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Final Tumblr Journal XIV

Tumblr Journal XIII

Using one’s writing process outside of this class is easier than you think. It is actually more beneficial to use your writing process outside of the class. Unlike in class, you are not restricted in what you want to write. This means that you will put more thought into your writing, which includes your writing process, since you care about what your writing. This, in turn, will not only improve your writing in writing classes, but class or work that requires you to do a lot of writing.

Now, their are some things in this class that help you understand your writing process. One of them is what I call “professional/restrict writing process.” When writing for any type of work, there will be some level restriction on your writing. One common restriction is having a time limit or due date. This means that you have to decide how much time each process can take-up. Figuring out the most efficient way to do your writing process. This will take sometime to do and there were always be new ways to improve the efficiency of it. I am still trying to figure out the draft part since the amount needed always vary.

julianlcs

Journal 12

I think the assignment that has been the most challenging to me was the infographic. The assignment itself wasn’t difficult, rather it was the amount of time it took to complete it and how specific I wanted my design to be. Especially since I’m not the best when using technology.

I don’t think my writing has improved that much this semester with the exception on writing essays. I have been able to think, process, and commit to the written assignments this semester better than any other English class that I have ever taken.

thexaviertorres

Doing the infographic is kind of unexpected thing to do in writing classes since it deals with more graphic design than writing. I mean, the designing is fun but what exactly does the writing need? To much focus on the writing will make a bad infographic.

Tumblr Journal XII

Most of the major writing assignments were challenging (annoying) to do. The first project was writing a letter to your past self. This assignment doesn’t sound to bad until you realize that you are restricted to talking about writing. Kind of takes away the fun in writing a letter your past self, especially if writing wasn’t a big part of your life.

The second project was dealing with rhetorical analysis. The assignment was ok, but I don’t have a good grasp on what it was about. That doesn’t bother me since I really only see it in Writing classes.

The most difficult assignment was the third project which dealt with infographics. What made it hard was that it was a combination of graphic design and writing but mostly graphic design. Think about, how much writing is actually in a good infographic? If you put too much writing, people wouldn’t want to look at the infographic in the first place! Since I didn’t know that we had to design stuff in a writing class, I had to figure out what the professor wanted but also what the audience wanted. A balance between writing and appeal. What more, the infographic had to be made on a website that I had no clue on how to use. In short, I was just confuse on what was wanted since writing classes (in my experience) grade heavily on your writing. So having something that kind of reduce the amount of writing needed kind of bewildered me.

Now did I improve in my writing? I do not know. I could use what others say about my writing but I get conflicted feedback. So to make things easier, I would say it hasn’t change much.

griffinbolt

Tumblr Journal 11

In his article “How tech created a global village — and put us at each other’s throats”, Nicholas Carr argues that technology is an effective communication tool that can either be used for good or bad. Technology can be used to help bring people together, but human nature can also cause technology to be used for social division.

- The amount of time spent using technology among young adults has steadily increased from 2015 to now.

- People who use social media for longer are more likely to develop symptoms of depression.

In my counterargument I include the logical appeal (logos) by providing facts and statistics on the use of social media. This infographic is not inteded for a specific audience, but is mainly catered to anyone interested in social media statistics/uses of social media.

thexaviertorres

I do not really see your counter argument. What exactly are you countering? It seems more like you are support the technology argument rather than refuting it.

Tumblr Journal XI

One of the arguments I need to counter is the cost of electric cars vs gas cars. I can counter this by saying the cost is worth it.

-I can tell them that the electric is more ecofriendly in the long term

-The cost of maintenance for electric cars are cheaper than gas cars

The point is trying to make electric cars seem more better than gas cars. Cost could be something I should focus more one since the argument I am trying to counter deals with cost. So, in a way, my audience are people thinking of buying electric cars.

#rhetoricalrobots

vlg-at-uncw

Journal 10

Evaluating sources is key because it helps determine credibility by trying to find sources of information’s potential biases and limitations. In HTWA’s chapter, “Evaluating Sources”, I was reminded of how to preview source materials for their key features and strategies.

This knowledge helps me quickly and efficiently scan articles for any red flags that might indicate the source isn’t credible. In the long run, it saves me a great deal of time by saving me the trouble of reading the whole article and only realizing its weaknesses at the end.

