Considering Genre

Now that I've chosen my topic and have done heavy research, it is time to choose my genre!

I have decided and am now committing to the Quick Reference Guide (QRG)! I think that the QRG will work perfectly for this project because I think the organization of it fits perfectly with a controversy. I will be able to put out all sides of the story in an organized fashion and I think it will also be most engaging to my audience.

The genre conventions I plan on developing are being objective throughout the process, using a lot of hyperlinks to lead the reader to other sources to expand their thinking, use pictures and charts to keep interest, and overall be very informative to get all points across.

I feel much better about Project 1 and this genre than I did in the first two weeks. I am anticipating a hard time being 100% unbiased because I find myself to be a very opinionated person, so limiting my own thoughts will be hard. I am also coming to accept the difficulty of time management, in that, I need to be able to do things throughout the week at a manageable pace. However, my nerves have grown into excitement and I am ready to start making a beautiful QRG!

"The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy"July 2009 via Wikimedia Commons.  Public Domain.

Cluster of Stakeholders

In my cluster, I wanted to portray every side of the story, so I did four different steakholders and what they meant to the controversy of the over-vaccinations in 2013. The four steakholders I analyzed were the pet owners, the vets who believed they over-vaccinated, the vets who didn't believe they over-vaccinated, and the American Veterinary Medical Association. I then wrote about each of their opinions, gains, losses, and biases that they each had.

SNOBS. "Brainstorm with Myself". August 23, 2007 via Devianart. 

Evaluation of General Sources

For my specific controversy, I will be exploring the large debate of over-vaccination in household pets done by the medical field, specifically focusing on how a veterinarian got fired and banned from his office for admitting that his company was over vaccinating their patients. The two articles that I've found portraying the two different sides will be reviewed in this post.

One is from WebMD and the other is from Stamford Advocate.

What is the URL of each and what does it mean?

For the WebMD article the URL is:

http://pets.webmd.com/features/pet_vaccination

For the Stamford Advocate article the URL is:

http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/Stamford-vet-at-center-of-vaccination-debate-4284673.php#photo-4205984

Both articles contain a ".com", meaning that it is a top level domain with an intent of commercial use.  A ".com" is much like  a ".info" or  a ".biz", showing to people that these pages are indeed a real Internet website. A ".edu", ".gov", ".com", and ".org" are deemed to be very credible sources.

Who is the Author? Are they trustworthy?

For the WebMD article, the author was Bill Hendrick and was reviewed by Audrey Cook. After reading a biography on Bill Hendrick, his qualifications are trustworthy. He's been writing for multiple news sources since 1979 and was interestingly enough one of the people to predict and write about the stock market crash in 1987 two months before it happened.

For the Stamford Advocate article, the author was John Nickerson. John Nickerson had a short biography, explaining that he was a breaking news reporter for the Stamford Advocate and Hearst Connecticut Media Group. He is also an avid boater and tennis player!

When was the info last updated? What type of hyperlinks were there?

For the WebMD article the information seemed a bit out of date since it was last updated on March of 2011, but it has good information from the perspective of a specific part of the medical field. It would hyperlink to articles about the difference between healthy dogs and unhealthy dogs (their own site's articles). So, my overall assumptions of this article was very biased driven, but overall useful information on one side of the debate.

For the other article, it was more updated with its information because it was published on February of 2013 and had many other hyperlinks that linked to other articles done by other people, showing the expanse of their research.

What is the purpose of the article?

For the WebMD article, the purpose is to persuade and inform people on what they believe is the process of vaccinations and what is the healthy dosage. The purpose is to also qualm the fears of those who think their pets are being over-vaccinated.

For the Stamford Advocate article, the purpose is to inform people on a specific event in the debate where a person from the medical field spoke against his company on over-vaccinations.

Are their graphics? What purpose do they serve?

Both posts are limited on their graphics. They both have a still frame at the beginning of the article to draw the reader in, but none throughout the article, mostly to focus on what they are writing about.

Lindsay Perry. "John Robb". January 25 2013 via Stamford Advocate.

What is the position of subject?

From the WebMD article, it was easy to see that it was a more biased source because it only had links, quoting itself, but it was still credible because of their overall quality and references.

For the other article, this seemed to be a creditable source, showing both sides of the story, but a little more biased towards those who believe there is over-vaccination. This information seemed to be more well-versed because of the links to other articles that were not their own.

Does the source provided further links for inquiry?

Both articles provided more sources wither throughout the article or at the end, giving the reader more information to look at if they wanted to see other pieces of evidence.

Reddit and What I Found There

Continuing on in our search of the perfect article in my field of Veterinary Science, Reddit is our next destination. Its a place of opinion, discussion, and debate that will provide good insights to things happening in the world of Veterinary Science today!

