Considering our early discussions on culture, traces, trace-makers, and trace-chains, and, most notably, how “nothing happens in a vacuum,” has this project changed your perception of how writing contributes to this process of representing people and ideas?
For example, we discussed the cultural geography concepts of traces and how spaces are continually being re-composed through cultural interactions and situations. We discussed the example of Trafalgar Square in London, England, where protestors, regardless of their political position, use the square to express their positions on an issue in a space that has material traces that promote a pro-government stance. It’s a great example of when culture collides and resides at once.
(Trafalgar Square Protest, wikimedia.org)
In this blog discussion, provide your reasons on whether or not you think such concepts from cultural geography, your interactions with various members of a community, and then writing a profile about the community has changed your perceptions of writing. Please draw from specific examples of your experience throughout this project to discuss your perception of how the act of writing interacts with and is influenced by a person’s engagement with culture.
Be sure to practice providing clear claims with specific evidence from the project. Also, please develop a discussion through the reading and responding to other posts from your colleagues. This means that we should get the ball rolling sooner than later, so people have time to generate a response.
Please provide 2-3 comments within this post, using your tag name.
My interactions with our community changed my views on what i wrote quite a bit. For example, i talked to Mike, a at coordinator who works with individuals to match them with the equipment that will best suit their needs. So listening to him talk about what they did allowed me to revise my writing and better represent the IPAT community. I felt as though more interaction with the community helped me understand them more. Does anybody else agree? -techhooligan
That sounds like a good start to see how, at the most basic level, a writer must rely on that which is expressed to them. If a writer is pressed to rely on observations alone, many misinterpretations could occur within the writing without the continuing involvement of the people and issues of concern.
Techhooligan, would you say the cultural geography concepts helped to see how the community operates in the larger social context of the F-M community? If not, why? And, if you can think of a way that it helped, do you have a particular case to talk about?
I agree that interacting with your community helps a lot in the writing process. After interviewing the two representatives from the Coliseum and the FM Curling Club, I understood the impact of these spaces at a different level. I learned about the history of both spaces which became very important to our overall project. I also think the fact that I myself am involved with this community helped. I understand what happens on the inside of the community and how the space effects the trace makers. -iceicebaby
iceicebaby, could you elaborate on what ways you see the space influencing the predominant trace makers? It sounds like there might be some good stories there.
The Coliseum influences the predominant trace makers in a few ways. This is where teams hangout and become more that just teammates. A lot of kids that play hockey call the rink their second home and that is definitely how I describe my experience. When I was growing up I was at the rink constantly and made great memories there. The Coliseum is older than a lot of the arenas in the FM area and I think this factor can be actually experienced when watching or playing in the rink. You can sort of feel that there has been a lot of history and the arena and it is cool to think that you are making your own history there. -iceicebaby
Techhooligan, I would agree that the more we interact, the more we grow to understand each other and feel each other out. My experience was a more direct interaction, because the bulk of the ideas and information I had about the small business center was gathered directly from someone there. So I got to interact with him firsthand, and learned all about the business center directly from him, rather than using what I learned from him to help revise. I liked getting to know the Center in this way, it felt more personal, and more like I was a part of what they do there and in that way I was able to write about them from an inside point of view.
-Entrepreneuria
I would agree with Techhooligan that I was able to learn more about the people I was writing about through the interactions that we were able to have with them. I would say that for me, most of the information I was able to dig up about the company was through their website, and even just by their name. When we did get a chance to connect with someone at the business center I was able to learn a little more about them, and it helped to reaffirm the information I had already gathered. So my interaction with the community helped to add to what I was writing, but it didn’t really change my what I wrote.
-SmallFry
Yes the concepts helped to see how the community in large with the FM area. One specific example would be with IPAT’s P4P fundraising event. It helps them gain awareness in the FM area and gather more support for their organization. -techhooligan
My experience with this project certainly changed my perception on the writing experience. Prior to this project I’ve always written from an outside persepective, never really engaging into the subject matter. My work with the Coliseum and FM Curling Club was more hands-on. The writing took longer, but was more fulfilling. There is a deeper satisfaction with the completed writing when one engages in the subject matter fully. -curlsforthegirls
I also agree that interviewing people in my community really helped me develop my writing. After attending the Pedaling for Possibilities event, I really got the feel of the community and how they want to help in a fun way. Talking to some of the volunteers there quickly made me realize that they were knowledgeable, outgoing, and very helpful; which blew my preconceptions out of the water. I also interviewed Mike from IPAT and he gave me a different perspective again on how IPAT really makes a difference one on one with their community members. He explained to me the main part of his job is meeting with clients and making home visits to try and ease people’s lives. -whippersnapper
When we first started this project I didn’t understand how it related to english and writing considering it seemed very little writing was involved. But as the project went on and are group got more involved with our community and began blogging and writing about the community. The importance of being able to communicate what we were learning through are Geo-Profile Project became extremely important. This project changed the way I looked at english assignments, they don’t have to be long boring papers they can be a mix of short responses that put together make an entire project.
