The “Everything is a Remix” series talks about, believe it or not, how everything is a remix. They say that music, films and many other things are based off of other things that came before them. First they talk about music. A lot of times, musicians will takes lyrics, melody’s, or audio clips from a song and use it in their songs. The series focuses on Led Zeppelin and how many of their songs are just “remixes” of older songs. One newer song guilty of this that comes to mind is Drake’s “Nice for What.” The chorus of the songs is Lauryn Hill. Instead of getting Lauryn Hill to sing in his song, he just edited, or “remixed” a part of her song “Ex-Factor” and put it into his song. Next, the series shifts its focus towards movies. It focuses on Star Wars and discusses how many elements of the series are based of of things or scenes in different films. They are basically saying that Star Wars is just a bunch of films put into one. Yes, Star Wars took idea from other films, but they made a series that is completely their own. Nowadays, it is hard to come up with complexly original ideas because so many things have been created. No matter how original an idea it, there is most likely always going to be something that it can be traced back to. This is not a bad thing. When people keep editing and changing something, it has the opportunity to keep getting better. This is what has lead to so many advances in technology. People testing and changing a previous invention to make it the best that it can be. This also happens when idea are combined. If everything in the world was original, then the world would be a very boring place.

I’m not to sure how I am going to approach project 3 yet. I have never done a project like this before so I do not know where to start. After I watched Professor Wilgar’s video explain the project and what a self portrait is and looks like, I am not stressed out about this project. It seems like I have a lot of freedom when it comes to what my self portrait looks like and what it consists of. When this project was first assigned, I thought I was going to have to make something extremely detailed. Now I know that as long as my project represents what I want it to represent, I have done it correctly.

I want to make sure that I include all of the things that make me who I am. These things consist of accomplishments that I am very proud of, things that I believe in, things that I like, and many other things. I don’t think that it would be good if I put every single thing that I can think of in my self portrait so I am going to narrow it down to the main things that I think are the most important in my life.

Of the self portrait examples that I have seen online, I like the ones that are drawn the best. I’m not to sure why, but they stood out to me. I have always liked to drawn things and this project will put my drawing to the test. Since my computer is touchscreen, I have already drawn some pictures and have some art apps already downloaded. If I end up finding out that drawing my self portrait will be to hard then I can just switch to and actually picture of me. My computer doesn’t have Photoshop on it and I am not going to pay for Photoshop, so I would have to look for some free photo editing apps. Maybe some of my other classmates will have used some good ones in their first drafts that I can try out.

I am excited to do a project that is all about me. I will be nice to take a break from doing research and writing about that research. In elementary school, they had us make collages of things about us and different things that interest us. Although that was fun and extremely easy to do, I didn’t allow me to really go into any depth because there were only pictures. I have always enjoyed being creative and making things so this might end up being my favorite out of the projects that we have done so far. In high school, I took some photography and photo editing classes so I am looking forward to seeing what I will be able to create.

Shikpa’s idea of a composition “made whole” is that a composition is something that is made up of many parts. It is how all of these outside thoughts, ideas, and examples are brought into a single paper to make up its argument. These outside sources that an author uses to write their composition all have their own meaning. In other words, they didn’t chose those sources for no reason. They want the reader to think about the sources and why they chose them. This leaves the composition open to interpretation. One person’s thoughts of why a certain source was used might be different from another person’s thoughts. This relates to our next project because this is what we are trying to do. We are trying to create thoughts in our viewers and readers head. We are not going to pick random images. Every image that we choose will have some sort of significance. Some of the readers or viewers might not get the image that we are trying to portray, but we have to try and pick the right pictures so that this doesn’t happen.

