Dove - Onslaught

A Letter to Myself

Dear Quweshia,

I’m just going to put it out there; you are a very clumsy girl. So please watch where you are walking, if you do this half of the incidents that have happened to you could have been easily avoided. Especially the day you slipped on a dirty looking banana peel, yes a banana peel, so watch where your feet land. It was there the whole time, but because were having so much fun, you weren’t paying attention and you ended up slipping on it. And even though it was dirty it was very noticeable so you can’t use that excuse. I know you have only seen people spilling on banana peels in cartoons, but it will also happen to you in real life. Who would have thought that a banana peel could be harmful? The good thing about this situation is that you didn’t hurt yourself, but your butt will be a little sore from the hard fall. All I am saying is, it would have never happened if you just would have paid attention and you wouldn’t have been embarrassed that day.

I may not be much help because I don’t remember how old you were and the exact day it happened. I guess when you slipped you lost some of your memory, but if you read this letter and take my advice you won’t have to worry about it. But I do remember where you were when you slipped. You where shopping with your mom at Walgreens. At the end of every shopping trip, you always have little races with your mom to the car and you always make it the car safely. But on this day, well you know what will happen, BAM! On the ground you go, you slipped on the dirty looking banana peel racing your mom to the car. You will be so shocked you will just sit there and try to realize what happened. And when you get up there will be a couple of people that seen the whole thing laughing, but its ok when you get older you will laugh about it.

If this didn’t happened you wouldn’t have this weird story to tell. But I know how you felt that day, it wasn’t funny at the time, you were so embarrassed you almost cried. So to avoid this embarrassment before you start running look to make sure the path you chose to run is clear. Make sure there is nothing, I mean nothing on the ground. Even if you think the dirty looking banana peel is a part of the concrete. You will thank me later, because you are going to live on campus your freshman year of college. And on day you will be walking back to your dorm and the will be Carmex on the ground. Because you look 3 steps ahead of you will avoid slipping and falling on that Carmex. Don’t get me wrong you will slip on it, but you won’t fall like you did on the banana peel. I guess what I am saying is be more careful when you are walking or running just to save yourself the embarrassment.

                                                                                                        Love the one who knows you best,

Older Quweshia

Reflection of Redesign of Advertisement Essay

I was so confused going in to this essay, I felt so unprepared I didn’t really know where to start or even knew what advertisement to redesign. What made it so bad was missing class the day the rhetorical appeals were taught. So at the time I couldn’t tell the difference between them, I read the article about them so many times I was still lost. Thank God for my peer review partner for helping tell the difference between them. Once I was able to tell the difference between, I was able to use them to describe how the Cover Girl advertisement I chose was successful at using them. Choosing the advertisement was easy, I honestly just chose the first advertisement I seen. And it happened to have Queen Latifah on of my favorite celebrities and she was advertising makeup that I wear. So once I got the hang of what I was doing it was really simple and it was coming up with the redesign just came to me. I came up with the redesign in my head, just growing up not really seeing someone represent/appeal to African American teenage girls made, me want to redesign my advertisement to appeal to African American teenage girls. The only challenges I faced as I began my essay was like I said before trying to start my essay and figure out what I was doing, getting help from Mrs. Rinke and my peer review group helped me overcome my challenge. They helped me get the understanding of how to analyze my advertisement and how they rhetorical appeals were used to appeal to the intended audience. I really liked this assignment because I was able to vision how I would redesign an advertisement. And it was kind of cool to know that every little detail on an advertisement is used to appeal to the intended audience. I never paid attention to images like that this assignment really opened my eyes. Now when I look at advertisements I pay attention to every detail. There were many advertisements where I wondered how it would look if they had this person on it or they used these colors. This assignment made me use my creative side more I love redesigning and creating things. From this assignment I have learned the difference between rhetorical appeals, I have a much greater understanding of them and they are used to appeal to people in advertisements. And I have also learned that when you analyze an advertisement you have to look at every detail even a little white daisy. If I were to get a second chance at writing this essay, I would be more prepared an know what’s going on, I wasted time not knowing what I was wanted to do.

Literacy Narrative Process Memo

          Looking back at completing the literacy narrative assignment it was a very unique experience for me. I have never done a three-step assignment like this; creating a timeline, writing a paper and creating a slide show for it. I actually had to take a lot time to think about when things happened in my life and how to put my story together for it to make sense.As I sat down in class the most logical place for me to begin my narrative timeline was being at home with my mom. She stayed at home and taught my sister and me how to read and write. At first I had a hard time remembering how old I was when these events took place. Such as remembering reading to my family, but not remembering how old I was. There were so many things that I have done in my years of becoming literate; I couldn't figure out how to put it all in my story for it to make sense. Something interesting I realized about my literacy development while composing my timeline that I never previously thought of is; my mom being the bomb she took of work to stay at home and teach me how to read and write. This is how I noticed the theme throughout my timeline and she is the person I should focus on for my narrative. The experience of creating a timeline told me about myself is; that I really don’t know exactly how old I was when I started writing or reading I just know that my mom is the reason I am the why I am today.

            When writing my literacy narrative it wasn't hard to narrow down my area of focus. It kind of jumped out at me because my mom was the reason I became literate at such a young age. But it was hard to center my thoughts into a clear straight forward story, because I was trying to talk about everything that happened and didn't really focus just on my mom being the bomb. That’s why when I began my narrative it was hard to organize, I was all over the place, I tried to organize it chronologically, but I couldn't put it together to make sense. Before I start writing anything I make a list of all my thoughts and everything that I can write in my paper. For my literacy narrative I made a list of everything that I could remember about becoming literate, before I started writing my draft. After composing my rough draft, I really wasn't sure if my paper made sense. But thanks to the peer editing I made I was able to hear from my peers and made some changes to make my rough draft better. The changes I made were to make the focus of my paper on my mom being the bomb and not all the extra stuff I had in my paper. My peers were very helpful as “another set of eyes” they showed me things that I didn't see while writing my paper and they gave me feedback on how to make my paper sound better.

