250 words a day.
4/15
Touchpoint: Choosing an Analog or Digital Project p. 176-7
In my own imagined multimedia presentation that would have an accompanying handout for members of the audience, I would make the presentation related to my multimodal project. I would create a presentation about the decriminalization of sex work. While my presentation would obviously be projected on some sort of screen or wall behind me, the hand outs would be electedly different. I think it’s important for different elements to contribute different information or different intentions.
The presentation’s subject would be the decriminalization of sex work. Within the presentation aspect of the project the information would include topical points and some statistics and quotes. The topic points would include the different types of legislation, who advocates for them, and why they’re harmful and why they’re not as sufficient as decriminalization. Of the different legislative policies--criminalization, the nordic model, and decriminalization--I would spend the most time on the nordic model. The people involved in sex work advocacy who generally oppose decriminalization do so because they posit that the nordic model, also called end demand, is sufficient and more desirable. I would do this to better advance my point that decriminalization is the better choice.
The hand out would include a small synopsis of each method and why it either does or does not work. Additionally, I would include a list of statistics. I think it’s important for people to be able to better interact with the statistics and to have them more on hand. Additionally, I would try to include some personal experience quoted from a sex worker advocating for decriminalization.
4/3
Chapter 4 Reading Annotations
How do you start a multimodal project?
What are you supposed to produce?
Conventions such as audience, interest, intention
Brainstorming your project ideas
Combine content and form
Record design ideas quickly, evaluate later
Pitching your project
Short and informal presentation or write-up that briefly conveys your intitial project concept
Explains what, how
Means of convincing audience members who have some stake in what you are proposing that you understand the situation/issue, have interesting and relevant approach, can accomplish project at hand
Designing your pitch
Rhetorical situation
Topic
Genre
Design relative, appropriate
Means to create desired outcome
Drafting to stakeholder expectations
Includes conducting research on project’s issue or topic
Using the feedback loop
Checking your work with your stakeholders
Peer review, workshopping
Designing for your primary audience
Work to meet needs of primary audience
Effectively analyze the rhetorical situation of the museum’s call for proposals
Understand main context, purpose, audience
4/2
Chapter 3 Reading Annotations
Why Is Genre Important in Multimodal Projects?
-genre, genre conventions, genre analysis
Genre and multimodality
what has already been said about a topic and how other authors ahve designed their texts
How:
how do other authors present
which of their texts seem to address its rhetorical situation most effectively?
Author:
Writer, designer, author, composer: people who make the texts
How do you establish a personal or brand credibility? What multimodal elements make your text trustworthy? Does it matter for the audience?
Does the author have a certain reputation? Does the text work to support or to alter it? Which is needed in this situation?
What other types of info in the text will help convince readers of your brand’s credibility, character, and reputation?
Genre:
“Static categories of text in broad terms”
What audiences expect from a type of composition
Understanding Genre Conventions:
The features that audiences expect from a text
Subgenres: groups of similar genres that fall under the same category
Multimodal genres: defining the what and the how
Choices can seem overwhelming, or mandated or is self-evident
Static and dynamic genres:
Static: analog presentations that are often found distributed in printed forms, such as posters, flyers, brochures, reports, paintings, and the like, but may appear in three-dimensional forms
Intended to read as a singular object, in one glance
They don’t move or change over time or with user interaction
Dynamic: do change and often timeline based or require user interaction to work
Videos, websites, presentations, performances, usually digital but not limited
non/linearity, representation and association in genres
Linear: one word after the other, forming meaning from words that build
Nonlinear: flash-forward and flashbacks, adds dynamic dimension
Representation: re-presentation
Guiding metaphor
Represents idea
Association: uses an idea or concept related to your main purpose and uses a part of it to stand for a whole
Genre analysis: analyzing the what and the how
Genre analysis is meant to help readers and potential authors understand the audience, purpose, and context in which a text was deigned
Analysing genre conventions
Consider what will be said, how it will be said, who will see it, how who will see it will influence
Questions for genre analysis:
How is text written and designed
Convey meaning
How are these multimodal elements organized in the text? Do they create hierarchies of emphasis? Spatial relationships?
Does text contain a compination of other genres?
Mixture work together to convey meaning
How might you define the genre or subgenres of the text?
What conventions are different from main genre
What is the purpose of this particular genre in relation to this particular rhetorical situation? What does the genre expect from its readers?
What if the genre is unclear?
Researching texts includes researching other genres to be able to determin
Shared social circumstances, rhetorical situation
4/1
Chapter 2 Reading Annotations
Reverse Outline Deconstruction
How does Rhetoric Work in Multimodal Projects?
Rhetoric and multimodality
Effective vs successful texts
Purpose, persuasion, audience-geared
Rhetoric study of making texts that effectively persuade an audience toward change
Analysing a rhetorical situation
Audience: reach/who
Purpose: what/why
Context: when/where
Choices: design/how
Audience
Intended readership
Stakeholders, teachers, clients, readers, others
Who is rhetorical audience
Who is intended audience
Who might be secondary audience
What values or opinions do the primary and secondary audiences hold
How does the author use design elements to appeal to values and opinions
Purpose
What is this text meant to accomplish
Large scale purpose or secondary purpose
Billboard has two different purposes or more
Overall intention
What multimodal elements lead you to this conclusion
Might there be one or more secondary intentions and why
Context
Physical
Where or how
Where is place, how is how it’s meant to be read
What surrounds it
When was it made
Analysing context:
Medium
Print, app, web, video, etc
Why did author choose this
Why wouldn’t another one be better
Where did you find the text
Publication venue: book, newspaper, album, television, etc
Historical conventions for this type of text
Materials, media, publishing venues available at the time
Social and cultural connotations within the text
Colors, puctures, phrases used
Technologies
How will readers interact with this text
Will it be read on a person’s phone or tablet while walking or sitting or etc or on a desktop computer in a public library or on a laptop outside or inside
Analysing design choices
Emphasis
Contrast
Color
Organization
Alighment
Proximity
Writing and designing rhetorically
Analysing case studies
3/25
Rhetorical Analysis of CCDP Text outlining/drafting:
4. Pedagogical Implications: “academic writing is worth doing and teaching” (30).
hunting/gathering model has heuristic potential
Helps to understand value
Self-examination
Those who teach academic writing need to work on building genuine research communities
Need to downplay teacher-as-audience roles and encourage writing to and for peers
“The starting point for research and writing might be a shared question, a problem, a gap in the collective knowledge of the community, preferably student-generated, not teacher-assigned” (30).
