This is one of the first class activities we did this semester. Dr. Wielgos told everyone to take the first 5 to 10 minutes to write about a time that they experienced a failure at communication.
One time my sister was feeling down about her
appearance, so I thought I should try and make her feel better. Of course since
it was just myself and my sister, I did not really think about what I said
before I said. I started off by saying how she was beautiful in high school.
When she was in high school she had long blonde hair and always had nice
clothes and all the guys liked her. Myself at that time was in middle school
and dressed and acted like a boy. So she was always the coolest person. In my
head that’s what I was telling her to make her feel better, but it came out
more as you were pretty in high school, but now she isn’t. After I realized
what I said only hurt her I tried taking it back. I tried telling her I still
thought she was beautiful, but she wouldn’t listen she thought I was just
trying to dig myself out of the giant hole I was in. I do think she is beautiful, but she will
never believe me now.
Then
after that he talk about the steps involved in good communication.
After he explained communication we had to think about what went wrong
in our communication and how we could make it good communication.
Step 1 Purpose: The purpose was to make my sister
feel better about herself. The purpose was a good purpose and I would keep the
purpose the same if I ever try again.
Step 2 Audience: The audience was my sister feeling
down. I should have thought more about why she was feeling down at the moment
to make her feel better.
Step 3 Context: At the dinner table after we
finished eating dinner. I should have waited till I thought about what I was
going to say and maybe after she did not have negative thoughts about herself
in her head.
Step 4 Strategies: I had no strategies, I just
barreled in without thinking. I should have come up with a strategy that would
convince my sister to not think so poorly of herself. Like to either say how I
can understand how she feels bad about her appearance sometimes, because I also
feel that way sometimes. Also maybe after that say how because of her
appearance I feel self-conscience about my own. That way I put myself on the
same level as her, but then make her seem better than myself.
Step 5 Medium: I just talked to her in person. I
could have wrote her a letter that she could keep the nice things I said on
paper if it did make her feel better.
Step 6 Arrangement: I started with saying she was
pretty in high school and then tried saying I thought she was also pretty now. If
I started with how I thought she was pretty now and then said I thought she was
pretty in high school too, maybe she would have felt better.
Step 7 Test: I did not test this on someone else
first to see how they would react to my message. I should next time find another family member
or a close friend and give them my message to my sister and see how they take
it. That way if when I say it, it comes out wrong they can let me know that it
will only make things worse or if it will be successful in making my sister
feel better.
If I had done this whole situation over and thought
it through, it would be completely different. The purpose, my audience, and
medium would have stayed the same, but nothing else would have. I would have used a different strategy and
arrangement to get my message across. I would have used a later context after I
have tested it on someone.
Next class we made a little page explaining what shapes us as communicators. Just a very simple little flow chart with pictures.
Before starting our own photo essay we went through different photo essays in our books. This gave us an example of what our should look like. This was an analysis of one of the examples we went over.
Next class we made a little page explaining what shapes us as communicators. Just a very simple little flow chart with pictures.
Another example of class work is when we went over types of mediums and how to pick an effective medium. First we read an internet article (at the time I did not understand or know what a photo essay was so it did not occur to me that it was a photo essay) on part of a book that shows different families across the world and the food they eat for one week, including the price of the food.
Choosing Your Medium
1.
Yes it appropriate to use an internet article on
Time Magazine’s website. Using this medium allows the point to get across, but
it is shorter and easier for everyone to read as oppose to the book.
2.
This was not an unfamiliar or unexpected medium
for the book to use.
3.
Through this medium it loses the intimacy
of a book, but it gets to the point and sends a powerful message with all of
the different family pictures and food prices.
4.
With this medium, it does not hurt your
pocketbook at all. Promoting this book on a popular website as an article makes
it easy for everyone to access for little cost. It will always be on the
internet as oppose to maybe going a talk show or having ads that not everyone can
see and will not always be there. So it was a good way to make it public for everyone, but only gives a taste of the book.
5.
The medium can effectively
promote the book to more people than other mediums could have.
In class we did exercises in the book to help teach us the correct way to do something. One example is when we did exercises on analyzing someone's work. Mainly these exercises were on colors used in a piece done by someone.
In class we have also done rhetorical analyses to prepare us to do a rhetorical analysis for our first project. One time we practiced analysis, we got into groups and did a rhetorical analysis of a webpage.
Feed my starving children http://www.fmsc.org/
1.
Our initial sense of the webpage’s purpose to
get people to volunteer and to inform them about what this organization is
about. Our initial sense of the audience would be anyone in the United States.
The context is always up and accessible to anyone that has the internet. The statement of purpose is to always have a
way to get anyone in the US to volunteer and be informed about this
organization.
2.
First, in the top left there are 6 personal
links for the webpage, which are more simple and smaller. More for members or
people more familiar with the webpage. The logo is in the top corner and is
noticeable when you first look at the webpage. It’s blue on a white background
to help it stand out. Next to the logo there is a bible verse that almost looks
like a child wrote it. Then in the right there are 6 more links that are more
action links like, donate, registration, and etc. The donation link is blue
with white writing while the rest are white with blue writing. Then there are
the 7 main links for the website to help you navigate the webpage and to get
information on the organization. The biggest thing on the webpage is the
changing pictures in the middle. Showing volunteers, children in need of food,
and where they are from. Under the pictures it gives a caption of who they are
and what is their mission in a text. The
three pictures in the bottom with text and link is placing they are helping,
events coming up, and places near you to help out. Then in the left bottom it has
sponsors of this organization.
3.
