Revisiting My Writing Process

What the Hell was That?

Goehring, David "Shock-ed" (1/19/2008) via Flickr. Attribution 2.0 Generic Creative Commons License

After reading my first two blog posts, I realized that I've grown a lot throughout this course. Looking back at my almost childish approach and style of writing, I was quite shocked, and a little embarrassed... Here's how I have become better!

Writing Process

• Then vs. Now
• This course, and college in general have slowly molded me into a different kind of writer over the semester. While I may still approach my writing in an easygoing manner, I have definitely cultivated a more rigid and outlined process for my writing. 
• While I certainly still procrastinate, it's a planned procrastination - this simply means that I construct my essay bit by bit. I will outline one day, create a rough draft the next, edit the day after that, and then polish my work on the last possible day.
• I still consider myself to be a heavy reviser, but I have increasingly gained the traits of a sequential composer. I tend to plan out my projects much more than I used to, which makes the revision process much more bearable than it used to be.
• One very helpful development is that outlining really makes me decide just what I want to write about and how. It also allows me to organize my thoughts based on how much evidence I actually have for my argument, which has definitely saved my grade and my purpose on multiple occasions.
• Looking to the Future
• I think that over time my writing process will become more structured and easily replicated. I seem to be moving towards staggered steps of writing to ease the mental burden of writing an essay.
• This system will be crucial in approaching my Honors Thesis. Without a clear approach, my thesis would be worthless, and by breaking it into more manageable pieces I will -hopefully - be able to maintain my sanity.

Time Management Habits

• Then vs. Now
• This semester has been a compilation of tough love learning experiences for me, and under pressure I have been able to tackle time management. I got a planner, and although it took me a while to perfect this concept, I wrote in it and looked at it almost every day, which really helped my organize my priorities and tasks for both school, work, and myself.
• My old 'system' was to try to keep everything in my head, and guess-timate my schedule. Now I actually use my planner, and write almost everything I need to accomplish in a day down.
• Looking to the Future
• Hopefully, I will be able to look at and write in my planner daily. Ideally, I'd look every morning to get ready, and keep it with me throughout the day. Right now I'm moving towards that ideal, but for now I will do my best to keep myself on the right page.
• These planning skills will really help me prioritize tasks not just for my library career, but will allow me to navigate my years of schooling ahead to achieve that goal.

Reflection on Project 3

A Look Back at My Revision Process

Crossett Library "ThINK: Books and Tattoos - Katie" (9/19/2011) via Flickr
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After publishing Project 3, I'm going back and taking a look at my revisions from draft to draft and how my revisions process affected my final product. I'll be answering some questions about revision and how this process changed my drafts and my writing identity.

What was specifically revised from one draft to another?

• Each revision of my draft contained both local and global changes. I would change sentence structure, sources, and even add more context.

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

• I ended up changing and refining my organization each time I revised, partly to fit the genre, and partly for just plain clarity. I ended up giving a lot more context to convince readers than I had initially planned on, but I do think it will end up working better for me than less.

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

• Throughout, my purpose has remained the same, but I have had to put a bit more emphasis into convincing my readers that Book Banning is still a problem than I had anticipated. To make an effective argument, my purpose - my solutions - needed to have something to actually solve, or my text would be pointless. This created the need for more context.
• Somehow I had begun to create fairly large paragraphs, when my genre tends to keep them smaller and organizes them differently. This led me to re-organize and cut some material to be more in-line with an op-ed and keep my argument coherent.

How do these changes affect your credibility as an author?

• By giving more context and concrete examples of book banning today, I appear to be more knowledgeable and correct. Without that evidence, my argument and credibility would be much weaker.
• By fitting into my genre and having a well-organized article, I will come across as logical and my readers will appreciate the easy to read layout.

How will these changes better address the audience or venue?

• More context and better organization will make the audience's experience of reading my text more enjoyable and effortless. These will also help my article fit in on its venue, and make my audience think more critically about what they need to do and why.

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

• I had much fewer issues with complex sentences getting away from me in this project. I only had to make a couple sentence structure changes for clarity. I mainly tweaked my word choice and hyperlinks.

