WORKSPACE

A few things I've learned from the reading:

There is much discussion before choosing something to write on, including many meetings and a lot of time before one is set on something.
There are many story ideas that are in common that are discussed before choosing one topic to write or report on.
There are four parts: story, interviewing, recording, editing.
There must be a clear progression of the story to lead the audience.
The narrative structure isinvolved in hooking the audience and the importance of being concise.
Throughout the interview stage, you must layer in engaging detail.
Asking questions on the spot helps with fresh answers.
Sharing a narrative is important.
In the recording section, it is important to have the proper equipment.
Also, location is important in regards to the noise control.
Placement of the microphone involves much practice beforehand.
In the editing stage, it is important to cut out things tat would misrepresent your subject.
Also, insterting sound effects is a good ending to the story.

Throughout Fraser’s article ‘Politics, Culture, and the Public Sphere’, she discusses how Jürgen Haberma’s 1962 book ‘Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere” was a valuable resource for contemporary critical theory. She discusses democracy in the public sphere and equality and inequality of the people involved. She discusses how political participation is conducted through the medium of talk where individuals come together to discuss society and which is where social meanings are generated. She discusses how culture is embedded in social structure. We explore the uses of the concept "public sphere" in which there are two: democratic theory and uses in cultural theory. Fraser discusses the three constitutive assumptions which she claims are problematic. First, the status differentials which discuss the social aspect. These explain that social views and social norms are not a necessary condition for political democracy. Second, a multiplicity of competing publics is a step away from democracy, meaning that a single public sphere is preferable. Third and last, a view on "private" and "public" interests is undesirable in the public sphere. They should be restricted to the "common good." Fraser asks "Is open access finally a reality in the public sphere?" in which she answers her own question by giving examples of race and sexim. In the modern public sphere, open access is achieved when there are no formal barriers restricting the participation from happening. Fraser's main points throughout her essay explain the ideas of equality, diversity and multiple publics coming together. With one public sphere, there must be no dominant groups. There must be a common understanding on what is "public" and what is "private". Only each participant may decide for themselves what they believe to be "privacy" and "publicity". Lastly, Fraser discusses the cultural criticism in the public sphere. Inequality affects relationships. She gives a vast example of Anita Thomas and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Clarence Thomas. In this case of sexual assault, there was gender strugle, race issues and class controversy. She discusses that to have a working democracy in the public sphere, there must be boundaries and there must be a working definiton of what the importance of the public sphere vs. the importance of state power means.

9/8/16

9/12/16

9/15/16

The challenges that I faced while writing the "I Am From" poem were personal details. There is so much about my life that I was not ready to share with a room full of classmates whom I barely know. I was challenged while trying to think of a memory in which I was willing to share, but still had sentimental value. This poem helped me reflect on my experiences and personal life by looking back and noticing that I am not just from "Stoneham, Mass" but that I am from a lifelong list of adventures and memories. That where I am from isn't just a location but more of sentimental value. I decided which events were comfortable for me to write by deciding which events I immediately look back on and laugh or events that I would share when storytelling as opposed to those events that made me cringe or that are private in my life. I could have told personal details of the scarier parts of life or even the exciting parts of life that I keep private, but I decided to tell a story of who I am without enclosing my truly personal details.

I have many things I want to discuss with Sana and Chanda when they visit class on Thursday. First, I am interested in knowing, "With such a hard background where many people are unfamiliar with the specifics, what do each of you feel is the most important way to begin telling a story such as yours?" I am interested in asking what parts they are most comfortable discussing, and what is the hardest. I am interested in asking where they feel most comfortable in time now as a refugee and what moments brings them back to the confusion and the hurt. It is important to note that you cannot just ask questions without taking into concern the level of sensitivity or comfortableness. I think it is important to ask where they feel on the comfort scale before indulging yourself into the topic. I also feel it is important to know a vast majority of the history of why they are refugees before making up questions and assuming details that are not true.

