From 5f4e8d7262a3e0d3c78471a5fa110492d1c2dede Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Holden Rohrer Date: Wed, 2 Dec 2020 12:52:56 -0500 Subject: wrote versions of everything cover essay is very partial (needs 1200 words) and the reading response essays are limited in the analysis --- PROGRESS | 3 +- markley/portfolio/01_cover_essay.html | 113 ++++++++++++++++ markley/portfolio/01_first_week_video.html | 98 -------------- markley/portfolio/02_first_week_video.html | 102 ++++++++++++++ markley/portfolio/03_digital_reading_journal.html | 136 +++++++++++++++++++ markley/portfolio/04_reading_response.html | 145 ++++++++++++++++++++ markley/portfolio/05_medical_object_video.html | 158 ++++++++++++++++++++++ 7 files changed, 656 insertions(+), 99 deletions(-) create mode 100644 markley/portfolio/01_cover_essay.html delete mode 100644 markley/portfolio/01_first_week_video.html create mode 100644 markley/portfolio/02_first_week_video.html create mode 100644 markley/portfolio/03_digital_reading_journal.html create mode 100644 markley/portfolio/04_reading_response.html create mode 100644 markley/portfolio/05_medical_object_video.html diff --git a/PROGRESS b/PROGRESS index 9259486..a1b012a 100644 --- a/PROGRESS +++ b/PROGRESS @@ -1,10 +1,11 @@ - Seventies lecture - Reagan lecture - End of American Century lecture -- Reading Journal portfolio page - Reading Response portfolio page - Portfolio Cover Essay - Math Club Planning ++ Reading Journal portfolio page ++ Final Video portfolio page + Revision activity on RR#3 + Determine what portfolio covers + Nixon lecture diff --git a/markley/portfolio/01_cover_essay.html b/markley/portfolio/01_cover_essay.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f27a370 --- /dev/null +++ b/markley/portfolio/01_cover_essay.html @@ -0,0 +1,113 @@ + +

This English 1102 course asked students to consider how health functions +as a social ideal and regulates our actions based on the norms, +attitudes, and ideas that prevail in our culture. +In addition to this course-specific theme, there is a set of common objectives that this course was designed to +teach, developing a Writing Process with revision, synthesis, and +drafting and rhetorically effective presentation for distinct audiences +and contexts. +Revision and research play a large role in developing ideas and +arguments and making the arguments robust. +While this recursive, iterative process played a role in every +assignment, the digital reading journal is the primary source of process +documents.

+ +

Assigned prompts in the reading journal correspond to class readings +and ask students to develop arguments and ideas based on course +material. +Sourcing and eventual finetuning of these ideas both play a role in the +journal: in most entries, we were asked to use quotes and references +from both class material and pop culture or general research. +This is especially visible in the final post ("Medical Devices, the +DMCA, and the corporate profit motive"), where I used links to other +websites to make it a better document to refer back to later. +Images and analysis also emphasized the role of the digital reading +journal as a process document for my analysis of specific works or +the overall health theme. +But each entry also marks my progress in the general skills of analysis +and rhetoric, especially. +The electronic form factor has unique norms and options to elaborate, +like a less formalistic style and heavy image presence, and these can +change the rhetorical strategy I use when sectioning and emphasis are +much more fluent than an essay. +

+

+The use of images actually enhances my analysis, too, because I'm +responding to the ideas that another work provides, and if I can +directly include that work, it becomes much easier to speak about since +the audience is meant to refer back to it and familiarize themselves. +When the audience is me, this anchors my ideas to a specific factual +reference, like the timeline in "HeLa and Henrietta." +

+ +

+Quotes and the use of photos to highlight what's important is particular +to the electronic medium, and it's particularly valuable when creating a +personal reference piece. +This is one example of shifting language and presentation towards the +desired audience and situation, which is one of the major points of the +Rhetoric Learning Outcome. +

+ + + + + + + + + + +

Category

+

Outcomes by the USG Board of Regents

+

Outcomes by the Council of Writing Program + Administrators

+

Additional Expectations of the GTWCP +

+
+

Rhetoric

+

Rhetoric focuses on available means of +persuasion, considering the synergy of factors such as context, +audience, purpose, role, argument, organization, design, visuals, and +conventions of language.

