Reflective Letter

Reflective Letter

                When choosing the topic of labeling earlier this year, I was unsure how much research I could discover on a topic which not many think about often.  I had uncertainty in the way I could present this information and make it relevant for my target audience; pondering how interesting the topic of labeling could be to people.  However all those thoughts changed after I conducted some formal research on the topic, there are many other people in the world who find this issue important as I do!  Then using the tools learned in English 102, I could further embellish on my ideas and find new ways to either support or complicate my thoughts.  Upon my arrival at the English 102 level, I figured I could find some credible sources for my ideas and throw a couple quotes in here and there, cite my sources and call it good; however, learning about using my sources to speak and to complicate my topic of interest has shown light upon my writing.  Also, practicing lateral research helped me find different types of sources I never would have thought looking for; the main way I used this strategy was looking at the bibliographies of author’s work I enjoyed reading and researching their sources.  In my first extended bibliography, my first writing assignment for college, I did not use any quotes from my source, only paraphrasing what she (Hohenstein) stated in her work.  More recently in my writing, I have been using direct quotes and commentation as a tool to better express myself and my ideas.  For example, from the writing for my website I say…

She says in her write up that “studies have begun to note how exhibits and labels shape visitor’s expectations and activities,” which is prevalent in the actions a person performs when a label is present (Velez 168).

This shows the reader that I have done my research on the sources I am using and shows my understanding of the topic, more so than ‘repeat quoting’ where a writer states their idea, then uses a quote as back up without introducing the quote or commentating about it.  Skill sets like these are what influences how a writer effectively conveys his/her message while being concise and professional.

                While the information above briefly stated how my writing as a whole has changed, the way in which I display my work has yet to be explained.  Knowing the expectation of creating a website as the ‘final project’ of Unit 2, I was brainstorming throughout the weeks prior to the assigning of the website to think of ways to display my work.  Using Wysocki’s Multiple Media of Text as the basis for how I would set up my website; I remembered to take into account my audience and who I was writing for, opposed to simply writing to fulfill the minimum expectations for English 102.  For instance, I would not use a font that looked non-professional because then my website would look cheap and poorly constructed, or a font face like wingdings where the reader would not take my work seriously.  The ‘look’ I was aiming for in creating my website was a clear, clean, colorful, and vertical (the page flows from top to bottom opposed to side to side) page layout where the user would have no trouble or issues navigating page to page.  The idea for the vertical style page has to do with personal preference and the way people read; reading big wide sentences that take up the width of one’s browser (paragraphs that are more wide than long) are not as aesthetically pleasing as a long newspaper like column accompanied by imagery.  Therefore using pictures in my work and creating the two-column style layout gives that newspaper-informative-feel which relates back to my audience proposal, where I aim to inform and educate readers about the effects and benefits of proper labeling.  I first thought of that idea while previewing the example website about deforestation, mainly because I did not like the text boxes crammed in the page.  Also, if you notice while browsing amongst the different pages that each image above the title is different and unique in its own way, is designed that way for a reason.  My first couple pages are red images above the text because red is a very bright color and draws in the attention.  However the last page is purple because to me purple is a color of relief and tranquility, therefore having read all the information before, I want to give the reader a feeling of completion.  The color pattern for my pages is as follows: RED RED BLUE BLUE PURPLE.  And yes this was done on purpose because the red and blue mix to create purple.  And lastly, the use of images in my website laid in with the text gives the article a more complicated feel instead of text first, picture second, because this is too predictable.  This combination also illustrates the words that go along side of it as demonstrated in the second tab of my website titled “Labeling Makes a Difference.”  America, a very visual society, will judge the way something looks before they read the fine print, which is why I tried to make the best mot unique website I could from the resources and time given.  Overall I am very pleased with the way my website looks and its professionalism, I think the aesthetic factor of a website directly correlates to its credibility and I believe my readers will agree with my work based upon that reason.

Website Link: http://discoverlabeling.weebly.com