Peer Review for David Keblosky

Let's Give Insight to a Classmate!

In this blog we're going to be looking at the rough cut of David's QRG called a Quick Look into the Rhetorical Life of an Engineer (Link here).

Let the Peer Reviewing Begin!

I'm going to be editing the form from David's QRG, so basically I'll be focusing on the conventions of the QRG and explaining what I think he can do better in it.

Comment for David:

Okay David I liked the QRG a lot, but we have to fix the form bud. The QRG has little to no pictures as of right now, which is a huuuuuuuuuge red flag. People need something that they can glance at quickly and navigate easily, which yours isn't set up for yet. Another not about the pictures, is that these will ease in your introduction as well. The content is there, but like I said I'm looking at form. Another recommendation would be to create more white space throughout your QRG. Right now it's kind of looking like an essay, so we need to fix that asap. Other than that I think it's looking good!

Back to the questions:

How did I make David's work better?

I think I provided David with some helpful tips that should definitely improve his QRG. Since I already did one for the last project, I think I was able to provide some really helpful information that will boost his score in the form side of the rubric. I suggested that he add pictures to his QRG to give breaks from the walls of text he had, and I also suggested for him to use more white space when doing the QRG. I think both of these improvements will make his project like more of a QRG rather than an essay. I'd like to think I really helped him out!

How I incorporated something from a student's guide?

I incorporated the idea that by adding pictures to his QRG, David will be able to make the introduction much smoother, which was highlighted on page 71 of "A student's guide". In the student's guide the introduction part says to edit in order to make sure it's more interesting. I think by adding pictures, David will easily make his post much more interesting in the introduction. An in class example that we viewed had an image on its front page that blew me away.

One thing I admired?

I admired the flow of the information, it seemed to blend really well with the topic. I think once it's organized differently it'll turn out great. At the end of the day, the information is what truly matters, so I definitely think having meaningful content is something I need to learn to keep in mind.

Peer Review for Nick Hernandez

Let's See What Nick's Up to

In this blog we're going to look at Nick Hernandez's standard college essay, and try to help him out in the editing process. You can find his rough draft here. The title of the essay is Genres of Finance.

What are we editing?

I'm going to be reviewing Nick's content in this blog post, so hopefully we can help spice up Nick's essay.

On to the details:

How did I help Nick?

I helped Nick by providing insight on how to cite better, to ensure that his essay is properly cited. The hard part of that was how to cite the interviews, but that shouldn't be a problem anymore. I think I also put Nick in the right direction by mentioning to display the effectiveness of ethos, logos, and pathos more than he already had. These should help better his essay and also hopefully boost his grade a bit.

Student's Guide?

I really hit the head on the nail with the use of sources category. Not only did I mention how to cite, but I also gave him suggestions on how to go and cite certain things in order to give his essay more of a flow. In the end it just matters about how he wants it to be perceived. 

One thing that I admired? 

I really admired Nick's attention to detail in his essay. He gave thorough explanations that made it very interesting to read about, which I feel is something I need to get better at. Hopefully I'll be able to incorporate how he wrote, in my upcoming essay for the next project.

Editorial Report 9b

Yikes the conclusion sucked too

Yeah we're back again with another blog post that displays how sub-par my rough draft was compared to my final edition of my project. Let's check it out!

The rough cut of the outro

Here is a link to the outro of the rough-cut of my podcast. The link will take you to the another blog post, so just click the play button and try not to judge me too much.

My attempt at making it less bad

Here is a link to a YouTube video that contains my project. Go to the from 6:56-7:44 for the outro of my project, and enjoy!

Bring on the questions

1.  The content change for my outro was extremely significant. I better displayed the information at the end of the podcast and I summed up my points extremely well too. In the original cut I was extremely vague, but in my final cut I was able to strike all of the points that I wanted the listeners to understand. Also I can mention the microphone quality again, and how it is 1000 times better than that of the quality in the rough-cut. These factors allowed me to effectively get my points across to the listener in a relaxing way.

2. The form is similar to that of the intro. I had outro music that kind of establishes the finish line in my project, so now my audience kind of knows when to expect the podcast to come to an end, rather than it being an extremely abrupt ending. This simple touch-up allows the information to be communicated more effectively because it's a clear conclusion that sums up the project, which can be identified by the outro music used.

