EDITOR'S NOTE
The Editors
Veronica EcheverriaManaging Editor
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Bailey KnudsenWriting Editor
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Alex HemingwayResearch Editor
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Jonathan KnudsenVisual Editor
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Why We Chose the Works We Included
Veronica: I selected my specific pieces because they are my strongest work as well as the most educational. My infographic, Facts About Eating Disorders, gives background about what my social justice issue really is. Colton's story provides a testimony of how hard it is to have an eating disorder, and how it really is a mental issue, not just physical. Like stated above, I chose these three pieces because they strengthen each other.
Bailey: I selected my pieces because I felt that they would be the best pieces to display my hard work over the past few months, and because these pieces give a great overview of my social justice issue (social media addiction). My infographic, Teenagers and Social Media Addiction, is directed toward parents of teenagers. This piece gives an overview of what social media is, ways to recognize social media addiction, and ways to cure the addiction. My comic, Golfing with Grandpa, is an entertaining and lighthearted piece that shows how social media addiction can make the people around the addict feel. My last piece, Picking Priorities, is a shocking and eyeopening story of how a homeless man prioritized his time and money by choosing a smartphone over everyday necessities. I feel that while all of my pieces have unique aspects, they all share the same unifying purpose of educating the reader about social media addiction.
Alex: For my projects that I chose, I decided to choose 2 of my best works as well as the one I struggled with the most. I did this because I wanted my readers to be informed and entertained with the best possible papers I could give them as well as I wanted to revise my poorest paper to change the medium, get the opinions from others, and make it a better piece than what I started with.The 3 pieces I chose for the magazine are my information effect paper, my profile, and my persuasion effect.
Jonathan: For me personally I chose my best works, but also the ones that fit together best. I chose my story, Discovering Our Son Has Autism, where my mother-in-law learned about her son being diagnosed with autism, because it was an emotional story that would keep readers interested. I then chose my infographic, The Facts About Employment for People with Disabilities, because it was informational about the subject and what it's like once someone who has autism is of working age. The last piece I chose was the story of my cousin because it shows how beneficial it is, and what the regulations are, for hiring people with disabilities.
Why Some Pieces Were Excluded
Although we all had a variety of pieces to choose from, we worked together to select the pieces that worked best together for our magazine, Struggles in America. Prior to adding our work onto the magazine, we sent each other copies of all of our possible magazine pieces. Once we understood each other's goals, we discussed which pieces would best portray the group's unifying purpose. We tried to avoid repetition by making sure we had different forms of writing and mediums (infographics, comics, text essays, etc.). While we worked hard on multiple projects throughout the semester, we included our strongest pieces that tied together, while leaving out our weaker and more redundant pieces. As a result of including some pieces and excluding others, our magazine has become polished, entertaining, unified, and focused.
How We Are Connected |
Revisions/Translations |
Bailey's and Alex's work are both centered on social media addiction, including the consequences that follow, and ways to "cure" the addiction. Jonathan's work focuses on how recognition and employment for individuals with disabilities needs to improve, and how these opportunities can improve the lives of those individuals. Veronica's work highlights the issue of eating disorders and shows that there are ways to overcome those challenges. While some of our topics may seem unrelated, they all tie together as struggles that our present in our country today. These are problems that individuals and their loved ones face everyday, all around us, so they need to be talked about. While all of our work shows the genuinely difficult struggles that Americans face, we also show that there is hope, and that we can work together to be successful, even through the hard times.
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Both as a group and as individuals, we used several different techniques to revise and/or translate our pieces. In many pieces we needed to make simple structural and grammar changes. We manipulated these pieces in seemingly small ways to make them more interesting, entertaining, easy, and visually pleasing for our audience. These revisions made a great difference in the overall affect of our magazine. Each of us also translated (drastically changed) one of our pieces. We took a piece that we had previously created and translated it into something else. For example, some changed their text-based piece into a visual comic strip or infographic. The main reason we all revised our pieces was so that we could improve them and make them more appropriate for an online magazine setting. Although we had previously worked hard and felt confident about our previous pieces, we had to step back and recognize that there is always room for improvement and feedback from others. As a result of our revisions and translations, our magazine flows more smoothly and is better overall.
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What We Discovered
Through this writing process, we have made several discoveries. First, we have learned more about our own, and each others' social justice issues. Through our research we have learned more about the pressing issues that exist in our society. As we have educated ourselves on these topics, we have been able to develop our own opinions and blossom them into great pieces. Through our work, we have learned how to educate others in a nonjudgemental way and help them to develop their own opinions. Second, we have learned that writing is a long, and oftentimes difficult process. A writer cannot expect to sit down and whip up a fabulous piece in 20 minutes; writing takes a lot of thought, time, and effort. Third, we have discovered that working as a group can be beneficial if each member is willing to put in the work and help each other. One cannot sit back and expect others to pick up their slack; each group member has the responsibility to do their fair share of work. On the other hand, it is important that each group members' voice is heard. Everyone's work and opinion is valuable, so it is important that we work together and that one or more person doesn't boss everyone around. Fourth, we have learned that as a writer it is important to be willing to take advice. If someone offers advice, it is important to be openminded and actually listen to what they have to say, even if you don't end up making the change. Fifth, we learned that writing can be frustrating, but it is important to have fun with it! Through every step of the revision process, it is important to take what you're doing seriously, but also to enjoy it. If you enjoy what you are writing, it shows in the piece.
What We Want Others to Discover (Our Advice)
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Evaluation
Our group has been very dedicated and cooperative in creating quality work to achieve a well-organized magazine. We feel the final product has exceeded our original expectations and we are very proud and excited to show our work to the readers and viewers of our magazine.
We feel we have been able to achieve the goals and standards that were set for the completion of this project, with everyone doing their best work. We have been able to create rhetorical pieces that have been well researched, written, and revised to give our readers an enjoyable and informational experience while viewing our magazine.
Our group has done a wonderful job verifying the use of credible sources in all of our pieces. We have done our best to make the magazine visually appealing as well as easy to maneuver through. We have all worked well together in giving suggestions on grammar, sentence and paragraph structure, and flow of each of our pieces.
Overall, we feel we have done a good job on completing this project that we are now proud to present. We did feel our communication was slow at first but as the project went on, we were able to communicate well and turned what we were lacking into something we did very well.
We feel we have been able to achieve the goals and standards that were set for the completion of this project, with everyone doing their best work. We have been able to create rhetorical pieces that have been well researched, written, and revised to give our readers an enjoyable and informational experience while viewing our magazine.
Our group has done a wonderful job verifying the use of credible sources in all of our pieces. We have done our best to make the magazine visually appealing as well as easy to maneuver through. We have all worked well together in giving suggestions on grammar, sentence and paragraph structure, and flow of each of our pieces.
Overall, we feel we have done a good job on completing this project that we are now proud to present. We did feel our communication was slow at first but as the project went on, we were able to communicate well and turned what we were lacking into something we did very well.