Lavik Response (Video Essays in the Classroom) – Tala Farah

Depending on the class, I definitely think the video essay could replace traditional essays. In fact, I have actually made a video essay in a music class the past fall semester analyzing the music video for Ariana Grande’s “God is a Woman”. In the context of music, especially music video, a video essay allows viewers to see the primary source directly, making it much easier to understand what is being said about the source, as opposed to simply writing about it like in a traditional essays. However, the issues with doing this comes with thinking about how to present other topics beyond music. Some subjects may be too difficult to explain through a video essay and requires more written examples through a traditional essay. Although I do think some video essays can be “legitimate” academic work, which I will define as having high credibility, professional quality, and limited opinions that go beyond what can be gathered directly from the sources, some video essays face not being academic enough as they may not fit the traditional composition. Traditional essays have had their structure down for centuries: an introduction with a thesis, body paragraphs with main points, and a conclusion. The variability of the structure of the video essay and the variety of different sources that can be incorporated can easily lead people to believe that it is not academic. Beyond structure, the tendency of video essays to be more personal, by the creator including footage of themselves, can be taken by viewers to think the essay is highly opinionated and not be held to academic standards.