Editorial Report 9a

Wow I sucked

This blog post is going to be like an audio makeover. In this blog, I'll be displaying the before and after effects of the editing of my project.

The rough cut of my introduction

Here's a link to the blog post with my rough-cut introduction. Just go to the post, and hit play. Try not to feel too embarrassed for me.

Did it improve?

Here is a link to a YouTube video that my project is on, listen from seconds 0:00-0:42 for the new intro and decide whether you like it better or not!

Let's answer some questions!

1. Oh the content changed tremendously. For starters, I had a real microphone this time around rather than my laptop microphone. This made the audio in my final version so much smoother and much better sounding. This allowed for a much clearer voice rather than my voice being distorted and all sorts of nasty. Another thing that improved was the flow of my voice. I decided to go with a script on the edited version, as bullet points were just to hard to go off of. This created an even, unshaken flow that still ended up sounding natural to the listener. Both of these allow the reader to have a much more enjoyable listening experience, while being able to truly understand what they're listening to too.

2. One major part of form that I changed was how I introduced myself. In my original cut, I didn't really establish myself as the author. I kind of made myself a minor detail. In the new version I establish myself as the author and I don't let the topic overtake me. I also establish credibility this way too. Another major part of form that I improved was the fact that I had intro music. This made the introduction so much more relaxed, and it kind of eased in the listener of the podcast. Both of these changes will keep the listeners much more engaged in the grand scheme of things!

Reflection on the Post-Production of my Podcast

2 Projects Down, 2 to Go

This blog is going to be focusing on what happened during the post-production week, in a reflection sort of way.

1. This week was up and down for me, I had a lot going on which made the project tough, but there were many successes this week. The first success was that I got it done (please laugh here). No but in all seriousness I think I worked really efficiently this week. I wrote out a rough draft that flowed very well, and was able to time manage very well. Although it was lengthy, I think I performed pretty well this week. I thought that the recording of the podcast went very smoothly. I didn't mess up too many times so it made the process much easier than what it potentially could have been.

2. Oh the challenges of this week sucked to be brutally honest. To say the least, Windows Movie Maker kicked my ass. I could not get the program to do what I wanted, and it was super uncooperative. After a few swear words I finally got everything put together just the way I wanted it to be. Another challenge that I kind of already mentioned was the time crunch of this week. I had two major tests this week that took up all of my time, and a project that was due for one of my classes. To say the least, I had little time to work on this project. Would I have liked more time? Yeah, but in the end I got it done and I enjoyed my finished product.

3. I'm looking forward to next week's project because it's a fresh start and because now it's the new schedule for the entire project. I really enjoyed the new ways of blogging, they seem way more meaningful and worth the time and effort compared to the style of blogging we were doing before. So I'm pretty excited to move onto next week. One thing I'm not excited for is the fact that my next project is going to be my standard college essay, which is the project that I'm least looking forward to. It just sounds so plain and dull compared to the other genres, but we'll try and make the most of it.

4. I feel great about the project considering that I have it complete and submitted to D2L. I feel that I gave it my best shot considering this week's circumstances, which in the end is all you can really do. I really tried to focus on the form of the project this week, so hopefully I get a better score on that compared to the form of my QRG. I feel like the podcast's form policies are tough to do though, especially with the sound effects not making it sound weird. Only time will tell how well made my project was!

Open Post to Viewers

Rip it Apart!

This blog focuses on making my post available for everyone to see and critique. Tell me what you think!

The Podcast Itself

Things I want the Audience to Know

1. What to know about my project?

My project is very dicey, it transitions kind of weirdly. I'm currently working on fixing this, but give me any ideas on how to make these transitions better!

Another thing I want you all to look at is my vocabulary. Does it all flow together? Is it too low of a level or too high of a level, and does it stay the same throughout? 

2. Weaknesses of my project?

Organization: The content in my project doesn't feel organized. I always struggle with staying on the same idea, so I need to fix getting off track, especially in my body paragraphs.

Fluidity: My speaking isn't the greatest, and my enunciation isn't the best. Maybe to fix this I can grab a glass of water before the next time I do a take (yes that's a joke).

