Grace Shultis

My Writing Journey

My Best OV Components

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La La Land Visual Analysis

Oral

This work is the best course example of my oral communication because it is the only assignment where I am speaking. I started this assignment with an outline and figured that would be enough for me. Instead I ended up having to write out my script word for word and reading that off. This helped me because I was better able to organize my thoughts. I was also able to reduce my stuttering/stammering and any ‘um’s. However, this harmed me because I did not proofread and edit the script much after the rough draft.

I could have edited the script to interest and cater to the audience a bit more, but I found the video intriguing and easy to follow along with. My decision to compare an official movie poster and a fan made poster for the movie La La Land is due to the plethora of awards it received, the fan support, and my own personal interest in the movie. Once I piqued the audience’s interest, I highlighted my main points by comparing the two posters. I was a little biased and tended to favor the official movie poster over the fan made one. I think my analysis ended up being a little harsh on the fan made poster but I did my best to remain unbiased.

I did not use feedback for this assignment because I waited too long to start it. I tried not to rush and produce a sloppy video, but I did run out of time to properly edit my script. I had a friend watch through the complete video a few minutes prior to submitting it and they informed me that they felt I was a little biased in my analysis and that they disagreed with a few of my points. Had I started this project earlier, I would have taken the time to make sure my preferences were not influencing my work.

Visual

I chose this piece to represent my best visual work because I put the most thought into it. In order to capture and maintain my audience’s interest, I started with a dark, almost black, background. This allowed the components to stand out and made the bright colors appear even brighter. I also used a clean font for my title page and did not add any text within the video. To highlight my points, I added animations. I usually incorporated arrows to point out which part of the poster I was talking about. However, when I was discussing the kissing couple silhouette in the fan made poster, I drew around the outline and then animated it. I found this to be an effective way to both entertain the viewer and emphasize my point.

I also directed my audience’s attention by cropping the movie posters. When I only wanted to discuss the dancing couple in the poster, I cropped out the text and other unrelated content. This helped the viewer to focus on the part I was talking about and not get distracted by the other parts of the poster. I used the morph transition on power point which helped a lot with keeping the audience’s attention. For example, I transition from a side-by-side comparison of the movie posters to just the one poster. The transition removed the fan made poster and centered the official movie poster seamlessly.

This transition provided in power point taught me that to be good at visual communication does not always mean having an extensive knowledge of the software being used. I learned more about how to use power point during this project than previous classes in high school which required it. My ability to make a video using power point demonstrates my ability to adapt and learn the best way to communicate with the tools provided.

Closing Statement

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Derek,

English 250 has been an extremely helpful course. I have learned about each of the WOVE components and how to effectively communicate using these mediums. My strongest one is written communication because I am usually pretty good at getting down raw content. To strengthen this I need to allow myself more time to proofread my writing and seek out others who would be willing to proofread for me. I often end up waiting too long to start an assignment and then run out of time to find more than maybe one person who has the time to read through my writing. I also need to work more on creating pieces of writing which are organized for the reader. After I have read through my own writing a few times, I am no longer able to distinguish the reader’s point of view from my stance as the writer. This ties back to starting earlier in order to gather feedback from others. Aside from these issues, I believe written communication to be my strongest area.

My weakest area is oral communication in a public setting. I am terrible at public speaking. I get really red, cannot look at the audience, and usually end up speed talking my way through the information. This happens when I have not spent enough time preparing the content and/or rehearsing. The oral component of my visual analysis ended up being fairly decent. I typed it out word for word and read straight from the script. As I made my way through the analysis, I found instances where I would need to go back and change some of the words, but I never really went through it as a whole. I reviewed the video a few times once I was done editing and before I turned it in. However, I did not read through the script and proofread it.

In order to improve my communication, oral and written, I plan to allow myself more time to prepare and rehearse. By getting a rough draft done as soon as possible, I will have enough time to review the rough draft, find people to proofread it, and edit it. This will also allow me to look for bigger issues such as audience organization and transitions.

To improve how I tailor my writing to the audience, I will take into consideration how much prior knowledge they might possess, what types of resources they might have access to, and how they might be able to relate to my writing. All of these aspects will determine the structure of my paper and how much to include in each section. For example, in my writing Daylight Saving Time, I had to consider how much the reader might know about DST prior to reading my piece. I based this off the average American using my own knowledge as a guideline. I personally did not know that Benjamin Franklin was incorrectly credited with the idea of resetting the clocks. I used four paragraphs for background information and helped round out the average person’s knowledge of DST.

I believe my abilities to communicate using the WOVE model are strong but could always use improvement. By allotting myself more time for assignments I will be able to go through and strengthen them on multiple fronts. English 250 has helped me build a strong foundation for furthering my communication skills.

Sincerely,

Grace