Reflecting More on My Writing Experiences

Dear Reader,
In this blog post I will be answering a few questions about my experiences in this course!

Discott (2014) "A Lecture Classroom" via Wikimedia
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1. What were the biggest challenges you faced this semester, overall?
The biggest challenge I faced was having to adapt my writing process in order to effectively progress through the course. Because I used to be a procrastinator, it was difficult for me to have to plan out/manage my time in order to complete each deadline successfully. Over time, however, I learned to manage my time well and keep up-to-date with my projects and deadlines. 

2. What did you learn this semester about your own time management, writing and editorial skills?
I learned that my work really is better when I make effective use of my time in order to plan and gradually develop my work, as opposed to writing the entire project in one night and revising it heavily. 

3. What do you know about the concept of 'genre'? Explain how understanding this concept is central to being a more effective writer.
Before this course, I had really only ever written analytical essays (with a strict format); my experience with writing was very limited/restricted. However, in this course, I have learned a lot about various genres of writing as well as when to use them and how to construct them effectively. I think that understanding this concept ('genre') is critical to being an effective writer because you have to understand the conventions of the genre as well as the audience to create an effective/successful work. My first experience with an unfamiliar genre was our first project, the Quick Reference Guide. Through this project, I learned a lot about the various conventions of writing within a specific genre. 

4. What skills from this course might you use and/or develop further in the next few years of college coursework?
Being a journalism major, this course has been extremely useful to me; it has prepared me to write in certain genres that were unfamiliar to me before, that I will have to write in (hopefully) in the future. Additionally, I have learned to manage my time and preparation well, helping me create better work.

5. What was your most effective moment from this semester in 109H? 
Personally, I really enjoyed project 3 and how we were able to choose the genre we wanted to write in. Through this project, I was able to implement the many writing skills/strategies this course has taught me into a project that interests me and pertains to my major. 

6. What was your least effective moment from this semester in 109H?
My least effective moment from this course was probably project 2 on rhetorical strategies. Although I understood the information that I was writing about, the genre/style I was writing in felt uncomfortable to me. Also, it was not as exciting or interesting to me as the other projects because it was less about my interests and my major and more about rhetorical strategies. However, I did my best and completed the project and deadlines! 

Revisiting My Writing Process

Dear Reader,

In this blog post I will be revisiting a few of my first blog posts (1.10 "My Writing Process" & 1.12 "Calendar Reflection") and reflecting on how I have and have not changed as a writer through my experience in the course. 

Koul, Anirudh (2009) "Reflection on the River Thames" via Flickr
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After reflecting on these two blog posts on my writing process and time management, I had originally stated that I was not much of a planner, I was a bit of a procrastinator, and I was a heavy revisor. Throughout the course I have progressed a lot as a writer and my writing process has drastically changed. Because of the set-up of the course, I was incapable of procrastinating if I wanted to get all my work done by the deadline (and do it well!). Also, the blogs that eventually became the foundations of our various projects helped me become a heavy planner. Although I am still a heavy revisor, because my work was well-thought out and well-planned, my revising process was much lighter than usual. 

Moving forward, my new skills with time management and as a writer will help me, particularly within my major (journalism). In the next 2 or 3 years of college I hope that I will continue to do a good job with time management and planning in order to create better work. In the future, I hope to be writing articles on current on-goings and in order to do so, I will need to be able to manage my time well. In this course, I have learned to effectively manage time and work as well as create effective plans of my work. 

Reflection on Project 3

Dear Reader,
In this blog post, I will be answering some questions from Writing Public Lives (page 520) on "Reflecting on the Revision Process" for Project 3. 

Sullivan, Matthew (2007) "something to see here" via Flickr
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1. What was specifically revised from one draft to another?
Apart from small details like word-choice and grammatical errors, during my revising process I changed certain aspects of the overall purpose of the argument. At first, I was only writing about Rolling Stone's failures affecting the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity at UVA. However, during my revision process, I ended up shifting the focus of my argument more towards how Rolling Stone's failures ruined Phi Kappa Psi's reputation as well as fed the public's misconceptions of university Greek life in relation to rape culture. 

