Week Eight: Infographics

 A Peek at the Week

This week we were tasked with reading chapter one "Workin' Languages: Who We Are Matters In Our Writing" by Sara P. Alvarez, et al. in Writing Spaces. In addition, we had to review the lecture PowerPoint and read "How Users Read on the Web" by Jakob Nielsen. These are all summarized below:

• In the text "Workin' Languages: Who We Are Matters in Our Writing", the authors discuss our language architect. The text begins by relating to the reader by discussing how we have all been taught to write academically in "standard written English", but this has led us to lose our unique voice. With that said, the authors discussed translingual orientation in writing and why it is important to be a language architect. According to the author, "Adopting translingual-oriented practices and attitudes means we, as language architects, work to sustain cultural and linguistic pluralism, based on language research and against linguistic injustice" (Alvarez, et. al, p.5). Then, the text goes on to offer ways to use transligualism to contribute to our writing. These ways include sizing the situation, building a community, and finding the audience. 
• In the Digital Graphics for Web Audiences slides, infographics were discussed. First, we learned the difference between infographics and posters: infographics rely on numerical information and posters rely on textual information. Then, it provided a variety of tips for making an infographic and the elements within.
• In "How Users Read on the Web", how readers scan text is discussed. The items that qualify for scannable text include keywords, sub-headings, lists, one idea paragraphs, inverted pyramid style, and less word count. Then, the article uses five different versions of the same content to see which one user used and scanned.

Connections

This text connected with what we learned thus far because it puts everything together. We use the aspects of participation, collaboration, etc. that we have learned to formulate the right infographic. 

Visual of the Week

The visual below is an infographic that I created for another digital writing assignment. This infographic relates to the topics this week and incorporates a variety of components listed in the readings.

Alt Text for Image Description: The image above shows an infographic that is made to show the steps of the Pomodoro technique. The steps are listed and an image related to the step is shown next to each. The color scheme is calming with green, yellow, and blue. 

Contributions to Learning

This week's readings helped me further cement the aspects we have been learning this semester with other aspects of writing I have learned in life. I knew it was important to keep my voice in my writing and to make everything easier to read so that readers would be able to effectively scan the writing. These ideas were proved further by the readings of this week. 

Ponder This

How will you use what we have learned to create an infographic?

Sources

Sara P. Alvarez, Amy J. Wan, & Eunjeong Lee (2022). Workin' languages: Who we 

are matters in our writing. Writing Spaces.