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Why are Course Objectives important?
As a part of the WR 37 Intensive writing course, we have been completing assignments in preparation for the Imitation Project (IP) Multimodal memoir essay. Among those assignments we initiate fundamental knowledge pertaining to the course objectives: Evaluating the affordances (opportunities and limitations) of different modes (linguistic, visual, aural, spatial, and gestural) in multimodal texts and composing texts in specific genres that adhere to rhetorically-appropriate patterns of arrangement and style, including verbal and nonverbal elements. Pertaining to become a better communicator across different genres and media by creating interactivity among different forms of structural information to reveal a message with clarity like videos, pictures, audios and interactive text that have the five senses with figurative language. In which can be utilized on the different learning aspects and understandment that the intended audience might comprehend.
Artifact #1
(Video presentation of thesis statement)
Analytical Reflection/ Curation
This video presentation was a 2-3 minute video, in which I talked through the text’s rhetorical situation and answering the thesis questions regarding Anzaldua’s text: How’s does the representation of these genre conventions in Anzaldua’s text achieve a specific purpose, invite a specific audience response, and address a specific social and cultural issue. Where I included the genres of literacy narrative and academic discourse, following with the use of genre conventions to help initiate the intended audience to whom Anzaldua is trying to convey her message to, with the use of appeal and purpose. I learned how to construct an arguable thesis that not only expresses the main ideas but also establishes the use of genres within a writing, to situate it’s conventions within a text of generic context that goes under the course objectives. This video presentation shows a different communication factor among the expression of ideas through a recording rather than linguistic language and writing. Communicating across multiple forms of media beyond writing, has helped me become more of an expert in the conversation about identity, language, ethnicity and the ways of storytelling by evaluating a specific type of genre and its impact on the audience with analysis based on rhetorical strategies. With researching about and composing multimedia texts that amplify my knowledge of the conversation about the rhetoric; regards of home, family, and self with sentence structures that doesn't revolve around witten words but spoken words. Leading the audience to explore one’s message through the use of the five senses: touch, sight, sound, smell and taste to vividly explore what they’re reading that's later discussed through week 7-10.
Artifact #2
(Me in six words)
Analytical Reflection /Curation
Me in six words is a google slide presentation where I used six words to demonstrate the meaning of images that represent me, as each slide is a development to my own identity and it allows my fellow peers to get to know me on a more personal level. As with the picture shown above, I used visual representations to advocate who I am as a person with the attributes of “Family” since it correlates to my existence and overall happiness within life as to keep going through life obstacles for the admiration/ love that I have for my family. This initiates some of my characteristics through the use of only one word to determine my overall traits, rather than using a significant amount of words to demonstrate those qualities. Seeing these visual representations lets the audience know more about me and my attributes to setting a particular character among the eyes of the audience and in this case, the audience are my peers. This specifically creates an academic discourse community within my peers because this activity was an engagement within students introducing themselves with the use of interaction among imagery to set a language that formats the level of diction. By including the course objectives: Employ the affordances of multiple modes (linguistic, visual, aural, spatial, and gestural) to support metacognitive arguments and analysis. Reading and writing across media has helped me become more expert in the conversation about identity, language, ethnicity in the ways of storytelling by the use of creativity among the work I display by engaging with other ideas, in the form of using genre appropriate language and communication to reveal certain messages/themes. Which leads up to the development of the Rhetorical Analysis Essay and Imitation Project (IP) Multimodal memoir essay, to institute distinction among writing pieces and their genres and using that knowledge within the WR 39C course.
Conclusion/ Reflection
Reading and writing across media has helped me become an expert in the conversation about home, family, and self (identity, language, ethnicity) which are illustrated not only in an (IP) Multimodal memoir essay but in the Rhetorical Analysis Essays prior to the development of thesis writing and the ideas of experiences that across different media may help me by effectively writing the upcoming Imitation Project (IP) Multimodal memoir essay, by presenting my ideas and message through the communication of entertainment. Through the effectiveness and persuasiveness of the forms of figurative language that creates an image and then goes beyond the actual literal meaning to make a relevant reference. Everyone knows that writing can sometimes be boring or unappealing to a specific group of audience when structure and organization isn’t correctly formatted, distancing the audience within your work and message. For example, If decide to base my audience the articles of teen vougues than teens are my focal point and they’re the ones to whom I need to supersede with their language of informal speaking by incorporating slang phrase that only a group of people would understand, in this case it would be teens. In order to create an interest among the target audience; including the five senses would include a realistic experience within the setting that’s taking place. Having the audience dig deeper within their personal connections with the text by engaging thoroughly. Being in the author’s moment of experience where the audience can feel what the author feels, gains the audience full attention prior to understanding and realizing.