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

• Sentence clarity will make it easier for my audience to understand why I even have my purpose. Word choice will convey the right tone to convince my audience that something must be done. Hyperlinking can help to give examples of why we must do something, and examples of what we can do.

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

• I definitely had some trouble with the conventions for hyperlinking, but I realized that pushing my genre a teensy bit for the sake of style is perfectly okay.

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

• This exercise has made me come to realize that my writing and revision process has changed drastically since I bean the semester. I have become less of a procrastinator, and have been spreading out my writing and revising in time. I revise more than I did before, and I actually think I am getting better at revision because of reflections and peer review.

Publishing Public Argument

My Proposals Eat Yours for Breakfast

SS&SS "(YES SORRY FOR USING THIS ONE AGAIN) BUT IT WORKS WITH WHATS POSTED BELOW"
(1/31/2011) via Flickr. Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic Creative Commons License

Here is my Public Argument! Below you will find a measure of how well I think I did.

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                                            Totally neutral                                                    Strongly

agree                                                                                                                          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                                            Totally neutral                                                    Strongly

agree                                                                                                                          disagree

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

         _______ My public argument establishes an original pro position on an issue of debate.

         _______ My public argument establishes an original con position on an issue of debate.

         _______ My public argument clarifies the causes for a problem that is being debated.

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

         _______ My public argument positively evaluate a specific solution or policy under debate (and clearly identifies the idea I'm supporting).

         _______ My public argument openly refutes a specific solution or policy under debate (and clearly identifies the idea I'm refuting).

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

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

Ethical or credibility-establishing appeals

                    _____ Telling personal stories that establish a credible point-of-view

                    __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.)

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

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

                    __X__ Establishing your own public image in an inviting way (using an appropriate images of yourself, if you appear on camera dressing in a warm or friendly or professional manner, appearing against a background that’s welcoming or credibility-establishing)

                    __X__ Sharing any personal expertise you may possess about the subject (your identity as a student in your discipline affords you some authority here)

                    __X__ Openly acknowledging counterarguments and refuting them intelligently

                    __X__ Appealing openly to the values and beliefs shared by the audience (remember that the website/platform/YouTube channel your argument is designed for helps determine the kind of audience who will encounter your piece)

                    _____ Other: 

Emotional appeals

                    _____ Telling personal stories that create an appropriate emotional impact for the debate

                    __X__ Telling emotionally compelling narratives drawn from history and/or the current culture

                    _____ Employing the repetition of key words or phrases that create an appropriate emotional impact

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

                    _____ Appropriate use of humor for subject matter, platform/website, audience

                    __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.)

                    _____ Use of music to create an appropriate emotional impact for the debate

                    _____ Use of sound effects to create an appropriate emotional impact for the debate

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

                    _____ Other: 

Logical or rational appeals

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

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

                    _____ Using interviews from stakeholders that help affirm your stance or position

                    __X__ Using expert opinions that help affirm your stance or position

                    __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

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

                    _____ Other: 

6. Below, provide us with working hyperlinks to THREE good examples of the genre you've chosen to write in. These examples can come from Blog Post 11.3 or they can be new examples. But they should all come from the same specific website/platform and should demonstrate the conventions for your piece:

Just a warning: I changed from an editorial to an op-ed piece (they share the same conventions, but the NY times just happens to only write editorials through a board).

Stopping WhatsApp Won't Stop Terrorists
Michel Houellebecq: How France's Leaders Failed Its People
Saudi Arabia, an ISIS That Has Made It

Reflection on Project 3 Draft

Onward to Perfection! ('Cause I'm Not There Yet)

Hull, Duncan "This is what you look like right now by Abstruse Goose (Tell me I'm wrong)" (4/14/2011) via Flickr
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I peer reviewed Rachel and Chloe's drafts, and was also peer reviewed by others. What did I take away from this?

Ann Emilie reviewed my Project 3 rough draft. I am very grateful for the feedback that she gave me, and I can definitely see the things I need to change. I still need to include an author bio, image, date and time published, and do a better job of reaching out to my audience. Everything she had to say about my draft was spot on, and I definitely need to go back and refine my writing.