9/19/16

9/26/2016

Feedback - The feedback that I received was that I should tell a little more of a story with the "I Am From" template. I was told that the story was told nicely but if I were to expand a little bit more and add more information and personal story and connections then my story would finish up nicely. Also, I was told maybe if I could add a little more inflection in my voice, it would help. The revisions that I am going to make are to re-record the whole story while adding a bit more inflection in my voice. I am going to try to make it a circle story while adding a beginning and end to my story to make it come around. Also, I am going to work on my background music a little bit.

10/13/2016

After reading the section "Keep or Kill" in Out On The Wire, I thought it was very interesting how they used the September 11th example because the key point in this section is story structure and though the person who heard the many stories had different points and viewpoints, it's always important to figure out how to structure the story. Do you put the most exciting parts first, chronological order, do you add in the small details? There are many questions on how to structure a story. They mention how forcing them into "an arc" is a very difficult job. They state that chronological order isn't always the case to structure - but having interesting taste or picking "the sexy anecdote" is the way to begin a story. I think that this whole section really states that wherever you feel that your story will "arc" correctly and help the reader or viewer envision what you are trying to tell is the way that you should structure your story whether it's interesting points to not so interesting or chronological - so be it.

In regards to our interview with Vanessa - I think this chapter relates really well. Because Vanessa did not want to speak about her past and her life in Congo, we are not going to tell our story in chronological order, but instead through a story of the present and the future. Vanessa was very interested in talking about her future in the pre-med track to become a fetal health/maternal doctor. I think that the way that we can structure a story such as Vanessa's is to focus on the fact that refugees may not be from America but they are now free to live and act on their lifestyle however they choose and Vanessa so happened to choose a lifestyle to help others not only in American but internationally. I think that we can structure our story with important events from what she wants to do in life and present it and finish it with minor details about what brought her to that point in life and how she wants to pursue it.

1. Chapter 4 of Out on the Wire is named "Deep Sea". Sound is metaphorized as the "Deep Sea" because sound is under the water when there are small paper boats floating above - there's so much happening under the sea- and that's only where the music can go. This means that the deep sea is so large - and there is so much sound being made under there but there is only so much we can and/or choose to hear. I believe that sound is metaphorized meaning that you may hear so many different things throughout the day and sometimes you believe to listen and tell the story of the first thing that you hear but other times it's important to choose the best sounds that you hear and the best story to be told.

2. The metaphor meant to convey is that there is so much sound but only so much that we can use. We might think about this in terms of our video story is that we have so much sound and so much voice - but there is only so much we can use. Also, we must pair our sound & music well with the "voice" that we must choose wisely. Though we have about 30-50 minutes of film, it is important that we choose the best sound with the best narrative to tell a compelling story.

10/24/16

1. The primary purpose of an edit is to critique the first draft. This usually happens on a semi-complete draft and is useful to hear feedback from many different people. It's important to take notes during this piece to collaborate with others and understand what worked and didn't work for each person. In this they compare it to the "Dark Forest" explaining that edit, after edit, after edit, etc... you finally reach a masterpiece and you're out of the forest. Some details of the editing process are google docs scripting with a group, erasing and adding sections, prioritizing, audio edits, color editing. Another most specific part of the editing are the questions. "Why are they important?" "Should they be here?" "What's the point of this"... These questions gear your piece up so the readers/viewers understand why they are watching this. Re-reading, re-listening, re-writing is another very important section so you can hear, and understand what's right and what's wrong.

2. The two important concepts are framing and signposting. These concepts function to tell a compelling story. Framing is important to get a inside concept of what is going to be told. It is like taking a story and infusing a story within itself. Framing is important to get the large idea. Also, framing is used in vvideo stories to get the big idea of the whole subject. The other concept is signposting. Signposts provide a broad context for a period of time in the story (an Act) that frames the effort to achieve the specific Story Goal, broad Overall Story Concern, and resolve the story's problem.