There doesn't seem to be a high amount of debate on things in this specific field, but many people discuss the field itself and what its like to be a part of the vet sci. world. They often post about what their doing as a veterinarian and how they like the job and such.

A specific (mini) debate I saw was the questioning if sea lions of the world are going extinct or not. Dr. Claire Simeone of the Marine Mammal Center posted about going to the west coast in order to help save the sea lion population there. Some commented saying that her efforts should be placed elsewhere for the population of sea lions is not in danger. Another debate that I came across was the debate of equality of women and men in the work place, specifically in science related jobs. In the STEM program, the original author was talking about the inequality in the STEM programs. Others commented about how the government doesn't really care to provide for programs in the science in general, while others talk about the nursing shortage and inequality in all jobs with women and men.

"R Holley". 26 September 2006 via Wikamedia Commons. Public Domain.

The debates on Reddit were interesting, but there just wasn't that many that connected to my specific major. I like how people weren't afraid to leave their own opinions and often would produce long, long discussions (sometimes getting a little snarky) that held my interest. I wasn't too surprised by what they were talking about, but they did have a lot of questions of the work of a veterinarian. Reddit is just the next step in obtaining an article about Veterinary Science that I am interested in!
Updates to come!

Evaluation of News Magazine Stories

Delving deeper into my specific major, Veterinary Science, we will now look at articles that bring up debatable points in the field and events that have caused some inquiries.

For the first article, we will be looking at an event that happened in 1999, but spurred ideas in recent times about the connection between human science and veterinary science. This article also comments on the controversial and new idea that veterinary science can be used to predict human viruses and infections.

• In the article the main topic for debate is if veterinary science can really be related to public-health issues. What started off as "The West Nile story" in which a veterinary found out the disease that caused many birds to die first in the same way humans did, became a much bigger debate on if the two healths can be connected. In the original event the connection between human and animal health was happening in New York City where birds would die in staggering amounts and the chief vet, Tracey McNamara thought there was a connection, often being told she was wrong.
• The most sympathetic character in the article was Tracey McNamara. She worked so hard to prove that her original thought was right, showing her hard work and dedication that gave me feelings of sympathy towards her. The organization that is researching this connection, called One Health Initiative is also a sympathetic organization because it doesn't have a lot of funding and is working for a cause they believe in
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as some others who refuted Tracey McNamara were the least sympathetic because they "brushed her off". The tone the author used to describe these people was often harsher and a little biased against them.

For the next article, taken from The New Yorker, it speaks about the Santa Cruz Biotechnology and the unethical and high cost of the antibodies that they get from goats.

• On May 2, 2012 the 11765th goat from Santa Cruz Biotechnology to die brought about a large debate on the morality of what the company was doing. The company is the second-largest vendor in the antibody market, 33% of labs get their antibodies from them, but their process of getting these antibodies involved the inhumane death of many goats. The U.S.D.A had to file an enforcement action accusing the industry of violation of the Animal Welfare Act. The company claimed that death can occur in many different ways and that their industry was not the direct cause of it.
• The most sympathetic character was the goats, obviously, but mostly the people against the Santa Cruz Biotechnology because the article often quoted them saying uncaring things about the goats that they were treating and the author put up a very good argument for their mistreatment of animals, which is something I assume everyone is unsympathetic toward.
• The Santa Cruz Biotechnology owners, John and Brenda Stephenson, are the least sympathetic in the article because of their mistreatment of the animals. They are also depicted very terrible in the article and are made out to be these people with a bunch of money that they got from putting around 12,000 goats in pain.

Here are some goats screaming.

"Baby Goats". January 2007 via Wikimedia Commons. Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported.

Twitter and What I Found There

"I've never been on the phone with my mom for an hour straight until college #missinghome" -@siennatheblonde

Yes, that was a real tweet. Yes, its true. My mom is basically number one on my speed dial and number one in my heart. On a more serious note, twitter is a place where you can find very interesting information about interesting debates or topics because there are so many people on twitter who love to speak their mind. Specifically for my area of study, Veterinary Science, there are many people talking about their careers and events in the field.

There are many twitter accounts that give interesting information and discussion on certain this in the vet sic field such as @VeterinaryScien and @MedDiagnosis. In these twitter accounts they talk about the importance and problems with vaccines, viruses that animals can have, descriptions of certain careers, and many different types of research that certain people are doing. There is one particular tweet that hyperlinked to an article about auditory plasticty in deaf dogs and their responses when compared to healthy dogs.

The twitter account @VeterinaryScien, is one of the most interesting accounts I found that had many articles that would link to Facebook discussions or informative about specific research such as this post about the deaf dogs I spoke about earlier. This interested me because it was a very specific research that they did and one that allowed me to understand the type of work they liked. Another twitter account did the same type of research based tweets. Called Simport Scientific, this twitter had only one post connecting the veterinary science world with the products that they made. A specific article they linked too was very interesting because of this unique research connection.