I would definitely agree with the person writing for coliseum there. I also didn’t see the relevancy of this assignment either. I thought that this had more to do with how good you are at using word press then how good of a writer you are. Now that we have gone through it though I see how, as writers, we need to be very analytical with what we are writing, and who we are writing too, and about.
-SmallFry
This project has definitely changed my view on writing. It was interesting to think of how different people influence writing in different ways. Or how a place can influence writing. This project made me really think about how I wanted my writing to be presented and what people may think of my writing. I was really conscientious about the community that I was writing about and did not want to put too much of my own opinion and wanted the community to speak for itself. That is very difficult to do because a writer’s voice is always going to shine through in some way, even when trying to remain completely objective. Fortunately, the voice that came through was good and the people who read our profile thought that it sounded like we really cared about our organization and came away thinking that it was a great cause. This was very pleasing because if anything, I wanted people to come away feeling like this organization did some good and that they should want to get involved. When writing about others you really have to pay attention more to your writing than when you are just writing about a book or analyzing an article. -heartandsoul22
I also agree that interviewing the people from the community definitely changed my preconceptions. Hearing their perspective and seeing what they do really gives you a better insight and makes it easier for you to write. I did not really understand the purpose of this assignment and how it related to English either (as others have stated above) but now I do understand how it will help me become a better writer. -heartandsoul22
I agree this project was very different than anything I’ve ever done in regard to writing. In the beginning it seemed more like creating a web-design than a writing project, however once we got into it, it was interesting to incooperate everyone’s ideas and create a very positive representation of an organization. It’s kinda cool to think of the work we did as groups, and the responses made by others. I think it was a project that allowed everyone to remain objective in regard to their topics rather than being analytical about someone else’s work which was refreshing as most writing assignments require a lot of personal interpretation. ————-thebusinessman
I thought this project really did highlight the communities themselves. The writings didn’t center around the writer’s opinions and descriptions of things. Each group let the community voice their own take on what they do. This gives a real genuine sense of how the communities impact the FM Area. Coming in to writing about the Coliseum, I didn’t really think there would be too much to write about. In the interview our group got the sense that the Coliseum does help its community and is a place for fun and enjoyment for all who use it. -curlsforthegirls
I agree that I thought this assignment was going to be all about web design and not the content, but it turned out that the content was more important than the layout and appeal. I like how this really portrayed some communities that are not very well known and can hopefully help some people learn about all of the good things they do.
When I went into this project specifically about the music scene I was thinking what kind of music scene is there in Fargo??? Yah, I have been to shows, but they are nothing compared to other places I had been to. I was also incredibly bias towards using a multi-media website like this one for a formal project and having to write blogs.
Talking with the general manager of The Hub, interviewing people, and a band about playing music in the Fargo Downtown Music Scene I started to develop a more informed sense of feeling about this music scene. I not only felt informed, but I also started to feel apart of the Fargo Music Scene by the end of it.
When I came time to putting this information on GeoProfile I was still really reluctant because I had NO IDEA how to work this site, and I felt really lost on where to start. I did not think sharing the information I had collected on a website would help me, but like what other people said it became less about the website and more about the content. When the project was finally finished I felt like it was an amazing profile, with accurate, information about the Fargo Downtown Music Scene.
I feel like to fully show a profile of a community, after doing this project, you NEED to share pictures, web-links, interviews, and any other references you can find. To do that in the most effective way utilizing a website is probably the only way to go.
~A_Riz
After this experience I have a much better understanding on how busy it actually is to do theses types of projects and maintain a schedule that meets all your deadlines. I also see how much more informative and how much better you overall project can look if you just actually put time and effort and engage in the specific place that you are profiling. WIth out fully engaging into what you are profiling, to me it seems impossible to fully portray the image they want seen.