Thlog

Thlog

While this week’s class was very different, it was still very valuable in terms of what I learned. I really enjoyed seeing other group presentations because it is always interesting to see how different people have different ways of presenting ideas. Some groups were very creative and smart, which made the information they were trying to teach very memorable. I really like how the Zack Attackers decided to incorporate our daily journals into their presentation, telling us to type out our journal questions for “lesson plan 9.1.” While they weren’t 100% serious about it, it was funny and made me want to interact with the presentation more. I noticed that most groups included a Youtube video to assist with their presentation. I could tell the group members put in considerable thought and effort into choosing the videos because the videos were very engaging and unique. They were also a good amount of time—not too long nor too short. Adding a video in the presentations was a good way of switching up the powerpoint presentation. I am emphasizing the use of videos in other group’s presentations because my group did not show a video. We linked a video as reference, but I feel like if we incorporated the video into the presentation, it would have created a more engaging effect. We did have Starbursts to encourage our peers to participate in our questions though. Overall, I think every group did an excellent job, and while many of the topics were already familiar to me, the interaction with the groups and examples that were provided helped refresh my memory and cleared up any little bits of confusion I may have previously had.

Thlog

This week’s WP3 was pretty fun. It was one of the most unique projects in an English class that I have done. At first I started out rocky, proposing ideas that weren't that great. However, I am so thankful we were able to receive feedback before starting our project officially. I definitely changed my topic and  think it worked out significantly better than my initial topic. I struggled the most with the self analysis part when explaining why I made certain moves. I was just kind of like… well I did it because I did it. I think the course readings from McCloid really helped me out with that though. I loved that the comics were so informative and helpful, as it was presented in an untraditional manner. I'm relieved  we are done with writing but at the same time I'm thankful for all the unique writing tips we learned. 

Thlog Week 7

This week I started out thinking I had a plan for my WP3 but ended up very unsure about what I want to write about. I did like reading what others’ proposals were. It shows that we have a very creative class. I definitely am planning on changing my initial proposal, after seeing some feedback from Z. While I want to change my topic, I do want to keep my idea of transforming one of the genres into a Buzzfeed article. I want to show how a scholarly article can be transformed into something more casual and engaging. While I like the freedom of the prompt for WP3, too much freedom often confuses me about what to write. From the class on Monday, after discussing how one can transform a genre and what the big ideas in an article can be, it seemed like there were too many options for me to choose from. The big ideas in articles are specific to each article, so essentially the big ideas can be anything, including citations. I think it's the hardest to choose a topic when there aren't that many boundaries because it means I have to choose wisely. I'm glad we got to first propose our idea, read others, and get feedback on it. If we did not, I could have almost completed my WP3 before realizing that my choice of genre transformation was not ideal. Hopefully I can come up with something good! 

PB3A

For my final writing project, I want to base my transformations off of the scholarly article Relationship Quality, Commitment, and Stability in Long-Distance Relationships by Gretchen Kelmer, Galena K. Rhoades, Scott Stanley, and Howard Markman. This article first establishes the factors of long distance relationships and geographically close relationships. After the comparison of the two, the article proposes the hypotheses that would be tested, followed by the methods and the discussion. While the article is a research paper, it can still be transformed into other genres geared towards both an older and a younger audience.

For a younger audience, I wanted to take into account the constant use of technology and social media in our current generation. The increasingly popular website, Buzzfeed, presents many articles and posts that are relatable to the readers. Therefore, for my genre transformation, I want to write a post that is titled “10 Signs You Know You’re in a Long Distance Relationship.” I would include a short sentence in a bold font that briefly summarizes the “sign” that shows you are in a long distance relationship. I would then use a regular font to elaborate on it, and I would also include a picture or .gif image that relates to the sign. The picture or visual will help make the post more memorable and can often add humor to the post as well. I would make sure the format of my wannabe-Buzzfeed post is similar to that of an actual post. Therefore, I would include hyperlinks that allow readers to be able to easily share the post, as publicity from the audience is an important factor in the success of popular Buzzfeed posts. This post serves to remind the audience that many people out there are in long distance relationships, and there are many factors, often pros, that exist in long distance relationships that do not exist in geographically close relationships.