Promote reading and non-library research
View academic research/writing as constructive, personal process worth sharing
Invite students to participate in different research tasks
Help students enrich their own processes
5. Conclusion/process
“I even divided this article up into a procedures/results/implications format.”
“Research is writing … there is no such thing as knowledge that is dissociated from discourse.”
“What we do when we write academically can be enriched by learning what others do, expanding our discourse” (32).
Thoughts: “academic writing is worth doing and teaching” (30). Is an important point to include in any paper, but it’s especially important to include in one that is discussing multimodality in a class entitled “multimodal composition.” The way that the author came about having this discussion and then writing this paper and doing it this way was very unique and interesting and it was unlike anything I’ve experienced before. The context in which he began the idea of this paper is uniquely important to consider and include. That context and the author’s intentions are largely informed and influenced by the author’s rhetorical situation.
3/24
Findings
“The coding form was not capable of capturing the complexity of what the subjects did, their ability to recall their experiences, or their enthusiasm about their work” (27).
“All of the subjects recalled writing out of interest, not because of some external compulsion.”
“The remembered motivation to write academically was internal, not externally imposed.”
“Starting points included conversations with peers, reading the work of a peer, listening to a paper by a peer, and the use of language with a community of careful readers in mind.”
“All eight subjects recalled complex academic processes and talked about both the sloppiness and richness of their process … in terms of ‘hunting’ and ‘gathering,’ they remembered moving freely and flexibly between strategic hunting and heuristic gathering, and described moments of dissonance, discovery, and revision of both plan and material” (27).
Differences in disciplines
Division between types of discipline was reflected in the focus of the work
“During each interview, however, I found the postnarrative discussion to be more useful than the narrative itself. When I attempted to discuss my own interpretations of what I was hearing, and present my perceptions of patterns across the disciplines, the subjects were quick to offer some important reservations” (29).
“Moreover, the actual writing that academics do may well be both expressive and transactional, a form of effective communication and a mode of learning.”
“When I asked if the research-before-writing approach of the scientists led to a kind of direct and strategic translating, or writing, the physicist told me that he uses writing expressively, instrumentally, to help him understand what he is trying to say. So even though he postpones the writing, it is, for him both heuristic and strategic--both a mode of learning and a form for communicating what he has learned. Thus, the function of academic writing cannot be regarded as only one of clearly transmitting knowledge (hunting mode). Nor can it be regarded as only one of discovering knowledge (gathering mode): it is too rich, when it is done well and sincerely, to categorize--even by discipline.”
“...the postnarrative discussion led me, at last, to a relatively simple truth: among academics, the research/writing process is recursive, too complicated to code, and incredibly rich; although there might be some trends in different disciplines, an individual academic writer needs to be characterized independently, and probably characterized differently during different research and writing occasions” (30).
3/23
Rhetorical Analysis of CCDP Text:
Research Procedure
Decided to guide his own research with a process model from two colleagues in the English department developed to teach advanced writing classes.
“Academic and professional writing is a complex, recursive process that includes both research, or data-gathering, and reading from start to finish … we agreed that academic and professional writers develop a sense of rhetorical purpose as the process unfolds, not strictly before the acts of researching and writing. Thus writing that includes research of any kind must be seen as being both “strategic and “heuristic.” Not only do researchers/writers need to collect data and write with an established and focused sense of their goal (strategic work), but they also need to accommodate and consider unexpected data and insights that are discovered during the process (heuristic work)” (24).
Decided on “bimodal: to account for both the strategic and heuristic aspects of the process” segmented into stages:
Non-linguistic (research-based) “hunters”
Linguistic (writing based) “gatherers”
Collect data
Sift data rhetorically, keeping what’s relevant to audience and purpose and discarding what is irrelevant
Seek patterns in data and use those patterns to either make or confirm hypothesis
Translate findings into writing
“Implicit in this segmentation is the notion that research/writing is a form of discourse that includes both epistemology and rhetoric: its ultimate goal is not only the private discovery of new knowledge, but also the effective transmission of that knowledge to a community of interested others.”
Used model heuristically, because it showed that it lacked how to document process of research of others (“it helped me make my own subjective sense of what I heard from the subjects” [26])
Then, Klein explained the model to subjects (students), and asked them to respond to the model itself. (i.e., analyzed his own process/procedure)
“I found the post-narrative interview to be the most useful aspect of the procedure”.
3/22
Klein
Rhetorical Analysis of CCDP Text drafting:
Pre-reading notes:
Heuristic: a problem-solving pattern that enables a person to discover or learn something for themselves
Question: How can we teach students to research more like researchers do?
First-person narrative
Intro
“I knew they were writing research papers because they were not writing at all--merely copying. I imagined, then, that they saw their purpose as one of lifting and transporting textual substance from one location, the library, to another, their teachers’ briefcases. Not only were they not writing, but they were not reading: I detected no searching, analyzing, evaluating, synthesizing, selecting, rejecting, etc” (23).
“Some years later, I sat at one of the college tables, paraphrasing, summarizing, and quoting. Sometimes, still, I go to the night library, building my own authority by using the texts of others, carefully documenting” (24).
Conclusion: Writing Researched Arguments (155)
Two views of research: a process of collecting information for its own sake, and the discovery and purposeful use of information.
Emphasis on the use and shape of info that enables conversations
Show that you understand the conversation
What others have said in the past
What the context is
What you anticipate is the direction this conversation might take
Context denotes a process of “weaving together”.
What is at stake for you and your reader?
