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Digital Portfolio

https://benjaminmegna.wixsite.com/digitalportfolio

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Maps: Take 3

My theory of writing is as follows: Writing is a process and skill that needs to be developed over one’s lifetime in order for him or her to effectively entertain or inform his or her readers.

My initial theory of writing was a simple, to entertain and inform.  However, over the past 10 weeks it has developed from this basic idea into a more thorough idea around how one gets to that point.  Unfortunately, writing is not a natural skill that we are born with and we need to practice and revise all of our work in order to become better writers.  It is not as simple as one day you are J.K. Rowling.  Just like her, one needs to take time with their writing and understand that it is ok to fail over and over again.

In my first take at the map, I wrote about audience, topic, purpose, and persistence as the most important tasks in writing.  While topic and audience have less to do with my current theory of writing, purpose and persistence fit well with it.  Purpose and persistence fit well with my next two attempts at the map because finding the piece’s purpose is the main idea behind revision and persistence is what revision is.  It is not easy to go back and look at a failed piece of work and find what one needs to change, develop, add, etc.  If one is not persistent, then he or she will not be able to truly revise his or her piece of work.

In my second map, I focused on revision as the most important task, to me, required in writing. This is still the most important task in writing to me.  Without revision, our writing is basic and unfulfilling.  Revision allows the writer to take a further look into what he or she feels is important to include or focus on.  It allows the writer to develop basic ideas further and truly dig deep into them. Without revision, one’s writing does not show one’s potential.

My final map focuses on the process of writing and how a piece develops over its lifetime.  The main aspect of my final map is the ‘mountain’ in the middle and the unicorn.  The ‘mountain’ represents the process, the continual revision, the rethinking of ideas, the confidence in what one wants to write about.  I have always felt that as I begin to write a piece I feel very confident in what I am writing and how I am doing.  However, as the process goes on I tend to lose confidence until I am able to find something to bring it back up again.  This cyclical process leads to me losing and gaining confidence, ideas, and good writing.  Eventually, I am able to take a leap of faith, or be the unicorn, and find an idea that I am able to grasp and develop strongly and thoroughly.  This all leads to gaining the blue sparkly ball, or the final draft.

Creating the maps allowed me to visualize my ideas as a writer and what I think about writing. It was not always easy to see the process or understand how writing works in my mind until I was forced to visualize and dig into what writing means to me and how to develop my skills as a writer.  

As I have gone through this course my maps have changed only slightly and then developed previous ideas. They started out simple, focusing more on audience and topic with purpose and persistence in the background. Going into my second map, the purpose and persistence ideas were exposed more and revealed the way to achieve those in writing revision and practice.  In my final map, I added to revision and practice with the introduction of the process, which represents revision on a deeper level.  This deeper level does not just involve going back and revising one’s work, but also involves the entire idea thinking process behind writing.

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Week 8: Research Journal

WOOHOOOOO!  Finally, I’m about 250 words from finishing research journals.  The weeks just keep getting busier with no intentions of slowing down.  

But in terms of this quarter and my writing experiences, I feel that I have learned a lot from the readings and the new genres of writing.  All of these combined with the intense research required for the course has allowed me to explore my writing abilities and my writing strategy.  This quarter has pushed me to develop who I am as a writer in a more mature way.  I felt that I was a good writer coming into the quarter and that made me lazy in terms of the process that I take on as a writer.  The thorough research, planning, and drafting that is required of this course has really driven me to actually realize where my talents are and are not in writing.  This will all help me to be a more well-rounded writer in the future as opposed to the single-minded academic writer that I have been previously.  Also, the constant switching from genres (between Tumblr, Twitter, and more formal pieces) tested my ability to adapt to new writing scenarios.

Moving from my secondary research, to my lit review, to my primary research, and finally to my research paper allowed me to take a deeper look at what information I was finding and what it meant to my research.  This longer process ensured more drafting and revision occurred, and, ultimately, better quality pieces of writing were produced.

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Week 7: Research Journal

This week has been slow in terms of primary research.  I had a lot going on with papers and tests in other classes that I had to cancel my planned viewing party and reschedule it for tonight.  Therefore, I currently only have my survey completed as I am writing this, but by class time tomorrow I will have all of my primary research completed.

