Design Plans and Purpose Statements

For each major project the class needed to construct a design plan and purpose statement for the project. In some cases the purpose statement is in the design plan. The design plans and purpose statements were very helpful when starting a project.

The first design plan was for the first project, Rhetorical Analysis. As you can see that the purpose statement is in the design plan.


A Design Plan for a Rhetorical Analysis
My Statement of purpose is to correctly analyze the American College of Sports Medicine webpage.  Also make my analysis available and interesting enough for my audience, classmates and professor, to want to read it. This means I am focusing more on the content of the home page and how effective is the webpage. To analyze correctly I will use a few strategies to complete my purpose.
1.       To focus solely on the home page and how the components fit together to form the page.  How each of the links, texts, and pictures fit together to work effectively together.
2.       Break apart each component to find the real purpose of the webpage. I need to look at the intended audience and context to better understand the real purpose, not just what the purpose appears to be on the surface.
3.       Look at the layout of the webpage and figure out why the designer designed the webpage in the manor he or she did. See if the webpage is unique of if it follows the basic norms of making a webpage.
I could use a number of mediums to present my rhetorical analysis; paper, PowerPoint, video, blog, or a letter/email to the administrators at the ACSM webpage. The medium I will most likely use will be a paper because it will be easier to contain all my information without leaving anything out, but I will be posting it to my blog to make it accessible. The arrangement of my analysis will start with me analyzing the authors design plan then analyzing the statement of purpose. I will have my introduction touch on my analysis, then I will go into the five steps I went through for my rhetorical analysis.
1.       The initial sense of the text’s purpose, audience, and context
2.       A list about everything the webpage has that was a choice to put there
3.       How are the choices used strategically?
4.       Test observations
5.       Revise original analysis



The photo essay has a purpose statement and a design plan separate.

Statement of Purpose for a Photo Essay
My audience is my professor, teacher, and people curious about concussions, which could include professionals down to someone who has the potential to have one. The context will most likely be the world since I assume we will have to post this on our blogs. In addition, though I believe we will each put them on our computer screens and we will go around the class looking at each other’s photo essay. I hope that this will teach not just my classmates, but people everywhere to take concussions seriously and to be careful.
Even though the photo essays will be in my own personal blog, and it is just supposed to allow us to get an understanding for our research topic, it will count as a major part of our grade. Every project in class will affect our grades, and I am striving to do well on the photo essay to get closer to getting an A for the semester. Since the photo essay will be on our blog and on our screens in class people should be able to understand it and understand my purpose for making this photo essay without me telling every person.
Besides trying to get a good grade in my class, the purpose for the photo essay is to develop my own argument. My argument is that concussions are dangerous and there needs to be more awareness for it. I know if I took pictures of someone hitting their head hard it would seems obviously dangerous. So I also want to do is show the short and long-term effects of concussions and some of the real dangers behind it. The problem with that is a long-term effect could be diseases of the brain and in some cases death. I am not sure how I would even be able to photographic some of the long term effects of concussions and I am worried that it might just scare people away.
I want my audience to learn to take concussions seriously, not just for the short-term effects, but for the long ones too. I want them to know that we need to be careful and monitor people who have had/have a concussion(s), because humans need their brain to live and damaging it will not help. I do not want people to stop playing sports or constantly be worried about concussions, just to be knowledgeable about concussions.
I want this essay to be helpful and insightful to others and I want to learn more about concussions myself. I worry I will have a hard time finding the right photographs to get my message across correctly. I also worry most people will blow by the essay because they think they know it already or because it will not be interesting enough to them.

