I made my construction chart for this past semester digitally using Canva. I split a single page into six different boxes in an attempt to make it look similar to the cocktail construction chart. The middle section is the most essential part. It includes an overview of my portfolio which is an honest reflection and summary of what all of these assignments have done for me this semester. It also includes a diagram of a mechanism that I’ve adopted when making all of these assignments. It includes brainstorming (or thinking/daydreaming), applying, revising, and thinking again. On the left, I dedicated a panel to the sketch assignments. I certainly had ones that I preferred above others, but I would say that in general, they were the creative foundation that got my brain working for all the larger assignments. As for those, I dedicated a panel to the halfa kucha, tracing pages, and literacy narratives, listing how they were beneficial to me and characteristics that were unique to each assignment, such as the oral element of the halfa kucha.
The rhetorical situation which I chose for my sketch assignment number ten was: five minutes after winning the national final. It’s a pretty odd rhetorical situation to choose for this assignment, but it’s one that I hold very dearly to me. I have won two national championships, and I can confidently say that they’ve been two of the best experiences of my life. The post-game celebrations were pure jubilation. All the hard work that it took to get to that point. Beyond the achievement itself, it was the pleasure of being able to celebrate with a group of guys who suffered and overcame obstacles alongside me that brought me the real joy. Additionally, with our soccer team here at Emory advancing to the NCAA final four, I was already getting flashbacks of celebrating national victories. My playlist is approximately 45 minutes long and it consists of two categories of songs. The first category is songs that felt like the moment I was in. The second category was a set of iconic songs that my teammates and I celebrated to after each victory. As an outlier, I end my playlist with the song “The Show Goes On” by Lupe Fiasco, because the only thing you can do after winning a national championship is start working to win another one.
Here is the link to my playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5ecYFhdRFZV0isDgFn6Jdm?si=M8ZAKT-pTpKxAAPT8cdv3w
Discography: Freed From Desire (Gala, Molella, Phil Jay), Dreams and Nightmares (Meek Mill), Our Time (Lil Tecca), No Hands (Waka Flocka Flame, Roscoe Dash, Wale), Homecoming (Kanye West, Chris Martin), It Was a Good Day (Ice Cube), The Thrill (Wiz Khalifa, Empire of the Sun), Viva la Vida (Coldplay), Wonderwall (Oasis), Bittersweet Symphony – Remastered 2016 (The Verve), The Show Goes On (Lupe Fiasco)
Scroll down past the slides to view my Halfa Kucha Reflection!
Pictures Speak when People Can’t: Halfa_Kucha_Ibi.pptx
I enjoyed the halfa kucha as an assignment altogether. Is presenting naturally more nerve-racking than less direct modes of argument? Yes. However, I am personally comfortable with speaking in front of audiences, so it becomes enjoyable for me.
It’s a fairly obvious comment, but when constructing a verbal argument in comparison to a written one, the way in which you present it almost becomes as significant to the actual content you present. The argument itself has every right to be simpler so that you can present it in a natural manner, and because it would be more difficult for the audience to follow along with an intricate and nuanced verbal argument. The structure of my argument consisted of an argument, discussing Stitches first, then The Talk, and finally concluding by drawing similarities in the way both novels represented trauma and healing. I believe that although the verbal argument style must be simpler and clearer, that written arguments should not follow the same style. It is important to communicate in a clear and efficient manner in writing as well, but not to the extent that the verbal argument has to be. It’s important to consider situation aspects of verbal arguments, such as the audience’s attention span which plays a role in how much more efficiently you must make the argument.
In terms of my slides, I tried to incorporate as much textual evidence as possible. The timing between my speech and my slides was slightly off and difficult to coordinate, but the idea was that my speaking would be more influential than the words. In my opinion, when multitasking in retaining information from a verbal and written source at the same time, the verbal source always overpowers the mental reading, and my slides were merely supplementary if anything to my argument. I found success in not getting caught up in timing my speech according to each of my slides. I simply spoke for three minutes and twenty seconds as the slides went on in the background. Even if they were slightly off rhythm, I found that trying to perfectly time my twenty second intervals was even more disruptive and ineffective.
