Reflection on Project 1

Dear Reader,

Below I will be answering a few questions on the process of completing the first project, my QRG. If that interests you at all, please continue....

Mirkolorenz (2010) "Data driven journalism process" via Wikipedia
CC BY-SA 3.0 License

What challenges did you face during the Quick Reference Guide project and how did you deal with them?

• One of the challenges I faced during the QRG project was formatting my QRG in google docs. Although I find google docs easy to navigate, there are some down-sides to the application. I was unable to embed videos into my QRG and resorted to providing a screenshot of the videos as well as the link to the videos. I just wish there was some way to get around this small but irritating flaw! Additionally, I had a hard time citing my images underneath the actual photo without messing up the format of my paragraphs. However, I made it work!!  

What successes did you experience on the project and how did they happen?

• I was able to find various sources of information on my topic because it was a recent and relevant controversy that has been covered by various genres of articles. By researching using keywords on my controversy, I was able to find a wide array of information and sources that helped shape my QRG.

What kinds of arguments, rhetorical strategies, design choices and writing practices did you find the most effective for your project? Why?

• I found it most effective to guide my article through what I like to call, 'reader's questions', that connected my paragraphs together in a way that flowed better, particularly when it was jumping from one argument to the next. I also provided several images in my QRG that I thought would provide a more visual analysis of the text as well as evoke emotion from the readers. Finally, in terms of the actual writing and formatting of my QRG, I found the peer-editing to be the most useful way to improve my QRG. The comments pointed me directly to where and why some things needed to be, or could arguably be, changed or added.

What kinds of arguments, rhetorical strategies, design choices and writing practices did you find were not effective for your project? Why?

• I did not really enjoy referring to the Rules for Writers book when writing or editing my QRG. I feel as though the book is overly specific and is too concerned with nit-picky details that, to me, don't seem as important. I am very aware that quality writing revolves around many of these "nit-picky details", however, many of them seem obvious to me when writing in general. Additionally, sometimes I fear that changing things like sentence structure and word choice can take away that you are writing in your own voice.

How was the writing process for this project similar to other school writing experiences you’ve had in the past? How was it different?

• It was similar to many research papers I have written before because I found a lot of research and then wrote about my findings, however, this project was about a current controversy rather than a historic one. Additionally, it was in a more similar format to an article or blog post than an essay or research paper. The most similar experience I had in high school compared to writing my QRG was writing for my school's online news hub The Potomac Pulse. On the website I did research and wrote about topics and controversies that I found interesting and felt passionately about. However, in the QRG, my tone was information and unbiased opposed to many of my articles from high school, which were opinionated/biased. 

Would any of the skills you practiced for this project be useful in your other coursework? Why or why not?

• YES! I am a journalism major so writing QRG's, blog posts, and other types of articles is hopefully going to be part of my profession one day! I have never written a QRG before and although I found the project difficult, it was an interesting learning experience and I learned a lot throughout the process. 

Reflection:

After reading and replying to Jenny and Rachel's blog posts, I learned a lot about their process of research and writing for the QRG project. We all struggled a little at the beginning of the project with either organizing information, formatting in google docs, or where to even begin writing! However, after reading their posts and reflecting on my own, I realized that we all really appreciated this process. I had never written, or even known, what a QRG was before this day. Obviously I had seen one before online, but I simply identified it as an article. Being a journalism major, I found this project to be particularly helpful. Not only did I learn about the requirements and formatting of a genre that I will probably have to write/reference in the future, but I was able to actually be guided step-by-step to complete my own QRG first-hand. Although it was time consuming and at times really difficult, I think that the skills I gained from this project will help me move forward as a writer, particularly as a journalist!