Advanced Comp

Within the two readings of Accessibility Guidelines for UX Designers and 7 Things Every Designer Needs to Know about Accessibility the main focus was on accessibility for online web content. The article Accessibility Guidelines for UX Designers first started off by stating what accessibility was and its parameters. The author stated that accessibility was not only meant for people with a disability, it ranged from people with a permanent, temporary or situational disability. Regardless of what disability the audience had, the development of the web content should take disabilities into consideration when designing. For example, within the article it described that the content should not be solely organized on color. This is because readers with any form of visual disability or colorblindness could have trouble reading the content, instead there should be a combination of navigational tools like text and graphical images. This article listed numerous amounts of small changes that can be made to web content in order to make it more accessible to all. The second article 7 Things Every Designer Needs to Know about Accessibility also discussed the importance of accessibility on web content. The author also stated that making web content accessible to all does not make it dull and boring. It should only list constraints to incorporate in the design when creating. This article showed examples of scenarios of when content has poor design and ones that have a design that is accessible to all. For example, the article showed the poor use of color text and background color. Using colors that don’t contrast enough can make it very difficult for some users to read. I thought these two article were very beneficial because it is important to easily portray all of your content so everyone can easily understand it or use it.

In my experience professor conferences have been a great help to me. Being able to meet with a professor is good because they can usually give you information about what specifically they are looking for in your paper, and they usually point out if you are missing the key points or if they are wrong. The only negative I would have a professor conferences is that they can sometimes feel a bit robotic because you are just apart of a big line of people they need to get through. Sometimes I feel like the professor revisions I get weren’t enough, and that I expected the professor to able to help a bit more without doing the assignment for me. But I relate to how busy there schedules are and I always try to get the most out of meetings with professors by asking questions about everything I have. On the other hand there are peer review sessions. A majority of the peer review sessions I have in class are not very helpful. Most of the time when I have a peer review session in class the corrections aren’t correct or they are just circling things to show that they completed the assignment in class. If I ever want my papers peer reviewed I usually go to a trusted person that I know can help me. But in both instances any sort of feedback is good feedback, because it helps me review my work. But I feel in order to get the best revisions out of a paper or an assignment you are going to have to revise and reread it multiple times in order to catch your mistakes and learn for the next time.

In chapter 5 and the epilogue of Selber’s Multiliteracies for a Digital Age it discusses computer multiliteracy programs and teaching institutions. Selber’s main focus is about how teachers should be integrating technology and literacy into their teachings. He then provides a caution saying that this whole process is not something that can happen over night, it would be a very slow process with small progressional changes if it was to succeed. Obviously this change could not be rapid, due to the simple fact that technology is never stagnant and it is always in change. This is easy to see in educational systems because every year the teacher would always be given a new piece of technology that would make it easier to teach the class, within the year the teacher would need to learn how to use it and by next year there was already a new updated technology. Selber also describes that in order for this change occur it would need to happen in three different chapters. These chapters being pedagogical, curricular, and institutional challenges. The pedagogical chapter discusses how students should be taught at a slow pace so everyone can learn and understand the information and become literate. The second chapter is curricular challenges, this is how the teachers of multiliteracy can actually be implemented into the teachings or curriculum. The third chapter that Selber discusses is institutional challenges, this is how a school or institution can afford technology. Obviously new technology is never cheap and implementing the updated technology into the school can be a challenge.

After reading the article Sustaining Critical Literacies In the Digital Information Age: The Rhetoric of Sharing, Prosumerism, and Digital Algorithmic Surveillance and watching the video of Danah Boyd on the Spread of Conspiracies and Hate Online it was clear to see that there is a lot to talk about when it comes to the media. Within the video the topic of media within the news and search engines was discussed. To summarize, Danah Boyd talked about how the search engines results were not randomized and that there was a specific equation that was used for the results. This equation is the reason that many people who seeking out information are influenced or given biased information. For example, if there is a particular global event occurring and someone was unsure about it, they would research it in order to form their own opinion on it. But, the information that would pop up would be biased information, like conspiracies. Within the reading the form a media that was discussed was social media. It is clear to see that generally most of the people today have some form of social media. Therefore, social media is one of the best platforms in order to influence. The thing that most users don’t realize is that everything you do is tracked and recorded. So everything you search is put into a database and eventually an equation.This equation is then used to show you things related to what you search for, assuming that is what you are interested in. Social media has a vast amount of information which can be seen as a benefit, but social media also does have a negative. This negative being that you can be shown biased information, or simply being exposed to a load of advertisements.