2. Point to global changes: how did you reconsider your thesis or organization?
After peer review, the revisions from my classmates helped me reconsider the possibilities of the purpose of my public argument. I found it to be much more influential to write about university Greek life throughout the nation (and my experiences), rather than just at UVA. Additionally, when I added more information on universities who don't have a Greek system but still have high percentages of reported rapes (Harvard and Yale), I was able to really bring my argument together (that rape is a societal issue on university campuses, not an issue only within the Greek system--which Rolling Stone provokes their audience to think). 

3. What led you to these changes? A reconsideration of audience? A shift in purpose?
Like I explained in questions 1 and 2, my changes were provoked by a shift in purpose of my public argument and what I wanted my audience to take away/consider after reading my project. I wanted my audience to reconsider their misconceptions of university Greek life (that were reinforced by Rolling Stone's article) because rape culture is a societal issue, not a Greek system issue.

4. How do these changes affect your credibility as an author?
By using a specific example, Rolling Stone's article "A Rape on Campus", I was able to building credibility for myself in the beginning of my public argument. Additionally, by adding my personal experiences within Greek life, I was able to use myself as a credible source and evoke an emotional response from my audience.  

5. How will these changes better address the audience or venue?
They provoked more rhetorical strategies in my project and helped me formulate an argument on a topic that has not really been discussed/reported heavily on in the media. 

6. Point to local changes: how did you reconsider sentence structure and style?
I reconsidered my style when I added my personal experience with university Greek life. I write...
"Being a woman and a member of university Greek life myself, I have experienced and witnessed the effects of these stereotypes. Whether or not some of the stereotypes stem from truth, it is ridiculous to claim that the entire Greek system is at fault for all reported university sexual assaults. I, for one, have never felt unsafe or uncomfortable within the Greek community in any environment."
...By shifting my style from what seems to be more evaluative into more personal, I hoped to gain trust/credibility with my audience.

7. How will these changes assist your audience in understanding your purpose?
The changes assist my audience in understanding my purpose by evoking emotional responses, building credibility, and pointing my audience more towards the idea that their judgements of the Greek system, inspired by Rolling Stone's journalistic failures, are not always true and that they shouldn't blame Greek life for rape culture when it is a societal issue. 

8. Did you have to reconsider the conventions of the particular genre in which you are writing?
No, despite the many changes I made during my revision process I did not have to make any changes with the conventions of my genre (an opinionated blog/essay for Buzzfeed). 

9. Finally, how does the process of reflection help you reconsider your identity as a writer?
After reflecting on my writing and revision process for Project 3, I feel that my identity as a writer has progressed so much since the beginning of the semester. Without even realizing it, I was able to apply various rhetorical strategies in my writing that effectively support my argument. Also, I was able to write in a genre that I have never (formally) written in. I never thought that reflecting on my writing and revising process could reveal so much about the kind of writer I am and my capabilities to write in genres or about topics I am unfamiliar with. The changes I made to my project during my revision process helped me build an effective argument that I think is important and necessary to be heard.

Publishing Public Argument

Attached are the links to my final public argument and my final notes on my public argument with 3 examples of my genre...

Stansbury, Addie (2015) "My Public Argument" via Google Docs

• My Final Public Argument

• Notes/Review of Public Argument

Reflection on Project 3 Draft

Dear Reader,

For deadline #12, I reviewed Lauren Hart's and Breanna Featherston's drafts for Project 3. In this blog post, I will be answering a few questions about my own project.

Huithril (2015) "Edit" via Phanaticmc
Public Domain

1. Who reviewed your Project 3 rough draft?
Ann Emilie Tjorhom and Mark Lubniewski

2. What did you think and/or feel about the feedback you received? 
The feedback I received was really helpful, particularly the feedback from Mark in the "audience" section and the feedback from Ann Emilie in the "purpose" section. Mark wrote, "at this point, it seems as though the mishandling of UVA was prompted by existing misconceptions about Greek life established beforehand, rather than Rolling Stone’s article building a fundamentally new image in people’s heads - after all, if Rolling Stone established the stereotypes, why would UVA react the way it did?". I found his point to be really helpful because I had not realized this before. I plan on re-evaluating how I can better explain this to my audience because I understand that existing misconceptions were already a problem but I want to emphasize how that issue combined with Rolling Stone's article failure led to more problems (and therefore, my argument).

