Considering Genre

Beao. "Essay" 1/27/10 via Wikimedia. CC Attribution Share Alike.

Any creation using the English language requires a genre with certain conventions that mold it and make it readable to its audience. A good genre for the topic will make it a breeze for the reader to follow, while a poor one may leave them confused, jumping from section to section, and ultimately, frustrated. What genres, such as video essay, podcast, essay, and quick reference guide, do you feel comfortable in? Let me know below.

For my work on a controversy postmortem, regarding space exploration and its debate between privately funding companies such as SpaceX to fly to the ISS, or NASA to continue working alone, I am going to use the familiar essay format.

During the week ahead that I have to prepare for the production of my project, I have to develop a working text, or a draft copy of my essay. This will require lots of research finding specific, detailed points to use in a variety of paragraphs, good reputable quotes from sources, along with data to back them up. Using these conventions, of presenting evidence and then analyzing them will allow me to thoroughly explain some the nuances in the relationship between key points and the stakeholders on each side, which can become confusing within this topic. The purpose of this project is give a clear narrative of what happened in the controversy, and one of the best ways to do this is through explanation and analysis of the facts and points being thrown around. Compared to other genres, such as the podcast or video essay, this genre will allow for more analysis instead of discussion on the facts presents, while it will go more in depth than the quick reference guide.

I am feeling confident that the genre I have picked will work well with the project, and I am already confident in that genre, and I do enjoy the debate between private and public funding for space flight, so I believe as long as I stay on top of time management and work ahead, the production phase of the project will go as planned. Some challenges I see coming are procrastination and other commitments keeping me from starting early enough on the production, and also insuring that I am pulling accurate and worthwhile sources for my project, as many in this field are opinion based instead of hard facts.

Cluster of Stakeholders

Stathis, Sideris. "Hierarchical clustering simple diagram" 10/02/05 via Wikipedia. CC Attribution Share Alike

Stakes are high in the game of private versus government control of future space missions. Identifying the stakeholders can be key in identifying bias and locating good sources for information. In regards to this topic, a diagram of the potential stakeholders may help.

My cluster identified a few of the major stakeholders in the field of space exploration. Due to its broad nature, many countries and different entities may have a stake, but the major ones, NASA, engineers, the private companies like Sierra Nevada or SpaceX, all have big stakes to play in this discussion, and all need large boxes dedicated to how the outcome can cause gains or losses for each side, such as money for the companies and engineers, or control over space for NASA.

Evaluation of General Sources

futureatlas.com. "Citation needed" 10/30/10 via Flickr. CC Attribution Generic

Sources for research come in all different forms. While the inner procrastinator in you might reach for the Wikipedia app, what does it really mean to find and record a good source? Let go into details, from URL to the links themselves. What questions do you have about sources? 

I am building a list of questions to ask regarding sources in general. For this post, I'll be using two of my own sources for an Aerospace controversy on space exploration. One, Viewpoint: The Debate About The Future Of Human Spaceflight – 30 Years On and the other Linking NASA and the private sector to further space exploration.

• URL: 
• Viewpoint: http://aviationweek.com/space/viewpoint-debate-about-future-human-spaceflight-30-years. A .com domain name, implying that the source might not be from a completely reputable location, such as a government or educational site.
• Linking: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/federal_government/linking-nasa-and-the-private-sector-to-further-space-exploration/2015/01/22/d022b34e-a24b-11e4-9f89-561284a573f8_story.html. Also a .com domain, suggesting it might not be a reputable site, which would require more research.
• Author
• Viewpoint:  Marcia Smith is the President, Space and Technology Policy Group, LLC, confirmed through the SpacePolicyOnline website.
• Linking: There is no named author for this source, only a group called the Partnership for Public Service. 
• Last Updated
• Viewpoint: Published 1/8/15 with no further updates, or any way to tell if the facts presented in the article are out of date. The two links on this site lead to one history report on the NASA website, and the other to a login page for Aviation weekly, which I will assume has broken the link, or changed its purpose at the very least.
• Linking:  There are no links within this article.
• Purpose
• Viewpoint: The purpose of this article is to persuade the reader to more cautiously support government funded programs for space exploration, but slower to avoid risk to human life. She is trying to promote a different way of viewing our space program.
• Linking:  The purpose of this article is to inform the reader of the current link between private companies and the U.S. space program. The author is promoting the idea of a further relationship between private companies and space exploration.
• Graphics
• Viewpoint: No graphics.
• Linking: No graphics
• Position on Subject
• Viewpoint: Smith's position on the subject is not biased, but overly cautious in not trusting companies to effectively explore space, while simultaneously worrying about previous space failures and glamorizing their ideas in the past that didn't receive funding. She does not receive profit if the reader believes her version of the story is true, but she may receive more reader attention if the data is true. The information can be verified with outside sources, such as the cost of the ISS. 
• Linking: This story doesn't take a stand on the differences between private and government space exploration, but rather positively talks about the relationship between private flight and exploration. Many of the facts can be backed up by outside sources, such as the budgetary constraints of certain NASA programs here. 
• Links
• Viewpoint: This source does not cite any further reading or links besides the reports mentioned in the article. The only credible resources the article has is the author herself, who is the president of a space focused organization.
• Linking:  This source doesn't mention further reading besides the Washington Post and has no real credibility or sources to fact check the article.

