Thlog #9: Wrapping Up the Quarter

The incredibly intense ten weeks are finally coming to a close, and my mind is fighting incredibly hard to wrap itself around the concepts I have learned. Luckily, Writing 2 has been the most entertaining. We began and ended the week with presentations. Yes, I learned about hedged language and fanboys and all that good stuff about the elements of writing, but I definitely looked at the bigger picture after the final presentation: we all learn from each other.

This was the best thing about the course. I never felt intimidated or thrown off by Zack's endless writing lingo or even by the advanced writers in the class. I always knew and felt that I could learn from everyone, while also offering a piece of my knowledge to them. It wasn't a one way situation where I couldn't take control of the wheel--everyone took turns driving in a street with U-turns and stoplights and all of the other elements that make driving incredibly complicated.

Writing is not easy, and with everyone's input, one can only go up from where they started. That's probably the best lesson I had ever learned from this class, even if there was some sick comics and videos that we took a look at.

Thlog #8: How McCloud Knew Me Before I Knew Him

It was love before sight. It was in my subconscious, and by taking Writing 2...I uncovered it. I was in love with McCloud. Well, not him exactly; I'm talking about his concepts. Have I confused you? Let me clear it up.

I never knew I could apply what I learned in this course to the world away from writing.

After reading Scott McCloud's "Writing with Pictures" and also applying those concepts to my WP3, I realized that I had been familiar with all of these concepts before, and I never really put words to them. They were always just in the back of my mind when I designed pages or when I photographed events. In fact, his concepts are incredibly dire to the jobs and tasks that I had when I was in yearbook. So, naturally, I reflected on my works over the past few years and analyzed it in order to see if I followed those concepts, and if I didn't--then what could I have done to make it better?

1. Choice of Moment - In this photograph, I think I did follow McCloud's concept of moment. I captured the final pose of the dance that she is performing. However, without capturing what she is looking at, the photograph might look open ended. This is where 2. Choice of Frame comes into play. What is she pointing to? Looking at? I should have included it in the photograph, but there was not much room. However, the frame that I accidentally chose could be clever. There is a certain mystery and personal grasp of the photo since she is the only one in it. Ultimately, I would have loved seeing how the photograph would look if I captured the entire moment.



3. Choice of Image - One of the spreads in our yearbook is a 'showstopper page.' Hmm, sounds like a genre within a yearbook. But don't let me get carried away. Typically, in those spreads, we have one incredible photograph that took up the entire page--in order to get our students interested in whatever we were discussing. In 2013-14, we wrote a showstopping page on the LGBT community. So, in order have a photograph that not only matched the intensity of the photo, we had to find a concept that was pleasing to our audience. We decided that colorful hands linked together in a world of darkness would be a great metaphor for the story written.

4. Choice of Word  - For that same spread, we had a specific title that helped with the cause of what we were writing about. We titled it "Unconditionally" and even placed the title in the middle of those hands.

5. Choice of Flow - Although McCloud addresses flow in a comic kind of way, I tried my best to apply it to how I designed an entire page. I used our seasonal style pages as an example of flow. where to look at in the first place. Although the photographs were rad, the way that the photographs connected to each other could have been better.
Unfortunately, this is where I declare that one of my spreads did not have the best flow. We had the captions all organized towards the bottom, numbered respectively to the photo. However, there was no exact order that the reader would look at it. In fact, it looked so compacted that he reader might not even understand

The reason why I linked McCloud to yearbook, overall, was to stress that what we learn in the Writing 2 course isn't strict to writing research papers or essays. We learned about genres and their conventions, which is definitely not limited to literary genres. Hell, on the first day we looked at country music and horror movies. We had freedom from Week 1, and applying what I've learned to what I have already done can help me improve myself in the long run. Whether it is writing an 8-page paper for a history class, or concocting a visually entertaining spread in a magazine (which is my dream job for the future), we can apply the main lessons we learned in Writing 2 anywhere.

