Month: June 2024

1. Relying on Syllables, Words, or Ideas: In my emoji story above, I relied mostly on ideas that were symbolized through emojis rather than syllables or specific words. The emojis that I selected were chosen to symbolize key scenes in the plot, characters and actions from “Batman: The Dark Knight,” focusing on conveying the storyline and emotions of the characters effectively. Emojis represent a new mode of communication, different from traditional written language. They convey this story through visual symbols. Just as Kress (2005) discusses the shift from text to image, using emojis in storytelling demonstrates this transition. Emojis allow for a more concise expression appealing to a visually oriented audience or learner. Actually, my five year old daughter loved it and thought it was a really cool game!
2. Starting with the Title: To be honest, I don’t have time to watch a lot of television so I tried to think back to a program I’ve seen at all within the last little while. Other than hockey and cartoons, I remembered watching the end of Batman not too long ago. The title definitely came first because it was something simple that I could make out of symbols. It began with emojis representing Bat-man and then came Gotham City, Joker and went rolling from there.
3. Choosing Based on Visualizability: The choice of  The Dark Knight was definitely influenced by its visual and narrative simplicity, making it easier to visualize and portray through emojis. Like I mentioned above, this paid into the reasoning for my selection but was also sincerely something I recall recently watching. The iconic characters like Batman and the Joker, along with Gotham City and good vs. evil, lend themselves well to emoji representation, making the story engaging and recognizable. Kress (2005) notes that the order of information in multimodal communication is much more open. In the example of my emoji story, a reader may interpret the sequence of these emojis, creating their own kind of narrative.

The first step I took was to give the main characters each their own emoji so that my story would be simple enough to follow. The emoji used for Batman was the easiest to pick out as it seemed to fit him perfectly and I suppose you could say that I blended BAT-MAN per syllable. The Joker was also quite easy to pick as the joker card emoji fit him perfectly but I had to throw in the clown next to it to make it more recognizable. Harvey Dent was easy to select as well since he was the district attorney, therefore the scales of justice emoji symbolized him well. Later in the story, you might see that I changed Harvey Dent into the dramatic masks representing his transformation into Two Face. For Commissioner Gordon, I decided on the police officer emoji to symbolize his role in law enforcement.

The most difficult emoji to decide on was Rachel Dawes since she was a complex character, both a lawyer and Bruce Wayne’s love interest (notice the hearts ????). Since she often guided Bruce/Batman, I considered giving her the woman detective emoji but I stuck to the simple brunette one for simplicity sake.

The criminals in Gotham influenced by the Joker were also fun to express through emojis as I used the purple “evil” face emoji (fits too because Joker’s colour is purple) along with an emoji of a gun. I used an arrow emoji to signify the progression of a scene or idea. I found this very useful for myself.

Overall, I heavily relied on the symbolism/ideas of the emojis to convey my story. There were many emojis that directly linked to the plot of the movie which made it easier to complete. I really enjoyed this assignment as it reflects our evolving ways of expressing ideas, emotions and narratives through images and digital symbols. We simply continue to evolve… I’m curious to see what happens next with our text and symbols in the future. ????

 

Kress, G. (2005). Gains and losses: New forms of texts, knowledge, and learning. Computers and Composition, 2(1), 5-22.

 

 

I usually prefer writing by hand over typing. Although typing can lead me to faster writing, easier editing and quick access to digital tools like spell check or a thesaurus, writing by hand can feel more personal and connected, which was especially meaningful for a variety of reasons. Writing out a lesson plan, a birthday card, a letter or an entry in a journal, writing by hand seems much more personal and unique than clicking away at a keyboard. For some reason, I have always enjoyed my printing and I especially enjoy writing with a lead pencil. Something about the lead scraping the grain of the paper really resonates with me and I’ve never thought about it so much until now. While I found the task definitely enjoyable, it was time-consuming and required more focus compared to if I typed this out.

To be honest, I didn’t make many mistakes but when I did have to erase once, I did with the back of my lead pencil. The pencil in the photo has been with me for over 8 years if I recall correctly. Those are the only pencils I like to write with, kind of a snob like that I suppose. But they just have the perfect weight, white eraser and 0.5 lead. When I made that mistake it was a quick fixed, easy erase. If the grain of the paper was ruined or the eraser smudged, I would have considered writing it out again. What does that say about me? I felt that this process made me more deliberate with my word choices and my overall structure, as I wanted to avoid errors. Writing by hand means that editing is more visible, unlike the simple backspace and delete keys available when typing.

The most significant difference between writing by hand and typing has to be the speed and ease of typing. Typing is much faster and allows for quick revisions without leaving a trace of mistakes. Writing for school or typing out things that I don’t feel are as personal doesn’t bother me at all. That’s not to say that school isn’t personal to me but it’s just not practical writing in large quantities but hand. Handwriting feels more permanent, personal and requires more careful consideration of each word. I enjoy this aspect of writing. I truly prefer writing in pencil over typing for most tasks. For personal reflections and diary entries, writing by hand can create a deeper sense of connection and authenticity and I also like that people know my writing when they see it. Take the writing of my daughters name for example. Seeing her name written by me is much more meaningful than seeing it typed. Little things, it’s all about the little things for me.