Overall, I saw that my discipline was very well versed in technology and also had very interesting pieces that they were talking about. There were more relatable posts than I thought there would be and I found it surprising that they used hashtags as well. I wasn't surprised, however, by the material because a lot of the tweets were about research and careers in the field and what being a veterinarian is about. 

"Austin Community College" 10 November 2014 via fliker. Attribution 2.0 Generic.

Evaluation of New York Times Stories: Depression and Raccoons?

The New York Times is one of those media outlets that you know you can trust because of its past credibility and editing services it has. It speaks on all topics from current political happenings to new trends in fashion. In this post I will specifically explore and evaluate New York Times topics on animal rights and depression screenings.

I don't know about you, but whenever I see an article that has a picture of an animal in it or a headliner with anything of the animal variety, I am instantly excited. If you're in the same room with me when I find said article you can usually hear a squeal or two. So, for the first article we will be exploring, it, of course, has a picture of an animal. A raccoon to be exact. Raccoons that the city of Brooklyn has mandated be 'humanely killed' if found in the city. This article, written by Annie Correal, speaks about the pros and cons of killing a raccoon in the city of Brooklyn

• There are many main characters in this article as it describes from many points of view on the issue. There is a woman, Wendy Hooker, who called a mandated trapper, Don, to take the raccoon from her house for it was disturbing her garden. There are many other people in the article who take on the same roles of these two members of the Brooklyn society and offer their opinions to this debate of morality. The different people who speak in the article offer different views and information about why the raccoons in Brooklyn are a problem and how to solve it.
• The whole article centers around the city, Brooklyn, where it is known for being a very busy city. Since it is a large city, the problem that raccoons pose is very prominent in their society. The people in Brooklyn often have to deal with raccoons on an every day basis.
• There are many many different perspectives on the raccoons in Brooklyn. Some love the antics of the raccoons and see them as just another part of the big city, while others see them as dirty animals that have a love for destruction. The debate between morality is also held in question in Brooklyn. The trappers in Brooklyn often let the raccoons free into the wilderness, illegally saving them from a 'humane death'. While, to them, this is morally just, scientists have pointed out that the raccoons often have rabies, so when they go back to the closet neighborhood, there is a chance of infection.

"Cute Raccoon". 13 July 2009 via Wikamedia Commons. Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported.

After enjoying that picture of the cute raccoon, we will now explore a more serious article about depression in pregnant woman and how some people believe that these pregnant women should be screened for depression. This article, written by Pam Bullock, is a more informational article than debatable.

• While there is no main character, the overall focus is on pregnant women and their mental health. Pregnant women in this article are being looked at and analyzed by scientists, some who believe that depression is very prominent in their lives after their first child.
• There is no specific setting other than in present day time. Many people believe that the women of our society today should be screened for depression because some studies show this common mental health problem. 
• There is heavy debate on this issue because of the medications involved and the high stress situations that every mom is involved in before, during, and after pregnancy. Some people believe that the pills taken for depression could cause extreme problems for the baby while others don't believe it will. The idea of mental health in general is up for debate in this article because some people believe that mental health is untreatable with certain methods

Now that we've explored these two vastly different articles, I suggest reading more and discovering your point of interest just like I'm doing as an undecided major!

Course Project Questions, Fears, and Excitements

1. I'm going to be straight up with you. I am not the best at long-term projects. I do better with guided  projects or everyday assignments. There's something with a long term project, in general, that makes me nervous. It's either the unstructured aspect of it or the fact that I could do so many things, that choosing what to do is overwhelming. But as far as specifics go, I am most nervous about conducting interviews because I'm not sure what questions to ask or how to transcribe the material used. I am also a generally awkward person, so speaking to a person I have not met before will be an interesting experience.

2. I am most excited about researching for my topic in Project #1 and Project #3 because I genuinely enjoy research. More importantly, I am an undecided major, so I'm hoping my inclination towards veterinary science will be solidified through the research of topics surrounding it. I am very interested  also in the idea of speaking about a public controversy in today's society, so I believe Project #3 will be the most exciting for me.

3. I will need to fully prepare and research ahead of time what specifically I want my topic to be because I always have a difficult time choosing a topic. I also have to set up the interviews ahead of time so that there will be no issue in obtaining the information. Researching is always a tricky time management piece because there is not limit to research, so it is harder to plan that piece of the projects.

4. In my high school career, I did have many long term projects, so I will be drawing upon the time management skills I used in the previous projects for these projects. Every 3rd Quarter we would have a 10 minute presentation on a specific event that we had been researching that quarter, so I will use the resources from those projects in these ones.