I plan to give more concrete details to really convince my audience, and support my propositions with the right word choice to sway my audience to agree with me. I will finish my art piece so that I can take a picture and upload it to my doc, and I will take a picture of myself for the author bio as well.

I feel like I'm headed in the right direction with my draft, I just need to cross over into final draft status by revising and adding to what I already have.

Draft of Public Argument

Well, At Least It's Finally Here...

Laren, Will "t shirt design" (6/19/2007) via Flickr. Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic Creative Commons License

Here is my ROUGH draft!

Hello  peer reviewers! Please feel free to tear this thing apart grammatically, structurally, and thematically. I would love feedback about organization, specific sentence structure, flow, and overall status of my draft. CAUTION: until November 11th, this draft will most likely still be incomplete. Please do not comment until that time, as I may still be in the process of copy-editing. Thanks for all you do, and criticize away!

You will find my rough draft here.

Considering Visual Elements

What Should It Look Like?

Kringen, Shannon "more pentax fish kring" (9/30/2010) via Flickr. Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License

In this post, I will be evaluating the importance of images and appearance in my editorial.

Creating Visual Coherence

• Color Choices
• The colors red, grey, and blue would best reflect the visual tone of my project: Red for book banning, grey for our stagnation, and blue for future programs / activism.
• The background will be white, as that is the background for all editorials on the New York Times, and it will be straightforward for the reader to approach and read.
• The font will be black, again because of the New York Times formatting, and it would provide the best readability and contrast from a white background.
• The background and font colors will function as a neutral 'canvas' so to speak, that will not interfere with or take away from image impact.
• Any boxes or lines that function in my text will either be black and grey due to New York Times formatting. This will keep these lines neutral so that the images can speak for themselves.
• Font Choices
• The font I will use throughout is Times New Roman, due to New York Times formatting. For the title, I will enlarge my font to draw attention. I will most likely use italics or hyperlinking in the body of my text to create any kind of visual emphasis.
• Using the same font throughout will be complementary to my piece, and provide readers with easy reading and consistency.
• Times New Roman is an 'official' font that is mainly used in scholarly works and important documents. Readers will most likely identify the text as an important source of information.
• This font is completely appropriate to the visual-rhetorical tone of my project. It doesn't distract from my message, and fits the formatting of my platform.
• The fonts will be large enough to be read from a projector screen if needed.
• My  font will be black to create readability on a white background.
• Shapes, Text Boxes, Headings, and Lines
• My project may include graphics such as charts or graphs that will match the color scheme and content.
• I may choose to set aside a statement by enlarging it and placing it in some form of text box.
• My  text boxes will be the same color as the background.

Creating Visual Salience

• Image Selection
• I hope to include an image of books in jail, or something along those lines which I may end up creating myself.
• This will lend to my portrayal of book banning, library program stagnation, and the need for an 'escape.'
• This will hopefully engender feelings of outrage and restriction in my audience, which may invoke the desire to do something.
• This image adds to my argument, and gives the cause of my article in an image.
• Image Framing or Anchoring
• The image will be located by the introduction of my article, which will contain background on my argument - the image is a representation of that background.

Creating Visual Organization

• My organization may need a little work to flow better both visually and textually.
• I will most likely only use one image, to introduce my topic and create interest, as any more would be confusing within my genre and my purpose.

Creating Visual Impact

• My visual so far seems connected to my text.
• The rhetorical tone is pretty consistent and fits well.
• I need to develop my call to action more, and specifically outline what librarians and patrons can do.
• My image and textual information outline what will happen if action isn't taken.
• I think that the image is best located before or next to the introduction of my editorial, as it will draw my audience in.

Reflection: After reading Tom and Cynthia's blog posts, I realized that we can do so much with visuals, and that each genre really determines how much personal creative control we have over appearance. Like Cynthia, I am writing on a platform that doesn't allow for interesting fonts or colored text. Even being able to have a different font for the title like Tom makes me want to be more creative! But, I need to conform to my platform and genre, and express myself through words more so than images.

Project 3 Outline

What To Do, What To Do...

