WP3: Bazerman Transformed

Older Audience Transformation: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8FXUB2Y5mTOallKbXVBQVBDZVk

Younger Audience Transformation: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8FXUB2Y5mTOcTlXckdER0duc0U

Chadwyck Moore

De Piero

Writing 2

May 29, 2016

Conversations in the Classroom: Transforming Bazerman’s Conversational Model

            The academic article I chose to transform is Bazerman’s A Relationship between Reading and Writing: The Conversational Model, which covers a new method of teaching writing. Bazerman proposes to approach writing with a focus on the individual voice of the author instead of the traditional reading drills, the key point being to emphasize and develop a writer’s individual voice over teaching writing as a discipline. This is accomplished by having students comment on one another’s work and refer to readings in a “conversational” manner--a focus on engagement and analysis of the text. For the transformations, I aimed to create something for the classroom. I played with the image of the teacher referring to a handbook on how to teach the class and the student’s consulting a poster as a reference.

When working for a younger audience I got to thinking about what kids liked. This got me reminiscing about being in elementary and how the classrooms were decorated. I recalled being in class, seeing posters related to the subject on the wall, and wanted to create something similar. The students I was aiming for would be of a younger age, elementary school (6-13 year olds) specifically. I decided upon this audience because I felt that this age group would be the ones to be taught the conversational model, as learning under the new model should start as soon as possible. Being pre-teens—a rather unfocused stage in everyone’s life—I knew that the audience would expect something to grab their attention. Their lives as students (and the infographic meaning to be a reference) would also mean they would need the graphic to be easy to understand. The kids would also expect entertainment, bland readings are hard to push through and for a pre-teen, Bazerman would be a Boreman!

To meet their expectation of ease of reading, I focused on my framing and visuals. McCloud places emphasis on the importance of visual framing in how the viewer reacts to a piece. Since confusion is not a reaction I wished to incite, I chose a no-nonsense format that clearly separated each section of information. Every header is placed evenly apart from one another and assigned their own little block. All images are viewed from the side or at a slight angle and placed in a uniform fashion. These framing decisions continue into the visual aspect. Posters are expected to be visually appealing and the appearance is what attracts viewers in the first place. These images are used to keep the student’s attention as a visual aid can aid with understanding. To further meet the visual expectations of the audience, I added the use of color to the image. Black and white posters do not inspire attentiveness, so I made sure to make the poster was colorful. The combination of color with entertaining images encourages students to pay attention to the poster.

McCloud states that the intensity of presentation can help the viewer care about what they are looking at. Taking this into account I began to research class posters and found that each one used small images. I figured that these images exist as attention grabbers –and knowing I needed to grab attention—I decided to add my own drawings. These images reference one of Bazerman’s main ideas and are adjacent to each header. Each one is presented in a comic style to better appeal to elementary schoolers. My personal favorite is the “Rhetorparrot”, who represents Bazerman’s criticism of students who practice the traditional model sounding like parrots. The parrot (like the other images) is a quick reference for students; they can look at the parrot and remember what they should not be doing. These daring doodles ensure that even the most spacey student will have to come down to Earth to view!

I used a variety of moves to appeal to audience expectations.  My “Candy Colors” are used to grab the attention of the viewer and make the poster more visually appealing. Color makes the poster more fun to look at; the images looked boring without color. A better looking image means a more attentive viewing of the piece. In addition to color, “Fanciful Fonts” were placed throughout the poster. Multiple fonts were used to keep the information pleasant to read. Since the poster is a visual medium, the way the information is displayed is just as important as what is said. Times New Romans is a perfect font for an essay, but it’s a bland way to draw attention. By using “fanciful fonts” I was able to ensure that the viewer of the poster would be more likely to read what is written.