It’s shown me that any and every article needs to be evaluated as it’s always possible for a source to have limitations. The web is a melting pot for all kinds of information and it’s important to watch out for news that might be skewed to fit the motivations of sponsors and/or authors. In summary, no matter the source, it’s important to read with caution.

clbunce6

I definitely found this knowledge to be very time saving with it allowing us to see the credibility up front. Reading with caution will allow us to be more mindful of our sources therefore making our research stronger.

thexaviertorres

News in general is a no-go for me. You can’t really use it in this day and age, can you? Especially when them are offered at a fast rate, too fast.

Tumblr Journal X

Evaluating sources is crucial for how strong you paper is. Sources are like support beams holding your paper together. The weaker a source is (meaning how creditable it is), the less stable your paper is.

From the chapter “Evaluating Sources” from the book HTWA, there were some things that I was reminded of. One of the them is a very important when looking at any sources: there is no such things as a perfect creditable source. Not just creditable sources but scholarly sources as well. Now, the book doesn’t tell you this, it is just that I got reminded of this while reading. Most sources can be rank on their credibility based on how much evidence they use, where it is published, who is writing it, etc. There is one things that no sources can (usually) overcome and that is time. New data and information is found every day, so depending on the work, some sources can be outdated in the same year!

This kind of knowledge makes it so that one should look at the sources no matter what. I kind of knew that but I would be lying if I said I always completely check the creditability of some sources. What is truthful is that I already have an idea on what to actually use when dealing with the internet. One of them is checking the website and the length of the article. Short articles usually are from websites that are not really credible and are just short since the author need to make something. Another thing to lookout for is the links or hyperlinks when they talk about information. If there is not much evidence on where they got their evidence, more than likely, you shouldn’t believe them. There is many more things to look out for but that can be summarize as just look closely and using common sense.

reidbutler

Tumblr Journal 9

https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2014/08/06/future-of-jobs/

This article applies to both sides of the argument by giving credible opinions by respected sources in the industry. The authors are Aaron Smith and Janna Anderson. The audience is for anyone who is interested about robots potentially taking future jobs. The setting talks about the job market being changed by the year 2025. The format is an article that consists of credible quotes stating their ideas about the topic.

thexaviertorres

Nice job on the title slide, I couldn’t figure it out but I am glad you did. The article you picked seemed to fit your argument. Pew research is a very creditable source, so using them is a good idea. Can’t say much since you seem to have more of a grasp on this then me.

Journal IX

Note: I didn’t know how to use Canva or how to download/share the title slide without paying, so I screenshot it. That is why it kind of looks low-quality. Also, I might change to a different article for project 3. This is because I am using this article as a “test run” for the tumblr journal and have a good idea what it is about. This also means that I am kind of want to read something else.

I am supporting and this is my supporting article:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tanyatarr/2018/04/04/by-the-numbers-what-pay-inequality-looks-like-for-women-in-tech/#1ae0b54860b1

Rhetorical situation of the article:

Author- The author, from the bio, seems to be someone who writes about pay equality in general. In addition to her also being a woman, her ethos seems very good so far.

Audience - People in the tech industry; women wanting to work in the industry; people who read Forbes.

Purpose - To show the inequality in pay with women in the tech industry.

Setting - The article was made in 2018 and a lot of the sources used are recent as the same year it was published

Medium - The article is on Forbes on their website. Forbes deals with business and finance stuff, so talking about pay inequality on it fits the medium.

#RhetoricalRobots

julianlcs

Journal 8

The image I chose is a bit blurry because it will not render correctly when I paste it on here. I found this image on a website called “This Month In Tech History” (https://www.itsconsultinginc.ca/2014/03/this-month-in-tech-history-2/). I believe that the audience for this image is towards practically everybody since everybody uses technology in their every day life. I also believe that the purpose of this image is to show us how much technology has impacted our society, even more so, our world as a whole. We go from having little to no exposure to technology to having it a part of our lives and almost impossible to live without it.

