So I had a perfect paper all picked out for our mulitmodal revision project.
It is a piece I wrote for a Political Science course a couple semesters ago, on the topic of horse slaughter...I know, it sounds iffy, but withhold judgement til further reading!
Ran into a slight roadblock though....I don't actually have the paper. I professor from last semester has the only hard copy I possessed. And currently, said professor cannot find it.
Which blows. Like, a lot.
When my previous computer took an enormous crap last semester I lost several files - the digital copy of this paper among them.
However, I'm not giving up hope. The paper is being searched for as I type and will hopefully be in my possession within time to complete this assignment to instructor satisfaction.
All the above also means I don't have much to show for assignment show and tell day. So that's a bummer man.
BUT! If I do get to use this paper I'm going to rework it utilizing lots of video clips and perhaps even voice-overs along with text.
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
Monday, September 26, 2016
I love twitter.
I don't actually have a twitter or subscribe to it, but as a concept I think its brilliant/hilarious.
As far as it relates to this article by Zappen, its a wonderful example of constraints. These affordances and constraints set upon twitter users is what makes it so fantastic. Granted, there's some real crap on Twitter, but there's some gems as well.
You have a word count, a literal constraint on what you have to say. It is like a condensed, super charged version of of quotes and speeches. It must be direct, sharp, to the point and within word count. This makes the writer really think about word choice, meaning and delivery.
One of my favorite twitter writers, called The Captain, is a brutally honest, insanely witty person who chucks these sentence bombs out into cyberspace with the ferocity of a mother moose chasing a hiker.
There's not an excess word and everything is where it should be. You read his quotes and you innately want to agree/believe them because his rhetorical delivery is so strong and so fitted to the medium it is placed in.
I think constraints can actually cause a writer to flourish.
And in honor of twitter, I'm keeping this post short and to the point. There shall be no rattling on here.
I don't actually have a twitter or subscribe to it, but as a concept I think its brilliant/hilarious.
As far as it relates to this article by Zappen, its a wonderful example of constraints. These affordances and constraints set upon twitter users is what makes it so fantastic. Granted, there's some real crap on Twitter, but there's some gems as well.
You have a word count, a literal constraint on what you have to say. It is like a condensed, super charged version of of quotes and speeches. It must be direct, sharp, to the point and within word count. This makes the writer really think about word choice, meaning and delivery.
One of my favorite twitter writers, called The Captain, is a brutally honest, insanely witty person who chucks these sentence bombs out into cyberspace with the ferocity of a mother moose chasing a hiker.
There's not an excess word and everything is where it should be. You read his quotes and you innately want to agree/believe them because his rhetorical delivery is so strong and so fitted to the medium it is placed in.
I think constraints can actually cause a writer to flourish.
And in honor of twitter, I'm keeping this post short and to the point. There shall be no rattling on here.
Tuesday, September 20, 2016
A Visual Rhetorical Analysis of the University of Maryland’s Website (Duo blog)
Upon arrival to the University of Maryland’s (UMD) website, the viewer is immediately immersed into a home page filled with red, white, black, and gold (the colors of the Maryland flag, which is very iconic to residents) text outlines. Within these backdrops lies ‘blocky’ text that is somewhat unattractive and outdated; selecting a font that is easier on the eyes might be something to consider for designers of this web page in the future. The current font is relatively tiny and sort of blah. One of the main focuses of University of Maryland is research. Perhaps they should put some people onto researching the best visual rhetorical methods for making a website memorable. The quality of the website does not directly reflect the quality of the institution, but unfortunately in our fast paced, short attention span, visually charged world, the first glance can determine interest.
Also, it is difficult to tell if the bright red header on the homepage is extremely tough to look at or just the result of our tired student eyes - either way, it is not very pleasant.
When the viewer clicks on one of the options provided by the drop down menus at the top of the page, for example, selecting ‘Academics’ then choosing ‘colleges and schools’, the viewer is transported to another, very bland page with stark red and white design and more tiny font. This layout does not entice the viewer/student to think, man I want to go here!
Unless the viewer is already a student, it is safe to assume that one of the primary goals of this website is to attract prospective students and their parents. For this reason, it comes as no surprise that there is a sizeable part of the home page that is solely dedicated to relaying news about UMD’s recent academic and athletic achievements and accolades. Titled ‘In the News’, this section provides links to articles such as “UMD Honored for Campus Sustainability Efforts by Sierra Magazine & Princeton Review” and “UMD Named a Top 20 Public University by U.S. News & World Report”. Although not a visually appealing part of the home page by any stretch of the imagination, the actual content provided is germane to the one of the main goals of the website itself - to attract interest in UMD from new students and their parents.
