Tagged: literacy

Meet the Author

Hi! I’m a freshmen at Western Washington University. I am pursuing a major in business, specifically marketing. Writing has been a large part through all of my education. Some of my favorite memories include reading and writing. Growing up with an older sister she would read books to me before I could read and when I was able to we would read our favorite books together. These ranged from comic books to the Harry Potter series. Since then my reading and writing style and preference has grown and changed. Now, I enjoy reading and writing poetry, reading articles from fashion to politics, and books with historical narratives, but I still love reading anything with my sister. When I began taking English this quarter, I’d heard from friends who had taken the class that there was a research project. Going into the class with this knowledge it was a bit daunting, but as the class moved closer and closer t0 the final project I began to see it as an opportunity. Not only could I use this opportunity to put to use my accumulated literacy skills, but it would also be a chance to learn new things about myself and fellow students around me. With this new mind-set, my group and I embarked on the foundation of our project, the research question. For me , and many others my age, a common theme in our literacy narrative thus far in life has been the influence of technology. Being literate in technology comes with many influences. The most informative part of the project process was choosing a research topic. Choosing a research topic followed the same evolution and path that many literacy encounters follow. Having base goals morph into other topics to then, finally, conclude at the final question. This final question combined the relationship between technology and loneliness in college students. The evolution of literacy, wether it’s just forming an equation or the progression of reading skills over a lifetime, is paramount to the overall world of literacy.

Visual Literacy Narrative

For our project we decided to use a collage poster and images cut from magazines and paper to display a blend of our stories’, themes, and ideas. On the front there is a pencil and paper on one side and a book on the the other to symbolise our respective developments as readers and writers. If you open the flaps, you will reveal a more in-depth view of our stories. The images inside represent our parallel elements; unexpected literary sponsorship, connecting to characters and seeing through their perspective, a new environment, and a newfound love for the literacy.

We often used alignment as a design element in our collage. For example, the radial alignment of the heart draws attention to it, this is to show our love for reading and writing as well as empathy towards characters, a central idea in our stories. Also we decided to use color contrast. By using purple for the outside and orange for the inside, this shows the transition from unknown sponsorships to the later appreciation. To show our individual developments as readers and writers, we used proximity to separate the book and the pencil and paper. Lastly, repetition was incorporated in repeating symbols, such as the tear drops to represent emotion.