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Transformations

Older https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B34wlfoOump4RzZNek4yVWFHWWc/view?usp=sharing Younger https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B34wlfoOump4Q0dIMkFxalhRZFU/view?usp=sharing For WP3 I transformed the scholarly article Do we really know what makes us happy? A review of the economic literature on the factors associated with subjective well-being by Paul Dolan into a BuzzFeed article for and older genre, and a high school graduation speech from a principal or a dean for the younger audience. This article goes into depth to analyze data and reports from studies on happiness linked to economics and psychology to determine what aspects of life provide the highest level of happiness. To make these transformations, I had to make certain choices, particularly choice of moment and choice of word to fit conventions (McCloud). Article Summary: In the academic article Do we really know what makes us happy? A review of the economic literature on the factors associated with subjective well-being, Paul Dolan sets out to find out what aspects of life make people the most happy. Dolan found that money is only responsible for happiness to a certain extent, mainly stopping after ones needs are met. It was also found that a mid level of education is responsible for happiness as well. Health, both physical and mental, is also important for one to be happy throughout their life. It was also found that those who are social, whether it be in the community, with friends and family, or in an intimate relationship, tend to be happier than those who abstain from social activity. The most important part of this article that is not directly stated but strongly implied is that a balance of happiness factors is key so that one doesn’t over nourish one area and let the others perish. For the older audience I transformed my scholarly article into a BuzzFeed article titled “Happiness: What Causes It? How Can We Get It (You Might Be Surprised).” The intended audience for my transformation are early to mid twenty year olds who are still in to news sources that have a pop culture-y feel to them. BuzzFeed articles are characterized by short, catchy article titles that try to entice the reader to read them, smaller titles for each part of the article indicating the subject of a certain part of the article, simple conversational styled dialogue, and lots of visuals. To transform the title of my scholarly piece, I had to reword it to make it shorter and sound catchier so that someone skimming a website for interesting articles could read it quickly and hopefully be intrigued enough to click the hyperlink. Do we really know what makes us happy? A review of the economic literature on the factors associated with subjective well-being was not going to cut it because it is rather long and seems like it would be quite a boring read. Instead, I rewrote the title by taking the general idea of the article and rewriting it to read “Happiness: What Causes It? How Can We Get It?” and below in parenthesis “You Might Be Surprised”. I chose to add the part in parenthesis because it uses mystery to make the potential reader question what they thought they knew about happiness, and make them more likely to read the article to see if they really are surprised by the information in it. Also, I chose to include titles to each subcategory in my article so the reader knows what they are reading about as the article is separated into parts including “Money,” “Education,” “Health,” etc. Both of these title moves are made by myself and those who actually write for BuzzFeed because young adults browsing the Internet generally want to read something that is interesting and easy to read. My BuzzFeed article also used simpler language than the scholarly article and had a conversational tone because a BuzzFeed article is supposed to be easy, light reading. The reader is not supposed to be bombarded with sophisticated language and terms that they might not know the meaning of. In this effect, I omitted phrases such as reverse causation and acronyms like SWB that would only make sense if the reader read the article itself. In addition, I referenced my article but didn’t cite it within the article so the reader wouldn’t get tripped up every time it was referenced. I also took a conversational tone when transforming my article. I used the words we and you that aren’t used in the article, as well as phrases like hit the books. These moves make my article take on a more casual tone and bring it away from the scholarly article genre, and help turn it into a pop culture news source/information article genre. Lastly, my BuzzFeed article featured a large amount of visuals. Visuals are used to make my article more attractive. There is a visual next to the title hyper link, visuals before every sub category, and of course visuals in the margins that consist of advertisements and links to other articles. An actual BuzzFeed article take on this form so I decided to be artistic and make a recreation so my article takes on that pop culture website feel. For my transformation aimed at a younger audience, I transformed my article into a graduation speech that would be given to the class of 2016 by a dean or a principal on the subject of happiness. Graduation speeches tend to be formal, addressing the graduating class and giving them advice for the next step in their lives as they are generally given during a farewell ceremony or the actual graduation. My graduation speech on happiness uses formal language because it is intended to be given in front of the entire graduating class, the parents, grandparents, and other relatives of the graduates. Because of the seriousness of the setting and the high image of the principal or dean giving the speech, the casual tone is abandoned for a more sincere one. To fit this convention, I didn’t use slang or contractions, and made sure there are no cacophonic sentences if it were to be read out loud. Also, my graduation speech addressed the class of 2016 directly since the principal or dean wants to give them the advice. I used words such as you and we so the speech seems as if it is spoken directly at the class so that it doesn’t seem like the speech giver is reading some script that uses third person. Also, I used the phrase my friends a couple times to help signify that the class has now graduated and is no longer under the faculty, but peers among them who have joined them through advancement in life. It helps signify that the class is moving on, and that their high school memories are to be cherished and celebrated, as most high schools would wish this of their students. Ultimately I took the information in my scholarly article and transformed it into two different genres based on the conventions of each genre in question. I made specific moves to make this happen. Since BuzzFeed is a pop culture information source, I had to make my boring scholarly article sound more interesting using catchy titles, simple language, and imagery so it would stand out. Because of these conventions, I had to use summarizations when writing about my article. For the graduation speech, I had to take the information in my article and turn it in to sort of a lesson that contains formal language and unifying language. I also had to make the information applicable to 17 and 18 year olds because they are the ones who would be using it in the future. In conclusion, I had to “leap into identities,” (Losh, Alexander) to transform my article by putting on artist/writer’s shoes and fulfill conventions.

