For most of this course, you will be finding, evaluating, and reading sources to better understand an issue that interests you. But we’re not doing that quite yet. Before you decide on the issue you want to pursue this semester, I want you to reflect on your interests. And I’m going to ask you to do that in a slightly unconventional way just to make sure you’re considering all of the possibilities.
Part 1: Visualize who you are and how you became you
Please carve out at least 45 minutes to sit with a notebook or device, think deeply, and create a visual representation of who you are, and how you came to be this person. Don’t worry about what shape or format this takes; each will be unique to the student completing it. Allow it to take shape naturally, organically. The idea is to represent the path you have taken, and how you have changed over the years based on your desires and the influences of your environment. What influences have shaped you, and changed the trajectory of your path? What information have you sought out and found useful? Have you ever questioned whether you are doing what you want to do, rather than what others—like parents, teachers, culture/society in general—want you to do? Write down your thoughts as you consider all of this. Be completely honest. Don’t answer what you think a professor would want to hear (you don’t have to share this with me, but I’ll be delighted to see if you feel comfortable sharing); take this opportunity to be absolutely blunt and honest about what you really want out of life, what you are most interested in, what ideas and questions keep you up at night. At the end, ask yourself why you are in university and what you’re hoping it will lead to.
Finally, consider carefully, then write down what you are most interested in. Even if it isn’t at all related to your major, what would you like to know more about, and why? What questions do you keep returning to? If there is one thing you’re obviously most interested in, you can write just that one thing down. If there are many and you’re just not yet sure which of them interests you most, try to narrow it down to about three.
When you’ve finished, draft a post in OpenLab including as much of this process as you would like. This might mean including the visualization you created, or it might just mean sharing one or more interests you’ve identified through this process. You have the option to share your post with your classmates or keep it private so I’m the only one who sees it.
- If you create something by hand, you can take a photo of it and insert that into your post
- If you create a video and want to share it, talk to me about the best way to put it in your post
- If you use another tool and aren’t sure how to get it into OpenLab, let me know and we’ll figure it out!
Part 2: Revisit one thing from your visualization
Once you’ve drafted your post and we’ve had a chance to discuss together as a class, I will ask you to look carefully at your visualization. My hunch is that you will have included some mix of the following:
- people (family, friends, celebrities, etc.)
- organizations (school, church, club, team, etc.)
- media (books, films, albums, games, etc.)
- experiences (a journey, overcoming an obstacle, accomplishing something amazing, etc.)
- other things! Please share.
These things might be influences or they might be sources; it all depends on how you interacted with them. We can think of an influence as something that has “an effect in indirect or intangible ways” (I’m quoting the Merriam Webster definition here). A source, on the other had, is something that we use for a particular purpose (usually to get information). If something is an influence in our life then we’re in a more passive role. If we’re working with a source, we’re more active. This course (and a university education in general) is an opportunity to turn influences into sources for your thinking. To get started with this work, I want you to select one of the things in your map to revisit (re-read, re-watch, re-play, etc.). There are some practical constraints on what you can choose. The thing you choose has to be:
- Accessible: You need to be able to read or watch or play the thing again to do this part of the assignment
- Verifiable: The thing you choose needs to be something that any person can look at (not just you)
Here’s an example.
My interest in teaching emerged when I watched Anne of Green Gables as a kid and deepened through an experience in an English class as an undergrad. Anne of Green Gables is a film (media) that I can re-watch now to better understand how and why it made me want to be a teacher. My experiences as a student are more challenging to approach as a source. I didn’t write them down when they were happening. Because they are memories, they are not verifiable. Both things were significant influences, but only one is accessible and verifiable (the film).
Describe your Experience
Describe how you came to experience the thing you’ve chosen and what you remember about the experience. If possible, include who or what introduced you to the thing. Try to remember the year or even the specific time of year. Most importantly, try to put into words the emotions you experienced when you encountered this thing.
