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Create a Meme Assignment: English 150

Activity Summary:

This activity works well between Assignments 4 and 5 in English 150. Use it to help students bridge the divide between writing about a place and designing text and images about that place.

Instructions:

This activity is perfect for a computer lab day (or any day in a laptop classroom) after students have completed Assignment #4 and before they are full swing into Assignment #5. It serves as a good transition between the two assignments. I personally make this a graded, small assignment ( see grading below ), but you may want to use it as a participation activity. Please click here to download the PowerPoint that you may use to introduce this assignment to your students. Click here for the assignment sheet that I use for this activity.

Theoretical Background

First, here is a little theoretical justification for having students create memes in the classroom (refer to the PowerPoint attached to this activity for what you can tell your students). Although Internet memes may seem silly and not worth serious attention, they do serve an important role in discourse on the Internet. Internet users hesitate when they encounter a wall of text. Even a well-reasoned and well-written argument can be glossed over if the text seems too long and not worth the investment. You may have hesitated to read this section of this activity, for example. A short, pithy response to such texts is “tl;dr”, which stand for “too long; didn’t read.”

Internet memes, specifically image macro or still image with super-imposed text memes, like this activity calls for, provide rhetors on the Internet with a visually engaging device for drawing readers into a discussion. Image macros refer to a prior-existing discourse, much like McGee’s ideograph (1980), and have the power to instantly call on an inside joke and discussion surrounding the image.

This activity asks students to construct such a discussion about their organization (Assignment #3) or artifact (#4) by using an image that they have collected and referring to what they have learned through the research they conducted.

Since your students will have either taken photographs or collected images of their organization (#3) or artifact (#4), they should have a decent selection of pictures to work with for this assignment . Ask students to bring or have access to (such as through Google Drive or CyBox) their Assignment #3 and #4 papers and any other picture files they may want to use.

Use the PowerPoint  to explain

• What a meme is. I’ve found that once I’ve explained the term meme and shown students a few examples, they quickly realize that they’ve seen them all over the Internet before, typically on social media sites. This comes fairly naturally.
• How to create a meme. Although the process is fairly simple, the video below, which is also embedded in the PowerPoint, demonstrates how to do it in Adobe Photoshop, which will help students gain familiarity with a powerful image editing program. Encourage students not to use imgur, createameme, or any of the easy-to-use meme creators on the Internet; these programs detract from the design skills students can otherwise learn through this activity. If I can tell that a student has used one of these simpler tools, I give them a 1 out of 2 for the assignment.
• Ways to come up with a clever or insightful phrase about the organization or artifact. Your students do not have to be funny or witty with this project (though most feel compelled to be anyway). The text they choose to super-impose should be relevant to their topic, however.

After students understand the activity, allow them time in class to create their meme. For those struggling to come up with a clever statement, offer freewriting and other creative thinking ideas. I recommend allowing students a couple of days to complete the assignment outside of class in case they can’t come up with something on the spot. Also consider lecturing on this assignment before your lab day to allow time for students to prepare ideas.

Video Demonstration of Photoshop

The PowerPoint  includes a screencasted video demonstration of creating a meme in Photoshop. You may also watch it or download it here:

After students submit their memes, I tend to go through them quickly and grade them on a two point scale. This becomes part of the student’s participation grade.

0 = Didn’t do it/two class periods late

1 = The text is irrelevant/the student used an easy editor (the name of the service is displayed on the meme)/one class period late

2 = The text is relevant and the meme looks like the student’s own work

If students take the effort to make a meme that was created with an easy online meme generator  look  like it wasn’t, I figure they have at least learned something about image manipulation, which is the point of the assignment. So no, I don’t worry that much about cheating.

Assignment #5

Now students have an image that they can truly call their own. Their memes should work well in a brochure or poster because the text discusses the organization or artifact that the brochure or poster is about. The memes can add some humor, interest, and/or creativity to their documents. Concise visual messages like memes can also serve as a sort of summary statement for a larger document; see the discussion about tl;dr above. Encourage students to use their memes in Assignment #5; however, you may choose to make this optional. (Some students may not be satisfied with how their memes turned out, for instance.) Also encourage students to include their meme with their -OVE artifacts in their portfolios.

Thank you for taking the time to read through and consider using this activity. Since this all comes out of and is part of my dissertation project, I am happy to consult with you about it. Please email me at [email protected] if you have any questions about this assignment, and I’m happy to consult with you further on using this fun and engaging activity in your classroom.

Related Content:

Kittens as Grammar Lessons

This activity will help students with visual analysis by teaching them how to find identify appeals to pathos.

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Creating and Using Memes in Your Classroom

Who would have thought that memes—those images, videos, and pieces of text that are copied, often modified, and spread via internet—have roots in ancient Greek? The term ‘meme’ was introduced in 1976 by British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, in his work The Selfish Gene, and it comes from the Greek mimema , meaning ‘imitated.’ 1

Today, memes are a vehicle used to express commentary on a phenomenon or a relatable event. They’re typically shared on social media to capture attention or get a laugh. As numerous blog posts reflect, educators are using them in class and, in the case of Sharon Serano, receiving them in good fun from family members. As Sharon prepped lesson plans one night, her 14-year-old son made this meme for her:

Sharon is one of many educators who have found that memes can be effective teaching tools, whether they’re created for students or by them. 2 Read on to explore ways to create and use classroom memes.

Meme Creation

A basic meme shows an image and text; more involved ones include animation, audio, or video. These elements can be original, duplicated, or modified. Many meme elements are based on or lifted from culturally familiar sources, such as Sharon Serano’s Star Trek: The Next Generation -inspired gift from her son.

The internet is replete with meme-creation tools, including apps that your students may already have on their phones. Most are free, but some charge small fees and some allow users access to adult content, so choose carefully before assigning creation tasks.