11/3/2016

1. The primary feedback that we received overall from our peers was that they enjoyed our video. A few people stated that they enjoyed the screens with the print on them explaining what was going to be spoken about next and a few did not. Majority understood the purpose - which was to explain her future aspirations of becoming a doctor. I believe that we got that point across pretty well but some still didn't understand how we jumped from her becoming a doctor to her activities on campus and that is something we will work on. The pacing was overall done pretty well according to our peers. It allowed for them to breathe and understand each section before moving on. The revision that needs to be done I believe is the music overall, the sole purpose being stronger, as well as a few of the b-roll shots being put into a still-shot or removed. I believe these will be easy fixes when we work together as a group - as we already had a few in mind when meeting before.

2.The feedback that I received from my outside viewer was actually really touching. I showed this viewer and as she was watching it her reactions showed a lot. Overall - she believed the story was about this refugee from DRC moving to the United States to become a doctor because of the rape and problems she saw in the past. Without even telling her Vanessa's story she was pretty spot-on about the sole purpose of the story. She understood the purpose of the story and was also a little thrown off by her involvements on campus but then made the connection that her involvements all had to do with helping the community and related it to her saying she wanted to "In the least corniest way possible - help the community". This connection was important because it helped her make the story round and really understand what we were trying to portray. The revisions that she had for me were to make the print screens all equal time and length and to write them in consideration of each other - the same way. Our group can fix this when we meet together by discussing the words we should use and how to connect them all together to make it whole.

11/10/16

Part 1:

Oral history is a story told by someone with past knowledge of the history during an interview. This is thought of as a co-constructed process of narrative composition because it is between two people telling a story. One person is narrating and asking the questions of the story being told; and the other telling the story from his or her memory with details from the past. This is constructed between two people in a narrative form of storytelling. The explanation of mapping coherence on the disorder of lived experience means that it is difficult to understand a story told orally when you were not actually there. As a narrator or interviewer - it is our job to understand what they are saying and in what order it is being told and we must map this correctly and re-tell the story through audio or video by placing it in their order of their lived experience. The implications of this conundrum within our Community Storytelling Project is that we must tell a story of someone whom we do not know and a story of which we do not know - after interviewing them only once for about 30-40 minutes. We must put a story together through video and audio to portray what the point was that they were trying to get across without telling a mistake and messing up their oral history of being a refuge.

Part 2:

This project helps me think about multimodal composition because there are so many different types of technology happening throughout this piece. There is text, there is audio, there are pictures, video, links, etc... This type of piece has so many different types of involvement and interaction for the viewer/reader/listener to take part in. This is a true meaning of multimodal because of all of the different types of pieces she has involved.

This helps me understand and think about writing for public audiences because in 'The Olive Project', she lets her grandmother tell the story through different interviews and videos and she adds pictures for the audience to see who is actually talking and what they look like, while also adding text for either those who prefer it or those who are audio-impaired to read what this is about. I think she really understood the concept of working for a public audience giving us every aspect of the story in which she intended to tell.

This project helps me understand what it is like to tell a personal story and to represent someone's life because it is important to get the story correct and with her having every aspect of it being from the actual grandmother's point of view - there is no way one can get the story mixed up or tell the wrong aspect of it. Because she used her grandmother's exact sentences and words through audio and text - it is easy for the audience to understand the real story. This is important because it teaches me how important the first person's point of view really is.

This tells me that telling a story primarily through the authentic voice is the most meaningful and gives the audience the full experience of the story like I had while interviewing, but also with little pieces here and there of insight or text gives the audience the information as well that you were there to witness the story being told and that you are the one portrayng the story in a new light.

11/14/2016

1. The purpose of this article is to shed a new light on the way that technology can be used to portray multimodal writing. Throughout Part 1. it is explained how the complexity of multimodal texts is very difficult and takes a lot of developing and analyzing. The purpose explains that even though multimodal text is fun and exciting to explore, the complexity is very difficult and takes much technology and knowledge to understand. It is important that the author writes, rewrites, scrapping parts of what you like over other parts that you "kind of" like. It is important to bring the elements together that create a story to be told in the correct order. It is important to do the verbal wrnagling, visual wrangling as well as corrections that must be done to tell a story. With a clear mind and correct direction it is easy to tell a multimodal story, but it is important to allow each and every step it's time and dedication before putting a story for everyone to see.

