Reflection on Project 3

In this blog I will reflect on project 3. Specifically, I will be answering the nine questions on page 520 of Writing Public Lives.

Screenshot from my computer, 11/22/15

1. What was specifically revised from one draft to another?

• The overall idea of my project changed from one draft to another. I originally wanted to address the lack of teachers in computer science, but decided to instead address the lack awareness about computer science in high school students.

2. Point to global changes: how did you reconsider your thesis or organization?

• My organization stayed roughly the same. I began by introducing the issue briefly, and getting right into my proposal argument.

3. What led you to these changes? A reconsideration of audience? A shift in purpose?

• Changing the overall point I wanted to argue came about after I had a shift in purpose. I wanted to work towards improving awareness of computer science in general.

4. How do these changes affect your credibility as an author? 

• These changes don't affect my credibility as an author very much. The final product is not fundamentally different.

5. How will these changes better address the audience or venue?

• These changes better address the younger audience I'm trying to target since I'm focusing on high school students.

6. Point to local changes: how did you reconsider sentence structure and style?

• I changed my style to putting mostly bulleted information on my slides and describing them in better detail in my voiceover.

7. How will these changes assist your audience in understanding your purpose?

• These changes will help my audience understand my purpose more clearly since the presentation is better structured.

8. Did you have to reconsider the conventions of the particular genre in which you are writing?

• I did have to reconsider the conventions of a PowToon. I was using too many words in my original draft.

9. Finally, how does the process of reflection help you reconsider your identity as a writer?

• The process of reflection helps me realize why I made certain changes in the entire process. If I didn't reflect, I would never understand exactly why I made various decisions.

Publishing Public Argument

In this blog I will link my final project on a public argument. I will also give some important information about my intended audience, argumentation approach, and use of rhetoric.

My Beautiful PowToon

Screenshot from my computer, 11/22/15

1. Mark with an "x" where you feel your target audience currently stands on the issue (before reading/watcing/hearing your argument) below:

←----------------------------------------------------|----X----------------------------------------------------->

Strongly agree                                 Totally neutral                        Strongly disagree

       

2. Now mark with an "x" where you feel your target audience should be (after they've read/watched/heard your argument) below:

←------------------X---------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------->

Strongly agree                               Totally neutral                          Strongly disagree

                                                                                                                   

3. Check one (and only one) of the argument types below for your public argument:

         ___X___ My public argument proposes a solution for a problem that is being debated.

4. Briefly explain how your public argument doesn’t simply restate information from other sources, but provides original context and insight into the situation:

My public argument provides original context and insight since my specific proposal is one that has not been provided before. Nobody else has presented my idea in exactly the way I did.

5. Identify the specific rhetorical appeals you believe you've employedi n your public argument below:

Ethical or credibility-establishing appeals

                    

                    __X___ Referring to credible sources (established journalism, credentialed experts, etc.)

                    __X___ Employing carefully chosen key words or phrases that demonstrate you are credible (proper terminology, strong but clear vocabulary, etc.)

                    __X__ Adopting a tone that is inviting and trustworthy rather than distancing or alienating

                    __X__ Arranging visual elements properly (not employing watermarked images, cropping images carefully, avoiding sloppy presentation)

                    _____ Other: 

Emotional appeals

                    __X__ Employing an appropriate level of formality for the subject matter (through appearance, formatting, style of language, etc.)

                    __X__ Use of “shocking” statistics in order to underline a specific point

                    __X__ Use of imagery to create an appropriate emotional impact for the debate

                    __X__ Employing an attractive color palette that sets an appropriate emotional tone (no clashing or ‘ugly’ colors, no overuse of too many variant colors, etc.)

                    __X__ Employing an engaging and appropriate tone of voice for the debate

Logical or rational appeals

                    __X__ Using statistics from credible sources in order to establish precedents, trends, or patterns

                    __X__ Effective organization of elements, images, text, etc.

                    __X__ Clear transitions between different sections of the argument (by using title cards, interstitial music, voiceover, etc.)

