Month: August 2021
Final Project-Invisible Disabilities-Ed
For this project, I creating a memo targeted at Syracuse University advisors although it would be applicable for any college. These advisors work with college students that have invisible disabilities. For example, when a student enters the university and they have a documented disability the student works with The Center for Disability Resources (CDR), formerly known as the Office of Disability Service’s (ODS).
The mission of the Center is to engage the University Community to empower students, enhance equity and provide a platform for innovation and inclusion. This group supports students in the classroom by providing individual accommodations when environmental barriers cannot be eliminated as well as assistive technology.
The target reader would be an individual who works in this Center and perhaps shared with students as they are contemplating disclosure of invisible disabilities. Since it also contains information on support services, the memo could be utilized as information for students directly.
My delivery would be in a memo delivered via e-mail. It could also be included in a monthly newsletter if that exists in the department.
This could even be part of an introductory package for new employees of the department to familiarize them with information but to allow them to see the human side of the disability with Ally’s story. I think she helps bring the challenges of an invisible disability clearly in focus to the reader.
Unit 3 Reflection
Having the opportunity to take part in this course provided me with skills and thoughts that will impact me for a foreseeable time. I am beyond grateful to have had the opportunity to take this class. It allowed me to develop several different skills, learn more about writing, and gain value in ideas that can be further developed in the real world.
While completing this course, I was able to develop various skills, especially while developing my project. I often feel as though my papers are too long, with too much information within them. In this class, I was able to create a concise project by trimming out unnecessary details. Understanding how to create a paper takes time. We started this course off by looking at diversity in broad terms. Being exposed to the idea that diversity has numerous definitions allowed me to explore diversity within the workplace. The flowchart in unit 2 was valuable as it allowed me to explore what I was interested in, which is how I landed on female underrepresentation in STEM/finance. Being able to develop my project throughout the course made me realize that patience is crucial. Developing an idea slowly from scratch through flowcharts and various assignments made me realize that creating anything valuable takes time and effort. I think that this is one of the biggest takeaways from this class.
With the work in this class, one of the thoughts I will be taking with me in the future is that to be successful in writing, you need to be personally invested and interested in it. In my previous writing classes, I was not passionate about the subjects I was writing about. This was because they did not personally impact me. Female underrepresentation, however, has a personal impact on me, which is why I think I enjoyed working on this project. Having passion also goes for figuring out what audience to target in a paper. No one wants to read something unless it personally impacts them, or they find it interesting. Realizing this was helpful when considering my target audience for this project. I thought, who is going to be impacted the most by female underrepresentation in STEM in the future? Then, I realized that this class is full of students who are about to enter the workforce and most likely will be impacted by the lack of diversity within their respective fields (in STEM especially, whether it is female underrepresentation or some other form).
This project gave me numerous sources of value. One of the main things I gathered from this assignment is that writing can be translated into real-world conversations, especially like the piece I wrote. I was in an interview the other day and was able to bring up my paper on female underrepresentation within STEM in a conversation, and it made all the difference. Being able to convey the message that there are many ways to bring about change within an organization was priceless and gave me talking points about important and interesting issues in the world today. Besides being able to develop a conversational writing piece, I also found the process of developing this project valuable. Developing flowcharts, proposing certain ideas, and creating a paper that evolves from previous work made me realize an important idea. Developing something takes time, especially something of value. It is not created in a day. It takes time to research various elements of the subject, develop thoughts and create a well-written paper. It also takes a certain amount of willingness to accept constructive criticism about your writing from others. I am very appreciative of my peers for reading my draft and giving advice on how to make it better.
We started this course off by learning that diversity can be defined in a lot of different ways. Being able to research specific topics that are considered diverse over time (beginning in unit 2) was fantastic for me. Often, I only focus on a subject for longer than a week, so being able to focus on a subject for a couple of months was an interesting and different experience for me. It made me research, develop and think about the topic I was writing.