            Sticking with the idea of the classroom, I aimed to appeal to the teachers of these elementary schoolers. My goal when transforming Bazerman’s piece into something for the educator was to maintain his information, like his descriptions of the model itself, but to shift it into a clear how to. The handbook is a visually appealing alternative to the full article, providing key info for young educators to shape their class with. The audience would expect to see the important parts of the conversational model, as they have likely read the article themselves. Teachers would also want any reference that was provided for them to be professional and easy to understand, a reference handbook shouldn’t be complex. To meet these expectations I made moves that aided focused on the visual appeal and content of the handbook.

            I used professional language without the defining of terms in the manual. I decided to write in this manner to create a sense of credibility. Since the manual was written for professionals who already possess some knowledge of English, I felt that it was unnecessary to provide them definitions to terms. This move provides a sense of “insider knowledge”, something noted in Boyd’s Murder Rhetorically and can build a sense of credibility to the work. This credibility is necessary for a handbook; no teacher would want to refer to a book if they felt the author wasn’t knowledgeable.

No one wants to read a dry manual. To avoid this, I used images, colors, and fonts to create a visual appeal to the handbook. I got the idea from my employee handbook at the library; the ideas are separated by colored headers and accompanied by images. By using images the booklet avoids being a block of boring text. Throughout the manual I changed the font style, color, and size. I made this decision to make the handbook more visually appealing. I got the idea to shift the fonts from Writing Spaces where they varied font styles throughout the comic for effect. Even though this was more professional genre, I felt that the same concept could be applied. I changed the size of the headers that open chapters and colors of sub-headers to make the handbook easy to follow. By playing with the font, I was able to make the handbook easy to follow and easier on the eyes.

            My transformation of Bazerman’s A Relationship between Reading and Writing: The Conversational Model into something applicable to the elementary school English classroom was created with the specific needs of each audience in mind. I had to take influence from the class readings as well as real-world examples to create something useful for the classroom. Through varying writing decisions, I successfully transformed Bazerman’s model into something that  the two separate audiences could understand.

Works Cited

Bazerman, Charles. "A Relationship between Reading and Writing: The Conversational Model." College English 41.6 (1980): 656-61. JSTOR. Web. 29 May 2016.

Boyd, Janet. "Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking)." Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. By Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky. Vol. 2. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor, 2010. 87-100. Print.

Enterprises, Trend. States of Matter. Digital image. Teachchildren.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 May 2016. <http://www.teachchildren.com/t-38120.html>.

Library, UCSB. Library Student Employee Handbook. Santa Barbara: UCSB Library, 2013. Print.

Losh, Elizabeth M., Jonathan Alexander, Kevin Cannon, and Zander Cannon. "Writing Identities." Understanding Rhetoric: A Graphic Guide to Writing. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 113-39. Print.

McCloud, Scott. “Writing With Pictures.” Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York. HarperPerrenial, 1994.

Publishing, McDonald. Algebra Poster Set. Digital image. McDonaldpublishing.com. McDonald Publishing, n.d. Web. 29 May 2016. <https://www.mcdonaldpublishing.com/p-718-algebra-poster-set.aspx>.

Thlog #8

Finals are steadily approaching and with that our WP3. Everything has really come down to this, with each writing tip and project going towards making this great. That being said, WP3 has been a difficult start. I struggled with finding a transformation I was satisfied with, but have finally decided upon creating a info-graphic for the youth and an advertisement for the older. The transformations have been tedious to work through, but all the assignments we did over analyzing genre and visual literacy helped me together.

            Class covered visual literacy, the importance of paraphrasing, and summary. Visual literacy from the McCloud reading was the most helpful to me as I wanted to use images in my WP3. His points of framing and flow helped me understand the intricacies of images when used in genre. This understanding was focused on comics, but I feel that it helped me better conceptualize how I wanted to form my info-graphic. Paraphrasing and summary taught us how to pick out what was important in readings instead of just listing words. This reflection was important to me as I feel like the activity influenced my decision to transform Bazerman’s conversational model—as it covered the importance of summary.