Provide means to move a conversation along and to say something new
“Research as a social process”
3/21
Rhetorical Analysis of CCDP Text drafting:
Greene
Entering the conversation: what topics have people been talking about, what’s a relevant problem, what kind of evidence might persuade, possible objections, what is at stake in this argument
“Writing as a form of dialogue”
Identify an issue
Identify the situation
Frame a good question
Can be answered w/ tools you have
Conveys clear idea of who question/answer is for
Organized around an issue
Explores: “how,” “why,” “whether,” and “extent to which”
Framing as a Critical Strategy for Writing, Reading, and Doing Research
“Describing the lens, or perspective, from which writers present their arguments” (149).
“Framing encourages you to name your position, distinguishing the way you think about the world from the way others do” (149).
“Naming also makes what you say memorable through key terms and theories” (149-50).
“Readers may not remember every detail… but they recall the principle around which he organizes his details” (150).
“Framing forces you to offer both a definition and description of the principle around which your argument develops” (150).
Defining argument gives readers something to respond to
“Framing specifies your argument, enabling others to respond to your argument and to generate counterarguments that you will want to engage in the spirit of conversation.”
“Framing helps you organize your thoughts, and readers’, in the same way that a title for an essay, a song, or a painting does” (150).
Conclusion: Writing Researched Arguments (155)
Two views of research: a process of collecting information for its own sake, and the discovery and purposeful use of information.
Emphasis on the use and shape of info that enables conversations
Show that you understand the conversation
What others have said in the past
What the context is
What you anticipate is the direction this conversation might take
Context denotes a process of “weaving together”.
What is at stake for you and your reader?
Provide means to move a conversation along and to say something new
“Research as a social process”
3/20
Rhetorical Analysis of CCDP Text
Is made up of three “moves”.
Move 1: Establishing a territory - here the author “sets the context for his or her research, providing necessary background on the topic” - The authors of Sustainable Learning Spaces establish a specific territory. The research conducted was based on the need for the creation, development, and construction of sustainable learning centers in the composition-writing field. Authors establish how technologies are developing, which is the reason academic learning centers should be to. The authors go further and discuss the effects of these new learning spaces on students and instructors.
This includes either:
Claiming Centrality,
Making Topic Generalizations (makes statements on current knowledge) - Authors mention another person's current data to strengthen their argument, “As Diana G. Oblinger (2006) explained in Learning Spaces, reconceptualizing spaces can change the ways students learn, the ways information technologies are used, and the ways we think about and approach learning.”
or Reviewing Previous Items of Research (citing someone who's done it already). - Here the authors mention several researchers who have studied this topic. For example, “As Lopez and Gee (2006) explained, the college focused on classroom design, technology use and adaptability, innovative spatial relations and ergonomic design as goals throughout the creation process.” Another example, “Estrella Mountain Community College in Arizona began working in 2005 to “maximize learning opportunities through the design of innovative learning spaces and the integration of technology,” employing radical flexibility through their Learning Studios Project.” Third example, Santa Monica College, a community college based in California, is “engaging students in new ways with the help of a digital learning studio….Funded by a Department of Education grant, the studio includes multiple screens with advanced touch technology, special education software, a Smart Response system with 24 clickers, and eight iPads.” https://ccdigitalpress.org/book/sustainable/s1/patterson/index.html
Basically Move 1 entails citing/incorporating others research/data/work, to make your assumptions sound more credible and necessary. - Authors established a territory by explaining the need for new learning-technology filled centers, and how these sustainable learning spaces are beneficial.
3/11
Midterm reflection:
Having you been adding useful words and definitions to the glossary? How many have you added?
Yes! This is one of my favorite assignments because it’s the most direct, and it helps me understand things much more clearly.
Do you feel that you are performing up to your abilities? Why or why not?
Aside from outside of class issues with my job that has interfered with my ability to participate in class, I feel as though I’m performing up to my ability. This class has a lot of work and it was very hard and confusing to nail down how to properly document everything and to upload everything to multiple places, but eventually understanding made me feel better. I feel I’ve performed up to my abilities because this is not a normal course and no other course operates this way, so to be able to participate and acclimate I think is an accomplishment for all of us in this course.
Are you participating in class discussions and peer collaboration activities to the best of your ability?
Yes.
Have you gone beyond the minimum requirements for class participation? If so, how have you done so?
I’ve done at least the minimum requirements for class participation in each category except for the how to and why’s. To compensate for that, I’ve done extra in other categories to compensate, like glossary terms, peer meetings, teacher meetings, and other areas.
What has improved in your writing so far? What still needs work?
The new range of topics and material has improved my writing so far. I still need work with normal grammar and organizational things.
At this point, what grade do you think have earned for the class and why? What supports your argument?
At this point, I think I would have a B. I have completed all of the necessary assignments and I’m aware and working on the make up work I need to do. I feel confident about where I’m at and what I need to do to reach an A by the end of the semester.
What are your goals for the second half of the semester?
For the second half of the semester, I want to finish stronger than I started.
3/10
Midterm Reflection:
Have you turned in your major project drafts?
yes
What seems to be the general reaction to your projects from your peers?
I’m sharing my work closely with Briana who has given me good feedback. I mostly just need to work on making my project more about the composition than the specific topic.
At this point, you should be making most GLOBAL revisions. Are the majority of your revisions global or local? What kinds of revisions have you been making?
GLOBAL--re-seeing the paper's audience, purpose, persona, content, and organization
organization
LOCAL--spelling, punctuation, and word choice
Word choice
How many entries have you made on your Writing Process Log?
45, but I still have to update it because I started it late.
How much time are you spending writing/working for this class? (This involves more than preparing to write the papers--reading, conferencing, responding to readings, etc.). Use information from your process log to respond.
A lot!!! Each task takes me between 20-40 minutes and I do 3-5 tasks at a time.
Are you keeping up with your 250-words a day? How many have you completed? Have you been completing the required responses?
Yes, I’ve completed at least twenty.