There are many things that I learned from this assignment. The first thing that I learned was what a white paper was. Not only had I never written one before, I had never even heard of a white paper. I’m sure that I had seen a white paper before and I didn’t realize that it was a white paper. I had no idea how to write a white paper and what classifies a paper as a white paper. Before researching a topic for my own white paper, I researched what a white paper was. This was not to hard to figure out due to the fact that white papers are pretty straight forward. Their job is to be informative and they can be designed how ever the creator would like them to be. Even though the creator has that freedom, they should still try and design their white paper so that it catches the eye’s of the readers. After figuring out what a white paper is and how to write one, I had to pick my topic. I decided to go with writing practice in mechanical engineering because I am currently studying to become a mechanical engineer. One thing that I learned from my research was just how much writing engineering have to do. I knew that there was writing involved, but I had no idea how much there actually was. I almost made me want to change my major. But, as I kept doing research, I found out that this writing is not like writing essays or research paper. It is mostly writing about something that has been build. Mechanical engineers write about how their product works, how it has to be operated, what has to be done to make sure that an operator of the project does not break it, and many other things. I am excited to start doing writing like that in the near future.

For Romancing the Atom, the author is Robert R. Johnson who is professor of rhetoric, composition, and technical communication in the Humanities Department at Michigan Technological University. I believe that the primary audience for this text is other teachers or scholars that work in the same field as Johnson, or just anyone else that is interested in this topic. It was easy to read and somewhat easy to follow. This text says that rhetoric is used to try and persuade or change the way that people think. Johnson says that the way we think and the way that we view things are created and manipulated by ourselves and others. There were many different genres used in this text there were quotes from very smart people, such as Albert Einstein, and reports. These were used to help get the main point of the text across. Rhetoric is extremely important when writing scientific texts. You want to have people agree with you. Robert R. Johnson also wrote“For the Love of Pretty Things: The Radium Girls and ‘Dying for Science.’” This text is not about the same topic but its main message is the same. In this text, Johnson is talking about Katherine, who was a Radium girl, and four of her partners. Rhetoric is used to persuade the readers and it was used to show the audience of this event how harmful radium was. When these five women because sick because of radium. They were not the only ones who became ill. It became a large issue and something had to be done about it. When they spoke out on their health, they used rhetoric to try and get the public and others with high authority to try and do something about it. When speaking out on something or trying to make a change, it is very hard to do it alone. You need people to agree with you and support you. Without that, you goal might not be achieved. That is where rhetoric comes in.

A white paper is a report that helps inform the reader about a complex topic. Its purpose is to help the reader understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision. Majority of the time a white paper is written by a subject matter expert. These paper are written for anyone that would like help or would like to learn more about a certain subject. The rhetorical purpose of a white paper is to try and influence a customer. This is usually present in a white paper with a commercial purpose. White papers do not really have a specific way that they need to look. A white paper has to be well written, well structured, and well designed. These are written to get peoples attention. If you just have a boring website or a page with words on then people are not going to be intrigued to read your white paper. You want to make it look interesting. To do this, you might add some color or some picture throughout the paper. White papers are meant to be informative and factual. You shouldn’t go on and on about information that is irrelevant to the point that you are trying to get across. If you do this then your paper will be too long and the reader might not get the main message that you are trying to get across.

For my white paper, I have chosen the profession of mechanical engineering. In engineering, people don’t care if you have a story to tell. While they are reading something that you have written, they want to see things like what you are accomplish, how you are going to accomplish, and why it is going to work. They don’t want to read about what lead you to your thought process about what you are trying to do or make. Although it may be important to you, they most likely could not care less about it.

The author of “When Discourses Collide” is Jason Palmeri. He received a Masters Degree in English at Ohio State University in 2003.

I believe that the primary audience for this text is for other scholars or professors. It was difficult for more to follow at times and there were some words that I didn’t understand. I think that it would be difficult for students, or maybe even the average person, to see this as an easy read. Palmeri mentions a large amount of interviews and studies by other experienced scholars. This made the text a little hard for me to follow and I felt lost at some points. The information was very dense and it seemed like Palmeri is extremely well educated with the language that he uses in this text.

In the text, Palmeri states that because he is a rhetorician, it affects the way that he interprets the data used for this text. This is implying that rhetoric affects how we see and interpret everything. Based on things that have happen to us previously or our discourses, we might have a whole different perspective on a certain topic the someone else might. Everyone can use different types of rhetoric. They can use whatever means of persuasion the please to try and get their readers to side or agree with them. As far as genre goes, this text simply states that genre is the way that a certain piece is written for a particular audience or purpose.

