Author: Alex

Constructing this presentation in the form of half a Pecha Kucha required me to use trial and error to determine how to structure my argument and how long I’d have on each idea. After writing an outline, it surprised me that I had to cut down a lot of my writing to fit into the 20 seconds per slide. Because this wasn’t an essay, though, I realized I could eliminate lots of my descriptions and summaries of each scene, letting the images speak for themselves. 

I was unsure how to structure my presentation, and I initially thought I’d talk about Sabrina, then move onto Stitches. Partway through I changed my mind, however, and I rearranged my slides thematically. I found that I was better able to draw connections between the books I was discussing and I think it helped keep my argument organized into separate ideas. It also meant that I was structuring my ideas in a similar manner as I would with an essay. In that way, I think my analytical thinking process was similar to what it would be when writing an essay, but what differed was having the visuals serve as evidence, giving me more space for analyzing. 

I learned that evenly spacing my ideas into 20 second increments is quite difficult. I had a lot more to say on certain slides than others, so it forced me to learn how to be concise with my language. After presenting, I also learned that I spoke differently when presenting than when I practiced beforehand. I thought I had the timing down from doing several run-throughs of my slides alone, but it turned out I spoke slower when actually giving the presentation. For the future, when practicing, I’m going to make sure I have at least one person as an audience to better replicate what it will be like when presenting.  

Image credits for last slide: F newsmagazine

Link to Literacy Narrative Pt. 3

The literacy narrative project has encouraged me to think critically about my personal experiences and how to convey them effectively through different mediums. I was better able to meet the Writing as a Process learning outcome because the literacy narrative was split into three parts. After writing my first draft, converting it into a comic helped me visualize exactly what I was trying to express and understand which parts of my essay were unnecessary. That way, when it came time to turn it back into an alphabetic narrative, I knew what revisions and edits needed to be added to make my essay more cohesive. Rearranging my writing into the comic medium also helped me meet the Visual Thinking learning outcome. The visual format of the project meant I was required to experiment with different ways of arranging my narrative so it would convey the ideas outlined in my first draft.
Returning to the alphabetic literacy narrative, I understood that several portions of my writing needed to be re-written, especially towards the end. I didn’t feel a need to change much from the first half of my essay, where I described reading and writing from childhood to middle school, but the comic gave me insight into the significance of those events. I realized instead of focusing on re-reading or returning to the enthusiasm for reading I once had as a kid, the true importance of being in my junior year English class was that it allowed me to reflect on my mentality towards reading and writing. That’s how I came to see my story in a different way; I understood how to get to the heart of how the evolution of my attitude has shaped the way I read and write.

Link to playlist

After having several exams this past week, I decided to make a playlist I can listen to just after taking a test. I wanted to include songs that would make me glad the exam was over, no matter if I felt like I failed it or did very well. Specifically, I tried to include songs that felt like a breath of fresh air because it’s always a relief to have a big test be in the past not the future. When choosing songs, I made sure to include many different genres, partly because my music taste is widely varied, but also because I think all types of songs can convey the same feeling, no matter how different they are. After I selected my songs, I tried thinking of a creative way to organize them in the playlist but didn’t come up with any ideas. Since I always shuffle my playlists when listening to music, I decided to not create a set order. I thought about grouping the older songs and newer songs together, but part of the purpose of this playlist is to show how all types of songs can still have the same feeling. When choosing a photo for the cover, I knew I wanted to use a photo I had taken to make it more personal. After scrolling through my photos, I found one I took the night after my last day of senior year. I realized it was a perfect reflection of the rhetorical situation I was going for. High school was a difficult time for me, so finally graduating felt similar to finally finishing a big exam – it was a breath of fresh air.

Link to Analysis

Link to Assignment

Due to my personal writing style, I began my essay with a small introduction and a draft of my thesis. It personally helps me while writing if I have a general idea of the thesis. After I finished writing, I edited it and rewrote it into the final paragraph. The main idea of my thesis is how both Stitches and Spinning use the medium of comics, specifically utilizing framing and transitions between panels, in unique ways to effectively portray the trauma they endured.

The tracing and annotating was the most enjoyable part of this assignment for me. Although it took me longer than I expected to find the pages I wanted to analyze, tracing the pages was quite fun. I didn’t feel like I gained any productive insights while I was in the process of tracing, however. It was hard for me to distinguish what I had drawn versus what was showing through the page, so I didn’t know what my tracing looked like until I lifted it up. Once I did look, it became clear how different Tillie Walden and David Small’s drawing styles are. My tracing of Spinning came out quite well when I first looked, but my tracing for Stitches looked all funny because I had only drawn the outlines, and there was still lots of shading I hadn’t included.

This assignment made it clear how subtle details and decisions can make such a big impact on the interpretation of the comic. Because I don’t typically examine each page as in depth as I did for this assignment, I didn’t think much about why I understood the emotions or thoughts of each person so easily. Especially for the pages I chose, framing played such an important role in conveying the emotion Tillie and David felt, but the decision making on the framing is something that would only influence me subconsciously while reading.