Reflection on the class

During the course of this semester, one thing I have learned is how visuals can relate and add dimensions to literature but also take away from its effectiveness on a reader. As a loose example, when I hear a song I listen to the lyrics and develop visuals in my mind that match the lyrics and how I interpret and relate them to my life and experiences. Then, if and when I watch the music video for the song, which is rare, the images in my head are distorted because of those in the video, and usually ends up taking away from the connection I felt with the song. On the other hand, visuals can support claims, strengthen arguments, and provide a basis of understanding for a reader/viewer. As an example of that, I was watching Forensic Files tonight and thought about how it was making me cringe. It would not have had the same effect on me had they not shown pictures of the perpetrator and victim(s).
If I had the chance to revise a piece of my work, I would definitely choose the summaries I wrote of the academic articles. Although I was happy with the actual summaries, I was disappointed with the lack of an introduction and a conclusion. Not only would I have gotten a better grade had I included those; the person reading my document would have finished with a better understanding of how the three articles were correlated with each other. Also, while I was mostly satisfied with my Activity II project, the redesigned song lyrics, I think I could have done a lot more to the words and used different, more expressive fonts to convey their meanings in a broader way. I started the project by changing the font of each word to match the meaning of that word, but then realized that my design would have a greater affect if I gave credit to the significance of the lyrics in a larger sense. It certainly improved between the first draft and the final, but I think I could have done an even better job.
As for my blog: I hadn’t really thought about what I was going to do with it following this course. Undoubtedly I will look back at it and either admire my work or decide what I could have done differently/better, as I already have. Whether I’ll continue to post blogs there, I don’t know; I guess its possible future content would depend on who could see it. I’m not one to post things on the internet such as updates about my life or other stories like that, so other than using the blog for school, I’m not sure how it would be of use to me after this semester.