In the Beginning, my typical rhetorical choice was typically in the form traditional essay format. I thought of Rhetoric as simply Ethos, Pathos, and Logos. In what way can I show credibility, how can I connect on a emotional level with my audience, and do I have the data to back up my claim. When we finished up Unit one and started on Unit two I was in the mindset that I have to follow the format put forth by the extended Bib’s we did in unit one. Summarize the source, analyze what the author’s intent is, reflect how your thought differs from the author, and finally asked questions framed by my source.
When Unit 2 came around it started to get more deeper/more complex adding to what we have learned then. One of the first things we read was Bolter, “Writing in the Late Age of Print”. When I first read this, I was a little confused at first on why we were reading this. Because I understand that with different types of mediums of writing such as books or a laptop have pro’s and con’s associated with each medium. In today’s world, most people blog and everyday it seems less and less people are using books. It’s all going online it seems, so I though oh this is why are incorporating Blogger because of the potential wider audience we can reach. Adding Writing Analytically pg 73-96 to my thoughts, after reading the pages I kept thinking about my potential researching question. In the chapter , I read that things aren’t black or white. There are shades of grey and often you should find yourself usually not with an answer but another question to that answer. When I first started off I couldn’t see at first what potential disagreement that my agency deals with. My draft research question was trying to show the importance of Head Start in that Head Start helps develop and maintain good mental social skills which in turn benefits society. The comment’s that I got was maybe I should narrow my topic by focusing in how Head Start benefit the pupil in social skills. Looking back it now, and comparing to my final research topic on how much influence does Head Start really have, they kind of fall in similar categories. The use of lateral researching definitely helped narrow my topic down.
Once I had my topic down, I soon began thinking of different ways of presenting my view of the story. I research my topic and posted annotated Bib’s. One thing I have trouble with when I posted my entries, is that sometimes I post too much data/stuff. I am a sponge I use too much direct quotes/ paraphrase and it detracts from my claim. And people in group have commented on this, and suggest I use more of summaries. Although I feel I still have this issue with my writing and it’s I feel I’m improving but it definitely needs work.
When we started to focus on the Web site presentation by reading Wysocki & Writing for a Web Audience I felt a little overwhelmed. Presentation, color, text, sound, pictures can grasp your audience. Digital rhetoric, in these forms can help reach a broader spectrum of people. It can help bring a greater awareness to the discourse community you are trying to represent. The way you present your Website/web Medium can help or hurt your argument. I understood what a good website looks like but I couldn’t create one visual out of my mind if that makes sense. That’s one of the biggest challenges I faced in Unit two which was format. Posting a blog entry is easier than building a whole website from scratch. For a blog you just post the text along with some imagery such pictures, video, etc. For a website you have to create the Form of the website whereas on a blog the form is already created for you. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to create a good digital rhetoric form for my agency. What makes a good argument? Am I presenting my side well? Am I using proper use of imagery such colors, text, bullets, and etc. Will a stranger who has never heard of Head Start be interested in my topic in the way I am presenting it? Am I using the right balance between summaries, and quotations? These are the things that pop in my head because I realize these things send a message this can be implicit or explicit when dealing with digital rhetoric.
No comments:
Post a Comment