"What did I learn about summary writing this past week?"

Despite my huge devotion of time to the Navy and all their glorious training modules, I was able to refresh my memory on the importance of summary composition and how it affects my writing skills.

Even though I have done it many times before, I have learned the following in regards to summary writing:

• Summary writing helps build communication skills by allowing the writer to communicate a film, documentary, or book to a person who has never seen or heard of it before. This helps the writer develop their descriptive skills. 
• Through my writing, i reminded my self that summary paper is strictly for summery text, meaning I am not allowed to input my own personal analysis (despite how badly I naturally wanted to do so). 
• Finally, I also learned that in summary writing is a tremendous help with building comprehension skills. It takes an awful lot of effort to intake the entire plot of a movie, documentary, or book and summarize the whole darn thing in five to six paragraphs. Of course, i could drone on but I would rather not burden my instructor and peer editors with a twenty page summary.

Anyway, that's what I learned. If you feel you learned something that I didn't mention, feel free to bring it up in the comments. Happy writing!  

 

Deep Water Documentary Reflections

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suw-HbE6AXo

Reflection Questions:

1. What has been your experience with ddocumentary films? Have you seen many? Why? Why not? Do you have a favorite? Why?
2. How can using documentary films as subject matter for this course help you as a writer? Relate to things we have discussed, or add new ideas from your deep reflection.
3. Assuming you have watched your film for the Documentary Project, tell us a bit about your response to it, adding some reflective writing on how watching the documentary will help you as a writer and communicator (aka "rhetor").

Response:

1.           Growing up as a child, I had a profound curiosity that I had always set out to pacify. I was always hungry for knowledge and answers to my endless questions. I never had a successful relationship with reading as I was very picky about what I wanted to read and never found reading fun or entertaining. My disinterest in reading but continuing thirst for knowledge lead me to watching documentary films to quench my thirst for knowledge. I began watching documentaries at around twelve years of age and continued doing so to this date. It became a hobby that I practiced monthly. Since then I have seen too many documentaries to count. I actually found the films more interesting than popular cinema because of their factual nature. I find fictional cinema entertaining, but nonfictional documentaries to be truly interesting. I suppose it was the thought that "Wow! These things really happened!" drew me closer to documentary film rather than popular cinema. I have seen so many now that I cannot recall ever choosing a favorite simply because I appreciate them all. 
2.           In terms of developing my writing skill, I believe documentary films can aid by improving my ability to interpret, summarize, and analyze someone else's work. To be able to successfully interpret another person's work helps to build a writer's understanding of how other people write and communicate their ideas. By noting and observing how others formulate their ideas through documentary films, writers can convey how they would formulate their ideas and compare and contrast how they differ from how the original author told the story. This is the beauty of summary writing, also known as paraphrasing. Essentially, the novice writer is telling the story of the film in their own words. This form of writing is especially profound when summarizing older films where the language is not as modern as today's. I discovered this immediately as I watched the documentary posted above. Not only is the language in the film from the late 1960s, but it is also in English dialect. As a millennial young adult in modern America, it would be a little challenging for me to paraphrase the documentary in my own words because its is foreign and from a different decade. It is this particular challenge that would help me, and many other young writers like me, to build on their writing skills. 
3.           After watching the documentary posted above, I'd have to say that my overall reaction was shock and sadness over the end result of Mr. Crowhurst's journey. The reason I chose this particular documentary as opposed to the other interesting titles is because I am a sailor myself and the idea of sailing around the world alone in a small vessel is not foreign to me. In fact, it was the title "Deep Water" that initiated my decision to choose this particular documentary to focus my writing assignment on. Right away I suspected the title to have nautical ties and after I read the description, I was hooked. In the beginning of the film they introduced the focus of the film and the protagonist. the idea of being a twenty first century spectator of a circumnavigational sailing race in 1968 excited me during the first half hour of the film. I believe I am more connected to the film than most because I sail and I know first hand the difficulties sailors encounter on the high seas. The film was also very educational for me because up until seeing the film, I had no idea England hosted a circumnavigational sailing race in 1968. As the film reached its end, my excitement became a growing concern for the dimming hope of Mr. Crowhurst's success. Learning of his death in the end brought shock and sadness as I tried to imagine how his family and all the people from his town of origin, where he had cast off nine months earlier on his journey, felt in response to Crowhurst's failure and suicide. I could not help but pity him for his efforts to secure a better life for himself and his family. My overall opinion on the film is that I enjoyed the plot because I can relate to it as a sailor, and that it is an inspirational story for anyone who may have the privilege of viewing it.                     

   

Slacktivism at its Finest

Slacktivism at its Finest

In a recent browse of the Department of Defense news network, I stumbled upon this particular petition shown in the link below and decided to participate. What I didn't know was that by taking part in the online petition I was committing slactivisim.

Now you're probably asking yourself, "What the heck is slactivism?" Well I can explain.

According to Google, slacktivism is "actions performed via the Internet in support of a political or social cause but regarded as requiring little time or involvement, e.g., signing an online petition or joining a campaign group on a social media website."

What that basically means is slacktivism is our society's way of gaining support for a particular cause or belief without going through the hassle of campaigning and advertising. 

The link I posted below is a prime example of an online petition to save the F/A-18 Growler from not making the cut for the 2013-1014 Fiscal Year. Rather than assembling volunteers to rally in Washington DC to protest the government, a group of activists put together a website that allowed anyone with internet access to send a formal template letter to a congressman in support of keeping the aircraft in the budget. This takes the planning, organization and distribution of protest apparel and signage completely out of the equation. Proving that today's society is finding alternatives via technology and the internet to supplement hard labor. Hence the term slactivism.    

