What I learned about the assignment was that it involves a lot of technical prowess. One of my classmates showed me how to add the rest of my pages along with my landing page. I must admit, I was worried when I only saw the landing page after publishing my entire website. When you use tools such as wordpress.com for the first time, you want things to go as smoothly as possible. The main lesson I learned from this assignment: be willing to utilize technology in an effective and unique way.

            My project in particular was an example of self-expression mixed with obligation. The landing page contains the introduction of myself and has a picture of Jesus telling Wolverine, Batman, Ironman, Captain America, Hulk, The Flash, Spider-Man, and Superman “That’s how I saved the world!” The self-expression part involves showing that as interested in superheroes as I am, Jesus is the only real one. The obligation part involves me having to use white text in order to make it easier for viewers to see my introduction. I had the best intentions in mind while working on this project.

            The process narrative serves the purpose it was intended to serve. I describe all three of my  narratives like so: the analogue narrative explains the origins of me knowing how to read and write, the cultural narrative explains all that I believe goes into being culturally literate, and the digital narrative explains me going from using outside computers to typing on my own laptop. I enjoyed giving a summary of the three narratives I wrote. Writing a process narrative helped me noticed the different approaches I took with each one. I’ll never underestimate the value of writing process narratives ever again.

            I have only one thing left that I need to work on. That thing would be this workshop blog that I’m typing up right now, the first out of four workshop blogs I’m expected to write for this class. At some point, I’ll have to type workshop blogs for an interactive narrative game, a podcast I’m supposed to do with a group, and a final evaluative experience assignment. Writing blogs hasn’t been that difficult, so I’m not stressed. Workshop Blog 1 is the remaining piece to this website narrative.

            My group and I mutually decided not to critique each other’s progress too much. We respect that our narratives are a personal expression of ourselves. Narratives come from experiences that the individuals have endured. There’s no point criticizing someone for opening up their heart. If possible, I may consider changing the font color.

From reading Michael-John Depalma and Kara Poe Alexander’s article, “A Bag Full of Snakes”, writing multimodal compositions sounds like a challenging process. Students faced challenges relating to audience, semiotic resources, and transfer. There were many more challenges relating to ethics, technology and rhetorical constraints. However, just like the article, I’m only going to focus on the main three. In this blog, I will explain more on the struggles of crafting multimodal compositions.

            It’s difficult to conceptualize a multidimensional audience when composing multimodally. The article states that students resorted to defining their audience in broad and imprecise terms such as “public”, “humans”, “the average person”, and “people generally”. To be honest, these sound like terms I would use if I were to write my first multimodal composition. What would be an example of a multimodal audience? Hopefully, this is question I’ll never have to answer in any future classes I take.

            Students also had trouble determining which aspects of their print-based genre knowledge and composing experiences might enable them to create a nuanced, accessible, and sophisticated multimodal text for a diverse audience and which aspects might stifle their ability to do so. In simpler language, they had difficulty understanding how to use the multiple semiotic resources afforded through multimodal composition to their advantage. What are semiotic resources? More importantly, if you still don’t know what a multimodal audience is, how can you use those resources? Again, I hope I’ll never have to do something like this in any of my classes.

            Transfer between contexts did not always or easily occur. This means there was difficulty revising and editing multimodal texts the same way you would print-based texts. Up to this point, I thought revising and editing for all texts was the same. According to this article however, the way you revise and edit texts depends on what type of text it is. Under these circumstances, this assignment seems more fitted for Ivy-League college students.

            DePalma and Alexander’s “A Bag Full of Snakes” involved recording the results of students being tasked with writing multimodal compositions. The students struggled in many areas, but the main three were audience, semiotic resources, and transfer. I think it’s challenging enough any time your professors require you to write a basic print-based essay. It’s even more dreadful to think that some professors make their students complete assignments like this regularly. Although I believe that I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me, I would be lying if I said I wouldn’t be somewhat anxious if I had to complete this type of assignment for a test grade!

From reading Becoming Rhetorical: Chapter 14, I learned more about visual representation. I learned about color, text size, and text alignment. Before reading this chapter, I never paid that much attention to these visual details. Now I’ll know to consider these details when completing future assignments. I’ll explain more about all the new things I’ve learned about visual representation in this blog.

            For designers, knowing how to use color to create contrast is critical. The three properties of color to consider include: hue, value, and saturation. Pairing colors that are too close in hue, value, or saturation can make text difficult to read. For colorblind individuals, the text will be completely  unreadable. Creating visual compositions that utilize color in a way that positively draws attention to your message and is visually appealing involves considering all three properties of color.

            When you have a limited use of color, creating contrast through size is especially useful. You can confuse readers by messing up the hierarchy of information by making different elements too similar in size. For the most important headings, big typefaces should be used. For subheadings or body text, smaller typefaces should be used. Using text size to create a clear hierarchy of information can orient viewers and make it easier for them to navigate the websites you create.