Design Plan for Photo Essay
                My purpose is to inform my audience about the dangers of concussions. I know people know some of the obvious dangers of concussions, but people need to know the common and the hidden dangers of concussion. I know I want my pictures to tell a story of getting a concussion so that the reader can follow it. I want people to see the different ways to get a concussion show it is not only for athletes. I also want some of the symptoms to show how dangerous and scary concussions are. My audience will not just be my classmates and professors, but will also be interested people, people with concussions or even medical professionals. In class, the students and professor will be reading mine along with everyone else one after another, so I need to make mine stand out. In the blog the whole world can see it so I need it to be professional, but it still needs to catch the average person’s eye.
                I am going to use a series of photographs with a narrative and captions to get my message across. I need to focus on how people get concussions and symptoms of one. I also want to show in the beginning that you can get a concussion from sports, but people can also get it from other traumatic events injuring the head. I need to take a picture of someone going through the symptoms of a concussion, and I think my brother, Kyle will be up to the challenge. I know I cannot accurately photograph every symptom, but I will try to photograph all of them, and just cut out the ones that do not clearly portray the symptom. Since my phone has a camera, I will be using my phone and will need to email the photographs to my computer so I can save them and put them in my essay.
                This is a serious topic, but I do not want my audience to think that I am a super strict safety person that lives in fear of a concussion. I do not want my audience to live in fear of concussions after reading my essay. Therefore, I could in my captions; talk about the correct way to treat concussions, so concussions can seem like a manageable injury if treated correctly. I could also potentially throw in a joke or some humor to lighten the mood a little, and make me seem less strict. I know my essay needs to be focused and professional looking, but to avoid being too informative and boring I need to make it funny and interesting. The pictures might make the essay seem a little more fun. I want my audience to feel informed, but I want them to enjoy reading the essay. My argument is about showing the dangers of concussions. Since none of the symptoms will seem like a positive, but rather a negative, people logically will view them as dangerous. I know I need to put a caption for each picture or group of picture so that my audience can understand clearly, what the picture is trying to portray.
                I will start with a narrative before any photographs to introduce my argument and start my story to my audience. After that, I will have two different photos of someone getting a concussion, with one caption explaining how in both situation you can get a concussion. Then I will show some initial symptoms of a concussion. After that, I will show some more serious and long-term effects of a concussion. This way it seems more like a story of someone dealing with a concussion.
                I will test the photo essay, by showing it first to Kyle since he is the model in the pictures. I also will be having someone from my class peer edit the photo essay. I will take in to consideration both of the reviews and know I was successful if they can clearly understand the photos and caption.
 

The research paper just has a design plan with the statement of purpose in the design plan. 
Design Plan for Research
                My purpose for my research paper is I want my classmates, teachers, and potential colleagues to recognize concussions as a dangerous injury. I will go into concussions, and the different conditions that can develop due to concussions. Even with research, there are people and associations that do not believe that concussions are a serious injury. This design plan will go over my strategies, medium, arrangement, production and more for the making of my research paper
                To make a successful research paper that will get my argument across, I need good strategies. First strategies is to collect good sources that can back up my argument and make my research paper correct. I will do this by using my school’s database and looking up only scholarly articles. Another strategy for my paper is to define and clearly explain any terms, so that even an average person (classmate without medical background) can read and understand my paper. In addition, defining terms makes everything clearer and makes the paper understandable. I will be focusing on the conditions that develop from concussions. The different concussions will help proof that concussions are serious and dangerous. These strategies are the ones I will use during my paper to successful get my argument across to my audience.
                I will be writing a paper for a number of reasons. The obvious reason is that my assignment is to write a research PAPER. I will also write a paper because I think with the goal in mind and the period of time I have a paper is the only way I can achieve my goal. I would like to add charts, photos, or even a video (not likely for the video) to make my paper more interesting and stick better with my audience. I will post my paper in my blog allowing the world to see it so my medium will also be a blog, but still really a paper.
                Although I do not have my complete arrangement for the whole paper yet, I have a good idea of the arrangement.  Of course, I will need to start with an introduction into my topic and my thesis introducing my argument. Then I will define and explain concussions, and the other conditions that develop from concussions. Each condition should get its own paragraph and examples to make sure the audience clearly understand each condition. Then I shall end my paper with a conclusion with closing remarks to wrap up my paper and a last chance to get my point across and maybe even have a call to action.
                I have twenty-four days to complete my research paper. I have already started researching by using our library databases to find articles on concussions, concussions causing dementia, and even causes for professional athletes with/dying of dementia. Also some of the different condition that develop from concussions. I still need to do a full research of those topics and not just glance at articles. I will take notes on articles I find and look up professional research in this area to help with my paper. I looked up the cause Justice for Jeff and that people in England fighting the Football Association, FA, (soccer football) that promised research of head injuries from heading the soccer ball and development of dementia, but have yet to do a single piece of research. I would also like to look into the research the used in the recent NFL lawsuit. I do believe there is a correlation and I think that certain sports are at higher risk of concussion. I believe that multiple concussions and more severe concussions can cause dementia. Those are both things I believe, but I want to have proof for one way or the other so I can know for sure. I believe those things without complete proof because I have first-hand knowledge concussions and their side effects and also because of recent lawsuits, I read about and see on the news. Therefore, to write this paper after I complete my research I will make my annotated bibliography. Then I will make an outline, which will turn in to my first draft of my paper. I will then have my peers and myself edit and revise my paper until it has turned into my final draft.
                To make my research paper successful I need to use strategy, use a paper as my medium, arrange it correctly, and produce it in my time line. I want people to finally take a concussion as a serious injury and understand that concussions mistreated can develop other conditions.
               

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