1. What were the main intellectual goals of the assignment? Please situate these goals in terms of the course theme and in terms of the communication strategies you were to learn or practice.
I think the main intellectual goal was to get us to stop and think. Normally when I step into new places, I don’t bring my notebook and I definitely don’t write about it afterwards. This assignment forced me to sit down at times and to reflect on my inner-thoughts. Sitting with my thoughts can be an uncomfortable experience and sometimes it can lead to emotions like anger or sadness that I don’t want to experience. Other times, this assignment has led to finding joy in objects that I might usually ignore. I worked on multiple forms of communication, but I think my written communication is what I practiced the most. I wrote in my notebook, on my phone, and on my laptop each day to complete this assignment. I revised, shared my writing with friends, and took suggestions on how to make my writing better. Writing is not easy for me. I struggle to translate the thoughts in my head into words on paper. I think it’s the vulnerability of sharing something that usually stays to myself that I continue to struggle with and continue to work on.
2. What is your argument or purpose? How did you make the argument or purpose visible and persuasive in your artifact?
I think my purpose was growth. There is some element of holding onto my life before coming to college that I wrote about in my instructions. I get so easily comfortable with routine, but leaving can be difficult for me. Throughout my essay, I mostly captured joyful moments, but I was not having the best day when I was in the Pitt Rivers Museum. I think that section of writing was clearly more negative than the rest. I have started to establish routine here and captured it with the home I found in Society Cafe. My growth can also be seen through this more personal style of writing. Most writing I am used to is very formulaic, and analyzing other texts rather than my inner thoughts.
3. Who is the intended audience for your artifact; why is this an appropriate audience? How is your choice of audience reflected in your artifact?
I think the audience for this piece was myself. I think I always write for myself and maybe that is something I need to work on. I tried to tell background stories to make it clear since I knew that others would be reading this essay, but all the writing was based on notes I jotted down while at these different spots. The photos are just things that caught my eye and not much thought was put into others that would be seeing them.
4. What are the defining features of the genre or media that you are using in this project? How do you make use of these features?
I think the photos really helped to share my feelings and thoughts. Instead of just reading about what I saw, visual aids made what I saw while I had those thoughts visible to audience members. It allows the audience to experience what I saw first hand and generate their own response. I sprinkled pictures and even one video into my essay to go along with each fragment.
5. If you had more time for revision, what would you change and why?
I’m not sure exactly what I would change, but I think I could work on the cohesiveness of the piece and the style I write with. I still have trouble translating my thoughts and hearing some of my classmates' work made me impressed with their use of poetic language. I don’t think many poetic thoughts, and my writing reflects my unanswered questions and more logical thought process. I would have liked to do a round of peer review with one random partner that doesn’t know me well. I think that would have been an interesting way to go about the editing process.
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