Well I finally got on campus for the first time this week and picked up my edits from Dr. Baltrip. I was happy to see that there wasn't a whole lot of content changes, so I just had to edit the simple things and not really change a whole bunch which was nice to see. I copied and pasted the stories to the wiki and formatted the paragraphs so I think that I am done!
I can't believe that this whirlwind of a semester is over! I am very proud of my final project and feel that I developed a lot of useful skills throughout this semester. I honestly think that as I pursue a possible career in law that some of the research skills that I have developed could really come in handy. I thoroughly enjoyed this class and hope that my final project reflects the effort I have put in.
Later days,
Coop
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
This past Weekend
Well I can't believe that the last week of Junior year is here!
This past weekend I went home for mother's day and to watch my little sister play softball. While at home, I showed my parents the work I had done on the wiki. They were thoroughly impressed with the work that I've done on it. I was so proud to show off all the work that I have done so far this semester. They really liked the direction of my story and how everything looks. I'm very happy with the graphics and how the visual aspects turned out. Now all that's left is to post the final edits. Now today, Dr. Baltrip just emailed me saying that the edits are done. I can't believe that I'm on the final step of this semester long project! I think it will turn out very well.
Coop
This past weekend I went home for mother's day and to watch my little sister play softball. While at home, I showed my parents the work I had done on the wiki. They were thoroughly impressed with the work that I've done on it. I was so proud to show off all the work that I have done so far this semester. They really liked the direction of my story and how everything looks. I'm very happy with the graphics and how the visual aspects turned out. Now all that's left is to post the final edits. Now today, Dr. Baltrip just emailed me saying that the edits are done. I can't believe that I'm on the final step of this semester long project! I think it will turn out very well.
Coop
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Week and a half left!
Wow, I can't believe that we are wrapping up this project! I'm a little disappointed that I will not really be able to add anything really substantial to my draft right now just because of time constraints. I emailed Dr. Gordon last week and have yet to hear back from her. Therefore, I am afraid that I will most likely not be able to have any input from her which sucks...
I just spent a decent amount of time editing my draft that I got back from Dr. Baltrip. I will say that she definitely made it bleed and I can honestly say that I am happy that was the case. I feel like she really helped me out with my basic grammar along with ideas. I may have thrown together my rough draft a little too fast and I really appreciate all the work that she put into it.
I am so happy with how my project is turning out overall. I can't wait to share the final product with everyone out there!
Coop
I just spent a decent amount of time editing my draft that I got back from Dr. Baltrip. I will say that she definitely made it bleed and I can honestly say that I am happy that was the case. I feel like she really helped me out with my basic grammar along with ideas. I may have thrown together my rough draft a little too fast and I really appreciate all the work that she put into it.
I am so happy with how my project is turning out overall. I can't wait to share the final product with everyone out there!
Coop
Monday, May 2, 2011
Layout
Alright, well this process appears to be comng to an end finally. I've got both my sidebar and full copy edited by Dr. Baltrip. I spent a lot of last week's class period working on the layout of my WetPaint site. I am a very visual person and feel like the design is very important. I know that this class is about reporting, but I take a lot of pride in how my final project looks.
I hate the way that WetPaint goes about editing the layout. It's so frustrating that you can't click and drag the different components. Everything has to be in line with the cursor which makes for a very slow process to get things the way you want them to look. There's the option to split the whole screen into a wide left side with a skinny side on the right. I was originally going to use this option, but I found a way around this because I want my side bar to be the only thing on the right side, and I didn't want it to get in the way of the mortar board graphic that I created. So I created a table for my side bar.
I'm really happy with how the design turned out, so now all I need to do is edit my drafts, get them looked over again, and then put the final product together! This is a hectic week for me so hopefully I can get those drafts completed sooner rather than later!
Coop
I hate the way that WetPaint goes about editing the layout. It's so frustrating that you can't click and drag the different components. Everything has to be in line with the cursor which makes for a very slow process to get things the way you want them to look. There's the option to split the whole screen into a wide left side with a skinny side on the right. I was originally going to use this option, but I found a way around this because I want my side bar to be the only thing on the right side, and I didn't want it to get in the way of the mortar board graphic that I created. So I created a table for my side bar.
I'm really happy with how the design turned out, so now all I need to do is edit my drafts, get them looked over again, and then put the final product together! This is a hectic week for me so hopefully I can get those drafts completed sooner rather than later!