Each creation tool walks you through a few simple meme-making steps. Every site is unique, but the typical steps are these:

• Choose your meme’s size and orientation (portrait or landscape).
• Choose from preset templates and icons or design your own from scratch.
• Choose or upload the images, photos, and/or artwork you’d like to include.
• Add your text, choosing the text font you prefer.
• Customize the background and color scheme as you like.
• Save your work! Download and save it as a PNG, JPG, or GIF file.
• Always share—via email, text message, social media, or through your classroom file-sharing system.

Memes for Students

Memes quickly communicate information on any subject—often with humor, which can make the shared facts more memorable. Consider this excerpt from The Lord of the Rings …

… adapted to reinforce a class rule:

Beyoncé can help you get a point across …

… as can a baby’s photo:

Think of educational messages you can deliver in this concise, humorous way:

Memes by Students

A quick internet search will yield countless school-related memes, including many submitted as homework assignments. Before issuing a meme-creation assignment, teach a lesson on memes. Go over their key elements and offer some common examples. Most of your students are familiar with them, but your introduction will help level the playing field for your class.

Activities and learning objectives will vary by class, subject, and grade level, of course. As an example, consider the specifics of a meme project that challenged students to demonstrate their understanding of irony: 3

Object Use this activity for a unit learning about irony through a given novel—in this case, William Golding’s Lord of the Flies . Faculty sought a creative assessment tool that a) differed from previous assessment tools, and b) would be enjoyable for the students to use.

Tasks In addition to creating a meme, students were expected to include a supporting paragraph detailing the type of irony the meme conveyed and explaining why they chose the image that they did. In writing this paragraph, they practiced their writing and grammar skills.

Pedagogy To create this product and an effective message within it, students had to choose imagery and text carefully. Doing so using an online tool demonstrated their knowledge of technology and technological content .

As memes tend to include very few words, a meme that successfully conveys a message must use strong, highly descriptive language. Students were called upon to think critically about their word choices, which supports word study and improves vocabularies.

Inclusion Meme creation uses but does not require a computer and internet access. Options for this activity enabled learners with varied degrees of technological access to complete it.

• Students could draw their memes by hand, keeping in mind the elements of a meme and ensuring that their final product contained them
• If students had access to a computer but not to the internet, they could use a program such as Microsoft Paint or PowerPoint to create a meme

Evidence of Learning Outcomes Faculty assessed the students’ memes based on the level of sophistication in their use of irony and its connection to Lord of the Flies .

The supporting paragraph helped faculty assess:

• Comprehension of the type of irony chosen
• Written communication skill regarding the rationale for each selected image

Response Students were extremely motivated to come up with creative ideas for their memes and complete the assignment because it incorporated a type of social media that they were used to seeing outside of the classroom.

“I was shocked and impressed at how keen and willing the students were to complete this assignment,” concluded their teacher. “It made me excited to continue to explore new and innovative ways to use technology and relevant social media … to connect with and motivate all students.”

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7 Creative and Smart Ways to Use Memes in the Classroom

Use the power of pop culture to promote learning in your classroom.

Humor (well, appropriate humor!) in the classroom is always a great idea. That’s why memes are such a fun and engaging tool to promote learning. They’re a fun and easy way to capture students’ attention and can be used for assignments as an alternative outlet for creative expression.

Creating memes is a fairly simple process. Here are a few tools you can use: Livememe ,  Quickmeme, Meme Generator and AutoMotivator . (A word of caution: These sites have images preloaded that may not be appropriate for your grade level. Be sure to check them out before you let your students loose.) 

Also, sometimes memes cross the line from hilarious to snarky and irreverent in a quick beat. If you choose to assign your students meme creation as a class assignment, be sure to make your expectations clear from the get-go. For example, no foul language, no sexual references, no (implied) cultural insensitivity.

Here are seven ways to engage your students with memes in the classroom.

1. To reinforce class rules and policies

Using humor to remind students of classroom rules is more effective and less threatening than constant verbal reminders. And wouldn’t you rather get your point across with a chuckle than an eye roll and a huffy breath? 

2. To illustrate grammar rules

Combine grammar rules with funny images to help students remember them better. 

3. To build vocabulary

Let your students have a crack at illustrating words on their vocabulary list with memes. It allows for much more creative thinking. Students will have to understand the word fully before they can match it to an image. Also, memes are much less boring than your standard vocabulary worksheet.  

4. To respond to literature.  

Assign students to small groups and have each group create a meme to summarize a section of the class novel (or a set of chapters from the class novel). 

Here’s how one teacher used memes for an assignment when her students were reading   Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

5. To introduce concepts and units with humor

Engage your students in a topic before you even begin by creating and displaying an intriguing meme to catch their attention as they walk into the classroom.

6. To respond to historical events

Make history lessons relevant by putting a modern twist on your students’ method of expression. Click on the link above to read more about “the power that memes have to foster storytellers and connect students with experiences and individuals from the past.”

7. To lighten up your math class

Most students would be hard-pressed to find the humor in mathematics, but memes lighten up the topic and put students in a creative frame of mind to find solutions. 

For more ideas about using memes in the classroom, check out ISTE’s 5 Ways to Use Memes with Students.  

What is your favorite way to use memes in the classroom? Come share in our WeAreTeachers Helpline group on Facebook.

Also, check out How I Use Instagram in High School Language Arts . 

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Make a Meme Lesson Plan

During my summer vacation I learned what a meme was.

A humorous image, video, piece of text, etc. that is copied (often with slight variations) and spread rapidly by Internet users. Get 5 Short Story Lesson Plans Now! We specialize in teacher-ready lesson plans. Thank you for subscribing. Something went wrong. I will never give away, trade or sell your email address. You can unsubscribe at any time.

They seem to be all the rage so why not learn how to make one.

This took me less than a minute to make. If you click on the picture, you’ll get a clearer view. I might even be naked. ( Spoiler Alert : I’m not)

Better yet, turn it in to a lesson plan with these standards.

• RL.9-10.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
• L.9-10.2   Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
• L.9-10.3 Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts
• W.9-10.6 Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technology’s capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically.
• Read something, preferably something literary.
• Teach students how to make a meme.
• Instruct students to make a meme utilizing theme, characterization, symbolism, imagery, or any other elements of literature involving the aforementioned literary selection you’ve read.