5. For project #2, I was wondering if it was 100% research or if it was appropriate to add my own opinion?

Reflection:

After reading David and Tianna's blog posts, I realized that many of us are nervous about the interview and the large amount of research that we will need to be doing in the future. I found myself agreeing and having most of the same fears and excitements as many of the other people's posts I read, which I was grateful for. Reading these two blog posts also lest me feeling like the four projects were a little less intimidating because many people felt the same way about them.

Investigating Genres

In a world of People Magazine, YouTube, and The New York Times, it is easy to see that media is a prominent piece in our society. Media comes in all forms and I  can easily say that I have a slight addiction to it. I watch Ellen almost every day and can't seem to skip through channel 236 (E! News) when watching TV.

For this post, I will explore the new media genre called a Video Essay. The Video Essays sparked my interest because I enjoy the combination of visual and auditory pieces of media. 

1. A Video Essay's purpose is to inform about a specific topic, usually it is one's own thoughts, but it often holds many facts as well. It's purpose is to also provide an insight to different topics, to analyze a problem in society, or to describe really anything. It has a variety of purposes because it is such a creative piece of media.

2. Most Video Essay's are found on the internet through sites such as YouTube or online magazines. There are often Video Essay's linked through social media outlets such as twitter or Facebook as well.   One of my favorite Video Essay's, Inside Out: Emotional Theory Comes Alive, was found on YouTube, which I believe is probably the most popular way to share a Video Essay.

3. This genre's audience is hard to pinpoint because there are so many outlets to which it can be seen, but if a specific audience had to be chosen, I would say the younger generation. The younger generation (me) also known as the millennials, who grew up on Phil of the Future and Rugrats, seem to use technology a lot more, which is the main outlet by which a Video Essay is found. Many young adults and children of today watch YouTube specifically which, as I said before, was probably the most popular outlet for a Video Essay.

"YouTube Logo 2013" 12-19-2013 via Wikimedia Commons. Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported.

4. This genre uses audio as well as visuals to portray what is needed. It is usually very stimulating as far as very colors and the way the person is speaking. The person speaking is usually very passionate and is often seen talking in the essay as if they were speaking directly to you. Another unique characteristic is the use of animations of the images used and the overall laid back almost informal nature of the essay.

5. A definition of a Video Essay would be a piece of media that creates audio and visual stimulus to inform, analyze, or describe a specific topic. 

Video Essay's are a very interesting piece of media and one that I would highly suggest. It is only a small portion of the vast amount of media in our lives and next time you are channel surfing, don't forget to stop on channel 236!

Reflection:

From both blogs I learned a lot about genres that I am more unfamiliar with, so it was overall very helpful. After reading Zach's Blog and Eren's Blog posts, I saw how they expertly used vocabulary that amped up the blog post which I will use in my future blog posts. I enjoyed reading both their posts and I genuinely enjoyed the way they wrote and formatted the blog posts. I also feel much more informed about the projects in general so I am more excited about this course.

My (Weird, but Surprisingly Successful) Writing Process

I've stared at this blank blog for about ten minutes, trying to decide if I should open with a witty one-liner or a clever metaphor, deleting enough sentences that together would have been a finished blog post by now. It's funny how the process of this blog post is almost exactly how every one of my papers in my high school and college career have gone so far. Struggle with an introduction for thirty minutes. Snack on some chips. Have a weird epiphany about what to write about. Then write the whole paper in one go.

It's hard to place myself in one of the four categories because I'm a little bit of all of them, but I would say that I identify most with the description of a Heavy Planner. I'm one of those people that will think of a big paper while I'm getting a perfectly toasted cheese bagel from Bagel Talk or when I'm cleaning my room that will be messy again the next day. I often like to get inspiration from things around me and I can usually write a paper in one sitting if I've done the planning in my head thoroughly enough.

As a result of the intensive planning I do, I fall into the trap of procrastination. If I don't fully think out my essay, I won't even start it. Instead I'll eat more chips and take more breaks to inspire myself. Thus, the black hole of procrastination sucks me in and I won't start writing until one or two days before its due. I try to justify my slight procrastination by saying that I'm trying to create the best essay I can in my head before writing it down on paper, but we all know that sometimes you just don't want to write.

This weird process that I've seemed to obtain over the years has seemed to be overall successful. I am able to finish the work and generally tend to be happy with the overall product, but again that's because for some reason my brain needs to think every piece out first before starting. I think that this process allows for me to achieve my best work because I am able to use all the ideas in my head to create a material that I am happy with. However, the problem with being a Heavy Planner is that I often focus too much time on planning and don't give myself enough time to actually execute the plan.

I would love to try the approach where you spend equal time on planning, drafting, and revising because I feel like it will give me a process that is more structured, which seems to be more beneficial in the long run. For now, however, my brain continues to look like the picture below when I am writing, a mess of ideas that needs to be organized before even starting to write.

Nikko. "Resentment". 2015 via SketchPort. Attribution 4.0 International