Reflection letter
This class required me to create an autoethnography project where I was pushed to write in multiple genres. I also wrote in new genres like the review of literature. Because our project is displayed through a website, this class also allowed me to experiment with creating multimodal content. There were so many things I learned about designing and writing different content for the web that was specific for each genre. In my review of literature, I had to search for and use scholarly articles as the evidence for this formal piece of writing. I wanted this review of literature to be directed towards a general audience so that it could be informative to a large group of people. I kept this in mind as I wrote this piece, defining terms and phrases, so that anyone could understand the text. The purpose of writing this piece was to inform the audience about the struggles and issues black students face in private schools, and to provide some context for the rest of the project. Many people talk about these issues, however, some aren’t even aware that these things happen. I used the various research papers and articles to provide proof of what I’ve observed and experienced as a black student at a private school. I think that this review of literature showed a great deal of exigence. My infographic was the first piece I created for this project that I considered truly multimodal. I used the infographic as an opportunity to show the information I used in my review of literature in a visual format, using text, images, and colors. I thought this format was a very easy, simple way to represent the information. In my infographic I intended to target the same audience as my review of literature, however, at the end of the infographic I targeted black students at Emory specifically by including resources on campus that they can use to combat the issues they face. I created an analysis page on my website that I called my “highlight page.” The purpose of this page was to highlight an example of a good use of a safe space. Through some secondary research, I found this article that talked about the opening of the first black themed housing on a California school campus as a response to the students’ demands. There were many articles and videos released both praising the creation of this safe space, and criticizing this choice to make separate housing based on race. I used this page as an opportunity to to show a general audience why a safe space are important and needed by students in minority groups. This piece took on a case study format. In this piece I gave the background on the case, and I also responded to the criticism based on my personal experience and research I conducted for my review of literature.
My topic, the black experience in private schools, is something I’m very knowledgeable about and invested in researching. The issues that I discuss black students facing in the project are things that I have personally experienced. Because I knew exactly what direction I wanted to take my project in, it was easy to find articles and scholarly research for this project. My secondary research was partially fueled by what I found during my primary research, and partially fueled by things my interviewees talked about in their interviews. My 3 analysis pages are all based on my secondary research, or things my interviewees said. For example, in my infographic I wanted to include some statistics on the number of black students at private universities. Through my research I noticed that black students were consistently making up 10% or less of the student population every time. I also presented and discussed these findings in class during my formal presentation on my project. This led me to think about what percentage of black students are even going to college, and if they are going which kinds of universities, public or private, are they going to. This led me to do secondary research on this and create a page about this topic. Throughout this project I realized that there are a lot of subtopics and questions that I could further investigate and analyze, and this pushed my critical thinking skills to grow. Because this project is about black students’ experiences I was required to take others opinions and views I found through interviews, articles, and research, and compare and contrast them. I had to figure out how to analyze and synthesize these findings in a simple way that would address my topic to a general audience. Figuring out how to write for a very broad audience also improved my critical thinking skills. In every page I had to think about how to best present the information for a specific audience. On every webpage I focused on how I would make each page as textually and visually engaging as possible. I did this by making sure my written work was strong, and also making each page visually appealing by using multiple modes on each page. For example, for many pages I paired the writing with images or a video.
My writing process follows a typical format. I brainstorm what I want to write about, research that topic, create an outline, write a draft, and finally edit and revise the piece. This process works for me, and I always plot out each part of the writing process days in advance of the due date of the piece. This was the process for my review of literature, and it worked well for me writing this new genre. I created my research topic after brainstorming what I wanted to write abou, and I knew I was interested in researching black students’ experiences at private schools. I wanted to investigate what issues that black students face in private schools, and what has been, or should be, developed in order to help combat those issues. I found scholarly research and articles done on this topic through the Emory Library website. I compiled my research into three major categories, which became the three major sections for my review of literature, demographics of private schools, issues black students face, and what is being done to combat these issues. I originally started out with four major categories, including a category about whether or not private schools were "worth" the financial investment for black students. However, I wanted my project to be more specific, so I narrowed it down to three: demographics in private schools, issues black students face, and solutions to these problems. Within each section I made outlines, and started writing the pieces. I spent a lot of time cutting and adding information to different sections. The revising process is always difficult for me because I get attached to my words, but in the end I believe it created a well written, informational piece.
My topic, the black experience in private schools, is something I’m very knowledgeable about and invested in researching. The issues that I discuss black students facing in the project are things that I have personally experienced. Because I knew exactly what direction I wanted to take my project in, it was easy to find articles and scholarly research for this project. My secondary research was partially fueled by what I found during my primary research, and partially fueled by things my interviewees talked about in their interviews. My 3 analysis pages are all based on my secondary research, or things my interviewees said. For example, in my infographic I wanted to include some statistics on the number of black students at private universities. Through my research I noticed that black students were consistently making up 10% or less of the student population every time. I also presented and discussed these findings in class during my formal presentation on my project. This led me to think about what percentage of black students are even going to college, and if they are going which kinds of universities, public or private, are they going to. This led me to do secondary research on this and create a page about this topic. Throughout this project I realized that there are a lot of subtopics and questions that I could further investigate and analyze, and this pushed my critical thinking skills to grow. Because this project is about black students’ experiences I was required to take others opinions and views I found through interviews, articles, and research, and compare and contrast them. I had to figure out how to analyze and synthesize these findings in a simple way that would address my topic to a general audience. Figuring out how to write for a very broad audience also improved my critical thinking skills. In every page I had to think about how to best present the information for a specific audience. On every webpage I focused on how I would make each page as textually and visually engaging as possible. I did this by making sure my written work was strong, and also making each page visually appealing by using multiple modes on each page. For example, for many pages I paired the writing with images or a video.
My writing process follows a typical format. I brainstorm what I want to write about, research that topic, create an outline, write a draft, and finally edit and revise the piece. This process works for me, and I always plot out each part of the writing process days in advance of the due date of the piece. This was the process for my review of literature, and it worked well for me writing this new genre. I created my research topic after brainstorming what I wanted to write abou, and I knew I was interested in researching black students’ experiences at private schools. I wanted to investigate what issues that black students face in private schools, and what has been, or should be, developed in order to help combat those issues. I found scholarly research and articles done on this topic through the Emory Library website. I compiled my research into three major categories, which became the three major sections for my review of literature, demographics of private schools, issues black students face, and what is being done to combat these issues. I originally started out with four major categories, including a category about whether or not private schools were "worth" the financial investment for black students. However, I wanted my project to be more specific, so I narrowed it down to three: demographics in private schools, issues black students face, and solutions to these problems. Within each section I made outlines, and started writing the pieces. I spent a lot of time cutting and adding information to different sections. The revising process is always difficult for me because I get attached to my words, but in the end I believe it created a well written, informational piece.