Jillian Dolan

musician, student, artist

[paytonkillianmu]

Where I Will Adjust My Essay

To strengthen my essay, I would expand my data analysis and make stronger connections between my evidence and my main argument. Right now, some of my points feel more observational than analytical. I need to more clearly explain why the patterns I identified matter for audience experience and how they directly support my research question. I would also integrate visuals more effectively by explaining their significance rather than just including them.

[jilliandolan]

Thats a great thing to want to expand upon. It was a bit difficult to not be observational since thats kinda all we had to work with other than the data. It would take a lot more research (and defining what qualiifys as data) to expand further. Maybe finding data behind what the comments reference (that would be kinda hard). Maybe comparing the creators even more. There a lot of ways to expand the research!

[mmhwein]

what did you learn about your writing process that will help you after college?

I learned that my writing process works way better when I have some kind of structure or data to guide me instead of just starting with a blank page. For this project, having my content analysis in front of me made it so much easier to figure out what I wanted to say and actually back it up. I also realized I tend to overthink in the beginning, but once I start getting ideas down it flows a lot more naturally. After college, I want to keep using outlines or data points to get started instead of waiting until I feel ready, because that usually just slows me down. 

[jilliandolan]

I really relate to this! I havent had this much time on a writing assignment before so having this time and the outlines really helped. We definitely had to learn how to create our own outlines in this class too so that is a huge thing that will stick with us after we graduate!

[jilliandolan]

Week 15 Original Content Post 3

what are you most proud of with your writing process?

I am most proud of the tone that I created in my writing. Prior to this research paper, I think my tone and personality showed sporadically throughout the paper - going between a friendly playful use of language to professional and research based language. In this research essay, I worked hard on keeping it consistent and blending the two. I mostly focused on a professional and educated tone. Because I was presenting data - I wanted my words to be strong and reliable. I wanted the reader to trust my words because they are put together well. I think i may have accomplished that!

[jilliandolan]

Week 15 Original Content 2

What do you like the most about your learning?

The thing I like the most about my learning is the way that with each new idea I take in - the more my writing adjusts. I've really enjoyed learning new things from this class and getting to apply them to my essays. I've seen the way my writing has adapted from pretty carefree and unprofessional to educated, data reliant, and strong. Forming an argument the way we did taught me a lot. I've read many texts like that - but I mever thought I'd write such an intense research paper on such an interesting topic to work with.

[jilliandolan]

Week 15 Original Content Post

what do you like the most about your essay?

My favorite thing about my essay is it's design any layout. I really enjoy the cover page I created - blending all the aesthetics of the creators with not only images but text as well. A lot of it was just chunks of paragraph - so perhaps I could've improved there - but I think when I included images they were incorporated very nicely and intentionally, how much I wrote in each section was intentional (and not overwhelming I believe), and the way the images were laid out were unique. I was just as focused on the physical aspects of my essay to the wording aspects!

[jilliandolan]

Thursday check-in

what questions do you have about web writing that will help you after you finish this course?

My questions as this course come to an end have to do with tracking your own progress online. With virality being so common now - you can have one video that really work and then 100 more that do nothing. Is there anything that will 100% keep your audience gain and engagement - i know we've talked a lot about methods but any other ideas?

@npfannen

[oshean8]

Original Content Week #14

My writing process has been consistent throughout college, a brief outline of sections followed by papers finished in a single session. This project has helped me to forcibly slow down in my writing, taking weeks at a time to address the different issues that show up as I flush out my argument.

While it may be difficult to have the time to draft lesson plans for weeks at a time after college; revisiting previous lessons or assignments to aid my students will benefit them and myself.

[jilliandolan]

Its good to hear that you have been pretty consistent with writing. This project also helped me slow down and showed me how many drafts its possible to have. Prior to this, I've maybe done 1 draft before the final paper - but 3 drafts was a huuge difference and taught a lot of us how to really pay attention to detail.

[alecwebwriter]

Original Content Post (2)

What did you learn about your writing process that will help you after college? 

My writing process still requires some building upon and the ability to work over an extended period of time. I still find myself writing in short spurts, spitting out all the information at once, which offers little time for feedback and overall development. Outside of college, this will mean that for each project I approach, I will need to do one of two things: Apply to projects that fit alongside my writing all at once approach or adapt the process to the needs of a client. Understanding how I function can help me to adapt what I am doing to fit the project at hand.

[jilliandolan]

Hi! I completely relate to writing in short spurts and then not having enough time for feedback! I think that was my biggest issue with writing for this class. When we have all these other deadlines and classes - it's hard not to wait until there is little time left and then miss out on some of the peer benefits.

[alecwebwriter]

Original Content Post (3)

How will having a good revision process help you move forward beyond this class?

Beyond this class, a good revisionary process is beneficial for any assignment. Having a strong judgement and flexibility to change what is needed can help with future assignments and papers an individual will write, not only in college, but continuing through their lives. Having a solidified approach can help to increase credibility, cleanliness, and understanding from your audience when consuming pieces of writing you have created.

[jilliandolan]

I agree! I think this class definitely helped me zero in on my individuality in bigger papers and cleanliness!! The audience consumption is huge too - its not something I thought of before this!