Additional Artifacts (week 7-10)
Artifact #3
(adding descriptive scene of events)
First draft: It wasn't until a cold rainy day, where the branches were hitting the rooftop of my window as the wind swirled through the open cracks and into my bedroom. I layed in bed wrapped around my Mexican lion blanket shivering, drinking hot chocolate that warmed my body with comfort and relaxation. I was scrolling through my instagram feed and noticed white American models, being on the cover of vogue. So I started to compare my own characteristics and physical features among white blonde girls seen all over social media platforms and even in television scenes because they were being normalized as the main factor of beauty in society. Their white pale skin that illuminated the color of clothing they wore in the magazine covers, their bright blue eyes that signified the ocean's beauty that lit up the tv in the living room, and their blonde silky straight hair. Questioning myself, “Why don’t I have blue eyes? I wish I had that lifestyle? Can I have her skin color?”
2nd draft: It’s Summer June 2017, I’m transitioning from being a student at Cesar Chavez Middle school, to being a Lynwood high school student where I’ll finish the rest of my four years in preparation for college and the outside world. I’m sitting in my bed eating goldfish crackers as crumbs fall down my face and onto my carpet floor, criss cross applesauce trying to figure out the next step to my childhood development and maturity. Thinking and reminiscing on how I want to portray myself to others as I enter a new school with both a different environment and people. Just picturing every scenario that I can possibly think about, “ Should I be the cool kid that doesn’t follow the rules? NO! Or maybe I should be the mysterious beautiful girl who sits behind the class that's studious among her work yet private, but everyone wants to know about. YEAH! I want to be that girl” I sigh with a big grin on my face. I start to hear stomps heading closer and closer to my bedroom door, KNOCK KNOCK; “ Sweety I have a surprise for you” my mother said. “Yes yes, come in mother” I raise my eyebrows with confusion. “ Look what came in the mail today, earlier than what we expected” my mother said as she handed me the latest phone of the year, the Iphone 6s plus. I got up on my bed, screaming with joy “AHHHHHH!” throwing my goldfish crackers all over my bedroom and spinning with the phone in my hand. This was huge for me since my parents had made it clear that I would get a phone, during my quinceanera when I turned 15 and into a woman as is my tradition. “Thank you mom, I love you” I told my mom as she walked out the door of my room.
Analytical Reflection/ Curation
These two side by side comparisons show a development between adding description prior to a scene to make the event more vivid among what time frame that the event happened, like the year, month and also the season so it shows a chronological order of events as I tell my story with an experienced voice. Before going into the story plot and indicating that I was in my bedroom and scrolling through my phone on my first draft. Within my 2nd draft of revision, I gave a short storyline on how I was able to get a phone before my fifteenth birthday with adding conversations I had with my mother regards to receiving such a gift that’s not ideal before your actual fifteenth birthday, showing my excitement and overall setting of my surroundings with the use of five senses: sight, touch, smell, taste and hearing. From this particular moment, I learned how to add description among my stories to create vivid imagery by making my senses come to life in the mind of my audience, so they can fully experience a story with those five senses that I included. Pertaining to IP Rubric, a specific key skill accomplished among my evidence of learning is the use of visual rhetoric, design, elements, and organizations among the aspects of multimodality where our senses, visual auditory, is being used in diverse learning styles as in descriptive linguistics that show action among events. This particular moment of learning demonstrates that I’m strengthening a key skill in my writing because compared to my first draft, my second draft has a significant amount of detailed description of what's occurring, how my surroundings look, my emotions, what I see and hear. This is important because it shows my development as a writer and I’m truly able to hook my intended audience with my message so they can make further connections and relate, hoping to change and reflect on their point of views like I once did. This gave me insight on the power of voice you have when you portray your message through the context of vivid imagery using the five senses. It’s important to understand how to use rhetoric because it can improve our communication while telling a story while also having our audience agree with our perspective regarding the strategic choices that helps analyze ideas presented to us. This demonstrates that I’m becoming a member of academic discourse by identifying different methods of communicating among members, in this case communicating my message to my intended audience. This learning can be used in my future English classes where I use rhetoric and multimodal communication among my writing , to make it strong and significant among the audience.
Artifact #4
(Adding more dialogue)
First draft:
Mom: “April, a quinceanera is something that you always wanted so why change your mind now?”she sighs with confusion
Me: “ I just don’t think that it symbolizes who I am today and prefer something more modern and up to date”.
Mom: “ You want something more modern than following our traditional aspects of our culture”. She lifts her eyebrows up and stares at me without moving a single finger tip
2nd draft:
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Mom: “April, a quinceanera is something that you always wanted so why change your mind now?”she sighs with confusion
Me: “ I just don’t think that it symbolizes who I am today and prefer something more modern and up to date since it’s a new generation ”.
