Redesign an Ad: Reflection

·         I felt pretty confident going into this essay. I thought I had understood the three rhetorical appeals fairly well and could identify them in an ad after a bit of thought.

·         I decided on a specific ad after I borrowed a magazine called GQ. All I had to do was flip through a few pages and I noticed the Guess ad. The first thing I realized was that it was gender specific, which interested me and happened to easily pick out.

·         I came up with my idea of the redesign by making sure everything was the opposite of the original ad while still keeping the redesign about watches. I was able to see this idea in my head and roughly sketched it out so I could better describe it in my redesign essay.

·         One of the hardest challenges I faced was not being specific enough when it came to describing more of the rhetorical appeals, including the audience, the background, and the colors. I type very simply and try to get to the point as soon as I can. The way I was able to overcome this problem was with the help of my peer edit group and my professor. They let me know which parts I should develop on and how I should split and organize my paragraphs.

·         I liked learning about the different rhetorical appeals and how to find and identify them in different situations. I used this like of the rhetorical appeals by writing this paper.

·         If I had a second chance at writing this paper, I don’t think I would change anything about my paper except lengthen it.  

Visual Argument Blog Post

Commercial #2:

The text and images in commercial #2 with the dog has an interesting way of giving out its intended message. I think that the commercial was comparing the loyal dog to the car. This was shown by the use of showing the dog and the car always being there after each scene. Because this can be interpreted differently and take some convincing for others to see the meaning behind the message, I would say that this is considered negotiated reading.  

The intended audience of this visual argument could be families, because of the baby, singles, because of the man at the beginning, and anyone who’s looking for a reliable car, as shown by the dog.

Process Memo

Literacy Narrative: Reflection

Literacy Timeline:

-The most logical place for me to begin in my literacy timeline was at my earliest memory of learning how to read which were when I was 4 or 5 years old. For me, I didn't have a difficult time remembering the important details because it was those details that made the memory in the first place. It wasn't that hard to get my thoughts on paper since it was just a regurgitation of information.

-Something interesting I discovered when writing out the timeline was that I never realized that my mom was so against me reading. I’d be reading a book on my bed and she would say, “Stop reading and do your homework.”  Usually parents would yell at their kids to stop playing video games or to wake up because they've slept for too long; I never thought that a parent would scold their kid for reading too much. 

-I noticed that my theme was mostly books. As much as I love movies, music, and art, I always found myself reading.

-I focused my paper on my reading experience at my aunt’s house because as I was writing the timeline, I realized that I had spent a lot of time writing out the details of that one memory.  It wasn't difficult to choose since I had so much detail on that one specific memory.

-I realized how much I miss reading. After thinking back and noticing how much time I've spent reading, I really wish I could go back and treasure those moments even more. And I realized that I write very direct and to the point so I don't always hit the word count.

Literacy Narrative:

-I was able to focus on one area for my written narrative because I noticed that I was able to write a lot about that certain experience compared to the rest of the events that I wrote on the timeline. I guess you could say that it sort of jumped out at me. I had started writing and soon noticed that I had a descriptive paragraph so I stopped and thought, “Hey, I could use this for my narrative.” And that’s exactly what I did. A challenge I faced was trying not to swallow up the reader with too much imagery. I wanted to get my point across but I also wanted the reader to relate to my experience as well.

- When I began to write my narrative, I was able to organize how I wanted it to be structured but it was hard for me to word it in a way that others could understand. I'm actually quite scatterbrained because there were so many things I wanted to include that I didn't know where in the memory I should start and how I should word it. In the end, I chose to write it chronologically. I’m not a skilled enough writer so include interesting flashbacks without drawing the reader away from the main point of the narrative.  In the end, I just wrote it out. There was no prewriting strategy; I just wrote out the memory from beginning to end as much as I could.

