Introduction
During the first half of the semester, I learned how a lot about my strengths and things that I could improve upon. My ability to understand common themes or ideas within sources of information and comparing them is strong. At times in my writing my sentencing structure can hinder me from being able to communicate what I fully understand. Both my strengths and my improvements have made me a better student overall. The goal I most excelled upon would be my critical and creative thinking goal because I was able to think find my own understanding in our material and find essential details in analyzing my sources. A goal I can continue to develop is my oral communication goal because I want to work on being able to orally communicate more confidently.
11. Reading Goal
a: Evaluates texts’ scholarly significance to apply reading to other contexts or issues. (20%)
In my Reflection #2: Visual Analysis Strategies in order to understand the New York Times article “One Drop, but Many Views on Race” by Maurice Berger. I first took notes from the textbook; Writing for the Disciplines, Ch. 5, “Visual Analysis” (unfortunately unable to be uploaded). Taking these notes helped me make connections about what visual analysis was and what strategies are used in writing about images. I highlighted my thesis of the analysis and specific ideas I pulled directly from my notes that helped me gain better understanding.
13. Written Communication Goal
b: Uses appropriate, relevant, and compelling content to illustrate mastery of the subject, conveying the writer’s understanding, and shaping the whole work. (20%)
My Reflection #4: Rhetorical Analysis of “Heirlooms, Redefined” was driven by the argument I found in the multimedia journalism piece “Heirlooms, Redefined” by Tiya Miles and Michelle May-Curry. I highlighted my argument to illustrate that I understood the argument within the piece not just the subject. In this work specifically I would take the time to find more specific examples that supported my claim better.
8. Oral Communication Goal
c: Develops clear, innovative central messages with significant supporting materials. (20%)
For Digital Project #2: Critical Analysis Video for social media, I took the time to create a script. I highlighted my argument and my supporting material that I stated in the video. Making this script helped me notice that I struggle with structuring my sentences. Often times my thoughts get ahead me, and I miss what I was trying to say. Slowing down to read my work numerous times helped me find and correct those kinds of errors. This also helped me identify exactly how I wanted to convey my central message to my audience.
2. Critical and Creative Thinking Goal
b: Takes risks in approaches to learning to create new knowledge. (20%)
My Digital Project #2: Critical Analysis Video for Social Media demonstrates how I used my critical and creative thinking skills. In selecting a piece of multimedia journalism, I took a risk by choosing piece that no one else selected and was able to create both reflections 4 and 5 based off of the new knowledge that I found. Although it wasn’t easy creating the video, I dug deeper into my process in order to complete my video. If I were to do it all over again, I would rehearse my script more to make me more confident in what I was saying.
5. Information Literacy Goal
a: Defines the scope of research questions effectively and selects information cogently to address them. (20%)
In my Reflection #5: Audience Evaluation, I used question from the handout to address in my evaluation. After writing my reflection #4: rhetorical analysis I talked about my audience very little and used that to help me think more about who my audience would be. I highlighted all of my sentences that derived from questions about my intended audience. I found it interesting to pick at who the intended audience for the piece was and found it difficult for me to find a different audience without becoming insulting. In result, I considered their audience to decide my intended audience.