            As I finish WP3 I can’t help but look back at my last writing projects. I feel that I have improved over the period of the course and am confident that I can convey my transformations well. The openness of the prompt was intimidating at first, but it’s been a lot of fun to work through.

PB3A

PB3A

            The scholarly article I chose is the Conversational Model by Bazerman. The article details a different method of teaching writing to students. This model is in opposition of the traditional writing model that treated students as part of a historic tradition. The conversational model instead focuses on the individual voice of each writer, focusing on how they can contribute to any form of writing through conversing with readings. These “conversations” take form through encouraged engagements with texts. These engagements have students paraphrase, summarize, and respond to writings. Through this process students learn the nuances of writing and how to apply it in their own work. This model is executed by the teacher whose assignments center on the student drawing from themselves instead of regurgitating what is being read. These assignments include periodic writing projects supplemented by small prepatory assignments. According to Bazerman, the conversational model creates writers that will be able to contribute to any field that they enter; conversational model education provides tools for creating new writing instead of information of past writings.

Genre for Older Readers: Pamphlets

Older readers would want to understand the idea quickly, possibly to teach it to younger people such as students. Having a pamphlet would also provide a means for images, which could make understanding the piece clearer. The pamphlet would be tri-folded, creating six columns for writing and images. This pamphlet would have text boxes that use large text to make seeing the letters easier for the elderly. The focus would be on providing a brief understanding of what the article covered, honing in on the important parts. The cover would be a title and intro, similar to an abstract, which would attract the reader into opening the pamphlet. The other columns would cover each individual aspect of the conversation model in detail. The pamphlet would incorporate images that could provide examples of texts, diagrams that could showcase the education process, and mock prep assignments. These writings and images could combine to make a visually appealing method to learn what Bazerman was detailing in the article.

Genre for Younger Readers: Poster

            Turning Bazerman’s conversational model into a poster could work for younger audiences because it provides a one shot way of conveying the information as simply as possible. Since young children can vary in reading ability, with Bazerman’s text likely above their growing reading abilities, a visual cue can offer kids another way to know what they author means. The poster could have a book and person having a chat with the words “conversational model” on top. Below the conversation could be three separate headers “accurate understanding of prior comments”, “reacting to reading” and the other parts of the conversational model. Each header would be paired with an image depicting the idea. The use of images is similar to the scientific model posters placed in middle schools, with a picture that shows each step instead of text detailing it. I believe focusing on images appeals to a younger genre because cartoons can be drawn to entertain and educate them about how to approach their writing. Although the poster is limited into how deep it can go, kids do not need a detailed analysis of the model. The poster would provide a means of understanding the model without losing their attention or grasp of the main ideas.

Thlog #7

The quarter has flown by and we recently finished the final draft of WP2. It was a lot to work through, but it is always rewarding to finish something you have been working on for some time. As usual, we got some writing dope writing tips in class. Poemifying your paper was the most helpful to me as breaking down the paper line by line made sense. I could see it being a quick way to check how sentences flow together and making sure the transitions are strong. This would probably combine well with reverse outlining and be another way to check how your ideas are forming in a paragraph.

This week’s class was a tad different with Wednesday’s class being hosted online instead of meeting in person. The online class was a nice change of pace (lunch and writing were made for each other!) and reminded me of online courses I had taken in the past. We covered the moves of painters, which was a different type of analyzation. We tend towards studying moves in the written form so the shift to visual analysis was interesting. That being said, I don’t see how the videos connected to PB3A. The videos seemed like another moves assignment so I’m curious to see the connection appear. Overall, the online class was helpful with the Q&A at the end being the best part. Having some of the questions be answered lessened the pre-paper confusion.

WP3 seems the most different from the other assignments we’ve done t so far and I’m wondering which topic I’ll decide to go with. Genre transformation is new to me so learning that process may be a challenge but I’m hopeful that it will work out well. This being the final project before our portfolio, I may as well go out with a bang!

