Defining Work, Career, and Vocation

WORK, to me, is when one is trying their best to accomplish a task that thus brings them success. or praise. So to me work could be anything someone puts a lot of time and effort into. They don't necessarily have to be paid for these things especially since some people volunteer and help others for a living yet they are also doing work to better a community or a person's life. Work has to be something that takes time, thought, effort, some sort of strain then it can't be considered work. This goes the same for science. There is no work without movement, without effort, so the same should be said about life. Why is homework called homework even though you are not being paid for it? You are working at home on your assignments, just as much work, strain, or effort as flipping a burger. 

A CAREER is the path you have decided to travel on to support your basic needs and your luxuries, Usually something that you work hard on, may be passionate about, may despise or may be proud of that you will monetarily profit from. A career is also seen as essential in today's society. It is something that not many can survive without since the world is built on money in which one obtains through a career or some sort. 

A VOCATION is the way in which you choose to live your life. If you are Baptist that is part of your vocation. You have chosen to life your life defined as a baptist. Your vocation can also be your values. So do you value hard work, education, healthy eating, or exercising? Are these the things that make you who are you are? Are you asexual, heterosexual, or homosexual? Pan-sexual? These are all things that make up one's vocation. It is their purpose in life or what they feel is their purpose, meaning, or role in life. One's own place in the world. 

Photo Essay

Design Plan for Photo Essay

Purpose: I want to convince others that reading on an iPad or Nook imitates reading as much as possible and how text is moving to a technological world slowly but surely. Newspapers are rarely ever being brought in gas stations or stores, most people go online to find their news. I want others to be aware of this and realize that this may be our future for other mediums like books and magazines. I want others to realize that this transition has already started with inventions like the Nook which is connected to Barnes and Noble and reading applications available on an iPad or the Kindle. I want to convince others that an imitation of something real is never as good as the reality and caution others from what we will be missing in this modernized world. I don’t want others to think that I’m opposed to all technology and all of its uses just in the matter of reading. I want those viewing this to think of things like VCR tapes and vinyl records, things that they may or may not have experienced but things that were a part of everyday life and have now been wiped out by technology and are a part of the past. I want to activate those thoughts in the minds of those viewing this presentation. My audience will most likely be viewing this from a computer chair or desk chair. They will be stuck in an uncomfortable position while viewing a screen like a computer screen from the blog or the projector screen from a Power Point presentation. Those reading from the screen may not perceive my message well as they read on blogs frequently, I must give a compelling argument. My peers may not find reading appealing in general as many people in my age group do not find reading attractive. They equate all reading, even for entertainment, with scholastic reading and thus do not find it enjoyable or worth doing. The context or medium will be on a Power Point presentation and on a blog page. I will need to take into consideration that I am making an argument about reading on screens and that while reading my argument people will be reading on screens. 

STRATEGIES
• Ethos: I want to create a sense of authority or credibility by showing that I have many books and also many tablets and electrical devices so I can provide a good opinion on each reading experience. By showing that I’m an avid reader on both Tablets and computers and with just natural books I’m showing my experiences with both and how I can determine the changes between both. I also go over the fact that I am a journalism major and point out that even newspapers are being brought into the digital world and that books are sure to be the next contender. 
• Pathos: I would like to create pathos through maybe the coloring of the photos. I’m thinking about making anything with actual books very relaxed, natural, and lively so it has this easy going feeling that one has when they are reading from a real book. With the tablets and computers I want to show a very forced and stiff experience and make the coloring of the photos very cool and distant with light blues to show how robotic and distant and less interactive this type of reading is. I am also going to use a font with serif for the pictures of the books to sort of imitate the print font one usually sees in books. I am going to use a sans serif font for the pictures about the tablets and iPads so that it gives off a more sleek, modern, and artificial feel like a wannabe of serif and of real books. I will go from one clincher of burning a book or in the process of doing so to another clincher of my little sister holding a tablet. Although she is smiling, the striking image from the previous photo will make the photo of my sister seem grimmer and not as positive—give off the essence of innocence and ignorance. 
• Logos: I will compare the interactive aspects of reading a real book versus reading the imitation. This will clearly show how different the experiences are. How one is fake and forced and the other is natural and traditional. Logos or logic will also be present when I talk about how books and bookstores will either alter or be knocked out of the business. 

MEDIA OR MEDIUM: I will post the project onto a blog and I will also have it in a Power Point Presentation. My choice of platform goes against my argument but also shows how everyone is being forced into this technologically stiff world. It shows how even I will be forced to embrace this world and how there is no escaping it. 

ARRANGEMENT: I will take pictures of book pages turning in motion as well as an iPad page turning to show their similarities and differences and how natural one feels and how alien the other feels. I will show the annotating aspect between the two mediums and how they are different among different platforms. I am also going to have a picture of the Northern Lights in the background. The picture looks like my presentation has been thrown into space. My title is the future of books, so this picture sets the feeling for the sci-fi, technological world we now live in. I think having the pictures of the books will look very alien in comparison to this background while the tablets will look like they belong in this atmosphere. I will try and put the text in places where the eye will not divert first. I will put the text on the right of the slide since the human eye reads from right to left. I will try to also put the text beneath the pictures since we tend to read from top to bottom as well. I tried to arrange pictures where I compared books versus Nooks in a way where it looked like open book.

