What experiences, if any, have you had designing and/or developing print or digital documents that integrate words and images (brochures, newsletters, flyers, reports, web sites, etc.)? Please list and describe any projects you have worked on and the technologies used to produce them. What are your expectations in taking this class and what do you hope to accomplish? What, if anything, makes you nervous or unsure in thinking about this class?
Writing, or Designing?
Let’s start with the obvious: I’ve had a lot of experience creating print documents. Granted, few of them have required images. Most instead have been a part of standard academic essay writing. Of course in standard essay writing, the incorporation of images along with the effects that your font and spacing create are often not on our mind, and they’re dealt with by whatever style guide is being used for the assignment; the focus is on the ideas on the paper rather than their visual presentation. I always regretted that most of my classes forced us to write just essays and never include any other elements within our documents, like pictures, and how they generally stifled any creativity or expression of individuality.
In this sense, I think it’s appropriate to say that I’ve been writing, but I haven’t really had many opportunities to design and explore that element of creation.
That’s why I really appreciate classes like this one and ENGL307T (Digital Writing), which required me to go outside the comfort zone of the stuffy academic essay and it’s stilted formatting and into the more fluid reality of writing in a multimodal way. I think writing with multimodal concerns reflects our greater reality: when we read anything, all five of our senses are engaged, and they can serve as opportunities for us as authors to capture and navigate our audience.
My greatest experience in writing multi-modally was in Digital Writing, where students had to try new and different methods of Digital Writing each week and create a new product and reflect upon the efficacy of what was created, as well as the opportunity costs of using the different mediums.
Different Types of Writing
The most interesting, and challenging, was soundwriting. It doesn’t sound intuitive, and it certainly isn’t. The software we used was a little bit tricky, and I couldn’t quite get the hang of it, but it’s definitely an element of “writing” I think I would like to delve more into– especially since the podcast has become such a widespread genre of entertainment.
The limits of Audacity, the sound editing software; the constraints for the class regarding fair use, which is always a concern for the ethical production of media; and the general time crunch in the class limited my soundwriting experience, and I wasn’t overall too thrilled with my product. It’s something I want to revisit and eventually master, although this class may not be the perfect place, I think I may have some exciting opportunities throughout the semester to familiarize myself with the process of soundwriting and working with audio editing software.
I don’t have any major expectations for this class other than for it to be a wonderful experience. Digital Writing was such a pleasure, and genuinely enriching and I know that this class will offer a plethora of opportunities to familiarize myself with new methods of content creation as well as their many considerations, from their challenges and constraints, to their benefits and strengths.
Overall, I am concerned about my workload and overall ability to manage the manifold stressors in life– I’m starting a new internship and moving out of my home for the first time, so there’s a lot going on, especially in these first few weeks of the semester. However, I am confident that with the grace of God I will be able to handle these burdens and challenges as they come and as I ought and I eagerly await to see what blessings will present themselves in the midst of the many briars of life and circumstance.