Reflective Memo
Creating an online presence was a new experience for me this semester in English 213. Though I had previously utilized sites such as blogger.com, I had never used a site in which I had almost complete freedom in regards to design and format. Throughout this semester I experimented with Wix.com, Moonfruit.com, and Weebly.com. Fortunately, I feel that my site on weebly.com was the easiest one to create. Though i am not very tech savvy, I know that using technology is an important aspect in the Education Field. All teachers must be expected to keep up with technology, and experimenting with these websites allowed me to do just that.
I chose to focus my final Research Web Project around the topic of Child Beauty Pageants. I stumbled upon this topic after watching an episode of "Here Comes Honey- Boo Boo" with my roommates. What really struck me about the show was the innocence of the young ladies in the pageants. In general, the young girls on the show seem to have fun. However, I could not help but think that these competitions have the ability to leave a permanent mark upon them. I thought this topic would be very interesting as well as very informative. Another aspect about this topic that appealed to me was the fact that it is an issue that is very current in society today. I knew that finding recent sources on this topic would not be a struggle for me. I had a lot of fun with this topic, although many of the facts I discovered were pretty negative.
As I was working on my site I wanted the major focus to be the appalling images that are presented in the media today. I chose to make a banner at the top of every page displaying four images of young girls in beauty pageants. I chose these images because they reinforce the idea that girls in these pageants are dressed in a way that sexualizes them at a very premature age. I felt that these images would really appeal to the pathos of my website. I also attempted to appeal to pathos in my site by incorporating short video clips. One specifically depicts a child shrieking in agonizing pain as her mother insists she get her eyebrows waxed. I knew this would really appeal to my audience emotionally because it is very hard not to feel sorry for the girl who really has no choice over what is happening to her. With regards to logos, I chose to include many alarming facts. I think that it is safe to say that no one can argue with the logic of this site when reading the statements by psychiatrists that describe the many negative affects of these pageants. I believe that logos in this case refers to common sense. Therefore, child beauty pageants are bad because of all the negative results they cause. Finally, I attempted to appeal to ethos by utilizing as many credible sources as I could find. Though there was a great deal of information about this topic on blogs and web forums, I felt that using academic sources was the best way to go for this assignment. By using Encyclopedia references and print sources, I was able to find scholarly research that appealed to the credibility of my website.
Overall I had a positive experience using this website. I found Weebly.com to be easy to use. I chose a pink and purple background to tie in with the "glitzy" theme of my site. I also chose to keep a more straightforward and traditional grid when formatting each page. I like all of my pictures and text boxes to line up evenly. I also chose to utilize a font that was fairly large and easy to read. I really liked using Weebly.com because it was easy to drag elements across the page to choose where and how my pages were set up.
I feel that this assignment will benefit me as a future educator, especially in the English department. I plan to incorporate the skills I learned in this project into my career as a teacher.
I chose to focus my final Research Web Project around the topic of Child Beauty Pageants. I stumbled upon this topic after watching an episode of "Here Comes Honey- Boo Boo" with my roommates. What really struck me about the show was the innocence of the young ladies in the pageants. In general, the young girls on the show seem to have fun. However, I could not help but think that these competitions have the ability to leave a permanent mark upon them. I thought this topic would be very interesting as well as very informative. Another aspect about this topic that appealed to me was the fact that it is an issue that is very current in society today. I knew that finding recent sources on this topic would not be a struggle for me. I had a lot of fun with this topic, although many of the facts I discovered were pretty negative.
As I was working on my site I wanted the major focus to be the appalling images that are presented in the media today. I chose to make a banner at the top of every page displaying four images of young girls in beauty pageants. I chose these images because they reinforce the idea that girls in these pageants are dressed in a way that sexualizes them at a very premature age. I felt that these images would really appeal to the pathos of my website. I also attempted to appeal to pathos in my site by incorporating short video clips. One specifically depicts a child shrieking in agonizing pain as her mother insists she get her eyebrows waxed. I knew this would really appeal to my audience emotionally because it is very hard not to feel sorry for the girl who really has no choice over what is happening to her. With regards to logos, I chose to include many alarming facts. I think that it is safe to say that no one can argue with the logic of this site when reading the statements by psychiatrists that describe the many negative affects of these pageants. I believe that logos in this case refers to common sense. Therefore, child beauty pageants are bad because of all the negative results they cause. Finally, I attempted to appeal to ethos by utilizing as many credible sources as I could find. Though there was a great deal of information about this topic on blogs and web forums, I felt that using academic sources was the best way to go for this assignment. By using Encyclopedia references and print sources, I was able to find scholarly research that appealed to the credibility of my website.
Overall I had a positive experience using this website. I found Weebly.com to be easy to use. I chose a pink and purple background to tie in with the "glitzy" theme of my site. I also chose to keep a more straightforward and traditional grid when formatting each page. I like all of my pictures and text boxes to line up evenly. I also chose to utilize a font that was fairly large and easy to read. I really liked using Weebly.com because it was easy to drag elements across the page to choose where and how my pages were set up.
I feel that this assignment will benefit me as a future educator, especially in the English department. I plan to incorporate the skills I learned in this project into my career as a teacher.