Are your responses engaging with the readings and the materials for class? Do they illustrate your thinking on readings, papers, yourself as a writer, and your personal research interests?
I think my responses are very engaging. They’re usually a chance for me to think through and process assignments or parts of an assignment, or they’re topical and help me better understand terms or parts of an assignment. They’re good for me as a writer because they’re an additional chance to exercise writing, but they mostly allow me to sort of free write and think freely. They also give me more material and room to pull from for bigger assignments.
3/5
Analog Day Narrative
I always like to think that I’ll wake up early enough to read, make breakfast, write a little, or to do anything else other than just rush to get ready for wherever I’m supposed to be, maybe I’ll have enough time to shower. I don’t usually. Have time, that is--I’m mostly able to shower. I don’t make coffee at home much anymore, especially the past five years as an employee of a coffee shop. Even more especially the past year, as I’ve lived about four blocks from the shop where I work. So I wake up, change, brush my teeth, and swing by Bandit to grab coffee. Unless I am going to work, I will usually drive or walk to Bandit to get a coffee. I always get the same thing, a black cup of drip coffee. If I really need it, if I’m tired, have a lot to do, or if I feel like my to go cup of black coffee isn’t enough, I’ll stand at the counter and talk with one or some of my coworkers while I drink a shot of espresso. There is almost always at least one regular customer turned acquaintance or friend, and if I’m lucky it’s Bob or Charlie--two different old men of completely different professions and personality, who I am independently and equally endeared by. I talk to Bob about writing, books, New York, and the stock market, and I talk to Charlie about my studies or how Florida’s changed. I’ll still take my coffee to go.
3/4
What does it mean to be a multimodal hybrid course?
I think the interesting thing about both of these phenomenons, multimodality and a college hybrid course, is that they are sort of related concepts. Each thing is a single, independent endeavor made up of multiple parts that are different, either from different categories or made from different types of composition.
Google’s definition for “multimodal”
mul·ti·mod·al
/ˈməltiˌmōd,ˈməltī-/
adjective
characterized by several different modes of activity or occurrence.
STATISTICS(of a frequency curve or distribution) having several modes or maxima.
STATISTICS(of a property) occurring with multimodal distribution.
Google’s definition for “composition”
com·po·si·tion
/ˌkämpəˈziSH(ə)n/
Filter definitions by topic
See definitions in:
noun
1.the nature of something's ingredients or constituents; the way in which a whole or mixture is made up."the social composition of villages"
2.a work of music, literature, or art."Chopin's most romantic compositions"
Google’s definition for “hybrid”
hy·brid
/ˈhīˌbrid/
noun
1.BIOLOGYthe offspring of two plants or animals of different species or varieties, such as a mule (a hybrid of a donkey and a horse)."a hybrid of wheat and rye"
2.a thing made by combining two different elements; a mixture."the final text is a hybrid of the stage play and the film"
adjective
of mixed character; composed of mixed parts."Mexico's hybrid postconquest culture"
Each of these ideologies combines multifaceted endeavors to create one cohesive thing. To be a multimodal composition course that is hybrid means to be a multimodal class!
Try not to use “thing”
2/28
So far in class we’ve started to discuss what a rhetorical analysis is. This is a subject that it seems like every class has a section about. Here is the google definition that is the first thing that pops up when a person types “rhetorical analysis” into the search bar in google: “A rhetorical analysis is an essay that breaks a work of non-fiction into parts and then explains how the parts work together to create a certain effect—whether to persuade, entertain or inform.” Something google then references is rhetorical criticism. When a person scrolls further down on the page of google results, a wikipedia definition for rhetorical criticism shows up. Here is the result for the small blurb of a short snippet of a definition for what a rhetorical criticism is: Rhetorical criticism analyzes the symbolic artifacts of discourse—the words, phrases, images, gestures, performances, texts, films, etc. that people use to communicate.” One source deconstructs a rhetorical analysis in the frame of what a person who would be required to both consider and include when that person sets out to make a rhetorical criticism. Here is the bullet point list for what those details would be: “Your rhetorical analysis will need: • A short, neutral summary of the text • A thesis that argues the most important rhetorical features of the text and their effects • Several paragraphs that each include a topic sentence that introduces a rhetorical feature, evidence from the text, and an explanation of how the feature does or does not help achieve the author’s purpose • A conclusion that summarizes your argument and provides a final evaluation of the text After you have read and annotated your text, you will have an abundance of evidence to draw from “
2/27
Rhetorical Analysis of Social Media drafting:
To use Facebook, a person first needs an email. Once that person creates a facebook account with an email address, they will then enter their basic information: name, birth date, occupation and previous occupation if desired, education, where they live, and where they’re from. In addition to uploading a “profile picture,” as well as any other photos desired (albums of different life events or favored photos desired to share), the person will now begin to search and add to a list of friends--people who are able to see and interact with the user’s content. This interaction will be ongoing, it will show up on their homepage “feed,” and each person’s relevant content (that with their name on or attached to it, or that they individually post) will show up on their own individual page. The first media sharing network we analyzed was Instagram. This media network was designed for sharing photographs and videos online. Instagram is neat because of its visual sharing features. Users are able to share live stories, edit their photos with different filters offered by IG, follow their friends or favorite celebrities, chat or DM other users, and users even have the chance to gain a following/fans. IG members can also engage with each other through comments, likes, and tags. Instagram is great for people who enjoy photography and videography. Also this platform can be used for free marketing services, which is awesome for businesses who want to attract more consumers. To use Instagram, a person will create an account using an email or by linking it to their facebook account, and then the person will begin uploading photographs of their choosing in addition to “following” their friends or other individuals they’re interested in keeping up with. Each photo--their own, and those posted by people they follow--will show up in their feed. The new user can “like” photos or comment. Instagram bought by facebook A way this site is influenced by the past
2/26
Rhetorical Analysis of Social Media draft work:
Our group will do a rhetorical analysis of three types of social media networks: social networks, media sharing networks, and social shopping networks. We chose to analyze these social media platforms because these specific networks are the ones people use on a daily basis. Through these media platforms, individuals are able to connect, share, and shop effortlessly. It’s important to discuss what distinguishes these types of networks from one another and their different uses and intentions, and if those intentions and uses differ. Facebook: This social media’s premise is based around users creating written posts (updates, opinions, stories) as well as posting photos or videos. This social network allows its users to find each other online, which is great for users who live thousands of miles apart. It’s an easy way to communicate to friends and family. Facebook offers neat features such as messenger, Facebook Live which is a video feature, allows users to make a public or private profile, and allows users to share written and media content. Overall it’s a great platform for people who want to keep in touch, and a great way to find out more information about a person. The design of Facebook is minimal and is easy to navigate. Facebook’s design: colors are blue, white, black text as a default, and then the additional colors of other texts and pictures people post. Some icons have varying different colors. People’s profile pictures are displayed text to their post on a person’s main feed that’s also designed similarly to a person’s individual facebook page, which usually has an additional “cover photo” as a header.
