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 :(.
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