Within the reading of What is Rhetorical about Digital Rhetoric? Perspectives and Definitions of Digital Rhetoric the true definition of digital rhetoric was discussed and theorized. Indiana University hosted the first Indiana Digital Rhetoric Symposium, the purpose of this was to gather scholars, professors, and a lot of smart people into one area to discuss and define digital rhetoric. Surprise! Throughout the entire symposium no one could truly pinpoint a definition of digital rhetoric. In the video shown it was clear to see that most of the scholars were uncomfortable in making a statement on what they define digital rhetoric as. But due to digital rhetoric’s free floating nature it does not necessarily mean that is a bad thing. This lack of boundary is a big positive, this means that there is a limitless amount of possibilities or directions that it can be approached. This gives potential for new positions and approaches for theorizing, making, and teaching digital rhetoric. Throughout the symposium there were lots of important pieces of information that were added to the big pot of knowledge, but with all this new knowledge it was shown that there was still a vast amount that we still don’t know about digital rhetoric. Although, the definition of digital rhetoric is not pinpointed it is clear to understand the value digital rhetoric has in our lives. When relating this writing to my life in being a future physical therapist, there is one clear connection that stands out to me. I relate to the scholars in their pursuit to figuring out what the answer is. I connected with this portion because in the future I will have a patient in front of me with an injury that I may not clearly see what it is, so I would have to research and go through a process in order to find the answer.

Within the reading of chapter 9 Writing in Knowledge Societies, the main focus was on the relationship between rhetoric and scientific knowledge. The author focuses on important point, being metonymy and metaphors. There is a big dispute in the scientific world where scientists claim that a type of rhetorical language that does not exist, at least not within their field. However, throughout the reading I have to say that I disagree with this argument. Metonymy is something we all use in our everyday language, and it’s quite hard to avoid, especially when most people use it to express their own persuasive ideas. As far as science goes, I can understand why some people may have issues, but I think this language is extremely helpful. Going into the science field as a future physical therapist, I can relate this type of metaphorical language to my discipline. Being able to construct and shape ideas can help express my ideas to patients and fellow physical therapists. Using metaphors and analogies can help when trying to persuade others either through communication or writing. After reading through chapter 9 I thought this book was very interesting and makes good points on both sides about this rhetorical language. Despite possible issues in the scientific world, in the end I think metonymy plays a major role in human communication. I think this reading was more effective than others about discussing the concept of rhetorical language and I found it to be more interesting as well. 

From the two readings, On Multimodal Composing and Women, Rhetoric, and Politics on Pintrest I was able to gather that composition is everywhere in our lives and is in many different forms. For example, different types of compositions can come across in different types of mediums like typing and handwriting. Writing can happen in many different spaces as well. For example, notes, cellphones, and keyboards. In Multimodal Composing it discusses how employees are putting their work or their writings out into the world. It shows that however method they choose to compose their writing it will eventually end up on a platform with an audience of some sort. The reading Women, Rhetoric, and Politics on Pintrest discusses the topic of women’s space in online spaces. For example, their are social media apps like Pintrest which are predominantly used by women, they use this space in order to express an unbiased writing. The women of they apps discuss topics such as politics, rights, and recipes. These posts on Pintrest show how women use rhetoric in their daily lives. I found this very interesting because I feel that sometimes it can be very hard to connect to audiences that the writing is not intended for. In turn, these outlying readers could develop a misconstrued opinion on whatever the writing may be.

After reading The Primary Care Clinic as Writing Space I was reaffirmed with prior knowledge. It covered very crucial factor in the medical field. Communication or writing in different health care systems can greatly affect how efficient a patient is treated, and how much money is spent in the care of the patient. For example, a complex word written down in doctor’s notes could be interpreted down into different meanings by different doctors. This could leave a impact on the communication to the patient. Obviously this issue of writing has been taken note of and there have been attempts to help aid communication or to fix the issue. One of the main things used is charting, which is an electronic note taking system on patients for doctors and other healthcare professionals. This topic is easily relateable to my field, as my field is physical therapy. In my future I could easily run into situations in which the writing could affect how a patient is treated. The idea of implementing a way to structure writing in a healthcare system could probably been seen in the near future when I am practicing. This Gif is an example of the visual mode. The Gif is humerus way to relate to the article, as the doctor not being able to treat a patient due the trouble in interpreting the writing.

In the article of Spaces for Writing the idea of rhetoric was discussed. Rhetoric in this reading could be described as a space for creativity or finesse in presenting an idea or oneself. This reading also used multiple modes in the form of text and images. Later in the reading, it covered the concepts of ethos, pathos, logos, and kairos. These ideas are how someone would present rhetoric in a writing. Rhetoric can be expressed in almost any subject that involves communication or writing. In my particular field of physical therapy or simply put healthcare it is clearly used. The idea of ethos can be seen quite clearly. For example, if you see a healthcare professional who is very dirty and unorganized you most likely would not trust them practicing on you because they are presenting a poor character of themselves.

Hey, I am Andrew Renzi. I am a sophomore majoring in athletic training. After ESU I plan on attending a graduate school for physical therapy. Outside of school I love to watch and play soccer, my favorite team being Manchester United. I also love the ocean and the beach. At the beach I enjoying skim boarding and I am currently in the process of teaching myself to sail.