Reflective Blog #:11
What Was Old Will Be New Again!
The skills sets I have learned in Eng 2700 will be very valuable to me as i continue to study design, because design is not only about making awesome graphics, but it is also about the ability to express ideas and communicate ideas in a visual manner (hence why the major is called Communication Design), for me learning how to write better and communicate not only visually but also verbally and by writing is also important to me as a designer, I gives me the better develop my ideas and be able to speak of them more fluently on paper, and hopefully leading me on day in becoming an astonishing copywriter and developing killer Advertisings.
In Advertising (my area of concentration of my studies), they requires us to have great copywriting skills to develop great and memorable campaigns, but they do not require us to take 1 writing class, which i feel is not enough to develop a skill set in copywriting that they are excepting from us. Eng 2700 has given me a confidence in my writing and hope in my writing skills, and a tool set to better my copy writing. For me technical writing is not far from the writing required in design, and gladly i know for sure there are no essays in my near future, but I’m very confident in water i write will be high research and have a very good structure of ideas and information.
Reflective Blog #:10
miVersa (a Tool for Young Teams)?
I tend to shy from the word “ play” as in playing with the miVersa app, I consider as research and testing to further understand the product and put myself in the consumer shoes.
From the point of view of whether a teams composed of young professionals would use this tool, I would quickly say no. There are issues with the app that need to fixed before it could be marketed to millennials. The first issue with the app was when i tried to power it up on my iphone 6, the app just crashed. for me as a first time user that did resonate with me well, and i started having thought whether the app is truly worth.
The second issue I had with the app is to use the app , one must create a miVersa account, however you cannot make in the app, as you can make it with apps similar to miversa . To the consumer this may inconvenience, one must go to a web browser to sign up and this may shy away a person from signing up at the same moment and may delay the process the consumer may sign up or even they may not even sign up for the app completely because of this issue. I feel if this feature is not fixed it is a huge issue miVersa needs to overcome.
The Third Issue i had with the app is loading my contacts and importing them from other accounts or from my phone contacts, I know my partner jodiann has a Miversa account and i tried to find her and use the app and that failed tremendously and while doing this process the the app kept crashing.
If these issues are to be fixed I believe miVersa has a great and new and interesting for product for consumer productivity and communications, than can making working a in a team and less stressful and and more time doing the actual work, than trying to figure out how to communicate each other.
Reflective Blog #: 9
Beginning to Think Outside of the Class
As a design student specializing in advertising, it is not thinking outside it is what i’m best at, I would build a campaign that spans out across multiple platforms including, print, wed and social media, to reach the most amount of people. From here to there is a hard show to sell to the most american but it could defiantly find it own niche loyal fans in america. I would make interactive and from a starter point of view i would make one of the campaigns a geo hunt across america to promote the show.
The Target demographic from me is hard to pin point, but if i was to make a estimated guess I would say 30-55 years olds who have a interest in travel as well as interest for other cultures, for me I feel it is target to an mature audience and they style of the show would no be able to keep the interest of todays younger generation.
I think american should care about the show because it gives a different point of view of the world, that the current american tv shows are lacking. it show apart of the world that is really not covered in today media and gets not only about other Taiwanese culture but the as well as the how a disable person may live in these parts of taiwan. It offers an understanding of others to help american grow and become more well rounded and more open and excepting to others cultures and traditions.
I Feel the essence of the show is, to live life to fullest and to try to achieve your dreams and not letting a disability or a language barrier effect you especially if one of your dreams or goals in life is to travel the world. because the world is amazing wonders and amazing things and life is too short to not enjoy them.
Reflective Blog #8:
Planning for Change
With the new project I plan to change the way I do everything in the class, last project i was all over the place, this time I want to organize my ideas and thoughts from the beginning. I plan to develop my confidence in writing by reading more books and looking at more writing examples so I can know what is considered good writing and compare it to my writing to see how i can improve it further. Writing for me is always forced, before starting the class to me writing was a thing i hated and avoided it at all cost and rathered walk on nails than write. but as I got deeper in my program I realized the importance of it and I try to make it a thing i’m happy to do, just as designing and I hope i can get that to reflect in the last project.
I want my ideas to become more clear and I will try to give my self more time for the actual writing process, I usually spend a lot of time planing my writing that I procrastinate the actual writing process. I believe if I give my self more time to write as well as a time limit for my writing it will become more polished and more confident. The longer I fuss over a piece of writing, I realize the worse it gets.
Reflective Blog #7:
Assessing Strengths and Weaknesses
This class has definitely been a learning process, every time i think I have overcome an obstacle, another one gets thrown at me.
The biggest thing i struggle with is confident in my writing and not knowing where to start from, I always freak out at first knowing my writing will always be the worst in class, but then I look at the how much i have grown as a writer and I think to myself, I may actually be able to past this class.