- After composing my rough draft and the peer review, I changed some of the wording and added some parts that could have had a bit more detail. Unfortunately, I think that the peer review would have been more helpful if we had more time to fully read and give feedback. I felt as though the peer review session was a bit rushed because we didn't have enough class time, which isn't something anyone can fix. Other than that, I'd have to say that with the time my partner had, she did a good job as “another set of eyes”. She pointed out my grammar mistakes and circled areas that needed to be more in-depth.

- When I made the final edits to my narrative, I was already thinking about the different parts I'd like to include in my slideshow. It didn't quite alter what I had wanted to write. In fact, all I did was change the wording from my narrative in a way so that it fit perfectly in the video slideshow.

Animoto Slideshow:

-With the time available to us, my peer review partner highlighted around 10-13 sentences but didn't get the chance to tell me why they stuck out to her as interesting or important. I think I used a majority if not all of her suggested sentences in my Animoto slideshow.

-I actually didn't find it that difficult to fit the words into the 52-word limit slideshow. Some were a bit more difficult than others but I would just extend them to the other slides and not add a picture in between them.

-I used images off of Google to help express what I was trying to say. I would have used more of my own pictures but I don’t have very many pictures of myself so that couldn't have worked.  One thing I tried to focus for the pictures was to find pictures that had the right mood and tone to compliment my slideshow, an example being the ripped book. The fact that the single piece of the book was the focus was very much like how my mind was thinking at the time when my mom took my books away and even ripped one in half. The empty background was like the empty feeling it gave me.

-The title of the song is called ‘Merry-Go-Round of Life’. I thought it was suited for my Animoto slideshow because it was a narrative about my life of reading thus far. I didn't mean for it to happen, but something cool that I noticed about the piece was that at the times where my reading experience didn't turn out so happy, the tune changed from major to minor which we call “text painting”.  It added a bit of flavor to the mood and was easier for the watcher/reader to follow the meaning of the slideshow.

-All in all, I wish I could have used some pictures of me besides the very first one. They were still helpful when it came to the direction of the narrative but using my own pictures would have made it more personal, in my opinion. 

Digital Literacy

2) From Virginia Heffernen:

1.       1) To be quite honest, I thought my teachers in elementary, middle and high school prepared me very well for college. I never once thought that my teacher should do something different, nor did I think that there was a lack of technology. If I could write them a brief email, I would tell them to keep teaching the same way but to remember to look ahead for potential technological advancements.

2.      2)  In my career field, I don’t think I’ll be using or relying on much technology besides a cell phone and email. They’re both quite simple and self-explanatory so I think Oakland will help me with this easily (but maybe not the cell phone part).

3.      3)  I think I write the same, be it an email or blog. I write in a very direct way where I get to the point without the flowery bits. A more relaxed setting makes me feel more at ease but it does not change my writing style.

4.       If I was a teacher attempting to prepare future generations for super high-tech jobs, I would just try to stay on top of whatever technology is available for us to use and incorporate them into the class, be it labs or writing assignments.

5.     4)   I feel as though the author made a good point about how people not growing up in this generation think that the internet is a distraction instead of a useful academic tool. Let’s use writing as an example. Blogs would be extremely helpful because it makes the student used to posting their own work and get feedback from an audience. Therefore, I have to say that I agree with her on this point. 

Summery and Response: Mother Tongue

              Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” was about how her mother couldn’t speak English fluently by an average American’s standards even though Amy could understand the exact meaning behind her mother’s words. She talked a lot about her childhood and how her mother would not be properly treated because of her “broken” English and how Amy would usually be the one on the phone talking with doctors pretending to be her own mother. She even goes to say that she was actually embarrassed and ashamed about her mother’s English. In the end though, Amy describes how she loves the way her mother speaks and how much she was inspired by her to write books that everyone could understand. One quote I was really drawn to was one about her mother on page 117 that really reminded me of my own mother, “I wanted to capture what language ability tests can never reveal: her intent, her passion, her imagery, the rhythms of her speech and the nature of her thoughts.”

