Looking Back

Photo Essay Reflection

First of all, I want to say how much I truly enjoyed composing a photo essay. I have never done anything like this before and hope I get to do something like this again. I'm extremely proud of what I was able to accomplish. Could I have done better? Absolutely. Am I still pleased with what I put forward? 100%. But, I know that there are always things to be improved. One thing I know for sure that I am going to go back over before our final submission of our portfolio is my sentence structure. When we did the advanced editing in class it said I wrote my introduction at a 7th grade level; although I was aiming for a younger audience I definitely was not aiming that young, so I know that I can maybe make my sentences and word choices a little more advanced. As far as my design plan goes, I think I stuck to what I was going for, for the most part. For my strategy I stated that I wanted to try and be as captivating as possible so people do not get bored and I think I did a pretty good job of that. I personally love the pictures I chose to use (obviously) and I think that narrative does nothing but enhance the photos. I definitely enjoyed using PowerPoint as the medium, and it was just as I said in my design plan: very easy to use and manipulate. I honestly didn't even try using Word because PowerPoint was such an enticing option and it really made it fun and easy to manipulate the photos and texts. I'm very glad that I made the text and photos coexist as I said for arrangement. When I typed out the design plan I still had no idea where I wanted to go with the order of the pictures, but I'm still pleased with what I ended up doing. I tried to start on a lighter note and ease into more serious notions with the tone of the pictures and I think I did that relatively successfully. And, as far as ethos, pathos, and logos go I think I tried my best to stick with what I laid out for myself in the design plan. Obviously I used language anyone could understand if I wrote at a 7th grade level (I'm not dwelling I swear). I also think that I stood by my emotional attachment to the subject and tried to convey as much emotion as possible. I think I tried my best to be logical as well. I didn't try and cover anything that would be beyond a younger person's dimension, but I still don't think I dumbed anything down too much. Again, I really enjoyed composing the photo essay, and overall I think I was pretty successful. That is to be determined though. I'm getting the anxious feeling that before we submit our final portfolio there will be a decent amount I want to change.

Rhetorical Analysis Reflection

As our first academic paper of the semester, I'm happy with what I've put forth. My confidence level is a little shakier than with the photo essay, but I'm still proud of the work that I have done. As far as sticking to my statement of purpose and design plan, I think I did my best. The design plan was more straight forward being that this was an academic paper with clear directions as to font, layout, and language. The hardest part concerning layout and the pictures was getting the ads to be where I wanted them to be, while having the text not become secondary. Originally I had hoped to make the pictures stretch across the page since 3 out of 4 are landscape, but that just wasn't possible seeing that once everything was typed out and in MLA format. I think that the pictures lose almost a bit of their impact by being on the smaller side, but I think that my analysis brings the parts of the photos that are too small to light. But, I still think I did a good job of writing in an academic way while still being able to reach my target audience. I think I stuck to my purpose as far as the subject matter I was analyzing. Since my focus is the environment and the wildlife that inhabit it, I really do like the ads I chose. I had finalized them after I wrote my statement of purpose and design plan, so I think they are very fitting for what my topic is. I think I tried my best to stress how important ads can be throughout our daily lives. We see them every day, but a lot of them are pretty much about unimportant things and the WWF ads are actually of import. My main goal was to make sure people took the time to consider those ads as much as any other ad that might be internalized by them. As always I think there is room for improvement, but all in all I'm proud of what I have done so far and I think that I have laid a good foundation for myself. If I improve upon I think I already know what I need to do. I think I can do a better job of bringing all four pictures together and following through thoroughly with my purpose.

Argument Synthesis Reflection

First of all, I completely psyched myself out about this paper. I kept putting it off and I finally reached a point where I just felt that it would be completely impossible to get done. And then I actually started working on it, almost instantly I realized that I was making it much harder for myself than it ever needed to be. Having never written a synthesis paper before, I looked at it as this impossible to complete task, where in all reality, it was actually quite easy to accomplish once I sat down at my laptop and began the work. Having the information and research given to us was beyond amazing, the packet that we were given was jam packed with extremely useful articles. This subject is not one I would have ever thought to research and I am really glad that it was chosen for us. As far as my purpose and design plan goes, I think I did a relatively good job of sticking to it because, after all, about 75% of my purpose and design plan was written after I had the majority of my paper done. I almost enjoyed writing a synthesis paper... I enjoy writing in general (it is in my blood after all) and I thought it was really interesting to learn a new writing style. To be taken out of your comfort zone is never SUPER fun, but in the end you always reap some awesome benefits. For example, I learned that I can totally write a decent synthesis paper without making an ass of myself. The only thing I really messed up on was not including Blinder. I have already uploaded my paper... but, i am going to go back and add a section in one of my paragraphs about him... shhhhh!  

Research Synthesis Reflection

You would think after the last synthesis I would have been more at ease about writing this paper, but in all reality it was almost the complete opposite. I took way longer to write this paper than I think I have ever taken to write a paper before. Actually, let me elaborate, I took so long to write this paper because I had to do a decent amount of research of my own this time... Research is not my friend, I am terrible at it, my next job interview when I'm asked what my biggest weakness is, I will get up on a table and yell "RESEARRRRRCH." That is how terrible I am at. So even though I knew all along this paper was an extremely important part of my grade, I procrastinated... and procrastinated more... and then finally when I was on the brink of a nervous breakdown I finally decided "better start this research." I just really want to show that this class has improved my writing skills and this paper is an important part of that progress, but I'm kicking myself because I put everything off for such a long time. I'm really proud of what I have been able to find, but it is still not enough and here I sit in the final hours before this paper is due, with my fingers racing across my keyboard and my brain filling up with all these sources. I have also never had to do an annotated bibliography before, it is not bad, but it could have been a lot better if I just sat myself down and forced myself to do it before the final hours before everything needs to be turned in.