Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Dominica McNair- FInal Portfolio


The piece that was the hardest to write was the photo essay. I believe this because we could not use just any pictures. We had to use pictures of our own. I did make it work with the pictures I had, but when it came to publishing it on blogger, all my pictures changed colors and turned sideways. This was frustrating to me because not only am I not familiar with blogger, but I have no idea how to fix it. I know I was marked down for the pictures changing color and the fact that they are sideways, but I tried to fix them, and I had no luck.
Intoduction
The project that was most interesting was the first one we did. It was the visual analysis project. I liked this project the most because it was like nothing I had ever done before. It was not too difficult and was straightforward. I enjoyed the assignment a lot. Analyzing pictures was appealing and a lot of fun.

 I designed the portfolio the way I thought would appeal best. I made tabs so you could easily go to each of the assignments without searching for them. Not going to lie, blogger did not make this project of making the portfolio easy. It was quiet stressful only because it was new to use.

In this class, there was a lot of group work. I think having groups work together often, definitely benefited everyone. Having an extra pair of eyes on work can help a bunch. Not to mention it helped when others did not understand something we were doing in class. For me I know I received very helpful advice and editing when it came to my classmates. I really like how we had our class read our first project and high light things that they thought should be revised. As far as reading other pieces, I learned different ways to presenting things, and diverse ways to structure my writing.

Monday, March 31, 2014

A Design Plan For a Research Paper

A Design Plan For a Research Paper

In my statement of purpose, I say that I want my audience to realize how alike gorillas and humans are. I want my audience to take in the information and be more educated in similarities between humans and gorillas. This means that I am focusing less in the question ," how amazing are gorillas"? And more on the question," how close in relations are gorillas to humans"? Given all that I think my overall strategies need to be:
• to shift the discussion away from strictly discussing the relations between gorillas and humans. Not just about gorillas in general. 
•I need to make it clear, that I am focusing on gorillas actions that relate to humans. I have to support many examples and research that helps the understanding of my argument. 
MY ETHOS:
I need to avoid lecturing my readers ( especially If I am trying to have them see that gorillas are so alike humans). I need to show the readers that we are in this together, exploring and looking for evidence that shows the relations between gorillas and humans. I need to be excited in a way that people are excited when they are starting to read more about my paper. I need to ask a lot of questions and keep things interesting. Not boor the reader. I need to make sure my paper is well set out, not like I wrote it last minute and makes no sense. 
MY LOGOS: I need to make clear relations between gorillas and humans. I know how people feel about my topic is at stake when they are reading. I need lots of information on the correlation between humans and gorillas. I need an argument that shows the importance of how alike gorillas are to humans. I need to make my argument sound important to make worth reading.
MY PATHOS: 
From just telling people what my topic, many have no idea as to how alike gorillas are to humans. When I tell them The DNA difference, they all seem shocked. I feel some people don't see how cool and interesting it is to read and learn about how close in DNA we are to gorillas. I plan on touching in heart warming relations, such as feelings or relationships that make the reader more interested in my paper. I need to inspire my readers by what hey can achieve if they really think about my argument. I need to make my readers feel sucked into my paper, making them interested, even if there not a huge gorilla fan. 
CHOICE OF MEDIUM: a wonderful 10 page paper
IDEAS ABOUT ARRANGEMENT:
I think I have my thesis statement, but I'm not sure, I may need guidance with coming up with a better one if this one does not suit my essay,"With the research that has been done, we have been able to come at mind that gorillas are more alike humans than we think. Learning more upon gorillas not only is interesting but also we learn more about the human nature. " I hope the audience will accept that we as humans should know more about the science behind things. Hopefully most would agree with that. 
HOW I WILL PRODUCE MY WRITING:
I haven't done a lot of research yet, I need to set aside a lot of time to research and do my  research paper. I need to sit down and type away. 10 pages is going to take a lot of time. I do think I have a pretty good idea of how I'm going to start.
TESTING:
I know we are going to have to most likely proof read and share rough drafts with our class members, and that well get feed back from them and my professor. So that will be all I need to test. My mom is also very helpful when it comes to my school work. Hopefully she can proof read my paper too, giving me an extra set of eyes for any corrections needed.  

