University of British Columbia Birth Control Essay

Part 1: InfographicTask 1: Create a one-page infographic that informs the viewer about the central message and supporting evidence from either Tristan Harris’s
TedTalk OR Sherry Turkle’s TedTalk.
Task 2: Include a short, one paragraph reflection (5-7 sentences) with your infographic (see details below).
Assignment Description: Tristan Harris and Sherry Turkle are coming to Seneca on January 30th, 2022 to give their talks, “How a handful of tech
companies control billions of minds every day” and “Connected, but alone?” in the Seneca Library. You have been hired to make an infographic to
be included on the Seneca website to give students an idea about what Tristan Harris OR Sherry Turkle will be discussing. Your infographic should
visually represent the main idea (thesis) of the talk while attempting to create interest for students who might want to attend. In a one-page
infographic, present the main ideas and supporting ideas from one of the two TedTalks. Along with your infographic, write a brief reflection,
explaining your choices.
Your Purpose: Your purpose is to visually represent the main purpose and supporting ideas of one of the two TedTalks in a way that is clear and
easy to understand. Your infographic should attempt to highlight the central ideas of the talk, while presenting those ideas in a way that creates
interest for students to attend.
Your Audience: Imagine you are creating your infographic to be posted to the Seneca College website. It will be posted on a public setting—online.
It is intended to reach students at the college. This means that it needs to look professional; it needs to be accurate; it needs to be clear; and it
ought to be visually appealing and appropriate in order to connect with students at Seneca. Ask yourself: What would be appealing and appropriate
for you?
Your Genre: Firstly, you are creating something to be shared online. What does this mean? It means that many people could potentially see it
(including Tristan Harris and Sherry Turkle). It also means that how you convey ideas through social media is more flexible. You are not writing an
academic summary here; you are summarizing something to be presented visually. Secondly, you are creating an infographic. While there is a lot of
room for interpretation as to what constitutes an infographic, you should aim to balance your data, text and images. That is, an infographic makes
meaning by relating data, text and images together. A paragraph is just words on a page. A statistic is words and numbers. A picture is an image of
something. In an infographic, you have the advantage of combining all three.
Your Language and Tone: For this assignment, you will need to consider your “visual” language and tone, as well as the language and tone of
your words.
Your infographic should be visually appealing:
•
•
•
•
Easy to follow
Well organized
Have clear relationships between segments (parts of the infographic)
Use an appropriate font size and graphics that are properly sized and well balanced
•
Considers things like spacing, colour, orientation, scale etc.
Essentially, your infographic should be interesting to look at and easy to follow. By its very definition, an infographic attempts to simplify complex
ideas by including visuals and a logical structure.
Identifying main ideas and support ideas: Focus on the TedTalk’s thesis, evidence to support the thesis, and solutions to the problem set out by
the speaker. Ask yourself: Why did he/she say this? To inform? To persuade? To argue? To show? Next, ask: What is the thesis? What is his/her
solution to the problem? By answering these questions, you will be able to narrow down the purpose and main idea of the talk. Lastly, ask: How
does he/she support the thesis? What key supporting points does he/she make in order to prove his/her main ideas? You will need to make a lot of
choices about what not to include in your infographic. By focusing on the above questions, you will be able to decide what a potential audience
member would need to know about the TedTalk.
Creating Your Infographic:
CANVA Video Tutorial:

You will find many graphic design programs online that you can use to create your infographic. I recommend Canva (https://www.canva.com/) because it is free and easy to use. This video gives you a basic tutorial on how to use canva. Even if you decide to go with
another program, this video will give you an idea of the steps involved to create an infographic.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Go to https://www.canva.com/
Create an account (it is free!)
CLICK THAT You are interested in Infographic templates
Begin searching for a template that fits your ideas
Try playing with various fonts/graphics/colours etc
Create an test infographic in order to answer these questions for yourself:
How do I insert text/image/graphics?
How do I change colour, size, font?
How do I import images?
How do I download the file?
Ready to make magic? Go for it!
Other design programs suggested by students include Figma, Piktochart and Sketch.
Rubric for Infographic Assignment:
Title: (2 marks)
The title of your infographic should be a thesis or central message of one of the two TedTalks. Keep it concise and direct. Remember that the title of
your infographic should somehow instruct the viewer on how to understand your infographic. DO NOT SIMPLY USE THE NAME OF THE
TEDTALK AS THE TITLE OF YOUR INFOGRAPHIC!
Info: (4 marks)
Your infographic must inform your audience about four to five supporting ideas or pieces of evidence from the talk. No more than two direct quotes
should be used. Instead, paraphrase the key points about the talk in clear, accessible language for a general audience. You may also want to go
elsewhere to support the ideas in the TedTalk. That is, you may want to find some compelling pieces of data or statistics that help to support the
speaker’s overall thesis. For example, you could find out statistics related to social media consumption; or you could find statistics related to the
number of cell phones people have; or you could find out the number of apps people use in a day. Ask: what compelling evidence, idea, quote,
statistic, chart, map, etc. might help to convey the speaker’s message visually? Secondary sources are permitted as long as you cite where you are
getting the information.
Graphics: (3 marks)
Select and integrate four or more well-selected (appropriate to the content and to a general audience) images to help illustrate your four to five main
ideas. Your images can include:
•
•
a pie chart or graph
a clip-art, illustration or cartoon image
Remember: All images under copyright must be cited using APA at the bottom of the infographic.
Design: (3 marks)
The goal for your infographic is to:
•
•
Present key ideas from the talk in a persuasive way to illustrate the thesis and/or the title of the infographic
Be easy to read and logically organized
References (Include a “Source” line at the bottom): (1 mark)
At the bottom of your infographic, you need to include your sources in proper APA format. This is similar to a Reference page for an essay. The
difference is that in an infographic, it is entitled, “Sources” after which you list all of the sources you used to create the infographic. At the very least
you will need to include the TedTalk information under your sources, but you may also need to include information about any pictures you used that
have copyright restrictions, as well as any secondary sources (other articles, charts, facts, quotes).
One Paragraph Reflection: (2 marks)
As well as the infographic, you are required to submit a brief reflection (one paragraph/150-200 words), answering the following questions:
•
•
•
•
What is the main idea and purpose of the TedTalk?
What were some of the most persuasive aspects of the talk?
How did you communicate the main idea and purpose of the talk in your infographic?
How did you use persuasion in your infographic?