3. Strengths of my project?

My project thus far as shown the strength of conventions (minus the music). I think my genre conventions were utilized pretty well in my podcast, and provide a positive effect on my project. This is my main strength, and as I have mentioned before this is definitely a work in progress.

Reflection on the Production Phase

How am I hangin'?

This blog will discuss where I'm at in the project currently, and what shape I'm in for the post-production.

The Questions

1. The successes of this week were the fact that I got the rough cut done (laugh here). I'll be honest it was a very long week and I had little time to work on my project. With spring break coming up, I planned on doing a little bit of editing over break to solidify the rough cut and make it better before I get any peer suggestions. So in the end, I think the successes were limited, but I definitely made some progress which is all I could ask for.

2. The challenges this week were adjusting to the genre and my time constraints. I've never really talked in front of a microphone, so adjusting to that genre was kind of tough (but it was exciting). It takes a little stepping out of the comfort zone to do this genre, rather than just typing away about a story. Another major challenge was my time constraints as mentioned before. Along with other homework, I rushed a fraternity this week which took up a huge chunk of my time. In the end I didn't get to spend a ton of time on my project this week, but I will make up for it over spring break.

3. I think next week will go well since I am going to use spring break as a deeper editing period for the project. I think as long as I grind out the hard work I shouldn't have any problems with the project when we come back. I just need to pull through this week and keep grinding out the project. Also, another thing I want to focus on this week is the conventions of the podcast. To do this I'm going to listen to more examples and try to emulate the strengths of the podcasts.

4. I'm feeling okay about this project right now, like I said I have a lot of editing and details to hammer out but it's coming along. I think the reason for me not being worried is because I have all of spring break to work on the project. With an entire extra week, putting the icing on the cake for this project shouldn't be tough at all. The only thing to worry about is that the week back I am bombarded with tests so that could pose an issue and leave a lot of work for the weekend. All in all, everything is moving along!

Production Report 8b

Keep it Rollin'

In this blog we are going to be pulling out the concluding statements from my podcast, and analyzing them to see how well they went.

The Podcast (rough content)

The part of the outline being covered is the Closing Section

"Closing Section: Here I'm going to restate the main theme of the podcast, and allow the listener to take in all of the information. Not too much analysis done here, just straight up statements and anything else I deem extremely important. Lastly I'll exit on a tune that's similar to the opening segment, to show continuity."

The Questions

1. Form used in a podcast is pretty straightforward. It shouldn't look like anything because, well, it's a podcast. As for the sounds, I tried to make it clear as possible, by speaking fluidly and such. Since this is just a piece of the podcast, there were no transitions to mention, so I'll talk about that more next week.

2. bumps in the road are the same as the last post. The audio quality is not very good, so I'll rerecord my segments once I get back to school. Other than that there doesn't seem to be many bumps in the road. I need to find outro music that matches the intro music, but that's about it. I'll elaborate more on the main hiccups in the reflection blog post that ties the whole project together, as I feel that there are projects problems and not individual segment problems. 

Production Report 8a

Take 1

This blog post will be highlighting a piece of my podcast, it's only a short clip but it gives a lot of insight on what needs to be worked on.

The Podcast (rough content)

(ignore the picture it was the only one i could find to put the audio over).

The Outline Item being covered is the Opening Section

"Opening Section: This is where I'm going to throw in some intro music for my podcast. Definitely looking for something upbeat, I'd like to stray away from the super calm vibe and try and jump out to the listener. The biggest part of this is matching my intro music to how I present the information. Basically here I'll introduce myself and the topic, and I'm try to be a little catchy right off the bat to make sure the listener knows I'm a unique podcast rather than a cookie-cutter podcast. Another tactic I'll use is either a shocking fact or a weird fact in order to catch the reader's attention, along with the music as well."

The Questions

1. The issue with talking about form this early is that it's only a podcast so there aren't a ton of ways to alter how it should sound. I haven't decided what I'm going to use for intro music, so that's still up in the air. This is the intro of the podcast, but like I said there's not a whole lot going on in this clip. The conventions of the podcast didn't affect too many decisions that I made. I tried to stay as clear as possible, and I tried to speak fluidly.

