Honors English 210

This project is a small comic I made with the intention of summarizing a segment of Martin Luther King’s letter titled  Birmingham Jail Letter.  The segment that was chosen from the letter talks able just and unjust laws and what separates them.

The project presents a different way to view MLK’s message and a possibly more effective way to reach an audience.  The audience I was trying to reach was a younger audience comprised of children and teens, as that audience would respond better to images than a chunk of text.  As it would take more conceptual ideas and make them tangible and more understandable.  For example, image two, bottom left drawing talks about how looks can be deceiving, and the same goes for laws.  The imagery helps reinforce this concept by showing a man taking off his mask.

Nostalgia is a literacy narrative which describes how I got into creative writing and drawing.  It uses all of the modes which include aural, visual, gestural, linguistic, and spatial.

The goal of this project was to make a unique and personable experience that describes in detail my evolution in writing.  I take real-life experiences and use them as examples as to why I write the way I do now, specifically in my creative writing.  By using a comic and vlog as my medium of visualization and conversation I reinforce my goal of someday making a comic of my own.

LC Freshman 54’

LC Sophomore 54′

LC Juniors 54′

LC Seniors 54′

The images above are posters that I made to show what the freshman hazing might have been like, especially focusing on the clothing and moods of each grade level at Longwood College, as the setting was in 1954.

In 1954 the hazing of the freshman “rats” was in full swing and as a result of those artifacts, I have made these posters.  I wanted to make a “preppy poster” and was inspired by The Preppy Handbook By Lisa Birnbach. In the book are several images of students in their attire that the school is known for, such as Hampton Sydney and their suit jackets.  This inspiration made me make four posters based on the grade levels for Longwood College.  Each poster shows what each grade might be wearing, especially the freshman as they were the target for hazing, but it also shows the potential mood of each grade level too.  The goal of this assignment was to take Longwood artifacts and make a unique piece using various rhetoric modes.  I did so by bringing into the light the problem of freshman hazing and took a medium that is usually used to praise someone and turned it into a display that had a negative effect instead.

Reflection:

Over the course of this fall semester, I have learned a number of properties about my “digital tattoo.”  As my “digital tattoo” has a number of variables that make it unique.

First, my “digital tattoo” is constantly expanding.  Every time I find a new website, streaming service, or game my “digital tattoo” accommodates for that addition.  It is added to my search history or memory space so that I can see it later.  Whatever I do also effects how I write, and because of this, I am in a constant state of change, constantly evolving to fit whatever new need or task is in front of me.  For example, right now I am writing for an academic purpose, and it is evident because of my diction and grammar are proper and correct.  However, only moments ago I was texting a friend where the same rules do not necessarily apply.  Depending on the situation my writing changes, and with each new discovery it adapts and changes.

Second, writing is not just research papers and outlines for presentations, it is also texting, making a grocery list, graffiti, and an endless possibility of other variants.  As long as words are written down it is considered writing, and because of that everybody’s list of types of writing will be different.  Some people’s list will be long and expansive as it is possibly a daily constant, and other people might have a shorter list due to various variables.  For example, I like to make comics, now not everyone makes comics, and because of that, I put myself in a small niche category.  With each genre follows its own unique audience. For example, comics are typically targeted at a younger audience in the hopes of entertaining them or making a conceptual idea easier to understand as the idea becomes tangible.  While a newspaper is targeted a more mature audience because of its large chunk of text provided on each page.

Third, there is more to writing than just words, and these additions include pictures, videos, sounds, and how the text itself is arranged.  These ideas have individual terms called linguistic, visual, aural, spatial, and gestural mode.  Each of these modes adds to an article of writing.  For example, in a text message a person might send a message that contains this, “LOL that was funny (emoticon of a smiley face.)”  The person could have just sent the message without the emoticon, but with the emoticon, it clarifies the mood that the person is in, and in this case, the person is presumably happy according to the audience.  The text does not have to include images, but when images are involved the text becomes more readable and enjoyable.  Depending on what images I use, the meaning of the writing also changes leading to more endless possibilities.

Finally, my “digital tattoo” has almost a natural setting.  What do I mean by this?  What I mean is that I natural, if possible lean toward one way of writing if possible.  For example, if possible I would probably try to draw a comic to explain this concept I am writing about right now.  However, due to restrictions, such as formatting, this preference cannot happen.  The reason I natural lean toward comics is due to my love for art and my aspirations for one day making a comic.  Another example would be two of my classmates, their natural preference would be scientific papers due to their fields of study.  These settings vary from person to person due to different circumstances.

In total, everyone has a unique way of writing because of digital and physical influences.  The websites visited and the places people relax in all influence a person’s writing style, whether it is subconscious or not.  Everyone has different experiences and because of this everyone will write differently.  My writing would vary from my fellow classmates, just like it would to everyone else’s.  Society is constantly changing, and because of that, so too does the writing humans provide.