I am harsh on myself as a presenter. Looking back, there are times at which I went faster than rehearsed, and I had to make up by slowing down at other parts. This made me lose my rhythm in a way and led to a few slip-ups in my speaking. If I could go back and do one thing, it would be to spend a few more days rehearsing my presentation, in more spaced-out intervals.
For my sketch assignment 9 regarding creating a movie scene, I tried to recreate Leonardo DiCaprio’s famous “pointing Rick Dalton” scene from the movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. My main inspiration for choosing this scene above all others was because it is a pretty big meme on the internet, as well as fitting for this project. I think it’s a scene that many people have seen (even if they didn’t watch the actual movie), and since it has grown into a widely used meme, I thought it would be fun to recreate as well. Albeit for his role in “The Wolf of Wall Steet” and not “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”, Leonardo DiCaprio also happens to be my favorite actor.
The most difficult part of recreating this scene was by far the angle. Leonardo DiCaprio is sitting on a couch with his feet kicked up as well. It was hard to find a place to do that, especially with the dim lighting. In my photo, my feet aren’t actually resting on anything. I had to physically hold my legs up in the air like that from the sitting position. I felt that the clothing attire could have been matched better as well. However, he is dressed pretty casually, so I tried to do the same. Overall, I had a very enjoyable time making this sketch assignment happen!
Throughout the three parts of the literacy narratives, I believe it is fair to say that a large majority of the learning targets within the course have been tackled. Firstly, regarding rhetorical composition, we focused on making our works in written and drawn formats. Writing out the essay versus compiling it into a comic format checks the box for the rhetorical composition aspect of the course learning objectives. More personally, the literacy narrative process helped me tackle the second learning target. When moving from one part of the literacy narrative to the next, I had to constantly summarize, analyze, and synthesize my own works to improve them and transition between modes of composition. It helped me refine my own argument in a way. The third part of the literacy narrative especially targeted writing as a process. I consider the second part of the literacy narrative, turning our narrative into a comic, as part of that process. It was part of revising, editing, and reflecting on my work. Finally, the second part of the literacy narrative directly targeted the fourth course objective of visual thinking in a hands-on manner.
Returning to my alphabetic narrative after creating my comic was difficult. Throughout the making of my comic, I realized there were a lot of details that were unimportant that I needed to cut out. Transitioning back into the alphabetic narrative, it was difficult to cut out those parts. After cutting out the parts as well, I now had to resynthesize the story and make it all work together, which involved a full restructuring of my essay for me.
My analytical thinking process has become more centered towards detail, and specifically unnecessary details, which I have become self-aware of within my works. Although it’s definitely a problem that I’ll have to continue fixing and tackling, it is a way in which I see my story in a completely different lens now.
“The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts” – Marcus Aurelius
Of course, this quote refers mostly to optimistic thinking and worldviews, but I spent two weeks to try and figure out how to improve “the quality of my thoughts”, or at least what factors affected their quality. Unlike Marcus Aurelius’ emphasis on optimism, the quality of my thoughts depended on how long I could journal in “flow state”. Journaling in “flow state” means that I pick up my pen and I start writing until I get stuck or lose focus. I set a timer when I begin journaling, and I write until I catch myself pausing or losing focus.
The points of data that I measured were: minutes walking in the morning, pages of book read, minutes of exercise, minutes passed before phone used, minutes spent listening to music, screen time, # of liters of water drank, minutes meditating, and finally, at the very end of each bar, the result of daily minutes in flow state journaling. With the exception of screen time (in which less is considered better), more of each datapoint is meant to “improve” my quality of thoughts.