+		 +
    +
  • Adapt communication to circumstances and +audience.
    • +
  • Produce communication that is +stylistically appropriate and mature.
    • +
  • Communicate in standard English for +academic and professional contexts.
    • +
  • Sustain a consistent purpose and point of +view.
    • +
+		 +
    +
  • Use a variety of technologies to address a range of + audiences.
    • +
  • Learn common formats for different kinds of texts.
    • +
  • Develop knowledge of genre conventions ranging from structure + and paragraphing to tone and mechanics.
    • +
  • Control such surface features as syntax, grammar, punctuation, + and spelling.
    • +
+		 +
    + +
  • Create artifacts that demonstrate the +synergy of rhetorical elements.
    • +
  • Demonstrate +adaptation of register, language, and conventions for specific contexts +and audiences.
    • +
  • Apply strategies for communication in and +across both academic disciplines and cultural contexts in the community +and the workplace.
    • +
+
+ + diff --git a/markley/portfolio/01_first_week_video.html b/markley/portfolio/01_first_week_video.html deleted file mode 100644 index 33b3c9c..0000000 --- a/markley/portfolio/01_first_week_video.html +++ /dev/null @@ -1,98 +0,0 @@ - -

Introduction:

-

This video is a short (1m30s) personal introduction and a discussion -of which element of WOVEN I expect to struggle most with in this course. -I expect to struggle with visual communication more than the other -forms, which will manifest in several places but will probably have the -most significant effects on videos or the blog design. -This video also includes how I plan to develop my skills with this -modality (I plan to focus on design and aesthetics of presentation).

-

First-Week Video

- -
-
Goals
-
Through this assignment, I familiarized myself with the - WOVEN elements and set a goal for self-improvement throughout - the course. - I also worked on video production and presentation, to practice - some of these elements. - I expect to target this in assignments throughout the course. - I also better understand the value of targeting multiple types - of communication for rhetoric and in different works. - This assignment was also directed towards the course material, - and I better understand the assignments that we will be doing - throughout the course (like the reading journal or final video - project) because I will probably want to put extra effort into - using the visual and design aspect of my content effectively. - The reading journal, especially, will benefit from extra design - work.
-
Purpose/Prompt
-
This video includes a short introduction to me, including my - name, "major," and hometown and the theme of this course (health - as a social construct) and the teacher (Dr. Markley). - The First-Week Video asks about a potential struggle with WOVEN - based on previous experience with trying to communicate in the - medium. - In addition to previous experience with the medium, the - assignment asked me to develop a goal and a way to reach that - goal based on that previous experience. - I did this by talking about a focus on revision and the specific - component of graphic design, but I didn't match these with - previous experience. - I could have talked about better, simpler presentations I've - made on topics I've known more about, where I can tell most of - the story and the graphics were improved through a couple of - rounds of revision, based on the content.
-
Audience
-
The audience is faculty members and other first-year - students who are familiar with WOVEN, this assignment, and the - objectives of the course in general, like rhetoric. - Because of this familiarity with the objective, I explicitly - connected the visual mode to my difficulty with speaking - briefly, but I tried not to overexplain the mode or visual - design. - However, I did give my personal experience of how the need for - brevity and dense language collide. - PowerPoints and posters are my most common interactions with the - visual mode, and my audience should be familiar with both. - However, I barely included one anecdotal example under the time - constraints, possibly because I explained too abstractly: I - could have talked about a revision or the impact of a poor - design and better shown my point about brevity and still had - time to talk about the digital reading journal. -
-
Design for Medium
-
Because this is a video, I focused on engagement. - For content, I wrote out a script that I would read, rehearse, - and edit down into. - I used a high-jumpcut vlog style to make the video seem more - energetic, and I tried to keep my voice upbeat because my voice - is the primary content in this style. - I chose not to use another production style like a time-lapse or - slideshow because I think my image and a direct explanation of - my ideas is important and best delivered talking straight to the - camera. - I included music (the instrumental of White Town's Your Woman) - because I think that it better covers up breaks in talking and - maintains a central element throughout the video. - I did try to keep it quiet relative to me talking because the - music itself is unimportant.
-
Revision
-
Another type of video may have fit my argument better, but - given the style I chose, the video could have been improved on - the script and on the presentation. - The script could have been much more personal by extending the - anecdote and possibly including a visual representation for the - product I created. - I also probably should have chosen music not under copyright, - and possibly faded it out at the beginning and in at the end. - For the final product, cutting away to an image might have made - it more engaging. - The way I filmed it could also be improved: I held the camera, - so it shook a bit, and I read the script for part of the video. - If I had mostly memorized the script and propped up the camera - to get a single shot between cuts and to stabilize it, the video - would probably feel higher quality. -
-
diff --git a/markley/portfolio/02_first_week_video.html b/markley/portfolio/02_first_week_video.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b2dec99 --- /dev/null +++ b/markley/portfolio/02_first_week_video.html @@ -0,0 +1,102 @@ + +

