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<!--Title: Digital Reading Journal-->
<h2>Introduction</h2>
<p>The Digital Reading Journal focuses on the <a href="https://sites.
gatech.edu/wcppolicies/engl-1101-and-1102-common-policies-fall-2020">
Process Outcome</a> 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.
</p>
<h3>Digital Reading Journal</h3>
<iframe src="https://classblogs20.iac.gatech.edu/holdenr/" style="width:
100%; height: 60vh" ></iframe>
<dl>
<dt>Goals</dt>
<dd>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. </dd>
<dt>Purpose</dt>
<dd>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 <em>The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde</em> 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.
<!-- 50 more -->
</dd>
<dt>Audience</dt>
<dd>
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).
</dd>
<dt>Design for Medium</dt>
<dd> 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). </dd>
<dt>Revision</dt>
<dd>
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.
</dd>
</dl>
<h2>Process documents</h2>
<h3>Earlier Post</h3>
<p>This earlier post shows how I used very long sentences to deflect the
need for clear, substantive arguments and used similarly insubstantive
image supplements.</p>
<iframe src="https://classblogs20.iac.gatech.edu/holdenr/2020/08/21/
hello-world/" style="width: 100%; height: 60vh"></iframe>
<h3>Later Post</h3>
<p>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.</p>
<iframe src="https://classblogs20.iac.gatech.edu/holdenr/2020/10/23/
hela-and-henrietta/" style="width: 100%; height: 60vh" >
</iframe>
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