  

Please support adding EA-18GGrowlers to the Fiscal Year 2015 budget

Currently, the Fiscal Year 2015 President’s Budget Request does not include funding for continued...

IMGE.RALLYCONGRESS.COM

http://imge.rallycongress.com/14769/test/

Exploratory Research Paper Reflections

What I liked about the project:

• I liked that we were asked to add a personal voice to our findings and share our reaction to the information we gathered. I am not used to that writing style so it definitely was a new learning experience for me. 
• I liked the freedom of the project and how we were able to research whatever topic we researched. From the first description of assignment I knew my research was going to be be done on a modern military aircraft, which immediately got me pumped and anxious to begin conducting research.
• I also really enjoyed the personal one-on-one meeting with Dr. Kyburz. That meeting helped me determine between two research topics and Dr. Kyburz pointed me in the direction that ended up being a better learning experience for me. Up until I wrote that paper, i knew nothing about the Russian Sukhoi T-50. 

What I didn't like about the project:

Image Source

• I liked everything about this project! =)

What I learned from this project:

• I learned a lot about how exploratory research differs from a regular research paper. 
• I learned a lot about a brand new aircraft that I knew nothing about other than its name. 
• I learned how to properly cite web sources in in-text citations in MLA format. 
• I learned that exploratory research is much more fun than informative research. 

 

Summary with Rhetorical Analysis Paper Reflections

• The rhetorical analysis paper was a rather long project and I did not expect to spend more than four weeks on the project. I did not take a liking to this particular project because of how long it took and how it was broken down into a series of stages rather than just writing one draft and revising it.

 

• The topic was not very interesting to me, most likely because i do not follow Mark Bittman in his New York Times articles. However, I do like the point he makes in this particular article and the way he presents his message. I related to the article because I know that i do have a tendency to "sweat the small stuff" due to my perfectionist mentality. 

• Lastly, I enjoyed the rhetorical analysis component of the project because I knew nothing about Ethos, Pathos, and Logos before the project. i learned what each category was and how they impact a paper, which helped me better analyze Bittman's work. Despite how much experience I had writing analytic summaries, I was still able to learn a new skill through this project, and i really enjoyed that.     

Multimodal Project Presentation Reflections

• What I thought about the project:

When the project was first presented to us in terms of what we had to do and how we had to do it, i was excited because I usually do not make my own videos. The fact that we had the freedom to choose what topic we wished to present made me anxious. Hundreds of topics streamed through my mind and I could not decide. However, I was able to narrow down my options to aviation related topics. Overall, I loved the idea of the video format and I enjoyed bragging about my favorite plane. 

• What I felt at the during my presentation:

Knowing it was presentation day, I was excited to share my project with the class and boast about the Advanced Super Hornet like there was no tomorrow. I couldn't help but feel a little nervous considering the fact that I don't like "stepping under the spotlight" as Hollywood folks would describe it. I don't perform well when I know I have a handful of people's attention watching over me. I have learned to cope with it over the years by simply facing the music and getting over with.On a more positive note,  I do love to teach people about military related subjects so that helped me cope with my stage anxiety. While I was setting up the projector I could help but kick myself in the rear for not adding photos of the other two aircraft I had mentioned orally to help my audience better understand what i was talking about. With the exception of those missing photos, I felt very proud of my project and I enjoyed presenting it to the class. Something just felt right about my approach to the controversy and the style i chose to present it in. Even the soundtrack I chose was perfect for the video I had formatted. 

• What I felt after the presentation:

After I received feedback from Dr. Kyburz and a few classmates, I was satisfied with what I had created because I know they enjoyed the presentation and I was pleased to hear that I did well informing them. I concur with the feedback that was given back to me, and again the only disappointment was that I did not include a photo of the Raptor or the Lightning II.       

Multimodal Project Reflections

• What are my modes? (Audio, video, image, text: Be general and specific...which)

The modes that I utilized for my multimodal project included video, audio, and text. I took an excerpt from a large documentary I found on You-tube and added a track that I found suitable for the excerpt. The video also included audio and narration so I overlapped the track I added with the video, giving the narration and audio priority over the music. Once I implemented the music with the video, I added my own text into the video to help present what I wanted the viewers to think about. The text consisted of controversial questions concerning the aircraft and some general information on the aircraft itself. Once my editing was complete, I matched the audio, video, and text into a video that I found satisfactory to what I wanted for my class presentation. 

• What is my platform? (youtube, ppt, prez, etc.)

The platform that I decided to use was Microsoft Windows Movie Maker. The reason that I decided to use this platform was because I had experience with it in the past. It is the only platform I felt comfortable with for the project and , in my opinion, is the easiest to use. 

• What is my concept?...The nature of my inquiry?

The concept that I chose was to present something I knew i was going to feel excited about. Currently, I am following a controversy that is very relative to my career goals and so I picked that controversy to present in the form of a video. The issue is that the researchers and developers at Boeing have unleashed an outstanding new strike fighter for use by the US Navy and Congress is hesitant on the decision to add it top the 2015 Fiscal Year due to budgeting concerns. At first, the nature of my inquiry on the topic was to be as informational to the viewer as possible, but I changed my approach due to some suggestions and made it more opposing to excluding the aircraft from the 2015 Fiscal Year. At first I did not like the idea of changing the approach but as I edited further I realized it made sense. 

• How can it be better?

Honestly, I was very satisfied with the outcome of my project. The only improvements I would like to make to the project is if I could add footage of a live debate between congressman, Boeing representatives, and the Secretary of Defense about the military budgeting controversy.