The links on top are smaller and not noticeable
because they are not meant to draw a new person’s attention they are for people
familiar with the webpage. The logo is big enough to be noticeable but not too
large to draw too much attention at first glance, because people on this
website should already know what it is called. The bible verse is there to make
people feel good about giving back and making people want to give back. The
donating link is blue to draw attention to it from the rest of the links in this
area, because that’s what they want most, donations. The next set of links just
above the picture are there for practical purposes and do not need to draw
attention, just too affectively help people use the webpage. The picture is the
largest thing on the webpage and in the center to initial thing to grab the
reader’s attention and make them want to get involved in this organization. The
picture has a volunteering having fun and children in need and their home to
make people want to help out. Under the pictures is the mission which gives a
short enough background to inform you, but not too much to push people away
from reading it. The three pictures at the bottom with text give you some
information about what the links are, but not enough so you have to follow the
link to find out more about it. The sponsorships show that this is a credible
organization and does not draw attention away from the main webpage.
4.
There are no anomalies on the webpage, there are
no distractions from the webpage.
5.
The main purpose of the webpage is to still get
people to get involve and help out, but now it seems they rather have donation
over volunteers. The audience is still for anyone with access to the internet,
but now is more for people that have money to donate or time for volunteering.
The context is still the web so anyone can access it.
Before starting our own photo essay we went through different photo essays in our books. This gave us an example of what our should look like. This was an analysis of one of the examples we went over.
1.
I do think that the photographs and captions
work well together, well enough that anyone can understand the point Ajay was
trying to make, without help from Ajay explaining it to everyone.
2.
Ajay in his design plans talks about making a
title page, I believe that the photo of money exchange (which is actually the
same as the fourth pictured just cropped more) and the title setup the audience
for the purpose of Ajay’s photo essay. The photos and the title are appropriate
for his intended purpose of making his audience think differently of earning a
grade vs. buying a grade.
3.
Ajay crops his photos so that you see the girl,
Mia, the money, and what she is paying for or whom she is paying to. I might
have taken pictures of Mia buying other products besides food and drink. Like a
picture of her paying for gas, grocery, or any product. That way the first
picture does not seem the same so people will not blow through them without
taking a second glance. Also, put pictures that match, so buying things of
increasing importance.
4.
Ajay’s caption are working the way he wants
because he is making the audience ask the questions themselves and think about
it themselves.
5.
I think Ajay could turn each question into a
statement, but it would lose the effect of having the audience think for
themselves as oppose to being told to think a certain way. Ajay could have left
out the captions, but once again, it would lose the effect the captions have on
the essay. People would breeze right through the pictures without thinking twice
or giving them a second glance.
6.
I would only change the “normal” buying pictures
to be something of increasing importance/cost like the “education” buying
photos.
7.
I do think he has the right amount of photos,
because he covers the basics of an education (getting into school, getting good
grades, graduating).
8.
Overall, Ajay has successfully achieved his
purposes for himself; he gets his point across without stating it out right,
which allows people to think for themselves, (another purpose of Ajay).
x Through out the semester we would go over ideas for research topics for our research paper. During the first month we had five minutes to write about what interest us.
What interests me?
Sports have always been interesting to me for most of my
life. Now that I’m studying to be an athletic trainer, a lot of sports medicine
research I find really interesting. Certain injuries I find fascinating and also
different statistics on injury rates and how they have changed due to something
else. Like last week I read a story about a boy who was playing football on a
concussion, started bleeding in his skull. He lived but the doctors had to take
out part of his skull to release pressure and stop bleeding. This kid is now
missing part of his skull, that’s crazy. I also heard on the news that an
Olympic skier tore her ACL and is now getting a man made one put in it. ACL are
usually either fixed by taking part of your own muscle and ligaments (usually
part of hamstring muscle I believe) or by taking a cadaver ACL, (dead person’s
ACL). They were going to make one, that could potential be better than both
procedures, which could change the sports world. I do not have any fact behind
it, but a torn ACL is a very common knee injury. I’m not sure what exactly I
would like to research, but I really like finding out about news in the sports
medicine field.
Then a few weeks later we took 5 more minutes into who cares about our topic.
Who else cares about that topic?
I would think that any sports medicine professional, which
is a long list of people. It does not just include different doctors and
athletic trainers, but also coaches, strength and conditioning trainers, and a
lot of different people. I also think athletes should care, because they are the
ones that are the most affected by some of this findings and experimental
procedures. Parents or love ones of athletes would also care about new studies
in sports medicine.
Then right after we turned in our first writing project (Rhetorical analysis) we took 10 minutes on an actually topic idea, not just interest or audience.
After writing project 1
Last night while I was trying to come up with ideas for
topics, I came up with a few, but I should not pick out a thesis statement
now or know everything about it already. Some of the topics were, “what are
Athletic Trainers?” which I thought would be a good topic and it could really
inform people, because there are people out there that do not really understand
what that means. The problem with that topic is that I am taking Intro to
Athletic Training and I have a book for it, so I know a lot about the topic
already. There is a chance I will not really research well, because I think I
know everything already and I might get bored being lectured on it 3 days a
week and researching about it the other two days a week. Maybe I can still do
that topic or maybe find a way to branch off that topic, because what I wanted
to do was interview the ATC here at the school or even the director of the AT
major and use that as a source. A way to branch off would be to maybe compare
what ATC did 30 years ago compared to today’s ATC or make it specific and
research what an ATC at the collegiate level does compared to high school level
or even compared to an ATC working somewhere else (i.e., industrial company,
performing arts, military, etc.). Another topic I had in mind was concussions.
With that topic, I could branch off to do, who is at risk the most, what are
some long-term effects, and maybe even find a disease caused by concussion to research
it. I said concussion, but really, any sports injury that I find interesting
would do for me. Even learning new procedures to prevent or heal an injury.
I ended up picking concussions as my topic, although at the time I didn't really think I would pick concussions.
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