           Because we had to create a video slideshow about our literacy narrative, when I made final edits to my rough draft I was already thinking about how I was going to turn my story into a video slideshow. It really altered the way I would normally write a story because I just had to focus on my mom being the bomb. Usually I would write about every detail that happened, like the time I read to my family, I would talk about why I read to my family and what they though t about it. But because I had to focus on one thing for my video slide show I had to change the way I usually write completely.My peer review partner didn't chose fifteen of my best sentences because I took all day trying to read my paper in front of my peer review group. So time was running out before she even got a chance to choose fifteen of my best sentences. But the few passages that she did choose were the ones I choose for my slide show. I did find it really difficult to edit my text down for the 52-character limit per slide. 

          One of the strategies I use to edit my text was to shorten my sentences by changing words around .I also used pictures in place of some words just to stick with the 52 character limit. Using pictures really helped because they provided more detail because of the text limitations. I choose the images I use to help tell my story of my mom is the bomb. I used both personal and from the web, I didn't really have enough personal pictures to make my story make sense. The song I chose to help cement the theme in my slide show was Tiffany Evans I’ll Be There (Karaoke version). I chose this song because I felt it was really touching and claiming. I felt this song really fit the theme of my slide show video. I took time to make sure I picked the right pictures and sing to go with the theme of my slideshow.Going back and watching my video again I feel there are a few things that I could have done differently. I wish that I could have took more time and not had my sentences so broken up, I feel if I didn't have broken up sentences I would have gotten an A on my video slide show. 

Overall my literacy narrative process was not quick and easy, it was a journey. I had to do a lot of thinking to remember when things happened. I really had keep my focus on one theme and I had to get familiar with how to use Animoto. Completing this three-step literacy narrative assignment an experience I will never forget.

Visual Argument (Nissan Leaf Commercial)

I chose to respond to the Nissan Leaf Polar Bear Commercial:

The beliefs or ideologies that are communicated in this commercial are helping the environment (going green as one my say) and helping animals. This commercial shows a polar bear and where it lives and how buying a Nissan will help the polar bear by being an environmental friendly car. The intended audience of the visual argument is for people who want to save on energy (people that are going green) and animal lovers. The kind of rhetoric that is being used to appeal to this specific audience is by showing a polar bear walking around (didn’t really understand what it was doing). Then is shows a man getting ready to leave in his Nissan electric car and the polar bear thanking him (which means that the man is helping the polar(letting the polar bear live a longer life) by buying and getting into the Nissan Leaf and not another car that can destroy the environment (by pollution and what not). Based on the three visual “readings” (pg. 249) Sturken & Cartwright article, I believe the commercial with the Polar Bear uses negotiated readings. I think this because the way I interpreted the definition negotiated reading is how you interpret images by what you know and believe.   The commercial shows a polar bear and its home. Then it shows a man getting in a Nissan Leaf which is this electric car. When many people see this (animal lovers) they may think oh if I buy this car I will help the polar bears and other animals. And for the people that have gone green they may think they are helping the environment by getting this car. Others just may think what does the polar bear has to do with anything; the polar bear wouldn’t make them want to buy the car. I have never thought about/ analyzed a commercial like this.

In My Own Words, Dustin Anderson: Digital Literacy

In My Own Words, Dustin Anderson: Digital Literacy

“Simply put, we can’t keep preparing students for a world that doesn’t exist. We can’t keep ignoring the formidable cognitive skills they’re developing on their own. And above all, we must stop disparaging digital prowess just because some of us over 40 don’t happen to possess it. An institutional grudge match with the young can sabotage an entire culture.”

 This quote from Dustin Anderson reminds me of most of the elder people in my family. They always talk about how our generation is lazy because of technology, but truth be told we can’t help it it is what it is. Technology has evolved and it is the norm of this generation. You will not find anyone without having a phone, ipod, ipad, etc. in their hands. Not only is technology used as entertainment, but it is also used for educational purposes. And if a student is unable to operate these technologies they are in trouble. They will not be able to keep up in this society with all of the advances of technology.  Basically this quote means that we can’t say that technology is hindering students if our world is becoming more and more depended on technology. We have to start getting more familiar with the new technologies being made. And for the people over 40 (the elder people in my family) should not criticize us because they don’t understand how to use the technology. They should not try to get use from stop using it, but instead learn how to use it themselves.

Literacy Timeline

Literacy Timeline

(My Mom is the Bomb)

I don’t remember everything about becoming literate, so I tried my best to remember some of the details:

• My mom was a stay at home mom who always but her time and love into me
• She taught me mostly everything I know, she felt it was her responsibility to teach me and push me to become a very successful young woman.
•  I Learned the alphabet with the cutout colorful letters my mom glued on construction paper
•  I Started getting hooked on phoenix with the flash cards my mom made
• I Learned how to count with colorful hair clips my mom called counts
• My favorite book was Will You Always Take Care of Me at night with mom, my mother would always read books at night with me
•  Started reading Pooh Bear Books, if I messed up on a word my mom would make read the page over and over until I got it right. (Don’t start getting lazy)
• I hated when she would make me read over and over but now I know I was just to make me stronger and to get me where I am today
• Became a very strong reader for my age, asked to skip 2^nd grade
• Before I knew it I was writing book reports for school and getting good grades on them; my favorite was on the Life Cycle of a Monarch Butterfly
• Started not to like reading and not as strong as I use to, but gained an interest in math
• Now I want to become an electrical engineer; furthering my education at Oakland University