Thlog 8

     Something I learned this week that I really enjoyed was the writing like a photographer analogy.  This is a good analogy because it uses aspects of photography to explain what I should be doing in my writing.  For example, framing.  If the photographer wants to capture a certain picture, they are going to frame it so they only capture the thing they are trying to take a picture of without adding anything unimportant or extra.  Also, they don't cut out the focus by zooming in too small.  Another photography to writing analogy that I thought was cool/helpful is the concept of foreground and background.  The background is important because surrounds the focus of the picture, but it isn't what the picture is about.  The foreground is what the picture is focused on.  It is highlighted and usually closer to the viewers perspective.  If the background gains too much focus, the foreground gets lost among it.  This is an important concept to understand as a writer because we must include some background information so the focus doesn't stand alone, but zoom in so we focus on the intended topic and cut out anything extra. 
     Another useful tool that I can use to improve my writing is summarization.  Summarizing something is very simple, but I never thought about summarizing my own writing.  I think making summaries of my paragraphs or of my article as a whole can help me determine if all the information I provided is needed or not, and if my article or paragraph does what it is supposed to do, whether its persuading, speculating, or informing.
     Something else I learned that will be very helpful in my writing project 3 is the concept of putting on the artist's shoes.  When we put on the artist's shoes, we are looking at something from their perspective.  We are trying to see what they see, why they did something.  This translates to writing when I am trying to transform information into a new genre because I put on the writer's shoes, and see what they did.  Most importantly I analyze the rhetorical devices they used and try to see why they did it, and then apply it myself.  This is not only am important writing skill but also an important life skill.  Stepping into someone's shoes to see why they did something is useful in determining motives and seeing if something is justified. 

PB3A

           A topic that I thought that could be cool to transform from an academic paper to different genres is the topic of happiness.  Since I almost used happiness as the topic for my WP2 I’ve read plenty on it and know there is a lot that can be said and done with this topic.  For my PB3, I think I am going to use a study or piece that tries to answer “what makes us happy?”.  These articles often mention how it isn’t money or power that make us happy, but rather helping others and being in positive relationships, so I am most likely going to focus on those aspects.

            For the transformation aimed at a group of people older than me, I was thinking I could do a few things.  The first one that I thought would be an interesting transformation would be talking the information and turning it into something like a buzzfeed article.  It would be something like “You wouldn’t believe what makes you happy” or “What makes us happy (its not what you think).”  By doing something like this, I would take the information from the article, like how money or power doesn’t make you happy, list them on their own little slide, and offer commentary on how studies show that these don’t make you happy.  Then I would do the same for the things that do make people happy according to the study.  Something else I could do for the genre geared towards adults is maybe an article in a cosmopolitan magazine or something similar to that.  This article would debunk some of the false ideas of the things that make people happy and suggest ways to be a happier person.

            The genre geared towards younger people proved to be harder to think of ideas for.  Also, I think this transformation will be more difficult.  The first genre I thought I could transform my article to would be a children’s book.  I like this idea because I know it’s feasible, especially with my topic.  To do this, I could make a kids group of friends the different ideas of what makes people happy, and make him/her get along better with the ideas proven to make us happier.  I think this would be cool, but it is also generic, so I’m most likely going to go with something more creative.  Something else I could do is something similar to that poem The Old Man and the Little Boy we looked at in class.  It would be some sort of simple poetic biography with simple pictures around the outside.  This would be similar to something you might find in a child’s room on their wall in fancy writing in a frame.  It would be almost like a piece of life advice or guidance.

            The most difficult part of this project is figuring out what genres I am going to transform my information into, and how I am going to do it.  The tricky part of this is that I’m sure some people younger than me read buzzfeed articles, and I’m sure some adults would love to read a poem about happiness, but I’m using the intended audience so I hope that will be okay.

Thlog 7

This week in writing 2 I learned a lot of techniques that I can use to make my writing better.  The first technique I can include in my writing process is knowing what I am writing about.  This doesn't mean just knowing the little bits that I am going to include, but knowing the subject or topic thoroughly, knowing the ins and outs, and even knowing about the things that I don't think i am going to include in my writing.  I think this is a helpful tip because it is much easier to see the bigger picture when you are educated on what you are going to write.  Knowing the subject thoroughly also can help you make connections that you might have not made.