Overall, this class was so helpful. It combined various skills that I think are important to take into the real world. Whether it be flexibility (accepting others’ advice and being willing to change), dedication to a subject, persistence (continuously improving a piece of writing), and holding a certain amount of passion for what you are working on at that time. I hope that in the future, I can take what I have learned in this class and apply it to future classes and jobs, as I believe that this summer course provided the opportunity to develop certain traits/skills that are beneficial within the real world.
Final Research Project
For this project, I ended up creating an article that would be more of a newspaper (online) article, targeted for college students. If there was a national college student newspaper outlet, this is most likely where it would be found. It could also be found in college-run newspaper services like the Daily Orange.
The target reader would hopefully be a college student who is interested in learning more about different subjects. It would not be directed towards people that are completely educated on the subject of underrepresentation in the workforce (though I doubt many are), rather someone who is interested in learning more about the world and how to make it a better place. They would enjoy reading in their free time.
As stated earlier, my mode of delivery would be in a newspaper. However, I would like to clarify that it would most likely also be published in an online news source. I believe that this is the most efficient and effective way to get news, as not many college students want to read things on paper. Some may think that it is not environmentally friendly, while others would just prefer to read something digitally. We live in a society where we electronics run our lives, so publishing my article on an online news source would be the most effective.
My ideal scenario would be a college student who wakes up to read the newspaper/news in the morning with their breakfast. I personally like to do this and find it the best time to think through issues in the world, or major events happening. It is also a great time to read through informational articles as well., such as my project, because it gets you thinking that you can be the change in the world.
Research Project Draft-Caitlin
This is my final project draft. My audience is college age men that struggle with mental illness because it is a very big issue that still has a stigma attached to it. I thought that the best way to reach my audience was to make an infographic that could potentially be email to the student population of Syracuse because that would ensure that a great number of the proper demographic would see the information. I still need to add my citations for my final submission, but this is what I have so far!
Final Project
For my final project, I created an infographic poster about understanding intersectionality, thinking intersectionality, and avoiding bias. Again, my key audience would be young adults or college students.
The perfect scenario where my work would be seen would be in an elevator going to class or waiting in a hallway, where students actually have the time to read something and engage with it. Although intersectionality and bias are such important subjects that do not just deserve to be delivered on a poster, I realized it would be an excellent start when it comes to educating. So many peers are not fully aware of intersectionality’s implications, and if my poster could help some further their thinking and knowledge, I believe I did my job correctly.
Not only did I display information and graphics, but a QR code and more sources for students to look up to learn more information. Thanks to Julia and Edward’s advice, this QR code allows students to go to a website called “Bias Hurts,” which involves real accounts from oppressed people engaging in a real-life conversation. I felt that this was very effective to include, and I hope that you do too.
Kayla- Project Draft
Unit 3 Reflection
When it comes to deciding what to focus on within the larger body of material in unit 2, I found it reasonably trouble-free. While doing my work for Unit 2, there were gaps I found throughout various sources. The most significant gap I saw was the lack of a simple explanation for defining terms. Most sources quickly jumped into more complex analysis when I wanted to find clear and straightforward sources that created a foundation. I knew that for Unit 3, I would discover background, essential information for people my age. This way, a further complex analysis could eventually be understood, and there could be room for educational growth.
The most important thing that I learned while researching for this project, in Units 2 and 3, was that if I wanted to propose precise, foundational work, I had to make my writing clear. Not only did I have to make it clear, but brief and straight to the point. However, I feel as if I did this, but it has always been a struggle that I still have to work towards. I found myself wanting to say so much, but since my infographic/ poster platform does not allow for much room, it was very challenging. I had to include the information that I felt was most important while scratching the data that did not present the same importance. This was very hard since my topic regarding intersectionality and bias is so important. However, thanks to my peers and Professor Oakes, I was able to learn some tricks. I could still include quotes from real people by implementing a QR code, which happened to work out better than including written quotations on the page.