Thlog #7: The Importance of Essence

While Writing 2 has been dormant since last Monday, the lesson we learned has suddenly become more meaningful as I attempt to create my WP3 Draft. We focused on translation and transformation, but most importantly, we recognized that the essence should never leave the genre. 

While content changes in terms of the moves and conventions of a genre, a transformation does not change the exact meaning. We even reflected back to the online lesson videos of Disney artists painting trees. While the mediums they used and the way they perceived the trees shifted through each artist, they were--in essence--still drawing the same tree. 

This goes for any genre. While I think about my WP3 pitch (the YouTube video), I watched many genres. These varied from makeup tutorials to rants to challenges. What they speak about and the audience they target may have changed but it still has the elements that create the YouTube video genre. 

While the concepts of keeping the essence may still be difficult, I intend to become a better reader, by reading like a writer. Thanks Mike Bunn! 

PB3A - How Does the Thing Become the Thing?

The options for WP3 are endless. While I do have a clue of what to focus on my scholarly article, and what genres to try to translate it to for a younger audience, then an older audience...I have this burning desire to challenge myself for the last and final project. When two more options opened up for this WP, I took a look at them closely and saw my opportunities for them both. However, one stood out the most to me: the self-referential video.

I believed this could really execute creativity and skill on a different medium. After a while of thinking about it, I knew the perfect genre that I could create a self-referential video on: a YouTube Video. However, it is not just a simple, uploaded video. It is a video in which the YouTuber/vlogger speaks to the camera on a certain topic. Alright, that's a bit of a long name for the genre, but hear me out. After thinking of the perfect name for it, it'll sound great--hopefully.

Of course, by creating a self-referential video on a YouTube video, I have to do my research on how different YouTubers speak to their audiences, what conventions they share, and what the essence of these videos are. Is it the way they speak in a peppy tone, to keep the conversation going? Is it the music they play in the background? Do their audiences change, or do they share the same fan base?

After careful thinking, I conducted steps for myself to follow as to creating this WP:

1. Become an "Expert" - Basically, know the elements of a YouTube video back to back, and yes, even more than the questions in the previous paragraph. I need to understand their attitude, what they speak about, how they speak about it, and what their point even is. (It's like the discussion portion of a scholarly article). After becoming an expert, I can create one myself.
2. Find the Essence - After today's lesson, I learned that scholarly articles have an essence, as do most genres. There is a main aspect to them, that even if you translate or transform the conventions to fit into certain audience, it still remains in tact. This step involves me searching for the essence of the YouTube video genre that I'm looking for.
3. Create a Script - This process is more of a "Behind the Scenes" type of thing. I know that if I have a script with me, things will run smoother. However, as I create a script, I will make sure to insert the conventions that I found the most important from each video that I find. This is the most vital step because it should have the big ideas of a YouTube video.
4. Execution - After rehearsing and finding the perfect tone and attitude, and channeling my inner-YouTube star, I will grab a camera and film my self-referential video. I'm sure this will create a dozen of bloopers and I will not finish it in one take.
5. Edit - The raw film is not enough for YouTubers. If there's one thing I know for sure, it's that YouTubers are meticulous when it comes to editing their videos. It must be trimmed properly with proper sound effects and music. This might be one of the most important conventions in a video. I'm sure it'll be challenging.

Finally, after I have the final product in my hands (or uploaded, really), I will create my self-analysis, and explain the moves that I took and why I took them because, as De Piero says, everything done in our projects must have a reason. And, of course, I will include sources from the reader. I will do my best to summarize the lessons that I have learned throughout this course in this self-analysis, while also hopefully creating a perfect video of this example. Ultimately, I'll (try to) have it all tied up together.

Thlog #6: Lesson Learned

There are a couple things about WP2 that took me off guard, and to be honest I have never been so challenged for a paper in my life. 

1). There were too many questions to answer and 2). Where in this paper do I get to put in my voice? 