Mom: “ You want something more modern than following the traditional aspects of our culture”. She lifts her eyebrows up and stares at me without moving a single finger tip
Me: “ Well not when you say it like that” I pout my face and wrinkle my forehead “ I think I would rather have a sweet 16 since that’s what all the teens are talking about nowadays.
Mom: “ A sweet 16?” mother crosses her hand.
Analytical Reflection/ Curation
These two side by side comparisons show the different dialogue lengths and description between one another. The first draft had only three sentences of dialogue prior to the communication among me and mother regards to me not wanting a quinceanera but on the second draft with revision, I show a more complex turn of events as I tell my mother that I would rather have a sweet sixteenth while also initiating emotions through each conversation with the five senses: sight, taste, see, hear and touch . From this particular moment, I learned how to add more dialogue within my scenes in substitution of narrative story. Since the purpose of dialogue is to drive a story’s plot forward, bringing the audience closer to its climax and ultimately it’s message that the writer is trying to convey. Pertaining to the IP Rubric, a specific key skill accomplished among my evidence of learning falls within the objective of genre and medium: series of events organized into a narrative form that is told in first-person point-of-view that presents scenes with action and dialogue, while also employing a sparing use of a short narrative summary. That is, the story is crafted using literary techniques and devices, but should sound like the writer speaking, and should provide insight from the present into the past as using the five senses to connect it to their experienced voice as a writer. This demonstrates that I’m strengthening a key skill in writing because as an academic writer, I’m able to establish tone and an atmosphere upon my scene by revealing characters to advance my storyline, in order to gain the appeal of my intended audience. This gave me an insight on the importance of adding the five senses to genre based writings like memoirs, to create a realistic image among the scenes that I’m illustrating in the context of my writing using figurative language. It’s important to know how to use rhetoric properly because it’s technique is a technique of using language effectively and persuasively in spoken or written form. As it acts on discourse, which studies and employs various methods to convince, influence and please an audience. This assignment demonstrates that I’m mastering a key skill in my academic ethos by demonstrating my credibility in an ethical way in which I present my ideas, as in this case in a dialogue with descriptive communication to indicate my experience voice. Overall this assignment can be applied to future English courses where I need to communicate my ideas in a memoir essay, making past events come to life as it brings out my emotions as a reader.
Artifact #5
(IP Writing Practice: Developing Your Characters)
WRITING EXERCISE 2:
Mom- My mom just walked through the door. She is 5’2 with a dark tanned complexity that shines within the sun and shows her golden undertone. Her hair is ombre, darker as it gradually gets lighter from the bottom. Her hair is wavy and put into a bun but her natural hair is curly like little curly fries that I get at Jack in the box and frizzy when it’s not fully dried. She’s wearing a black shirt that has a green trim on it, white cargo pants and black nike shoes that symbolize the feet of a child, she’s a size 3. Her distinct smell is what makes me feel some type of warmth and comfort, it’s a fruity sweet smell but yet it’s sophisticated like male cologne.
Grandma- My grandma is 4’11 with white short hair. Her skin is pale and smooth as a baby but wrinkly at the same time because she is 72 years young. She is wearing a red long sleeve with small white polka dots that surround the collar of her top. She is wearing white cargo pants that have a red trim around her waist to match her red accent on her top and wearing black skechers. She’s a woman who loves the fine things in life so she wears gold jewelry around her nec, big diamond stud earrings that indicate her birthstone, and five golden rings on each hand. Her smell has a strong floral rich scent that infugimate the room as she walks by.
WRITING EXERCISE 3:
Youngerself: Fourteen year old me was skinny like the bones of a skeleton as I had a fast metabolism, gaining weight was severely difficult for me so it showed through my appearance for not being a healthy weight. Everything I wore seemed big and baggy as I was an extra extra small. I was really tanned with a golden undertone as my skin hit the rays of sunlight because I was a cheerleader who’s practices were held outside and I never used any sunblock to protect my skin barrier . My hair wasn’t dyed, it was my natural brunette hair color; long dark brown hair that touched my hip as I walked. I wore pink matching sets from Victoria secret as it was my signature look, with white Nike air forces. Smelled like teen who would spray an entire bottle of bath and body work mist.
Older me: Eighteen year old me is lighter in complexity and my features have changed more drastically. I gain a significant amount of weight and it’s shown through my arms, legs and face structure. I went from a size extra extra small to a size median within a span of three years. My style is more girly in a mature way that’s isn’t ruffle skirts with match dog shirts. I wear solid color tops and basic blue/black jeans with white colored vans on a regular day. On a nicer day, I wear floral crop tops and rip jeans to match my tory burch sandals and matching purse. I include my fine gold jewelry, my name necklace, ear studs, and gold class ring. With my apple watch and evil eye bracelets to protect me from harm since I’m more spiritual and at peace with myself than I was at age fourteen.
