Video Versus Traditional Essay – Yiran Xiao

Traditional essays convey the opinions and perspectives through text which has a plain expression. People reading the essays have different feelings under distinct comprehension toward the text. And sometimes it’s hard to get the ideas the authors intend to tell. Video essays, however, offer solid and telling arguments by the background narration and visual elements. People can immediately understand the purports from the video essays. Furthermore, instead of instilling with a bunch of rigid letters, video essays attract people’s attention and enhance the comprehensive ability.

Because of the qualification the traditional form has, I think I can’t say something that is very emotional because readers find difficult to relate. Most traditional essays are trying to present their thesis and construct the paper in an unbiased and clinical format. Even though authors might express their attitudes from the essays, most are analysis in an academic way. The video “The Marvel Symphonic Universe” gives a really good example. The essay without emotion is like movies without music. The comparisons shown in the video clearly illustrate that music is an essential tool for transmitting the feelings. It not only complements the sentiment bare scenes lack, but also sublimes to a higher level. The music helps the video essay to tell what it wants to tell. But it’s impossible to utilize it in the traditional essays. And back to the format of the video essay and “Instagram Activism”, I think I can connect more with the video than the article because it’s hard to pick up on what the author is trying to say in the article, especially I can’t see some of the pictures or slogans that were mentioned in the context. The video about the Marvel music explains more and offers a visual hit that makes a much clearer and intuitional opinions.