Draft Eval

For my paper become a polish product I still need to work on:

Better work with my sources, or engaging with them, provide a list of work cited in MLA format, and add an Academic source to show hard data for my audience. Also, I need to work in structure and organization.

Poster Draft

When drafting my poster I started with invention. I researched figures, photos and other possible ideas in what to make out of my poster. I attempted two different approaches and decided which could be the most effective. Then, I moved to arrangement and style by arranging the pictures and text in different positions, changing color of boarders and re-sized it.  I think that style and arrangement were one of the most important parts on this exercise, which makes me reflect that is perhaps the most important parts of written composition as well. 

Visual Composition and Writing Composition

When making a poster or any kind of visual composition, there are many guidelines, strategies, and techniques to be taken in consideration. This is perhaps what most surprised me from this week’s readings. I’ve made many visual communication posters at my workplace, and despite that I’ve done it thinking in ways to facilitate productivity, I never perceived how many techniques were available to make my posters more effective. With the readings I came to the realization that visual composition is just complex as writing composition.

In visual composition content and form is primarily expressed, taken in consideration the audience in a visual composition. Bang explains that the principles work in conjunction with each other and they are subservient to context and content - to the picture meaning. To add, Dondis states that a message is composed with purpose: to tell, express, explain, direct, inspire, affect. In pursuit of any purpose, choices are made to reinforce and strengthen expressive intentions for maximum control of response. The visual elements have basic substance of what we see, and they are few in number: the dot, line, shape, direction, tone, color, texture, dimension, scale, and movement. Written composition has many of those elements like shape, style, tone, and movement throughout paragraphs. Visual composition like writing composition also has unity. Unity is a proper balance of diverse elements into one totality that is visually all of a piece. The collection of many units should dovetail so completely that it is viewed and considered as a single thing. But, while any visual work can be analyzed from many points of view, most writing compositions provides an explicit point of view from the author.

There is so much to take from these readings that I would have to retype Dobis whole paper to talk about some of the points to remember. It is so rich in information, that is impossible to choose just one part. But, some of the techniques like the importance of balance, symmetry, predictability and so on, and the guidelines are key to compose an effective visual craft, and I hope to never forget. I also hope to remember where I saved these articles and be able to comeback to it, any time that I compose a visual craft.

Draft revision

For this draft I made revisions on arrangement, and delivery. I added some new information and made some grammatical corrections. I believed that it strengthened my writing because it shows to be more concise and it maps out what I will be discussing throughout the body. I also narrowed my audience and worked with my sources with more depth.     

What I want to hold on from today's class

First, language is used as form to achieve power. There are standards set by those who are in power, and those who follow or master the standards are likely to be successful. There is a perceived importance to have standards in a language, so that there is a concise power in communication.
Second, there is a culture of power which are not the same as having authority. Authority is something given or entrusted by others, while power can be defeated or terminated if the person does not have authority.

The Power of Language

Vershawn A. Young, analyzes the disconnection between literacy WEV and black culture BEV by conflicting his own Identity with other black male students from the ghetto, like Eric Smith. Young explains that there is a racial, Identity, and gender endangerment when black boys venture literacy. He cites, David Holmes, Kermit Campbell, Hence Cam, Malcolm X, Phillip Harper, William Labov, and others, to build on and support his case. Young concludes that schools are a symptom of the problem, and implicitly suggests that both BEV and WEV should be incorporated into elementary and high school. 

On the other hand, Lisa Delpit, believes that “good teachers incorporate a range of pedagogical orientations. In her article she address the concerns raised by White and Black respondents, debates over skills versus process to understand the alienation and miscommunication between different races, and analyzes five aspects of power, which is essential in deciding what is best for poor children and children of color. She suggests that the community should decide what is best to the children’s education and that teachers have an ideal position in this role: to bring the issues to the table and to break the silence.  

I’ve been affected in many different ways by how others perceive my background because of my language use, some times positively others not so much. A few years ago I was working for JCPenney as their customer service representative. I was shocked to observe people’s reaction to my accent. Many people tend to relate different accents with “language deficiency” or stupidity. It was funny to encounter some costumers, whom requested to speak with someone else just because of my accent, but I was the only one that could authorize their specific requests. In less than one year I got promoted three times, and became their corporate representative. Delpit explains that is easier to acquire power when we are explicitly told the rules of a culture. If I think of a company as a form of culture, and with the willing help from someone that is already part of the culture, than it becomes easier to gain power.  Not only my hard work gave me the opportunity to gain power, someone else was willing to coach me through the process.