Astrid Salazar💕

At the beginning of the semester, I would struggle a lot with the tumblr posts. This is because my thoughts about writing and rhetoric were very different and limited. I used to believe that rhetoric and writing was just school and professional material only. I would want to make my work on pen and paper and as traditional as it could. This class helped me a lot because since it is hybrid and we were required to do a tumblr post, it helped opened my mind and expanded my knowledge. Now, I don’t struggle like I used to when making these posts and my thoughts have changed. I learned that rhetoric is not so traditional anymore. Its not only about pen and paper, professional and as simple as it seems. Writing is about different modes, genres, and purposes.

Talking about multimodal, I also learned so much about how it can affect writing. Personally, I really enjoyed learning about multimodalities because I thought it was so much fun to write with different elements included rather than just plain text. I believe that using multimodal text makes your argument more interesting and that can help back up your text. This method definitely changed my perception about rhetoric and writing because as said before, I used to think that writing had to be a certain way and learning that you can mix text and videos or pictures, helped me realize that it doesn’t. It also helped me understand that this helps you target a specific audience. For example, using certain pictures or videos can target a younger age rather than just giving them pages of just words.

https://astridjaneeth.tumblr.com/post/157594077546/reading-response-week-6

One reading response that I consider to be one of my "top" work, would be week 6. This is because other than writing, reading is very important in rhetoric. I feel like when you read a lot, it helps your writing and makes your speech more fluent. I liked that week’s reading in particular because I really like reading in my free time. I feel this post was well-developed and explained with depth.

https://astridjaneeth.tumblr.com/post/157878957181/reading-response-week-7

Another reading response that I like would be week 7. That week’s main ideas included summarizing and synthesis. In my major, Criminal Justice is important to write stuff down. The reading caught my attention because I learn better when I write things down and when I summarize them. I like this response because feel like the readings are well explained.

https://astridjaneeth.tumblr.com/post/159768925511/reading-response-week-13

Lastly, the third post I wanted to include would be week 13. This s because the article talked about multimodal text and how it is beneficial. Although I thought I knew what multimodalities were, this article helped me understand furthermore what it consisted of. I think this is a good reading response because I felt more secure with my tumblr posts as to when I first started.

I really enjoyed this tumblr post activity. Although at first I was intimidated by it, I managed to work with it and it turned out to be very easy and really fun. I think that it was a goof idea to use tumblr instead of blackboard because technology just keeps growing and being able to adapt to it is important. Also, as mentioned above, writing is not always professional and traditional, and using blackboard would have made it like that. Using tumblr instead, helped us adapt to technology and learn the concept better. I don’t think I would change anything about this experience, it was fun choosing gifs and replying to classmates.

This week’s reading was primarily on multimodal texts. It analyzes how this method helps students on their academic literacy skills. The text describes the use of multimodality within academic literacies as a path that can create different ways of thinking aside from traditional txt. What I really liked about this reading in particular is that it provides a research and their findings as to how multimodalities can be beneficial. It explained how when assigning students to perform their work multimodal, they were thinking outside the box and doing more than what was required. Some students stated how they enjoyed working using this method because it helped highlight some points, make their assignment more interesting, and allow the audience to understand better and engage their attention. It also described how this method affected the student’s writing process. It impacted the way students used to see writing, as just a traditional text, as just pen and paper. There is a lot more engagement in multimodal activities since students gain a better understanding on academic purposes. Lastly, it mentions how as the world is growing, so does technology. Multimodal is becoming essential and students are not only reading and viewing these multimodal texts but creating them as well.

This reading connected with my major, criminal justice, because when collecting evidence pictures are taken, summaries are written, and when presented, people are speaking giving testimonies. The use of all that is multimodal and although right now it might not be something big I believe that it will keep growing and in the future it will be highly used in the law enforcement field. Technology is getting bigger as the days go by, and that is becoming beneficial for the criminal justice field since it facilitates the job. This reading helped me understand that multimodalities are something that is growing in this world, which means in my career as well.

The text gave me a better understanding of my major assignment, AVA, because when creating a website, I can implement videos, text, pictures, and all that can work together for my benefit and the benefit of my audience. Multimodal text is essential in this project because all those elements will be combining to help our message come across.

