Re-Re-Education

Here it is. The final and polished version of the infographic for my multimodal translation project. The image was saved and compressed very strangely and I can’t seem to fix it. So I will post the link to the published product here and at the end of the blog post. If anyone needs and help still accessing or viewing my project, feel free to contact me at any time

As you can see, I wanted a minimalist design with cohesive graphic style and figures so I would not confuse or strain the audiences eyes. By all means though, give me feedback on the graphic design, format, and overall quality of my project. What would you have done different, what do you like/dislike, etc.

This also being my last post, I would like to thank Professor Lueck for a very insightful and helpful two quarters of CTW!

(Here is the link to my publish and higher visual quality project: https://magic.piktochart.com/output/22780742-multimodal-diego )

Ok so it turns out that writing blog posts are harder than I thought they were going to be. Having 0 experience in reading or writing blogs, I thought it was going to be just as easy as turning off your mind and letting your fingers type.

Source: Giphy

Only, it wasn’t this easy. I ended up having to think more about what I was going to write in my blog posts than I did in actual essays. I guess that’s just because essay writing seems to be natural at this point, whereas blog writing is something completely new. I think what I found most difficult was trying to write in a way which reflects my personality and not essay-like. For some reason I just felt like I could never really fully tap into that sort of writing style. I spent a lot of time thinking about how to phrase something so it didn’t come off as dull and boring.

Another issue I had was thinking of creative formatting to write my blogs in so they were not super dull and hard on the eyes. I’m a physics major, so my artistic design and intuition really isn’t my strong suit. I did enjoy the creativity and flexibility this forced me to think about though. It exposed a new type of writing which was very refreshing since I’ve only written academically for the past 13 years.

I really did like the experience of blog writing though. It gave me an introduction on how to use another voice that I can later apply into more informal essays or similar projects.

Media Sources:

Of the several reading we had read for class, I think I gained the most help from the BEAM reading and the “hunter/gatherer” reading. The BEAM reading exposed me to a new way to think about and use sources, whereas the hunter/gatherer reading was just a fun meta cognitive piece.

During my entire research process, I kept BEAM in the back of my head as it lead me to sources I would have never used quarter ago. BEAM showed me the several types of sources you can have, and what the strengths of each source is. Additionally, BEAM showed how to implement these sources (some you don’t even have to cite!) and how to follow their trail for even more sources. If it wasn’t for BEAM, I’d be using very bland and one dimensional sources that I’ve been using on all of my research papers up to this point.

The type source I found most interesting was the method sources. In short, these almost serve as guidelines for how you should write/research/etc., and these usually go without being cited. I used this source type in my naysayer argument toward the end of my paper, where I defended my research’s reliability due to its diversity. Had I not learned about this source, I would not have known what to write about for my naysayer argument, leading to an overall weaker paper.

Another method source I found very helpful was the method of cross referencing and further contextual search. By forcing myself to dig deeper into what I researched both in the archives and in the database, I was able to add multiple dimensions to my research argument. Additionally, this led me to have a reservoir of sources from which I could pick and chose, so minimum source limits were never an issue.

To wrap up, reading those articles on how to research weren’t really the most fun thing to do. 20 pages of dense material on the subject of writing isn’t really my preferred past time. However, I can’t complain now. Thanks to these articles, I have learned much more about how to write and research than I had in high school!

This post is a response to Leslie’s blog posts titled “my advertisement…” and “the second most important thing to think about!”

Source: Giphy

I don’t want to start playing favorites, but Leslie’s multimodal project was easily an award winner. And I think the reason it stood out so much is because of the thought she put into her audience.

She quotes her audience as being, “politically inclined humans [generally older people]…  interested in sports, who have time to really get into stories, and are fascinated in the back stories / personal accounts (not just the ending scores).” Just off the bat, her audience is very specific and well thought-out. And to reach her audience, she made an advertisement for sports magazines (like Sports Illustrated).

It gets even better. She includes a call to action which compliments her audience very well. Her ad shows athletes who didn’t make it big, and in turn, got left with nothing as they put all of their eggs in one basket. It highlights how big colleges make athletes evade the education system and almost set student athletes on a course for failure (only very few ever go professional). Therefore, Leslie asks her politically inclined audience to talk to their Representative and ask that the government focuses on reworking the education received by student athletes to ensure that nobody gets left behind.

Overall, this ad kind of blind sides the audience who may be unaware of what happens off of the TV screen. It hits them with the hard facts and forces them to think about the unlucky many. So, not only does she raise awareness, but she plants the seeds to help a reform grow!