Video Reflection: Bob Ross & Disney Tree Painters

Some of the moves present in the video are soft and technical speech. Both Bob Ross and Disney narrators explain their steps technically, stressing why they place a line in a certain area. The speech is always soft and steady, with no real change in tone through the entire video. This monotone speech is broken slightly by Bob Ross with him occasionally reaching a higher tone to stress a point, but still tends towards one tone.

The description of the art is where the painters are again similar. The Disney painter describe the concept of their painting, describing how the saw the tree and what they wished to capture. When they begin painting the tree, particular focus is given to the line work, with each painter referring to why they used lines in a certain way. The line work is also stressed by Bob Ross, who in his mountain video made particular note of how to create the hard shapes of the mountain. Both videos have a focus on the paint being used, with Bob Ross having a specific name for each shade of a color, and the Disney painters personal interview showcasing the different paints they chose to use.

I would characterize Bob Ross’ style as individualistic and the Disney painter’s as collectivist. Bob Ross is the only one painting whatever he wants, he does not refer to anyone for how he should draw a tree--he just does it. The Disney painters refer to one another for everything. A scene is not animated until it is clear that they are on the same page, with painters drawing outside of their own artistic style to reach the goal of consistency. Bob Ross’ individualistic style is good for his audience as they are educational videos that aim to teach the viewer, who is likely only painting on one canvas for themselves, how to paint. The Disney painters are collectivist because they paint to create a consistent animation meaning their own individual styles must be thrown to the wayside.

Journal Responses 5/11/16

Q1. So, in the end, how’d your WP2 paper go?  What were you happy with?  What weren’t you?  Why?  Be specific!  I feel that my WP2 went well. I liked the topic I chose and found it to be genuinely interesting to learn about. I feel like that helped me break down the conventions and moves more. I was happy with how I analyzed the sources, I feel that the points I made were accurate and well defended. I am also happy with the overall flow tof the paper. I felt that my ideas flowed well into one another and was an improvement upon WP1. On the negative end I feel that I could have written a better intro and conclusion. I always struggle with writing an intro and conclusion, with on being satisfactory and the other weak. I still feel that the intro and conclusion were better than WP1, but not as good as I would have liked. Overall, I am happy with my WP2 and feel that I applied what I’ve learned over the course well into making the paper better.

Q2. Which 2 or 3 comments that you received yesterday were the most helpful for you?  Why? The comments about my original intro and sentence flow were the most helpful to me. My original intro was fairly weak, I tried to do some sort of question thing that didn’t work out that well. I kept it there for future revision and couldn’t think of a way to make it work out. The comment kinda confirmed what I was thinking. The comment about sentence flow was helpful because it pointed out points in my writing where I got too repetitive. I began sentences with the same two words which made the reading boring, it was poorly done parallelism. This comment helped me find the points where the writing was weak and make them stronger.

Thlog #6

Week six of writing and we are still making movements. Moves and their relation to writing was covered this week and the overlap that it may hold with conventions. We went over how conventions as we see them are a guideline of sorts for writers while moves are their own individual choices. This separation of the two makes the most sense to me as writers do not have a say in the conventions of the genre they decide to write for. The only decision a writer can make is how stringently to follow those conventions and how they wish to express themselves.

This week’s writing tips were focused (as they typically tend to) around making our second writing project stronger. The tips were ways for us to approach the planning of our project such as looking at pictures online for inspiration. Zach has also stressed parallelism this week, with multiple activities showing what it was and how it operates. I’m not entirely sure where I will use parallelism in my WP2, but working on it in class was helpful.

Working through the example essays helped me the most. Seeing how other students approached the writing project helped me reflect on my own. I feel that it made the drafting of the essay less stressful and helped me organize my thoughts in a more efficient manner. I know that my WP2 still needs a lot of work, but working through how mixed-gender work groups operate has been interesting. I like how the different fields approach the topic the most—it’s cool to see what they like to focus on. The topic itself is also relatable as most work groups I am in are of mixed gender, with me tending to be in the minority. Maybe that’s what drew me to the topic?