The Wizard of Words

Oh we’re off to see the Wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Words!

When I got assigned a newsletter on Discourse Community I thought it shouldn’t be too difficult. That’s what I get for thinking I suppose. To begin with it had to be engaging for college freshman, but it also had to contain theorists. Engaging I can do. Engaging while being scholarly is a little more challenging. Then I actually looked up the definition of a Discourse Community and realized it was going to be even more difficult because Discourse Community was something we are all a part of, defining it made it seem like I was just spewing common sense. So what I originally assumed was going to be easy became the wicked witch of projects.

I started out not all that brave in my attempt. Finding theorists was slightly complicated, keeping track of my sources proved to be even more difficult. As I went through all the information available on the topic my poor brain fried in an attempt to comprehend and decide what to include in my newsletter. I would start typing and delete it because there was either too much slang or too many complex words. I feel like a dictionary should not be needed when attempting to read a simple newsletter. Immensely flustered with my lack of progress I felt like the scarecrow, brainless.

When I finally got the content of the newsletter down to an acceptable extent I decided it was time to focus on the layout, color scheme, and overall visual appeal. Yet again another daunting task I had to face down. One layout I especially liked was four small pages as opposed to two normal sized pages. The original layout I chose proved to have way too much empty space to be effective. Just when I was giving up hope, like the heartless tin man I found a compromise. I found a layout that contained FSU colors and allowed for the information to fit appropriately and had very little blank space.

All in all this project was definitely procrastinated for too long, and while I am happy with my outcome I’m positive that I could have done better if I had put forth more effort sooner. I will have to find my courage for that on the next project.