Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Purpose Statement/Design Plan

Purpose Statement

Purpose: I believe that diabetes is a type of disease that many people do not worry about.  People do not realize the real risks and consequences that may happen if they are not informed about it.  Especially since today in our country there is a significant problem with obesity.  Obesity and being overweight are significant factors as to how people develop diabetes.  I hope to inform people the detrimental effects of having diabetes whether it be type one or two.  I think people will become aware more after my photo essay of how big of a problem it actually is. 
                I was diagnosed with type one diabetes last year coincidentally.  There was a situation in which I got terribly sick and I went to the hospital for that sole reason.  After running some tests on me the physicians had found out I was in fact diabetic.  Also diabetes is a disease that runs in my family.  My grandma on one side of my family has type one diabetes while the other one had type two.  But my father also has type two so it was a big possibility that I would get it as well since diabetes can be genetic.  But I ended up diagnosed with type one which requires the use of insulin. 
                The best outcome out of this essay would people would be really impacted by the photos and information they received and possibly realize they may be candidates as well to having diabetes.  They need to realize the bad choices and possibilities that may be evident in their life.  But they can see that sometimes it is not too late to take action to prevent getting diabetes (type 2) especially when they are at a younger age.  The actions and activities we do now will affect us in the future.  The worst outcome would be the audience takes nothing away from this presentation.  They will be disinterested and believe that they learned nothing from the presentation.  They will not believe how truly terrible it is to have to deal with diabetes and the changes they will have to accommodate too.
Audience: The intended audience for this presentation would be people who are already health conscientious and they have diabetes in their family.  It is also very prevalent in our country that diabetes is an epidemic so it is more than likely the audience is conscientious about their health because diabetes can be genetic and they will more than likely know someone who has diabetes. These people will have the idea that there is a possibility that they may have diabetes themselves but they need an extra push to take action.  They will be the most interested in this presentation because the information is relevant to them and their lifestyle.  They will see all the trouble and hassle they must face if they do get diagnose with diabetes.  The audience will then step back and evaluate everything they saw/ learn from this presentation and think to themselves maybe they should be healthier or exercise more so they don’t have to have a shot of insulin every night before bed or take tons of medication to keep their sugar levels under control. It is imperative that since it is not too late for these people who are prone to diabetes to take precautions.  They change their lifestyle not only for the sake of possibly being diabetic but so they can benefit from being healthy for the rest of their lives.  They will not only be healthy but happy as well.    
Context: I think that the best or sufficient place to give this presentation would be at a health fair at a college.  I say this because the people who go there are already self-conscientious and especially people in their college years can take action before it’s too late especially when they are given information on a topic that relates to them. I see people in that fair stopping by a booth about diabetes and have a person tell them about the systems and them to validate all the other information they give they will show my PowerPoint.  They can show how diabetes can change your everyday life and people must learn to adapt.  I think these will take everything they learn really seriously because as I said this topic is relevant to them and they see how detrimental diabetes is to your health.    

Design Plan

Medium & Production:  I am going to be using power point to convey the idea of the importance of being aware about diabetes.  I will include pictures that deal with the daily life of someone who has diabetes and the tasks they do.  Some of these pictures may be activities or simple pictures of ‘equipment’ they must have/use.  I need to show these pictures those through the perspective of being up close and personal with this disease.  There will be pictures of different perspectives in order to capture the audience attention.  I will have to take pictures of objects from different angles in order to find an angle I believe will be the most effective in keeping my audience interested/focused.  I will be using pictures of stationary objects but action shots will be included as well.  I may show two photos side by side that may be a picture but they will be different while on other pages I may have only one photo or three.