2/22
How can we support each other to help meet the deadlines in the class?
To meet deadlines in this class, it is always helpful for classmates to support one another. This class is even more particular, it being hybrid--split between being in person and being online. It’s already online-based more so than others with a “designated” class time on line in addition to its in-person scheduled meeting time.The first way we can support one another is by upholding the set expectations for interaction on different assignments. With each assignment, there are founded platforms for us to engage with one another and to discuss anything we might need to. These platforms include canvas discussion boards in addition to email facilitated through canvas. On the canvas discussion boards, we are able to respond to any discussion-based canvas assignment with thoughts, questions, and concerns. These give notifications which are one of the most accountable ways to adhere to deadlines. A person can also hook up canvas to their phone notifications, so each person someone emails through canvas or posts to a discussion post, the person will receive consecutive notifications on their phone. My next advice for students to help each other meet the deadlines of the course is to do as many assignments with a partner and in a group. Having a partner or working in groups has many benefits. The first benefit to working in a group or having a partner is the accountability. The next, and my favorite, benefit to working in a group or with a partner is to have one person or multiple people to communicate with and to keep you up to date and to answer any questions.
2/21
Three strategies for meeting the “hybrid” portion of the text:
1. Process Log Participation Points Baseline Sheet
The “Writing Process Log Participation Points” excel sheet that Dr. Gresham has prepared for us is I think the biggest tool and standard to maintain the expectations for this course and its hybrid structure. Not only does this sheet have a list of possible participation points for different assignments available, but it has a section that notes how many points are required for each different type of assignment or exercise. This list has really helped me keep up with what’s expected.
2. Class Partner
The second most helpful thing I’ve found--in any class, but especially this one--is to have at least one person that you can communicate with regularly about questions, thoughts, or concerns. Specifically, I like having someone I am comfortable sending text messages to when I have random, seemingly insignificant questions or confusions. Because this course is so multifaceted, it’s really easy to get confused or to miss something. Having someone to text quickly rather than to wait on email is mostly just comforting and it makes this class feel less pressurized.
3. Set designated “class” time outside of class.
With any class, it’s important to set a specific, even routine time to complete work. However, since we only meet once a week for this class but that’s not made up for in a longer class time like usual, I think it’s important and really helpful to designate a separate 1-2 hour time period for “class”.
2/19
What is fair use and why does it matter to multimodal composers like us?
Copyright.gov states that Fair Use is “a legal doctrine that promotes freedom of expression by permitting the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works in certain circumstances.” This is intended to allow facilitation of things—words, phrases, claims, etc.—fairly. Mainly, this is directed towards allowing “fair use” within premises like news, news broadcasting, reporting, criticism, commenting, teaching, researching, academics, etc. “Fair use,” in my opinion, is best described as a term and feature of copyright that counters propaganda and censorship. Fair use prohibits a person from copyrighting something and disallowing others to discuss it—the “thing,” copyrighted, or discussion on or about it. Fair use allows copyright the safety and security of not becoming weaponized.
In addition, something else important about “fair use” is to consider profit. This takes intention a step further, ensuring the public has ability to discuss information and educate, securing a democratic factor of information and knowledge, yet it doesn’t give commercialism or consumerism an ability to undermine copyright. People or businesses still cannot profit off of an ability for fair use.
I think this is important because it ensures a lot of important factors involved in multimodal composition and the facilitation of education and information in a way that is fair, public, and regulated. Someone can copyright a phrase, but we, as composers, should be able to either criticize or form opinion on the phrase, the person copyrighting it, or their decision to do so, and it’s important for us to involve ourselves in those discussions in the classroom in addition to circumstance once we leave the classroom.
References
Copyright in General. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-general.html
2/18
Why should we care about citation? What is the purpose of citing sources?
The way I learned about citation was inverted, as I suppose every student’s would be. First as an elementary aged student, I would have first learned not to copy the work of my classmates. Then, as book reports began to arise later down the line of my still grade-school age, I would learn not to plagiarize, to paraphrase and not to copy. This was because, obviously, those words and ideas are not our own, and what I would assume was at the time the foremost intention was to learn how to produce my own work.
In high school and now college, I have learned to cite my sources both in-text and in a reference page or bibliography. I have learned that the importance is not only to produce my own work, but to safegaurd and recognize others for which I have learned from and referenced in order to create my own thoughts, that just because I am rephrasing words with my own, new orchestras of sentences, those thoughts and facts have still come from other places. Citation maintains the integrity of others, and it enables a platform for a new writer or student to assume their own integrity. While protecting our own work by acknowledging others is just as important as accrediting the work of others by their own right, citation is important to a larger proportion because it sustains the importance of words, thought, and conversation. When we cite other sources and we maintain the integrity to do so, we prolong the importance of these words, thoughts, and conversations to continue to exist even longer, and we do it in an academic and professional way.
