Develop Understanding
Develop an understanding about how writing and other modes of communication (such as visual and audio elements) work together for rhetorical purposes in order to compose multimodal projects in electronic mediums for various audiences.
For project 1, it wasn't required to use such tools as visual or audio elements to analyze our chosen document. However, I think learning about the concepts of logos, pathos and ethos gives a good framework for how to use tools and methods within writing and communication in order to be effective. We can use these concepts to write a persuasive document. In the same way, we can use tools such as audio and visual elements for rhetorical purposes. In appropriate situations, it is good to understand how these can all be used so that we can effectively achieve our goal as a writer. If a visual element such as a graph is better at conveying an idea than a paragraph of text, you can recognize this and make use of a visual element. The visual element on its own may hold no real significance, but when you put all the pieces together, your project as a whole improves. These are all tools that are available to us, especially for multimodal projects, that we can use to compose documents in electronic mediums for various audiences.Based on the requirements of Project 2, multimodal components were to be included. The blog format makes it extremely easy to integrate content other than plain text to help compose a project. In my case, I included 3 images I felt were relevant to my topic. I included a photograph I took myself of the nuclear engineering lab at UNM that I discuss in my project. I also included a web-comic I found that helps suggest the idea that scientists and engineers may see things differently than non-engineers and non-scientists. Finally, I included a schematic graphic that showed a simplified layout of a nuclear power plant. Nuclear engineers major use in industry is related to energy production, so this image was appropriate. These graphics along with the content of my profile help to demonstrate how to effectively use resources like images and graphics that relate and support your subject.
This outcome is about expanding your toolset you have to work with from simply text to include other modes of communication like audio, picture, video, etc. These tools can help you to achieve your desired goal or purpose with your work. The cliche line "a picture is worth a thousand words" comes to mind. Multimodal components can definitely be effective ways to use things like pathos, ethos and logos. It gives your work more dimensions. Adding pictures to a commentary like I did in Project 3 helps to emphasize certain points made.