Reddit and What I Found There

Woodys AeroImages. "PH-BHA KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner - C/N 36113 / LN 356" 9/1/15 via Flickr. CC Attribution - NonCommercial- NoDerics 2.0 Generic

Reddit is a source for all kinds of intrigue. For searching into arguments regarding Aerospace, no other place could be better than a online forum. Looking at the site, I found two forums quickly, r/aerospace and r/aerospaceengineering . Both looking interesting, I made my way through the posts trying to answer three main questions: What debates are there, what stands out, and how does this reflect on aerospace as whole. My answers are below. How did you react to these two forums? Let me know in the comments. 

What kinds of things do people in the Reddit forums seem to be arguing about, debating, disagreeing about or otherwise engaging in meaningful exhanges of ideas about? Give us a descriptive and clear sense of the kinds of stories you're seeing in the Reddit forums.

 In both reddit forums, I found many inquiries on how to learn more and guides on how to get into the aerospace field, along with many curious questions and current events in the aerospace field of today. In the Aerospace Engineering forum, I found many more questions, such as college kids looking for software suggestions or guides to good reading, while in the aerospace forum, there were far more news events on their page, talking about the latest planes, rocket launches, or events.

In your opinion, what are the two most interesting debates/disagreements you found in the Reddit forums? Hyperlink us to the two different Reddit threads and explain why you found those debates interesting. Be specific and honest and be yourself. I don't want you to blah-blah-blah this. I want you to really engage.

 The two posts I found were Draper Labs is the subcontractor for the Dreamchaser space vehicle . . . and Aerodynamic Data for a 787-800. These two articles took me by surprise because they stand out from the usual Reddit and common internet approach of general topics and rarely helpful answers. The Draper labs forum is a company for a hugely important space vehicle looking to hire potential engineers on Reddit. That fact blows me away and shows me that companies are moving quickly into the digital age and are open to new ideas. The aerodynamic data forum sounds dry at first but when you look at the replies, you find out that you can find complex aerodynamic data in very simply ways, such as by measuring out lengths and doing the math using just a sketch of a plane, a far stretch from laboratory tests, but apparently very accurate. 

Overall, what impression do you get of your discipline based on what you saw happening in the Reddit forums? Were the people in those forums talking in ways you expected or did not expect, about things you anticipated they'd be talking aboput or things you had no idea they'd be discussing? Explain in concise specific detail.

The Reddit forums seem much more like a place to find new opportunities, get advice, or collaborate with people over problems or current events in the aerospace field. I did not expect to get so many honest answers and legitimately helpful or simple steps to help the original poster. I did not expect them to be discussing specifics such as aerodynamic data of specific planes, or recruiting for jobs, such as for Draper Labs on the Dreamchaser craft. The impression I have received is surprised but in a good way. 

Evaluation of News Magazine Stories

Ehrhardt, Thomas. "Drone" 12/31/16 via pixabay. CC0 Public Domain

Arguments occur everyday around the world, on subjects large and small. Often times, in this new digital world, arguments in the Aerospace field is fought over the internet, on news sites like Bloomberg and Wired. In two articles on these sites, McCain Chides Colleagues for Protecting Russian Launch Engines, and Things Will Get Messy If We Don't Start Wrangling Drones Now I will explore the arguments and characters behind general online debates in the aerospace field. Do these debates interest you? Let me know in the comments below.

What is the debate, disagreement or argument in the story about? Explain cocisely, but with specificity and precision. Name specific people, places, things, events, dates, times and/or other identifying details.