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Photo Essay-How alike are gorillas and humans?



Design Plan for a Photo Essay

Purpose: As with all my research for this class, I want mostly to raise questions about how alike humans are to gorillas. Are we more alike gorillas than we think? How are we supporting gorillas? How much do we know about gorillas? Because of what I wrote in my statement of purpose, I know I want to use photographs to show the resemblance between humans and gorillas. By looking through pictures of gorillas interacting in the same ways humans do, will really make the audience how wired it is. I hope that by showing how wired it is, people with question themselves further on how alike humans are to gorillas and gain interest on the animal.
Medium & Production: I am using photographs. In addition, though in Illinois there are no gorillas walking around! I was able to get pictures off line. Because of my purpose, I know I need to focus on connecting and relating pictures of humans and gorillas acting in the same ways. I need to show a few ways gorillas are alike to humans. I need to figure out how to show the same actions being made and how to display them. I could do a side-by-side example of each different action being made.
I need to plan: pictures or gorillas and humans doing the same things. I will have to collect a various amount of photos to find the ones that connect just right.

Strategies:
ETHOS: Even though I am raising strong questions, I want to come off in a sweet want to make people smile and say "aweee". I do not want to come off as demanding nor forceful, but simply implying information to make people really think. I think the ethos that best supports my purpose is to get others to think and question their self has while they process the information I am supplying them, rather than coming off assertive.
PATHOS: What I wrote about in my purpose and ethos makes me realize I want to keep my essay simple but full of emotion. In addition, I would like to come off a little funny, make people laugh. I believe that if you laugh or connect a strong emotion to a text, you will remember it due to your enjoyment of what you read. I want to have my questions be not too easily answered. This way people will carry on my questions and take them further with them in life to want to answer them when they come across an answer they think suits the questions.
LOGOS: my argument Is raised on comparison. I am going to out a photo of a human and the next photo next to the human would be a gorilla. Both photos will be acting upon the same manner. I hope the comparison will make people think how wired it is how similar gorillas and us are. I plan to put a caption of the action to specify exactly what is being done in the photos. I wonder how many sets of comparisons will be enough. Maybe four or five I would think. However, nothing less than three. I really need to express the similarity, so the more sets the better.

ARRANGEMENT: I will probably have five pages for my essay. A title page and then four pages that have a set of two pictures to form the comparison. Have I each comparison on different pages will force the audience to flip page by page to further read more about the information I am supplying. This will have the audience take more time to read my essay, because each set is on a different page, and not all on one.


Statement purpose for a photo essay



 My audience includes people all over who are as interested in gorillas as much as I am. My audience also includes people who specialize in gorillas, for example a zookeeper or a person like Jane Goodall. My context is going to be how alike humans are to gorillas and how magnificent of creatures they truly are. I hope the audience will feel as if we are very alike, and do share many of the same genes. By realizing the relationship we share, I hope people will be more educated in the similarities humans and gorillas share. I plan to specifically touch on ours and gorillas simple actions shared. One would be emotional and how they express the selfs compared to us. Another would be there every day actions on their life throughout their life's. The best possible outcome of my communication towards the people is to develop a positive emotional experience to inspire people to be eager to learn more about gorillas. The sorest possible outcome of my communication towards the people, is that they would not be impressed nor interested in the animal. Making the subject a boor to the audience. My purpose is worthwhile. I believe it is worth trying to increase the interest on gorillas and have people reaching out to develop more research and information on how alike we are. I plan on doing something like the example we read about in class. If I compare pictures of gorillas to humans, people will see the relation we physically share. I can then in short paragraphs further explain the pictures. Through my pictures I will pacifically show emotions and actions we share in common. I know how important it is to create strong emotion that will really have people think how amazing the correlation between us is.  I am going to have pictures of gorillas doing different actions, followed by humans acting on the same action.


How alike are gorillas and humans?