The reading prompt me to ask how do multimodal academic literacies develop the use of their features to perform an academic argument.

This chapter addresses the design of an argument by introducing formats and modalities. The chapter describes different types of arguments like written, visual, verbal, and others, thus introducing its modalities. On written modalities, three formats are explained: scholarly, public scholarship, popular scholarship. On visual arguments visual ideas are developed like the purpose, and visual components, as well as well as the relationship between visual and written components. Furthermore, verbal arguments are introduced along with its modalities. For example, verbal arguments can take place in a debate format, or speech.

This chapter connects with my major, criminal justice when it comes to the formatting. For example, when a filing a complaint, a warrant, an arrest form, a court case, evidence format or whatever the case may be, format is essential. A person working in the criminal justice system needs to file paper and it is important to file them right. It also connects since the criminal justice system combines different arguments. Sometimes, visual, verbal, and written arguments combine to form a new component. When in court, sometimes evidence is presented through pictures, which is visual, and they argue in court defending their side, which is verbal, and writing their statement down, which is written. This chapter made me understand my discipline better because now I understand how different arguments have different modalities and how they can combine their components.

The readings made me understand my major assignment, AVA, better because I got to understand better the visual arguments and the correlation the different arguments can have. It explains very well the structure as well as the purpose. It made me ask some questions when working on my assignment like, do the visuals reinforce what the written text argues? Does it back up the written components? And lastly, is there a reasonable balance between the different types of arguments?

The main idea of chapter 8 revolves around argument. The chapter describes argument as a position a writer takes and how she/he backs it up. How a writer defends his stance is critical in the writing process. The chapter also talks about the purposes of argument like persuading others, communicate research/ conclusions, explain an issue, raise questions, among others. It also defines different types of arguments like casual, proposal and definitional. The main ideas of chapter 9 would be very similar to chapter 8, arguments. Chapter 9 goes more deep on how to actually construct arguments. It talks in depth about questions that shape arguments like research questions, disciplinary and publication contexts, purpose, qualifications, structure, credibility, etc. It also talks about the structure of different types of arguments.

The readings of both chapters connect to my major, Criminal Justice, in many ways. This is because when a person goes to trial, the judge is responsible for taking a stance depending on the evidence presented. The judge rules whether the person is innocent or guilty and backs up his stance with the evidence. If we take that further back, when a person is accused of something, the accuser must have an argument and evidence to back up his stance. When examining evidence, one must create an argument as to what happens, and collect evidence to back up the position. This made me understand that no matter what branch of criminal justice I direct myself for, arguments are important.

Both readings helped me understand the major assignment, AVA, because of the obvious, advanced visual ARGUMENT. I did my assignment on sex trafficking in the United States. While some people state that this crime does not occur on the United States, I argue that it does. Now, I had to present evidence and back up my position. I learned that any argument is not only about taking a stance, it is about backing it up with evidence.

The readings prompt me to ask how to know which type of argument is appropriate for a specific situation, and how do the structures make them differ, if they are all directed towards taking a stance?

My two topic preferences would be film documentary or research poster. The issue I am addressing is sex trafficking on women in the United States. This is a problem that everyone should be aware of because believe it or not it happens a lot here in the United States and people don't see it. I am trying to inform people living in the United States, specially women, that this is not a country free of crime and that sex trafficking does happen. My audience would be first of all women, but I want to also encourage parents to take care of their girls, or husbands to take care of their wife. I want to raise awareness of women who have been a victim and prevent future sex trafficking of happening. A possible solution could be creating treatment for the victims. I feel like seeking help for survivors of sex trafficking is definitely needed and can help. Even though creating help is good for the victims, we shouldn’t stop there. In order to prevent future sex trafficking in the United States, a solution could be awareness. People are not well informed of this crime and the survivors of sex trafficking serve as a living testimony that this does happen. Creating campaigns, movements, and just being a voice can help people become aware that this crime is no joke and that everyone should be more safe. I also think that classes which instruct you and inform you of this crime can help. For example, classes on self-defense for women, steps on what to do if you are being a victim, how to be safe when leaving your home, or what to do and where to go for help if you feel unsafe can be very beneficial in preventing sex trafficking.

