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Daniel Alejandre

English 103

Professor Granillo

30 May 2019

Reflection

For the Multimodal Project I was caught off guard, we have been doing written essays

which are part of the linguistic mode but nothing else. When it came time to choose what I

wanted to do I elected to go with powerpoint presentation. The modes I would be using for this

presentation would be linguistic, aural and visual. The Presentation is a slideshow recording with

my voice over narration similar to how the lecture videos for English 103 are; a video of a

powerpoint with narration that delves deeper into the topic than the slides could go themselves.

In doing this project I realized a couple strengths I was unaware of. First off, I am good at

using an outline for my benefit. With the outline for the “Dream Crazy” Nike ad centered on

Marxism, I was able to properly organize my flashcards with this. I believe my skills in creating

outlines have gotten stronger overall. Another strength I saw in doing this project was my

research ability. I’ve learned to navigate the COC database more effectively and find good

primary sources. When doing research I also made sure that it exemplifies the idea I was trying

to convey accurately and I made sure it fit the essay properly. At times I would use an example

from an article but I would see it wasn’t the best source I could use so I looked for another. In

my research, I developed the characteristic of becoming picky with my sources but it has also

improved the quality of the sources to strengthen my thesis.

In doing this project I faced many challenges such as how to successfully go from

linguistic modes to other modes I haven’t even delved into. I had to look at examples myself to
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get an idea of how I would format and go through with a project of this calibre and how to do it

effectively. Furthermore, I had to make flashcards for myself to use in the powerpoint to help me

present my argument in a well structured manner and to prevent myself from stuttering. Another

challenge I faced was the thought process behind coming up with a way to further analyze the

“Dream Crazy” Nike ad. For a while I was honestly stumped on how I could go back and form a

new thesis so I decided to go over what each critical lens was again and I took note on ways each

could apply to the ad. Eventually I chose to use one of my most favorite and most used lens,

Marxism, but once again I was confused as to how I was gonna make this a powerpoint instead

of an essay. With the idea of Marxism as my lead, I made a generic outline, like one I would do

for an essay to help me form a thesis and my rationale into a feasible argument long enough to be

a powerpoint. From the outline I used notecards to break apart what information would be on

each specific slide. Overall, the challenges I faced were difficult and definitely made it harder

but I found a way to work most of them out.

With this project I hope to show off my ability of dissecting and analyzing through the

use of critical lense. Before coming to this class I had no prior knowledge of them and I didn’t

know about most of them except for some, but not in any meaningful way. With the work and

research I’ve done in English 103 I feel I’ve become a better writer and I’ve become better at

interpreting the world around me.