Redesign Essay Reflection

Andie Goniwiecha

WRT 150

Prof. Rinke

3/20/13

Redesign Project Reflection

Going into this assignment, I was a little bit afraid of the 5-7 page requirement. However, after I read the guidelines and realized that there was a lot of material to cover in this paper I felt better. I was also excited about being able to be creative with this assignment when redesigning the advertisement. I was able to go into detail about what I had in mind for the new advertisement. I realized that it actually wasn’t impossible to write a five-paged paper, and I felt more confident in my abilities after this assignment was completed.

            I wanted to choose an advertisement that had a clear audience in mind, so that it would be easier to choose a new completely different audience. I also wanted to choose an advertisement that could easily be changed, that is nothing too simple or too complicated. Finding an advertisement about something that I have experience with and actually enjoy was helpful too when analyzing it in the first part of the paper.

            When coming up with the idea for the redesign, I took into consideration the distinct parts of the advertisement that made it clear who the original audience was. Once I figured those out, I could then change them to appeal towards my new audience. I did not sketch my new design out on paper, I just thought of it in my head and went with it. That way, I had a train of free-flowing ideas coming and going for me to choose for my paper.

            One challenge I faced as I began this essay was how to organize it. Since there was a lot of material to cover, it was important for this paper to be organized and logical. In order to do this, I made an outline of the main ideas I would cover in the paper and put them into the order that made the most sense. I then used that as a guide for writing my rough draft.

                        I really enjoyed the freedom and creativity of this assignment. It gave us a chance to use our imaginations and pick something we really enjoy to write about. For me personally, writing a 5-7 page paper about something I am interested in is a lot easier than writing about something that is predetermined by a teacher. So having this freedom made the writing process a lot easier and more enjoyable.

            The concepts I got out of this paper the most were the rhetorical appeals – ethos pathos and logos. I did not understand them that well before this assignment, but now that I’ve finished it I feel that I fully understand them, and how to spot and analyze them in an advertisement. I also learned that really long papers aren’t that scary if you have them well-organized and well-planned out before starting them.

            If I had  a second chance to write this paper again, I would have started off trying to avoid using the first person because I forgot to do that at first and I had to go through my whole paper and change it. There is not much else I would change about this paper, I feel that I did a pretty good job on this assignment.           

Process Memo

Andie Goniwiecha

WRT 150

Prof. Rinke

2/15/13

Literacy Narrative Process Memo

Literacy Timeline:

As I began the process of creating my literacy narrative by starting with a timeline of my life, I decided to start with my earliest memories of reading with my mom. Although this was an important starting point for my literacy development, it became more apparent as I looked back on my life that music was what really helped me to develop as a literate person. I found that I have had many experiences with music, and it was a bit difficult to get them all down on paper and organized without putting too much or too little detail about them. Something that I found interesting about my development in literacy was just how much music has changed my life and who I am as a person. I could not think of anything else more important in my life, and that really took me by surprise.  The theme and focus throughout my timeline was clearly my development in music. It was not difficult at all to determine this theme, because it has had such a huge impact on my life. In creating this timeline, I realized that I am a very creative person, and that I will always chose music over reading or writing.

 

Literacy Narrative:

When writing my literacy narrative, it was difficult to narrow down my timeline to create a clear story. I had trouble deciding what was best to include in order to effectively describe my literacy development. I decided to briefly describe the most important events throughout my timeline. This included all the different instruments I have had, and how they have affected me in terms of my literacy as a person. As I started putting my narrative together, I decided that it would make the most sense to organize it chronologically. I started with my first memories of getting into music, and ended with what I am doing currently with music. The pre-writing strategy I used was highlighting the main points in my timeline that I wanted to include in my narrative. I did this to help create a structure or outline for writing my narrative. Although my narrative wasn’t fully completed when we did peer reviews, I was able to show my partner the general idea of what I was going to do with it. It was helpful to receive the encouragement from my partner, and made me more confident as I began writing my narrative. After my narrative was completed, I did start planning out my video. It was very different than writing a story because you had to say a lot in a very short period of time with very little text. This was a challenge for me, but I feel that I was successful in telling my story.