HOW TO PRODUCE COMMUNICATION: I will be taking photographs of books, iPads and computers, any platform where one can read and then I will put them on Power Point presentation where I will arrange my visual argument coherently. 

TESTING: I can have someone else look at my project to see if the message I am trying to show is clear. I can also post the project onto the blog and test different formatting that will make the communication the most effective and understandable and have others look at it see if everything is coherent. 

Reflection of Photo Essay

In my original design plan I had talked about how the entertainment value is lost when reading across different platforms and I think that idea sort of became lost as I went along with my project. I think this idea became moot when I did my narrative. In my narrative I had begun to talk about how the world will sort of change when paperback books are pushed to the side and technology has taken over. So think that the entire concept of my project sort of altered when I did my narrative, which I wasn’t entirely happy about. I also think that because of this shift in ideas that I was unable to really get my message across as effectively as I wanted. Especially in the last couple of photographs, Paper Dominoes and Burning Halo. I don’t think the message is as clear in those they definitely need captions so the message is clear. If I could go revise this project I would definitely go back and take more pictures to fill in the holes I think are in my project.  One thing that I’m unsure about is the background of my project. I had changed it last minute and I got the opinion of my roommate on whether or not the background was good but I have yet to get the opinion of my peers who are working on the same project as I. However, I do like my new background because I feel like the books look alien in this world, which I want people to understand. That soon books are going to be as odd in the home as a vinyl record is. I feel as if the pictures of my Nook actually belong in this outer space atmosphere and don’t look as out of place and I’m hoping that my audience is also getting that sense when they look at my project. As far as the formatting goes, I wish I had a little more freedom with putting the captions where I want to. I did not necessarily want to put my captions all at the bottom. I wanted to put some on the right side of my pictures. Since we read from left to right I thought this formatting would make sense since this whole project is on books. It was also upsetting that I had to put the captions on the bottom because they shrunk the size of my photos. As far as everything else goes, I think I did well with taking pictures, I think that I can keep the audience viewing this interested and I that you can clearly see I’m comparing both new technology with old books. I also think you can see my desire to hold onto to books as a part of my argument. I also think that my ethos and pathos are clearly stated in the piece. The logos is a bit more abstract but I think logos can be found in the fact and logic that things in text are moving towards this technological world and that things like libraries in and outside of the home and bookstores will either completely change or be naught when this happens. 

Writing, Design, and Good Communication

Good communication surfaces from good writing as well as design. After going through the readings I have discovered that designs can often enhance the message you are trying to send through your writing. Like with a photo essay, through pictures you can give more information to add onto the information in your writing. You can further engage your audience with attractive pictures or use colors to get them into the mood you are trying to create with whatever you are writing about. I also think that using design could enhance one's communication through having images that can show better than you can tell. In my College Writing I class we were always told to show instead of tell with our writing. Design could often help with writing in this aspect. You can always tell someone how to a proper push up but pictures will often provide better communication of the information. The same goes for recipes. You can instruct someone with words on how to create their gnocchi but with pictures or a video they could have a better understanding about what the recipe is supposed to look like. I have gone onto websites about dreams and where they try to deconstruct the content of dreams and what they could possibly mean. The website is designed with blue which could be calming or soothing for those reading it.

What do you think of Blogs?

I definitely think it takes a certain kind of person to blog. Someone who loves to write and who has a lot to write about. I don't think that I could blog about my life because there isn't much happening in my life that could make my blog worthwhile. But someone like Kim Kardashian who has millions of things going on in her daily life would have a very fascinating blog. However I'm sure Kim K wouldn't spend her time typing out dollar signs. I think if I were to blog I would have to write about books or things that come up in the news or Pretty Little Liars because those are things that I know a lot about and that I could write about in multiple occasions and never get tired of writing about either. So for one I think blogging is definitely about starting off with things that you enjoy writing about and things you can write about for a long time and that you can make series of posts out of.

A blog could definitely be useful. I know people who read blogs about fashion and blogs about other people's lives and it's as much a source of entertainment as it is a source of information. People can learn about the latest fashion trends from those who write about fashion in their blogs. Getting a look into someone's exciting life in a blog could lighten up one's own dull landscape of life. I feel as if a blog serves many purposes when it comes to giving information and giving entertainment and sometimes it's nice to sit down and read and I think blogging sort of acts like reading books or newspapers as well. Those who like to read will like sitting down and reading a blog as well.

I think a lot of the people who blog are also into the idea of sharing their life with others or sharing their passions with others. They have to be people who are very open about their experiences or their expertise. I feel as if someone who blogs would also have to be a writer. They would have to have some experiences in writing or at least know the basics and maybe even take joy in writing. I think a lot of the people that blog also find therapy in writing and sharing their lives and interests with others.