In Class: Free Write

Overall, this semester has gone by in such a blur. My classes have kept me extremely busy. Each being difficult and time consuming in their own way. It's been a really good time though. Last year, I wasn't so sure about TCU. This year, I absolutely love it and I'm so happy, and thankful that I go here. Football season was awesome, I can't believe that we're either going to the National Championship or the Rose Bowl, that's a step in the right direction. I've made a lot of good friends. I've been really involved in student government. I've gone to Ignite every Monday, which has been a huge blessing for me. Thanksgiving break was a really good time to rest, although it was such a tease. I didn't want to leave home to come back, knowing I have 8 tests and a presentation within 2 weeks. I'm hoping next semester will bring me just as much joy. Can't even believe I'll be a Junior next year, and then I get to start with clinicals and all of that fun stuff. The tree lighting is this week, which is one of my favorite things to watch ever. My lab got moved to start a little bit later, so I'm hoping I'll be able to catch most of it. I love Christmas. I can't wait to spend it with my friends and family.

Unit III Proposal

For our Unit III project, Logan, Tracy, and I have decided to discuss the issue of TCU going to the National Championship. All of our articles/evidence will be in support of TCU going to the championship game. 


We are going to use 4 different mediums to appeal to different audiences on this subject. Logan is working on an ESPN article that will appeal to, obviously, all of the sports fans around the world. So many guys are constantly getting updates on their phones/emails through the ESPN website, which means they're always checking it. It will be a good way to get this argument out to that population. 


Tracy is working on a letter to the BCS selection committee. This letter will be talking to the 'higher end' people in the BCS selection process. Hopefully persuading them to consider TCU as a viable candidate. This audience is narrow, but it's still very important to make sure that these important people know how much everyone believes TCU is deserving of a spot in the championship game.


I am working on both a Fan page on Facebook, and a billboard. The Fan page("Support TCUs Drive to the National Championship") is going to be a good way to get the word out to the younger population. Almost everyone ages 25 and under have a Facebook, and if we invite as many friends as possible to this page, it will get noticed. Also, obviously all of our TCU friends will be in support of this, and it will hopefully get them rallied to expanding this argument out. Anyone and everyone is welcome to join this group! The billboard is also something important I'm working on. We haven't decided on our favorite picture yet, but we're just going to have a huge(legit) picture from a TCU game, and one or two words on it that will make a statement. Obviously, it has to be short enough so people driving by will be able to get the main idea of the visual. This is a powerful way to appeal to the Fort Worth/Dallas community in support of one of our home teams going to the National Championship. 


Overall, things are going great so far, and we're all really excited to keep expanding on this project.

 

In Class: Reading

The reading was all about visual arguments. Being 'la artista' in my group, I'm the one that's going to be in charge of the visual aspect, so this information was especially important for me to pay close attention to. Some of the main points that the reading brought forth was, the words you choose on your picture, they aren't just words. This is true. There are only 5-6 words used on visuals anyways, so you want to pick the most powerful ones that you can to create a strong argument. Also, when you use a picture, you're supposed to make a story out of it. The reader should be able to pick up MULTIPLE details from a visual, not just the name of a company or something to that extent. 

Another thing they talked a lot about was the fact that everything appeals to ethos and pathos when it comes to visuals. Using warm and inviting fonts means one thing, using clean, modern fonts means another thing, and yet using decorative fonts means even something else. The president's seal, and the McDonald's logo bring about two completely opposite feelings when you look at them. I will be keeping all of this in mind when creating my visual arguments for Unit III.

In Class: Reading

In the reading assignment from this week, I learned that when making your own arguments, you can use a variety of different ways to express them. Whether it be newspaper articles, pictures, or editorials, there is always a unique way to prove a point. Visuals are particularly appealing because you don't have to write anything, yet by choosing the correct color/background/images, it says 1000 words, and can be a really good way to add logos to your argument. All of the reading ties in with our Unit 3 project because it is all about creating our own argument, and making our own documents based on the ways we've analyzed documents and arguments in the past. It's something that we can reference to when working on our projects together.

Unit 3 Job Titles and Descriptions

My two other group members are Logan Luzzo and Tracy Littlefield.

First and foremost our group decided that we're going to work together in everything that we do. There isn't ever going to be one person that is pulling most of the weight for the project. All of us are going to edit and go over everything. All of us will brainstorm ideas, and figure out what arguments we're going to use. Everyone will analyze appropriate audiences. Everyone will put in an equal amount. Everyone will be responsible for the grade we receive. We don't really believe in certain people just taking chunks of the project to themselves.

However, if I had to choose, my job title in the group would be La Artista. I'm pretty creative, I love drawing, and painting, and doing anything artsy. So, when it comes to anything visual. I'll be the person you can turn to. Any of the visual aspects of the project will be deferred to me. It could be fonts, colors, and layouts of the articles, or the actual visual images we need, I'll help with all of it. Definitely going to be putting all of that together.

In Class: Group Work

The perfect situation for a group work/project would first off be me picking my own group. I feel like I put trust in others, and know characteristics of others, and like having at least some control over who I work with. Next, I would want all of my group members to have leadership qualities. Things go a whole lot smoother when everyone is ready and willing to take part in completing an assignment. And not only completing it, but having the mentality that they wish to make an "A". Nothing drives me more crazy than being in a group and having people expect you to be the one to finish everything just because you seem like the 'smartest' one. Also, although we get class time to work on most of this assignment. It would be nice if people would at least be willing to potentially meet outside of class if we needed an extra hour or two to make something perfect. It's always worth it to me to put in extra time in order to make the better grade, but for a lot of people, that isn't the case at all. I'm just hoping I get a hardworking group, because that's the way I would work best too. Minimal frustration.