Coop
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
First Draft
Well I figured I'd do my best to stick to the schedule recommended and put my first rough draft together to be edited in class today. I was honestly surprised at how easily I was able to put together ideas. I think this goes back to all of the work we have had to do this year.
I was able to use the other assignments we had previously done as references and sometimes even copy and pastes. It was a HUGE help to have the interview questions already transcribed. This way I could just search that document and copy and paste the quotes that I wanted to use.
I had over the 800 "recommended" words done by the time I had hardly started into my second subhead!
I am a little bit worried about my national coverage of black retention rates. I feel like that subheadline is my weakest aspect of the story. Maybe because I didn't talk to a national expert? Oh well, I think it is alright but it will need some work.
Now it's time to start working on my graphs and word clouds. I've got big ideas to combine the wordcloud with my previous knowledge in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop! I'm pumped!
Coop
I was able to use the other assignments we had previously done as references and sometimes even copy and pastes. It was a HUGE help to have the interview questions already transcribed. This way I could just search that document and copy and paste the quotes that I wanted to use.
I had over the 800 "recommended" words done by the time I had hardly started into my second subhead!
I am a little bit worried about my national coverage of black retention rates. I feel like that subheadline is my weakest aspect of the story. Maybe because I didn't talk to a national expert? Oh well, I think it is alright but it will need some work.
Now it's time to start working on my graphs and word clouds. I've got big ideas to combine the wordcloud with my previous knowledge in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop! I'm pumped!
Coop
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Data Driven Sidebar
I've been sitting here working on my sidebar and trying to figure out how I want to include the multitude of data that I have collected without over-inundating the reader with numbers. I have been able to collect information on KSU's retention and graduation rates for 9 different racial categories over the last 10 years.
Originally I was worried that I would not have much to write about and would fall well short of the "maximum that's not really a maximum" of 600 words. Then I started to write and realized that I had 100 words in just the first bit while I was still introducing my topic and hadn't even dropped a piece of data yet. I have no doubt that I have plenty to write about but now I'm just worried about dropping boring facts all day that the reader will quickly become disinterested in.
So far the things that I have decided to compare are the numbers of enrollment for the different races and the average retention rate and graduation rate. I think that averages speak the most to this problem that K-State faces. But then again their are some groups that are so small in numbers that for a couple of years there are some extreme outlyers that I feel like I should mention because they skew the average.
I was hoping that the sidebar would be the easiest part of the story and here I am stressing out about it! Oh well, I'm sure it will all work out!
Coop
Originally I was worried that I would not have much to write about and would fall well short of the "maximum that's not really a maximum" of 600 words. Then I started to write and realized that I had 100 words in just the first bit while I was still introducing my topic and hadn't even dropped a piece of data yet. I have no doubt that I have plenty to write about but now I'm just worried about dropping boring facts all day that the reader will quickly become disinterested in.
So far the things that I have decided to compare are the numbers of enrollment for the different races and the average retention rate and graduation rate. I think that averages speak the most to this problem that K-State faces. But then again their are some groups that are so small in numbers that for a couple of years there are some extreme outlyers that I feel like I should mention because they skew the average.
I was hoping that the sidebar would be the easiest part of the story and here I am stressing out about it! Oh well, I'm sure it will all work out!
Coop
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Transcribing
Well I just spent the majority of the last two hours transcribing the four interviews that I have done. I had a total of 35 minutes of raw audio and it took a long time to get it all down on Word.
I thought about just transcribing the required five questions for each interviewee, however I decided that it would probably be better to do it all just in case I needed to go back to it. I was pleased with the overall sound quality. I recorded 3 of the interviews on my Flip camera and imported the audio into Garageband. The other I recorded straight into GarageBand. Two of the interviews were done over phone and the other two were in person and I was happy to be reassured that you could understand everything that they said.
Now it's time to start putting together and editing a podcast of their most prominent statements. I'm really liking how this project is mirroring some of the things I have been learning in my other Mass Comm classes!
Coop
I thought about just transcribing the required five questions for each interviewee, however I decided that it would probably be better to do it all just in case I needed to go back to it. I was pleased with the overall sound quality. I recorded 3 of the interviews on my Flip camera and imported the audio into Garageband. The other I recorded straight into GarageBand. Two of the interviews were done over phone and the other two were in person and I was happy to be reassured that you could understand everything that they said.
Now it's time to start putting together and editing a podcast of their most prominent statements. I'm really liking how this project is mirroring some of the things I have been learning in my other Mass Comm classes!
Coop
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