3. What aspects of project 3 need the most work going forward [audience, purpose, argumentation, or genre]? How do you plan on addressing these areas?
Personally, after looking over the peer review documents, it seems to me that I need to work most on purpose. Ann Emilie wrote, "Addie starts talking about the merits of Greek life towards the end, which could be an asset to her argument, but end up distracting readers from the causal argument she is trying to make". I realized after reading this that she is right. I plan on reconsidering how to effectively tie-in the "merits of Greek life" with my argument.

4. How are you feeling overall about the direction of your project after peer review and/or instructor conferences this week?
I feel pretty good about my draft, however, there are some changes that need to be made. Hopefully I will be able to combine a lot the advice/recommendations I received from the conference as well as from the peer review documents. 

Draft of Public Argument

Reneman (2013) "Draft" via Wikimedia
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Dear Readers/Peer-Editors,

When reading my draft of Project 3, an opinionated blog for Buzzfeed, keep in mind that this is a rough draft and I will be making changes (possibly some major ones) as I continue working through deadline #12! I tend to write wordy sentences; if there are too many or ways that I could reconstruct the sentence, please let me know! However, I don't want to change the structure too much because I still want it to sound like my voice/writing style. I also tend to have trouble writing conclusions. Obviously the conclusion of my blog does not need to be very formal/extensive. However, if you have an ideas please leave comments! Finally, if there are any breaks in the text where you are confused or think I should expand, comment! I have left two or three comments of my own on the draft that ask the peer editors questions, so if you think you have a good answer/suggestion, please reply to it. I hope you enjoy my blog!

To access my draft of Project 3, please click "HERE". 

Considering Visual Elements

In this blog post, I will be writing about how I plan to design and organize my Buzzfeed blog post for Project 3. 

Grabowska, Karolina (2015) "Black Pencils and Design Word" via Pexels
CC0 License

Creating Visual Coherence:

• What color choices...
• Probably black, white, red, and/or dark blue. I want to choose mild colors for my article. However, I will not have much color anyways since it will be mostly black text on a white background. 
• Font choices...
• I want to use a basic font. Articles generally contain a standard font that is easy to read.

Creating Visual Salience:

• Image selection...
• I will choose an image to be embedded into the top/beginning of my article that is clearly related to my text, supports/relates to my argument, and that will draw the attention of my audience. The image could cause an emotional response or could just be interesting in relation to the title, I'm not sure which route I want to go yet.

Creating Visual Organization:

• Text...
• I will write short concise paragraphs and space them properly so that the blog is aesthetically pleasing for my audience. They will not want to read it if is looks long or difficult to read. Therefore, the spacing between short paragraphs will break up the text making it more organized and easier to read. 
• Images...
• I only plan on having 1 or 2 images, so there won't be too much clutter within my blog post. However, I do want at least 1 or 2 images so that my audience isn't bored by its appearance.

Creating Visual Impact:

• I think that by placing the image at the top, it will guide my audience/readers into the text and help support my argument. I also think that by not adding too many images it will make my blog look more professional and will add to my credibility as the author/designer.

Project 3 Outline

In this blog post, I will be writing a general outline for my argument within the article genre for Project 3. For my outline, I have also created a cluster on coggle; to access my cluster, please click "HERE".

Stansbury, Addie (2015) "Project 3 Outline Cluster" via Coggle

Introduction (Frame the Consequences): 

• Start out by introducing the problem(s) - (Rolling Stone and their failure to write an ethical article and complete sufficient research on Jackie's alleged UVA gang-rape... provide sufficient background information/context that will lead into the purpose of your article)
• Frame the consequences
• Long term - (The specific journalistic failures I will mention could have/have had lasting effects on journalism/the reporting of sexual assaults, could prevent women from coming forward about their assaults, reinforces stereotype that women tend to fabricate rape/sexual assault stories for attention, leaving one of our country's best universities with a tarnished reputation, reinforcing the stereotypes of fraternities/Greek Life on college campuses, tarnishing the reputation/credibility of Rolling Stone, etc.)
• Short term - (Caused a ruckus/various protests on the UVA campus, etc.)