McCain:  Senator John McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is outraged with Dick Durbin, the top Democrat of the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, and Richard Shelby, a Republican of the same committee, for trying to continue using Russian RD-180 rocket engines in the 2016 spending bill. McCain would rather only have U.S. organizations, such as the private aerospace companies SpaceX and Boeing-Lockheed be able to compete, lowering the number of competitors.

Drones:  Parker Gyokeres is having issues with his professional DJI Inspire drone and its antiquated geofencing software. In Naval Air Station South Weymouth in Abington, Massachusetts, a former blimp hanger, he can't fly his work drone as its software believes it is in a no-fly zone, even though the base was closed in 1997. As 2016 goes on, drones are exploding in popularity, and the argument for their restriction is also conflicting with their intended usage, creating new challengers for their designers and builders.

Who is the most sympathetic character in the story? Who are they? How are they involved? Why do they evoke feelings of sympathy from you?

McCain:  The most sympathetic character of the story is Dick Durbin, who is the top Democrat of the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, who supports the usage of the Russian rockets as they would increase competition and allow more room for the development of rockets for the defense industry. Durbin evokes sympathy because his argument makes the most logical sense to me, allowing competition from more reliable rockets until more are proven seems reasonable compared to McCain's outrage.

Drones: The most sympathetic character is Parker Gyokeres, a man who uses drones for his job and is being harmed by companies fear of drone pilots, and the limiting software put on drones that can't be effectively updates or improved.

Who is the least sympathetic character in the story? Who are they? How are they involved? Why can't you easily sympathize with them?

McCain: The worst character is McCain's outrage story is McCain himself, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who leads his committee on decisions affected the armed services, as he seems to be jumping the gun and shooting off his temper simply because he didn't get his way with hating Russia this year. Our reliance on outside rockets should end yes, but it could wait another year for more competitors to arise and take the place of the rockets currently being phased out.

Drones: The worst character in the drone story is the FAA, who controls regulation of air vehicles but hasn't taken an effective stand on software and its policies on drones yet, leaving drone pilots to the mercy of companies and their own geofencing software to control their product.

Twitter and What I Found There

Jones, Mark. "Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor USAF Photo" 4/27/01 via Flickr. CC Common Attribution Generic

While Aerospace Engineering is a highly professional career, even engineers can resort to Twitter to geek out over the latest products or relate to fellow enthusiasts. Following two Twitter feeds, AerospaceEngineering and DARE, I found the answer to three main questions about blogs in this industry, their stories, what stories stand out, and how they reflect on Aerospace as a whole. What is your opinion on Aerospace Engineering from these two blogs? Let me know below.

What kinds of things do people on Twitter seem to be talking about, debating, arguing about or otherwise engaging in meaningful exhanges of ideas about? Give us a descriptive and clear sense of the kinds of stories you're seeing in these Twitter feeds.

 The AerospaceEngineering blogs seems to follow the latest and greatest in the Aerospace industry, such as new advancements, concept projects, or current events in the industry, such as fuel efficiency changes or new plane flights. Dare mostly follow a certain category of rocketry enthusiasts, who also support Delft Aerospace Rocket Engineering, a student organization for rocket engineering,which leads to many posts about their progress or other student projects in rocketry globally.

In your opinion, what are the two most interesting conversations or stories you found in the Twitter feeds? Hyperlink us to the two different Twitter feeds and explain why you found those conversations nteresting. Be specific and honest and be yourself. I don't want you to blah-blah-blah this. I want you to really engage.

 Within these two feeds I found two very interesting conversations to me. One within the DARE feed followed an interaction between Kerbal Space Program, a rocket and plane game found on Steam that allowed the player to build rockets or plane to complete missions and explore planets and moons, a game I recently acquired and have found myself playing for hours. This link between games and my industry is catchy as a company building their own rockets on this game makes me realize the closing gap between business simulations and games in today's digital world. The other interaction involved a NASA test I thought would have to wait years to occur. NASA testing a plane wing with many small electric engines to test electric feasibility for flight, but I thought this would be many years off, as battery technology still has a long way to go to make the jump between just being introduced in cars, such as the Tesla, to jumbo jets requiring thousands of pounds of jet fuel to take off.

Overall, what impression do you get of your discipline based on what you saw happening on Twitter? Were the people in these feeds talking in ways you expected or did not expect, about things you anticipated they'd be talking about or things you had no idea they'd be discussing? Explain in concise specific detail.