Make a meme with Powerpoint.

There are actual meme-making apps you can find online. Feel free to find one and make your memes that way. I’ve discovered through trial and error that Powerpoint is the easiest application for making memes. Here’s how.

• Insert a text box over the aforementioned image.
• If the image takes up the entire slide, press <ctrl> + <a>.
• If the image does not take up the entire slide, left click the mouse and highlight the area you want to copy.
• Once your soon to be meme is highlighted, right click your mouse.
• You’ll see a list of options. The option you want is <save as picture>
• Save the picture to your preferred location.
• The picture will automatically save as a png file. If you prefer to save it as a jpeg file, do so when you save it. If you don’t know what any of that means, don’t worry.

The easiest way to assess these is to have students email the meme to you or bring it in on a flash drive. You don’t really need a rubric, but be sure to state the specific qualifications for the assignment.

• Picture (10 pts) . The picture must be related to the literary work just read. It must be clear and school appropriate. It must show the full item (no cut-off portions unless that’s the artistic intent of the meme) Any image subject to copyright must be cited correctly in a separate document.
• The Writing (10 pts) . The phrase must creatively relate the picture to an element of literature present in the story. It must adhere strictly to high standards of language, usage, and grammar. The writing must be easy to read.

Here’s an example. This one took me two minutes because I had to find an image from Romeo and Juliet that wasn’t copyrighted.

Last Updated on December 24, 2015 by Trenton Lorcher

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Chapter 6: 21st-century media and issues

6.4.4 Messages through memes (research essay)

Alexander Caldwell

English 102, April 2021

The simple fact is that humans are social animals. With that in mind, anything social should be studied and learned about to ensure that humanity has an understanding of itself. Memes, without question, play a role in modern society and will likely do so for some time to come. While it is difficult trying to turn a topic that is not serious at all into an academic study, I find it most rewarding to know more about those short and humorous texts or videos. Memes make many people, I included, share a laugh and can be enjoyed by almost everyone.

Understanding A Meme

To get a closer look at memes, I decided to conduct a survey. The survey asked three questions. The first question, “What is your favorite meme?” Each respondent had a different favorite meme. Some of the memes were more popular, like doge memes, others were lesser-known. In theory, this question was not needed. Memes are memes regardless of how one likes or dislikes them. The real purpose of this question was to give clarity to the respondent. This question allowed the respondent to think more specifically about one meme. This is important for the next question that was asked. The next question intended to find out why memes are funny but asking that question directly would be too vague. By adding the previous question about what meme they favored, the participants could go into detail and have context for what meme they favor and would like to describe. That brings the next question where the survey asked, “What do you think makes this meme funny to you?” This question was what I was truly trying to get at. This question helps the understanding of why people enjoy memes in the first place. Many results came for this question, all interesting none the least. One of the respondents replied, “It’s straight to the point and the text catches you off guard” in reference to the “Mom I threw up” meme. This shows that the respondent enjoys the element of surprise and the simplicity of the meme. This respondent was not the only one who likes memes due to surprise. Others also answered in a similar fashion stating, “The randomness of it.” Another respondent answered this question in a different manner. Their meme is related to a popular figure, like Burnie Sander memes or Kermit the Frog memes. These responses followed the lines of liking the meme because they like the image or the entity that was in the meme. The final noticeable response was related to dark humor. The respondent answered, “It makes fun of something damn near cringeworthy out of people who like being “Positive” … in a way which is dank… It hits a lot of the checkmarks all in one package.” This type of response shows that dark humor reaches the viewer by making fun of ordinary objects in life and turns them into something that contradicts the original object. This information says that while people enjoy memes for different reasons, memes are successful at humor because of their relatability and their unexpected nature. The last question I asked was how people share or find memes. These responses were to be expected, many find them online and through social media. Popular platforms include Discord, Instagram, Twitter, through text messaging. With that in mind, memes appear to have a part in modern-day social life as they are a part of humor, social media, and texting.

While a survey is an adequate way of getting close to the understanding of what a meme is, a rhetorical analysis of a meme might also help introduce some perspective on what a meme is. The meme I choose for the analysis is one selected from one of the respondents’ responses and can be seen as posted on Reddit . This meme appears to have first been posted on Reddit in 2019, under the community of “me_irl,” which means ‘me in real life.’ The meme is by no means formal writing and was posted on Reddit to share a piece of humor created by the author. Therefore, the audience of the meme is others online, in particular, people on Reddit. The author appears to relate to the audience by stating that they were up late and wanted something to eat. It uses a sort of shadow-demon to relate to what would normally just be a human eating a late-night snack. This invokes humor because it creates emotion for an unexpected connection between the shadow demons and the consumption of beans. What makes the image even funnier is the blur and the laser-red eyes. This adds humor because it makes the image look as if it is out of a horror film. Yet, the topic at hand is only about eating beans contradicting the horror-movie-like setup. This analysis lightly suggests there are more to memes than one might initially think. It is clear that the creators of memes can relate to their audience and can invoke emotions by using memes. This leads to the need to understand what memes can be used for outside the limits of just entertainment.

One final aspect that is important to observe memes is finding out where memes come from. As the survey suggests, memes appear to be shared throughout social networks quite a bit. This still leaves the answer of where they originate from unknown. Luckily, an organization by the name of Emerging Technology, from arXiv, is capable of answering this question in their article “This Is Where Internet Memes Come From.” The study found out that a large sum of memes is being actively created in 4chan communities. The study suggests that these communities are mass-producing memes, many of which are politically charged. This goal was accomplished by sifting through millions of memes and tracking their origins (Emerging Technology). Knowing where the majority of memes come from can be handy. To elaborate, in my survey, not a single person mentioned that they used 4chan as a meme source. While it is possible that people withheld information, I do not think it is likely. Rather, it could suggest that if 4chan is in fact a major meme producer, social media plays as a powerful tool for disseminating memes. Furthermore, it could be implying that the typical meme off of a social media other than 4chan has been copied over from one platform to another.