In terms of the survey, however, I gathered data that I would have expected to see from the questions I asked.  TV shows seem to be the much more popular form of media compared to movies in today’s Second Golden Age of Television.  Also, none of the respondents said that they disliked watching a show with an antihero in it.  They were either all for it or only watched certain types of antiheros.  Either way, no one said that they disliked watching a TV show with antiheros, which seems backwards as antihero dramas typically make the viewer question his or her beliefs and not reassure them which can be unsettling to viewers. In terms of viewing TV shows it came down to binge-watching and whenever they can find the time to watch them as the two most answered responses.  Both of these responses are what would be expected of a typical college student, which the vast majority of the respondents were.  In terms of emotions that respondents felt when they were watching tense scenes of a show with an antihero in them, the overwhelming consensus is that they felt anxiety, fear, excitement, stress, and nervousness. These are all what I would expect to see as these are typically the emotions that the writers are trying to create in the viewers.

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MAPS - TAKE 2

My map started out as the rhetorical situation; however, the plan all along was to rebrand it as revision. #clever.  For me the most important part of writing is revision.  Any paper that I extensively revised, I have done far better than the papers that I do not revise.  The article on Threshold Concepts has helped me realize its importance even more so, as it not only suggests that failure is a part of the writing process, but also that it should be embraced as an opportunity to grow your writing further. If your writing is failure free at any stage, you have not looked deep enough into the piece of writing.  It is an inherent quality of writing and art in general that it never quite seems finished even when it is heavily revised and near perfect.  This is why editing is so important, because your first draft is almost guaranteed to contain flaws.  That’s the beauty of writing though, if you take the time to search for flaws you can spark new ideas and create a better and more well-rounded piece of writing.

I set out to think about the rhetorical situation, but realized that it was not as important to me as revision is in my writing process, so I switched half way through the drawing playing perfectly into the idea of revision.  #cleverx2.

The visualization of the writing process has allowed me for the transfer of learning between what Dr. KT is teaching and how I am practicing my writing.  

Writing is an unnatural skill that must be practiced just like any sport, day-in day-out, in order for the writer to truly develop his/her skill set, style, and voice.

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Transfer of Learning

Transfer of learning happens when the material learned in the classroom or another setting is used to learn a new task with minimal effort.  An example of this is learning how to drive a car and then applying those skills to easily learn how to drive a truck.  They are similar skill sets, but in different contexts; however, the transfer of knowledge makes this a very easy transition.  Obstacles in the way of transfer of learning include how related the two task are and whether or not the learning needs to be through ordinary learning (such as grammar in English).

An example of transfer occurring easily is in repairing a car engine.  Once you are able to repair one, you have a much better perspective on how you are able to fix another, and even if they are very different types of engines, you will be able to pick up the skills necessary to fix the new engine much quicker than with the first.

Some practices that I can use from my writing in this class would be the strengths of knowing how to write in different genres.  Between the Tumblr posts and the Tweets, along with the academic writing that we are doing, I have a much better grasp on being able to switch between styles and make them appropriate for the medium.  This could be very important in a career as a businessman as I will be in situations where being less formal is a better idea than being solely focused on writing formally.

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Week 6: Research Journal

Starting my primary research this week has been an interesting experience.  It is difficult to find people who want to watch Breaking Bad or Dexter for an hour and a half, surprisingly.  Despite this though, my survey responses have been good as well as revealing.  Seems that most people don’t like shows with antiheroes in terms of their favorite show over sit coms.  This is surprising, but also not at the same time.  Usually, the shows with the antiheroes are very well produced and developed leading to very high quality television.  This isn’t necessarily false with sit coms; however, good dramas tend to capture people’s attention very quickly and grip it for longer.  Overwhelmingly, people say that they enjoy TV shows more than movies, which is in line with the culture of the Golden Age of Television and Netflix, who is typically known for their good show selection and poor movie selection as well as the ability to binge-watch TV shows.  Shows with antiheroes attract viewers though as no one responded that they do not like to watch shows with antiheroes in them.  A quarter of the people who responded said that they binge-watch more when they watch a show with an antihero in it, which could have multiple causes: the suspense is too much to handle or the actual antihero grips their attention and can hold it for longer.  Dexter is the single most popular antihero, which is interesting in that Breaking Bad is a much more popular show than Dexter in terms of viewership. Many people responded that some emotions they feel while watching a tense scene of a show with an antihero in it are excitement, fear, anxiety, and stress.  This goes in line with what I would have expected as these have been the emotions that I have felt during these types of scenes as well.

