Thursday 3/13/2014

We began today by reviewing Web 2.0 and I asked you to play a game (using Google Docs) in which you list different examples of Web 2.0 (specific functions or applications that incorporate both dynamic and interactive qualities) as possible.
You came up with:

• online media players (incorporating video or audio into a text)
• collaborative documents (allowing users to work on the same document at the same time)
• online purchasing and reservation services
• online rating services
• orientation systems (maps that tell you where you are and how to get to where you want to be)
• social networking

and lots more
These are all good examples of the interactive qualities of Web 2.0 and the benefits it has over static text.

We then began working on "Reverse Engineering the Infographic" (see the corresponding Google Doc) a small, in-class exercise where I ask you to take apart an infographic and re-imagine it as a traditional text essay. I then ask you to think about the differences between the infographic essay and the text-based essay.
Please finish this in Google Docs for class on Tuesday.

Homework, I'd like you to repeat the "Reverse Engineering the Infographic" process for an infographic essay of your choice.
I define the essay as a text that not only explains/notices something, but also explains how this realization/explanation is significant. Your infographic essay, then, will likely need to be a series of graphics--rather than a single graphic.
Please include a link to your infographic essay as well as your answers in your blog Entry #5.

You had some good questions about the Rhetorical Situation, which was covered long ago last year. If you need a refresher, or had a different instructor who didn't cover rhetorical situation in the same way, here is a brief refresher: Rhetorical Situation
There were also some good and specific questions about Genre (which is one element of the Rhetorical Situation and discussed in the above link), though largely what I am asking you to do is recognize the category of essay that you are reviewing. Is it a comparison-contrast essay? An analytical essay? An argumentative essay? etc. And what are the rules or conventions of this category? How does it work? (For example: the argument essay, which seeks to persuade the audience, presents a point of view, defends that view, refutes opposition, and concludes with a review of its strengths).
Here is a humorous infographic that examines paintings, identifying the conventions of a particular painter, then categorizing the paintings according to the painter: How to Recognize Artists of Different Kinds of Paintings