Responding to a Photo essay:

* I believe my argument is clear, that gorillas are extremely alike humans. I think I used many photos that support my argument, showing different actions being made between both gorillas and humans.
* I specifically stated my argument will no confusion.
* I believe the argument is worth making. Most people do not know that gorillas and humans share 96% of the same DNA. it is an incredible fact, that should be known by all.
* My photos build on my argument. They address the different actions made by gorillas and humans.
* Yes, my page  arrangement is appropriate, I think it was a good idea, that I did the human and gorilla picture next to either, but I also put the description under each picture, so you had to read what was going on in each picture before you moved to the comparison picture.
* My photos are relevant to my argument. They give many examples of actions gorillas and us share.
* My captions are relevant to my argument. They give a brief description of each photo, followed by the comparison to both pictures,  to show the relevance.
* My text supports the photos, I explain exactly what is going on in my photos.
* My essay does introduce its audience to the topic, I give a narrative and argument, along with why the information should be know.
* I checked over my captions, and they are all spelled right with proper grammar.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

My experience with the photo essay

My Experience with the Photo Essay

This photo essay is terrible. I had so many cute ideas on how to get my point across with how gorillas and humans are alike. So many I have saved because they fascinated me . and then Mr. w. crushed my dreams. He said they have to be pictures I  have taken. I spend two hours searching through photos to  find stupid pictures of gorillas. most are either not clear or from far way. none of them really make my point as clear as it could be. This project was dumb, I wish we could of used computer pictures. I fear that my point is going to be made, as clear as it could be, and I'm going to get a bad grade. I really want to get a B in this class. I really can afford doing bad on any project. An example of the pictures I was going to do are below. look at it , its heart melting. This creates so much emotion towards the audience. this is a exhalent example of what I am arguing. how alike gorillas  and humans are. BUT NO THEY HAVE TO BE STUPID PICTURES I HAVE TAKEN. I know everyone has to be given the same rules and regulations to their papers, but I really wish I would be able to just use my computer pictures. My mom told me just to use them, I told her no he'll fail me. She laughed at me. I didn't think it was funny. Then I thought to myself,
what if you change your subject to make it easier, but that would only be 12 times harder, because I wrote a great statement of purpose and all that stuff. I really don't have time to re do everything, nor do I want to. I really want to do my topic, but I'm frustrated about the whole project.



Monday, March 17, 2014

design plan for a photo essay


Design Plan for a Photo Essay

Purpose: As with all my research for this class, I want mostly to raise questions about how alike humans are to gorillas. Are we more alike gorillas than we think? How are we supporting gorillas? How much do we know about gorillas? Because of what I wrote in my statement of purpose, I know I want to use photographs to show the resemblance between humans and gorillas. By looking through pictures of gorillas interacting in the same ways humans do, will really make the audience how wired it is. I hope that by showing how wired it is, people with question themselves further on how alike humans are to gorillas and gain interest on the animal.
Medium & Production: I am using photographs. In addition, though in Illinois there are no gorillas walking around! I was able to get pictures off line. Because of my purpose, I know I need to focus on connecting and relating pictures of humans and gorillas acting in the same ways. I need to show a few ways gorillas are alike to humans. I need to figure out how to show the same actions being made and how to display them. I could do a side-by-side example of each different action being made.
I need to plan: pictures or gorillas and humans doing the same things. I will have to collect a various amount of photos to find the ones that connect just right.

Strategies:
ETHOS: Even though I am raising strong questions, I want to come off in a sweet want to make people smile and say "aweee". I do not want to come off as demanding nor forceful, but simply implying information to make people really think. I think the ethos that best supports my purpose is to get others to think and question their self has while they process the information I am supplying them, rather than coming off assertive.
PATHOS: What I wrote about in my purpose and ethos makes me realize I want to keep my essay simple but full of emotion. In addition, I would like to come off a little funny, make people laugh. I believe that if you laugh or connect a strong emotion to a text, you will remember it due to your enjoyment of what you read. I want to have my questions be not too easily answered. This way people will carry on my questions and take them further with them in life to want to answer them when they come across an answer they think suits the questions.
LOGOS: my argument Is raised on comparison. I am going to out a photo of a human and the next photo next to the human would be a gorilla. Both photos will be acting upon the same manner. I hope the comparison will make people think how wired it is how similar gorillas and us are. I plan to put a caption of the action to specify exactly what is being done in the photos. I wonder how many sets of comparisons will be enough. Maybe four or five I would think. However, nothing less than three. I really need to express the similarity, so the more sets the better.