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Poster

Definition

Revision is “composing in a number of versions, with time between each for reflection, reader feedback, and/or collaborator development” (Downs). Revision is also important because:

Writing is a process of discovery, and you don’t always produce your best stuff when you first get started. So, revision is a chance for you to look critically at what you have written to see

·      if it’s really worth saying,

·      if it says what you wanted to say, and

·      if a reader will understand what you’re saying. (UNC)

Significance

Revision in writing is an important process that allows us to revisit our initial findings and develop them to our fullest.  Without revision, the inherent mistakes and inconsistencies found in our first drafts will never be found and our writing quality will suffer.  Not only does revision help us catch our mistakes, but it also allows us as writers to rethink what is and isn’t important to our audience and how our audience will understand and interpret our information.

Resources

Downs, Doug. "Revision is Central to Developing Writing." Threshold Concepts (2013): 66-67.

Queensbury School. Revision. 2017. 3 May 2017. <http://www.qbury.com/learning/revision-during-study-leave/>.

UNC. Revising Drafts. 2014. 5 May 2017. <http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/revising-drafts/>.

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Self-Analysis: Lit Review

My goal in the lit review was to find themes that others feel are important in relation to why viewers are attracted to the antiheroes of TV series.  In this goal, I hoped that I would be able to better develop and formulate questions to ask others in my primary research.  My secondary research helped me to find 3 really strong themes that I can focus my primary research on as they are culturally relevant with implications in today’s world.

Hopefully, my audience is able to take away how the culture of the TV series has been changing in the past 20 years and how that has affected the shows and characters portrayed on screen.  Also, I want my audience to be able to see some of the tactics employed by the producers and writers of these shows in order to better understand the types of connections that are formed in the viewer towards the antihero.

In terms of revision, my partner felt that I could do a better job of explaining the Golden Age of Television, as well as a short introduction on both Breaking Bad and Dexter.  She also felt that under my “Masculinity” section, I could give an example of a female antihero and how they do not fit the typical female role, instead they fit a role more commonly considered to be masculine in nature.  In addition to her advice, I feel that I can do a better job of developing and digging deeper into some of my ideas, especially in the “Masculinity” section.  I also need to format the paper properly for APA.

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Week 5 Research Journal

Starting the process for my primary research has been more difficult than I would have expected.  It took me a while to try to figure out how I am going to my observations as I have to watch people watch the TV shows and view their reactions.  This is the only possible way that I could think of even though I wish I were able to do something else.  That being said, it should still be interesting to see how they react to certain situations while watching the shows.  I plan on showing the first couple episodes of each show and see if the people watching are supporting the antiheroes or not.  

In terms of the survey, I feel that it is important that the respondents are able to express their emotional connection or pull towards the antiheroes.  Here are my questions for now (they would be preceded by an explanation of what an antihero is):

1.     What is your favorite TV show?

2.     Do you prefer TV or movies?

3.     If you prefer TV, why do you prefer it over movies?

4.     Do you enjoy watching TV shows with antiheroes? Why or why not?

5.     How do you usually watch a show?

a.     Watch an episode every week

b.     Watch an episode a day

c.     Binge-watch

d.     Watch whenever you can find the time

6.     Does this remain true if you are watching a show with an antihero in it? If not, then why not?

7.     When watching a show with an antihero, what are some emotions that you feel when the character is close to getting caught or does get caught?

