This Semester, my classmates and I were asked to reconsider writing in a way that had been taught to us before, but may have never been taken seriously. Most often, people wait until the night before or the day the assignment is due to finally write something, giving the readers only a glorified draft of the assignment or writing piece asked for. This leads to a paper which may have great potential, but is not necessarily perfect or immaculate. This semester, we were asked to look at writing as a process through the lens of multimedia in the modern world and the longstanding art of rhetoric to produce works of different media on various topics. In this portfolio, you will be able to see the evolution of my writing through many media forms, ranging from a purely audio essay to a TED style presentation.
My audio essay demonstrates a knowledge of different ways to present a story, and uses different audio-rhetorical techniques, such as voice intonation and background noises, to enhance the story. Additionally, it was my first foray into writing something as a process and so it is greatly changed from the script I had originally written with the suggestions of Dr. E and other revisions I had seen were needed. This was an interesting project as it forces one to understand what happens at the crossroads of media and rhetoric, and how it is that hearing an essay is much different than reading it. I wrote this essay on how it is that my family uses movies as a way of bonding, and how it is that at Notre Dame, I would not be able to continue bonding in exactly the same way I had with my family. I hope you enjoy it!
The rhetorical analysis is perhaps my best work and best exemplifies the integration of the study of rhetoric and multimedia. In the analysis, the film The Social Network is analyzed in the context of Greed and how it is the downfall of the characters of the film. The essay uses examples from the film to show how it is that script and the placement of scenes (mis-en-scene) can influence the rhetoric of the film and its interpretation. This was also a great paper to show the writing process as I went to the Writing Center and visited Dr. E in order to get feedback on the paper. Thus, I went through about three or four drafts in order to finish the essay, a feat I would not have done otherwise. Thus, I hope that this essay is another enjoyable reading experience which fully demonstrates growth as a writer.
The research essay was an essay done on a topic of one’s choosing, so long as it pertained to the topic of multimedia rhetoric. I chose to do my topic on internet memes and how it is that these are used to communicate on the internet. This topic came to me after talking to my brother about topics ranging from the missing airplane in Malaysia to the Ukrainian revolutions, merely through the use and readings of memes. Thus, I wanted to find out what exactly memes were and how it was that they functioned to communicate ideals to strangers all around the globe. This paper showcases newly developed research skills, such as how to browse a library catalog and how to check out books. Diverse sources are used to bring together a narrative on the origin of memes and their use in the digital sphere. In this way, the multimedia component of the course was heavily utilized, as images had to be analyzed in order to determine their meaning and rhetorical use as a part of a new lexicon of the internet. This was most certainly an interesting read, and I hope you enjoy it as I enjoyed writing it!
The final assignment of the course was a TED style talk over any topic we chose as well. Building off of my research paper, I decided an appropriate topic would be about memes and their use. Although this was on a similar topic as the research paper, converting it into an audio-visual format proved to be interesting and really incorporated the multimedia aspect of the class. What was once a ten page paper had to be compressed and condensed into a 8-10 minute presentation, a feat not easily done. Although I had practiced quite a bit for the presentation, I feel my recorded delivery wasn’t as flattering as I had imagined, yet the topic and the main tenets found in the research paper remain. I hope the video of my presentation is enlightening as any TED talk!
Thus, this portfolio showcases a diverse array of media which is used to convey a certain rhetoric or argument. This diversity is a testament to the diverse and wide range of topics and utilization of media in this class, and has largely contributed to my versatility as a writer.
Writing on Empty 