                This passage really hit home for me because of my own mother and my experiences during my childhood. My mother was the only one out of her 6 sisters and 2 brothers to learn English and worked hard every day to master it. She even went to night classes where she actually met my father, who was her teacher at the time.  She moved to America with him and struggled with the language. She couldn’t seem to understand all the exceptions to the rules and the way the words looked didn’t match how they sounded. Nevertheless, she worked hard every day to try to blend her own “broken” English into a natural American born’s English.  I too find myself speaking differently to her than I would my peers so I felt a connection to Amy Tan in this piece. I have to say that I agree with her in the end because it’s the meaning behind the words that count, not the “broken” English.   

My World of Reading

Timeline

2 years old: Attempted to read books. Kind of hard to when it’s upside down.

4 years old: Was taught how to read Green Eggs and Ham by my mother. I HATED it. I hated the way the    words sounded out of my mouth and hated how they were spelled. I was always crying because I disliked it so much and my mother always got frustrated.

6 years old: I tried to stay away from books as much as I could. I didn’t want to read since it left me angry and upset, not that my parents tried to encourage me to read much during that time. My days mostly consisted with going outside to play and practicing piano.

8 years old: The first book I owned was a surprise gift from my mother.  It was from the American Girl collection and I honestly didn’t know what to do with it. I wasn’t a big reader at the time and I didn’t think that such a pretty book was meant to be read; it had a picture of a young beautiful girl on it and the pages were lined with gold. It wasn't until 2 years later that I actually picked it up and began to read it.

10 years old: The Accelerated Reading program at the elementary school got me to read again. At first, I really just wanted the points to get cool prizes but after the first few books I forgot about the points and just started reading for fun. The stories would take me outside my boring world and bring me to a land with such adventure and fun! I remember walking into the library and the librarian would say, “Getting another book today, Nicole?” I continued this process until elementary school ended.

12 years old: The summer between elementary school and junior high was the best. Because both of my parents worked, my sister and I spent the night at my aunt’s house and she would take us to the library every day. We would spend hours there reading and take armfuls of books back to her house to read some more. Out of everyone in my family, my aunt Julia encouraged me the most to read what I liked and to have fun with it.

13 years old: You would think that junior high would be a time to get serious in your studies since it sets the foundations of your work ethic, but I found that I didn’t have to study that hard to get the good grades I wanted. I did all my homework early and had tons of time to read. I would even pull all-nighters because I just couldn’t put the book down. Sure, I was quite tired the next day, but it was worth it to me.

14-15 years old: My mother started destroying/ threatening to destroy my books because I was reading more than studying for tests and homework. It made me scared to buy or even borrow books; I didn’t want the books to be harmed.

15-16 years old: I tried to read as often as I could but could hardly find the time once I started attending the Utica Academy for International Studies. It really made me upset because I used books as a stress release.

17 years old-now: I now borrow books from my friend since I see her more than the library. I really can’t wait until I have time to read again. I miss it so much.

Is Writing Important?

[In my opinion, writing is important because it makes others understand you.]  Actually, as a music student, I find that writing is difficult for me. I mostly find that what I can’t express in words I can express in music. Not only that, but I believe actions speak louder than words. Even though I say this, I can understand why writing can be important for academic purposes. While language and spoken words fade, books and writing last forever. For example, if there weren’t any books about the Holocaust, people years from now will forget and history is doomed to repeat itself. 
This is fairly difficult for me to talk about. Like I mentioned before, I usually use music to express how I feel so while I cannot tell exactly why I think writing is important, I do enjoy reading very much. They teach me about morals and bravery and the author takes me to a different place where the character’s troubles are my own and we go through it together.
I think that the kind of writing I’m going to be doing in my career is probably composing music, if that’s what I plan to go in to. I might have to do some essays about musical structure and analyzing music. Since I don’t know where my music career will take me, I cannot say for sure what I’m going to be writing in the future.
Has there ever been a time where I was misunderstood? Yes, but when I explain my true intentions, everything was cleared up. It’s not the words that helped the person understand me, but the actions I took to insure I was understood.