Process Memo

Emily Augustyniak

Lauren Rinke

WRT 150

October 12, 2012

Process Memo

As I sat down and began my literacy time line I started thinking about when I was little and why I would read. It was pretty easy for me to remember because I started reading at such a young age. I was always read to as a child and have many memories of reading. I had never realized that I was surrounded with all that reading background as a child.                       

            Throughout my literacy time line I noticed a theme of American Girls. I was obsessed with American Girls as a child and collected the dolls, books and doll accessories. Since I noticed that theme I went with that to focus my narrative literacy on. Since that was my main theme it was not hard to determine that was what I was going to use for my narrative literacy. By creating the time line I was able to reminisce all the good memories I had of reading as a child.

            Since I had my theme for my narrative literacy I was able to just use that area of focus for my written narrative. I did not have to think of an idea since I already had planned on using my love for American Girls as a child. I organized it chronologically of how I came to love American Girls. It was pretty much right when I was introduced to them I wanted to continue reading the book and then start collecting the dolls also. It was not difficult to organize my thoughts at all because it was easy to remember since I was at an age where I could comprehend all of that and I was able to just chronologically write everything down for my written narrative.

            After the peer review I was able to chance some word tenses. My two peer reviewers were a great help in telling me what I should keep and what I should change in my paper. Yes, my mind I was already thinking how I could change the written narrative into an effective Animoto video.

            My peers picked out great sentences for me to use in my Animoto video. Most all of the sentences they picked out were the ones I actually used also.  It was extremely difficult and frustrating to get my sentences to fit in the Animoto characters limit. My strategy was to take the most important words or phrases from the sentence and try to reduce them to make a coherent phrase. It was very difficult at times and felt like none of it would make sense to a viewer who had not read my paper. I had some pictures that fit perfectly with the phrases of text that I used so I placed those ones with each other and the phrases I did not have a picture for I added a picture of one that I thought would be best and make the most sense. I did not use any pictures from the web. They were all pictures that I had taken or my parents had taken of me when I was a child. Some of the pictures were even more recent when I visited the stores in New York and at Mall of America. I wanted to put a song from an American Girl CD I had, but I was unable to upload it and it play so I just used one that was already on Animoto and made sense with my video. The song was gentle to listen to so it went along perfectly with the video.  

            Overall I enjoyed the project and though it was a very clever and cute project to do. All of the requirement were easy to meet and capable to do. This should be a project all WRT 150 professors require of their students to complete.

A Letter to Myself

Dear Seventeen Year Old Emily,

                I am going to tell you something that you might not believe at first but trust me you should take my advice. Getting bangs was one mistake you will definitely regret, especially getting bangs right before senior year. Bangs will be in and everyone will be getting theirs cut, but do not follow along and give in and also get yours cut. They are a pain to style because your hair is so unnatural. You know your hair grows extremely slow and they will take forever to grow back out. Once they start growing out they will just be an annoyance hanging in your face. You will always have to bobby pin your hair back which is annoying to do every day. Bangs are cute when they are short but once they hit that awkward stage you will not know what to do with them. Most of the other girl’s hair will be growing much faster, but yours will still be not long enough to keep out of your face without the use of bobby pins.

                Instead of rushing in and getting your bangs cut when all the other girls were getting theirs cut you should think about the pros and cons of the situation. A pro would be that it is in style. They also look super cute for a few weeks. But on the other hand you know how extremely slow your hair grows and it will take forever to be able to wear your hair without using bobby pins. Also if you wanted to keep bangs for a while you would have to go get them trimmed every couple weeks because they would grow to an awkward length. Because trust me it will take over a whole year before those bangs will not be an annoyance to you anymore. After a week of having short bangs the desire to have them wears off and you will wish you had not gotten them cut.  And P.S. for graduation when you curl your hair you will have to bobby pin them back so you can put your cap on without your hair hanging in your face.

                Instead of getting bangs just get your hair cut. Your hair will need it from all the split ends of blow drying, curling, and straightening your hair. Getting bangs also would only make getting ready in the morning longer because you would have to straighten them since your hair is not straight in the least bit. You will need that extra sleep in the morning and not want to spend it on doing your hair any longer than what you normally do. Take my advice and do not get your bangs cut short you will definitely regret that decision.

Sincerely Your Eighteen Year Old Self,

Emily Augustyniak

Redesign Reflection

Going into the assignment I thought it would be somewhat easy on coming up with an advertisement to write about. On the other hand I thought it would be difficult to meet the length requirement at first. I knew it would take a great amount of time to work on the assignment but I knew I would be able to do it.

                I just looked though the different ads in different magazines to find advertisements. I had different criteria in my mind that I was looking for in a specific advertisement. When I saw the Kellogg’s advertisement I realized that would be a great advertisement to use. I thought about the different ways I could redesigned it and it seemed to work perfectly.

                When I thought of the redesign I just pictured what it would look like in my head. I thought of what other cereal advertisements looked like and used ideas from that. Since I was redesigning it for the audience to be children it needed to be lively.

                The challenges I faced were meeting the length requirement. I was a page short and was unsure of what to add without repeating myself. I went to the Writing Center to get help with my paper and also asked what I could add to my paper and I was given great suggestions.

                I liked that we were able to pick our own advertisement. Each ones’ advertisement was different so there was not the need to worry that you would be writing the same thing as another student. I was able to pick an advertisement I thought I would be able to easily redesign.

                By doing this redesign I was able to see all the thought process that actually is invested in creating those advertisements. It is not as easy as one would assume it to be. I understand why advertisers can earn so much money is because they have to meet so many needs when coming up with the advertisement.

