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| Eye-The world through my I's photostream "type" August 21, 2010 via Flickr attribution non-commercial |
I think my biggest challenge during this project was just sitting down and doing the work which is often a challenge for me. I have discovered that there is really only one solution to this and it is sitting down and putting your nose to the grindstone and holding it there via self-control. Which is exactly what I did.
I avidly read a number of automotive websites and in an alternate universe I would become an automotive journalist (particularly Jalopnik from Gawker Media and Car and Driver) so I was really pleased to discover that I could write something in a similar vein to what might appear on those websites. That success kind of pulled me through this project as it was the "light at the end of the tunnel."
I found a more relatable style to be the most useful for me. I tried hard to organize and present everything in an easy to read, easy to understand manner. This was important because the goal of my Quick Reference Guide was in principle to help people understand why something that they may have written off as constant background jargon could have an important and direct impact on their lives and therefore why they should care.
Conversely, I found that too stilted techniques and a more essay-ish style were less suited to my goals as writing like that can turn people off of reading something.
The only substantive similarities between this piece and other writing experiences I have had in the past is that it required that I can explain and demonstrate knowledge about the topic that I am writing about.
This project has been different than past school writing projects for me in a number of important ways. First and foremost, as it is a different medium I was writing in for this project, there were significant differences in the conventions that applied to the genre. For example, I have never used such a casual tone in an essay before. I have never had to find and cite pictures and other media sources. Finally, I have rarely done such exhaustive research on a topic (with the exception of select research reports in a minority of classes).
I think the biggest takeaway from this project is what we learned in the clarity readings. For writing in my field (mechanical engineering), the overarching goal of everything you do is to quickly and effectively and clearly communicate your ideas in a manner that effectively describes the situation but as many people can understand as possible.
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I read Issak and Chloe's blog posts. Issak's post provided some insight on the actual aspects of writing that I both struggled and did well with. He mentioned passion about the subject as being important when constructing an argument as it makes it much easier to make a good one. He is 100% correct about this and this is something that definitely affected my QRG as well. Chloe mentioned how her ideas did really flow in a sequential manner that made it easy for her to compose her QRG which is something I experienced to a degree. She also had prior experience with reporting as a student reporter in high school and prior experience with class blogs; two qualities that I imagine would have been incredibly helpful for this project.
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I read Issak and Chloe's blog posts. Issak's post provided some insight on the actual aspects of writing that I both struggled and did well with. He mentioned passion about the subject as being important when constructing an argument as it makes it much easier to make a good one. He is 100% correct about this and this is something that definitely affected my QRG as well. Chloe mentioned how her ideas did really flow in a sequential manner that made it easy for her to compose her QRG which is something I experienced to a degree. She also had prior experience with reporting as a student reporter in high school and prior experience with class blogs; two qualities that I imagine would have been incredibly helpful for this project.
I totally agree that the clarity blogs were a really helpful part of this project. Although I am now completely paranoid about how often I was writing misplaced modifiers and such. Your nose to the grindstone comment was also extremely accurate. If I drifted off and lost focus, I was immediately a blogs-worth behind schedule. Hopefully all of my time management mistakes have been made and the rest of the semester projects will be perfect! Hopefully being the key word.
ReplyDeleteHey Lawrence! I can relate to not having much experience with this style and medium of writing. This was totally new for me too. And you're totally not alone when you say you struggle just sitting down and doing the work, I'm totally there with you. But hey, good job!
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