When speaking about the rhetorical appeals (logos, pathos, ethos), it becomes a bit more complicated to explain. Logos is defined simply as the logical reason to something. In this case, the “logos” or the logical purpose of this image is to expose how much technology impacts our lives. Pathos on the other hand is more about emotions. At first glance, you tend to not see any emotion in this image. However, if you study on the image, read the text, and truly focus on the message, you see how much emotion plays out. We start out at ‘1960s’ where we are a happy little baby with no worry or addiction to technology at all. Nonetheless, we see as the baby grows into a young man and technology grows as well, we see how addicted the young man becomes towards technology until it appears on the last image where his life is simply technology and without it, he wouldn’t exist. Lastly, Ethos can be defined as the credibility of someone, or in this case the credibility of this image. This I believe is a no brainer. All you have to do is walk into any store in the city and see that the majority of people are on their phone or laptop depending where you are. Its safe to say that the image above is more than true. With every day that goes by, humanity is becoming more and more attached to technology and without it, we cannot hold onto our own lives.

For the C.R.A.P. principles, this becomes a bit easier to identify:

C- Contrast: Contrast is the visualization of the image. The title for this image has a big red font, which immediately grabs the reader’s attention first. Throughout each image, the font stays the same and also contains a red text which grabs our attention to continue reading.

R- Repetition: Similar to contrast, the main difference that separates repetition is in the name itself. Repetition is the action of repeating itself over and over. In this case, in every image below, there is a light blue text, followed by a bolded larger text of the year, which is then followed by a small grey text with a few red words in between. It is then separated by a thin grey line which is then moved into a larger paragraph of grey text.

A- Alignment: Alignment is used to make the image more professional looking. We see how all the images and texts are side by side to each other. There is nothing that is out of order or anything that makes the image dumb down in any way. The image being professional shows a sense of maturity and seriousness which makes the reader become more focused into it.

P- Proximity: Proximity is very easy to establish in this image. Not only are all the images and text side by side. We see the subtle changes in the images of the child growing into a young man attached to technology, and the text defining it below. This becomes very simple to read and understand what is going on.

Overall, this simple image affects my understanding of my subject of technology by exposing how much we really rely on technology. Though it is true that technology has improved humanity in every way, it has also left us in a spiral of addiction and without technology, humanity seems to be hopeless to go back to its original roots. I see that although I should be grateful for the time period I live in, I cannot heavily rely on technology only because if I do, I too will go down a spiral of addiction where I will not be able to come back from.

thexaviertorres

Based on the other imagines in our group, the infographics, that deal with technology, really like to use negative spacing. It makes sense, since technology is associated with simple and cleanness. It is also kind of interesting that most of the technology infographics focus on electronic things, even though technology can be about any advancement in human history. It is also interesting that the infographics rely on the audience knowledge of electronics since most don’t explain them.

Tumblr Journal VIII

Here is the link to the website I found this on: https://www.columnfivemedia.com/best-100-technology-infographics

I found this infographic on the website above when I search for “technology infographic” on google. Ironically, I found one of the infographics that is listed on the discussion board. I digress, the main reason I choose this infographic is because I was attracted to the simple and roomy design of it.

Now, it is kind of hard to pinpoint who exactly the target audience is but some assumptions can be made from this. One thing that has to be true is that the audience are either people interested in the history of communication or don’t know the history of this. Another clue is that the jargon used is very simple, perhaps around a middle school level. This would tell us that the audience is young but there is a statement in it that contradicts this: “... learn how to reimagine your business communications in a cloud world.” Now, this could mean that the audience is both for young and older people.

Now the purpose of this infographic can be easily concluded: to give a short version of the history of communication. Now the reason for why it talks about it is difficult to answer. From what I can conclude, the thing that makes the most (not the best) sense is that Thinkingphones, the company who produce this, is trying to sell it self to business people who are not very knowledgeable with newer communications. The reason why I said this is because of the information given on the bottom of the image before the references. This statement makes even more sense if you look at the rhetorical appeals for this image,

One of biggest appeal that this image uses is ethos. Without any research, what can this image tell us about Thinkingphones alone? Well, the most obvious thing is that the company is well verse in communication. The audience can conclude this based on the history told on the image and the company’s name: Thinkingphones. The image also shows the company as people who can inform others while doing a little as possible. The simplistic design and spacing gives an impression as a company knowing what they are doing.

