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Writing Journal 11/4

While reading the articles 7 things Every Designer Needs to Know about Accessibility by Jesse Hausler and Accessibility Guidelines for UX Designers by Avinash Kaur I liked how they explained making things easier for the users. They use different layovers and make the accessibility of the websites very user friendly no matter the age. With websites making it easier to navigate it is also helping people with disabilities. Users like these may have a harder time using the websites to get the information they need, so by making them easier to understand it will help them in the long run. I feel that with society today being so tech savvy, the app creators should have accommodating features on their apps for people with disabilities so they can feel involved still and not seem looked down upon because they do not know what to do.

Another topic to get into is how websites use visuals to help draw users in. They can use different animations or color schemes to make them more appealing and enticing to use. Other techniques they would use are font size and type, visual effects, simple to use navigation, and pictures. So for instance using pictures on food blogs or websites will pull someone in if the food looks good or maybe they would want to try to make the recipe. There are several ways to use these techniques to make websites and apps easier to use.

The two rhetoric modes I used were linguistic and visual. I used visual so I can express what topic I am talking about. Then I used linguistic to get my point across.

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Journal Post 10/16

Chapter 2 of “Sustaining Critical Literacies in the Digital Information Age: The Rhetoric of Sharing, Prosumerism, and Digital Algorithmic Surveillance”, it talked about sharing on social media. The article talked about how our social media activity dictates how a feeds show. So it takes what we like and share and next time we go on that social media we see a lot more posts of things we have an interest in. It can be a frightening thing that what we post on social media is saved into data bases that people can get a hold of and know pretty much everything about us and that can lead to major problems. I feel that us as a society have to be careful what we put out there because something we post that is sensitive information can land in the wrong hands and could cause major problems in our lives. 

In the video, Danah Boyd is a researcher at Microsoft and the Founder and CEO of the institute of Data and Society. She talked about how social media manipulates what people see. She discussed how conspiracy people manipulate how information on crisis’ are spread and makes everyone go crazy researching things. Also talked about the measles outbreak in New York City that caused a lot of people to go frantic and research how to stay protected and what to do. She explained how search engines get manipulated and can show false information or beliefs out to the public and having them believe in fake news. How social media platforms amplify these crisis’ and trick users to stay on them and research false information believing it is all true. So you cannot believe everything you read on the internet is real. We need to be cautious of who is relaying the facts whether they are a reliable source or not.

In this post I used the rhetoric strategies of linguistic and visual. I used the visual gif of fake news since it ties into what was discussed in Danah Boyd’s video. I used the strategy of linguistic to relay my thoughts and ideas of this information.

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10/2 Journal Post

While reading the articles this week of “What is Rhetorical about Digital Rhetoric? Perspectives and Definitions of Digital Rhetoric”, it showed how hard it is to define rhetoric. It is also a troubling definition since not everyone thinks the same way or sees the same way everyone else does. While watching the video in the articles, they interviewed a few different people and asked all of them to define the term rhetoric. Each person gave a different answer so that just goes to show how everyone interprets rhetoric differently. So given that information it showed me that there really is not a definite definition for rhetoric. It really is up to everyones interpretation to describe it. I also think that it is a good thing because it allows everyone a chance to show what they envision and express themselves better.

For my two forms of rhetoric I chose visual and linguistic. I used this gif of a confused dog to show how it can be confusing using rhetoric and its different forms. Then I used linguistic to help me elaborate my findings about the topic at hand.

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Writing Journal 9/27

While reading chapter 9 of “Writing in Knowledge Societies” I began to understand the relationship between rhetoric and scientific knowledge. One of the main discussion points throughout the chapter was the use of metonymy. Metonymy is used to replace a word that is similar in meaning that creates a whole different meaning in the scientific world. Scientist use rhetoric to explain their claims about their research discoveries. Since they use metonymy, it helps them mix it with rhetoric to show a new perspective to their research. I was surprised how much rhetoric is used in general, but I was unaware how much it was used in the scientific fields. This reading also brought to light how important rhetoric is throughout any kind of writing I do. I have also learned so many new technics and uses for rhetoric and it has helped me with a lot of my writings so far.

I used the rhetoric strategies of visual and linguistic. Linguistic helps me express my ideas and to elaborate on them. Then I used visual to help express ideals of science 

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Journal Post 9/25

While reading “Multimodal Composing”, the author taught me more about the different ways we compose writings. One of my favorite ways that he teaches is composing with others. This way is sometimes one of the most beneficial ways because I feel as if you get to bounce ideas off each other in order to get the best information out. Other smart ways of composing are using your cell phone, laptop, paper and pencil, sticky notes, and planners. Using these different forms of composing can really help someone keep track of ideas. Another one of my favorite ways of composing is utilizing pen and paper. I like using that because I write faster then I type, so going back to typing the notes it is easier for me to construct my studying information.

After reading “Women, Rhetoric, and Politics on Pinterest”, I have realized that Pinterest is used by so many women. It is a great way for them to find and get ideas of things they find interesting. It is very useful to find different holiday ideas for anything from food and decorations. They can even create categories for their favorite topics such as food, clothes, home decor, etc. 