2/14
Notes from How to and Why:
This week’s how to and why assignments were intended to discuss a person, company, or some sort of producer preparing a rhetorical analysis. These assignments were intended to do a few different things and their completion is going to benefit us as a class in several different ways as well. As students, when we began to compose these individual assignments we started the process of engaging with the material ourselves. Us completing an assignment about preparing a rhetorical analysis was us also individually and independently preparing our own rhetorical analysis. This may have been the point. Additionally, we each shared our own projects with the class. When we shared our projects with the class, we all were learning from one another about the work we produced ourselves and in addition to other angles and thoughts and perspectives that we might have missed or that we did not think of.
Workflow is important to sustain productivity and efficiency
To both exemplify and explain how workflow and collaboration is important
Group work is common, especially in specific courses
2/13
what is rhetorical analysis?
So far in class we’ve started to discuss what a rhetorical analysis is. This is a subject that it seems like every class has a section about. Here is the google definition that is the first thing that pops up when a person types “rhetorical analysis” into the search bar in google: “A rhetorical analysis is an essay that breaks a work of non-fiction into parts and then explains how the parts work together to create a certain effect—whether to persuade, entertain or inform.” SOmething google then references is rhetorical criticism. When a person scrolls further down on the page of google results, a wikipedia definition for rhetorical criticism shows up. Here is the result for the small blurb of a short snippet of a definition for what a rhetorical criticism is: Rhetorical criticism analyzes the symbolic artifacts of discourse—the words, phrases, images, gestures, performances, texts, films, etc. that people use to communicate.”
One source deconstructs a rhetorical analysis in the frame of what a person who would be required to both consider and include when that person sets out to make a rhetorical criticism. Here is the bullet point list for what those details would be: “Your rhetorical analysis will need:
• A short, neutral summary of the text
• A thesis that argues the most important rhetorical features of the text and their effects
• Several paragraphs that each include a topic sentence that introduces a rhetorical feature,
evidence from the text, and an explanation of how the feature does or does not help achieve
the author’s purpose
• A conclusion that summarizes your argument and provides a final evaluation of the text
After you have read and annotated your text, you will have an abundance of evidence to draw from “
2/12
What is copyright and why does it matter to multimodal composers like us?
The United States actually has a “copyright” office, something I didn’t know until right now. It’s a part of the Library of Congress. Copyright, specifically, is a form of protection grounded in the U.S. Constitution. Copyright is something deemed by law for things of originality, for original works, things authored originally, on a “fixed tangible medium of expression.” It’s better explained by how the website, copyright.gov, explains it, “a form of intellectual property law, protects original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture.” Copyright maintains its foundation by not “protecting” intangible things, like ideas.
Copyright matters to multimodal composers mostly because it matters to anyone composing anything. Second, one of the premises of multimodality is that it covers different modes of composition, so it’s sort of a safeway for ensuring something is capable of being copyrighted. Additionally, there’s more to protect. Lastly, it’s important because we’re using so many different sources and creating so many different things in this course, so it’s important we both understand what we need protected and that we’re ensuring that we allow other’s the same protection.
References
Copyright in General. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-general.html
2/1
Chapter 2 Reading thoughts and annotations
Reverse Outline Deconstruction
How does Rhetoric Work in Multimodal Projects?
Rhetoric and multimodality
Effective vs successful texts
Purpose, persuasion, audience-geared
Rhetoric study of making texts that effectively persuade an audience toward change
Analysing a rhetorical situation
Audience: reach/who
Purpose: what/why
Context: when/where
Choices: design/how
Audience
Intended readership
Stakeholders, teachers, clients, readers, others
Who is rhetorical audience
Who is intended audience
Who might be secondary audience
What values or opinions do the primary and secondary audiences hold
How does the author use design elements to appeal to values and opinions
Purpose
What is this text meant to accomplish
Large scale purpose or secondary purpose
Billboard has two different purposes or more
Overall intention
What multimodal elements lead you to this conclusion
Might there be one or more secondary intentions and why
Context
Physical
Where or how
Where is place, how is how it’s meant to be read
What surrounds it
When was it made
Analysing context:
Medium
Print, app, web, video, etc
Why did author choose this
Why wouldn’t another one be better
Where did you find the text
Publication venue: book, newspaper, album, television, etc
Historical conventions for this type of text
Materials, media, publishing venues available at the time
Social and cultural connotations within the text
Colors, puctures, phrases used
Technologies
How will readers interact with this text
Will it be read on a person’s phone or tablet while walking or sitting or etc or on a desktop computer in a public library or on a laptop outside or inside
Analysing design choices
Emphasis
Contrast
Color
Organization
Alighment
Proximity
Writing and designing rhetorically
Analysing case studies
1/29
Touchpoint: Analyzing Purpose p.40-1
The American Indian College Fund (AICF) is an interesting concept followed by its misrepresentation in the graphic provided by the textbook. First of all, I think it’s ill-advised to create an ad about Native Americans and only refer to them as “Indians” on it, multiple times. Learning this way deeply disrupts a student's future understanding of this country, Native Americans, and it aids a deeper vast of ignorance. The term “Indian” aided by tribal towers and to have a phrase “To think Indian is to preserve native art made with looms and laptops” makes the infographic a conclusive failure. They didn’t have laptops at the time colonizers pushed them out of their land and killed them. To say just looms and laptops is diminishing, even further.
The most important piece of information is in the smallest font, drowned out and in the corner. It reads: “Help tribal college students preserve their way of thinking [insert phone number].” All of the description talks about “Native Americans,” but the add fails to name the term once. Instead, it creates different terms like “Indian” or “Tribal” to relieve themselves (ad creators) of naming these people native to America.
Instead of focusing on the design elements of this ad, I would start out with choosing accurate information and accurate representation. This ad is dated and unfair. The most important part of an ad or piece of information is that it’s fair and accurate and that it doesn’t succumb to norms even if those norms are more progressive. However, calling a people group by their accurate name should not be progressive.
1/28
Genre Analysis Assignment:
How are these multimodal elements organized in the text? Do they create hierarchies of emphasis? spatial relationships? navigational choices appropriate to the situation?
