Brandon Ramirez

The reading I did for this weeks is Media/Design and Reflections. It talks about a multimodal formatted writing can make the actual writing better. We are very visual human beings and we like videos, pictures, and music instead of just old plain text. Even by doing memes you can make a joke sound even funnier because of the picture aspect of it. Reflections are an analysis of what the person has done. It shows if the product was as expected, the process it was made, and what can be improved about it. 

If i wan to promote some type of health awareness as a doctor media and design would be really helpful. Making an appealing poster or billboard can make a change in people’s minds when they see it. Reflections can always help me in my career because you always need to make yourself better. You can always help more patients, you can always get better grades, and you can always be a better family member or friend. Reflecting on your life can help you in all of those aspects.

The major assignments that we just did was the infograph and the E-Portfolio. Design and media is basically what we had to do for the infograph, by presenting information about diversity in the most appealing way possible. The E-Portfolio we had to do reflections on our major assignments and readings. Design and media also helped me during the course to do all these Tumblr posts as well.

Some questions that brings up are like “How can I be better?”, “How can I make my work better?”, “Does this meet my expectations?”, “Is this pleasing to see?”, “Does it grab my attention?”.

I also can definitely relate regarding your opinion regarding design/media and how it relates to the graph and portfolio. I feel like they both required at least a sense of design and media aswell. Especially the graph since it was the major visual for our final presentation. It is very important that we always follow a design, in order for it to be appealing and easy to read for the audience. Following these steps also really allows the creator to connect with the audience and convey the purpose. Great response overall! 

In the NFG book, there was a reading of the design of media, purpose, and catching attention of the viewers. It was very interesting reading about the aspects of design. Personally I have always been a creative individual, and reading through it was very fascinating. How to use the different shapes to catch attention, colors for emotion, and also how to keep the viewers attention through the use of short sentences, and the use of words.

I have always been interested in media design, but besides photography I have never got a chance to actually try it. Through this section of the book, it really helped me understood the different strategies to use media design. We applied the different strategies that the NFG provided for us to the infograph, and it was very fun to apply them.

Reading about the rhetorical strategies was in fact very informative, and I feel it actually improved my skills. “The goal of a rhetorical analysis is not to analyze what a writer is arguing, but to analyze how the writer is presenting the argument.” In the past I actually did believe I had to analyze what the writer was arguing about, but I found it so interesting how much of a difference it makes to analyze how the writer presents an argument. This perspective definitely improved my writing, and changed my view on articles and how to analyze them with a new strategy. 

An analysis consists of three main rhetorical appeals which are logos, ethos, and pathos. Logos is basically the logic of the argument. How strong or weak the argument really is. How much evidence is there in the creators work or article, and how solid it is. I also included a brief explanation of the argument, and analyzed if the creator was bias. Ethos focused on the credibility of the author, and the sense of future. What the sense of future means is how did the argument affect the author, and if it was hindered or not. 

I personally found pathos to be the most interesting rhetorical strategy. The other ones were interesting, but there was a feel of firmness, because there were guidelines to follow. Pathos deals with emotion, and is the strategy where we can put more thought into. Hard work goes into writing an analysis, but when it came to this specific rhetorical strategy, it was more open for me to write about. I could describe what each color made the audience feel. How could it affect an individual. I could put my mind into the text, and describe how the author evoked the audience based on my understanding. 

I also think, although ethos and logos are also critical to consider when analyzing a paper, pathos is in fact the most significant one. Like you said, Pathos focuses on the emotion, which is the best way for the author to engage the audience. Emotion is one of writings greatest aspects, as it can be used to keep the writer entertained, or to persuade, or to simply trigger the readers feelings, in order to get the point across. Our opinions were almost identical, which i find pretty awesome since were teammates, therefore meaning in future work i am sure we wont struggle combing or putting our ideas together.

This article mainly talks about the understanding of activity systems or the activity theory. What is activity theory it is, ”an originally a psychological theory that sees all aspects of activity and shapes by peoples social interaction with each other and tools that they use.”Donna Kain and Elizabeth Wardle actually wrote this article for their own students because they found it was a helpful lens for thinking about writing.This article helps give you a better understanding of text that people and groups of people use in school,preffesional, extracurricular lives etc.Giving you a more broad idea of how and why people of different communities carry their activities,text ,and lives the way they do so differently but all trying to reach the same goal.

This article actually opens my eyes and makes me understand a little better why  there is so much diversity in my college which is college of engineering. Not only in engineering itself which there is quite an amount such as, electrical, civil industrial, mechanical, environmental, etc.It helps me understand how even though we are all in the same college how we use different tools, rues,and motives with each proffesion. Being able to understand this better gives you a sense of patients knowing that something that might make sense to a mechanical engineer can be like another language to civil or industrial engineering, yet were all headed to the same goal which is innovating the world around us.

You defined the activity theory as “Originally a psychological theory that sees all aspects of activity and shapes by peoples social interaction with each other and tools that they use”. Activity systems is a group of different people working towards the same goal, and now I can see how they can both work together. Based on my understanding of your response, an activity theory is an activity system using tools to accomplish their goal. What I mean is that different people are working for the same goal, while using different tools. For example an engineer creating the tools for a surgeon to save lives.

Happy Spring Everyone! My name is Audrey, I am your instructor and I’m excited to get to know all of you. This Intro Post assignment is the first step in that direction and here’s a chance for you to get to know a little about me as well.

I’m an El Paso native, born and raised in EPT/Ciudad Juarez, and I love it here. I have a son—Daniel, who is the smartest, kindest, sweetest, funniest, most handsome thing to arrive on planet earth. Through him, I’ve also learned that the best kind of entertainment is the kind you get when people think no one is watching. For example…

Much of my life surrounds school and Danny—aka Peanut. (He acts like he hates that I call him that, but I know he loves it). But I try and make space for me: I run regularly and lift often.

I salsa! #Salsera #Dancetilyoudrop

And I love soccer. Liga MX, La Liga, English Premier League, Champions League, Bundesliga, Serie A, MLS, and so on and so on and so on.

I strive to achieve life GOALS, estilo Neymar Jr.

I have a BA in Political Science, an MA in Rhetoric and Writing, a Graduate Certificate in Intelligence and National Security, and I’m wrapping up my PhD in Rhetoric and Composition.

My humanitarian and activists efforts center on freedom and justice for Palestine. #EndTheOccupation #PeaceforPalestine

In my time here as a PhD student, I have focused on rhetoric and resistance. I’m currently researching big data and social impact—think Twitter conversations and what they mean to society, people, governments, and social movements. I argue that the discourse happening on social media gives us the chance to understand real people, real desires, and can offer lots of opportunities for shared knowledge and lead the way to diplomatic, counterinsurgency, and peace building efforts worldwide. So I’m basically trying to be this guy.

I’m also researching issues of diversity and disparity among marginalized populations in various ways, like diversity among minorities and women in Higher Education. I ask questions like who’s in power, where is our voice, our place in our fields, in our jobs, in our societies, and why does it all matter?