Strategies:
Ethos: I want to be seen as not over threatening or demanding.  I want to be seen as someone who is well informed about this topic.  I will be seen as experienced on diabetes because through the pictures the audience will be well informed in a non-threatening way.  I will be able to validate all the photos and information that is given in the photo essay because I live with having diabetes every day.  The audience will get to essentially see all the differences from my life to theirs.
Pathos: I would like to keep the pictures in color in order to show the the authenticity of the photos.  This will allow to see how these photos are true to what they show. I will be using color as well because I think of how vivid colors are it does draws the audience’s attention and keeps them captivated. I want my essay to come off as important and serious.  I will be using a more formal and serious type of style when writing this essay as well.  I want the writing and theme to have a more serious tone.
Logos:  The format of the content on each page of the essay will be simple.  Most of the pictures will be centered or put side by side and they will be the biggest thing on most of the pages.  This will then draw the audience’s attention directly to the pictures because they are the most significant.  There will be a max of three or four pictures on each page and the pictures and layout will be direct and to the point.  The audience will not have to guess what the picture is of but the writing will work with the photo to demonstrate why certain photos are significant.  Though there will be some contrast in pictures that are side by side if need be to prove a point.  
But the pictures will all be going from a left and right, traditional fashion so they all will mesh together well in a continuous style.

Arrangement:  I will be arranging the photos in a way they will be the center of the pages.  They will be significantly large as i had said before.  But there will be a varying amount of photos on each page of the essay.  There will be at least one photo on each page.  The size of the photos may vary as well and most of the photos are consisted of stationary objects. But some action shots will be incorporated into the essay.  

Photo Essay

Photo Essay Reflection

Reflection

I think doing the photo essay went better than I had expected.  I had expected it to be a long, tedious process but this project actually ended up being really fun.  I did the project on a subject I found really interesting.  When I put the pictures into my PowerPoint I followed my design plan where I left the pictures in color so the audience could see the reality of this disease.  I wanted to provoke the emotion through these pictures which I believe I did.  I feel that the audience have sense of being overwhelmed with everything I do daily in order to be healthy.  I also followed my design plan when I chose the pictures to be in the center of most of my slides; I wanted the audience to focus on them mostly and then the pictures would be supported by the captions that were located on top of the page. Over all, I would say this project was a success but it did take a lot of time.  But it helped that we did the project step by step since no knew how to do a photo essay. I would also say i am happy how my project ended up.  

Thursday, January 22, 2015

AW chapter 1- Meagan DeOcampo

1/22/15
This discussion has lead me to believe that written communication is deeply influenced by the design of a composition.  How something is structured and laid out is deeply impacted by how a person may view something.  Written communication does not solely based upon the topic or how you write about something;  it is very important to get the message you are trying to convey to an audience in an appropriate and effective fashion.  Future employers will look at how well a person can communicate orally but also how they can communicate with their words on paper.  They want to be able to see how creative and innovative a person is while getting the job done.  Design may help a person see writing from a new perspective and allow that person to build upon their own writing skills to become a more experienced writer.  Then this will allow the person to not only become skilled as a person but as a communicator as well.

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

What I Think About Blogs

 I personally think that blogs can be annoying at times but they can be useful as well.  A blog allows people to connect others by finding common interests or even learning more about another person by using their blogs.  Blogs also allow individuals to see related information that may be a use to an essay they may be writing or in their life in general.  I do not think there is a specific person who blogs.  Anyone can blog.  There is easy access around the world to read a blog or to become a “blogger”.
  I think a blog could be a use to me.  It may be used like the article says as place where I can put my creative output.  I may also be allowed to connect with other people as they may see my blog since it is open to the public.  This may a cathartic process like so many other people have said before but it might not be in a sense.  I am a very introverted person and I do not know if I’ll always be comfortable putting really personal thoughts or ideas out on the web for strangers to see. But on certain topics it may be easier to voice my opinions or thoughts if I really am interested or disagree about something.  
   I think a writing class would use a blog allowing the students to connect with each other as they can view each other blogs.  They can understand and learn a little more about each other as they keep viewing the blogs.  But also with these blogs it allows others to have access to information on a topic that the student may have written about that may help them with a task they are doing.  The students will also be allowed in the future to review the work they have previous done to refer to if need be.  I think this blog will be a mix of both a personal blog and one that share links to linking blogs.  We will write our own commentary on certain topics, articles, etc.  But we will also may have some personal stuff on these blogs that show who we are typically.