Research development is the among other things I struggle with, and finding the balance between credible resources and at the same time relevant with the topic I was writing for. After I started writing my paper, I realized the topic i had chosen “Hijab” was so vast, and so complex, that me as a wear of one didnt realize how confusing it could be for others, and finding a balance of making it a technical writing and not a informative essay.
What frustrates me the most is at some times since for english is a great weakness, at the time of graduating high school with a 7 grade level in english, I struggles at times to develop the basic structure of writing and is hard for me to form grammatically correct sentences, and the struggle of knowing where to put a comma or a period for me distracts me from the main idea because I’m always focused in creating a grammatically correct paper and that to me leads to the the same struggle I have as well in my design classes is developing a concept and building an idea that goes around it. but I know as time goes on I will become better at doing that in both writing and design with a bit more practice and hard work. What I’m proud most is even with all the struggles of writing the the midterm project and doughs I would be able to do it, that i was able to finish it and make a pretty decent paper I’m proud to say I have had written it.
Reflective Blog #6:
Coming to Grips with ENG 2700
I willing signed up for this class, I needed a English Literature class, while most of my fellow Communication Design classmates signed up for classes such as Film and Literature that analyzed films. I knew i was lacking in the writing department and could use some improvement if i wanted to be successful in my life and be a great designer working for one of the top ad agencies one day. I knew from day one that English 2700 would be a challenge for me, I knew it could either build me as a better writer or, it could break me. At this point it safe to say it has done both to me, but I do not regret signing up for this class.
At first as Design major I was a bit iffy about what i had gotten myself into, and wasn’t sure how I would be able to participate in class because i wasn’t in on the same lingo as the other, everybody was thinking so different from me, and for me to express my self in a spoken and written manner is hard for me to do sometimes. but thanks to this class writing has become easily, till now words seem to flow out more fluidly to the paper. and I do not regret signing up for the class, I been having so much fun learning a new skill.
Many of my Design Professors are very interesting about knowing about my experience in ENG 2700, and i explained to them how much the class has helped me in my design classes especially in my Advertising Design class, they told me i had made a very good choice in the class and now they would recommend it to more students.
and Now besides me using using any random text for my Typography and Layout Class, I can proudly design and layout as well as write the content for my Interactive magazine midterm project, something nobody else in class is doing. Lucky for me I choose the same topic to write and design for my both of midterm project. Hopefully both of my professors won’t mind me killing two projects with one stone.
Reflective Blog #5:
Making Connections
The Quicker and Dirtier report was defiantly messy and dirty, and to be frank before this report i was started think I was crazy, because I didn’t understand or relate to what was spoken in class. Prior to this class, writing was a very rare event, and the times i have written anything for class since starting to attend CityTech in Spring 2013 were counted by the fingers on my hand which were 5 writing assignments, therefore comparing that to what my classmates and probably write that in a week, stuck true horror within and got me thinking what did i get myself into.
As the only design major in class I’m taught in my design classes how to think and express my ideas in a visual way, and this class especially the Quicker and Dirtier report got me out of my comfort zone, and forced me to develop and express my in a written format which was very foreign to me on the first day of class lead me pick up my little brother grammar book and browning from my local library “ Technical Writing For Dummies” which has help in some ways in playing catch up with the others. And I seemed fair and ironic at the same time since the others need to read design for non-designer.
I Chose the Write about the hijab for the midterm project, because even though I’m passionate about Art and design, writing about it doesn’t come to much so fluidly and Hijab to me is a topic I’m very familiar with, since i started wearing a hijab when i was 15 years old and is something I live with everyday, and went to Islamic School all through my Elementary, Middle and High School education. so writing for such topic would come to me easily since i can relate to it to make the process less daunting.
Writing the Quicker and Dirtier report has been a very scary roller coster ride, every time i though i was doing good while writing, i would read my paper and realize it was all very wrong and delete and start again. You can say it was a very frustrating process, and i though i would never say this is but i miss the good old days my worries where limited to paint swatches and matching the colors to the computer colors.But at the same time I can’t wait to see how my paper will look at the end of this process.
You can definitely say I have a love and hate relationship with the class.
Reflective Blog #4:
Your Writing Process
My english knowledge is divided to two parts, since i have an English speaking mother i learned to speak english as my first language, however since I grew up overseas I learned english as a language as a english as a second language student. and all of my education was leaned in arabic, This definitely has had an effect on my writing process because when i think about on topic i think about it in arabic first since that thinking flows more naturally for me in this state, then i would jolt down ideas and begin translating them to english and beginning my secondary research regarding a topic. I’m aware this process may not be the correct process but this is the only process i knew before beginning this class.