Of course, logos is also important in this. One of the things that they do to help show their logos is the reference at the bottom. Most people don’t really care what the source is about or even its creditability. The important thing is that the references gives the impression that the information given might be true. That means that the audience feels like they can trust the info.

The other appeal is pathos. I couldn’t really find much pathos that fits with the image. There might be some but I don’t see it,

Now, going into the design of it, we can look at its C.R.A.P. One thing I like about this image is the “snake” path it makes from top to bottom. This makes the reader’s eye follow the path all the way to the bottom. The way they use colors is also very interesting, especially on the path. The background color is just plain white, which is very good contrasting other colors. Now for the foreground colors, there is a pattern they use from top to bottom: blue, yellow, red, and midnight blue. The first three colors are interesting because they are primary colors. The thing about primary color is that you can tell apart easily, so using them to separate eras is a smart way for readers to identify information.

From what I gained from the article, I kind of gain some knowledge but not much. Sure, they are impressive but they don’t tell me much but it is a good base for the history of communication.

#RhetoricalRobots

ryan-stoney

Journal #7

The part of the essay that struck out to me was when it said, “A sentence is much more than its literal meaning. It is a living line of words where logic and lyric meet – a piece of both sense and sound, albeit the sound is only heard in the reader’s head.” Although this a more well know part that makes up a good sentence, I still struggle with. For me, I struggle with the figurative and lyrical part when I write. In high school, when we would do stuff that we would have to find the figurative meaning, I would struggle. So for me this part stood out because it is something I need to work on.

thexaviertorres

I have no idea what that sentence means. What in the world does it mean with “logic and lyric” or “sense and sound” in the essay? Is it even talking about sentences anymore, because that does not sound like advice for how to improve sentences. Well, I guess maybe I am blind to see what it is trying to say if you understood it.

Tumblr Journal VII

I really have no idea what exactly I just read. The whole essay felt like author trying to explain something abstract by being more abstract for no good reason. Ironically, the essay was about making perfect sentences, which, in my eyes, I couldn’t see it doing that. The reason why I am telling you this is because the “advice” that I am going to explain in this journal might be something not talked about in the essay at all.

With that out of the way, I will go on and give an advice that caught my attention. Well, this advice wasn’t exactly in the essay but in a “box” to say the least. It was also the most understandable and informative sentence in the whole essay. The advice in the box says, “A good lesson for any writer: make each sentence worth reading, and something in it will lead the reader into the next one.” In other words, make your sentences have some importance to them or else they would make your readers loss interest in whatever you are writing.

Now, I think the essay tried to go more in-depth with this, but I am going to try to figure out what it wants writers to do without the essay. Essentially, when writing, you should have some significance for why they are there. For example: “I think orange is a beautiful color. I love this color more than any other color. That is why I try to put orange in many places in my house.” The second sentence does not have to be there to make the third sentence make sense; that was already done by the first sentence. If the second sentence was left in, the reading would be “boring” and would make the readers uninterested in it.

Another point the advice give is trying to make ones sentence flow to the next. You might have already tried to do this when writing essays. More precisely, when trying to transition from the end of one paragraph to the start of another paragraph. This gives a sense that the topics in each paragraph are connected to each other. This kind of connection is what the advice is trying to say, except you do that with almost all of the sentences. The trick is to not to give enough information to the reading in one sentence to keep the reader engaged. For example: “The creaking noise of the floor kept on getting louder and louder. The noise made it harder for me to hold back and join in. That is until the creaking of the floor stopped. Silence should have come next but instead, a new, louder noise replaced it: the creaking of a door knob.” Each sentence (expect the last one) gives info on what is going on but enough info to still make the reader wonder what is going to happen.

That is what I think this advice is trying to say. I might of got it completely wrong on the advice, so take it with a grain of salt.

braunturner

Tumblr Journal 6

I have always had good experiences with the peer-review process. Personally the only real help I need is gramatical or structure issues, not really and content issues.

The reason I enjoy peer-review is because the tend to catch the grammar and spelling issues auto correct or myself miss. These things include homophones or run on sentences that just dont sound right until someone else reads them or I read them outloud. I have always been given good constructive criticism.

As for structure issues normally people suggest that one paragraph might flow better in front of another or weather or not my conclusion serves the actual purpose of a ending or is just adding more to the meat of my paper.