            Viewers will be attracted to your visual composition and easily be able to find the information they need if bold alignments are utilized. Bad alignment creates a sense of disorder—it disorganizes page elements and creates disconnections between related things. The five types of alignment to consider are: left alignment (uses a strong line to the left and creates a “ragged” right margin), right alignment (uses a strong line to the right to create a ragged left-hand side) , centered alignment (puts the text in the center), justified text (lines up evenly on both the left and right sides, except for the last line of paragraphs), and forced justification (can stretch letters and words out so that the left and right sides line up). Properly utilizing alignment can add visual interest to the page.

            I learned more about visual representation from reading Becoming Rhetorical: Chapter 14. Color, text size, and text alignment were some of things I learned about. Although I never gave much to thought to these details before, I will in the future. I find some images appealing and want to utilize them in a way that is impressive to my professors and colleagues.

From reading Hutto’s “Ancient Egyptian Rhetoric from the Old and Middle Kingdoms”, I learned about rhetoric from an Egyptian point of view. I learned about the general rules, how women in particular used rhetoric, and how most Egyptian leaders used rhetoric. I’ve never took much thought into how rhetoric was used in ancient Egypt until reading this article. Now, I feel more educated and hope to use what I’ve learned in the future. In this blog, I’ll discuss the three main things I observed from reading Hutto’s article.

            There are were a set of general rules that ancient Egyptians considered important when it came to rhetoric. They believed in reticence, reinforcing society, correctly repeating messages sent by a superior, modesty, and truth. I think these rules were common for most ancient civilizations. The reason why I say some and not all is because of the more confrontational nature of other ancient civilizations (Ex: Vikings). When it came to using rhetoric, the ancient Egyptians followed several general rules.

            Ancient Egyptian women didn’t follow the rules of rhetoric. Many were not trained in the schools where rules of rhetoric would likely have been taught. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by this since they are many ancient customs that don’t entitle women to the same privileges as men. I just didn’t know that Egypt was one of them until now. Due to a disadvantage in education, a lot of ancient Egyptian women used rhetoric differently than expected.

            Most of the leaders of Ancient Egypt used rhetoric to exalt themselves. It was common for pharaohs such as Hatshepsut to engage in self aggrandizement when making royal proclamations. This doesn’t shock me at all. Most leaders from the ancient times up to the present view themselves highly. Boosting pride was one of main reasons why ancient leaders utilized rhetoric.

            I learned about rhetoric from an Egyptian standpoint from reading Hutto’s “Ancient Egyptian Rhetoric from the Old and Middle Kingdoms”. How most Egyptian leaders used rhetoric, how women particularly used rhetoric, and the general rules for rhetoric, were the three main things I learned. Before reading this article, I was ignorant to all the details considering rhetoric that involved ancient Egypt. Now that I’m aware of those details, I’ll never look at ancient Egypt the same ever again. This article helped me realize that rhetoric just like any other writing element has a history spanning from the ancient times to the present time.

From reading Becoming Rhetorical Chapter 4, I’ve learned about the significance of images. I’ve learned to consider their purpose, what’s being emphasized, and details. Images can be utilized by various outlets such as the government and magazine companies. My instructor, Kayla Sparks, utilized images to create a more unique version of her syllabus. Unlike the previous writing composition class I took, this class involves more use of technology and in this blog, I’ll specifically focus on how images could be used to further enhance this experience.

            All images serve a purpose. On page 78, Figure 4.7 shows President Barrack Obama holding a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House on January 14, 2014. In this image, Obama looks focused and domineering as if he’s in the act of asserting his authority. The fact that he’s pointing forward and looking straight enforces the fact that he is a leader. I’ve learned to pay more attention to the purpose of images while reading Chapter 4.

            Usually images serve to emphasize. On page 82, Figure 4.11 shows an image representing National Junior Ranger Day. A female park ranger shows a young boy a fossil. The emphasis is on the child’s interest due to the park ranger taking the time to inform him. Observing what images are trying to emphasize more carefully is a new skill I’ve learned from the reading.

            Details are important when utilizing images. On page 81, Figure 4.10 shows Marine One departing the South Lawn of the White House at the start of President Barack Obama’s trip to Boston, Mass on October 30, 2013. Although the purpose of this image is to emphasize Marine One, the viewer is first drawn to the pink, purple, orange, and white flowers. The area is also covered with luscious green trees making it the second detail you notice before spotting the Marine One taking off in the middle of the image. Up till this point, I’ve never known that there where many details to pay attention to when observing an image.

            I’ve learned about the significance of images from reading Chapter 4 of Becoming Rhetorical. Purpose, emphasis, and details are the three things I’ve learned to consider. Many outlets can utilize images including the government and magazine companies. Even my instructor utilized different images when making her own version of a class syllabus. Despite more incorporation of technology in this writing class, I hope to use my new knowledge of images along with other skills to enhance my writing.