[alecwebwriter]

Original Content Post (3)

How will having a good revision process help you move forward beyond this class?

Beyond this class, a good revisionary process is beneficial for any assignment. Having a strong judgement and flexibility to change what is needed can help with future assignments and papers an individual will write, not only in college, but continuing through their lives. Having a solidified approach can help to increase credibility, cleanliness, and understanding from your audience when consuming pieces of writing you have created.

[alecwebwriter]

Original Content Post (3)

How will having a good revision process help you move forward beyond this class?

Beyond this class, a good revisionary process is beneficial for any assignment. Having a strong judgement and flexibility to change what is needed can help with future assignments and papers an individual will write, not only in college, but continuing through their lives. Having a solidified approach can help to increase credibility, cleanliness, and understanding from your audience when consuming pieces of writing you have created.

[jilliandolan]

Original Content Post 3 Week 14

Peer review

One of the comments I got from Dr. P is that I should not have images of my data collection (I have one of these for each of the creators). She said I should have graphs instead of a spreadsheet. It would be really helpful to know what kind of graphs you are putting for this huge collection of data.

These are some of the graphs I have later on in my project. This is not included in the question I asked above. I have a graph of Average percentage of comments and Video Comparison of average views, and one comparing the averages of likes. Are these graphs and the following explanation good. Could I make these graphs better?

These are the images I included for examples of Zach Choi's posts. One of the comments I got from Dr. P is to include more posts. I included an examples like this from each creator. How many image post examples did you included in yours and how did you incorporate them?

[jilliandolan]

Original Content Post 2 Week 14

what did you learn about your writing process that will help you after college?

I now have a better grasp of the amount of time it takes me to work on writing and how to get the best results. I began this class squeezing all of the writing assignments into a last minute situation but with these bigger projects, I've found that my writing thrives when I revisit it a couple days of the week and continue rereading and revising throughout the week. It makes my writing sound a lot more academic and professional which will help me with any career after college.

[jilliandolan]

Original Content Post Week 14

what did you learn about drafting across multiple weeks that will inform your writing process after college?

From the past few weeks of drafting, I've learn a lot about the process. I've never really had to opportunity to draft over this extended amount of the time - most of my assignments come very fast pace with only a day or two between assignment and due date. I learned the importance of re-reading your work and looking for the best phrasing. I find that I can over explain certain things but when I get to continue coming back to my writing, I can make sure I have the most concise phrasing. As well as that, drafting over time makes it a lot less overwhelming and allows us to add more detail and "sparkle" to our projects.

[jilliandolan]

DrP Game

We have been working with a lot of data, and data analysis. Share an image of data you've seen posted in the real world.

I am a music industry major so we analyze the data of different platform sales a lot. This is is a graph comparing vinyls, streaming, cd's, mp3's and cassettes over many many years.

[staar-gaazer]

Original Writing Content 3

How will having a good revision process help you move forward beyond this class?

Having a good revision process will help me beyond this class as revision is a major part of my work, in both visual and literature work. I may be required to revise something fast and effectively for a client in the future and having a consistent, thought out, process to revise my work that I can replicate through any process and adapt when necessary is crucial to keep up professionally with the ever changing landscape of graphic design. Not only as a graphic designer am I required to revise art, but I may be asked to work as an editor or recommend revisions in a client's writing. But the process can apply to either in a similar way.

[jilliandolan]

Yes, I totally agree - especially about your points about art. I draw/ design as well, and I'm constantly having to go back to revise and get it to a point I am content with. There is revision in everything - writing songs, cooking, writing, graphing. We're always fixing things!

[ryguy1337]

what does your final revision process look like?

Walk away. Luckily, I'm already absorbed in a cross-country move! My wife and I are moving to Portugal. So while I might not have much leisure time, I do have plenty of time lifting things and putting them down. This might, to an average observer, seem like I'm not working on my project. BUT NAY! I find that by walking away from your work for a healthy time - not too long, not too short - you can return with a fresh set of eyes. I know that after lifting a couple hundred pounds of unused sofa and loading it both onto and off of a moving van into storage, I am begging to go back to my project.

While this is a step to my process, I also like to bounce my ideas off others. My wife is a great way to critically think about my work. If I'm at a loss for new ideas or content for my work, I plug my project into an AI with the prompt of "I'm working on this project for my Web Writing class. Analyze and give me suggestions for improvement." I'll even copy/paste the feedback my peers and instructors have given me to help highlight my problem areas. I should note, at no point do I generate content from the AI, and neither should you. AI is a decent assistant, but never have it do the work for you. It is notorious for making mistakes that someone with in-depth understanding of a subject would not overlook, and it can very easily tank your education!

[jilliandolan]

Hi!!! Great post, you got a good thing going. I never seem to be able to walk away once I start the project - though it sounds like it may save you some sanity. Its great that you bounce your ideas off of people and even AI. I feel similarly about AI - and I don't stand for it. I try to use it as minimally as possible, but now that it's already began shrinking my brain, it does help inspire other ideas I may not have thought of myself. I typically wouldnt use it at all - but this assignment is huge and I'm no research writer- sometime we just need a little help.