I cannot say I have had any problems with the process or can think of anything I would change with it. I find almost every aspect of it very helpful and will contiues to use my peers as a resource in revising my papers

thexaviertorres

Yeah, grammar is hard to catch on your own and it is helpful for others to point it out. The thing is that, in my opinion, peer-reviews should be most helpful in fixing the argument of your essay. That is something most of us can’t see without others. It is kind of like drawing: on your own, you can find some errors in the drawing but with others, you can get insight on whether the message your drawing is saying gets though.

Journal VI

I am having trouble remembering the last time I had to peer-review something. I think I have some memory's for peer-reviewing, so I will try my best to use what I can remember.

I think the most clearest memory of peer-reviewing was when I had to go use this website that has this service which review your essay. I know that doesn’t sound like “peer’ reviewing but the comments and tips are similar in a way. Before I talk about that, let me just say that it is amazing how their are services that help review your essay.

Anyways, the review helped me understand that if you don’t care about what you are writing about, the essay is going to mirror that. A lot of the corrections I got was due to me not caring about how I insert a quote or how to transition from one paragraph to another. I think the biggest problem in it that the review showed was that most of paragraph were based on the quote/evidence I got from my research. It felt like I was talking about the evidence rather than explaining my argument. It really easy to do since, if you can’t find what you are looking for in research, you better just find a way to insert this other evidence into your work to get the required sources needed for that essay. This made my essay bland and boring since I never even explained much of my research.

I think the least useful thing about that review was that their wasn’t much communication since they just reviewed it once and I just did the correction. I think I had this problem with other peer-reviews since me and my peers didn’t really know how to do it. See, to get the best reviews, you should have some kind of back and fourth communication to continuously make improvements to your essay. I suppose the professor knows this as well since she wants us to have Zoom with are groups and discuss our essays.

I need more exposure to peer-review to make any more comments on how I would change it or make things the same. Most of my reviews are self-review but that is only useful for grammar checks (ironically, even that is not perfect).

julianlcs

Journal 5

The article that I am choosing to do a Rhetorical Analysis on is Steve LeVine’s “How Remote Work Could Destroy Silicon Valley”.

I believe that the point and reason for this article was mostly successful. It seemed that the whole point of this article is to bring awareness to Silicon Valley. With the disaster of COVID and many other complications arising (the deep recession, renewed anti-trust from companies), it seems that Silicon Valley holds a worrisome future.

One of the things that I found appealing is who the targeted audience is. Throughout reading the article, LeVine uses many terms and references that only people who are in some field of technology and/or business or at the very least, someone who knows the bare basics of it, would understand. I found this interesting because it really shows how important it is to people of this field and it shows his professionalism.

Moving forward from this, next is the Rhetorical appeals that were used in this article (Logos, Ethos, Pathos). When discussing about Ethos, we can safely say that LeVine is very credible in his work. Aside from being an editor at Large for Medium, he used to work for other organizations such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and many others along with the fact he used to teach energy security to graduates at Georgetown University. Having this knowledge, we can come to the conclusion that LeVine knows his work and the article we read is more than accurate.

For logos, we see how he displays facts and other claims throughout the article. An example of this is how he uses a big grey text to inform the reader about a fact of or surrounding Silicon Valley: “In Palo Alto, the median home now costs $3.2 million. In nearby Mountain View, it’s $1.7 million, and in San Francisco $1.8 million. In other words, the Valley has priced out almost anyone not making high six-figures, and even many of them.”

Lastly, for pathos, the overall tone for the article directly correlates to the targeted audience. The tone shows a professional standpoint from not only the text chosen but from the way it was written. This correlates to its targeted audience because as stated earlier, the majority of the people who read this are those who are interested and/or already have experience/knowledge in this field. Therefore, making the article professional and to the point. The only thing that caught me off as I do not understand why it is there when using a professional tone, is the article’s artwork. Though it is appealing and interesting to look at, I do not see any reason to put it in the article other than distracting the reader when coming across it.

thexaviertorres

First of all, I had a hard time finding a post from a team. Secondly, your thesis seems fine to me. I mean, maybe you can improve it but I can’t really tell where. I am not good at judging the quality of essays so sorry if I don’t really help. I mean, your thesis has the same idea as mine so I guess we are on the same track?

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