Article ?

· Sign up for a BuzzFeed community account at http://www.buzzfeed.com/community and fill in your profile details to your comfort level.

· Review the guide for how/what to publish: http://www.buzzfeed.com/help/how_to_use

· Your post must be published by class time on Tuesday, May 29th.

· You will post the link to the discussion board link.

Buzzfeed articles are probably the best-known examples of listicles . On social media, you might have come across titles such as “ 19 People who are Absolutely Sick and Tired of Winter ” and “ 13 Awkward Moments for Book Lovers .” The genre uses images, often GIFs, to illustrate each item on the informative list.

For this assignment, you will create your own Buzzfeed-style article on a topic, character, or play directly connected with our course material. All article topics must be approved by me, so you need to plan ahead and be sure to talk to me about what you want your article to focus on. You will compile a list of 7-10 interesting and little-known facts about something connected to our course, and you will need to find GIFs or some similar visual aids to accompany each fact.

Examples:

This article on “5 Things You May Not Know About Hamlet” offers an example of a relatively well-researched listicle.

This one on “20 Things You (Probably) Didn't Know About William Shakespeare” provides a better example of using images to accompany or illustrate an informative list, though the list itself includes some inaccuracies.

Here’s one on unusual adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays: http://mentalfloss.com/article/49955/11-strange-shakespeare-adaptations-national-talk-shakespeare-day

Format: Your content can be any length and format. You can use any combination of text, image, gif, video, etc. You can choose between making an article, list, quiz, poll, or checklist.

**Plagiarism and attribution are major concerns for this assignment. Your content must be original. It is critical that you give attribution where possible. If you plagiarize or submit something without attribution, there will be problems.

You could use any one of a number of computer programs to compose your article depending on what you are familiar with and have access to. You also need to consider issues of readerly access, so widely-available software (like Microsoft Word or Powerpoint) will probably work best. If you do use a less-accessible program (like InDesign or Microsoft Publisher), be sure to save your article as a PDF.

I am not looking for or expecting graphic design expertise. Your article needs to show evidence of careful thought and attention to layout, images, colors, and fonts, and all of that can be accomplished with whatever program you usually use to write papers and with no graphic design experience.

Your first step should be to come up with a topic. The topic needs to be substantial enough to warrant producing a list of 7-10 little-known facts about it. For instance, you could research and write about a particularly significant place (e.g. Ibo Landing) or character (e.g. Oya), and there are numerous other topics that might be fruitful. Your topic can come from any thing we have discussed so far in class. When you have come up with a topic that you think will work well, run it by me.

Also, remember that all topics must be approved by me.

An effective article will exhibit the following:

· Facts that are in your own words. You need to quote and cite sources, but don’t overly rely on them. You are not simply reporting facts; you are also interpreting them and justifying their importance.

· Thorough, careful research and meticulous citations. (This is best accomplished through the use of hyperlinks.)

· Images thoughtfully incorporated into the article so that they illustrate (or at least ornament) the facts rather than distract from them.

· Evidence of attention to visual details like layout, color, and font.

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