Both of these articles convey the usage of composing. It shows how each individual can express themselves in their favorite composing format.

I chose the rhetoric strategies of linguistic and visual. I used visual to express one way people compose every day. I then used linguistic to describe the two topics on hand that we had to talk about.

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Writing journal 9/20

I really enjoyed reading Multiliteracies of the Digital Age since it deals with a modern issue. Technology is a constantly changing field that is used all over the world and in different job fields. It is mostly being used for education, and I feel like a lot of teachers do not use technology to its best ability. They neglect to even use it sometimes which can be difficult for students that excel better when using it. Even though some professors are older and are not used to the technology I can understand why it is not used in classes since they would struggle to figure it out.

With ESU using technology a lot throughout the campus it surprises me how they do not work harder to teach students how to use it. Since students use D2L for pretty much everything, most students have to figure it all out by themselves, which can be quite challenging. Some students may not have been around a lot of technology growing up. A lot of the ESU professors set up their D2L pages different which is also confusing sometimes for students. If there was a set standard it would benefit the students since they will have it all set up the same way for every class they have. 

As technology is constantly changing, we as students are as well. We use more and more technology as the years go by. We are surrounded by it so we have just been a custom to it growing up. In the time that we are in now, I feel like using technology is a must to stay ahead. So evolving into it as a student will benefit us in the long run. 

In conclusion, using technology in education is a big advancement. I feel like teachers and professors need to take advantage of it and utilize it more for educational purposes. 

I used the rhetoric strategies of linguistic and visual. I picked linguistic since it helps me elaborate more of my thoughts to express them. I also picked visual gif to help focus on technology in todays society.

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Post 9/6

After reading The Primary Care Clinic as Writing Space, I got to realize how much more note taking takes place then I already knew. In the health care field it is very important to note everything about your patients. Some of the smallest details about their problems can be the biggest and most important problem. If SOAP notes taken by Doctors or Nurses are not explained to the fullest, the patient can be wrongfully diagnosed. That small decision making can mean life or death for the patient in your care.

I really enjoyed this read since I do come from a medical family background and also being a Ex nursing major here at ESU. I was very happy to see terms that I remembered from my studies, and also learning new terms that I never came across before. 

It really amazed me how much critical thinking it takes for Doctors to look at the SOAP notes and to be able to pinpoint what is wrong with someone. This leads to why charting information becomes a very key thing for heath care professionals to be good at.

I decided to use the linguistic mode since it allows me to express my thought and make things clearer. I decided to use this gif because heath care providers need to be very smart to be able to depict information and decide what to do from there.

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Writing Journal 9/4

After reading our first assignment Spaces for writing, I was really blown away about all the different things that go into writing.The passage really explained how differently small details really change the whole perspective of what the message is trying to establish. I especially thought it was interesting how cropping certain images really forced a whole new meaning of a message. It shifts the readers view of what the message truly means and can make it mean something completely else. Another aspect of the reading I thought was interesting is when the author added a real picture of the editor, with that being shown along side the fabricated person drawn for the book shows a lot of contrast of what you think he looked like.

Since now we live in a society run by social media, it really showed how visual literacy takes place. Everyday when we go on social media we may see something that can mean something, but later see something related but mean something completely else. That can be a good or bad thing, but it is all in how someone might interpret that post.

Another big thing that this reading showed me is how much ethos, logos, pathos, and kairos are used. These ideals are used in everyday living since they are used to persuade people in thinking something is true. A lot of companies may use these ideals in ads to real in customers to buy their products. So they might give out fake information to the public to make them buy into the products they are pushing.

As my rhetorical strategies I used visual and linguistic. I decided on these strategies because linguistic helped me explain my thoughts a lot better and to get my point across. I decided to us a gif since it helps tie in the social media life style that we live by in todays day and age.

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A little about me

Hello everyone,

My name is Chris Merithew and I am Junior Athletic Training major. I originally started as a nursing major here at ESU. But I made the switch because I was not the happiest doing the work. I am much happier being in Athletic Training since it relates to my passions way more.

I am from good old Avoca PA. Even though no one really knows where that even is, but it is between Scranton and Wilkes-barre. There is not much to do in the valley except hiking and eating a lot of pizza. I mean the pizza is pretty bomb so I never complained about it. Then after eating all the amazing pizza you are able to drive in any direction to walk/swim on trails in the mountains.

This is an example of an amazing views in my area that you can witness on some of the trails you can walk.

I love to travel! Road trips and taking on adventures is a great pastime of mine. Being able to see the planet the way it is supposed to be seen. I especially love going to the beach and having the sand in between my toes. The place I want to travel to the most is Australia. I am absolutely obsessed with Australia! I love the amazing beaches and culture. It also helps that kangaroos are my favorite animal on this planet. 

Another important thing in my life is family. I love my family and would do anything for them. Now since I am a big brother to six siblings I feel I have a much bigger role in life. When I found out about having siblings I was extremely excited to take on the role of the bigger brother.

Well that was a little summary of me and my life! I look forward learning more about you all.