I thought about the situation I’m in now, studying for finals, and what type of music would best suit these times. While I’m stressed, I like to listen to music that’ll calm me down and motivate me to focus. Therefore, the mixtape I made is a fall study playlist that is calm enough to not be distracting but upbeat enough to motivate. I chose the cover picture because I feel that it really captures the essence of fall. This picture also promotes positivity as it reminds me of memorable moments with my friends.
The rhetorical situation that I am representing is the feeling of love during the holiday season that is often mentioned in songs. I wanted every song to be about a lover or a relationship during the holiday season so i went through the lyrics of the songs and every one mentioned something about love during Christmas. Overall, in my mix I am introducing that the idea that relationships and love are pushed more during this season. I do this by the music choices I made being upbeat and about the topic of love during this specific season.
For my playlist, I chose songs that are about the spirit of adventure and believing in oneself. It is a mix to help someone step out of their comfort zone and try new things. To achieve that, I incorporated optimistic and upbeat songs. There are a few songs about confidence, which is important for one to believe that they will succeed in uncharted areas. When I was building the playlist, I came across some songs that are encouraging and have romantic elements. I decided to leave them out because the theme of the playlist is self-oriented and does not have much to do with relationships. In the mix, I am arguing that one has to be confident and not be afraid to try new things in order to live with no regrets.
Don’t Stop Me Now — Queen
Adventure of a Lifetime — Coldplay
The Nights — Avicii
Try Everything — Shakira
Brave — Sara Bareilles
I Lived — OneRepublic
On Top Of The World — Imagine Dragons
Born To Be Wild — Steppenwolf
Light It Up — Robin Hustin, Jex, TobiMorrow
Hall of Fame (feat. will.i.am) — The Script, will.i.am
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!
This year has really been a fun year, and the time I had in this class was nothing less than I could have imagined Emory to be. As I was revising my essay that I had wrote at the beginning of the year, I was able to see how much I have changed in such a short amount of time.
Learning Objectives: I was able to see how my rhetorical comprehension improved as a whole, as I was able to represent and develop it in so many different ways, whether it be through a comic, an interesting sketch assignment, or through traditional words. This also improved my critical thinking and reading skills as I had to analyze comics and assignments in depth and through multiple lenses. As for my writing process, visual thinking, and digital citizenship/digital identity, they went hand-in-hand. There were many unique prompts that required me to take a step back and really examine what I was supposed to do, forcing me to draft up a plan every time. I had to think in many different ways, including visually. I also had to revisit my work many times this semester, going back and making little edits or even completely changing them. Lastly, I also had to represent this in multiple ways while displaying them on WordPress, which improved my technological grasp of things.
Narrative: Returning to the alphabetic literacy narrative was like opening a time capsule for me. I remembered how I had written that just to get the job done at the beginning of the year. However, after looking back at it, I was able to see so much more than when I had first drafted it up. Many ideas or formats flew completely under my radar, that now, after stretching the narrative into so many different mediums, I was able to see clearly. When revising it, I completely changed the story I was trying to tell, making the idea more clear for readers to understand.
I believe that working through the full literacy narrative project helped me meet the learning outcomes of this class by making me see writing as a long process instead of a one-time assignment. Writing the alphabetic narrative helped me figure out my story, but creating the comic forced me to rethink and focus on specific moments, flow, and what actually mattered instead of just what sounded good. When I went back to revise the written narrative, I paid more attention to structure and emphasis, especially which scenes needed more space and which ideas could be shown rather than explained. Working visually made me realize how much meaning can come from silence, repetition, and focus, and I tried to implement that into my writing. I now see the story less as a timeline and more as a shift in how I read, write, and think about literacy overall.
The Halfa Kucha was an assignment unlike any I had done before. Typically, when I am asked to create a presentation, I am expected to include a large amount of information on each slide. That was not the case with the Halfa Kucha, where the focus was primarily on visuals, and the presenter elaborated on the images rather than relying on text. For this assignment, I chose to use a combination of direct images from the two comics I selected, Kindred and Stitches, along with photos that were not taken directly from the excerpts. For example, slide five uses an image that I felt conveyed far more of a story and emotion than the images pulled straight from the comics themselves.
From my actual presentation, I learned that this format required a drastically different approach than the ones I had used previously. Without words on the screen, I had to rely almost entirely on what I said to communicate the important points of my presentation. As an audience member, I also noticed that I had to listen much more carefully to fully understand what the presenter was trying to communicate. I cannot say that I preferred this style of presenting compared to the ways I have presented in the past. As a listener, it was more difficult to fully grasp the presenter’s points, and as a presenter, it was more challenging to effectively convey my own points. Overall, this experience showed me how much structure and on-screen guidance I usually rely on in presentations. While the Halfa Kucha challenged me to be more intentional with my speaking and storytelling, it also reinforced that I am more comfortable and effective in presentation styles that balance strong visuals with clear written support.
Presenting has always been a challenge for me throughout my academic career, and I really wanted to do well on this assignment. I spent a significant amount of time designing my slides, aiming to make them visually engaging so the audience would remain interested throughout my three minutes and twenty seconds. I also practiced for an entire week to master the timing of twenty seconds per slide. However, when it came time to present, I froze up, which has happened to me frequently. I am not sure if it is a confidence issue or simply the pressure of standing in front of a crowd, but it consistently affects me.
Despite this, I see presenting as a skill I will continue to develop during my time at Emory. My goal is to graduate with the confidence to stand in front of an audience and convey my work clearly and effectively. I am grateful for the opportunity to present this year because it gave me another chance to practice and learn, even if it did not go exactly as I had hoped. This experience was a valuable learning opportunity, and I am glad I got the chance to explore a different style of presenting, which encouraged me to grow as both a speaker and a storyteller.
I thought about my peers as the audience for this mix, and I thought about how we all feel right now: tired, stressed, and somewhere between burnout and motivation. I wanted the playlist to feel like something you would listen to late at night after a long day. The main rule I made for myself was to make sure that the emotional flow was clear, starting with songs that were more reflective and ending with songs that felt quietly confident and hopeful. I mostly stuck to one song per artist so that each track would feel different, but I broke that rule deliberately with Frank Ocean because his music helped keep the emotional progression of the mix together. I cared a lot about the order of the songs, and I thought about the playlist the same way you would think about the pacing of an essay, starting out slowly and then building up to something bigger. Early songs make you think and feel unsure, while later songs open up and make you feel more energized without being too much. The mix is saying that it’s okay to take a break before moving on and that contemplating things can actually help you move forward instead of holding you back. The playlist doesn’t try to fix stress or pressure right away; instead, it gives you a place to sit with it and feel better when you’re done.
#sk10
For this assignment, I chose to recreate a scene from one of my favorite movies, The Wolf of Wall Street. I chose a scene where Leonardo DiCaprio was showing the viewers a 1 dollar bill at his desk with a screen of code behind him because it symbolized all that Leo (Jordan Belfort in the movie) was working towards. Here is the original photo from the movie:
#sk9