ARRANGEMENT: I will probably have five pages for my essay. A title page and then four pages that have a set of two pictures to form the comparison. Have I each comparison on different pages will force the audience to flip page by page to further read more about the information I am supplying. This will have the audience take more time to read my essay, because each set is on a different page, and not all on one.

TESTING: ?

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Hitchcock strikes again

 Dominica McNair
Collage writing II
Dr. Wielgos
13 February 2014 
 Death within Hitchcock’s Movie Posters
           Why do all three movie posters by Alford Hitchcock’s display death? Though a rhetorical analysis of the posters, I argue that the author wants us to know what the woman in the story has yet to know, almost a sense of irony. They display the women as dumb and gullible throughout the posters, hypnotized by the man’s love. These movies where all made by the same author, Alford Hitchcock. This poster asks viewers to keep an open eye for what has yet to come throughout the movie, which seems like a good strategy for getting people interested in seeing the movie. It gives the audience a since of power, knowing information, the main character doesn’t know. Vertigo was made in 1958. The story was actually based on a 1954 novel D’entre les morts by Boileau-Narcejac.
            The three movie posters I analyzed were:
  • Vertigo from Japan
  • Vertigo from Italy
  • Vertigo from Poland
              The author is trying to not only inform the audience but set up a connection within them, creating teamwork, figure out what is coming when watching the film vertigo. The author demonstrates credibility because he goes into detail about why the movie posters were made the way that they were. He also produces an argument for why the posters are made the way they are. After viewing Veritgo by Hitchcock from Italy and Japan I not only see that love can blind us, but am convinced that men are the mentors.
             Through all three of the movie posters, Hitchcock uses a great amount of pathos. He continues to express emotion within the characters face in the posters. In both vertigo from Italy and Japan, Hitchcock uses lust shared between the two main characters on the poster to show the relationship the two have. By having he man and women on both covers interact in such manner, infers that there is strong desire within either, making the audience under the impression, that they are in love. In the vertigo by Hitchcock from Poland, the author uses a picture of a skull to infer death, giving off the emotion of fear. I do believe that most guys are evil; though don’t agree with what is portrayed, with the women being gullible and not suspicious to the man’s unreliable work
            Hitchcock purposely conveys manly power and mystery of death throughout these posters to attract all genders. What I found interesting throughout analyzing all three of the vertigo posters was, the placement in which Hitchcock choose to have his illustrations posted. In Vertigo from Japan, He purposely has the couple enlarged and center, making it the audience’s main focus. By drawing the audience to the interacting couple, he is vividly expressing the importance of the “happy” connection between the two. Then with observing more, you come across the tiny couple who seem to convedeath and harm. We as the audience can infer the film is going to be a romance with a twist. When looking at vertigo from Italy the happy couple seems smaller, making the audience feel that it is less of importance. The bigger picture is of the man who reviles darkness, and evil. This poster has the perception of a horror film, with a evil man who also has a romantic relationship with another character. The last Vertigo poster from Poland has no couple, nor does it have an evil man. It specifically has a skeleton, symbolizing death. As the audience, we view this to be a horror film. It amazes me on how important the structure and pictures on a poster are, when it comes to describing the film.
 
