MyNewCreature

Part 1. Project Description

& For this project I created a separate category where all my Project 2 works can be found.

& The purpose of the ad is to attract female students to take the English Digital Writing class.

& The audience would be female students. The female’s face in the ad is blocked by the globe making it hard to tell about her age; therefore, the audience would be female students of any age. In today’s world women hesitate taking classes or choosing majors which deal with technology thinking that it might be too hard for them. It happens because in our society male association with technology predominates. Women are socialized as passive consumers of digital writing when in reality they are not only active consumers but also are more than capable to become successful producers in the digital world.

& The image I used for my postcard I found on Compfight website. I have purposefully chosen a picture with Creative Common license “Some rights reserved” which allowed me to remix it. On the picture there is the female with the globe in her hands. I have edited the image using Photoshop. I already have had some experience with it. Therefore, I have decided to challenge myself with this program.

& Three elements I applied to edit the image: 1. Cut the image on top and bottom. 2. Took some other pictures with tools of digital writhing (camera, phone, and laptop) and cut off the white background while leaving only the tools. 3. Inserted those tools into the main picture under three different layers.

& Three elements of the image which meet the rhetoric situation: 1. The image of the female attracts other females. When females look at the image they unconsciously associate her with themselves thinking that if she can deal with digital writing they also can. 2. The female has a globe in her hands which blocks her face so it is harder to guess the female’s age which works well for the intended audience (females of any age). 3. The pasted images of camera, phone, and laptop bring to the image digital aspects showing that the world in your hands as well as camera, phone, and laptop. This is how it is easy to get connected with the rest of the world.

& The audio I used in the postcard was written and recorded by me using two programs: Audacity and Voice Memos. In addition, I have found the song which I added to smooth the background.

& Three elements of the audio which meet the rhetoric situation: 1. Both programs are tools of digital writing which they are free of charge and very easy to use. This itself shows to the intended audience how easy it is to make up the audio. 2. The text itself is appealing to the intended audience. It begins with the statement “If you think that digital writing class is too complicated for you, you are wrong!” This statement itself shows gender differences in today’s world. Often women think that they are not “smart enough” to deal with something digital. But further text brings them to the reality showing that such common things as text messages and pictures already make them active users of digital writing. With this being said I introduced more professional language suitable for students (active producer, collaborative consumer, digital information) and offered the viewers to take the English Digital Writing class in order to improve their skills and become even more productive user and even creator of digital writing. 3. Finally, I used the background music to make message more attractive and even fancy which female students might like.

& Resources which I had to cite were image and music. For the citation I linked to the original websites. In addition, I mentioned that the idea of using postcard for future students came from the professor. Finally, I said that the text was written by the author (which is me). I have posted all this information on the YouTube page under the description of the video. This is the most convenient way because future viewers will just need to click on the links to get to the original sources which attracts the intended audience even more due to the easiness of using and manipulating the tools of digital writing.

Part 2. Reflective Letter

& I am proud about being an active producer of digital writing. I am most proud about the idea itself and how I was able to put it into the final project. It was interesting to look at the little details which at the end played major roles in delivering the main idea.

& I was able to use the programs such as Audacity, Photoshop, Voice Memos, iMovie to bring my idea to life. With the exception of Photoshop these programs were free and very easy to use. They were appropriate for the project as they were available at any time and gave me enough options I needed to bring my project to life. I would definitely be smarter user of YouTube in terms of personal information. I learned my lesson too 😉

& If I had more time I would work on the image. The quality of the image is not as good as I expected it to be. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time to play with Photoshop which taught me a good lesson about choosing appropriate resources when working on the project. Photoshop itself is a good program; however, more time should be devoted to play with it.

& When I got stocked with my first idea as I didn’t think about rhetorical situation I have decided to modify it. My first idea can be found here. When I had a hard time with Photoshop I just did what I had to and moved on without exploring it more. I wish I had more time.

& As a result of the project I realized that, although, I am an active producer of digital writing, I still need to work on improving my skills. As my English professor says, “It’s never done; it’s always do.” I need to learn to plan my time better as well as learn to choose appropriate technology.

& Course outcomes (original text on the outcomes can be found here):

***Play In an experimental way I was able to come up with the final idea. It took me some time to figure out how I want it to be. I didn’t simply think of it I played with it. I first created one text and recorded it with Text to Voice program; however, I played with another idea and it worked better.

***Appropriation My goal was to define Digital Writing appropriately with the intended audience. Therefore, I found appropriate resources: image and music. I chose appropriate information, mixed it, edited it, and came up with the ready-to-go postcard which contains meaningful information for certain type of audience.

***Performance I was able to adopt female student identity for the purpose of delivering message on DW topic. I have chosen appropriate resources to create the message which made it look and sound attractive to female students.

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