When one visits a website like the one for MSU, their main page is very image heavy. Utilizing visual rhetoric and using less text, the website draws the viewer in with pictures of campus, students doing studious things, and the gorgeous land around Bozeman. University of Maryland’s reliance on text and outdated fonts creates a feeling of being overwhelmed for the viewer. All the information displayed is both pertinent and practical, but the delivery needs to be modified significantly in order to portray the University of Maryland as a sophisticated, modern, academic institution.
Thursday, September 15, 2016
Delivery
I found Porter's article on delivery to really interesting. Delivery isn't something I think about very often but its something that is constantly influencing us.
Think about your favorite Ted Talk (if you're into that sort of thing) or the one that stands out in your mind the most. For me its the one given by Sir Ken Robinson called Do Schools Kill Creativity? Robinson is a genius in delivery - his cadence of speech, the pauses, the humor, the way he engages the audience and builds the speech. Given by another person who didn't utilize these tactics, the talk would undoubtedly have been a bit on the boring side and not so memorable. This is simply a small example of the power of delivery. Lackluster delivery can make an interesting speech fall short of impacting an audience, and on the flip side, a not so excellent speech can be bolstered by sharp, creative or entertaining delivery.
The idea of delivery in a digital realm changes things. Porters article mentions how, "delivery seemed less relevant, or irrelevant to written compositions than the other canons" (Porter, 1).
But in our day and age, where the mediums are so melded with gaming and the internet and digital media, it seems to me that delivery plays a large and vital role. Whereas the delivery was once only in the realm of the orator, its now in the hands of designers, filmmakers, digital artists and so on.
Monday, September 12, 2016
Rhetoric of Gaming
I chose to read The Rhetoric of Video Games for my other reading.
Allow me to preface this blog post by saying I know zilch about video games. Nada, nothing.
Sure, I've played a few rounds on a friend's playstation or x box and was decently good at it because of good hand-eye coordination. But beyond that I don't have a clue about the world that surrounds games and gamers, and I'm not going to pretend that I do.
So, with that in mind it feels a bit iffy for me to even talk about the rhetoric of video games. This is why I chose Bogost's article because I was hoping it would shed some light on the whole topic. Bogost discusses the idea that video games are a type of media that is a representation of certain cultural values or 'rhetoric', either either in a serious manner, or a satirical one and so on. My favorite quote from the piece is the following on pg 3 (or 119) -
"When understood in this way, we can learn to read games as deliberate expressions of particular perspectives."
This is a really nice, succinct way for a 'non gamer' to begin looking at the rhetoric of games.
I think most people I know who play video games do so because, they're entertaining for certain personality type. Surely there are more deep reasons but I'm not going to guess what they may be. It also seems to me that there are people who play video games often or now and then, and then there are gamers. Sort of like someone who writes assignments for a class and does well, and someone who calls themselves a writer. I can assume that the rhetoric for the latter two is far more intense or in-depth than the former two. I would like to know how people who are in that rhetorical world of gaming, really think/feel about it.
Allow me to preface this blog post by saying I know zilch about video games. Nada, nothing.
Sure, I've played a few rounds on a friend's playstation or x box and was decently good at it because of good hand-eye coordination. But beyond that I don't have a clue about the world that surrounds games and gamers, and I'm not going to pretend that I do.
So, with that in mind it feels a bit iffy for me to even talk about the rhetoric of video games. This is why I chose Bogost's article because I was hoping it would shed some light on the whole topic. Bogost discusses the idea that video games are a type of media that is a representation of certain cultural values or 'rhetoric', either either in a serious manner, or a satirical one and so on. My favorite quote from the piece is the following on pg 3 (or 119) -
"When understood in this way, we can learn to read games as deliberate expressions of particular perspectives."
This is a really nice, succinct way for a 'non gamer' to begin looking at the rhetoric of games.
I think most people I know who play video games do so because, they're entertaining for certain personality type. Surely there are more deep reasons but I'm not going to guess what they may be. It also seems to me that there are people who play video games often or now and then, and then there are gamers. Sort of like someone who writes assignments for a class and does well, and someone who calls themselves a writer. I can assume that the rhetoric for the latter two is far more intense or in-depth than the former two. I would like to know how people who are in that rhetorical world of gaming, really think/feel about it.
Thursday, September 8, 2016
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