                    __X__ Crafted sequencing of images/text/content in order to make linear arguments

                    __X__ Intentional emphasis on specific images/text/content in order to strengthen argument

                    __X__ Careful design of size/color relationships between objects to effectively direct the viewer’s attention/gaze (for visual arguments)

6. Example 1

    Example 2

    Example 3

Reflection on Project 3 Draft

In this blog post I will reflect on my own project 3 draft and the peer review process. I will also discuss the aspects of project 3 that I need to focus on moving forward.

Screenshot from my computer, 11/15/15

I reviewed Samantha's and Michael's drafts of project 3.

1. Mira and Samantha reviewed my Project 3 draft.

2. The feedback these two provided was very helpful. Specifically, the ideas Mira and Samantha had to do a better job of persuading my audience and sticking to my genre were very helpful. I will certainly take all of their ideas into account when working towards my final draft

3. For me, nearly all aspects of my Project 3 need work. The aspects that need it the most are genre, audience, and argumentation. For genre, I plan on adding an audio voiceover for all the slides in my PowToon. For audience, I plan on developing and revising my argument much more to make it as convincing as possible. For argumentation, I need to implement lots of logical and emotional appeals to create the best argument possible.

4. I'm feeling more confident about the overall direction of my project after the conference this week. Hearing what Sean had to say about the project helped me better understand what type of presentation he was looking for.

Draft of Public Argument

In this blog post, I will have a short paragraph addressing my draft of project 3.

Screenshot from my computer, 11/7/15

My original plan was to create a script for a PowToon animated slide show. I did not end up writing the script for the rough draft, but I did create a rough draft of the PowToon. Just a heads up, the final product will have all the sweet animations and audio to make the presentation interesting. Right now I just have the skeleton of the project. However, feedback on what I have right now will still be invaluable! I've included a blank google doc where you guys can leave comments about the presentation.

PowToon Presentation Rough Draft

Google Doc

Considering Visual Elements

In this blog post, I will consider visual elements of my project. Specifically, I will respond to several questions from pages 395-402 in Writing Public Lives.

Screenshot from my computer, 11/7/15

How might I vary the fonts used in my project for emphasis, such as in the title and body of my project?

• I may vary the fonts for various situations. For example, if I'm transitioning from my own words, to a quotation, I might change fonts to empahsize what the quote is saying. 

Will the feeling or tone that the image (that will be on there) invokes be appropriate to the visual-rhetorical tone of my argument?

• The tone of the images I present must be and will be appropriate to the visual-rhetorical tone of my argument. Without that continuity, any images I introduce will hurt my argument rather than enhance it.

Do your eyes move easily from section to section in the order that you intended?

• The eyes will be able to easily move from section to section in the order I intend. Transitional effects will help.

Do too many visual images make your text busy or disorganized? If so, which images might you omit?

• There may end up being too many images in my PowToon presentation. I may end up omitting images that aren't central to the emotional or logical appeal of my project. 

If you are calling your audience to take action, are the consequences of not taking action and the benefits of taking action clearly expressed?

• The consequencess of not taking action and the benefits of taking action will be clearly expressed. That information is central to persuading my audience. If they don't have a reason to care, then there's no reason for the audience to care.

Will images be placed in a sequenced way?

• Images will be placed in a way where one image gives the audience more context on the debate, and the images following will be more effective as a result. The order in which I use images will be very important.

Project 3 Outline

In this blog post I will outline my argument for project 3. I will discuss elements of the introduction, body, and conclusion of my argument.

Screenshot via my computer, 11/7/15

Introducing Your Public Argument: "Frame the Consequences"

I believe the best way to introduce my argument is to "frame the consequences". It's a lot more difficult to ignore an argument, when you know the issue being discussed could negatively impact you and those you care about. In my introduction, I'm going to discuss the dangers of not educating the next generation of students in the field of computer science. I believe this will grab the attention of my audience very effectively.