Introduction:

+

This video is a short (1m30s) personal introduction and a discussion +of which element of WOVEN I expect to struggle most with in this course. +I expect to struggle with visual communication more than the other +forms, which will manifest in several places but will probably have the +most significant effects on videos or the blog design. +This video also includes how I plan to develop my skills with this +modality (I plan to focus on design and aesthetics of presentation).

+

First-Week Video

+ +

First-Week Video Script

+ +
+
Goals
+
Through this assignment, I familiarized myself with the + WOVEN elements and set a goal for self-improvement throughout + the course. + I also worked on video production and presentation, to practice + some of these elements. + I expect to target this in assignments throughout the course. + I also better understand the value of targeting multiple types + of communication for rhetoric and in different works. + This assignment was also directed towards the course material, + and I better understand the assignments that we will be doing + throughout the course (like the reading journal or final video + project) because I will probably want to put extra effort into + using the visual and design aspect of my content effectively. + The reading journal, especially, will benefit from extra design + work.
+
Purpose/Prompt
+
This video includes a short introduction to me, including my + name, "major," and hometown and the theme of this course (health + as a social construct) and the teacher (Dr. Markley). + The First-Week Video asks about a potential struggle with WOVEN + based on previous experience with trying to communicate in the + medium. + In addition to previous experience with the medium, the + assignment asked me to develop a goal and a way to reach that + goal based on that previous experience. + I did this by talking about a focus on revision and the specific + component of graphic design, but I didn't match these with + previous experience. + I could have talked about better, simpler presentations I've + made on topics I've known more about, where I can tell most of + the story and the graphics were improved through a couple of + rounds of revision, based on the content.
+
Audience
+
The audience is faculty members and other first-year + students who are familiar with WOVEN, this assignment, and the + objectives of the course in general, like rhetoric. + Because of this familiarity with the objective, I explicitly + connected the visual mode to my difficulty with speaking + briefly, but I tried not to overexplain the mode or visual + design. + However, I did give my personal experience of how the need for + brevity and dense language collide. + PowerPoints and posters are my most common interactions with the + visual mode, and my audience should be familiar with both. + However, I barely included one anecdotal example under the time + constraints, possibly because I explained too abstractly: I + could have talked about a revision or the impact of a poor + design and better shown my point about brevity and still had + time to talk about the digital reading journal. +
+
Design for Medium
+
Because this is a video, I focused on engagement. + For content, I wrote out a script that I would read, rehearse, + and edit down into. + I used a high-jumpcut vlog style to make the video seem more + energetic, and I tried to keep my voice upbeat because my voice + is the primary content in this style. + I chose not to use another production style like a time-lapse or + slideshow because I think my image and a direct explanation of + my ideas is important and best delivered talking straight to the + camera. + I included music (the instrumental of White Town's Your Woman) + because I think that it better covers up breaks in talking and + maintains a central element throughout the video. + I did try to keep it quiet relative to me talking because the + music itself is unimportant.
+
Revision
+
Another type of video may have fit my argument better, but + given the style I chose, the video could have been improved on + the script and on the presentation. + The script could have been much more personal by extending the + anecdote and possibly including a visual representation for the + product I created. + I also probably should have chosen music not under copyright, + and possibly faded it out at the beginning and in at the end. + For the final product, cutting away to an image might have made + it more engaging. + The way I filmed it could also be improved: I held the camera, + so it shook a bit, and I read the script for part of the video. + If I had mostly memorized the script and propped up the camera + to get a single shot between cuts and to stabilize it, the video + would probably feel higher quality. +
+
diff --git a/markley/portfolio/03_digital_reading_journal.html b/markley/portfolio/03_digital_reading_journal.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0dfb832 --- /dev/null +++ b/markley/portfolio/03_digital_reading_journal.html @@ -0,0 +1,136 @@ + +