I would say that the main message of this text is to show how many different ways rhetoric can be used. It shows how many people use rhetoric in their everyday life and how differently they use it. For example, in a field such as law, a lawyer has to be able to persuade a judge. Their whole job depends on how well they able to use their words to get others to agree with them.

Research is finding out new information. You might need to know this information for school or for work, or you just might find a certain something interesting. There are many ways to do research and find new information. The easiest way to find out new information is by using the internet. It is extremely easily to go on google, or any other search engine, type in a question, and almost instantly get an answer. Another thing that you can do is go to a library and look for a book that will contain the information that you need. This is a harder method solely because it is not at your finger tips. You have to go and look for some books that might have the information that you need, then you have to skim through those books to see if they are good for whatever project you a working on. You have to do the same things with websites, but computers have shortcuts that can help make the process faster and easier. I have done a ton of research through school and for projects. For school, I have had to write a few research papers. These are my least favorite thing to research. I find it very hard to put so much information and so many thoughts from other people into one paper. Research papers are probably the most difficult thing I have done that involves research. Other instances include everyday things such as looking up the definition of a word or looking up something for a class. I have also done some research out of school. I enjoy build and fixing things. i wasn’t born with the knowledge of how everything works so I had to research it. Whenever I want to go and build or fix something, I research what I need, how I need to do it, if it is safe or not, and many other things.

I learned many things from this assignment. I learn more about ecologies and that I am a part of many different ecologies. Although that is good information to know, that is not the main things that this project taught me. Going into this project, I was very nervous. It was about a topic that I did not really understand and the project itself was something that I had never done before. I have never made a mind map before so it was a learning experience. I have always been a pretty smart kid. I’m not the smartest, but I can hold my own. Usually, when I have a project or a paper to write, I don’t worry about it that much. This project was a different story. Because I didn’t know what I was doing, I asked a lot of questions. I eventually got a good idea of what to do and got the project done. This assignment taught me that I shouldn’t stress myself out when I am doing something new. It is not hard to ask questions and figure out what has to be done and how it can be done. It was also nice to see that many other people felt the same way that I did while doing the first draft of this project. To prepare for Project 2, and other projects in general, I should make sure that I know what I am doing first. For this project, I just read over the directions once and tried to dive right into it. This was a very bad idea. It left me confused which eventually lead to me becoming very stressed out. Before diving into project 2, I need to make sure that I fully understand what I am getting into. If I don’t understand, then I need to ask questions. I also don’t need to stress out so much about my first draft because there is only room for improvement from there.

The author of “You Can Learn to Write in General” is Elizabeth Wardle. She is Howe Professor and Director of the Howe Center for Writing Excellence at Miami of Ohio. She has a PhD in Rhetoric & Professional Communication. I think that the primary audience for this text is her students. Primarily college students. The text says that genre is what you are writing for or about. This is different from some of the other texts that we have read because other texts have stated that a text gets put into a category based on what the text is about. Although this is similar to Wardle’s claim it is not the same. Wardle says that you can’t just go and write something without a genre or a category in mind. What you are writing about must be determined beforehand. This text is written to show the reader that writing can be very challenging sometimes and that they shouldn’t stress out when writing for a new audience or writing about a new topic.

The next text is “Genre as a Social Action.” It was written by Carolyn R. Miller. She was a Professor of Rhetoric and Technical Communication at North Carolina State. Unlike the first text, this is much more dense and a bit harder to read, so I would guess that this was written for other professors or scholars in a similar field. This text says that genre is what classifies discourses into a certain class. Miller says that “genre is a rhetorical means for mediating private intentions and social exigence.” It helps to connect things. This seems to agree with some of the previous texts that we read. From what we have learn, rhetoric can be used to try and persuade the reader. If a person were to read something with a certain genre, they might be persuaded to connect their private thought with public actions or ideas. I think that the texts primary purpose was to educate the reader.