I feel like my discipline is overall immensely passionate about their specific subjects. DARE's feed led me to think that people who worked on rockets were genuinely passionate about rocketry around the globe and sought to advance their work, a far cry from some people I have heard in person only wanting to do engineering for the money, or because they are good at math. I thought some people would have passion, but with the internet and its content at an engineer's disposal, it can be easily seen that many Aerospace Engineer's are excited about their field. 

Evaluation of New York Times Stories: My Top Two Picks

skeeze. "Challenger space shuttle" 12/31/15 via pixabay. CC0 Public Domain

    

   The New York Times is a massive content provider to not only New York, but to a global population of news reader. In this regard, their opinions on science and technology are of particular importance to me. Here are my top two picks from these genres in the New York Times this week, and a few questions getting the details from them. How do you like these stories? Leave a comment below. 

Top Science Story: The Challenger Space Shuttle Disaster, 30 Years Later
Top Tech Story: Facebook Moves to Ban Private Gun Sales on Its Site


Does there seem to be a "main character" or "protagonist" to the story? If so, who is it and how are they are the "center" of the story? If not, are there any important or central characters in the stoy at all? What role do they play?

 Science: The Challenger Space Shuttle is the designated main character to the story, making the headline and tying the theme of the lack of a space ferry in our current times and the technical failures that marked both the Challenger and Columbia explosions. The well known teacher, Mrs. McAuliffe, who was aboard the Challenger when it blew up, is also mentioned in the story to lend an emotional touch to the feeling of national tragedy that was felt across the U.S. in 1986. 

Tech: Facebook's move to ban private gun sales on both of its sites has thrust it into the spotlight, in news such as this article, where it is the main character of the story, making a social statement through its new company policy. 

Where do the specific events in the story take place? Is there a specific setting? Describe the settings for the stories and how they influence the plot and characters. 

Science: The main events of this story take place in and outside of the Earth's upper atmosphere, marking the boundary between Earth and space, which is the entire purpose of these dangerous but advanced shuttle launches that resulted in two tragedies. This limit will always push human groups such as NASA to move forward and keep pushing boundaries, which is why even though two shuttles were lost, we will still move on with exploration. 

Tech: Facebook's main action took place in it's online policy statement which can change over the course of a year. This year, as a private site, they decided to ban gun sales on their two websites, which are extremely popular social media platforms, and a growing base for sales. This is not a very specific setting, but it does have the effect of enforcing the rule that Facebook sets down immediately, instead of resulting in long debate and public appeal, meaning gun sale proponents will still have to abide by the rules and argue for its change. 

Is there any kind of disagreement or debate happening in the story? If so, who is particiapting, why are people debating and what seems to be at stake for the different characters in the story?

Science: The debate towards the end of this story about the Challenger disasters revolves around NASA's future use of private companies to shuttle astronauts to orbit instead of costly shuttles such as the Space Shuttle program. The main debate has occurred between the Federal government and NASA, against the private companies pushing for space flight such as SpaceX or Sierra Nevada. These companies would benefit greatly from the government funding for space flight, while the government and NASA might save money, and stop their reliance on Russia, but might face a backlash from the public over business control of space, and their lose of control over exploration in space. 
 

Course Projects: My Worries

Adams, Shane. "Working from home" 05/09/08 via Flickr. Attribution Generic License.

  

 After carefully looking over four main upcoming projects of mine: The Controversy Postmortem, The Rhetorical Investigation, A Public Argument, and The Reflective Self-Assessment, I have come upon a few worries and comments in regards to their summaries. What types of worries or comments do you have from these four projects?

What are you most confused by or nervous about in regards to the four major projects?
    The most worrisome part of the four projects overall is the feeling that I may end up choosing very difficult genres for each of the topics, so that by the end of the semester I have to make do with a hard format to a relatively simple topic of reflecting on my semester as a whole. Another worry for me is within the Rhetorical Investigation project, conducting the primary research will be difficult for me, as finding people within my field to interview will be difficult to me. The last struggle I see myself having is preparing for the video essay and podcast and gathering the required equipment. Using video and sound editing software will be new to me, and I hope I’ll be able to effectively use those tools. 
What are you most interested in or excited by in regards to the four major projects?

   I am very interested in doing research on the controversy or the public argument, as learning new opinions has always interested me, and I always try to examine both sides of the argument, so learning about these projects should be fun. I am also excited to learn the previously mentioned video and sound editing software, as I enjoy computer hardware but would like to get into the software aspect side of things, and become a more rounded person. 