Media Sources:

This has with out a doubt been the longest project I have ever had. Since the first day of this quarter, we hit the ground running. Every single assignment we had, every single workshop/library session, every single reading all built up to this one single assignment. We were expected to take from everything we had learned (even from last quarter), and condense it all into one ultimate assignment. Therefore, this assignment was almost a 9 week writing process, and I’m glad to say that I’m done with it.

I’m not glad because it just means it’s less work that I now have to do, I’m glad because I feel like I have truly invested countless hours into a paper I can truly call my own. From the research, to the subject matter, to the implication of method sources, they were all mine. And most importantly, I feel like this is the most I’ve learned out of any English or composition course I’ve had in a long time.

I had never researched in archives, I had never taken data and interpreted it in an argumentative sense, I had just barely used online databases for research. To have to learn all of these and apply them in 9 weeks was no easy task. However, I now feel confident enough to apply any of these methods in an research assignment in the future.

In my earlier research papers, I would only do basic google searches when researching for sources, and I thought this was sufficient information. In hindsight, these essays would not pass in college, and I’m glad that I now understand this. I’m glad that I have expanded my toolbox enough to find, collect, and implement multiple sources to create a well rounded, high quality essay.

At first, I was a bit worried by this multimodal project. Not because I thought it would be necessarily difficult, but because my subject and information would be hard to translate into a multimodal medium. In my research argument, I set up a conversation for what it means to be “a student” in terms of how we interact with our socio-political climate. In turn, my paper became aimed toward an audience of scholarly sociologist as I raise question and give my argument for what it means to be a student.

To reach my targeted audience, my research argument would likely be published in some sort of sociology journal or magazine. This is where I became confused.

Source: flickr (Michael Keen)

How could I make my argument into a multimodal medium when it would originally be published in some profession collection of articles and essays? How could I reach my audience in a way which is not just plain words? Then it hit me

I remembered from my AP Statistics class in high school that there was a trend going on in professional magazines where people were displaying their information through visual media. These were called infographics. Basically, you could use these graphic design templates to provide statistics, information, and conclusions in a way which is both easy on the eyes but still professional. Therefore, I could translate my argument into an infographic which would theoretically be published in a page in some sort sociology magazine. (Here is an example of an infographic:)

Source: flickr (DFID)

The process of making my infographic was not bad. Since our final project for my AP Stats class was to create an infographic, I was already familiar with the software “Piktochart”. Additionally, I had all of my information and my outline mapped out on paper, so all I had to do was put compile everything together and polish it so it looks good. In the end, the process was fun. It was a nice little nostalgic throwback to my junior year of high school, as well as an enjoyable break from my philosophy final essay :(.

Images Sources:

I’m finally done! (phew)

Source: Giphy

Now its time for my reflection. Having never done an annotated bibliography, I didn’t really know what to expect. If I’m being honest, I thought it was going to be easy. Easy enough for me to brush it off and save it for the last minute. I don’t know what motivated me to start as early as I did, but I’m glad that I did. Because holy smokes was this hard.

With the time it took to read each 25+ page article, find viable sources, wait for the library to get the physical journals I couldn’t access online, reflect, and do each individual wright-up, I could only do about 2 sources each night before I would burn out. If I had waited until the last few days before it was due, I would have NEVER gotten it in on time.

While the whole process was a bit arduous and time consuming, I can’t complain. Using all of my past research processes as a point of contrast, I can say with complete confidence that: by writing the annotated bibliography, I understand the information I researched now than I have ever in the past. By saving time to think, reflect, and write about the rhetorical devices used, as well as how each source “converses” with one another, I was able to view each source in several different angles. In turn, I received more direct and indirect information through these articles than I would’ve if I had just read them and thrown them into a paper.

Ultimately, the annotated bibliography may just be the most important thing I learned in CTW II this quarter. And while I can’t really see myself writing up a full blown annotated bib for every research paper I will ever have to do in college, that doesn’t mean I will never use it. Instead, I can see myself using a similar, yet shortened format on paper to accompany my outlines and help me to see any further connections between sources.

