Reflection on Open Letter Draft

We made it to the end of the semester and one of the last blog posts!  For this project I peer reviewed Casey's and Chelsea's drafts.

8525545 "schafer-dog" accessed via Pixabay
Uploaded February 2015 CC0 Public Domain

Did you demonstrate an ability to think about your writing and yourself as a writer?

I think I was able to explain how my writing abilities progressed over the semester.  Although my writing style has stayed relatively consistent, my writing process has developed a bit more.  I mainly talked about how my revision and brainstorming processes have definitely been forced to improve over the last semester.  The structure of the class being measured by step by step blogs incites a lot more planning and editing than I have ever done in the past.

Did you provide analysis of your experiences, writing assignments, or concepts you have learned?

Yes, my high school writing experience compared to this class was one of my main points in the draft.  Blogging in itself is an entirely different ball game from that of AP essays and endless scholarship prompts.  Our work with genre, audience, and writing process will apply to future projects, but technologically and structure wise, this course was very unique.

Did you provide concrete examples from your own writing (either quotes from your writing or rich descriptions of your writing process)?

Yes, I made sure to link to other examples that applied directly to the main points of each paragraph.  I think I can still add a few more direct examples about concepts we learned, but I think the context level is close to where I want it to be.  I referenced a few examples I felt I was the most successful with and a few that I spent a few too many hours on.

Did you explain why you made certain choices and whether those choices were effective?

I think I can add to this particular section, especially with the variety of different blog types and concepts we learned.  However, a lot of my decision making had to do with time management, so the general theme of the draft is centered around my planning problems and improvement.

Did you use specific terms and concepts related to writing and the writing process?

Yes, I referenced examples from specific assignment prompts and general lectures from class.  Revision, genres, rhetorical strategies were a couple of the ideas that I touched upon in the draft.

Draft of an Open Letter

Here is a link to the rough draft of my final project.

It is a little rough as a lot of it is very similar to the original drafts from this deadline.  It would be great to know if the structure of the letter is audience friendly and if I need to add more information or get rid of anything in the rough draft.  I also have not yet added quotations from my previous blogs as I had forgotten quotations are necessary.  Sorry for posting this so late in the day, currently the draft has no peer reviews so any comments are greatly appreciated!

Patrice_Audet "merle" accessed via Pixabay
Uploaded December 2, 2015 CC0 Public Domain

Reflecting More on My Writing Process

In this blog I will continue my reflection on my writing process as a sort of brainstorming for the final project.

PublicDomainImages "bird" accessed via Pixabay
No Upload Date CC0 Public Domain

1. Biggest challenges faced
Time management was by far the biggest issue.  I enjoyed writing about a topic that I loved, but in the beginning of the course I tended to write too much and burnt out creatively on the first few blogs of a section.  I also did not monitor how long each blog was taking me.  Entire saturdays flew by and deadlines got published at the last minute, which is, to say the least, stressful.

2. What I learned about time management, writing, and editorial skills
This course was definitely a personal crash course in time management.  All of the coursework was easily doable if time managed well.  Of course, that doesn't always work out and procrastination has a wonderful way of creating a lot of stress.  I will say some blog weeks were worse than most, but by the end of the course, my efficiency and planning was much less stressful.  My editing and revision skills overall were much improved as I hadn't been required to edit my writing for the last four years.

3. The concept of 'genre'
This course was definitely a discussion in genre.  The effectiveness of each piece that I have and will write depends on if I correctly identify the genre and write with the genre in mind.  I could not write an entirely opinionated article for a scientific journal nor a QRG for a letter to a publisher.  Genre is of equal importance to audience and content.  The correct style is automatic credibility boost and improves how the information is relayed.

4. Skills for future courses
The types of brainstorming and revision are definitely going to be helpful for the future.  This was a great course to remind me how much work goes into writing a published piece.  Although the research and content is important, the delivery of that information is crucial to the audience.  The best articles and books go through weeks upon weeks of revisions and rewrites.  Real world writing is a lot different than AP writing.

5. Most effective moment
Writing the first QRG was one of my more effective moments.  The combination of revisions, incorporating technologies, and writing such a huge comprehensive piece right of the bat was a great boost to my writing.  It was about an issue I cared about and I had the freedom to choose how I portrayed my opinion.  I enjoyed almost all of the blogs that I wrote because I had the freedom to write using my own style and use the blogs creatively.  Of course, the amount of blogs and a few of the more technical blogs were not as creatively encouraging, but the nitty gritty is still just as important as the creative freedom.

6. Least effective moment
My time management and the dedication of entire saturdays to blogging was not my most effective moment.  It was not smart to choose to leave 12 hours of work to a single day.  It was exhausting and counter productive to improving my writing.  I am very glad that the writing amomunt of the course got easier throughout the semester, as I would not have made it through with some of my time management at the beginning of the semester.

Revising my Writing Process

As this class comes to a close I will be reviewing a few blogs I wrote at the very beginning of the semester about my Writing Process and my Calendar.

gabicuz "sparrow" accessed via Pixabay
No Upload Date CC0 Public Domain

Writing Process

In my first blog, I classified myself as a procrastinator with the hopes of writing more like a sequential composer.  I can definitely say that procrastination is still a factor in my writing, but my processes in revision and rewriting have definitely improved.  Most of my writing in high school was a single draft timed essay, so I have become used to quickly writing a large amount of passable writing.  The course forced me to go through long brainstorming, planning, and revision.  Instead of crashing through a first draft and publishing it as a final, I felt a lot more comfortable with going back and rereading my writing.  This process definitely encouraged me to go towards a more sequential composer style of writing.

