Kaya Wechsler

1.) In this course, what have you learned about yourselfas a writer and a researcher?
How might you apply this learning to future writing situations (in your major and/or future
profession)?

Throughout the duration of this class, I have gained a greater understanding of what it

means to be a writer, and how to make my writing as efficient and powerful as it can be. Before

this class, when writing, I would rarely consider the audience that I was trying to reach; but now

that consideration drives the purpose of my writing. I have learned how to correctly utilize the

rhetorical techniques of ethos, logos, and pathos in my writing in order to appeal to my audience

as best I can; largely due to the guidance and instruction of Losh and Alexander in

Understanding Rhetoric. One quote from the text in particular really stuck with me throughout

my writing; it was, A good researcher asks good questions and finds useful information, but

they're also good organizers. I have attempted to let this quote guide me in my quest of being a

good researcher in my writing. I also employ these criteria in my other academic ventures. In

my spare time I am a research assistant in a psychology lab here on campus, and a large part of it

is reading previous research and journals on the topic that we are currently researching. I feel

that what I learned about the importance of research in this course has helped me gain a better

understanding of not only the importance of the research literature I read, but also how it can

influence our current understanding of the topic. As a psychology major, a large part of my future

profession will include research, and this course has helped me gain a leg up in understanding

the purpose and importance of researching a topic before writing or conducting further research

of your own.
2.) How have the course assignments and in-class discussions influenced your
understanding of the course themes: technology and writing, and digital literacy?

I feel as though all of the assignments and thought pieces throughout this course

challenged me to think critically about the concept of literacy and writing in a digital age. The

one topic that resonated the most with me was our constant discussion of the importance of

audience and genre to guide our writing. I truly feel as though the consideration and definition of

what the audience is for the piece truly helps with developing the structure, content, and purpose

of a paper or blog post. Especially in a digital age, where everything we post on social media has

an audience of its own. I really liked how we always thought about the audience and genre when

approaching an assignment in this class; and it was interesting to read other works with the goal

of deciphering the purpose of the piece.

I think that our assignments and class discussions helped provide an array of opinions and

thoughts on topics. Our discussion of digital literacy, and what it means to be digitally literate,

brought about many important ideas and topics that I had never even considered before; such as

what a privilege it is to be digitally literate in a technology driven world. This class made me

think of things I have never thought of before pertaining to technology and our writing and

communication. The TEDTalk by Sherry Turkle titled Connected, but alone? brought about

such an interesting discussion and analysis that I found myself bringing up the effects of

technology on our communication to all of my friends. I think that this class started a fire in me

to think more critically about the way I communicate, and how these increasingly disconnected

forms of conversation are impacting my relationships.

3.) How have you come to read and write differently when encountering writing in different
digital and visual genres (i.e. websites, digital stories, memes, a comic book style textbook
like Understanding Rhetoric)?

This course had taught me that there are many more ways to reach an audience than by

simply typing your thoughts into a word document. Never before had I considered the power of

infographics, digital stories, memes, and all the other types of genres we have discussed in their

ability to convey a message through image and illustration rather than solely words. I now see

the importance of visual aids in writing; especially when there are a lot of numbers and statistics

involved. I cant help but think of the infographic we discussed in class about laughter being the

best medicine; it presented information in such a visually appealing and easy to follow way that

it made the reader more likely to understand the message that was being conveyed. This strategy

of having a reader work their way through a visual presentation of information was also utilized

in Understanding Rhetoric, in which the words were laced around the visual illustrations of what

was being discussed. I found this presentation of content very visually stimulating, and it kept

my mind entertained and interested much more than a page of words would. This course allowed

me to see the strength of many different types of genres, and I will absolutely be using what I

have learned in my future academic endeavors.

4.) How does your portfolio address 2-3 of the course objectives? Youll need to refer to
specific pieces of your writing as you address these objectives.

One of the course objectives for WRT 205 is to research writing within and across genres,

which I feel is successfully addressed by my peer response when asked to critique Abigails

infographic. In my response, I believe I demonstrated my understanding of the information that

should be included on an infographic and the ways in which this type of genre will benefit the
population she was trying to reach. Since Abigail chose to create an infographic for her research

on social media and eating disorders, I gave her the advice to include statistics and graphs in

order to really drive home her message to her audience. One of the main purposes of

infographics is to present information in a visual way, so she should be sure to include these

images in an illustrative way. Since she claimed that the prevalence of eating disorders is

growing, she should be sure to include these visual portrayals of these statistics on her

infographic in order to strengthen her message. I also advised her to use data from previous

research in order to strengthen her ethos when addressing such an important topic.

Another course objective for this class was to learn to research writing as a situated

process. I believe that I prove that I met this course objective with my inclusion of my datasheet

individual reflection from the digital platform assignment. In this piece, I discuss how I learned

the importance of catering my method of research to the audience that I am trying to address. In

the case of the digital platform assignment, the audience was other WRT 205 students. Due to

this, my main method of research was hands-on, playing around with the site myself in order to

gauge the accessibility and efficiency of the site for a student like myself. I learned through this

assignment that the ways in which I research things must change with each audience I am trying

to reach. Because of my hands-on research approach, I was able to come to the conclusion that

Weebly is an easily navigable site that I believe all students would have no trouble using for their

e-portfolio.