A Letter to Myself

      When I was 14 years old, I got into a four wheeling accident while on a hunting trip up north with my dad. I was racing David, one of my friends that also had a cabin up there. A friendly competition turned into a very dangerous situation when we hit a sharp turn. He had a lot more experience than I did because he lives out in Armada and can ride ATVs all day. So when he hit the turn he was fine, but when I came up to it I didn’t give myself enough time to break and complete the turn so I crashed into an area with a bunch of little trees. It all happened so fast and I tried to brake as quickly as I could but I plowed straight into one of the bigger trees and knocked it completely over. The scariest part was that I had my other friend, Thomas, sitting in the four-wheeler with me. I really could have hurt both of us. I had scratched the area right between the inner corner of my eye and my nose. It was bleeding pretty badly. My dad came running over to us and asked if I was alright. I said that I was fine but he knew that I wasn’t. I was so upset that I had made such a horrible and dumb mistake. I couldn’t stop thinking of how much worse things could have been and it didn’t help when my dad took me inside to clean up my scrape because when I saw it I broke out into tears. I thought, “What have I done to myself?” and “I can’t go back to school looking like this, everyone will stare.” After my dad calmed me down and I talked to my mom I realized how thankful I was to have only gotten a scrape where I did, because I could have been blinded in that eye if it was just a little bit closer.

            If I could write myself a letter and read it right before I got on the four-wheeler, I would prepare myself for the accident, not try to stop it from happening. I try to live my life with no regrets and learn from my mistakes. When something bad happens or I do something wrong I try my best to learn a lesson and not let it happen again. Some things in life though, you have to learn the hard way in order to truly understand a lesson. This accident has made me a better and more cautious driver on the road in general and I wouldn’t change it. In my letter I would say,

First of all, you need be more careful and think before you do things so that you can make good decisions. Secondly, you are going to learn a very important lesson today, but learning it the hard way will help you in the future. Also, always appreciate all that you have because you never know when you’ll be just inches away from losing something that you take for granted. After what happens to you today, you need to be very positive and just be thankful that nothing worse happened. Don’t worry about the “what ifs” and what other people think, because that stuff doesn’t matter. Lastly, thank mom and dad for everything and being there for you, they will continue to love and support you a lot in the future.     

Advertisement Redesign Reflection

Going into the assignment, I thought that it might be a little difficult to analyze an advertisement and redesign it so thoroughly. Although I thought it may be a challenge, I knew that once I found a good advertisement to analyze I would be able to tackle the assignment. I chose this ad because I knew that it would be very easy to redesign for a new audience. I started off looking in Seventeen Magazine for advertisements and found myself having a difficult time thinking about who my new intended audience would be because all of the ads were very generic and girly. So I found an advertisement in Food Network Magazine for trips to Puerto Rico that would be easy to completely transform. 

For the redesign, I started off with a picture in my head of what the new advertisement would kind of look like. Then, I took apart the original ad and decided what I wanted to keep the same and what I would what to do differently for the new intended audience. I kept the format and color scheme the same. Since the original intended audience for my ad was couples in their 30’s I switched up the pictures to be off families. I also reworded the description of the ad that was below the pictures to be geared more towards families with young children. Overall, the actual redesign for a new audience came along pretty easily.

While writing the essay, I came across a few challenges. I had a little trouble expanding my essay when I tried making it a little longer so I added more detail to the redesign and also went into more depth of the analysis. Adding more details to each aspect of the paper helped a lot. I also had a little trouble citing my paper, so I went to the OWL site and it helped me a lot. For this essay, I went to the writing center for the first time. Everyone there was so nice and helpful. I sat down with Ashley, one of the students that help, and she read my paper aloud and she helped me to make any necessary changes that I missed. After that my paper sounded ten times better; this was especially beneficial to me because I didn’t have my draft for the peer review. I would definitely recommend this to anyone, even if you’re a good writer. Going to the writing center generally helped me with any challenges I had. 

I really enjoyed doing the actual redesign. Being able to actually transform and express my ideas into a new real ad was very cool. The fact that it was extra credit was just a plus. Once I actually redesigned the ad physically, I was able to add more detail to the paper because I could see everything that I had done differently. I also liked that we got to choose our own ad and the new audience. Being able to choose what I was going to redesign made it more comfortable and easier for me rather than picking from a couple.

I definitely have a better understanding of the media and how they use rhetorical appeals to target a specific audience after writing this essay. Knowing this will help me as a consumer and as a writer in how I can appeal more to a specific intended audience and write with a purpose, which are the two most important things to consider.

Honestly, I wouldn’t change a thing if I got to do this assignment again. I put 110% into it and I don’t think I could make it any better.             