Calendar

Despite improvements, I definitely did not get rid of procrastination and spent many Saturdays completely devoted to blogging.  As I noted in my calendar, I was not used to having homework time in the middle of the day.  I spent the last four years doing all of my homework either in class or starting at 10PM after extra curriculars.  The work load this semester was close to what I expected, but time management was a lot more difficult.  My habit at working in the later hours continued and I wasted a lot of daylight.  This forced the blogging to Saturday as I spent my weekdays working on other homework and pushing the blogging as late as possible.  Unfortunately, after multiple weeks of doing this I did get very good at dedicating 12 hours to just blogging, but it was not the most productive thing to do.  I did improve as the semester went on, as I was tired of blogging all day every Saturday.  The blogs also became a little less time consuming, which was definitely appreciated.  In the future my time management could either massively improve or ruin my chances at success.  Currently I'm headed in the right direction, especially as my class scheduling is infinitely better than when I had no idea what to expect.

Publishing Public Argument

Here is the link to my final Project 3.

AUDIENCE

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

PURPOSE

3. Check one (and only one) of the argument types below for your public argument:         ___X____ 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.         _______ My public argument proposes a solution for a problem that is being debated.         _______ My public argument positively evaluates 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: This is a project about why addressing climate change is important.  I start off by explaining why climate change has taken the backseat and then transition into why it is a relevant issue to the everyday American.  A lot of the project includes my own personal narratives and what I have learned as a new student to the field.  I do not have intense research or worldly knowledge, but I still have the knowledge to try and convince the audience how important my field is and the lives it can save.

ARGUMENTATION

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

Ethical or credibility-establishing appeals                    ___X__ 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.)                    ___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)                    ___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                    __X___ 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                    __X___ 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.)                    __X___ Appropriate use of humor for subject matter, platform/website, audience                    ___X__ Using “shocking” statistics in order to underline a specific point                    __X___ Using 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.)                    _____ Using music to create an appropriate emotional impact for the debate                    _____ Using sound effects to create an appropriate emotional impact for the debate                    ____ Employing an engaging and appropriate tone of voice for the debate                    _____ Other:

Logical or rational appeals                    _____ Using historical records from credible sources in order to establish precedents, trends, or patterns                    __X___ Using statistics from credible sources in order to establish precedents, trends, or patterns                    _____ Using interviews from stakeholders that help affirm your stance or position                    _____ Using expert opinions that help affirm your stance or position                    __X___ Effectively organizing elements, images, text, etc. so they make visual sense                    __X___ Clearly transitioning between different sections of the argument (by using title cards, interstitial music, voiceover, etc.)                    ___X__ Crafting sequenced images/text/content in order to make linear arguments                    ___X__ Intentionally emphasizing specific images/text/content in order to strengthen argument                    __X___ Carefully designing size/color relationships between objects to effectively direct the viewer’s attention/gaze (for visual arguments)                    _____ Other:

GENRE

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:

 
Option 1
Option 2
Option 3

Reflection on Project 3 Draft

For the peer review process I reviewed Michael B and Chloe's drafts.  I will now be discussing my thoughts on the drafting process.

Unsplash, "girl" accessed via Pixabay
Uploaded August 2015 CC0 Public Domain

1. Who reviewed my draft?

Casey and Sam reviewed my draft.

2. What did you think and/or feel about the feedback?

I was not surprised about the feedback.  My draft is pretty rough and I wasn't super confident about where I wanted to go with it.  After talking to Mr. Bottai and reading the reviews, I am basically in the process of rewriting everything I had previously written.  Everyone seemed to like the personal narratives I touched on in the draft, so I will definitely be going more towards those in the final draft.  It will allow me to create a much more personal understanding of the issue while still showing my credibility on the subject.  I was definitely struggling trying to find the balance between explaining concepts to the audience and writing an argument.  After a couple of weeks of avoiding coming off too biased or strongly about my opinions, this is a total 180 degree flip to only my opinions in a piece.

3.  What needs work (Audience, Purpose, Argumentation, Genre)?

First off, I will not be starting off with the Pope, he is just not as relevant to my opinion for the length of the piece.  My essay focus is going to be altered to talking about solely why environmental activism is beneficial and my personal experiences with the issue.  Instead of providing a ton of background and broad information, I will be able to talk directly to the audience about why this issue is important.  My argument was almost non-existent in my draft, so changing to a narrative will almost certainly allow me to focus on my main persuasive argument.  I also drifted to closely to the piece becoming a QRG, which again will be solved by personal opinions and lots of hopefully beautiful images.

4. How am I feeling about the project direction?

I am feeling a lot more inspired about what I can write for this project.  I was dreading revisions of this draft ever since I sat down to write it.  After the reviews and conversation I definitely feel a lot more interested in my creative argument and how I should go about writing this project.  Writing an opinionated piece and explaining personal stories and experiences can be a little more interesting than listening and analyzing hours and hours of Pope speeches.

Draft of a Public Argument

Here is the link to my first draft of Project 3 discussing the importance and positive benefits of addressing climate change and the human impact on the environment.  

It was written to mimic a National Geographic article in their online Environmental section.  This is a very rough draft that I will be continuing to work on in the upcoming week.  The pictures have not all been chosen or finalized yet, as I am still trying to find ones that I actually have the rights to use.  Please feel free to leave any and all commentary.

skeeze "sunset" accessed via Pixabay
Uploaded 11/4/2015 CC0 Public Domain