I found that the data was unfortunately insufficient for my liking. My quality of thoughts ranged from about 10-20 minutes (give or take a few), and I would say it wasn’t significantly impacted by any certain factor. In all honesty, the data is also quite biased. The “quality of thought” is self-reported and not measured in the best possible way (there should be units of measurement better than minutes for thoughts). I do find great benefits in this sort of project though. It helped me track many habits that are beneficial to mitigate or magnify in my daily life, and how they can impact a certain part of my life. I would like to measure these same criteria for different outcomes in the future, to see how these habits can benefit other parts of my daily life.
This was my quadriptych sketch regarding man’s destruction of nature despite the enjoyment and benefits that it brings us. The panels depict a man planting/encouraging a tree to grow, reaping its benefits (along with the rest of nature, such as the bird), but suddenly deciding to cut it down (much to the surprise of the bird). The tree then grows back a middle finger, representing the destruction and negative effects of deforestation and other natural declines inflicted by mankind.
I would say that this assignment was less difficult than the triptych. The fourth panel allows for more than you can imagine. For starters, the extra panel allows for a significant amount of more detail and creativity than the triptych. You can use the fourth panel to illustrate ideas which you might miss out on if you try to condense your sketch into three panels. Furthermore, the extra panel also allows for more literary detail. There is room to tell a longer and more detailed story, allowing for more creative and narrative freedom within the quadriptych rather than the triptych.
Click here to see my literacy narrative.
Writing my literacy narrative was different from writing it as a comic because of how intentional and subtly detailed my comic had to be compared to the written narrative. When drawing out my comic, I had to use the limited time, panels, creativity, and artistic ability that I had to be able to create what I wanted. Because of those limits and restrictions, I had to be much more intentional and pickier with what details I chose to include in my comic versus my actual written narrative. I didn’t have the freedom to merely think of an idea and write it out in a few words – I had to choose things which I could effectively visually illustrate.
That response ties into how I had to think differently once the visual component was added. It made me realize that although the visual spectrum introduces a load of new opportunity and a wider range of creativity, it can also bring in limitations, especially when working informally on your own. Additionally, while prose literature can usually be interpreted in a fairly straightforward and literal manner, the visual spectrum offers much more to consider. You have to think about how every drawing, every word, every detail, and even the blank spaces and gutters. Therefore, you have to be clever but also intentional while considering those additional details as well.
I think that drawing a comic and writing my literacy narrative did have me perceive my story in different ways. In my opinion, drawing out a comic ended up simplifying my story in a beneficial way. I am writing this after it was discussed in class earlier today, but I raised the point that because I had to be more intentional with everything in my comic and the details that I chose to include from my written narrative. Due to this, I actually found that the comic version allowed me to see the written narrative with the same amount of detail, but in a simplified manner. That means the exact same instances, moments, and details, but presented in a minimalized format. When writing prose, I myself have a major problem with filler words and details and spending too much time and words on things that aren’t actually relevant to my story. When discussing both academic and creative writing, being able to concisely but clearly getting your ideas across is a crucial skill in all modes of communication. Looking back on this, I had the idea that next time I have a lot of time to write for a project (whether it be school or a personal thing), I may consider writing it out, then simplifying it into a comic, and then rewriting it based on the comic. In my mind, this way I can easily filter all the filler and keep the important details of my story.
With that, I have ultimately become much more critical of my alphabetical narrative. At first, I might’ve been blind to improvement, but merging the narrative into different literary forms has almost made my narrative show its true colors and flaws, giving me room for improvement within my writing.
Assignment Prompt / Project
Thesis: My thesis for my project was (in and, but, therefore structure): The organization of panels to manipulate time and disposition of images to stimulate emotion are formal tools within the production of comics, but their subtle integration allows readers to unconsciously dwell on a scene which the author wants to emphasize, therefore catalyzing a deeper interpretive engagement between the reader and the text.
Argument Preview: My argument for my project was that both David Small and Tillie Walden effectively used the unique format of comics to deeper engage readers and allow them to analyze the novel in a way that was beyond simply pictures.
