Mar 17
Throughout the quarter, we’ve learned about how the Internet has become an all-encompassing outlet for users to share their work, ideas and perspectives. New media, as opposed to traditional media, not only allows but encourages users to interact with the material they find online. Rather than merely reading an article published by the Wall Street …
Mar 14
For this week, our English 16 class read N. Katherine Hayles’ publication, “Electronic Literature: What is it?” I want to start by providing a little information on the author, as I found myself somewhat surprised after doing some background research. N. Katherine Hayles is a postmodern literary critic who currently teaches in and directs the …
Mar 06
This week’s reading was an article by Dr. Ian Bogost, an award-winning designer and media philosopher who specializes in gaming media. Bogost earned his undergraduate degree in Philosophy and Comparative Literature from the University of Southern California, and his Ph.D in Comparative Literature from UCLA. According to his personal website, Bogost is currently a Distinguished Chair …
Feb 28
I really enjoyed this week’s reading, “Writing in the Wild: A Paradigm for Mobile Composition” by John Pedro Schwartz and Professor Bjork (and I promise, I’m not just saying that!). The article begins by introducing the concept of in situ writing, or researching a topic on location and then composing and publishing a written report while …
Feb 18
This week’s reading, Chapter 7: “Introduction to Data Displays,” begins with a brief overview of data displays and how they are used. The chapter highlights three main reasons why data displays are useful rhetorical tools. First, readers often find visual representations more appealing and attention-grabbing than abstract numbers. Next, data displays have the ability to …
Feb 14
This week’s reading, “The Visual Rhetoric of Data Displays” by Charles Kostelnick, discusses the use of visual rhetoric in conveying research quickly and easily to the reader. Kostelnick is a professor at Iowa State University, where he teaches English courses. His main focuses are on the literature, visual art, cross culture communication, and the history …
Feb 07
After spending so many class periods in the MultiMedia Lab, I have recently noticed the banners along the main wall with graphics from the popular online community, SecondLife. One of my Communication classes has been discussing the growing phenomenon of virtual communities, and I think some of the material we’ve discussed is relevant to the …
Feb 07
Again this week, I have had difficulty grasping the technical aspects of Svenja Adolph’s book Introducting Electronic Text Analysis. To be honest, last week’s reading was so difficult for me that I was unable to post about it. I think I understand the basic premise of Chapters 4, 5 and 6. In chapter 4, Adolph discusses …
Jan 24
In his article, “The Economics of Attention: Style and Substance in the Age of Information,” Richard Lanham discusses the transition of the world from one of “stuff,” or material products, to one of “fluff” or information. Lanham describes how society has begun to focus less on reality and more on what the meaning behind that …
Jan 18
This week’s reading discusses the qualities of a skilled orator. The first reading, Cicero’s De Oratore, sets out on the premise that in order to be a good orator, one must be a good man. He then argues that writing is a prerequisite of an effective speech, because it allows us to more clearly rationalize and …
Jan 10
This week, we read excerpts from Aristotle’s Rhetoric and Plato’s Phaedrus. Reading ancient philosophy is always slightly intimidating, but I found both readings to be not only understandable, but surprisingly relevant to modern society. For instance, in the first chapter of Rhetoric, Aristotle comments on the justice of a judge’s ruling …
Jan 08
For today’s class, we read an article by Danah Boyd entitled “A Blogger’s Blog: Exploring the Definition of a Medium.” In the article, Boyd grapples with the question of what exactly. In her research, she studied a vast array of personal weblogs on sites like Xanga and LiveJournal, reading diverse content published by a variety …
