Project 1
Project 1
Project 1 was very different than any other composition I've written in the past. Its purpose was to work with new terms we've learned in the class, and to begin to think critically about how texts are designed to impact an audience, judge a text’s effectiveness, and to consider how distribution and circulation affect a text’s meaning. Simply stated, I was assigned to analyze any text of my choosing. As described in my first project, I decided to critique the short film "The World of Tomorrow" by Don Hertzfeldt. What I neglected to remember when choosing this text, was its in-depth portrayal of symbolism and analysis of the human conscience...not as easy to analyze as I imagined it to be. Nonetheless, I pursued my lengthy analysis of the text. Contrary to previous English assignments, I had never written an analysis paper in APA format. This project helped further my understanding of new vocabulary and helped ensue confidence in writing in APA format. As a writer, I believe this composition to highlight my ability to effectively conduct research and compile information into a neat concise text. It also helped mold my understanding of rhetoric and its ultimate effect on an audience. Overall, this project was extremely helpful in preparation for the following assignments and projects.
Project 2
In Project 2 I was assigned to conduct an inquiry-based research project about a topic of my choosing. Ultimately, the purpose of this project was to show how composing in a different genre with different modalities allows a composer to investigate ulterior methods to compose and distribute texts. I found this assignment to be a great way to explore and experiment with a genre fairly new to me, along with an extremely familiar topic. I decided to conduct a podcast on music influence. Considering I had never composed using a podcast, this project posed to be very time consuming and difficult. That being said, I was excited for the challenge and ready to put my best efforts forth. My composition process began with me
researching various podcasts, so I could familiarize myself with the various conventions and format of the genre. From here, I began my extensive research on my topic. My research skills definitely improved during my second project, due to the fact that many of my sources came from peer-reviewed websites such as Google Scholar and JSTOR. These differ from regular website articles because they often come from book or website excerpts that were 1-50 pages long. This project called for a lot of reading and handpicking critical information! After I had conducted my research and cited my sources, I wrote and recorded my podcast. Lastly, I used the various conventions of the genre to compile a well-researched podcast through a video editing system. This project taught me that composition and writing can be successfully conducted in various genres, and that music does, in fact, hold a large influence on society.
Project 3
Tumblr Blog:
click me
Hashtag: #musicmakesme
My goal in Project 3 was to create three different texts that are authentic and seek to accomplish something in the real world. I decided to use my Project 2 topic of music influence and translate it into something I could circulate. By Project 2 I knew how influential music was to me, but I was curious how music personally influenced others. With this thought in mind, I began to design and circulate my three genres: Tumblr blog, hashtag, and flyer. From this assignment, I learned how incredibly important it is to know who you're trying to appeal to. As Mrs.Cicchino stated, "not everybody is your audience...some people don't really care what you're talking about." I came to find that to be very true! Beyond the classroom, I found a very hard time circulating my material and obtaining submissions. In order to expand my audience, I followed many similar blogs on music, in order to share common interests in hopes of a follow back or reblog on Tumblr. Though I did not reach as many followers as I'd like, I believe with a stronger follower base, I would achieve a higher rate of circulation. Obtaining more followers takes time and effort and during this project, time was not on my side. Within the three weeks of composing, my ultimate goal was to find how music affected others and through social media submissions, I achieved my goal. My favorite submission included a quote from a boy named Ben:
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"What is music? Technically, it’s just vibration. Vibrating the particles in the air and controlling the frequency at which those particles are manipulated. But there is a lot more to it than that. There is an emotional component to music too. It’s a time machine, and a rocket ship. It’s a microscope. Or a telescope. I’ve definitely spent more than a thousand dollars on live music experiences, and I am okay with that. I think music is so beautiful and powerful because we are meshing those particles in the air with our conscious thoughts, feelings, and desires. We make physical matter into something that isn’t physically tangible; Us. I don’t consider all the money I’ve spent to be a waste. Some of the most prolific moments of my life so far have involved live music. You haven’t lived until you’ve danced your ass off with hundreds of complete strangers in the woods at 2AM. The truth is, we are not strangers. We are all human. And music brings us together. I owe much of my personal experiences of happiness and mental breakthroughs to music. And that is what music means to me."
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I have barely scratched the surface with this project. Above all, Project 3 has helped reaffirm my original argument that not only is music entertaining, but that it is incredibly influential. I would like to continue circulating and maintaining my Tumblr blog even after this assignment is completed. I want to continue to hear peoples stories of how music has influenced their lives, and apply it to my very own.
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Want to follow me on my journey towards discovering how music influences others? click here
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Flyer:
