Julia Penrose

Prof. Solomon
Eng 2010
12/11/15

On Communicating and Collaborating

o Describe your own writing and research process.

My writing style is definitely more on the persuasive, somewhat preachy side,
since I have come to find that when I am discussing intense topics, I tend to
express what side I am on and feel as if I need to change peoples opinions who
oppose mine so I tend to incorporate that into my writing. My research process at
the very beginning was a bit difficult because I didnt know what websites
pertained to my issue the best, but as time went on I found some excellent
websites that helped me tremendously to create some well-written papers. I feel as
being apart of a group and creating our magazine helped me quite a lot with my
writing and
o Why did you select this issue?
I chose this issue because it hits close to home, I have always been very
disappointed in the incarceration system. I am pro-legalization of marijuana,

because I have heard of the many medical benefits of it and I feel as if there are
way too many people in prisons because of marijuana. I am extremely against
violence and sexual offenses and think the perpetrators of those crimes deserve
extremely long sentences, clearly depending on the specific cases, because of
course some violent crimes may be in self-defense and are justified. This issue is
something I will always feel strongly about.

o How did you go about forming your perspective?

During this last summer, I had an incidence where I wanted to move into an
apartment with another girl, but due to high sex offender volumes right around
that exact apartment, and I felt a little bit unsafe also because Im very small and
likely to more of a target than some. I researched into the sex offenders charges
and became appalled when I found out how little of time some of them served for
heinous crimes, yet I know people going to prison for just dealing marijuana and
being non-violent offenders.
o Did your perspective on the issue change over the course of the semester?
How? Why? My perspective did not change much of the semester because I felt
like I was fairly educated on my issue before I started fully immersing myself into
all of my writing pieces. However, at the very beginning, when the class was
supposed to start brainstorming on which topics we wanted to focus on, I
originally wanted to focus on mass incarceration and race. Which is a great idea,
but I dont have a personal connection with that issue.

o What specific sources helped shape/reshape your thinking and writing about the
issue? Be specific.
The sources that helped me the most were definitely the sites that held all the data
and incarceration rate statistics such as the Bureau of Justice Statistics, and
websites that include Penal Codes, and drug enforcement laws. Many of these
sites are included in my report.
o Why did you choose to write in the genres that you chose (for example, why a
profile over a memoir or vice versa; why a position over a proposal or vice
versa; why a report over a review or vice versa)?
o I chose to write a memoir over a profile because a memoir allows me to fully
express myself, and isnt as formal or critical as other forms of writing, writing a
memoir was definitely something I had a lot of fun doing, and I hope to get the
chance to write more memoir pieces in the future. I decided to write a proposal
over a position, because a proposal lets you entice the audiences to make a change
in their lives and/or society.
o Describe your process for creating the translation/adaptation (Links to an
external site.) part of the Magazine project.
o

I decided to choose my proposal for the translation/adaptation into an

infographic. I didnt like how it was written and thought itd be better to translate
it into a more simple, visual piece.

o Describe your experiences with revision and design as a collaborative effort.

Point to specific experiences that you had playing the particular role that you

performed in the group. How did you interact with others in your group in
regards to the roles that you performed?
Revision and design as a collaborative effort was tricky because I had different
visuals in mind than others, but as a whole we all werent too picky and really
liked the way the website came along. I designed the About page and I really like
the way it turned out, I also altered font colors, and picked the home page image. I
think the cold colors really go along with what our topic is about. No one had an
issue with my alterations because basically only two people were completely
involved the whole time, myself and Anna.