I want to transform the article into a brochure for an older audience. I’d imagine these brochures to be sitting by the front desk at some office, waiting to be read. The brochure would be a type of self-help or reevaluation for individuals in long distance relationships. It would introduce by defining what a long-distance relationship is. I would provide the reasons that long distance relationships exist. Listing a few reasons can give people perspective that they are not alone in their situation, and that long distance relationships exist for a variety of reasons. I would then list out benefits—based on what the article says, because “challenges and deprivations that come with long distance relationships may influence individuals to filter out less satisfactory partners.” Benefits such as less difficulty sustaining positive connections together, being able to more easily make the most of their time, and having repeated honeymoon effects can remind the audience that they have pros that close-proximity relationships do not necessarily have. The brochure serves to lighten the mood of the struggling individual and to provide them with hope. The brochure would contain possible problems that the couple may be experiencing and how it can be tackled.

The two transformed genres are still based off of the same content but are now executed in different manners. The genres are tailored towards the age of the audience, taking into account how different generations retain information differently. Since the younger audience is arguably more technologically advanced and the older generation is slightly more used to concrete paper, I decided to transform my scholarly article into a Buzzfeed post and self-help brochure, respectively. 

Thloggin' Week 6

My biggest takeaway from Monday’s class regarding how to improve my paper was when we each counted the number of words in our longest and shortest sentences. I realized I did not have much of a varied sentence structure, so it was something I tried to work on. I had not really thought about how different lengths can affect the work as a whole. But it can. However, I definitely struggled with my WP2, much more than I did with my WP1. I think the root of my problem was my lack of a strong thesis. My argument was not as clear as I would have liked, but I couldn’t really quite come up with something better. I wish I had a more “arguable” thesis. My thesis argued that the non-academic source took the most different approach towards persuading the readers because of how a non-academic audience responds. I felt that both scholarly and non-academic sources were equally effective because they utilized different conventions to portray their message. Had the scholarly articles used the techniques from the non-academic source, or vice versa, it would not have been effective. But I just feel like my essay is missing something.

The online class. It was definitely a bit confusing in the beginning. I liked it. But it’s not something I’d really want to keep doing. I think the interactivity in class is really important towards our retention of information. However, it was a cool experience and definitely very unique. The class really forced me to pay full attention in order to not get behind or get off track. I liked responding to others’ posts right after we posted ours because what we wrote was still freshly in our heads, so we could really compare what we wrote. Now, I’m just scared for WP3. Let’s see how it goes!

Bob Ross & Artists

Across all of these videos, the artists walk us through their process, emotionally and physically. They let us know what they are thinking, how they interpret the image, and then how they proceed to execute it on the painting. They describe how they envision the painting to be based on what features attract them the most. For example, Josh believed that trees were inhabited by spirits, and thus he wanted to reflect this idea in his painting by working quickly to capture the vitality and life of the tree. He directs our attention towards the most significant steps he’s taking. In other words, he does not say “I am going to dip my brush in the paint now,” as that is not important. However, he does point out which details he is adding to amplify the texture of the painting. The artists also describe the medium they use and their reasoning behind their approaches/materials.

Bob Ross’s paintings are pretty hazy. They clearly depict what he is painting, but it is not in HD. Meanwhile, Ivan has a very specific style of painting. His focus on only the tree trunk demonstrates his keen eye for details. The Disney artists emphasize making everything flow because that is important for animations. Mark thinks a lot about the physical structure of the tree, as he notes the bony build of the tree and how the branches go up and out, which parallels his belief that the tree is an explosive force. The artists all paint based on their first impression of the subject.

Online Meeting Journal Freewrite

I was satisfied with my WP2, but I definitely know there is room for improvement, especially in terms of organization. I struggled with the structure because I felt like each paragraph had to directly relate to the thesis. So when I was simply explaining conventions and moves, I found it challenging to make it weave in with the thesis. I think the reason for this is because my thesis is not as strong as I would have liked it to be, but I struggled with coming up with something better. However, I was decently happy with the moves that I chose to compare and contrast and my integration of some quotes from the course reader.

The comments from the peer review that helped me the most was the suggestion to integrate more direct evidence. I talked about the structure often and found that somewhat difficult to quote--since I’m just describing the layout/format. However, I think I was able to incorporate course reader quotes. I also found it helpful that my peers suggested I break down my paragraphs into smaller ones. I struggled with having large one-page chunks of paragraphs, so I definitely needed to separate it more effectively.