                The only thing I would do differently if I had the chance to redo the assignment would be to go to the Writing Center sooner. If I would have gone sooner I could have possibly gone back if I had any more questions later on in the paper. There is nothing else that I would have done different though.

Ford F 150

In the Ford F 150 dominant hegemonic reading is communicated throughout this commercial. The viewer can relate to the commercial if they are working hard manual labor in their day to day activities. They showed positive ways the F 150 could help you out in your day to day activities by loading stuff in the bed of the truck and carrying equipment to different locations if needed.  By being able to relate to the average person, Ford created this commercial in order to do that. The rhetoric in this commercial is showing the convenience of the truck to the owner. The commercial showed the advantages to having the F 150, and those being how they are convenient to have that truck. The intended audience for this commercial is someone who has manual labor to complete. The commercial showed that you don’t get the truck for luxury but for convenience. Using the F 150 would make the job easier to complete. My response to the commercial is that it grabbed the viewers’ attention. I am not someone who would ever do hard manual labor for a job, yet the commercial grabbed my attention.  My response to this commercial is that it was creatively made and grabbed the viewer’s attention. When watching this commercial one would not want to change the channel since they were so creative in making it.

From Virginia Heffernen

1.       I think teachers could have better prepared us by teaching more computer based classes in elementary and middle school. My high school years I took quite a few computer classes to prepare me for college and some were even mandatory. If I were to write them a brief email I would express to them that students should be required to take a few different computer classes. When students are exposed at a young age they will be better off down the road in remembering the different skills.

2.       The different technology I anticipate using in my future career path will be computers, smart phones, and the different programs on computers. I do believe my schooling here at Oakland University will prepare me for that.

3.       Yes, I think I write better in a more relaxed setting. My reason for that is I do not feel the pressure to meet a certain length or what to say in my paper. With blogs or emails I know what I am writing about and my writing just flows more and I am more efficient in that writing.

4.       If I were a teacher I would teach my students the different programs to use on the computer. Besides computer knowledge I would take them to different museums in order for them to receive the hands on knowledge with high tech equipment. There is this museum in New York City that is based on technology. You can simulate how surgery and procedures might be done in the future. I would also show them different videos on high tech equipment.

5.       I agree with the main thesis, in that students should be better prepared by learning about high tech equipment before they are college students. Jobs in the future are going to require the knowledge of technology. Students should be exposed to this knowledge at a young age because newer technology will be created.

Literacy Timeline

·         First words were: mommy, daddy, and doggy.

·         My parents reading children’s stories to me as I was a child

·         I had so many books everywhere my grandma bought me baskets to put them all in so when she came over she wouldn’t have to pick them all up.

·         My first memory was playing with those magnetic alphabet letters on the magnet board.

·         Learning to write my name

·         Being able to quote the words from books that were read to me numerous times.

·         My mom took sign language classes and taught me what she learned.

·         Learning to read

·         In kindergarten making our own books and reading them

·         All the time my mom would read different stories on the couch to my two siblings and I

·         Reading all of the American Girl Doll books with my mom. My love of reading grew from reading these books since I loved them so much.

·         Learning cursive in second grade.

·         After recess my teachers would read different book series to the class

·         Taking writing classes to improve my writing

·         Starting to read the Laura Ingles Wilder books in fourth grade

·         Finishing one American Girl Doll book just so I would be able to go to Borders to buy the next.

·         I started filling a bookshelf up with American Girl books.

·         Met my best friend the start of fifth grade since we both loved reading American Girl books

·         Doing book reports in school

·         Once a week, first grade through sixth grade I had spelling tests and vocab quizzes.

·         Starting the Nancy Drew Mystery series

·         Taking online writing class over the summer

·         My seventh grade English teacher would let my best friend and I go outside to complete our assignments sometimes since we would complete them quickly.

·         Reading Treasure Island was the worst book I had to read for class since the teacher sidetracked every sentence. I was never completely sure of what happened in the book.

·         When I took Spanish I would turn the closed caption on while I watch Full House DVDs, since I had seen them numerous times it helped me remember words in Spanish.

·         Tenth grade was the first year I entered public school and their writing style was different to what I previously was taught so it took some time for me to adapt.

·         I would read the book assigned and then in class watch the movie made from the book and compare and contrast the differences.

·         I took a class on Reading Comprehension and all we were assigned was to read three book of our choice. I was a fast reader and complete several books beyond that.

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What's I got to do with it By Amy Hodges Hamilton

This article stuck out to me the most because I felt like I related to it more than the others. Personal literacies can be used in your writing. She felt unsure of how to use her personal life into her writing.  When you write about your own experiences you learn more about yourself and become a better writer through that. Writing can be an emotional experience and understanding yourself better can help you be more successful in your writing.  Your personal experiences lead to something bigger than you might realize. By thinking of the first times you were writing and reading bring to recollection your earliest memories of the art of language. I can remember reading young children’s books in preschool and learning cursive in second grade. By remembering those things I can grow as a writer in personal literacies.

Why is Writing Important

Within the business world writing is used quite frequently. I will have to write business letters to clients or coworkers. Writing is used to communicate effectively in the business world. I will need to be able to clearly get my point across when writing letters or memos. The skill of writing can be used quite frequently in the job area. Writing can be used to inform customers of new products coming out. Speeches could possibly have to be prepared to make in front of a number of important board members.   The art of writing is effective when the point trying to be made is clearly received. Speeches could possibly have to be prepared to make in front of a number of important board members.  My writing and communication skills will need to improve in order for my thoughts to be clearly received.  Writing will be used in any type of job area because communication is always necessary.