Introduction

+

The Digital Reading Journal focuses on the +Process Outcome of the ENGL 1101/1102 program. +During the semester, I responded to various prompts connecting course +material to contemporary issues and other media. +Through these posts, I learned that I can tell that I need to understand +the material better if my sentences become long and unwieldy. +This journal helped me improve my writing process because transcribing +my thoughts on course content required me to sufficiently support those +ideas, and when my support was thin, I stretched out the ideas. +This was exacerbated by several rounds of information-adding revisions. +I am including an early post that shows my least developed writing and a +later post with my best writing. +These two posts are my "process documents" for this assignment because +they show how, as I understood the material better, I was better able to +avoid rambling sentences devoid of content. +The supplemental imagery also changed between these two posts. +In the first, it is pretty generic and reiterates the more vague points +I'm making, but in the second, my images are in fact directly relevant +to the content and increase the value of the article more than just +visually. +

+

Digital Reading Journal

+ +
+
Goals
+
This assignment has two goals: the first is to assess and + improve understanding of course material, and the second is to + develop a writing process and reflection skills. + The assignment has asked me to relate the course material to + other things I read, watch on television, or see on the + Internet, in various weekly prompts. + These prompts ask me to develop a relationship with medicine and + the normative idea of health, so that I can develop ideas about + this social construction outside of course material in popular + culture. + Developing a writing process is a major goal of the program, and + this reading journal represents a more sustainable writing + process. + I can transfer the practice to other projects, writing out my + ideas semi-formally before I create the final work. + I will use this strategy when I'm working on larger + communication projects to think out the connections with + other cultural or analytic ideas.
+
Purpose
+
The reading journal is a blog organized into weekly prompts + about class readings and the course theme of health. + The prompts are open-ended questions about course material like + "...explain how The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. + Hyde represents the moral dimensions of health..." that + require critical thinking and assess understanding of the + material (as a replacement this year for in-class discussions). + This writing process also creates value as a reference: in my + essays and in the final video, I reused ideas, quotes, themes, + and concepts that I've developed in my journal entries. + These ideas are particularly focused on popular culture and + modern issues because "health" is a general lens for social + issues and language. + +
+
Audience
+
+ This is a personal journal, so I am the main target for my + writing. + Formal writing is, however, still required because writing out + ideas where they make a cohesive argument or at least are + individually valid. + Proper argumentation or presentation enhances its value as a + reference because I can directly reuse the analysis I've already + done. + Because of the fact that strong rhetoric can make it easier to + develop strong rhetoric in the future, I have written in this + journal to an imagined academic audience familiar with the + course material. + I also see value in practicing argument, particularly with + health and the standard course material being reused in the + Reading Response Essay artifact and the theme in the Medical + Object Video. + That's why I try to develop a convincing case in each post + rather than rattle off a list of ideas for future use (which + would make for less interesting posts). +
+
Design for Medium
+
There are three ways in which this medium is distinct from + other written media, like an essay or an article. + Firstly, I control the surrounding design and theming: Wordpress + is a great tool for background visual design. + I chose to go with black-on-white text and a pretty standard + theme because I don't want the colors to get in the way. + I also didn't use anything other than the plain blog as the main + page because the project is for personal use. + Secondly, the blogposts are much more visual than a standard + essay. + I reused (with proper credit, of course) Creative Commons + licensed photos from Flickr and Wikimedia to enhance my writing + and interject other points or have a visual reference for the + entry. + Lastly, the web gives different techniques for a website to be + passable, like alt text for accessibility and the ability to + link out to sources (a boon to the quality of each entry).
+
Revision
+
+ Each post is a process document, so they are meant to have + developing ideas, but there are still improvements I could make + to the posts and the design. + Firstly, I think I underused the electronic medium. + While I included some photos in each post, they didn't always + develop my ideas further, and I could have looked further than + just highlighting the points I had already made. + Three other electronic-specific tools I underused were links to + other sources and bold and italics. + Both of these would increase my rhetorical strength by + highlighting a central theme. + For an academic reader of the arguments I'm putting forth, + emphasizing the thesis or key terms might give them a clearer + understanding of what I'm presenting, and a better resource to + review for myself. +
+
+

