Over the course of this semester I have learned how to properly construct persuasive and argumentative essays by completing projects like the proposal, multimedia annotated bibliography, literature review and multimodal research essay. By doing so, I realized that besides analyzing the syntax and structure of a text, one needs to be familiar with the characteristics of each genre in order to engage in an appropriate review. Each project includes several rough drafts and a reflection prompt. From the beginning, I have learned how to formulate strong paragraphs by making sure they each have three main characteristics: claim, evidence and interpretation. Furthermore, I gained knowledge on how to be a critical thinker by learning how to distinguish a good article from the pool of information available. For the most part, all the work in this class was designed to help us with our final project. In-class discussions, assigned readings and blogs have all contributed to the final multimodal research essay as well.
Since technology has become a transforming factor in the academic research and writing I had to be acquainted with different web-based applications such as Storify, Google Drive and Voyant to name a few. I am happy to be introduced to these tools since I can use them outside of this course as well. Peer reviews, while they are designed to help us better our work , there is also the risk of getting very vague feedback or nothing at all. Luckily, my peer group said more than just “Good Job” or “Check Sentence Structure” but pin point the areas where I would need improvement or lack some important elements.
From the begging of our course, there was an emphasis on multimodality; the ability to incorporate different modes of communication into our papers. There are five mode of communication- linguistic, aural, gestural and spatial. I could say this was one of the most important aspects of my learning experience. I found out that all texts are multimodal even a research paper. One might not use an image or sound to tell a story but written language (linguistic mode) and physical arrangement (spatial mode) will be present. Finally, from my research into this subject I have learned that one should not come up with a thesis unless the research is complete. Because, you might end up finding more evidence that supports the opposite view. This results in a credible paper and the audience may be ready to read it. By doing so, we also use time effectively, since we don’t have to start over, change the thesis and ultimately all the sources.
For this portfolio, I chose to include three of my works, each one showing improvements in different areas. The first piece is my proposal, called “How is Technology Affecting your Family” where I’m proposing a research question to pursue in the multimedia annotated bibliography, literature review and the multimodal research essay. It will demonstrate the ability to identify a problem that needs a solution, by showing impacts on the immediate audience, and general public. In this project, I have been struggling to formulate a good introduction but with feedback from my peers and my professor I ended up having a clear engaging introduction.
My second piece is a multimodal annotated bibliography. It was the first time I have ever made an annotated bibliography so i was a little nervous about it. It includes ten citations, each one followed by a brief descriptive and evaluative paragraph. The purpose of this annotation is to help the readers evaluate whether the works cited are relevant to a specific research topic or line of inquiry. I think my final draft shows the quality of my sources as I have left no room for unanswered questions. The last piece i’m including is the multimodal research essay, where I can finally formulate a thesis and conclusion regarding the disagreement over the effects of technology on family communication and bonding. This project demonstrates the ability to combine two or more modes effectively to enhance the aesthetic and rhetorical appeal of the text.