Memes Used in the Real World

In the world at large, memes are beginning to be realized as an affluent force in human society. With that said, it is not hard to realize that memes are being used for different purposes, one of the areas in specific is advertising and marketing. In the article “We “Meme” Business: Exploring Malaysian Youths’ Interpretation of Internet Memes In Social Media Marketing” authors Kee-Man Chuah et. al. surveyed with the intent to help the marketing world. The survey was composed of fifty Malaysian youths. The goal of the survey was to get an understanding of what the youths would understand and consider funny. The results showed that memes with shorter text and text more related to the image of the meme were more understood. Chuah describes this relationship between the meme and the individual’s understanding as “iconicity” (932-941). Iconicity plays an important role in marketing as the more iconicity a meme has, the better off the meme will be at achieving the business’s goal for product awareness. The next step then would be to find out if memes can actually be used for marketing. Fortunately, in Harshit Sharma’s “Memes in Digital Culture and Their Role in Marketing and Communication: A Study in India” the answer is found. Sharma looks at a few examples. One example is where a business generates a meme for their products, and another is where the public generates memes on their own which gives the product publicity. Sharma first alludes to an old spice commercial. The commercial involved a short, quick-pasted, humorous scene with football celebrity Isaiah Mustafa. This commercial acted as a meme and was even spread like a meme, going through a multitude of social media. In short, Old Spice’s commercial meme was a success, boosting sales to 207 percent (305). It goes without saying that the meme generated by Old Spice must have had a high iconicity, which explains its success. The other use of memes the article goes over is public-generated memes. This example examines the two Indian drink brands that are complements to each other, Thumbs Up, a cola, and Old Monk, a rum. The situation proceeded when the inventor of Old Monk died. An image of a glass half empty started to circulate on social media with the text “This glass is half empty” (Sharma 312). An example of this image can be seen here . This publicly generated meme offered both products free advertising and publicity that undoubtedly helped the companies in the long run. From here, I must allude to the fact that marketing is nothing but the effective and clever use of communication to convince a consumer to buy a product. This hints at a greater picture of what memes are.

Another, even more, noticeable than ever, use of memes is in politics. It is quite obvious that memes are a part of modern politics, but it still begs the question of how memes are used in politics and what memes mean to the realm of political engagement. As it turns out, Vera Zakem’s et. al. article “Exploring the utility of memes for US government influence campaigns” has a few comments to share on the matter. Zakem writes that politicians have three primary uses for memes, to inoculate, to infect, and to treat. Inoculate refers to the action of sharing memes that try to convince the audience to have a lighter judgment on an issue that negatively affects a politician. Infect is the spreading of memes that support a politician’s ideas. Treat is the category that describes memes that try to rebuttal any negative information that is against a politician (15-16). While appearing to relate to a disease, the actual relationship memes seem to have is a tie to communicating to the audience. Politicians can use memes to advance or defend what they stand for. Zakem then provides an example of infection and treatment via memes as seen in figure 3. The article goes over a situation where a United States ambassador in Russia was accused, falsely, of attending a political movement that would negatively impact the ambassador. This was the infection. The embassy responded with a meme that inoculated the situation, thereby treating it. The meme used the same image the accuser used, and re-photodoped the ambassador in different places, including the moon (4-5). The situation itself is humorous, but it only goes to show the power memes hold. For the ambassador’s case, memes proved to be a useful tool for publicly defending his reputation. See this website for examples of the memes.

Continuing with the relationship between memes and politics, it is quite obvious that younger generations are taking part in political memes. Emma Axelrod agrees with this statement in her article “The Role of Memes in Politics.” Axelrod then adds that people are starting to view politics more like sports teams. These teams are then influenced by memes. The example that she brings up, among others, is the meme about Ted Cruz being the zodiac killer (Axelrod). Despite the fact that Cruz was not actually a zodiac killer of any kind, a negative demagogue formed around him. During this time, circa the 2016 election, even I noticed the zodiac killer memes and could not help but connect Cruz to those memes. Denying the power memes have over politics is futile. However, this is all the more reason to study political memes and their effects on people. Fortunately, the insight needed for looking deeper into political memes is provided by Heidi E. Huntington’s “Affect and effect of Internet memes: assessing perceptions and influence of online user-generated political discourse as media.” The article by Huntington follows a study on how political and non-political memes influence an individual. The political memes were generally found to be easily identifiable by the subject. The subjects viewed these memes as a vehicle for political stances rather than simple jokes. In response to this, if the meme did not follow their political ideology, it was contested by the viewer. In other words, the memes that were identified as political fail to bring in understanding, rather they brought adversity from the viewers (Huntington 186-187). This statement implies heavily that political memes share a message, a message that will be rejected by viewers of a different opinion. The study also talks about what happens to non-political memes as well. As it turns out, memes that appear to be non-political have an easier time persuading the viewer. This is in spite of the fact that people only saw these memes as jokes and not actual arguments (Huntington iii). Huntington’s research hints that people are able to interpret and respond to a meme. The implications here are that while political memes do not always achieve their goal, they are still able to elicit a response. Interestingly enough, non-political memes seem to hold a coinciding power, only in the case of non-political memes, people do not reject the message being sent.

Memes’ Meaning to Human Communication

It is clear now that memes have many different purposes. Memes play a role in politics, business, and general entertainment. A linking trait between all three topics is that memes seem to serve as a sort of medium for communication. One might even be so bold as to conclude that memes and communication have direct relevance to one another. Think about it, memes are capable of sending a variety of messages for their viewers, whether it’s to advocate a politician, products, or simply to share a laugh. For these reasons, I believe it is safe to say that memes play a role in human communication.