Classify your Experience
Now that you’ve described your experience, you’re going to consider whether others have had that same experience. You can reference our glossary of experiences as you do this work. This classification process is a scientific method similar to what biologists use when they work from observations in the field toward taxonomic classification of species. If they observe an organism that hasn’t already been classified, they get to name a new species (after conferring with other scientists, of course). But they might find that what they’ve observed is not a new species (it’s actually just a funny-looking zebra). We’ll discuss new experiences as a class, helping you determine if you’ve found a new experience or found a funny-looking zebra. If the experience you had isn’t in the glossary yet, you can give it a name and add it to our growing list.
Describe the Features Prompting your Experience
Here’s where it becomes important to have access to the thing you’ve chosen as you do this assignment. Return to the thing and try to determine what exactly it was that shaped your experience. This will vary widely because there are so many different things you might choose. If it was a film, was it something about the main character or the plot? If it was a game, was it the reward for reaching a new level? If it was a book, was it the author’s expertise? It might be a combination of features, so include everything! If it’s specific language from the story, include direct quotation in this section. If it is something that can’t be quoted (some aspect of the plot or some feel of the gameplay, for example), put it into your own words with as much detail as possible. Here are examples of direction quotation and paraphrase:
Direct quotation from Frankenstein:
“My rage returned: I remembered that I was for ever deprived of the delights that such beautiful creatures could bestow…I only wonder that at that moment, instead of venting my sensations in exclamations and agony, I did not rush among mankind, and perish in the attempt to destroy them.”
Paraphrase from Frankenstein:
The story is presented from a variety of narrative perspectives: the explorer, Dr. Frankenstein, and his monster.
(Optional) Try to Determine the Rhetorical Strategy That Created the Feature
As you try to figure out which features of the thing you’ve chosen prompted your experience, try also to imagine the rhetorical strategy (or combination of strategies) the author used to create those features. I say imagine because that’s exactly how this sort of analysis works. You probably can’t know exactly what the author(s) did or why they did it (even if they explain it in an interview!) so the trick is to remember that this thing you experienced was created deliberately by someone (or, more likely, a team of people). These people had their own questions, made choices about what sources to cite, and decided to organize information in a particular way. There might have been discussions (even arguments) between authors and editors, screenwriters and directors, or game designers and graphics editors. What set of decisions do you think prompted your experience and who is most likely responsible for it? You can reference our glossary of rhetorical strategies as you do this work.
To Sum Up
Part 1: Draft your post on our course website
- Come up with a creative title
- Set a featured image (this could be your visualization, one of the things you included in it, or something else!)
- Include your visualization (if you feel comfortable sharing)
- Share 1-3 interests that emerged from the visualization exercise
- Decide what thing from your visualization you want to revisit as a source, describe your experience with it, and describe the features prompting your experience (quotation or paraphrase).
Part 2: Expand your post, making sure the finished product includes
- A Title
- A Featured Image
- Your visualization (if you feel comfortable sharing)
- 1-3 interests emerging from your visualization exercise
- Complete examination of one source from your visualization: describe your experience, classify your experience, describe specific features, and (optional) determine the rhetorical strategy prompting your experience.
- A list of works cited (if you cited anything).
- An attribution statement for your featured image (TASL guidance here)
FAQs
- Do I have to share my post with the class? You can choose to share your post with classmates or share it only with me (set your post to private if you only want me to see it).
- Can you share an example of what a finished product is supposed to look like? Yes! You can check out an example post I created.
- Can I use generative AI? The only reason generative AI should show up in this assignment is if generative AI was one of the influences that helped you become you. If you have access to an archived chat, I could imagine thinking carefully about a chat with generative AI for part two of this assignment.
- How will you grade this? This assignment is graded on a pass/fail basis. If you engage with the task and turn in a complete project, you will get 100%. This sort of project is likely new to you, so things will be confusing! Do your best and I will give you feedback so you understand the expectations going forward.
This assignment prompt, “Find your Interests” © 2025 by Mary Isbell, is an adaptation of “Self-Map” by Ryan Crawford, used with the author’s permission. “Find your Interests” is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