Elements of organization is an important factor of research project presentation. Hierarchies of emphasis, spatial relationships, and navigational choices are all elements intrinsic to research project presentations. Design is a big factor here, and it’s not aimless. If a person is to create a successful, well-done research project, the design will be intentional and will serve purpose.
Does the text contain a combination of other genres? How does the mixture of genres work together to convey meaning?
Already answered.
How might you define the genre or subgenres of the text? If it is a subgenre, what conventions are different from its main genre that make it seem different?
Research project presentations are a combination of subgenres that come together to create one genre. Conventions from each genre come together and make its one genre different, but it is a genre that is recognized and well-practiced.
What is the purpose of this particular genre in relation to this particular rhetorical situation? What does the genre expect from readers? What does it allow/ask readers to do?
The purpose of this genre is to fulfill its rhetorical situation: a conference or research event intended to present researched information and an argument or intention behind it. The genre expects readers to be willing to read or listen, to intake new information, and to either be open to receive it or to participate in conversation with its presenter.
What does it afford reader to do? What does it afford writers to do?
This genre affords readers to interact with its creator and to involve themselves in a possible new topic for which they were previously unfamiliar and uninvolved. It affords writers to learn to write in a way that’s more direct and that allows other people to interact with their writing.
1/27
Genre Analysis Assignment:
Genre Analysis Assignment: Research Project Presentations
How is the text written and designed? How does a text convey its meaning?
The text in research presentations are written in normal cohesive, complete sentences, however the text is broken up into specific categories and sections depending on the project. The text conveys its meaning by being more direct and informative than creative, but it is structured in a way that is clear yet can contribute to in-person explanation and conversation.
What modes and media does it predominately use? Is it similar to other texts you've seen? How so?
Research Project Presentations use several modes of media. They’re physical, printed pieces intended for both conveying information as well as to serve as a conversational piece. They’re interesting because a presentation should be composed to both allow other people to talk about the project with supplemental information, in addition to being able to exist as its own entity, usually after whatever conference or research presentation is over and the presentation is added to an archive or repository.
So, a research project presentation uses sectioned text under various headings all underneath its title and subtitle. That text and those headings are structured by a graphic design structure suitable to the presentation. Additionally, there is one or more people presenting at whatever event that houses the presentation. It’s similar to other texts I’ve seen because there are many other modes of composition that are primarily intended to communicate researched information for a purpose. Textbooks would be a good example.
1/26
Touchpoint: Mode, Media, and Affordance in Everyday Texts p. 29 (CONT.)
The modes of text and communication I use on a daily basis involve those that I produce and use to communicate as well those that I absorb and receive to be communicated with, whether it’s direct communication or communication I seek to which the communicator is not an active recipient of my response or reaction. I think a good way to break down modes of communication in order to decipher their intention or patternization is to determine the levels of interaction. First, I have listed communication that I produce, which at this point in my life is on a much smaller scale than that of which I do not produce, for example: the news. Modes of communication that I produce can be clumped together to largely communicate my existence, to participate. In these modes of communication I am exchanging with another person or I am producing on a platform that makes exchange available. These are inter-actable communications. Next, there are modes that I do not produce. These, to an extent, are inter-actable, but they are mostly limited to interactions with myself, or they’re carried into other modes to which I interact and communicate with others. These modes and methods involve the larger scale of modes of communication. Again, like the news. In this scenario, when I read a news article from the New York Times, I am not able to communicate back to the writer or the publication or even my computer or phone screen that I use to read it on. I can seek out a mode of communication with either the publication or the specific writer, but that would be venturing into another platform involving other modes, like instagram or email. As for just the news article, I read it, and then I begin to think, interact with myself, and often that sparks communicative conversation with other people that I know if I choose to talk about it, or the article has the agency to inform my thoughts and feelings, causing both my speech, thoughts, and statements to differ.
1/25
Touchpoint: Mode, Media, and Affordance in Everyday Texts p. 29
A list of types of text and communication involved in my daily life:
First, I’ll list text I produce:
A list the night before or sometime during the day
Mode: either written by hand in my scheduled planner, or, more recently, on my phone typed in my notes app
Virtual messages by text, instagram, or email
Mode: by phone via text message, social media app, or gmail app
If I have class or homework, I will produce some form of writing as well as I will interact with peers written work
Mode: google docs, canvas discussion post
Texts I don’t produce that I view or interact with:
Reading
Mode: physical book or online news by notification or through news apps
Reading for school:
Mode: physical textbooks and literature, online school portal canvas, documents produced by teachers usually in google docs or something similar, or articles/sources they link usually via the internet
Additional, separately functioning text on each website/source with tabs and instructions
Mode: text
Music/radio while driving
Mode: radio sometimes but not often, and more often using spotify, various podcasts
Additional text on spotify app and additional text in apple’s podcast app
Advertisements while listening
Mode: verbal communication or visuals with text within a graphic if I am looking at the phone
Things that my boyfriend shows me on his phone, usually on instagram
Mode: phone social media app with short text within it
Television shows
Mode: visual through a TV and text includes
Application with textual options of options to watch, the verbal communication on shows/etc, textual subtitles
1/24
Touchpoint: Examining a Simple Multimodal Text p. 21
After viewing the first image, I was interested in what the context of the second image was rather than being surprised by it. Honestly, I think the text in the book “did you expect to see another woman in the sequence in Image 2,” is kind of funny and ridiculous. Especially being followed by the next sentence, “Why is she here?”
The closeness of the two women in the next image suggest exactly that: closeness or intimacy. I think the most important detail is the tilt of the two women’s heads, because they’re tilted into one another. However, I don’t think that closeness and intimacy has to explicitly indicate love. People, more culturally women, are more inclined toward platonic closeness and intimacy.
The man in the last still is interesting. I don’t know what media these stills came from, but it doesn’t seem as though it’s intended to invoke something innately positive. I feel like this could be intended to provoke the idea that two women should not have ended up together, or at least it’s less likely than one ended up with a man. However, I think this could also be interpreted as maybe the two women are friends, the dude hit on both of them, they’re talking about it, and he’s left feeling like an idiot.