 

Animoto Slide Show:

            When creating my slide show, I did find it quite difficult to stay within the time and text limit while still effectively telling my story.  My strategy was to narrow down my narrative to the most important events in my timeline. The images I used in my video acted both as a complement to the text in the slide before, and as a way to provide more detail. I feel that they added a lot to my slide show and made it even more enjoyable and interesting. The pictures I chose were mostly from the web, and were used to help the audience visualize what the text was saying. I did use one picture of me performing on stage with my guitar, and I feel that this picture helped with the credibility of my story. As I looked for a song to use in my slide show, I took into consideration the mood of my story, and also my interests as a person. I ended up choosing a slower-paced song that featured an acoustic guitar playing throughout it. I feel that this song was perfect for my video, considering all of my experiences with my acoustic guitar. As I look back at my video, and the lack of comments, I still really enjoy what I created and feel that it tells my story very well. I would have liked to have more time to include more details about my experiences, but I am happy with the final product.

Blog #4 - Digital Literacy

1.       "Simply put, we can’t keep preparing students for a world that doesn’t exist. We can’t keep ignoring the formidable cognitive skills they’re developing on their own. And above all, we must stop disparaging digital prowess just because some of us over 40 don’t happen to possess it. An institutional grudge match with the young can sabotage an entire culture."

 

In this quote, Anderson explains that the world is changing, and that education and teaching styles need to change with it in order to effectively prepare students for their futures. It is obvious that students are way ahead of most adults in their cognitive and technological skills because they were raised with technology, and use it on a daily basis – whether they are in school or at home. Teachers should not discourage the use of technology in learning just because they were not raised that way, they should actually encourage it so that students can further develop their skills. If teachers cannot keep up with the changes in modern day society, it could prevent us from ever moving forward and creating new ideas.

I believe this statement is 100% true. I’ve witness so many older people who just hate using technology, and who are so behind the rest of us that they are just making things harder on themselves. I’ve also seen many teachers who refuse to use/allow technology in the classroom, and only stick to old school methods of teaching. While they may feel that this is the most effective way for them to teach, students these days who greatly benefit from the use of technology to help them learn and develop their skills and minds.

Blog #3 - Summary and Response

In Barry's comic strip, she explains how by becoming a professional cartoonist and doing what she loves for a living, it started to take away the joy and freedom of just doing it for fun. She starts to question the quality of her work. I agree with this because I have felt the same way when I was taking an art class. I love drawing for fun, but when I started doing it for a grade I became less confident in my work and began to ask the same questions as Barry did - "Is this good?" "Does this suck?"

Blog #2 - Hourihan's Article

1. Blogs allow readers to comment on its material, as well as email the author of the blog. This creates a feeling of connection between the blogger and its readers that you would not get from a print source.

2. Hourihan feels like blogs are a communication revolution because of how popular they have become. They have gone from personal journals, to widely visited news and media communication methods.

3. I feel that keeping a blog for this class is a creative way to express yourself, instead of turning in a bunch of papers. It is also an advantage to be able to comment on your peer’s work as well. Some disadvantages to blogging would be how unpredictable technology is, and also the fact that everything you put online is public, and everyone can see it, which could be a problem if you put up something very personal.

4. “Publishing” and blogging are great ways to express your thoughts, feelings, ideas, and experiences in a way that many people can read and understand. It also creates, like I said, a connection between people who share the same interests.

Blog #1 - Why is writing important?

My career goals are to obtain a Bachelor’s degree in Early Child Development, and become a Child Life Specialist. The duties of a Child Life Specialist include coming up with activities and strategies to help children and their families cope with traumatic injuries or situations. Communication is a very big part of this job, so learning how to write and communicate effectively is very important for me and my career goals. The kind of writing I will have to do might range from data entry and informational-type writing, to coming up with lesson plans and fun activities for the children. I feel that I will have to improve on my communication skills so that I can be successful in my career.