Those were the two struggles I faced, and I'm not quite sure I overcame these obstacles. However as I trudged through these 6 pages, I learned a very important lesson: it's okay to not always be the best. 

This is an important fact to remember. Whether you're in basketball or even a regular class like calculus, you ahould accept the fact that there are people in that same field that can challenge you. There are people that will be deemed better than you. These are the people that should motivate you to excel in your own terms. 

As for writing, I accepted the fact that this might not have been the best paper that I wrote, and there is 100% positively someone who wrote an outstanding paper. 

Competition has always been a problem of mine, especially in a field that I love so much. My WP2 thoughts have taught me that it's more important to focus on improvement than on being the best. 

Painting Responses

• What are some "moves" you see in these videos? 
• How do these artists describe what they’re doing?  What do the artists refer to while they describe their work?  What do they talk about?  What do they direct our attention towards?  
• How would you characterize each artist's style, and what impact does their style have on you (a viewer/audience member)?  How have these artists chosen to portray their subject matter?  

In Bob Ross's videos, his moves remain the same. At least in these ones that are shown, he is wearing the same shirt and his voice is consistently calm. While he narrates what he is doing, he often repeats the steps he takes in painting. For example, he says "slowly, slowly, slowly" when he brushes over the canvas. In the Family Guy clip, it is very satirical and pokes fun at Bob Ross. Bob Ross is calm, whereas the Family Guy's version has a voice that escalates towards the end and becomes defensive. Both are in a black background with a large canvas and a set of paint.

Among the four Disney artists, and Bob Ross, the way they speak about painting these trees are very similar. Their voices are very soothing and calming; I feel like it reflects the light brushstrokes that they press against the canvas. Painting and art is such a soft topic, and the voice should match the action. In all of their works, they really focus on the meaning of the tree and how it stands. The way it is drawn reflects the ambiance or the emotions of the canvas that they are drawing. 

The appearance of each artists drawings can be very similar to one another, but when looking at it closely, there are major differences that separate each quality of the artist. For example, they use different colors and mediums. As soon as they get closer to the product, their focuses are different. One really focuses on the trunk of the trees, one focuses on not completely drawing the tree because details do not matter as much, one has a Picasso-style tree, and another one looks incredibly realistic. The paintings of the tree do not really represent the tree but what they feel the tree really represents, if that makes any sense at all.

The audience tends to agree with all of the painters because of the convincing voice they put into it. Each painter is right in their own sense, and the audience (me) attempts to understand the focus of their final product. It's amazing to see their final products all contrast with one another even though they were looking at the same exact tree. That really can relate to what we have been learning in this course.

Journal Response...Online?

During this strange string of events that I have definitely attempted to NOT freak out over, we had a couple of questions to answer for our journal entries.

Q1. So, in the end, how’d your WP2 paper go?  What were you happy with?  What weren’t you?  Why?  Be specific! (Remember: this is fodder for your end-of-quarter metacognitive reflection)

• To be completely honest, I was a little upset over my WP2 paper. After hours of revision, I did not really feel satisfied with the results of what I had written, but I felt like that was the best I could do. However, I was really satisfied with my revision of my introduction from my first draft. After hearing my peers' opening sentences, I was very motivated to create a hook that would be up to par with the three-worded-sentence-opener thing. One thing that I wasn't quite satisfied with was the way I could organize each paragraph and thought among each other. I was very confused and scared that I didn't have enough flow in my transitions.

Q2. Which 2 or 3 comments that you received yesterday were the most helpful for you?  Why?

• One comment that helped me was concerning my choppy sentences. One of the peer readers had suggested combining sentences together and making them flow more than a constant stream of short sentences with the same subject. One more comment that really helped me was a suggestion to organize my thoughts first. They had pointed out that what I was arguing in the paragraph did not quite reflect my topic sentence in the beginning, so after rereading the actual content, I rewrote the main ideas.