Reflection Questions: – The process of tracing and annotating was useful and engaging for me. I have never traced a page like that before, mainly because I am only used to reading prose literature. However, in terms of annotating, it is a process that I am used to doing within my own reading. It helps me gain an understanding of a page or a piece of text beyond its surface level, and with that it becomes easier to recognize clear patterns, similarities, and differences. – My writing process itself didn’t necessarily change with the inductive ABT structure, but I did have to go back and revise my essay much more often than usual. Especially in writing the first paragraph, I had a lot of trouble differentiating between a topic sentence/opening, and a thesis statement. Countless times, I accidentally opened the paragraph with something that was too close to a thesis, resulting in constant editing and revision. – This project certainly helped me understand the secret language of comics in a better way. I wouldn’t say it necessarily helped me understand the stories themselves, but more so how they were structured. I think the biggest thing for me was that the intentionality behind the disposition of every scene and panel shone through to me. Generally, when reading prose literature, especially poems, everything is already intentional. However, with comics, I now understand how that intention carries through to the panels, the gutters, the structuring of these elements, the art, the style of the art, and all of these parts to consider.
In David Small’s Stitches and Tillie Walden’s Spinning, both authors use the intentional organization of panels as a way to manipulate the passage of time within a scene. Both novels include pages in which a single moment is divided into three panels, each depicting that moment from a different perspective. In these instances, StitchesandSpinningfollow similar patterns in the way their panels are layered. The first panel on each page zooms into a certain aspect scene from a certain perspective. For example, on page 22 of Stitches, the first panel is a zoomed-in image of the x-ray machine from beneath, likely being the from David’s perspective on the table. On page 41 of Spinning, there is a similarly zoomed-in image of Tillie, from the perspective of her glasses which are laying on the ice. The second panel on both pages acts as a reciprocity in perspective of the first one. Still zoomed-in, but this time an image of David’s face from the perspective of the x-ray machine, or Tillie’s glasses from Tillie’s perspective. Finally, the third panel on both pages is a completely zoomed-out image of both entire scenes, ‘closing out’ the scene in a sense. Through this tri-panel organization, both scenes become elastic and elongated in time, and their importance is emphasized without any additional words or details.
Within these scenes and panels, the disposition of elements in each panel also assists in manipulating the passage of time within a scene, along with stimulating emotion despite a lack of text. Within the second scene of both pages, both Small and Walden purposefully display the contents of a page in a specific manner. In Stitches, David’s facial features (eyes, nose, mouth) are extremely detailed, yet they are placed on a white background. The rest of his face, or any other details for that matter, are not included in the illustration. Similarly, in Spinning, the second scene is a very bleak illustration of Tillie’s glasses laying still on the ice, with no other details included on the page. The overpowering of white background space in respect to detailed illustrations in the panel is a major conductor of the tempo within the page. Both central panels slow the reader down when analyzing the page, as the white space leaves room for interpretation and leads the reader to evoke their own thoughts and derive their own emotions from the scene.
The organization of panels to manipulate time and disposition of images to stimulate emotion are formal tools within the production of comics, but their subtle integration allows readers to unconsciously dwell on a scene which the author wants to emphasize, therefore catalyzing a deeper interpretive engagement between the reader and the text. Small and Walden capitalize on the unique structure of comics in order to make these techniques possible, as further described in Hilary Chute’s “Risk of Representation” essay. Essentially, “comics [are] composed in frames-also called panels-and in gutters. The effect of the gutter, the rich empty space between the selected moments that direct our interpretation, is for the reader to project causality in these gaps that exist between the punctual moments of the frames.” (Chute 8). Both authors take advantage of these distinctive principles of comics within their respective works, encouraging a deeper engagement between the reader and the text and forging ideas beyond the mere images on the page.
Click here to see the annotations for Stiches, and here for the annotations for Spinning.
Chute, Hillary. “The Risk of Representation.” Graphic Women: Life Narrative and Contemporary Comics, Columbia University Press, 2010, p. 8.