2. There were many sections that I found interesting in Part II: Anatomy of a Definition. I enjoyed listening, as well as reading each person's minute to two minute section about what they think is multimodal and emphasize who they are why they use multimodal. It was interesting to understand that having an awareness of the values and priorities of who the audience is help craft the message that we are trying to send as well as the message that is received and acted upon. . I thought it was interesting reading and listening to "Talking outside the field" by Cynthia Selfe because she explains that she doesn't use the term multimodal composition because she believes that it sounds restrictive on the topic, whereas in "Talking with students" by Cheryl Ball, she explains how she does use this phrase because she relates it with multimedia in which many young people are familiar with these days. I also enjoyed reading Primitive Machines by Cynthia Selfe because though "new media" is the up and coming thing to use, for people that weren't born into this day and age - it's very difficult to learn and to acquire themselves too just as it would be for people my age to learn to use a typewriter. Overall, I believe that multimodal writing is the new fad in technology, but it must be done correctly and with the correct verbiage and usage.

11/17/2016

1. My contributions for this project, I feel, went a long way. Because I was relatively familiar with iMovie, I was able to work closely with the editing of the video. I feel that I worked hard on contributing a lot of my video knowledge to this video and was able to cut the video up, add transitions, as well as making the video flow collectively. I worked hard on this project to make it feel like a video that is worthy of internet attention - rather than just a class project. I feel that my contributions helped make this video A-worthy, as well as both of my group mates contributions. We worked as a whole on this project to make it tell the exact story that we felt was necessary. Between editing, shooting b-roll, writing subtitles, I feel that we all came together as a group and worked well to finish this video the way that we felt portrayed Vanessa's story in the correct light.

2. I am very pleased with the way our video came out. I really like the background of the shot we have Vanessa in, as well as the transitions between each section. I like that we used text, pictures, and video to portray her story and I feel that we did a good job making this video flow. I also really enjoy the music selection and feel that it adds a bit of personality to this film. Though I enjoyed our video, I feel that I could have done without the subtitles because I feel like they make the project look like a high school project, rather than something that is done in college that will be on the internet forever.

3. If I had the opportunity to do this again, I would have spoken to Vanessa prior to the interview in regards to her story to get a feel for what she wanted to talk about before I actually sat down with a list of questions to interview her. I feel that this would have given me a better perspective on who she was and what she wanted to speak about. Also, I would've liked to get a few different angles and shots of her, such as action shots of her doing what she speaks about, etc... I also feel that I would have appreciated more class time to work on this. We are all different majors with different work loads and with a project such as this, where we mainly used one computer because it was difficult to share, it's hard to find time where we all can fit into our schedule to meet up.

11/21/2016

12/5/2016

1. I was a big fan of the audio recordings along with the text so that the audience can either read or listen along with what I was saying. I am going to add audio to certain portions of my alphabetic text so that my audience can follow along as well and hear the emphasis in my voice to what I'm speaking about. I also liked the slideshow pictures along with adding the full video with the explanation of what the class was about. There was much that I saw today that I plan on adding to the final draft of my Final Reflection. I hope to have at least three modes of multimodal text.

2. My plan for moving forward with my final reflection is to view the feedback that I received and revise what my peers told me to work on and to add the pieces that they believe that I needed. I also plan on adding more forms of multimodal film, audio, etc. I still need to accomplish adding pieces from the previous texts and websites that we viewed and give examples of how I've learned through not just my Community Story Project, but those as well. I will go about this by revising my website and rereading into the projects that we reviewed throughout the semester. I will make connections between their work and mine to make my website whole and come out with a strong Final Reflection for the writing department to view and hope to get a full understanding of what I've learned throughout my time in Multimodal Writing.