Art through Literacy Process Memo

Kara Giacomantonio

Professor Lauren Rinke

Writing 150

October 12, 2012

Art through Literacy Process Memo

How did you become literate? This is the question our class was asked before starting the assignments to come. First, we started by making a timeline of all the things that helped us to become literate, in search of a theme or major event. The most logical thing I started with was my mother teaching me my colors. She made it fun by using play dough and finger paints. The hardest part about making the timeline, for me, was remembering the details. There were a few major things that stuck out to me, but other than that it was kind of difficult to remember many things. While creating the timeline, I realized that everything that had to do with my literacy development had some kind of connection to art, and I never really thought of that before. The reoccurring theme was definitely art and having that theme made it very easy to write about. Creating the timeline reminded me of my love for art and made me want to start painting and reading about artists again. It made me feel like I wanted to get back to a simpler time in my life, and now I think I’m going to renew my relationship with art.  

Narrowing down a focus for my narrative was very easy, once I established my theme I focused in on it. As I began to write my narrative I sort of just started in chronological order, with three specific examples that directly connected with my theme, art. I didn't really have to do any pre-writing because I like to just start writing and let my ideas flow. Focusing on how my theme related to each event made writing my narrative a lot easier. Having a theme made the narrative a clear and very detailed story. The peer review helped me a lot. My partner, Khadija, picked out spots where I could expand and add more detail to my paper so it would be a little longer and sound even better, which was very helpful. She pointed out a few things that needed a little clarification. Overall, she truly helped me to strengthen my paper and without her second pair of eyes it definitely would have been difficult for me to add to my paper all by myself.

When I finally finished up my narrative and made the final changes I already began to think of a couple pictures and things that I would use for my animoto video. Although most of the pictures were easy to pick out, fitting in the perfect text slides to go with it was kind of difficult. It was quite a challenge for me to fit in the sentences that I already had written in my paper into the slides. I basically had to rewrite almost every one of the sentences that I picked to fit in the limited space, which is a lot different from how I would usually tell a story. Personally though, I didn’t mind having less detail in text and using pictures instead. I love adding pictures to my ordinary papers to clarify things and make it more personal. I enjoy seeing pictures and things when reading or being told a story because I think it makes it real and more interesting.

Making the animoto video was fun for me, overall. I really liked being able to use pictures to tell a story and not just have to use plain old boring text. My peer review partner generally picked the 15 best sentences from my paper. I did have to shorten them so much so that in essence, I ended up creating new sentences. My strategy to shortening them was to just concentrate on the main idea and try to get my point across. Shortening them helped me to focus on the detail of my paper, which improved my style of writing. I essentially used three main passages or events as emphasis for my animoto video.

The images I used helped to not only fill in detail when I couldn’t fit in the text, but also to compliment my text slides. I used a picture of the color wheel to represent how I learned the basics of art in my first grade art class since I couldn’t fit a long description. Then, I also used a picture of one of my favorite books on O’Keeffe right after I mentioned it in a text slide. I chose pictures that were both personal and from the web. I tried really hard to make them all have a meaningful purpose. For example, I had a text slide that said “Art set my path in life,” so I used a picture of a painting of a path that was created by Monet. I had personal pictures of me as a child painting and coloring that added a nice touch to my video also. Other pictures, like the cover of one of my favorite books and the animal cell diagram, required me to get them on the internet. They all helped me to tell my story better because they added visual detail that you normally would not get from just reading any other narrative. I went for a classical song for my video because I love that kind of music and think that it added an artsy and classy feel. Chopin—Nocturne No. 2 In E Flat Major went with my theme very well. It demonstrated how art had a major impact on my literacy by actually getting to hear the song.

I have watched my video multiple times already since I posted it because I love it so much! Honestly, I don’t think I would have changed anything major. I might have added more detail if the video could have been a little longer. Also, I might have changed the background theme. There wasn't many to choose from so I chose the most logical one that fit my theme the best. All my classmates gave me great feedback and really enjoyed my video. The only thing, if any, they said to do differently was to add something here or there. Overall, I really enjoy all the steps of the project; it was a great experience because I have never created a narrative like that before. 

Built Ford Tough.