Process documents

+

Earlier Post

+

This earlier post shows how I used very long sentences to deflect the +need for clear, substantive arguments and used similarly insubstantive +image supplements.

+ +

Later Post

+

In this later post, my writing has grown and the text and images are +coherent and build on a single argument, and because of that, my +sentences are shorter and more focused.

+ diff --git a/markley/portfolio/04_reading_response.html b/markley/portfolio/04_reading_response.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dcf79ee --- /dev/null +++ b/markley/portfolio/04_reading_response.html @@ -0,0 +1,145 @@ + +

Introduction

+

This artifact includes three reading response essays and revision +activities corresponding to each one on different structural strategies. +The Reading Response Essays assess critical thinking and rhetoric by +asking questions about "health" through the books we read in class. +Health is a set of social ideals generally designed as "preventive +medicine" but deeply influenced by the culture that created them. +The reading response essays (without revision activity updates) are +listed below along with the corresponding revision activities +

+ +

Reading Response Essay One

+

Prompt: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. +Hyde, as the title indicates, refers to Dr. Jekyll’s experiments, +behavior, and transformation as "strange." Likewise, The Sign of Four +ends with a chapter entitled "The Strange Story of Jonathan Small." +Explain what "strange" means in these two texts, using direct quotations +from both texts, references to historical context, and ideas we have +discussed about "health" to support your argument.

+ +

Uneven-U

+

The Uneven U asks me to choose two paragraphs and look at each +sentence to see how "abstracted" it is from a direct quote up to a +general statement about health. +I commented on each sentence and then rewrote both of the paragraphs I +chose to get a desired "somewhat abstract to most concrete to very +abstract" curve.

+ +

Reading Response Essay Two

+

Prompt: Claude Bernard defines the experiment as "an +observation induced with an object of control." Discuss how +experimentation relates to the social ideal of health. Use direct +evidence from The Island of Dr. Moreau and Medical Apartheid, historical +context, and ideas about health to support your argument. You may +include examples from other texts we have read, but your primary focus +should be the readings from the past two weeks.

+ +

Reverse Outline

+

This is about creating an outline from what I've already written that +tells the main argument: the main idea and how a given paragraph +advances the central argument is enough to tell when a paragraph's +message is muddled, which is the point of this argument. +I have continued to focus on this cohesiveness within a paragraph in my +writing because of this activity.

+ + +

Reading Response Essay Three

+

Prompt: In the first lecture on health, I discussed +how new technologies that help to measure and perceive the the "health" +of the human body create new rules, regulations, and norms that govern +"health." Using either "The Yellow Wallpaper" or The Immortal Life +of Henrietta Lacks explain how new technologies, treatments, or +ideas for measuring "health" lead to new rules, regulations, and norms. +I strongly encourage you to refer back to the first lecture to help you +consider this relationship between technology and health.

+ +

Active Voice Revision Activity

+

This revision activity asks students to review their third essay for +sentences written in passive voice and change them to active voice. +This makes the writing more clear and correct. +This one is pretty simple, so I want to keep up avoiding passive voice +in my future writing.

