House-made Writing Style Guide: Reflecting on the Practice Around Academic Text Writing in an Indonesian University Context

Abstract

Regarding the issue of independent documentary, the key question to be considered is whether the message conveyed to target groups or intended audiences is fully achieved. The usage of soundtracks to convey the message of an independent documentary is seen as an added value for audiences to digest the producers' idea. Zettl (2014) put the cultural, ideology and technological narrative message of the production based on soundtracks analysis (focused only on lyrics) as part of the narrative in soundtracks. Using an independent documentary 'The Last Communist (2006)' work of Amir Muhammad, this article discusses the 'reading' of soundtracks. These soundtracks represents the producers' idea and constructs a connotation meaning for audiences to consume as they want. The soundtracks are highly posed and are set in descriptive meaning to make them relevant across the globe. They represent actual places or tragedy, and they document witness, which symbolically represents moods such as 'contentment' and 'freedom'. This study implied a focus group discussion with informants that consider as the fourth industrial generation (4IR) whom have watched 'The Last Communist (2006)'. The topic of discussion is focused only on the soundtracks (focused only on lyrics). It is debatable that soundtracks reading cannot be described adequately in formal terms only. Rather, they are considered to be visual representations of metaphorical thoughts or concepts and the changing of time and mass. The implication will then be the ability to add more natural presentation and make the independent documentary more appealing. This study suggests the selection of soundtracks by a producer that represents cultural, ideology and technological elements and how they have affected the reading of the fourth industrial generation (4IR) group, thereby making this independent documentary as a byproduct quietly injecting the historiography and the struggle of the communists.