. Alternately, you can use your own system, like the Winnie the Pooh Sources blog entries. You might also clip info to Evernote (tutorials: web, win, mac) or pin resources with Pinterest (tutorial). Whatever works for you, but have a system and start tracking things now. You can use the working comparison notes to help decide if Evernote or Pinterest is right for you.

NOTE: Finding assets is not a requirement for Project 3, but you will find it pays to keep track of possible assets that you find. Nothing is more frustrating than knowing that you saw something you could use and then not being able to find it again.

Choosing and Using Assets

I have posted tips for finding assets for your projects on the FAQ site. Here’s the short version: Unless you take the photo, record the audio, or film an event yourself, you need to be sure that it’s okay to use it in your writing.

If you are using traditional documentation, these tools can help:

• EasyBib online citation builder creates MLA-format for free.
• Son of Citation Machine creates MLA, APA, and Chicago citations for free.
• Cite This For Me creates several other styles.

Make the documentation system you choose fit the genre that you are using. For instance, videos do not use MLA citations. We’ll talk more about this when we get to Project 4.

Remember that assets you make yourself can be simple. Take advantage of your own creativity. Anything you make, you can use freely. Consider the approaches of The Christmas Snake or Don Quixote and the Giants.

For sources and assets that you have acquired, rather than created. Work through these FAQs for details and resources, including places to find assets that you can use freely (as long as you credit your source):

• How does copyright work with images?
• How do I choose images for my projects?
• How can I tell if an image is protected by copyright?
• Where can I find graphics that I can use in my projects?
• How do I use images in my project?
• Can I use this image if I link to the original?

In-Class Writing

There are two things for you to submit:

1. Go to Quizzes in Canvas.
2. Choose the "What’s Your Story?" quiz.
3. Answer the questions, and submit your quiz.
4. Go back to the Quizzes page.
5. Choose "November Class Survey" under the Surveys heading.
6. Answer the questions and submit your anonymous survey.

Homework

For today’s session (10/09), please do the following:

• If you didn’t complete your "What’s Your Story?" quiz in Canvas and/or your "November Class Survey" in Canvas, please use the grace period to finish by 5:30 PM Sunday (10/11).

For Monday’s session (10/12), do the following before class:

• Read pp. 40–45 of Writer/Designer (in Chapter 3). We’ll review the techniques for analyzing the what, how, and why of your texts.
• You will have time to work on you projects in class on Monday. Bring whatever you need with you to work (e.g., the source you are analyzing)

For Wednesday’s session (10/12), do the following before class:

• I’ll address any questions that come up as you worked on Monday.
• You will have time to work on you projects in class on Wednesday. Bring whatever you need with you to work (e.g., the source you are analyzing)

For Friday, have a nice day off. Enjoy your break weekend.