Body (building argument):

• Major Supporting Arguments (pretty much the consequences listed above)
• Rolling Stone didn't follow SPJ's Code of Ethics for professional journalism and therefore shouldn't be trusted as a source for ethical/truthful reports (hurt their own reputation as an organization)
• Sexual assault victims may fear coming forward about their attacks because they fear people won't believe them
• Journalists may feel resistance to report on stories concerning rape/sexual assault (this has a major effect on the importance of bringing awareness to the issue of sexual assault not only on college campuses but within our society)
• The failure of journalism's reinforcement of the stereotype against women that they fabricate sexual assault stories for attention
• Leaves one of the country's best universities with a tarnished reputation 
• Reinforces the stereotypes of fraternities/Greek Life on college campus in relation to rape and other sexual assault
• Major Criticisms
• People will argue that Rolling Stone could not have prevented the fact that Jackie lied about her attack 
• People will argue that whether or not Jackie told the truth, the story she told Rolling Stone was an awakening story that was meant to bring attention to the seriousness of rape on college campuses
• People will argue that Jackie could still have been attacked that night, even if she fabricated many details
• Greek Life/fraternities on college campuses are known to be one of the most dangerous and common places for sexual assault to occur 
• Topic Sentences for Rebuttal Points
• Rolling Stone could have prevented the loss of their credibility by following SPJ's Code of Ethics for professional journalism and not reporting on an alleged gang-rape that had no supporting evidence or argument from the alleged attackers in the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity at UVA.
• Whether or not the highly detailed "article" that Rolling Stone published about Jackie's alleged attack was meant to bring awareness to sexual assault on college campuses as well as within university Greek Life, Sabrina Erdely and her team at Rolling Stone failed to complete proper investigation and published a story that was extremely fabricated and had various severe consequences that effected various groups of people. 
• There is no evidence that any attack occurred on the night Jackie stated she was gang-raped by multiple men at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. Rolling Stone should have never reported on an attack this extreme without evidence or any knowledge of it's accuracy. 
• Greek Life/fraternities on college campuses have been haunted by the stereotypes of being a club for partiers, kids who aren't serious about school/education, and a common place where sexual assault occurs. False stories like the retracted UVA article by Rolling Stone only reinforce these false stereotypes.  
• Evidence
• "Phi Kappa Psi suspended the activities of its UVA chapter the day after the article was published, and its national leadership said they would cooperate in the police investigation and launch their own internal investigation." - NYmag
• "Phi Kappa Psi says in a statement that it "did not have a date function or a social event during the weekend of September 28th, 2012," and none of its members worked at the pool during that time. While the article suggests the gang rape was part of an initiation ritual, the fraternity does not have pledges in the fall." - NYmag
• "The University of Virginia's Phi Kappa Psi fraternity is considering legal action, after a police investigation found there was no evidence to support a Rolling Stone article's allegations that a student was gang-raped at that frat house." - Business Insider
• "Jackie's friends tell the Post that they're beginning to doubt her account. They say in the past week, she identified one of her alleged attackers for the first time. They discovered the student belongs to a different fraternity, and no one by that name was ever in Phi Kappa Psi." - NYmag
• Develop a Map of Your Argument
• Coggle

Concluding Strategies (Call to Action/Negative Consequences):

• These two concluding strategies best fit my argument because I will be mentioning the failures and negative consequences of Rolling Stone's UVA rape retracted article; so, the Negative Consequences strategy would make sense. However, not only will I be mentioning and explaining the negative consequences, I also want to write a Call to Action about how journalists can prevent these journalistic failures and negative consequences from occurring again (by following SPJ's Code of Ethics for professional journalism). 

Reflection:

After reading and commenting on Jenny and Rachel's outlines as well as reading their considering visual elements posts (Jenny's & Rachel's), I found that our outlines were very similar. Obviously that will be true for most people, however, because we were assigned specific questions and topics to focus on. Additionally, I noticed from their posts on visual elements that because we are all working in similar genres, the format and other visual elements of our projects will be similar. Overall, it seems like all three of us have a good foundation to move into drafting our projects.