I think framing manipulates the story. By framing and placing certain things next to one another, whomever did so is in control of what thoughts are incited.
The story would be entirely different with any other addition of composition.
1/23
Touchpoint: Mode, Media, and Affordance in Everyday Texts p. 29
When I wake up, like any good millennial, I check my phone. So my notifications are usually the first type of text that I see. Because I have an iPhone, all of the font types are the same, they’re arranged in horizontal square-bubbles in ascending order of receipt. Once I see what emails I have from my gmail app, I will see that it’s nothing life-or-death and check instagram. Instagram has smaller, different but similar text: people’s names, usernames, captions, photos.
Next, I’ll see soap labels, branded and more graphically designed than any initial thing on my phone. Afterwards, I’ll see the minimal text in my car (usually), the text on my digital radio that reads the same song that always starts when I start my car (it starts with LOUD harmonica, and it’s horrible), and once my car moves I’ll see street signs and names of stores along my way to work.
One of the biggest text existences in my everyday schedule is while I’m at work. I work at a busy coffee shop on Central Avenue, and we use an iPad with apple’s Square application as a register and payment processing system. I like it because of my age, because I’m used to iPhones and this app is visually and conceptually similar. At work, we assume different positions when stationed during service. If I am at the register, I am using the iPad, taking orders, communicating with people, printing and depositing order tickets.
It’s interesting to discuss all of these different texts and then think about how they differ and how that’s related to their use and intention. This is similar to the text on my car’s radio. The text on my phone is small, straightforward, intended to quickly communicate information. The text on my soap bottles at the sink and in the shower as well as the text on the business names are intended to appeal to my senses, get my attention. The text at work is different in shape and size, yet it’s straightforward as well, intended to be efficient.
1/22
Touchpoint: Understanding Multimodal Processes p.11
I think I actually have an incredible idea for an app to accompany airport travelers. Instead of coming up with an idea to aid in specific, technical ways, I would choose to formulate an app that accompanies travelers through music and visual entertainment. One of my favorite idealistic things to think about is the sort of movie-esque, montage of normal events that add some sort of other meaning or essence to them that makes it feel like the instance is special, important, or elevated. An app that isn’t framed around something specific to aid a type of person or quality would be the most adaptable to different kinds of people.
Personally, I don’t think there’s an app that can be added to the airport experience to aid (anyone, really) more specifically a blind person as equally a deaf person. For a person to create something that would aid others in their travel experience at the airport, it would likely be an application adaptable to numerous airports because there’s not really a point to have something only help in one since the premise of being in airport is that a person is literally flying to another one, likely unknown. With how much things change, it’s unreliable to expect a developer to have a sufficient ability to keep up to date with all of the construction and changes of every airport. Because of this, and because deaf people can still hear and feel the vibrations of sound, I thought it would be interesting to think about creating an app that accompanies traveling with music. Maybe, there would be buttons for a person to switch which stage of arriving/being at the airport they are at, the music coinciding. Mainly, traveling and being at the airport is such a dreaded and complicated experience, I thought doing something a little bit more whimsical and enjoyable would be more enjoyable and save the added chaos.
1/16
Reading/Annotations Chapter 1: p. 1-3
Right off the bat, the first sentence of this text interested me. I could readily understand that the other methods of composition were multimodal: biology posters, powerpoint presentations, memes. However, it surprised me that the author claimed that academic essays were multimodal. When I think of an academic essay, I only think of it as one mode of composition: words. Without much introduction to multimodality, I am assuming it is a form of composed communication that uses multiple modes, like a combination of image, words, sound, etc. This would be something that I hope the texts continues to explain.
As I kept reading, I came to understand that just because words in itself seem to be presumptuously one dimensional, it doesn’t necessarily have to be limited. I think that words, writing, can begin to be multidimensional and multimodal when they are shared, published, or presented. Maybe even the visual structure of an article could contribute to its multimodality. An academic article has different sections and types of writing, like titles formatted differently than other text, an abstract maybe, headings, and then a bibliography, references, and often footnotes. Something I would be interested in asking is if different kinds, uses, and implementations of one specific type of mode of composition could classify something as multimodal. Even a person reading someone else’s writing becomes two dimensional, and that might be what this text and this course is trying to relay. When I read the text, just the writing sans its pictures and graphics, I hear them audibly in my head. Maybe everyone doesn’t read like that, but me doing so at least serves a purpose for my own new understanding of how an academic article can be multimodal.
1/15
Daily Beginning Writing:
My best assumption is that multimodal composition is composing in a way that's beyond two dimensional. Whether that's physically beyond two dimensional or the composition is a form of writing or communicating that does so with consideration and knowledge of other forms and venues of communication and composition, I would assume that "multimodal composition" is something that doesn't flatline with just writing. As far as I know, I don't have that much interest in seriously integrating myself in other forms of composition beyond general writing and the career paths that will hopefully come with that, but I do want to learn more about different kinds of and purposes for composition so that I can write better. I think that understanding composition as a genre, its uses, limits, different vareities, and eccetra would help anyone write better. I read a couple publications by an author recently that I feel might exemplify what we might learn or talk about in this course. Valeria Luiselli wrote two seperate books about one topic with one shared experience. She specializes, right now, in immigration, and she used her experience volunteering in New York City's immigration court in addition to her family road trip towards the border in Texas and Arizona to write a nonfiction essay book called Tell Me How It Ends as well as a fictionalized version of her stories, a novel called Lost Children Archives. That was really interesting to me, and one hope I would have for this course would be to learn how to navigate things like that, or to at least learn about ways that two different entities about one thing could be purposeful. Last semester I learned a lot about how I need to learn more about cultivating what explicit audience I am writing for when writing, and one goal I have for this course is to better articulate that endeavor when writing. Additionally, after reading most of Luiselli's work, I found myself also really interested in immigration and refugee support, so if research becomes an aspect of this course, that might be something I would consider spending time with.