To understand what memes have to do with communication, it is crucial to understand the original definition of a meme. As it turns out, the term “meme” did not start as a reference to internet jokes and humorous comments. In James Gleick’s “What Defines a Meme?” the term meme was crafted by a man named Richard Dawkins in the year 1986. Dawkin’s definition of a meme was an idea, behavior, or culture and its ability to spread through people. These memes are comparable to genetics and can even evolve. Dawkin’s memes also have the ability to latch on to physical items as well. An example that Gleick uses is the hula hoop. In the late fifties, the hula hoop became popular. While the hula hoop was not a meme itself, it was an object that was used by the meme. Therefore, a meme’s survival is dependent on the success of the object the meme is associated with (Gleick). With that in mind, Dawkin’s memes are not really all that different from the modern understanding of a meme. It is logical to conclude that modern memes fall under Dawkin’s definition of meme. This makes sense since internet memes are humorous ideas and messages that get spread throughout the wide web. Internet memes also evolve and change with current events. As funny as it sounds, memes can be considered to be one of Dawkin’s memes. A final note on Dawkin’s meme can be found in “Memes as Speech Acts,” by L. Grundlingh. The term for Dawkin’s meme comes from the Greek word “mīmēma” which translated to “something imitated” (Grundlingh 147). This can, again, be tied into memes as memes are shared, copied, and remade all the time. Grundlingh continues by then adding the idea of semiotics. Semiotics is defined in Grundlingh’s article by T. A. Sebeok “Signs: An Introduction to Semiotics” as being an apparent link between nonverbal and verbal communication (qtd. 148). Memes share verbal and nonverbal pieces of the semiotic definition. This is noteworthy because semiotics describes or categorizes how memes communicate. Grundlingh even presses so far as to say that memes are a speech act, the communication, and understanding between two people (148). This makes sense knowing full-well that memes can advocate politicians, advertise products, and share humor with other people. Another approach to tying memes in with communication is the notion that memes are basically a language of their own. Patrick Davison wrote about this idea in his article “The Language of Internet Memes.” Memes, like any language, follow a set of formulas and branch out similar to how a language has accents and slang. The overarching meme is what is called an image macro. Variants and remakes of this meme are then called submemes (Davison 127). Anyone that has indulged themself with memes before can understand the comparisons that are being made. Davison’s comparison was ideal for introducing the concept that memes supplement as a language of their own. In the article by Opspe titled “Memetic Communication” the author explains how memes can be used in place of verbal communication. The writer elaborates with the idea that people send each other gifs, images, or videos. The content is usually considered a meme by nature and can be understood by the recipient of the meme. The author refers to these texts as reaction images (Opspe). This makes sense, I personally, have also used memes to express my thoughts and feelings. An example of this is the “sector is clear” meme as shown in figure 4.

This meme came from a Star War video game and implied that everything is calm, for the moment. This meme also implies another message. It also implies that this calm might be very temporary as the next text plane usually continues with the clone trooper say “not clear, not clear” with sparks flying in the background. I have no doubt that others have also shared a meme in place of text or verbal words. Going back to the article, the author also makes reference to words, mainly slang, that have their origin thanks to memes. The author references 4chan and other meme-based social media as a source of many slang terms like “lol” “derp” and “yolo.” These slang terms were created due to their close relationship with memes (Opspe). It is quite clear that memes are a part of communication and in some cases even play as a medium of communication.

Personal Experience With Memes

Memes are an item produced by the public and for the public, mostly that is. I have seen many opinions shared through my experience through memes. I have even gone to lengths to make my own opinion through the use of memes once or twice. I, like many others my age, became something of a meme connoisseur. The effect I believe memes had on me was that I slowly became more apathetic to politics. The issue that I noticed with political memes was that they created something of a demagogue. They seem to create a mentality of “my political candidate is pure, and the other candidate is literally Hitler or a witch.” I came to this conclusion on my own years before reading about how Axelrod’s finding in “The Role of Memes in Politics” which basically described a similar scenario. For that reason, I nowadays only try to use memes for general entertainment. Another purpose that I personally use memes for is to keep up to date with current events. While trying to abstain from the political realm, I find that memes can be quite enlightening for current events in science, economics, and society as a whole. My favorite example of this is the black hole memes that were produced in light of the first live image of a black hole. Another, more recent, example is the Suez Canal memes. Regardless of where memes venture to talk about, I will continue to enjoy them.

Concluding Statements

It is a matter of fact that memes are a part of communication at large. With that said noting how humanity uses memes should be important. The power in memes can be seen in a multitude of areas including and not limited to politics, advertising, and general entertainment. Memes can be used against people and can harm just as easily as they can be used to share a laugh. For that reason, when one shares a meme, they should be conscious of what they are actually communicating by posting the meme. Some will be eager to judge other’s memes, and some turn a blind eye to ill-willed memes. I say, for the best or worse, let memes be memes. In the end, humans are social animals and memes are just another form of human communication.

Works Cited

Axelrod, Emma. “The Role of Memes in Politics.” Brown Political Review, 20 Mar. 2016, brownpoliticalreview.org/2016/03/role-memes-politics/.

Caldwell, Alexander W. “Meme Survey for College Writing.” Google Forms, Mar. 2021, https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1xU3q6dkuZWweZAr7LT-pUA-v8-lqpvQMJv7vzt-to8E/edit#question=2144072070&field=1932620711.

Chuah, Kee-Man, Yumni Musfirah Kahar, and Looi-Chin Ch’ng. “We “Meme” Business: Exploring Malaysian Youths’interpretation Of Internet Memes In Social Media Marketing.” International Journal of Business and Society , Vol. 21 No. 2, 2020. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kee-Man-Chuah/publication/343098924_We_meme_business_Exploring_Malaysian_Youths%27_Interpretation_of_Internet_Memes_in_Social_Media_Marketing/links/5f16abec92851cd5fa39b280/We-meme-business-Exploring-Malaysian-Youths-Interpretation-of-Internet-Memes-in-Social-Media-Marketing.pdf.

Davison, Patrick. “The Language of Internet Memes.” The Social Media Reader , edited by Michael Mandiberg, New York University Press, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central , https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.proxy.ulib.csuohio.edu/lib/clevelandstate-ebooks/detail.action?docID=865738.

