2. Intro to Digital Writing (ENGL 210)

I took English 210 the fall semester of my freshman year at Longwood University. The title of this class was “Crafting Digital Tattoo”, and was centered around the world of digital writing, rather than just traditional pen-and-paper writing. I came into this class with a very structured way of writing, as this was my first writing class after being in an AP English class for 2 years in high school. I struggled at first with letting my writing being less formal and having more of my voice throughout my writing, which is very evident through each of my artifacts below. I had to learn to let my voice be free throughout my writing, and allow the readers of my work to “hear” what I have to say.

Below is my final portfolio for the class, which includes the 3 projects that we did throughout the semester. In each of them, my writing becomes less structured and formal, to having a real voice to the work, and expressing exactly what I have to say.

English 210 Final Portfolio

These artifacts allowed me to understand more about my presence of my digital identity. In the first artifact, I explored Martin Luther King Jr’s Letter from Birmingham Jail and the exigence that is expressed through his words in the letter. I was tasked with changing the genre of the letter to a more modern-day genre that would create easy accessibility for Martin Luther King to spread his thoughts from the letter, and by choosing the genre of an Instagram post, I learned that genres can be more than just essays, letters, and written assignments, but also exist in online spaces. I also was able to realize that my digital tattoo exists in all forms of online genres, whether it be social media or online usage in general. In my second artifact, I explored how my digital tattoo has affected my literacy narrative and how I’ve used my voice to express myself and my beliefs. I learned in this artifact that my digital tattoo allowed to major change towards the topic I was passionate about, having a true effect and importance in my life. In the third artifact, I viewed a genre from Longwood University’s past about a former educator for the college. I learned in this artifact that genre really does have an effect on the importance of the topic, since at the time, the genre was not made digital because it was not accessible, but remade for nowadays, the digital genre is the preferred genre because of how accessible it is to a wide range of people.

My digital tattoo is so greatly influenced by many different aspects of all of these artifacts, but one major takeaway from all three of my artifacts would be that only you can change your digital tattoo; it cannot be altered by any outside force. So, if you want your digital tattoo to be one that promotes positivity and reflects how you are as an individual in the online and offline settings, then it can only be adapted by you and the choices you make online. And remember, your digital tattoo, much like a real tattoo, is permanent, so be cautious of what you want being portrayed onto the digital space.

Project 1: MLK’s Instagram Post

In this artifact, you will see an essay linked with an image of a fictional MLK Instagram posts centered around his real life Letter from Birmingham Jail, where I changed the genre from the letter to the Instagram post and analysed what changing the genre to the more popular social media site would achieve for MLK trying to get his message of desegregation out to a large audience of people.

 

Project 2: My Thank You to Writing

In this artifact, you will see a video linked to a reflection sheet where I told the story of my literacy narrative, or my connection my life has to writing, and the significance that digital writing has played in my life, and the reflections digs into the more technical aspects of including certain videos and images and phrases into the entire video artifact.

Project 3: Importance of Miss Martha Coulling

In this artifact, you will see two pages of an online version of the newspaper The Rotunda, dedicated to a teacher, Miss Martha Coulling, who in 1932 received the honor of teaching for 50 years, most of which were at what is now Longwood University, as well as why she, as well as all teachers, have an impact on every individuals’ life.