            I will analyze each of these posters individually in the order they were presented to support my argument.
 https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSIsDvcUiUau1oIYq1YhI-NVlO8RlPszGICBns364VdZy1SKiVj8w
"Japan". Every Collection compose. Design advocate. Frances Wysocki & Dennis. 246. Print.
             The Vertigo by Alford Hitchcock in Japan poster has the movie title at the bottom of the page, in large Japan lettering portrayed against a black background, posted in bright color lettering to catch the eye. What we see next, centered and clear is a middle-aged man kissing a blond headed classy woman. She is dressed in a fancy office suit, wearing white gloves and a pin placed on her collar. Although the cover does not say they have a romantic interest with in either, the picture conveys their passion shared between them. Bellow the people, on the bottom half, the poster is painted black, and symbolizing that nothing else matters when they are together. They seem to be the main focus of the movie. At the top of the poster you see a large body of water with a huge red bridge. Above the bridge is a whole world. There are green hills with beautiful blue sky’s that go on forever. Below the bridge from a far, you see a man carrying a woman, who seems to be dead, or not conscious. His face is not expressed with fear, nor does the man seem worried not one bit. She is dressed in a black gown, symbolizing death. We can infer that these people from a distance are the same people up close. Conveying the actions being acted upon, the man seems evil and the girl is simply blinded by love. Because the main scene of the poster is a man and a women kissing, spills the information that the movie is going to be a romantic film.  The poster makes it look as though we the audience, are focused on the love and happiness shared between the two people. The couple is off in a distance reviling what has yet to come. The design of the poster shapes the audience then, as another potential suspect, someone who sees what is coming up in the film.
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTWPtVmDzfnMSpV21zoJVYVWMGTtruPFPou7_bjv7tfmtmYgIWy
"Italy". Every Collection compose. Design advocate. Frances Wysocki & Dennis. 246. Print.
              The poster for Vertigo, also by Alford Hitchcock, from Italy has a similar visual composition to the poster for Vertigo from Japan. Mainly being they are indeed the same movie. The title is in the center of the poster, displaying in bright yellow block letters, jumping off a black surface. Above is again, a man and women both clothed in dressy attire, symbolizing the time of the movie. Although the woman is “hushing” then man, the man is looking back seductively. The man is looking into the women’s eyes and obeying her wish of silence. To the left of the poster is a picture of a man up close and in detail, only showing half the man’s face. We can infer that the man up close is the same man in the picture with the women. The man is presented in the color red, symbolizing blood and fear. The red and black picture sends the audience a scare. Like Vertigo, the poster from Japan, are both covered red in dark colors. This poster also conveys the visual composition that the woman has news coming for her. Noticing the man in the red is behind her, making it seems obvious the women has no idea what is in store for her. It is almost a form of saying she doesn’t know what he does behind her back. Vertigo from Italy turns the tables on the previous poster, conveying fear but not quiet death, showing within the male character. We as the audience, again see two sides the man will have during the film. We are informed that this will not only be a romance but also a shocking, scary film that ends with a twist of horror.
http://www.evilontwolegs.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/vertigo_polish.jpg
"Poland". Every Collection compose. Design advocate. Frances Wysocki & Dennis. 246. Print.
          Vertigo, by Alford Hitchcock, from Poland is portrayed in a cream color. In the center of the page is a huge human skull. The skull is also in black contrasting the cream color. The skulls brain seems to be the darkest area on the skull, representing not much activity going through the head. In the center of the skull’s head is three brightly colored rings. They convey a target bull’s eye almost representing that someone has made that person their target and wants to get into their head. The title is located in the skulls mouth, in black writing. This movie poster shows the audience death does occur during this film. Being the audience we can now expect someone to die during the movie. The author’s name is at the top of the page written in the largest text on the whole poster, represents how important the author is. By people recognizing the author if they are an important person, gets the audience more interested in seeing the film. This poster deals with a lot of ethos. By placing the authors name in the skull’s mouth, gives the author credibility and importance of recognition to who made the film.
 
            In perusing these three movie posters, I believe that it correctly depicts what it is like to be blinded by love. The visual composition of the posters all position the give off a mysterious twist that will occur during the movie.  The designers of the poster probably did this to not only attract women, but to also attract men to seeing the film. The author, by creating the visual pictures gave the audience a since of power. This gets us emotionally involved with the movie because we feel that we must find out what happens within the film. The evilness in the movie is portrayed as the man. The audience is therefore asked to imagine themselves as men, even if they’re not. As a woman, this poster is a sense of degradation. Not only are they not the ones in control or power, they are portrayed as blinded, and dumb. There is less text than pictures in the poster, but all the pictures speak louder than the text.

         Work Cited
Wysocki, Anne Frances , Dennis A. Lynch. 2013. Compose design adcocate. Second edition. 
           Boston,2013. Pearson 
"Japan". Every Collection compose. Design advocate. Frances Wysocki & Dennis. 246. Print.
"Italy". Every Collection compose. Design advocate. Frances Wysocki & Dennis. 246. Print.
"Poland".Every Collection compose. Design advocate. Frances Wysocki & Dennis. 246. Print.