#reflectionpost

Overall the material this month in Design Strategies really pushed me past my comfort zone. Originating and coming up with content for an Identity Development project takes a lot of grit, research, and hard work. People generalize designers in thinking they do only one thing and the great thing about this school is that they really broaden our horizons to what is possible with this degree and skill. I’ve learned so much the last couple of months in this program. It’s really taught me to rationalize and be able to really think through on the design decisions I’m making.

Identity Development Research: Cooper City

Identity Development Research: Hollywood 

Identity Development Research: University Park

Identity Development Research: Demographic Area

CONNECTING/SYNTHESIZING/TRANSFORMING: The research I conducted and utilized during my time in this course to arrive at some design decision had a lot to do with personal experiences and undergoing through the interviews that we were assigned to do. It helped me create a more concise persona event though it isn’t something that was required to do. I skimmed through a lot of research about my own city and neighborhood. For instance, this area was named after the city’s founder, Joseph Wesley young and it was dedicated in March 2007. It is noted, “Hollywood is approximately 30 square miles in size and is Broward’s third-largest municipality with a population of roughly 143,000 residents” (“About Hollywood”).

PROBLEM-SOLVING: The design problem I was trying to solve was more about trying to convince the client that this Identity Development project was a good idea to begin with. I divulged data and research on the demographics in the surrounding neighborhood. Using that data, I was able to create a pitch that perfectly summed up the inhabitant’s pains and gains with a swot analysis.

INNOVATIVE THINKING: The way I approached this subject in an innovative way is by giving a voice to the people who experience that region every day. Using their opinions, I was able to come up with a problem statement along with questions that tailored to what they look for in a thriving community.

ACQUIRING COMPETENCIES: Overall this course taught me a lot on how to effectively communicate my ideas through an elevator pitch. Along with creating underlining data that is essential when presenting this pitch to your specific audience. They want to essentially know what is in it for them and this data is extremely important because of that.

References

Over the years, Malaysia has shown a poor track record In reading, although more than 90 per cent of its population are literate. A 2010 government survey conducted every five years showed that Malaysians read half as much as people in developed countries such as Britain and Japan that read an average of 20 books a year.

According to the 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment- a global education benchmark for 15-year-olds from 34 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries including Singapore, Malaysian students, already below average in reading, plummeted further to 398. The average score was 496.

These statistics are shocking, but they’re no longer surprising the Malaysian public. I agree that our reading problem is still an under-addressed issue here. But it’s admirable to see how volunteer works shifted to a more educational-based help, as reported in the article, it tells the story of The Reading Bus Club efforts. Founded by Mr Cheli Nadarajah and his wife, the project is a mobile library that aims to teach underprivileged children to read in English. By reaching out to low-income housing areas, it provides simple access for the young children to English books (which otherwise, it is rather expensive for purchase).

In class, we’ve learned about reading strategies - how we can develop questions to ensure a more wholesome reading process. These questions can be formed pre-reading, while reading and post-reading questions, as explained in the website link. That article is particularly helpful for classroom use - I believe this approach should be more common in Malaysian classrooms.

Pre-reading questions

From what I understood, pre-reading questions can be mainly about setting the reading focus first - what do we want to gain from the passage? So pre-reading questions can be focusing which definitions, examples to draw out from the text - mainly detecting our gap of knowledge, in order to gain the input to fill in the gap. For example, before reading a passage on the prevalent use of drones in warfare, I’d ask questions like this, because I don’t have knowledge about the issue. These questions arise from my curiosity.

What are drones?

Which countries are most affected by drone warfares?

Do the use of drones bring much damage than the standard, land warfare? To what extent does the damage may cost?

If this is such a worrying issue, why isn‘t this issue made public?

While reading questions

While-reading questions is reading according to the intended focus - while we have questions we wanted to ask before reading, so during reading, we aim to find the answers in the passage. It can be done through skimming and scanning the text. So, during reading, it’s important to highlight, annotate and take down relevant notes. It is also crucial to write down your own thoughts and feedbacks about the passage. So with the questions set above - now I need to reassess my understanding of the passage, and try to answer my pre-reading questions.

Drones are unmanned aircrafts, in the case of warfare, they are long-distance rocket missiles.

The countries in the Middle East are most affected by drones.

Drones bring much damage to civilians and infrastructure. The number of civilians being called as “collateral damage” due to drone attacks is worrying figure.

This issue hadn’t made in public in Malaysia, maybe because of our lack of.. enthusiasm (?).

