JournalEntry1

Summary

Mind map, concept map, free write and a word list all use writing to bring out ideas in creative problem-solving.

The sketchbooks and notebooks of some geniuses such as Da Vinci, Picasso, Einstein, and Darwin show diagrammatic sketching that is similar to mapping methods used today.

Mind map gives visual form to ideas.

Concept maps are similar to mind maps.

Concept Mapping allows for a more thorough investigation and analysis of conceptual relationships and meanings.

Freewriting is a great way to get your ideas on paper. It can be used in the preliminary stage or throughout the whole project.

There are two versions of freewriting, focus and unfocused.

Unfocused allows for you to put words on the paper about a general thought or feeling on a topic.

Brainwriting is the written equivalent to brainstorming.

Brainwirting is more of a collaborative problem solving method.

Word lists can be used to group certain words into categories rather than just writing a bunch of words on one list.

Outlines are structures that help to organize information.

Traditional outlines define content through heading and subheadings.

Critiques allow for outsiders to voice their opinions on your issue at hand.

Taking time writing reflections throughout the process allows for an in-depth analysis of the project, both on micro and macro level.

Having journal or sketchbook allows for you to layout, organize, and better your ideas. You can go back to old ideas and add to them. Use them making keen observations and allows you to draw and/or add photos to visually see the problems and ideas.

Concept Mind

Mind Map

3 examples

Simplicity makes this cover successful. The use of the color white gives it the feeling of God. The creator made it so that the word God is in all caps and it bleeds of the cover, which implies the immensity of God. Also the text is placed high on the cover, implication of heaven.

This cover is successful because there is a good use of hierarchy and imagery. The image of Nelson Mandela is the first thing you see which let’s you know that the book will be about him.

This cover is not successful because there is too much SHIT going on. The type chosen, embossed type, terrible placement of type, the different sizes of type on the title, and just overall inconsistency. I have to say I really hate this cover. I’m done talking about it.

This, That.

-Signs are shaped by different societies in different ways.

-We often use consumerist and mechanistic metaphors

-Societies have 2 basic sources of signing: natural and conventional

-Key Semiotic Concept:

-Sender

-Intention

-Message

-Transmission

-Noise

-Receiver

-Destination

-The same signifier can have different signifieds and different signifiers can have the same signifieds

-Symbol is used in a special sense to mean literally any sign where there is an arbitrary relationship between the signifier and signified

-In some cases there are deeper meanings to the message

-Messages are always carried through a medium. The medium may be:

-Presentational

-Representational

-Mechanical

-Non-literal forms of meaning (ex. Sarcasm) enable us to make the familiar seem unfamiliar and the unfamiliar seem familiar.

-The likening of one thing to another is called a simile

-Objects, images, and text can all be used to create metaphors

-Metaphors are often at their most interesting when they link something familiar to something unfamiliar

-Metonyms - when one thing is substituted for another in a piece of communication

-they use indexical relationships to create meanings

-synecdoche – using a part of something to stand for the whole thing, or the whole thing to stand for part.

-Part/Whole is one example there are also:

- between member and class

- species and genus

- an individual and a group

Book Cover Options

1) The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

2) Junot Diaz – the author of the short story collection Drown, and his fiction appeared in the New Yorker, the Paris Review, and The Best American Short Stories. He was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and raised in New Jersey, he now lives in New York City and is a professor at MIT.

3) Drown, How To Date A Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie (Short Story)

4) The novel is about the life of Oscar. A Dominican kid who has trouble with love.

Throughout his whole life (which it isn’t that long of a life if you can tell by the title). He deals with depression and thoughts of suicide. The thoughts and attempts of suicide aren’t what kill him. Love does. His love for a women name Ybon. She has a boyfriend becomes jealous and this gets Oscar killed.

5) Love, identity, sad, embarrassment, jealousy, depression, realization, poverty, pain, maturity, life, reemergence

6) The main theme or message of the book is love and the problem there is of finding it. Also cultural identity, politics, and poverty are all important themes.

7) Oscar is a kid that goes from being a “ladies man” to a fat virgin. He undergoes many changes in his life and deals with depression.

8) Spoiler Alert: Kills Oscar.

9) “It’s never the changes we want that change everything.”

10) I heard that this was a great book so I decided to use it for this assignment.