For my interview, I am thinking along the same lines as the survey with the types of questions I would ask because I am looking to interview viewers of the shows.  I might try to reach out to the producers of the shows but that could prove to be a difficult task.  For the interview, I have these questions so far:

1.     What is your favorite TV show?

2.     What is your favorite show with an antihero?

3.     How many shows do you watch that have antiheroes in them?

4.     What is your favorite aspect of shows with antiheroes in them?

5.     Do you feel emotionally invested in the antihero?

6.     What are some emotions that you feel when the character is close to getting caught or does get caught?

7.     What is your personal attraction to antiheroes?

So far, I feel pretty good about the questions, but I still feel that I need to add more.

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Driscoll Student Center

Methods:

For our primary research practice run, we decided to do research the question, “Why isn’t renovating Driscoll a priority?” Our primary research included a survey, observations and an interview. We made an online survey and posted it on Facebook to try to get as many responses as possible. Some of the survey questions included: what is your favorite building, should Driscoll be renovated and what one building on campus would you renovate. For the observations, we observed 30 minutes in Driscoll Underground and then 30 minutes in Jazzman’s. Part of our primary research was to conduct an interview, so we interviewed a student who is the desk manager in Driscoll.

Results:

After posting the survey online, we received a total of 35 responses from various students. For the question, what is your favorite building, no one responded with Driscoll. A question about the state of Driscoll was asked and student’s responses were: 9 people said it was fair/adequate, 10 said it was good, 6 said it was excellent and 10 others said it was poor. 22 people then said that Driscoll needs renovation while 13 people said that it does not. We also asked people how long they typically spend in Driscoll; 26 people said less than an hour and 9 people said between 1-2 hours a day. Another question we asked was, which building on campus would you change and out of the 35 responses, 9 people answered with Driscoll while 13 people said Sturm (the answer with the most responses). The last question we asked in the online survey was, if Driscoll was renovated would you spend more time in there and 22 people said yes, while 13 said that they would not.

For the interview, we talked with a DU student who works as the main desk manager in Driscoll. She has been working in the main desk for the past two years. She mentioned that she does not have a fixed schedule, which means that she comes and goes every day, typically working about four hours every day. In the interview, she said that the main times Driscoll is busy is during passing periods when everyone is rushing to class, and that it’s usually quiet on the evenings and during the weekends. She really likes the bridge but does not like the people who advertise for different organizations there. Another thing, is that she dislikes the fact that there are not many dining places, as Subway and Jazzman’s are the only two. One thing she said repeatedly was that she wished that there were more dining options like a Starbucks, which was on the future renovation plan. She felt that having more places to eat and hang out, would eventually attract more students to be at Driscoll. She felt that Driscoll did not need a knock down renovation, on the other hand it just needed extra additions like more dining options and space for students to spend time because then, it would feel more like a student center.

During the observations, we observed from 10-11am,  30 minutes in Driscoll Underground and then 30 minutes in Jazzman’s. Driscoll Underground was extremely silent because, other than us, there were only two other students actually sitting there working on their own things. The only sounds we really heard were the conversations from the offices and the ventilation system. There were quite a few people coming in and out of the offices like CME, the Student Organization center and the DUPB/Clarion office. But in terms of sitting down, chilling/hanging out or doing homework, there were not many students. After 30 minutes, we moved to Jazzman’s which had a completely different vibe and atmosphere. There was music playing and about 15 people were sitting down doing their homework/studying. There were a lot of people coming to buy coffee and then leaving immediately after they had their order served. There was definitely a lot more activity going on at Jazzman’s than in Driscoll Underground.

Discussion:

While looking at the results from all of our primary research conducted, there were a couple of trends that we found, as well as differences and surprises. One trend that we were definitely able to catch, was that there were not many people who considered Driscoll a student center. An interesting anecdote was that in the survey, the majority of the results, pointed out that people spend less than an hour in Driscoll. Despite it being a student center, not many students actually spend time there, which completely contradicts the main purpose of Driscoll. People usually use Driscoll as a passageway to get to class or others go in to consume either at Jazzman’s or Subway. Some people answered in their surveys that they felt that Driscoll should be renovated, but there was a majority who said that Sturm was in a desperate need for renovations, since a lot of students take classes there. Based on the research, we concluded that people believe that Driscoll could be renovated, but should not be a priority since not many people spend their time there; students believe that Sturm is in a more urgent need for renovations. Based on the research conducted, it can be inferred that students prioritize renovations to academic buildings rather than social/student center buildings. This is a possible result of the fact that Driscoll is not as well known by students as a student center, but rather as the main passageway to classes.