+ +
+
Goals
+
These assignments ask students to develop a strong academic + argument about how health and other social constructions like + experiments or technology relate. + Developing these ideas is part of the + + Critical Thinking learning outcome, in the sense that they + require analysis of the indirect statements literature makes, like + Jonathan Small's "strangeness" referring to his nonconformance with + social norms. +
+
Purpose
+
This assignment asks students to write a formal essay about + health and readings related to ideas about health. +
+
Audience
+
The audience for these is a general academic audience, who is + very familiar with the course material, including the variety of + concepts of health. + Because the audience should already understand the basics I don't + include explanations of health and try to avoid book summaries. + However, niche terms with potentially multiple meanings are defined + if used, like "scientific racism" or "evolutionary Darwinism." + +
+
Dr. Markley or a general academic reader. more formal than blog + posts. designed to be practice with argumentative writing.
+
Design for Medium
+
The essay isn't very "multimodal," squarely occupying the + "Writing" communication mode, and it's formal writing at that. + This requires a fairly consistent structure, in the MLA format and + in the organization. + The MLA format is the 12pt, double-spaced Times New Roman required + of most standard essays, and there is the single MLA8 citation + standard. + This is because the essays lean heavily on direct quotes from the + pieces we're analyzing, so the regimented page number references are + useful to an academic reader wanting more context. + Structurally, these essays fit a pretty standard academic essay---an + introduction, conclusion, and body paragraphs divided up by their + topic. + As the revision activities show, this structure is somewhat flexible + (i.e. can be done poorly), but the organization matters, and I can + improve it by paying attention to whether each paragraph makes a + convincing point towards the central argument. + I usually don't do outlining when I'm writing, but I think I am + going to use the reverse outline to compensate for my rambling + tendencies. +
+
Revision
+
Particularly in the first reading response essay, I struggled + with organizing my ideas. + Despite a coherent thesis that I still believe, I tried to + incorporate different information that did not correspond with my + argument (or at least I didn't develop how it did). + My mention of Holmes's cocaine addiction is not well-addressed or + contextualized in terms of Jonathan Smalls, but it seems to relate + to the idea of health, so I decided to include it. + Ideas like that could probably be trimmed down and replaced. + My paragraphs in the first reading response essay also don't follow + Uneven-U very well. + If I repair the sentence order to fully develop the central argument + about contradiction, they will probably come off as more insightful + than they are now, with a quote (the lowest level of abstraction) + as the second-to-last sentence. + The revision activities helped me to see what exactly "poorly + organized" refers to and how paragraphs can be deliberately + constructed rather than accumulate ideas based on topic. +
+
diff --git a/markley/portfolio/05_medical_object_video.html b/markley/portfolio/05_medical_object_video.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..94734d1 --- /dev/null +++ b/markley/portfolio/05_medical_object_video.html @@ -0,0 +1,158 @@ + +

Introduction

+

+The Final Video Project for this English 1102 course was about a +"Medical Object." +In each of the texts we studied this semester, there were several +examples of medical objects that either had big impacts or were shaped +by their cultural and historical contexts, and therefore are a lens into +a larger social issue (similar to the concept of health). +This video was about finding a medical object and digging into its +historical context within the framework of health and social ideals. +I chose to talk about healthcare and how politics has interacted with it +by investigating a specific drug called insulin glargine/Lantus. +

+This assignment was structured as the final medical object video +artifact and three preceding process documents. +The process documents are a proposal, an annotated bibliography, and a +script. +

+ +

The Medical Object Video

+ +

The Project Proposal

+

The Project Proposal

+ +

The Annotated Bibliography

+

This document came after the project proposal sequentially. +It is a small subset of the citations I could have used from my +research, and it includes some analysis of each source that was useful +in developing my script.

+ +

The Medical Object Video Script

+

This supports the medical object video, and I read off of this for +part of the video, but I changed some words slightly version because I +didn't like how part of the script ended up sounding.