EA Star Wars. “Star Wars Battlefront II: Official Gameplay Trailer” YouTube, 10 Jun. 2017. https://youtu.be/_q51LZ2HpbE

Emerging Technology from the arXiv. “This Is Where Internet Memes Come From.” MIT Technology Review, MIT Technology Review, 11 June 2018, www.technologyreview.com/2018/06/11/142394/this-is-where-internet-memes-come-from/.

Gleick, James. “What Defines a Meme?.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, May 2011, www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/what-defines-a-meme-1904778/.

Grundlingh, L. “Memes as Speech Acts.” Social Semiotics , vol. 28, no. 2, Apr. 2018, pp. 147–168. EBSCOhost , doi:10.1080/10350330.2017.1303020.

Huntington, Heidi E. “Affect and effect of Internet memes: assessing perceptions and influence of online user-generated political discourse as media,” Colorado State University, 2017.https://mountainscholar.org/bitstream/handle/10217/183936/Huntington_colostate_0053A_14303.pdf.

Opspe. “Memetic Communication.” Know Your Meme, 5 March 2013, knowyourmeme.com/memes/memetic-communication.

Sharma, Harshit. “Memes in Digital Culture and Their Role in Marketing and Communication: A Study in India.” Interactions: Studies in Communication & Culture , vol. 9, no. 3, Nov. 2018, pp. 303–318. EBSCOhost , doi:10.1386/iscc.9.3.303_1.

Srivastawa, Vandana “Twitter User Pays Fitting Tribute Through Picture to Kapil Mohan, the Creator of Old Monk, Takes Jibe at Thums Up.” 10 Jan. 2018. https://www.india.com/viral/twitter-user-pays-fitting-tribute-through-picture-to-kapil-mohan-the-creator-of-old-monk-takes-jibe-at-thums-up-2837691/.

Zakem, Vera, Megan K. McBride, and Kate Hammerberg. “Exploring the utility of memes for US government influence campaigns.” Center for Naval Analyses Arlington United States, 2018. https://www.cna.org/cna_files/pdf/DRM-2018-U-017433-Final.pdf.

ZestfulHydra. “me irl.” Reddit, Apr. 2019. https://www.reddit.com/r/me_irl/comments/bgjrj8/me_irl/.

Understanding Literacy in Our Lives by Alexander Caldwell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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To pratice creating and breaking down enthymemes, I had students create memes (about anything), break down the stated and unstated premises and ultimately, come to a conclusion as to the meme's argument.

If not in a technology-based classroom, then having students bring laptops to class or having them do this at home (after modeling it and providing examples) would also work.

I usually take about 30 minutes for this, including time for us to break down enthy/memes (ex. Hipster Little Mermaid) together. You should have gone over enthymemes in a previous lesson and reviewed them before doing the assignment. I used this assignment in a unit focusing on rhetorical analysis, allowing students to both create and break down enthy/memes. You could also just let students break down the enthy/memes. After we break down the examples, I give students suggested memes and meme-generating websites to use (memegenerator.net or imgur.com/memegen but you can google "meme generator" and find many others). Then they are given about 20 minutes to make the meme, break down its stated and unstated premises and then post it to Discussion Board or some other class forum for student and instructor feedback.

Find a few memes that you think are current enough to use as "enthy/meme" examples. You can use joke ones that are steeped more in cultural knowledge rather than direct argument (ex. All Your Base) to begin with but also be sure to use ones that are making more nuanced arguments. Create exemplars for them to view which show what kind of structure you want them to use when breaking down their enthymeme. Have these available on a class website or other source. Be sure to scout out some meme generator sites and give them to students so that they don't waste time trying to pick one out.

Students wil break down your example "enthy/memes" as a whole group exercise, and if desired (though this would make the activity longer), in small group settings. Once they have seen a few exemplars, they will go to a meme-generator site, create their own meme and then break down the premises (stated and unstated) in their meme along with the main argument of the meme. They will then post this to an on-line class forum for feedback. I usually give students 20 minutes to do this and if some students are very creative, I encourage them to do more than one. I have also done this in pairs, in case students are afraid that they can't come up with something good enough on their own in the time given.

I often grade this as a participation grade or as a grade for homework. This should not be a major grade and can even be just an informal assessment. However, I highly suggest having students view and comment on other classmates' work and also for the instructor to leave feedback which focuses on how well they broke down the premises of the enthy/meme.

Overall, this has been a popular lesson and one that some of my colleagues have taken up in their classes as well. It's important to let students know that you aren't grading them on cleverness but rather on the ability to make and break down an argument by enthymeme. Some students feel flustered and think there isn't enough time, or get bogged down in making a "great" enthymeme, so you can choose to give more time or to give students who do not have a polished product in class a chance to turn it in by a certain time in the evening as homework as to alleviate that stress. However, students have loved the chance to be creative and that they get to play with something that they are very familiar with. I think it helps them re-think the meme as something a bit more complex. As a teacher who finds teaching logos so hard, it helped me feel more comfortable as well as it helped to make the enthymeme more tangible.

Here is another exemplar meme created by my students. As you can see, this can allow for deeper analysis of issues like race, sex, class, sexuality, disability, etc. You could even use this as an exemplar in class and break down the stated and unstated premises (and how it works to subvery them) as a class to see how memes can be thought-provoking as well.

Successful Black Man.jpg

I assigned this in a RHE 309K class, which is a class just a step above the introductory writing course. Many students who tested out of the introductory RHE 306 take this class as well as others who are required to take it by the school or major they are pursuing. This class is still focused on writing but centers around a particular topic/controversy in order to teach those skills.

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Date created: 2022-03-30 08:46 PM | Last Updated: 2023-09-06 07:35 PM

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Description: For those interested in adapting and using this assignment, here are instructions for a scientific meme project used in an undergraduate psychology course. Students created memes to dispel commonly-held cognitive neuromyths. The assignment was modeled after Riser et al. (2020). Sample memes in the handout were used with student permission.