Media Sources:

In our library session (on May 23), Gail talked about the importance of informing the audience on the sources we are citing and implementing in our argument. However, we should never inform our audience about our sources in its own isolated paragraph. That would just make it seem clunky and unnatural. Instead she showed us how to condense the information into one or two sentences in order to create introductions for our sources which still give the right information, but doesn’t make it seem all weird and choppy. She told us to focus on

• Article
• Author
• Source

Let’s start with the article:

ARTICLE

Source: Pixabay (OpenClipart-Vectors)

Collecting information for this one tends to be the easiest. Since its assumed that we read the article already, all we have to do is provide a short summary. A very very short summary. We just have to give the essence of what its about. Keep it short and sweet

AUTHOR

Source: Wikimedia

Whether there are multiple authors, or just one, it is most important to list their name(s). Next: find their credentials, title, or position which indicates that they have enough experience to be knowledgeable on the subject. Lastly, if available/applicable, list the institution they published the article for, as it will provide the audience with a stronger grasp as to why they wrote it.

SOURCE

Source: Pixabay (OpenClipart-Vectors)

This one may require the most research, but it is still minimal pretty easy. “Source” can range anywhere from a scholarly journal, to a newspaper, to a magazine, to a textbook. It is important to not only list the name, but the genre and a brief description of it. For example: “Health Today, a global open sourced health journal published in London”

PRODUCT:

Finally, the product should look something like this:

In ___(Article name)___ published in __(X)__ journal about __(Y)__, ______(Author’s name)_____ from ____(University title and department)___ writes about the impact of __(Z)__…

Image Sources:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:P_author.svg

https://pixabay.com/en/journal-book-diary-log-marker-155431/

https://pixabay.com/en/newspaper-article-journal-headlines-154444/

In response to Konnor’s blog:

You see a desert and I see an abyss. Obviously we think very differently, and that is just what we need in this day and age, but that is another discussion for another time.

I really really like the way you are taking your research. Your whole paper involves meta-thought. Thinking about your thinking, or in this case, researching about research. Kudos to you. I feel like everything would get extremely complex and interwoven, to the point where I would have to take a break from reading and research every 15 minutes. And I can’t even image how difficult your sources must be to dissect and make sense of. I’d have issues just mapping everything together!

Source: Giphy

And then you say that most of your research contains gap! It all seems so daunting! How long does it take you to find a source?

Anyway, I really liked your blog post. It gave a very good description of “gaps” and “territory”, and a good personal example of each. I also got a general direction of where your paper is going, and it sounds VERY professional and scholarly, like the sources we read for class!

Good luck crossing your desert, I’m sure you’ll find something, anything, which will lead to a chain of events and sources, and everything will just snap into place. If I stumble across anything, I’ll keep you in mind and foreword it to you. I hope you catch up on your bibliographies and make sense of everything It all just builds for an even better paper!

Media Sources:

A gap. The lack of material or substance, a vacuum. In research, “the gap” can be seen in a similar way. The lack of continuity and information, be it intentional or unintentional, in a source, or between sources which show how or why something had happened (for example).

In some cases, we (and I am very guilty of this) get lazy and decide we have sufficient information, and we take a leap of faith over the gap, hoping we (and the paper) don’t fall through. In this research case, however, I am working on climbing down the gap, and then scaling back up to get to the other side.

Source: Max Pixel

After hours of research, I thought I has everything that I needed. It wasn’t until I tried piecing everything together on a timeline that I found out a piece was missing. More specifically, I saw that I didn’t know what exactly had caused the change in the socio-political climate from the 50s to the 60s. Initially, I just thought more and more people were just becoming left-winged. Not only is that not necessarily the case, but it is also a strong assumption to apply as fact. So I decided to slowly climb down this gap.

Obviously, I had to change my research direction. By approaching the gap with more “historically-minded” research (e.g. history journals, history essays, etc.), I thought I would be able to easily pin point a factual cause to the effect. And I was right!

What I soon discovered was that McCarthyism (a major practice and mindset of all that Red Scare nonsense) was very big toward the start of the Cold War. People were getting accused of being a Communist spy left and right for even showing minor sympathy or leftist preference. This silenced a lot of the Left’s voice. Toward the end of the 50s, the country united to bring an end to the abuses of McCarthyism (McCarthyism led to a lot a horrible stuff. Just look for yourself).

Source: Wikimedia

This lead to the slow fall of McCarthyism, and as the socio-political climate eased up on the Left, the Left slowly got its voice back, leading to apparent shift in public opinion.

Honestly, extra research wasn’t that bad. Sure, it would have been much easier and time efficient to jump make the leap of faith, but hey, I got a few extra sources under my belt and a few paragraphs in my toolkit.

Photo Sources:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anticommunist_Literature_1950s.png

http://maxpixel.freegreatpicture.com/Person-Chasm-Leap-Gap-Jumping-Man-Courage-Jump-456100