The main ideas for chapter 11 focus on the importance of integrating evidence. This chapter “Choosing and integrating evidence” describes evidence as a material that writers use to back up their arguments. Furthermore, the book points out the purpose of gathering and combining evidence such as, adding variety, building on, challenge, critique, or respond to others evidence, and infusing credibility and authority. It also talks about criteria and strategies that can help when integrating evidence like using evidence accurately, selecting evidence appropriately, analyzing, attending to discipline and context and ensure credibility.

This reading connected to my major, criminal justice because the use of gathering evidence and using it to prove an argument or back up your stance is very important in that field. This help me understand my major better because an attorney or prosecutor need to gather evidence to show if a person is guilty or innocent.

Chapter 11 helped me understand better the major assignment because when reviewing a piece of literature I need to gather evidence and this help understand how to select sufficient evidence and how to know the difference between actual evidence and personal opinions.

The reading prompt me to ask how to appropriately select one, out of all the types of evidence, for an specific situation?

The main ideas of chapter 5 would include what summarizing is, the various forms of summary, and some strategies. After reading the chapter, I came t the conclusion that summarizing simply means taking a text and, in your own words, make it smaller by including main ideas and important topics. Chapter 5 also addresses two important perquisites when writing a summary; for example, reading carefully, and understanding the occasion for the summary. The chapter also provides different criteria that are useful for every discipline. This is just ways to help you create an effective summary like making sure you capture ideas accurately, reduce appropriately, and making your purpose clear. It also focuses on different types of summaries specialized for different types of occasions; for example, summary in reviews, summary as abstracts, summary in conclusions, and many more. The main ideas for chapter six would focus on synthesis. It describes what synthesis is, the purpose, and provides information on the different modes of synthesis that work across disciplines. There are different modes of synthesis described in detail like synthesis as literature, as comparison, as definition and various more. These two chapters connect because on chapter 5 it describes summaries and synthesis is quite essential in the formation of a strong summary. 

Both the readings connect with my major, Criminal Justice, because summary, first of all, is important in that discipline. I, personally, learn better when I write down important ideas, facts, and information down. In Criminal Justice, writing down the important information and getting yourself engaged will definitely be of much help. Furthermore, synthesis uses connections between different ideas and text, which would be essential for a judge, an attorney, an FBI agent, or basically anyone working in that field. 

The readings helped me gain a better understanding of my major assignment because in order to review a piece of literature, these strategies are critical. We need to be able to extract the text’s main ideas, which is where summary comes in. We should also be able to support both the analysis and arguments, which would be synthesis paying its part. 

The reading prompt me to ask, how is it that the idea of summarizing and the purpose of synthesis are so alike and share a common goal, to gather small pieces of elements and create a whole, yet differ when it comes to the process in which writers gain a different overall result.

Reading takes a huge part of our everyday lives, believe it or not. And with reading, comes its own process. You can’t just sit there like a robot and read expecting that everything will stick to your head. In my opinion reading can be facilitated through your own personal reading process. Reading process can simply be breaking it into little pieces in order to get a better understanding and a background of what you can expect from the material. Everyone has their own reading process depending on how beneficial it works for them. My reading process would be quickly going through the reading material first. Whenever reading something, I like to go through the titles, subtitles, graphs, pictures, and captions in order to get a better understanding. Then, I like to annotate the reading. While I am reading I like to highlight, and make small notes next to the sides or another paper. This helps me as a reference to go back to, instead of reading everything twice I can just read my annotations and my highlighted text.

I, personally, love reading and I do find my reading process effective. This is because I find that when reading stuff twice over again, I get more annoyed and not think clearly. On the other hand, annotating helps me focus on the first time and annotate just to go back and read the important stuff. Although I find my reading process quite effective, sometimes I do encounter obstacles. I think my reading process can be improved if I do not procrastinate. Sometimes I start reading the material really late that I don’t have time to read it twice or focus really good the first time. 

Chapter four of this week’s reading mentions in-depth reading, or concentrating reading. I rhetorically read content for my RWS class using this type of reading. I like to do active reading since I like to really concentrate my first time, annotate, highlight, ask questions, and find important information to use. All of this is classified as in-depth reading. Another thing I use when reading content for my RWS class is discipline-specific reader questions. This is because on RWS we focus on our own disciplines most of the time, which prompts us to ask certain questions, different from other’s disciplines. 

