Our class recently did an op-ed project.

We each individually researched a controversial topic of our choice and wrote an op-ed about it. After we wrote the oped we also drew political cartoons to convey the idea of our pieces. My personal project was about the Group of Eight (G8). I researched the impact that they are having on our worlds economy and whether it was positive or negative. I came out of this project with a deeper understanding of globalization. I now understand what it is, the pros and cons, and how I am playing into the system. I have little objection to globalization even after this project I only came away with more knowledge. I am now aware of the extensive moral controversy about all of the different companies and why citizens protest globalization. I did not focus on this issue in my op-ed/political cartoon, but after reading Jihad and McWorld and looking at the controversies and protests people had against the G8, I understand more about globalization. Throughout this whole political cartoon process I have gone through many revisions and even though I had the same idea even from the very beginning, I still grew as a cartoonist. Much of what I did was balancing the weight of the cartoon. I tried different colors and symbols and tried filling up space. Eventually I found the perfect way to balance it and convey my message and perspective as well. The color of the scale was an issue because the colors we had were too bright but if you left it blank then it unbalanced the whole cartoon. Settling for a color was especially difficult because there was only color on one side of the cartoon. This was hard to figure out but Lori and Roxy helped me out until I decided on the final design. Writing the op-ed was very hard for me. I wasnt particularly enthusiastic about my topic and so the research ended up being long and tedious for me. After the research came the writing part, and that was equally as difficult. I am naturally a good writer and I have always liked it, but I really struggled with placing evidence in my writing piece. All of my peer critiques requested more evidence in my op-ed and so I had to go back and forth between my op-ed and my notes multiple times to force evidence into the cracks of my writing.