Post Memes "The Perfect Cat Lady Plan" (11/7/2015) via Flickr. Attribution 2.0 General License

Introduction

• Define or narrow the problem
• Censorship / book banning
• Develop a realistic plan of action for my audience by focusing on an aspect of the larger problem
• Access to banned / challenged materials

Body

• Libraries are meant to preserve access to all information, which means that their role is to prevent / ward off censorship.
• Libraries must also discern what information is appropriate for what audience.
• This isn't as relevant to my purpose, but may be used to back up / create incentive
• Cite NPR podcast
• Cite New York Times article
• Cite Library Literacy article
• Library programs / initiatives against book banning have become stagnant.
• Banned Books Week should be enough, so it doesn't matter if there is no progress, because there's no more progress to be made.
• This is key, and will be addressed
• Though many believe that Banned Books Week has been a complete success, it hasn't been able to halt book banning.
• Cite Pima County Public Library blog post
• Cite Banned Books Week
• There are a multitude of programs that could be created to expand upon the ideas of Banned Book Week.
• Then why don't we hear about any such initiatives?
• This is key, and will be addressed
• Despite overwhelming silence and stagnation, there are a variety of possibilities available to strengthen the library initiative against book banning.
• Cite Banned Books Week
• Cite Main Street Public Library article

Conclusion

• Call to action
• Libraries and patrons need to step up to the plate and create more anti-censorship programs.

Analyzing My Genre

The Editorial

Alan Light "Winsor McCay editorial cartoon" (2/7/2014) via Flickr. Attribution 2.0 Generic Creative Commons License.

I have decided to write an editorial article that would be specifically featured in the New York Times. In this post, I will provide examples of this genre, and analyze it in detail.

Here are some examples of an editorial article you would find in the New York Times:

1. Transgender Students in High School Locker Rooms
2. A Wrong Turn for Guatemalan Democracy
3. In Houston, Hate Trumped Fairness
4. Myanmar Goes to the Polls
5. Denying the Will of Okinawans

Social Context

• This genre is typically set in a newspaper / newspaper website.
• The subject of the genre can be practically anything, as long as it's an issue that the author feels strongly about.
• Readers of the paper use this genre.
• This genre provides people with an update on current views concerning a large / controversial debate.

Rhetorical Patterns

• There is always an image, a title, and a byline. These articles tend to include statistics and opinions, but rarely use direct quotes. The information included tends to cater to those who would share their opinions.
• There are usually direct appeals to pathos, with less appeals directed to logos. Some main rhetorical tools used in this genre seem to be shocking statistics, loaded language, and opinionated statements / narratives. There are hardly any written appeals to ethos, because the platform of the article (The New York Times) really speaks for itself, as does the author bio that always accompanies it.
• The titles of editorials usually include emotionally loaded language, immediately conveying the gist of the author's opinion. These articles begin with an overview of the issue that exists, and may include the author's opinion. Most editorials tend to conclude with a short to mid-sized paragraph that wraps up their overall opinion of their topic and their entire editorial. In the main body, they address the context of the issue, and do so by including statistics and facts, as well as coloring that context with their own views. 
• A variety of sentences are used in this genre, Rarely are exclamatory or interrogative sentences used - word choice is used to convey confusion and outrage rather than sentence structure.
• Word choice is usually somewhat elevated, elaborate, and emotional. Most words are formal, even and especially if they are loaded.

Analysis

• This genre includes readers who share the opinion of the author, and bashes anyone who doesn't. It will always include opinionated readers who are usually regular readers of the paper.
• The genre encourages readers to see writers as correct, and writers to see readers as confused about what to think. So, writers are given the role to think for those who are confused (or need affirmation) about their opinions on a certain issue, and guide them through the issue to its reality.
• Most users are assumed to have questions about issues and what they should think about it.
• The genre treats content which complements their views as essential, and will hardly ever use content that would support an opposing view. They also hold statistics in high esteem.

Reflection: After reading Thomas and Lauren's Analyses of Genre, I realized that quite a few of us are writing in a genre that fit in the broader genre of the online article. Why not a video? We seem to be sticking to what we know: writing. I feel like it would be really interesting if we had a greater variety in genres! Sadly, I won't be following my own advice for the class, as I think the editorial will fit my purpose perfectly. Hopefully we'll have at least a couple people try something new!