The content from the video helped me with my reading strategies for the lit review assignment. The video helped me get a better understanding of what are the essentials for gathering information for my lit review. It was important to understand currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose. All of these are extremely important and beneficial for any paper. For example, the paper has to be on a certain time lapse, which is were currency is about. Talking about relevance, you need to make sure the source is relevant to your argument. You don’t want to use a source that contradicts your inquiry. Authority is just making sure the author is someone experienced on that subject, or that the information comes from somewhere reliable. Accuracy, focuses on comparing your date to other data gathered, and if it is sufficient data. Lastly purpose, talks about the goal, what you are trying to accomplish. For example, it can be to persuade, to inform, to entertain or various more. Chapter 4 helps me as well in understanding reading strategies, like shallow and in-depth. It also helps me locate reading material like data collection, library and archives, internet, and research data bases. 

This week’s reading assignment, “ Posing Meaningful Questions”, was about the characteristics of effective questions like maintaining significance, keeping a pointed scope, and developing further research. It also talks about strategies for proposing meaningful questions such as examining other writing, and considering publication medium. This chapter also addresses how asking meaningful questions is essential in the writing process. 

The reading’s content connects with both my major and minor. In Criminal Justice, my major, everyone has to be constantly asking questions. Police, detectives, FBI, you name it, they all have to be asking the right questions in order to have the right answers and create a solution. Who committed the crime? How? Any motives? It also connects to my minor, psychology, which is the study of the mind. Why is that person acting a certain way? Why does his/her mind function that way? In my opinion posing meaningful questions in both, criminal justice and psychology, is essential. 

This reading helped me understand better why Criminologists are able to figure out and put together the missing pieces from the puzzle. They need to ask those questions and do research based on that in order to figure things out, that is basically what their work consists of. 

I now have a better understanding of my major assignment since I know that asking questions is a part of literature review. I know the importance of posing meaningful questions and how this can improve any research, analysis, or review.

Nonetheless, the reading prompt me to ask what are the disciplinary boundaries and how can posing a meaningful question can cross those boundaries and be applicable to different disciplines. 

Lastly, I chose these gifs because the first one is humorous and relates to my major, criminal justice. When interrogating we need to make sure it is the right person and most importantly, the right questions. My last gif was because I am confused, pretty much like him.

Literature Review Proposal:

My topic proposal is the practice of human trafficking in the United States. I chose this topic because I want to be more open minded about this issue, which makes it unbiased. This is because some people may think that human trafficking doesn’t occur here in the United States since it is a “safe country”; while others argue that it is not safe enough and this happens more than it should. The research will help me understand, through facts, if this is a problem here in the United States. What I liked about this is that my information could be obtained by scholarly research as well as testimonies of human trafficking victims. 

The main themes and ideas of “Writing in Transit” of chapter 7 would vary among analysis. For example the explanation of what analysis is, the purpose of it, and different types of data that academic writers analyze. Analysis would be defined as the concept of examining and/or reviewing certain pieces of information in order to understand more deeply as to be able to make arguments and make knowledge. 

Analyzing concepts would connect to my major, Criminal Justice, in a way that when being handed a case I would need to analyze the pieces of evidence that were left behind on a crime scene. For example, analyzing finger prints, blood patters, or other evidence. 

Reading chapter 7 helped me understand that analysis is critical when it comes to Criminal Justice. In order to succeed at my job I need to be able to understand the data, or the case, and be able to make arguments of what it means, which means breaking it down in order to solve it.

The readings from chapter 7 helped me get a more clear understanding of analysis since I was not aware that there’s many different types of analysis, or different modes. This helped me understand the main assignment because when we examine anything, even genre, it is important to break it down into pieces in order to get a conclusion.

This reading prompt me to ask how different modes of analysis all work to achieve a same goal, yet differ when it comes to actually analyzing something.

Lastly, the gif I chose, would be the one below. I chose this gif because now I know there is more of analysis than I though. I learned the different modes of analysis all the way from rhetorical, to content; which makes me feel like him.