Annotate This! Reflection: Told By The Movie Camp Rock
For my Annotate This! project, I decided to do a rhetorical analysis on the Jonas Brother's website. I decided to do a Google Slides presentation where I used a platform called Loom to create a voiceover. Although the project may sound easy, it took me a long time to make it.
To begin, I started with a strong outline. I separate my notes into two categories: design and rhetorical aspects. As I looked at the Jonas Brother's website, I wrote down potential examples and evidence I could use in my analysis. However, my first 'draft' of the project was rough. It was about as bad as Mitchie looked in Camp Rock with the flour on her face.
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So, I decided to take a 'writer's break' from the project. You could probably know how that turned out. The deadline seemed to be taunt me. It high-key felt like Tessa from Camp Rock staring me down. Nevertheless, I powered through my analysis. After I finished my outline, I compiled all the information into a Google Slides Presentation.
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To finish my project, I had to do a voiceover for the presentation. I thought Loom was a great platform to do it on since the app can record your voice and the presentation at the same time. Yet, the thing I hate about recording is the sound of hearing your own voice. Yuck! What's even worse is when you messed up on your words so you have to start re-recording. It's. literally. the. worst. However, after a few takes, I did get a good recording. At that moment, I truly felt like Caitlin vibing with her keyboard.
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With my final recording, I decided to upload my assignment to Canvas. After turning in my assignment, I was so excited it kind of reminded me of the moment Mitchie got her chance to be on stage. I was proud of myself for finishing the project and I felt that I began to understand multimodal choices better as a result.
How to Survive: Group Projects
For the Decoding AI Project, our WRI340 class sought to create a Student AI Handbook. For myself, I was assigned to the Ethics Section and what the various consequences could be for mishandling AI. The process consisted our class splitting up into various groups to work on different sections of the process. However, group projects can be difficult at times. From my experience, I wish to give you three ways to survive any group project.
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Communicate
Please, please, please don't sit in silence when you work with others! Part of a group project is to communicate with your classmates on what you need to do. It's okay for there to be awkward silence, but try to get to know them better and vice versa. In the Decoding AI project, I didn't know my partner extremely well but I got to know her and she was incredibly nice.
2
Work Together, Not Solo
The tendency with group projects is for you to split up the work with your group. However, this is a big a** lie. By splitting up the work, normally one person sits back and lets the other do all the work. Whatever you do, don't be that person. In my group, my partner and I worked together. We leaned on each other for help and weren't afraid to collaborate with each other.
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Know Your Strength and Weaknesses
Before you start any project, it is beneficial for you to share your strengths and weakness before the group. It doesn't mean share your life story, but it allows you to examine what your role will be in the group. So take the few couple of minutes to share your gifts. For example, I am great at finding information online so I was the designated 'investigator' in my group.