Unscripted Anecdote:

Normal people like me don’t go to game 7 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. When my sister called me out of the blue on that Monday afternoon at about 4:30 I was wondering what was going on as she was taking my mom to the airport. When answer the phone it was to my surprise that she asked me a question do you want to go to the game tonight? Immediately I was lost for words and said well people like me don’t go to a game 7 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and she said just tell me do you want to go to the game tonight. I said aren’t you at the airport with Mom? She said I’m here and someone is trying to get rid of their tickets for tonight’s game I was calling to see if you wanted to take Dylan who is my nephew to the game tonight. Instantly I told her it’s a scam Christina don’t fall for it don’t give any money only pay somebody once they give you the tickets but I find it really hard to believe that someone’s at the airport waiting to go on a plane with game 7 tickets in hand. She assured me that they were really nice people who were going back to Melbourne Australia and needed to get rid of the tickets they would take any amount of money so they offered them $150. When really in the playoffs and game seven nonetheless $150 is a lot cheaper than what they should be which is well over $500 per ticket. She asked for my email and told me to trust her so I did. The next thing I knew I received an email from Ticketmaster with two tickets to the game that was about to start in 30 minutes. She raised over from the airport after saying goodbye to my mom dropped Dylan off wearing his connect Jersey which is why he was approached in the first place to go to the game and we were off. We got to game seven of the Stanley Cup Playoffs only 2 minutes into the game and had the cheapest tickets in the house but we’re pretty good seats. I guess normal guys like me do go to game sevens in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

(speechnotes.com)

Analysis:

• How does the text deviate from conventions of written English?

First of all, my teacher brain hurts reading this over. The text above contains quite a few run-on sentences without proper punctuation, making it very difficult to follow. There are also quite a few missing words and typographical errors that disrupt the fluency of the script. For example, “When answer the phone,” should be, “When I answered the phone.” This could be because I spoke to quickly or mumbled my anecdote or perhaps the microphone didn’t capture a short word properly. The entire text obviously lacks clear structure as well, making it seem like one large block of text. This affects readability and organization. Lastly, I found that there is a regular pattern of repetition which I concluded that it exists due to the unscripted nature of the assignment.

• What is “wrong” in the text? What is “right”?

I have edited the text to the best of my ability and have corrected the many errors that I found. Here is the edited version:

Normal people like me don’t go to Game 7 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. When my sister called me out of the blue on that Monday afternoon at about 4:30, I was wondering what was going on, as she was taking my mom to the airport. When I answered the phone, I was surprised that she asked me, “Do you want to go to the game tonight?”

Immediately, I was at a loss for words and said, “Well, people like me don’t go to a Game 7 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.” She insisted, “Just tell me, do you want to go to the game tonight?”

I replied, “Aren’t you at the airport with Mom?” She explained, “I’m here, and someone is trying to get rid of their tickets for tonight’s game. I was calling to see if you wanted to take Dylan, my nephew, to the game tonight.”

Instantly, I warned her, “It’s a scam, Christina. Don’t fall for it. Don’t give any money—only pay somebody once they give you the tickets. I find it really hard to believe that someone at the airport, waiting to go on a plane, has Game 7 tickets in hand.” She assured me that they were really nice people who were going back to Melbourne, Australia, and needed to get rid of the tickets. They offered them for $150, which is much cheaper than the usual price of well over $500 per ticket.

She asked for my email and told me to trust her, so I did. The next thing I knew, I received an email from Ticketmaster with two tickets to the game that was about to start in 30 minutes. She raced over from the airport after saying goodbye to my mom, dropped Dylan off—wearing his Canucks jersey, which is why he was approached in the first place—and we were off.

We got to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs only 2 minutes into the game. Although we had the cheapest tickets in the house, they were pretty good seats. I guess normal guys like me do go to Game 7s in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

I find that quotation marks, commas, and paragraphing was the easiest way to fix the piece. All of the grammatical errors and lack of punctuation aside, the anecdote did deliver some sort of story which included a beginning, middle and end. The story is fairly entertaining and could be served as a decent conversation between friends.

• What if you had “scripted” the story? What difference might that have made?

In my opinion, scripting the story prior to using Speechnotes would have significantly reduced many of the errors that I found. I would have definitely felt more confident in my delivery, resulting in a louder and clearer presentation. Reading from a script allows a person to carefully consider their words, eliminating the need to worry about proper language usage. I found myself thinking about tenses and run on sentences while trying to complete the story. I was too busy conveying the expressions of the written text rather than my own spontaneous thoughts. While using Speechnotes was simple to create this story, I hesitated quite a bit, which sometimes led to issues with the program. However, if I had been reading the story fluidly, sentence by sentence, I believe Speechnotes would have captured it more accurately.

• In what ways does oral storytelling differ from written storytelling?

I feel that writing, in a way that mimics real speech, requires a talented skill set and a creative approach. Some authors or even some screenplays that I enjoy, often are the ones written with the most realistic dialogue. Quintin Tarantino for example writes dialogue with such realism that oral and written storytelling can become like blurred lines in a movie. Oral conversations and stories sometimes tend to be less precise and much more casual than written works (Gnanadesikan, 2011). As a result of this, the tone and expression used in spoken language greatly influence the story, which a program may fail to capture accurately. Sometimes, oral storytelling needs more than just words. Cadence, body language and even someones delivery or tone can do much to a story spoken between people. However, it could also lead to miscommunications and challenges understanding each other. I agree with Gnanadesikan (2011), who states, “Spoken words, by contrast, are inherently ephemeral. So written language seems more real to us than spoken language” (p. 4). On the flip side, Speechnotes also missed much of the expression and obvious punctuation that really helps a written piece along and without that, writing can become confusing and difficult to follow. When voice to text software is able to accurately detect expression it will make a big difference for those who use the program.

References

Gnanadesikan, A. E., & Wiley Online Library. (2011). The writing revolution: Cuneiform to the internet (1. Aufl.; 1 ed.). Wiley-Blackwell.