Post-reading questions

Once the reading is done, then it comes down to formulating post-reading questions, Here, it mainly involves the process of questioning and forming our own opinions. We can either question the author’s standpoint, or question the implications arise from the text. We can also form our own opinion regarding the passage, and evaluate if it fits to be used in our own research or work. So, as the ending notes about the drone warfare passage, I would like to summarize a few points.

Drones aren’t necessarily a bad technological invention. When it’s used right, drones can deliver emergency aid relief, and help in environmental surveillance. However,  when drones are used as weapons for warfare, its capability is destructive.

“Writers get awful when answering the question “Where do we get our ideas from?” And the reason we do that, is because we don’t really know.”

I’ve always interested in understanding how to great writing comes from great writers, for me, stories are great writing. Neil Gaiman is no stranger to this, his “American Gods” is a landmark novel, a testament to how psychedelic and imaginative writing can get. He explains this is such an interesting, humorous manner, that writers don’t really have a specific method to generate ideas. It comes in an impulse, some sort of epiphany. Instead, ideas can come from arising questions, like he explained in the video, one could be thinking about werewolves then what happens if a werewolf bites a goldfish.. a story premise can arise from there.

Generating ideas is a fundamental part of writing, it’s where everything starts.

Language is an evolving thing. It’s naive to think that the language of social media isn’t having an effect on the way we use English in day-to-day life. It’s more appropriate to consider just how much of an effect it’s having on the way we communicate. 

I recalled on the multi-directional model of reading and writing, which what I understand from it is how speech and writing both have influenced each other. It is different from the unidirectional mode, where writing is influenced by speech.

With the digital age dawned upon us, I think social media has become a discourse in itself, and this discourse affects us everyday users.

To recap, I have learned that there are 3 approaches to writing, which are product, process and genre approach. I have discussed on the product approach and how common it is in Malaysian classrooms, also the process approach and how it is more common in university studies. Now, I will move on to the genre approach, and how it’s interesting for me.

So, what is the genre approach?

A genre-based approach to writing instruction looks beyond subject content, composing processes and linguistic forms to see a text as attempts to communicate with readers. This approach is concerned with teaching learners how to use language patterns to accomplish coherent, purposeful prose writing.

Pardon me for the wordy visual there, but I’d like to point out that the genre approach focuses more on how the writing is presented. It’s different from the product approach (focuses on grammar accuracy) and the process approach (focuses on writing stages). The genre approach takes into account what the other two approaches didn’t - the targeted audience. Who is this text written for? Does this text have a social function? So, the genre approach works in a way that it keeps in mind who are the potential readers for the writing product. This is where the imitation of style comes in - students are given a number sample texts to imitate, however these texts differ in writing style. One can be presented with newspaper clipping, then an academic essay in the text. What’s the purpose of showing the sample texts? It’s to demonstrate the fact that different texts written for different purposes, have its distinctive features and formats.

These are the steps in the genre approach.

From the example above, it can be seen that the language features was paid close attention to. This genre is about discussion, so the language features present is what we would normally encounter in a discussion essay, such as the use of discourse markers and the clear sequencing of ideas. So these important details is what the genre approach pays attention to, by differentiating language features in different writing styles. And to understand the social purpose of writing, that different writing styles serves different purposes. Below are some of the examples of genre, and the characteristics present in the writings.

The genre approach is very uncommon and alien in Malaysian classrooms, similarly to the process approach. To find these writing approaches present in school workbooks, is not yet.. possible. Based on my experience, I’ve learned through the genre approach when I was in my university foundation course - it is in university only then I know that writing has its social purpose, and audience. To learn in the genre approach is particularly interesting, because it reflects speech as well - you have to take into account who’s your audience, and use a certain approach to convey a certain meaning.

The genre approach makes writing purposeful again.

In my previous post, I’ve written about how the product approach is used mainly in the Malaysian education system. Now I’ll move on to share my thoughts on the process approach in writing. I have to say, out of the 3 approaches taught in class, the process approach is the most ideal and versatile, in my opinion.

So what is the process approach to writing?

As the name implies, it’s the notion of writing as a process, going through several stages. These stages are often perceived as linear, however these stages are also dynamic - one can move from one stage to another, and go back to one - depends individually. With the notion of writing is rewriting, I think students can appreciate the work of writing itself, producing it is not easy. Also, in using the approach, they can discover what they want to say and add clarity to their writing, as they rewrite more.