Based on your understanding of the major projects, what are the elements of this course that you have to plan ahead for? How will the coursework described in the four project assignment sheets challenge your time management skills this semester?

   I will have to effectively plan on who to interview for the second project, and also find the proper equipment for the two audio/visual genre depending on where I use them. I will have quite a hard time with time management, as four weeks between the projects leaves plenty of time to procrastinate while each project requires plenty of research, which I will have to plan for. 

How has your past English coursework in high school or college prepared you for the challenges of this course? What skills will you bring into the course with you?

   Past English work has made me a fairly effective arguer, researcher and essay writer, as I have written arguments and plenty of essays requiring research, while it has left me lacking in the audio/visual area of skills. I am fairly tech savvy with computer however, and I hope that helps me overcome the lack of video skills I bring into the semester.  

Do you have any questions about the four major projects that haven't been answered by the assignment sheets? What do you still want to know?

   I would more like to know the opinion of our teacher of how he might layout the genres for each projects and what type of requirements are usually put on a video essay or podcast that would make it effective in presentation to a class environment. 

Reflection

   Looking at other student's posts, I find that we all share many of the same worries. In Nick Hernandez's, I found that I related to his worries about time management and workload this semester, as four major project will be a change for my work pace compared to high school or other courses this semester, 
   Glancing at Joshua Smith's post, I see I am not alone in worrying about the two audio/ visual assignments in the genre, seeing as both the video essay and podcast will require video and audio editting, which are completely new to me. 
   Seeing how similar my classmates reacted I know I'm not alone in my worries, and I think we can all learn a bit from each other in how to tackle the situations we face. I think my writing process may need to incorporate more time into it seeing as everyone is worrying about time management, and I know that will also be an issue for myself.  

Investigating Genres: The Podcast in Depth Q&A

zoomar. "Roscoe Considers Recording a Podcast" 2/14/08 via Flickr. Attribution-NonCommercial Generic License

   The “new media” of the internet era has hit rapidly, with many listeners not knowing the nuances between various platforms of media. Podcasts, video essay, quick reference guides, also of these are different ways and layouts for us to access information. Below I focus on podcasts with a quick question and answer. Do you agree with my take on podcasts?

 

What purpose does the genre generally serve?

     The purpose of a podcast is to present content to a following audience that is interested in the opinions or presentation technique of the creator in a easy to follow and less interactive format. Usually podcasts follow an audio only format which makes it easy for a busy audience to follow. Podcasts also help to keep listeners informed or up to date on activities as many podcasts are periodic and cater to a specific audience. 

Where, how, or in what context do readers generally find this genre?

    Podcasts are generally found in the form of an audio file or stream which listeners can tune into, live or recorded. Similar to the format of a radio talk show, podcasts are frequently found on internet websites, YouTube, or content providers such as ITunes. At times podcasts can be found in person at events dedicated to specific groups, such as conventions. 

Who is the typical audience for this type of genre?

 

    Audiences of podcasts are usually followers of the podcast creator, or people interested in the topics spoken about on the segment. Podcasts often follow certain products or groups of people, which have an audience that follows podcasts to receive more information on that topic. Other times, famous or popular hosts will create a podcast to follow their lives in which a variety of people that know of that person will follow to receive updates. People with access to technology and who are busy also like to listen to podcasts for their ease of access. 

What are some of the key features or characteristics that are unique to this genre, distinguishing it from other texts?

    Generally free content, podcasts also are very accessible, which sets them apart from other forms of streamed content, such as video essays, as they often don’t have video content that is required to watch. Therefore, podcasts can often be listened to as a background to other primary work, compared to more interactive genres. Podcasts also often follow a specific group or person, making them about the content, but also the author, more so than other genres. This often comes out in frequent story segments that are a feature of podcasts. 

Based on your answers to the questions above, come up with a definition in your own words for this genre?

    Podcasts are audio and sometimes video segments following specific interests or people, often incorporating news and stories following current events, that are aimed at a specific group of people, such as followers of that topic or person, that appreciate the genre’s ease of access.

Reflection

   Reading both Rashaan Malik's and Chase Nicholson's posts on the video essay introduced me to how powerful that genre really can be. While I focused on the podcast and with research found out how easy podcasts can be to follow, I also learned from my classmates that the video essay can take a lot of content, confusing or controversial, and make it into a very presentable but short format. While the genre does require a visual aspect to it, I think it may come easier to me as I try to develop my own sequential composer writing style. Their posts also very much more concise than mine, which is something I may have to work on further within this course.