I definitely feel like a writer, I’m more confident to write,and I’m more open to writing such as in my workplace or for my design classes, before starting this class i used avoid writing at any cost, because i believed i was a horrible writer. Now i have some confident and I know if i push myself more by the end of the semester i can become a great writer. This class swell as my advertising design class has got me thinking about writing and the purpose and audience, and what i been learning in class has helped me in copywriting for advertising design.
Writing for me has become another way i can communicate, and another way i can use to describe my artwork to other, I’m confident now about writing it doesn’t seem so daunting. Big projects still seem scary but no longer impossible. My writing process has developed and got me thinking when it comes to writing in only one language which i feel is the correct way to do it and writing now to me is more effortless and seamless.
Reflective Blog #3:
Statement of Professional Ethics
Growing up in a multicultural home with two parents of different regions and believes at a really young age brought in ethics at a early age into my life. and the term Halal “ which means good/approve” or Haram “which means bad or not correct” which is used frequently in the muslim and Arab communities, which relates to the idea in islam that is called Islamic ethics and is defined and refers to ones good character and manners and the moral choses one make everyday that effects your islamic manner and the way we interact with others.
As a muslim student student studying design i’m faced with many ethical issues i must deal with. One of them was a required class which was a figure drawing and for me to take that class was against my religion to view other names bodies. I as well struggles with the ethics of some of the class assignments I’m faced with in in class to design for, such as products I’m banned by my religion to consume or point of views i don’t agree with. which leaves me and the ethical decision to make and i know such things will follow me after i graduate and start working in my career, of trying to do what my religion as me to do , or what my employer asks me to do.
Since a young age my parents taught me to say the truth, and do the right thing and stand for in justice, but sometimes that is hard to do when the media often portrays muslims as bad people, but the truth is we are just like most american families just practicing a different religion and following what our holy book of the Quran says to do,such as support the community we live in as well as the world. it asks us to be good citizens, respecting the law of the land, paying our fair share of taxes and contributing to the welfare of the needy and the destitute.
Reflective Blog #2:
Meta-Analysis of Audience — Challenge #1
My Group Had to Analysis the Oatmeal Cookie & Chocolate Brownie (Military Specification) recipe, that was published in 2003 and is a 27 page recipe. The Primary audience for this recipe are Bakers and Cooks and Chefs of the department of defense. The Purpose of this recipe is to create military grade cookies that could be used for Ration packs most likely climate of use of this is in a military base or in a war for milady personal to eat or in natural disaster to be given to people affected by any given natural disaster or given out in a refugee camp to people dislocated because of war.
The technical background of the audience would most likely be experienced in making military Military Specification and have prior knowledge about the product and are familiar with making such lengthy recipes and have done Military Specification most likely before. The recipe is very formal in the tone of writing.
One Aspect of the Recipe that could use improvement, is more clarity and simplify slightly so if civilians would like to make this milady grade Oatmeal Cookie & Chocolate Brownie it would be easier for them to do so.
At first glance the recipe is considerate to other cultures, and the ingredients do not contains any items that other cultures or people do not eat, such as pork or alcohol.
The attitude of the product is very straight forward and serious and there is no connection to the readers, it is written in away that is very blane. One thing the reader may take away from reading such recipes that is is not very delicious.
Important information to this audience is very clear seen to be the very lengthy specification and the amounts of each ingredients to one batch of this cookies. The ideal use of this recipe of cookies is to make thousands of them at times and a potential problem the audience may face is it would be very hard to convert such ingredients to make small batches of cookies for personal use.
Reflective Blog #1:
Connecting Culture to Communication
I come from a multicultural home but the dominant style of communication can be seen as a direct descendent from my Palestinian and Arab Roots which both are deeply influenced by Islam and the practices of islam. and Unlike how the media portraits us we are friendly, open, warm and very welcoming people and this is very promenade in our ways of communication with others.
Traits that are considered to be good communication in my culture are to always be efficient and businesslike and always respect others even if you disagree with them. Another Trait that is Considered to be a great trait is to get to the point, my parents were never interested in the small details, and always interested in the big picture. Till this day my dad is a big fan of the big picture and is not mush into the small details. Another effective way of communication in the Middle East is to give us conclusions and only provide details if asked and talking in terms of results not methods. However the biggest trait of communication in my culture must be to listen to others when they talk and analyzing what they say so you can give an well thought answer, especially if someone is telling you a problem they need help with. It is surprising how many people believe communication is a one way street and is merely an opportunity to impose their views on an unsuspecting world.
Traits that are undesirable in communications in my culture is to be directing, coercive and even manipulative. However the biggest undesirable trait must be lack of honesty and not sharing how you really feel can lead to a lack of trust in the relationship. Us as arabs appreciate honesty in all situation and a trait of a good Muslim that he or she is always honest.
