This is one of my favorite assignments that I have done in this class. The most important part of this assignment is to show my creativity. It had to be visually engaging essay informed by research from my opinion editorial that addresses a specific audience about the same issue. A visual essay communicates ideas using images and text. The form of my essay should not only illustrate an original argument but also evoke a particular response from my intended audience. The genre that I decided to do in this essay is a video to show my audience that trash are everywhere and it is creating pollution which affects people and the aquatic life.For this essay, first I had to brainstorm, which I did a storyboard because I am doing a video. I had to go outside and capture so videos and images that I wanted to portray in my video. This was fun for me to take pictures and videos, however, the editing part of my essay was the difficult. I think the key component for this visual essay is the audience strategy which means that my visual essay i had to demonstrate in a specific genre that is best suitable and convey my message to my audience. Along with that, the reflection piece was also an important part of this essay. It is to help me understand and reflect on the choices that I made when making this visual essay.
Draft/storyboard
Audience Strategy
The genre that would make my audience accessible and attractive that I decided to do—a video. Pollution is a topic that people don’t really care about that they are doing it everyday and seconds. We all need to take action and educate people who are not aware of this issue and help them understand the cause and effect of this issue. My intended audience are most likely be tenagers to adults. There are some teens that don’t see the big picture of this issue. By seeing this, they are able to relate to them self,and put them self into this, and realize where they at. Are they doing similar things?As a future generation, they are the one that can help to make this a great world. I also want to make sure that the adults are aware of this and they can teach others who are not sure aware. There are some adults that seems to not care about these types of issues, they think that to want my audience to understand and raise awareness about this issue. I want my audience to feel that pollution is an issue that people need to start taking action. There are many people are suffering from many types of health issues, and to help prevent these issues we need to help make a safe environment.
Reflection
I chose to make a video because I think that it would be a great way for my audience to visualize my idea. Having a video makes teenagers get engage with the topic. I was wondering if maybe some would view my video and they might not know english and by seeing the video it will help them see it. Since, my audience are teens,the more visuals i include the more engaged people would be. Some of the rhetorical strategies that I will try to use in my video, would be using the pictures. Some of the pictures that i have taken indicates how sad that people are just putting litter on the street and leaving it there without removing them. By seeing this, I believe that this would make people realize how important this issue is and we all need to change our habits of not throwing on the streets. This was my first attempt on making a visual essay. I know this is just my outline of the whole essay, which i think it’s not that perfectly organized. I am used to writing a traditional essay and making this essay made me think of something different way that i can portray my thoughts in an engaging way. In traditional essay, you are required to read the whole lot of words on paper. However, on a visual essay there are more imagination work into it. Also, you are able to see visuals which makes the reader/audience grasp in a effeicenty way. I would also make my video short, that why people won’t have to stay for long. Having a long video might make my audience lose track of the concept that I am trying to show.
Final
Link to the Video
Audience Strategy
The genre that would make my audience accessible and attractive that I decided to do—a video. I would put my video on my youtube channel and make it public so that everyone is able to see my video; reflect upon it. The focus of my video would be about pollution. This is a topic that people don’t really care about that they are doing it everyday and seconds. We all need to take action and educate people who are not aware of this issue and help them understand the cause and effect of this issue. My intended audience are most likely be tenagers to adults. There are some teens that don’t see the big picture of this issue. By seeing this, they are able to relate to them self, and put them self into this, and realize where they at. Are they doing similar things? You would see many teens walking around the street and they would not care about the trash that is laying on the street. As a future generation, they are the one that can help to make this a great world. They are the one who would be able to teach the younger generation. I also want to make sure that adults are aware of this and they can teach others who are not sure aware. There are some adults that seems to not care about these types of issues, they think that to want my audience to understand and raise awareness about this issue. I want my audience to feel that pollution is an issue that people need to start taking action. There are many people are suffering from many types of health issues, and to help prevent these issues we need to help make a safe environment. We all know that teens are always in social media and I put my video on youtube or maybe on instagram, there is a higher chance that my video would be seen.
Reflection
To create a visual essay, it is not about writing long pages of paper, but it is how you decide to engage your audience. For this reason, I chose to make a video because I think that it would be a great way for my audience to visualize my idea that I am trying to portray. Having a video makes teenagers get engage with the topic. I was wondering if maybe some would view my video and they might not know english and by seeing the video it will help them see it. I have included images and short footages—help people see I am saying in my video. Since, my audience are teens, the more visuals i include the more engaged people would be. Some of the rhetorical strategies that I tried to use in my video, would be using the pictures. For instance, the picture of trash that are laying on the water. This is an example that I want my audience to sympathize on after seeing this. I am sure that there would be someone that would feel bad about the fact that we are the one to cause this without noticing it. Some of the pictures that I have taken indicates how sad that people are just putting litter on the street and leaving it there without removing them. By seeing this, I believe that this would make people realize how important this issue is and we all need to change our habits of not throwing on the streets. It would also be common sense that someone would decide whether or not they would throw a piece of trash on the street even if it is small.
This was my first attempt on making a visual essay. By doing the video I have seen the actual situation of how trash on the street. This is the way that my audience would be able to understand and see that I have gone through the same situation. I have experience these types of situations, while I was walking on the streets in New York city. I have decided to put my own voice into the video because I think that it is important for people to hear me what I want to say to them. Instead of just creating an image, which I believe would not be effective for my topic because someone can ignore the picture and not think to themselves the message behind it. Therefore, having a video that incorporates voice of the creator and real footages from different areas in new york helps build credibility. There were some difficulties that I have faced while doing this. While doing the video, there were people looking at me , I
can assume that they might be thinking why would be taking a video of trash that are laying on the street. however, I thought that I am doing this to help others realize how significant it is for us to not make our streets dirty. We all know the impact of trashing our streets. After it rains, all of these trash goes into the ocean which affects the ocean negatively.
I am used to writing a traditional essay and making this essay made me think of something different ways that I can portray my thoughts in an engaging way. I have learned many things after creating this video. One important thing that I have learned is that never be shy to do things in public. You always have to remember that you are doing for the community. It is not to show off to others that you are taking a picture of the trash or taking a video of it. In traditional essay, you are required to read the whole lot of words on paper. However, on a visual essay there are more imagination work into it. Also, you are able to see visuals which makes the reader/audience grasp in a effeicenty way. I have made my video into one minutes and twenty-one seconds. I believe that it is reasonable because it is not too long or too short. that’s why people won’t have to stay for long. Having a long video might make my audience lose track of the concept that I am trying to show. One thing i would like to conclude is that take action and change the future.