     Some ideologies that are portrayed in this commercial are that people value facts and hard work. These ideologies are reinforced by many things, such as, the tough looking color scheme, all the numbers on the trucks avg. mpg, and also how it describes why this truck would be perfect for almost any job. It gives a sense of power to its audience by saying, “You have an unfair advantage in the world of tucks.” The commercial said that a Ford truck can do more than any other truck has ever done. It stated, “It’s not just about numbers and strength, it’s about doing things that no truck has ever done before.” The entire commercial talks about how the new Ford F-150 is the latest and greatest truck on the market and tells its audience exactly why. The intended audience is a hard working American who really relies on their truck every day; like construction workers, hunters, and generally all working men that get their hands dirty or have to haul things. The commercial says that as the average American you probably don’t have a truck as a luxury, you depend on it to get the job done. That is used to appeal to their very specific audience. After viewing the commercial my position is dominant-hegemonic. It had me convinced from the start, with all the movement and aggressiveness, that their truck was definitely the toughest and best out there, without any question in my mind. I think this is especially because the commercial was factual and very graphic; I’m a very visual person so it appealed to me, especially. I don’t think they could have made that commercial any more tough or cool looking.

From Virginia Heffernen:

1. The first time I submitted an assignment online was my senior year of high school in my online English class. It was a big change from how I used to write papers and do assignments and I wish that my teachers in past years would have introduced that kind of online submission and interaction earlier. That is at least one thing that I would suggest them to add in their curriculum. Also, I would suggest making a class blog or discussion board where all the students would get a chance to post and respond so that they are better prepared for college.

2. I know that today’s dentists are much different even from dentists ten years ago. The technological advances are insane. There are so many new tools and machines that do almost all the work for you in the field of dentistry; it’s all about knowing how to operate them. I don’t think Oakland can really prepare me for that in my undergraduate years just because they are preparing me to take the DAT in order to get into dental school. Then in graduate school I will be prepared for the skills I need to operate and use the new technology.

3. I feel that when I write in a blog or an email I can be myself and I don’t have to worry about any formatting or proper persuading or citing. I think that things like the “five paragraph essay” or a “1,000 word essay” limits how I can write and can sometimes even force me to stretch out papers when they already sounded good 300 words ago. Putting specific formatting and requirements on papers can be stressful and I don’t feel that I write as good as I would in a relaxed setting.

4. If I were a math teacher I would do a lot of things differently than most of today’s math teachers. First of all, I would never have my students memorize formulas or equations. To me, it doesn’t make sense to do that even with today’s technology because anyone can just look up formulas for whatever problem they have in a matter of seconds. I feel that having to memorize equations makes the test more stressful and takes away from the whole point of the test; which is to test the student’s ability to do the problem correctly. Also, since technology and the world are always changing, I would especially focus on making sure they have the basics down that society will never stop using.

5. I definitely agree with Virginia Heffernen and the main focus of the piece; which was “…we can’t keep preparing students for a world that doesn’t exist.” Everyone needs to realize that there is a need for an update in the way teachers teach and a change in the curriculum. A related to everything she wrote in her piece. It’s so true that when students are forced to write a specific kind of paper that has to be a certain length students don’t write as well as they would without all that.

My Literacy Timeline

Two Questions, Lynda Barry

After reading “Two Questions” by Lynda Barry, I definitely agreed with her that as children, most of us LOVE to draw and create but as we get older it almost becomes “work”. As a cartoonist, novelist, and playwright all she did was write and draw. She realized that she was beginning to lose her passion for what she once lived for. She found herself asking two questions: Does this suck? Is this good? She was extrinsically motivated for a long time, meaning that she was just doing her work as her job and for others; which is why she asked herself those two questions. This writers block caused a lot of issues for a long time until she finally realized that she needed to write for herself and then she would finally be satisfied with her own work. Intrinsic motivation worked best for her because it allowed her to create and write to the best of her ability because it didn’t matter what anyone else thought. The fact that she went back to writing for herself, like kids do when they draw or write, is what made this story a circular narrative. I related to this story a lot because I’m very artsy and I became literate through art. As a child, the first kinds of books that I was interested in reading were autobiographies on artists. I also have been scrapbooking and drawing for almost all my life; so I really enjoyed this story.

Why Is Writing Important?

               Writing is used in almost every profession at least a little bit. Everyone needs to communicate to work together in order to get a job done. Whether it’s through e-mail, texting, or even “old-fashion” hand written notes or reminders, writing is essential in everyday life. Companies advertise, workers of all sorts have to write down their schedule or request time off in some way to their managers, and doctors document everything about a patient on a daily basis.

                My ultimate future career goal is to be a dentist. I know that will require much documenting of each of my patients. Even just a cleaning will require me to write whether everything is looking good or not. My job requires tons of communication between hygienists, secretaries, and dental assistants in order to be successful. Every day I will have to look at my patients chart at past written notes and observations and make new ones.  I’m going to need to take special English classes in graduate school to learn the language of dentists and how they write their abbreviations and things. Communication is definitely key because not doing so could cause major problems.