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Making Memes

The Meme Assignment was developed by Dr. Shawna Brandle for her American Goverment class at Kingsborough Community College. The assignment was included and referenced in the 2022 Transformative Learning in the Humanities Project titled, Writing the World by Shawna Mary Brandle, Katherine Culkin, Dino Sossi, and Yan Yang.

The meme assignment “requires students to create a meme that relates to the class, then write a short essay explaining the meme, using at least one in-text citation of their course readings (or another scholarly source). The assignment sheet includes a rubric to aid in their self-grading assessment as well as detailed instructions for how to write a self-grading assessment as it is the first time in the class they are being asked to write one. Many students choose this assignment, and they do excellent work. Embedded in the assignment are several important learning skills, but they are packaged in a very accessible way. Once a student has made a meme, it is easier to explain what they made as they have a reference- this helps give structure to their essay, which otherwise might be an overwhelming task for the first few weeks of the semester. In needing to use only one citation, students can get comfortable with the purpose and mechanics of citation, without getting completely overwhelmed. Students can see and learn from each others’ memes, and many of the memes are so funny and apt that [Dr. Brandle] request[s] permission to include them in the slides [Dr. Brandle] use[s] for class.”

To read more about Dr. Brandle’s “Choose your Own Adventure” American Government Syllabus and the Meme Assignment, view the Writing the World Text on Manifold: https://cuny.manifoldapp.org/read/writing-the-world-one-student-at-a-time/section/24c3c0c2-0d67-4594-8792-d8d74c965f49

Courses : Multidisciplinary; originally developed for American Government

Author: Shawna Brandle

To download the Meme Assignment please visit and explore the Writing the World text and resource on Manifold: https://cuny.manifoldapp.org/read/writing-the-world-one-student-at-a-time/section/24c3c0c2-0d67-4594-8792-d8d74c965f49

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MEME: Motivating Engagement using Meme Examples

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T1 - MEME: Motivating Engagement using Meme Examples

AU - Byosiere, Sarah-Elizabeth

AU - Blackwell, Emily-Jayne

AU - Gordon, Miriam

AU - Ventura, Beth

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Y1 - 2021/8/31

N2 - As younger generations enter the classroom, educators can develop (or adapt) assignments that engage students’ technological skill sets (Scardina 2017, Mendez-Reguera and Cabrera 2020). One example of this is the use of a meme assignment (Wells 2018, Paul 2020, Mendez-Reguera and Cabrera 2020).The assignments presented in this article bring together the perspectives of four animal behavior instructors, each of whom designed and implemented a meme assignment within their virtual classrooms in 2020. The instructors used Twitter as a means to engage with one another and obtain tips and suggestions for their respective meme assignment instructions. While each course varied in terms of course content, the meme assignment satisfied specific learning objectives. These included: 1) understanding and synthesizing complex content, 2) identifying and distilling content into a key point, and 3) translating and communicating this content in an engaging way. Tying together these objectives into a relatively simple and quick meme assessment not only facilitated student learning but also aided instructor evaluation of material comprehension, while adding novelty and fun into the (virtual) classroom.Below we present information regarding the type of class, the assignment instructions, the method of grading, and tools used to deliver the meme assignments. Specifically, we hope to provide clarification as to how meme assignments can be employed as well as highlight potential variations in using this assessment. We conclude by presenting our collective tips for refining the assignment as well as example student memes and feedback received.

AB - As younger generations enter the classroom, educators can develop (or adapt) assignments that engage students’ technological skill sets (Scardina 2017, Mendez-Reguera and Cabrera 2020). One example of this is the use of a meme assignment (Wells 2018, Paul 2020, Mendez-Reguera and Cabrera 2020).The assignments presented in this article bring together the perspectives of four animal behavior instructors, each of whom designed and implemented a meme assignment within their virtual classrooms in 2020. The instructors used Twitter as a means to engage with one another and obtain tips and suggestions for their respective meme assignment instructions. While each course varied in terms of course content, the meme assignment satisfied specific learning objectives. These included: 1) understanding and synthesizing complex content, 2) identifying and distilling content into a key point, and 3) translating and communicating this content in an engaging way. Tying together these objectives into a relatively simple and quick meme assessment not only facilitated student learning but also aided instructor evaluation of material comprehension, while adding novelty and fun into the (virtual) classroom.Below we present information regarding the type of class, the assignment instructions, the method of grading, and tools used to deliver the meme assignments. Specifically, we hope to provide clarification as to how meme assignments can be employed as well as highlight potential variations in using this assessment. We conclude by presenting our collective tips for refining the assignment as well as example student memes and feedback received.

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How to Make a Meme

Last Updated: April 23, 2024 Fact Checked

Understanding Memes

Creating a meme.

This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Travis Boylls . Travis Boylls is a Technology Writer and Editor for wikiHow. Travis has experience writing technology-related articles, providing software customer service, and in graphic design. He specializes in Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and Linux platforms. He studied graphic design at Pikes Peak Community College. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 968,329 times. Learn more...

In 1976, biologist Richard Dawkins defined the term "mimeme" (or "meme" for short) as a unit of cultural transmission. [1] X Research source It is defined as a concept, idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture. On the internet, this usually comes in the form of an image or video with a humorous caption that spreads throughout social media. Internet memes come in a variety of different styles. This wikiHow teaches you how to make a basic internet meme.

• Traditional: memes are the typical memes you see circulating on social media. They usually contain highly recognizable images, such as a scene from a movie, a celebrity, images of cats, or a viral image. They often comment on the latest trends and current events.
• Dank: memes involve absurd or out-of-context humor. Dank memes often try to parody traditional memes by applying them in absurd new ways. They often target memes that are going out of style or dying.
• Edgy: Edgy memes involve dark humor that is meant to shock people and push social norms.
• Wholesome: Wholesome memes are less humorous and contain a positive and uplifting message.