Developing Strong Supporting Paragraphs

• Major Supporting Arguments
• Computer science(CS) job demand is three times the number of CS students
• Computers are a part of every major corporation in the United States
• Lack of CS teachers limits the ability for schools to teach computer science
• Money
• Job Security/satisfaction
• Major Criticisms
• Not everyone needs to learn CS(manual workers, minimum wage positions, etc)
• Not practical/possible to provide resources for compulsory computer science programs in schools
• Enough CS programs as is
• Key Support and Rebuttal points
• "Computer science(CS) job demand is three times the number of CS students"
• Going to be very relevant for my argument, core of argument
• "Lack of CS teachers limits the ability for schools to teach computer science"
• Main point I'm basing my proposal on
• "Not practical/possible to provide resources for compulsory computer science programs in schools"
• With the current way we budget our funds, it is not. We need to change the way we appropriate funds in education
• Topic Sentences
• "With the demand for computer scientists so high, it's more important than ever to address our education system's overarching deficiency in computer science education."
• "The idea that implementing widespread computer science education is impractical is simply incorrect"
• Gather Evidence
• Explaining the first topic sentence
• Explaining the second topic sentence
• Develop a Map of Your Argument
• *Wrote a storyboard on paper*

Concluding Strategies - "Call to Action"

• The main point of my proposal argument is to call my readers to action. A few ways I envision my audience reacting (if all goes according to plan) is by contacting local government and education officials to see if computer science education can be more appropriately funded. If that's not currently possible, then hopefully each citizen will vote for legislation to give more schools money for computer science education programs

REFLECTION:

After reading Issak's post on considering visual elements, I was reminded of a few key elements of visuals in our projects. It's always important to sparingly use items like bolded headings and graphs. If each slide or paragraph has a a graph and bold heading, there is no emphasis coming from these visual elements. Also, something that is often forgot is the necessity of a professional color scheme. For my project, I need to make sure the colors are visually pleasing, yet formal and professional.

After reading Alex's post on considering visual elements, I realized just how many ways this project can be done, which is pretty cool! Alex's choice of using Prezi should add some good variety to the genre's our projects are done in. Alex's choice also makes me more comfortable using a genre like PowToon. I don't want to be the only one doing some kind of slide based presentation!

Analyzing My Genre

In this blog post, I will analyze the specific genre I'm doing my project 3 in. I've chosen to create a video using PowToon for this project, and will analyze elements of this genre of video.

Screenshot via my computer, 11/7/15

Example 1

Example 2

Example 3

Example 4

Example 5

Social Context

• The genre is typically set on video sharing websites like YouTube 
• The subject of the genre is anything the creator wants it to be. All five of the examples I've linked have a unique subject
• Students use this tool a lot for presentations, but many educators also use PowToons to provide educational presentations
• This genre is used when someone wants to deliver information to the general public about a topic they feel is important.

Rhetorical Patterns of the Genre

• Usually only the most important content is included in PowToons. There is not a lot of space to include smaller details.
• Logical and emotional appeals are most relevant in image based presentations like PowToons.
• There is a noticeable pattern in each PowToon. It will usually begin with some background information and context on whatever the subject is, followed by the main argument or point(s) of the PowToon.
• Sentences are usually short, simple and active. Often PowToons will pose questions that the creator goes on to answer.
•  Simple, effective word choice is primarily used in PowToons. Generally the tones are more informal and casual.

Analyze What those Patterns Reveal about the Social Context of the Genre

• This genre includes everyone who regularly consumes media online. It excludes those who don't use technology very much or prefer to get information from books, magazines, or newspapers.
• The genre encourages writers to inform and empower the reader to do something. Usually the PowToon will attempt to inspire the reader to help make a change.
• Users of the genre are avid users of technology and generally have a more open mindset on issues in general.
• The genre treats big, central ideas as most valuable, and values smaller ideas less

EDIT:

Hallye's and Swati's posts were interesting in their own unique way. Since Hallye's subject is in the field of history, our projects have taken drastically different shapes. It's interesting how two students doing this project can have such different approaches. Swati's project reminds me much more of mine. Her genre also uses lots of logical appeals to persuade its audience. If I every need to refer to another project I can always check out Swati's project as a perfect reference!