Another conclusion that we encountered was that although Driscoll’s main purpose is to be a student center, that sensation is not really conveyed. It seemed to us that there are more offices in Driscoll than social places for students to be. An observation we made, was that the places that are meant to be for students, are not really used because students have no idea of their existence or that they they are not well suited for their needs. Not only did we find this observation to be true in our primary research, but we also encountered it within our research group. Some of us had no idea that there was a student life rooftop patio. Just to gain more background information about Driscoll, we decided to investigate this building using the University of Denver’s official website. Referring back to the student life rooftop patio, the description of this place said, “Another lesser known gem…” It is very ironic to see the description of the place be very similar to all of our primary research conducted. A concept that we discussed as a group was that a potential reason that renovating Driscoll might not be a priority/option, was that if all of the offices had to be taken out from Driscoll, where would they place them? In our own opinion, it would be very nice for Driscoll to be renovated and to be converted into a “real” student center, but we have also discussed that this could potentially involve many futuristic conflicts dealing with space.

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Week 4: Research Journal

This week was solid in terms of research.  I utilized the basic research that I had done before to really dig into my topic and I found some really valuable information that I would not have expected to find in my research.

One of the sources I found this week is a review on a book that I did not come across in my initial research, and judging by the review and the summarization of the book the source would fit perfectly into my research.  I was able to find two sources like this that will help to further enhance my research.

Writing my lit review I felt that I was able to find three solid themes across all of my sources: the attraction and sympathy for antiheroes, masculinity, and that antiheroes are becoming more common.  

The attraction and sympathy for antiheroes was what first made me want to research this topic so I was glad to be able to find a lot of good information about some of the psychology, especially how the characters are able to capture the emotions of the viewer.

The masculinity theme was a more surprising one to see because it never gets talked about in pop-culture, but after it is mentioned it makes a lot of sense and brings up a good point on these shows based on antiheroes.  It isn’t something that we think about yet every antihero is masculine in nature whether it is an actual man or a female, they all possess what are typically considered masculine qualities.  It is really interesting to read about because it isn’t brought up, but it is very prevalent in these shows.  

And then finally, the fact that antiheroes are becoming more common in today’s world was the last theme that I saw.  More and more shows are depicting these types of characters as the main characters, which is interesting to see as it can be seen as a reflection of our society today or simply just an evolution of TV in regards to the development of the hour-long drama.  Both are interesting topics to look into, and both have their merits.

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Research Check-In

Our group decided to take advantage of the internet and do an online survey through Facebook.  We had six questions that opinions on if Driscoll was a place they enjoyed spending time there or not.  It was pretty conclusive, from the survey at least, that Denver students are not likely to spend time there.  Many would like to see improvements in the facilities offered and if improvements were made they would spend more time there. Interestingly enough, however, many students felt that Driscoll was not the most important building to get renovated, but rather that Sturm Hall should be the building that gets more attention. When asked about what building they would change on campus, people replied Sturm over Driscoll, although Driscoll was a close second.

We also decided to split up our observations in Driscoll.  When I went to observe others in Driscoll, I first sat in the underground for 20 minutes to observe there.  It was very interesting to see how few people walked down there.  It was not a very popular area despite being the ‘student center’.  After that I decided to go and sit in Subway where there was a flurry of activity. The Subway was busy for about 15 minutes when the main rush came in but then died down soon after.  Many sat alone and did homework while some others were there with friends talking.  I plan on observing the coffee shop and Driscoll South this weekend.

We have yet to do the interview.

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Threshold Concepts

To me, the two threshold concepts that stood out were that failure is an important part of writing and revision is key to good writing.  These two stood out to me because I have always felt that writing is never a completed product, and that revision can only get you closer to where you want to go and not all the way there as failure is still important in how we write.

One sentence in the article stood out about the need for failure in the writing process: “We often forget, however, at successful writers aren’t those who are simply able to write brilliant first drafts; often, the writing we encounter has been heavily revised and edited and is sometimes the result of a great deal of failure.”  This quote reminds us that we don’t need to be perfect on every try with our writing; we just need to keep pushing to find the right combinations that produce quality writing that we can be proud of.  