• One example of meme humor is the influx of memes regarding Harambe the gorilla after he was killed by Cincinnati Zoo staff in order to save a child who fell into the enclosure. These memes used sarcasm to mock the way animal lovers reacted to the death of the endangered gorilla.
• An example of absurd meme humor is the practice of using bass drops or distorted sound to emphasize a moment in a video so much that it's the only reason why you watched it.

• For example, typing memes October 2023 into Google turns up many memes about how this year keeps getting worse and worse, building up to megadisaster or apocalypse.
• knowyourmeme.com is a useful resource that catalogs different meme topics and provides detailed explanations of their origins and popular examples.

• For example, popular movie scenes from a movie are often used to express a reaction to an event. Popular images include Willy Wonka with a smug smile, Fry from Futurama squinting, and Joker dancing on the stairs.

• For example, combining an image of a kitten with profanity-laced humor is a good way to evoke an absurd tone.

• You can use Google Images to search for and download just about any image you can think of.
• You can also use the screen capture function on your computer, mobile phone, or tablet to capture images from videos, games, or social media.

• Windows: Windows comes with MS Paint pre-installed. You can use MS Paint to add text to a photo as well as add some crude doodles to the image. Open MS Paint, and click File followed by Open to open and image inside of MS Paint.
• Mac: Open an image in the standard "Preview" app. Then click the icon that resembles a marker tip to open the markup tools.
• iPhone and iPad: Open an image in your Camera Roll or Photos app. Tap Edit in the upper-right corner. Then tap the icon with three dots (...) in the upper-right corner. Tap Markup to display the markup tools.
• Android phones and tablets: Open an image in your Gallery. Then tap the icon that resembles a pencil at the bottom of the screen to display the markup tools.
• Advanced Photo Editing: If you want to do some more advanced photo editing, you can use Adobe Photoshop or GIMP , which is a free alternative to Photoshop. You can also use Photoshop Express, which is free on iPhone, iPad, and Android phones and tablets. Autodesk SketchBook is another great advanced photo editor you can use on iPhone, iPad, and Android phones and Tablets.
• Meme Generator apps: In addition to photo editing software, there are many apps that are specifically designed to make memes. Imgur Meme Generator is a good web-based app that works in your web browser. ImgFlip Meme Generator is another app that works within your web browser. Meme Generator is a free app that is available for both iPhone, iPad, and Android phones and tablets.
• Video Editing: If you want to use a video instead of a still image, you will need video editing software . You don't need expensive video editing like Adobe Premiere Pro or Final Cut, you can use free video editing software like Windows Movie Maker, InShot, or Filmora Wondershare. The concept is still the same. Only you'll be using a short video clip instead of a still image.

• On iPhone and iPad, tap the plus icon (+) at the bottom of the screen and tap Text to access the text tool. Tap the text box and then tap Edit to edit the text in the box.
• On iPhone, iPad, and Android devices, tap and drag the text box to move it where you want it to go.

Community Q&A

• A meme can be as simple as taking an out-of-context picture and then posting it with the caption "When [context]" (for example, a picture of an elephant skeleton with the phrase "When you eat too much on Thanksgiving"). Thanks Helpful 10 Not Helpful 0

Tips from our Readers

• To make sure your meme becomes a popular hit, think of an audience, then do a meme about that. The meme will be extra popular if the audience can relate to it.
• Traditional memes include the Impact font or fonts similar to Impact at uniform places on the meme (usually the top or bottom).
• Look at other memes to see what is popular now, and try to follow those!

• Memes can be ruthless in their humor, and the meme community is often no different. If you choose to contribute to the meme community, be prepared to see harsh, inappropriate, and/or offensive content on a routine basis. Thanks Helpful 23 Not Helpful 2

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• ↑ https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/meme
• ↑ https://knowyourmeme.com/categories
• ↑ https://www.grammarly.com/blog/what-is-a-meme/
• ↑ https://www.wired.com/story/6-easy-ways-make-memes/
• ↑ https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-make-a-meme/

About This Article

1. Pay attention to current memes that are spreading to see what is popular and current. 2. Select an image to use as the base for your meme. 3. Open the image in an image editor, such as MS Paint, Photoshop, or GIMP. 4. Use the text tool add text that is centered at the top or bottom of the image. 5. Select a bold, sans-serif font like Impact, Arial Black, or Helvetica Black as your font. 6. Select black or white letters or white letters with a black outline. 7. Enlarge the text so that it is easy to read. 8. Save your image and share it across the internet. For more tips on creating a dank meme, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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meme Assignment Meme Generator

The fastest meme generator on the planet. easily add text to images or memes..

Featured meme Assignment Memes See All

What is the Meme Generator?

It's a free online image maker that lets you add custom resizable text, images, and much more to templates. People often use the generator to customize established memes , such as those found in Imgflip's collection of Meme Templates . However, you can also upload your own templates or start from scratch with empty templates.

How to make a meme

• Add customizations. Add text, images, stickers, drawings, and spacing using the buttons beside your meme canvas.
• Create and share. Hit "Generate Meme" and then choose how to share and save your meme. You can share to social apps or through your phone, or share a link, or download to your device. You can also share with one of Imgflip's many meme communities.

How can I customize my meme?

• You can add special image effects like posterize, jpeg artifacts, blur, sharpen, and color filters like grayscale, sepia, invert, and brightness.
• You can remove our subtle imgflip.com watermark (as well as remove ads and supercharge your image creation abilities) using Imgflip Pro or Imgflip Pro Basic .

Can I use the generator for more than just memes?

Yes! The Meme Generator is a flexible tool for many purposes. By uploading custom images and using all the customizations, you can design many creative works including posters, banners, advertisements, and other custom graphics.

Can I make animated or video memes?

Yes! Animated meme templates will show up when you search in the Meme Generator above (try "party parrot"). If you don't find the meme you want, browse all the GIF Templates or upload and save your own animated template using the GIF Maker .

Do you have a wacky AI that can write memes for me?

Funny you ask. Why yes, we do. Here you go: imgflip.com/ai-meme (warning, may contain vulgarity)