Analytical Reflection/ Curation
This assignment helped me to develop myself and others as characters with describing features and physical appearances to be revealed through dialogue/interior dialogue, the characters actions developed in a scene, what other characters might say about him/her through dialogue and the insight that I provide on the events that contain experienced voice. With this practice activity, not only am I able to describe my characters within the uprising of events in full detailed description so my audience can identify the characters from one another , but I’m also able to demonstrate a distinction between my past self and future self. My audience can connect my different personals based on my views from the past to my reflection prior to the future. Since I didn’t add this to my first draft, this particular assignment helped me to expand on the narration of each of my characters throughout my story so it’s something that I will be adding in my 2nd draft. Pertaining to the IP Rubric, a specific key skill accomplished among my evidence of learning falls within the objective of message and purpose: brings the reader into a world by making that world real through specific detail (character development, setting, description, imagery, metaphor, etc.). In which I give explicit detail and description among the caharcetrs being introduced and their connections among each scene. This demonstrates that I’ve strengthened a key skill in my writing as it connects to the target audience in a way that transforms both me as a writer and the audience. Gave me insight on the importance of introducing the characteristics of characters in a story, to give the audience an easier comprehension among the story plot and the charctersigniifcan signiifcance among each event and how it all ties it. It’s important to learn how to use rhetoric because it introduces a language designed to have persuasion or an impressive effect on the audience. This is important to becoming an academic writer because it shows disciplinary among the academic style I display with both critical learning and thinking. Overall, this can be applied to future English courses where I need to demonstrate a course of events that include character description and development among scenes to make my point clear.
Artifact #6
(Peer Review)
Giving peer review
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Receiving peer review
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From giving peer review I learned about the structure and organization that I must require for my 2nd draft by stating my experienced voice and also explaining the narration of my story among a short summary that’s straightforward, that goes within a chronological order of events. Leading to my reflection and the overall message of my story. From receiving peer feedback, I learned that my title sets tone among the message I want to convey and the overall theme but it doesn’t show a very big interest among readers since it’s too plain and straightforward, and needs to hook the audience with curiosity. I will incorporate the changes in my 2nd draft, because I also feel that it needs some revisions because my title needs to be evocative and contain compelling wordplay and imagery to create a positive impression and stimulate the audience reader which it doesn’t demonstrate.These excerpts illustrate what I’ve learned about peer review as it’s a tool to gain valuable feedback so the writer can revise his/her work and improve on those aspects of weakness before publication. Gives the writer the shows to decide whether any recommendations should be utilized in his/her essay in regards to critically thinking about the areas that the reviewer indicated was the issue.Overall, this learning about peer review can be applied to future courses in which I can learn from my mistakes and do better with regards to my weaknesses to turn them into strengths and write a better structured essay.
Reflection/Conclusion
The IP Multimodel Memoir Essay drives around the focus pertaining to the prompt of home, family, and self by setting life expectancy revolving around it’s cultural, historical , or political relation prior to context, in order to target a certain audience and achieve a certain purpose as an academic writer. With the text publication of your choice to imitate, the target audience should be based on those who subscribe to that reading of model text publication, to your very own reading. Demonstrating rhetorical sensitivity by ensuring that every choice you make is purposeful among the site's font sizes (typeface) to the placement of the text, headings, color patterns, organization of images, tone/diction pertaining to the age group your essay is brought upon to and the overall structure of the site itself. The multimodal elements consist of the five modes of communication that includes: Linguistic, visual, getural, spatial and audio, which are a part of our course objectives prior to learning and expanding our knowledge as rhetoric writers. My IP Multimodal Memoir Essay revolves around me as a child who felt pressured by society to look a certain way due to it being pervaid through social media platforms and television, of white Americans being the standard of beauty in a stereotypical way in society , making me want to drift away of my cultural aspects and not wanting to identify as a Hispanic/Latina. By finishing this project, I feel that I accomplished a multimodal approach among the different genres of writing and how to use that in a rhetoric course of elements to be an academic writer among my ethos and discourse community. Per the IP rubric, I feel like I’ve established a good understanding on the basics of multimodal, with using description among emotions to reveal events and further reflections as the experienced voice. In addition, I still face some challenges with my writing arrangement and organization among story plots, narrative summary and ideas because I don’t feel confident in how my ideas are organized in a logical way that contributes to my audience's understanding of the topic's theme and my message. I feel like I focused on too many themes pertaining to my ethnicity and culture that my ideas get lost and unheard.
Analytical Reflection/ Curation
Jade Lynne Dunaway: Suggested that my title "The impact society has on the ethnic individuals" doesn't have any profounding affect on the readers interest because it's so straight forward and boring to the point where it doesn't grab an auidence attention. The title should go with the overall theme and main ideas you are presenting since its the first thing that your readers would look at, making assumptions on what's going to be discussed.