This is also why I feel that revision is so important.  We cannot expect ourselves to be perfect on every try in our writing, so we need to have good processes in place to help edit our writing.  Without editing, we can’t improve our writing from our first draft and that could prove to produce poor writing.  Rarely is a first draft good enough to be immediately shared; however, many writers, including myself, including this current reflection, just produce a first draft and do not edit it before sharing the work.  This is not a good practice to be in because it not only shows that the current piece of writing is most likely poor and rough, but it slows your development as a writer because, as said in the article in other words, practice makes perfect.  The more you practice the better you will be, and editing is part of that practice.

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Week 3: Research Journal

           Finding secondary sources on the psychology behind antiheroes and why they are so popular in today’s media was significantly easier than I expected.  Right off the bat I searched for Breaking Bad and Dexter (separately), which came up with numerous sources on why these shows are so popular in media and how they appeal to their viewers.  I wasn’t expecting to be so successful or have it be so easy in terms of finding academic sources for my topic.  

           That being said, while you’d expect to be able to find a lot of popular sources on the topic, it is considerably more difficult. There haven’t been as many articles in magazines and such that would work well as popular sources.  Hopefully, I am able to use the actual shows themselves as sources to better my research as I have seen both almost all the way through (still gotta finish season 8 of Dexter).  

           I’ve found 7 academic articles that will really help drive the majority of my research; however, I hope to find a few more. Also, I have found two books that I have not been able to get my hands on, but am actively searching for a way to get them.  Hopefully, the books, looking like they are based more on popular ideas, would be considered popular sources as compared to academic as that would help me in that department.  I also found one magazine article from Entertainment Weekly that will help to boost my popular sources.  

           Overall, I am feeling really good about my preliminary research and will, hopefully, be able to find even more to broaden my perspective before beginning my primary research.

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My prior knowledge of writing impacts how I understand the type of writing in this course because this type of writing is so much different than writing that I am used to doing. Typically, in the classroom, I am writing very formally, which limits the type of language and form of my writing to a very specific box.  Compare that to the type of writing we are currently doing and it is completely different. There aren’t nearly as many stops in writing a blog post or a tweet when compared to academic writing that high school prepares us so well for.  

However, with all writing there is a process that should be followed to help guide your thoughts. This is where ceramics comes in.  First, you need the knowledge of what to do and how to do it in order to be successful in creating a pot.  Then you need to figure out what kind of pot you are going to make, in other words the end goal or purpose.  After you choose what you want to make, it is important to consider the type of clay that you will use in order to be successful in creating that type of pot.  This relates to the audience and genre because there are many to choose from and depending on the type of pot you want to make, or your purpose, different types of clay are more effective or better suited to make that type of pot.  After you’ve chosen your clay you start making the desired pot and crafting it to your ability, taste, and style.  This relate to voice, in my opinion, because voice is all about one’s style, tone, mood, and structure.  What you choose to do with your pot is how you are expressing yourself through your artwork, which in reality is what voice is all about, expressing yourself.  After you’ve made the main shape of the pot, you are able to put final designs on it, and then once fired the first time, you then glaze the pot for the final touches and finished product.  This is the editing and reflection process in writing.  Your work is complete, but you are able to go back and fix mistakes or build on ideas that were there the first time.  Another key aspect of this part of the process is that there is time in between the basic pot being finished and the “editing” process.  You can’t edit a paper immediately after you write it and expect to catch mistakes or build on ideas.  There needs to be time in between.  Then finally, once all of these processes are completed you put the pot in the kiln for the final firing and you have your finished product.  This is the same for writing.  You format the paper correctly, make it look nice, and, voilà, your rhetorical writing is ready for display.

The process of ceramics represents how I understand writing because it displays all of the terms that I feel are necessary to think about when trying to create solid writing that is able to convey what you believe and are passionate about to the readers.  Being a successful writer follows a process and takes practice.  This is the same for ceramics.  In order to produce beautiful ceramics, you need to follow a process and practice.