           Another process tip that can help me as a writer is drawing out a mind cluster map when thinking about what I am going to write or planning how I am going to present the information.  This is extremely helpful in my case because I struggle the most with how I am going to organize my information when I am getting ready to write a paper.  This can be a helpful tool to create an outline for my paper as well.  Also, when thinking about what I am going to write, I always come up with cool ideas but then forget them and they disappear forever.  Using the thought bubble map, I can write down my first order thoughts relating to each sub-topic so they are organized and not lost.

           A tip I learned to help check if my paper makes sense and flows is to “turn it into a poem” by separating it by sentences.  This can be helpful because it isolates the sentences individually so they stand out.  By separating them, it is easier to see them as individuals, and see if the previous one connects to the current one, and see if that flows into the next.  This technique also is helpful to see if I need to add a sentence, or delete one. 

           I also learned that sentences can be one or two short words, or be a lengthy with 70+ words, and that there are reasons that a writer would use super short or super long sentences.  For example, a long sentence can be used for in depth analysis and be packed with information.  A short sentence can follow this up and be effective because it is a change of pace and grabs the reader’s attention.  A short follow up sentence is a move that is both stylistic and useful that authors use to add a little variation that I personally am a fan of.

Trees and Journal

The moves I see in these videos all have to do with how the artists go about painting their trees.  For example Bob Ross does less detailed tree groupings and uses silhouettes to create trees in his paintings.  The disney animators however have different moves, like painting a tree through the lens of an architect or letting the paint blend ion the canvass to give life and movement to a still painting.

The artists describe what they are doing by referring to the techniques they use to make their trees.  I noticed it is a combination of little tweaks and additions that all add up to create a specific style for each of the artists.  They direct our attention to why they are doing something--why the paint is mixing on the page, why lighter fluid is being mixed with the paint, why they are starting with a basic black silhouette.

Each artist had their own style when creating trees.  Bob Ross used very basic designs that added together to create a detailed picture.  He used a series of brush strokes to create a forest of "happy little trees." The disney painters also had their own styles that resulted in very different outcomes of the same subject based on their interpretation.  One painter's tree came out to be abstract because he saw the tree as a structural being with less detail and more bold outlines and edges.  Another saw the tree as full of life and alive, so he gave it movement by mixing the paint on the page and using pallet knifes instead of brushes to give it a wispy willowing look.  Another went for three dimensions using shadows and outlines and the last used realism, focusing in on the details of the bark.

      My rough draft was really rough because I couldn't figure out how to say what I wanted to say, so basically I had trouble putting my thoughts onto the paper.  It was frustrating because when I wrote them down, my organized thoughts that sounded so good in my head no longer sounded so good.       Pretty happy with my final draft since I cleaned things up a bit and made things more clear.

The question of “what does this mean” helped because they reminded me I had to go back and define terms that I knew but the reader might not necessarily know.  Also, the question of “how does this relate to exigence” reminded me to relate my evidence back to my original claim.

Thlog 6

This week in Writing 2, I learned a lot through the weekly process and writing tips.  A tip that helped me a lot is the tip about looking at a picture of something before you write about it or if you are stuck.  I used this while writing my first draft to get started because looking at pictures of my topic brought ideas to my mind.  I thought this was a very helpful tip to use when I was looking for information, or felt like I had nothing to write about.  Something else I learned from the weekly writing tips is that there are sooooo many ways to say the word say that I can use to improve my writing.  Using words like convey or exemplify can make my writing sound less boring and repetitive, and also give it more meaning as the synonyms of say have slightly varying definitions.  I also used this technique in my WP2.  Something else that I learned that can be incorporated into my writing to better establish my credibility is the idea of using hedged language.  Hedged language is using words in a sentence to make it less absolute and leaving room for error and deviation from a claim.  It is hard to claim that all people or every one likes something because even if it is something very likeable, someone, somewhere might not like that thing, therefore making the person responsible for the claim inaccurate and less credible.  This was helpful in my writing project because there are most definitely exceptions to my claims and the claims of the articles I chose to cite in my writing.  Something else In class that I picked up is that I need to further develop style in my writing.  In my opinion, when a writer has style, it helps distinguish them as a writer.  They stand out.  Also, I find that reading a piece that has a distinct style makes it more interesting and fun to read, essentially making the piece more reader friendly which is an important piece of any article, essay, document, etc.  Also, I learned about parallelism.  Parallelism is a stylistic tool that writers use to match ideas and make connections.  Parallelism also helps make a piece of writing more reader friendly as our brains are wired to recognize and expect patterns, and feel somewhat satisfied when one is recognized or come across.