2. The major bump in the road for this was the audio recording. I thought I had a great mic at home but I don't and my laptop mic is absolute garbage. Also, it was tough to get Windows Movie Maker to cooperate with me, so that posed as another issue. I used a script for this first part just to get the ball rolling, so I hope it didn't sound like I was reading from it too much. These were the main hiccups in the process so far.

Reflection on the Week Thus Far

We Came, We Saw, We Kept Planning

This week has been super plan heavy, and now I can sit back and think about what went right and what went wrong. Let's dive in!

The Deadline Recap

The Successes?

I think the overall planning went extremely well for this project. Before going in and mapping out what I was going to be doing for next week, I was completely lost. Then the new blogs were picked to be used and now I feel like I have an idea of where my project is going. Even the little things such as planning out WHERE I will be doing each part of the project helped tremendously. It gives me a way to keep myself accountable, even though it may sound silly. It's like now I know exactly what I'm working on and all aspects of it too (really love the new blog format Sean, thank you so much for listening to the class).

The Challenges?

I think the toughest part was starting the content outline. It was tough to get the ball rolling initially, and just took a little thought about the purpose of each body paragraph, the evidence, and all that jazz. In the end it was tough to get them all to piece together, but eventually it all seemed to workout. I feel like the biggest challenges have helped me learn the most about my project so far.

How does next week look?

Next week is coming up quick, but after all of the planning I feel that it won't be too bad. The production schedule cleared up a lot of everything that's coming up project wise. The blog posts don't look daunting either. Now that everything is pretty project focused I think that no time will be wasted making the best project possible. According to next week's schedule, the only thing that looks time consuming is the production report. In class Sean stated how it keeps us in check, so I think it'll only help me rather than hurt me. Hoping for a great production week!

How does Jake Gyles feel about the project so far?

So far I'm feeling pretty good about this project. The deadline 6 stuff had me spinning and confused, but this week's work put me back on track. I can't wait to get recording though, I really want to see how this podcast turns out. It's super new to me, as I've never really done solely a podcast before. To stay with the question, I'm feeling great at this point in time, in class and out of class. I felt overwhelmed recently but the stress is gradually releasing. I can't think of anything else to put, I'm anxious to get this show on the road!

Production Schedule

Plan, Plan, and Plan Some More!

This post is focused more on, you guessed it, planning the content outline that I created. Let's get organized shall we?

Let's Make a Schedule

So here are the main categories, and where everything fits into each category:

• What is to be done (What)
• Location (Where)
• Planned date & time (When)
• Resources required (Resources)
• Date completed (Completed)
• Changes made after completion & reasons why (Changes)

What:

This week I need to record my own voice discussing the genres that I'll be evaluating in Marketing and business. Then I need to edit out any unwanted segments, add effects, and put in the some segments of the interviews that I recorded a couple of weeks ago. Just thought about this, I also need a rough draft script which can be used to go off of in my podcast. Then the rest of the polishing will be done in post-production. This whole section involves the intro, body paragraphs, and conclusion. Not sure how the evidence and such will be tied into this, it's mentioned above, but I feel that it doesn't really affect my other parts of this post.

Where:

The rough draft script, and effects will be done in my dorm room. I don't need anything equipment-wise to do those parts of the segment. The actual audio recording will take place at my house, I have a pretty good microphone at home that I can use. Any last second editing will probably done at my house this weekend before Sunday.

When:

So the first part of the where will be done on Thursday night, so then I'll be ready to shoot some audio Friday night and Saturday morning at home. This leaves me Sunday to edit and put together a rough draft of my project. The script and the effects will be done before I go home on Friday to say the least.

Resources:

So the basic resources being my laptop and Sony Vegas/Windows Movie Maker will be needed for my stuff that I will have done by Friday. My actual recording on Friday night/ Saturday is going to be a microphone (unsure of the brand, can update when I get home). Other than that, I think the only other material I will need is a music source for my intro and outro music, but that's about it.

Completion:

The overall rough cut will be done by early Sunday. This day will consist of putting all of the pieces together, kind of like a puzzle. I want to make sure that all of the content is there, and I can worry about making it pretty the following week. All of the heavy lifting will be done by Sunday though.