+ + +
+
Goals
+
Recursive writing was a big part of creating this artifact; + the four layers in the process documents achieves the + Process + Outcome with repeated editing of similar ideas and an + incorporation of research into the process rather than something + occurring before the formal process. + The Project Proposal includes a segment about what research + needs to be done for the annotated bibliography and the script, + which is putting in writing the process of discovery and of + analysis. + The assignment asks us to write out this proposal and then the + annotated bibliography because it requires us to focus on + research and a filming/design plan. + This focus means that the final product will probably have + better-filmed and -researched content. + + This is a synthesis piece, and the research is meant to be very + broad, so I observed several different disciplines and genres, + and the medical studies varied significantly from summary + histories and newspaper articles. + I was able to use these different accounts, which were all + biased towards reporting different parts (medical histories + preferred medical breakthroughs, newspaper articles preferred + sensational statistics) to build a cohesive narrative around + insulin glargine. +
+
Audience
+
The audience is the general public, including my peers at + Georgia Tech. + This means that I'm not talking to an expert audience and can + assume very little knowledge about my topic like I would on an + essay about a book, so I need to explain a lot of the topic. + Most of the video is just this, me explaining the eventual + development that led up to genetically modified human insulin, + but I do have a "take." + This bias is deliberately embedded into the storytelling and + it's why I talk about patents so much even when I'm mostly + describing the technology's development. + Furthermore, this means that the product should be engaging. + A general audience isn't going to sit through a boring technical + summary like a niche audience might (although it should still be + avoided), and I tried to achieve this with my nonverbal tone and + body language. + Editing made sure that my speaking was decent and that picture + asides broke up more monotonous bits.
+
Purpose/Prompt
+
The final project asks students to create a 5-minute video + (I created a 7-minute video with a 1 minute end card) that + explains a medical object we haven't discussed in class. + "Object" is a really broad category, including procedures, + techniques, devices, medicines, models, or breakthroughs as long + as they are medical. + Originally, I was going to talk about some medical device + because there is a lot of injustice perpetrated by companies on + medical devices and information security, but I learned that the + FDA has allowed researchers to test implants with DRM for + security, which weakened my case. + However, I still wanted to talk about exploitation, which + brought me to insulin, "the poster child for [over-priced + healthcare]." + I chose to work on this project alone, and created a product + that explains what insulin glargine is (I used historical + context to do this), how it works, how it is used, when and how + it was invented, and the significant contexts that led to its + development and its current form (in insulin's case, patents and + massive conglomerate mergers).
+
Design for Medium
+
I used the video medium as an extension of a presentation + where things can be performed multiple times and modified after + their performance. + I "performed" the script in more of a news-show style than the + video-essay type I was looking for, but this is still a common + trope within the medium, so audiences are comfortable with this + sort of presentation. + I also used a couple of video essay tropes like section breaks + and overlain photos because I want there to be a sense of + consistent chronology even if I jump around some due to some + changes happening around the same time or being larger trends of + years or decades. + I don't have any self-made visual content, so the principles of + design (the symmetry, alignment kinds) are less applicable, but + I did choose my background to be mostly symmetric and well-lit + and I chose the titles based on the repetition principle. + I reused the wall color and the door color (lightened and + darkened, respectively, for readability) in the title to keep + color consistency. +
+
Revision
+
On this video, the supporting documents were fairly + complete, so the content and citations (when used) were relevant + and fairly high-quality. + One thing I would have prefered to do with the script or the + annotated bibliography is to integrate health more explicitly. + I believe that, implicitly, medicine, underuse, and social + conditions have a lot to do fundamentally with health, but I + believe I didn't sufficiently explore how the norms we have + interact with social ideals and society (like the poor). + For the video, I didn't leave myself as much time as I would + have liked to edit it, and I don't think that it is as appealing + as it could be. + The solid-color titles are somewhat bland, and even though + they're sufficient, a redesign could be nicer looking. + Images were also somewhat hastened. + I didn't exactly establish a style for image placement, which + could have hurt their inclusion, and the images that I included + weren't particularly deliberate; most were to break up the + monotony of me talking, which is valuable, but I feel that had I + searched harder, I may have found a more valuable image set.
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-- cgit