Since my target audience was people my age, I did not have an issue with using a specific tone of voice. I wrote as if I usually would while also addressing the readers using “you” and “we”. I did this to not only keep my poster personable and relatable but to have readers intrigued. When someone talks directly to me, I am bound to listen, whereas if someone is talking to a group as a whole, I subconsciously feel less inclined to listen. I thought this was an interesting tactic because my work does speak to a whole while also directly talking to individuals within it. Writing for this platform felt more normal to me, and I might implement it in my work here at SU. I found it rewarding to engage with people my age and inform them on important issues and fun.
What I valued the most about this work was what I mentioned above, engaging from afar with people my age about critical subjects that tend to be overlooked. I loved it the most because I found a gap within all my sources and created one myself. I was always looking for a clear conception of information that could help develop a foundation, so I tried my hardest to make one myself. If I were not educated on intersectionality and bias, I believe my infographic poster would intrigue me, and I would surely educate myself even more after reading it. However, since I made it myself, this is “biased,” so I hope my students and peers can engage with it and learn from it. That is what is most important, I have found.
Unit 3 Reflection
Originally I was going to research discrimination against people who are disabled both physically and mentally. However, I decided to instead do research on discrimination against people who are apart of the LGBTQ+ community. The reason I decided to change my topic was because I have disabilities that while are nothing like what most people are discriminated for, I do have a hard time doing what comes easily to other people. I choose to stay away from that topic because I wanted to learn about something that I did not know as much about. Finding articles about LGBTQ+ discrimination was unfortunately easy. I choose articles that each had something different to contribute to my research and my portfolio. All six articles, while discussing the same concept and had overarching ideas and themes, had something different to explain about discrimination. I applied different source finding skills like web of knowledge, subject searching, and backlink checker to help me find some of my favorite sources that ended up in my portfolio.I learned a lot about my topic. I learned that there is so much I do not know about it which is leading me to think that there is a lot about other topics that I think I know a lot about and don’t. I also learned more productive ways to search for sources, when I started researching the way I always have I was having a hard time finding articles that were both relevant and would contribute important information to my portfolio. After learning how to use different ways to search for them, the sources almost fell into my lap. Not to mention, my favorite and most interesting topics came from the different ways that I complicated my research.
I learned that writing is more than an essay. I also learned that reporting is some of the most important writing that anyone could do. The way that I, and my peers, delivered the research that we find could have a big impact on the way in which people understood our information and viewed us as a writer. I learned that there are more ways to share what I’ve learned than what I thought. I can put my writing into whatever form or genre that I want it to be in and which ever way that I feel will be the most productive and effective. I learned that giving and receiving feedback are one of the most important things about writing. Receiving and using feedback is a productive way to engage readers and hear what changes should be made that may have been looked over. That also taught me how to figure out what to prioritize. Another set of eyes will tell you what you’re missing, what is the most important, and what is maybe not necessary to your point. I learned that the most important thing is who you are writing to and how they are going to feel about what you say and how you say it. when reporting on research, it’s important to be sensitive and sympathetic especially when reporting on topics that are as important as discrimination.
I learned a few very important things that I plan to take with me from this project and this course. I did learn how to search for sources much more productively than in the past. Something that I think is extremely important that I learned is that the way we phrase things can be very important when writing and especially when writing about a sensitive topic. I caught myself a few times writing something and then thinking “wait, is this the politically correct way to say this and will people take offense to it?”. This helped me realize that what I say and how I say it can make a big impact no matter what I am talking about.
Final Project
My audience is mainly people who work in offices and schools that are interacting with people who are a part of the LGBTQ+ community. I think that everyone can benefit from my memo but I tailored it to people who are working with and hiring people who they do not know their entire background.
My purpose is to share the information that I learned to express to others that we do not know the whole story, no matter how much we think we do. This project really opened my eyes to what I did not actually know.
I created a memo because it is a short and easy way to spread information. It can be forwarded in emails, posted on bulletin boards, ect. I felt that it would be the most productive way to spread the information to my intended audience and everyone else who might be interested.