Blog 9: Project 1

I learned a lot about rhetorical ecologies by doing this project, because it makes it a lot easier to understand the concept of rhetorical ecologies when one creates/sees a visual representation of one. Since a rhetorical ecology incorporates so many different factors and is such a fluid and wide-scoped way of looking at a piece of rhetoric, it can be hard to wrap your head around, so a mind map is a very good way to look at it and understand it better. This new knowledge of rhetorical ecologies will be useful because it will help me reach a deeper understanding of the pieces I analyze in this class, in other classes, and in my non-academic life.

Also, I knew very little about design and visual rhetoric before doing this project, so I learned a lot more about how to use the CRAP design principles to make a piece of visual rhetoric more aesthetically pleasing and clear. I never knew about the aspects of alignment that go into making something look more polished and neat. Also, I never fully realized before how much of an impact proximity has on the connection people perceive between different elements. Knowledge of these design principles will help me make better pieces whenever I make anything with a visual component.

As well as learning about visual design, I also wrote my first memo. My first draft of the memo looked like a regular essay, but when we workshopped our memos in class and Dr. Wilgar helped us format it correctly, I learned a lot about what the different expectations and conventions are when writing a memo versus an essay. Now I will be prepared if I ever need to write another memo.

To prepare for Project 2, I need to choose a discipline and research the conventions of writing in that discipline. As I learned from writing the design memo for this project, a good way to understand the expectations for a type of writing is to look at examples of that style and see what is expected/allowed within that genre. So when I pick which discipline I’m using, I will look for examples of good writing in that discipline as well as researching written and unwritten rules/expectations for that style of writing.