Changes:

If I'm understanding this correctly, this is for if anything comes up after I progress this weekend. I don't really know of any changes as of now, but can/will update once I make these changes

Content Outline

Getting the ball rolling

This week we are going to do a little bit of pre-planning by laying out the content that my podcast will consist of.

The content outline

Opening Section: This is where I'm going to throw in some intro music for my podcast. Definitely looking for something upbeat, I'd like to stray away from the super calm vibe and try and jump out to the listener. The biggest part of this is matching my intro music to how I present the information. Basically here I'll introduce myself and the topic, and I'm try to be a little catchy right off the bat to make sure the listener knows I'm a unique podcast rather than a cookie-cutter podcast. Another tactic I'll use is either a shocking fact or a weird fact in order to catch the reader's attention, along with the music as well.

Body Sections: Body paragraph topics and what they're about. My three main topics are going to be: What Marketing and business are about, emailing in this environment, and presentations. All of my main ideas are listed as 1,2, and 3 in the following section.

1. Learn about Marketing and business: This segment is going to be totally based on why the following genre examples in the next two paragraphs are so important to the field. I'm going to describe what the roles in Marketing are, and in higher education as well. I interviewed two people that had experience in the higher education (one past and one currently), so I'd like to provide insight on the communication devices they use day in and day out to communicate.

2. Genre Example 1, Email: It may not be the most exciting genre, but it came up in both interviews. E-mails have revolutionized the world, and in most jobs it's not a big part of the work. I'll do a little research, but ONET provides stats based on how much a certain individual in a specific field or job uses email. It's such a fast and easy way to communicate, but it can also be dangerous at the same time. Ambiguity or disrespecting someone even when it doesn't seem like you are is a big mishap that occurs quite often. So it'll be a how-to-email and how is email used kind of segment.

3. Genre Example 2. Class presentations (or to any audience): I didn't realize how many factors went into presenting in front of a class or peers until I conducted my interviews. One thing I learned from Sameera was that the most important part of the slide you're on, or the topic that you're discussing, is to put the bottom line on top. The first thing you say about the slide should be the takeaway from what the slide is discussing. I'll go further into detail when doing the project.

Major Pieces of Evidence I'll be Using:

For the First Body Paragraph:

1. Marketing is the major communication side of business.

What it proves and why it's important- It reinforces the idea of how important your genre of choice is, which is important depending on the audience that you are trying to get information to.

2. Business is full of different genres, however, the most effective are the ones that get the point across.

What it proves and why it's important- This proves the point that certain genres have a particular place in Marketing and business, and it's important because it leads into the following paragraphs (it should make for a good transition).

For the Second Body Paragraph:

1. An example of Roberta Schultz's emails to students (if willing to share).

What it proves and why it's important- This will prove the structure of the email that professors use to reach their students and colleagues. This is important because it gives the audience a first hand taste of what emails should look like at a faculty level.

2. An example of Sameera Peri's emails, preferably

What it proves and why it's important- This will prove how people in the MBA program communicate with each other, which is important because most people are unsure of this process. Also, MBA programs vary from college to college, so it's good insight on an example of a University's program.

For the Third Body Paragraph:

1. An example of a PowerPoint from Dr. Schultz

What it proves and why it's important- This proves how professors conduct their lessons and it shows the ins and outs of how professors structure their lesson plans (which shows effectiveness of the presentations). This has importance because it gives the audience not just an example, but tips and messages that make the PowerPoint effective for communicating to multiple people at once.

2. A presentation from Sameera regarding her classes (a group project in her MBA program).

What it proves and why it's important- This one proves how to be effective working with colleagues in order to present information efficiently to their professors. The importance of this evidence is that it gives actual insight on how higher level students operate, which is usually much better and more effective than students in my class.

Closing Section: Here I'm going to restate the main theme of the podcast, and allow the listener to take in all of the information. Not too much analysis done here, just straight up statements and anything else I deem extremely important. Lastly I'll exit on a tune that's similar to the opening segment, to show continuity.

To explain the significance of this to larger audiences, I think I'll try to use analogies and by keeping the conclusion extremely short, sweet, and understandable. Kind of like a bullet point of words kind of segment/recap.