Episode 11: Knights Write Showcase 2023

Episode Transcript
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(00:07):
Greetings and welcome to DWR
discussions on writing and rhetorica space for informal conversations
around research and practice in the fieldat the university level.
A place inclusive for curious novices,blossoming scholars and seasoned academics
to consider and sharetheir inquiries, experiences and passions
surrounding writing and rhetoric.

(00:29):
We are your hosts, professorsMeeghan Faulconer and Nikolas
Gardiakoswith the University of Central Florida.
Thank you for joining us.
Now let's get this conversation started.
Today, we are happy to shine
a light on something near and dearto both Nick and myself.

(00:51):
Here at UCF.
The Department of Writingand Rhetoric holds an annual event called
Nights Right Showcaseto celebrate the work of student writers.
This event began in 2010 as a place
to highlight and share the researchand writing occurring in the first year
writing programand has since become a multi-day event
that encompasses work and compositioncourses writing across the curriculum.

(01:15):
Our three departmental publications,Stylus
Convergence and Imprintat the Writing Center.
Undergraduate and graduate student workwith several multi-person
panels, speaking about their researchand poster presentations.
The event concludes with prizesfor outstanding
work, including a scholarship and nights.

(01:37):
It is not just for those enrolled as majoror minors.
Students from acrossa variety of disciplines are invited
to participateand share the work created in our courses.
It is a fantastic wayto celebrate our incredible students
with the added benefitof showing the university
the impact of our courses on a student'sacademic journey.

(01:58):
Today, we'll be speaking with scholars
from this year's eventwith both panelists and poster presenters.
Our first guest is Jamie
Salter, whose project was titledLearning to Keep Up.
Jamie is a junior here at UCF and produced
this project and Pamela Baker's1101 course.

(02:18):
So thank youso much for taking the time to talk to us.
Can you give us an overviewof what your project was about?
So just to come in, summarize my project,
it was basically asking the question, Dowriters have more to learn?
And in this research,I had to interview someone.
So I interviewed my mombecause she has a lot of writing under her
belt, like she's written a book, twosongwriters, and she's also a preacher.

(02:41):
So I felt she was good to like,
get some informationfrom when asking this question.
And then like,I also had to use like the sources
rewriting class and just also incorporatemy own experience.
So the things that, like I learned throughasking this question was just like,
you know, we have to really,you know, know like what's popular,

(03:02):
like what's trendingor like learn like teachers patterns,
like in terms of like learninghow to know how to write for certain
people and genres and then also justadapting to our different environments,
like how to write on social media versus
an email or knowingwhat's appropriate in those situations.
So that's pretty muchwhat my project was about

(03:24):
and what I learned throughasking that question.
Cool.
So what was it like to interviewand use your mom
as kind of a source forfor your project to do a little research?
What was her
reaction when youwhen you brought up the idea to her?
Well, she was very excitedbecause she honestly loves any time

(03:44):
I bring anything about writing to herand because she's a writer herself.
So she's like, oh, yeah, like my daughter,like, has the same passion that I do.
So she was very excitedto interview for this, and I'd say it was
like it was interesting learning from herbecause I've never really asked her
about her writing.
Like I guess for an academic thingor just like to learn more about it.

(04:06):
I kind of just like knewthat she did these things,
but to learn about her own processand her own struggles
and accomplishes through hercareer was nice to know.
So now I'm just curious for myself,what kind of writing does she do
or has she published?
Also, she has written a book. She's
it was
about just the dating worldlike as being a Christian.

(04:28):
So the book is titledConfessions of a Teenage Christian.
And then she's also a preacher.
So she writes sermons all the time.
And then she is a songwriterand she has an album called I'm a Winner.
So she just I don't know howshe figured out how to write songs.
Like it kind of just comes to her.
So, like, that's also something

(04:50):
I like to start doing,like doing songs and stuff like that
so I can learn from her in that aspectas well.
As you did the work in the courseand you started to learn about things
like these repeating genre conventionsthat help us as writers.
Did you find that you already kind ofinstinctively knew a lot about that?
Because it sounds like your mom has a goodunderstanding of what to do

(05:10):
given the constraintsthat a particular genre is, given
that she writes acrossat least three of them that you've named.
Yeah.
Did you feel like, Oh, wow.
Like, I didn't realizeI knew so much of this already,
or was it like a big aha moment for youwhen you were doing the work in the class?
I do feel like I knew more about italready,
but I guess not as in-depth as I gotinto the project and doing more research.

(05:32):
So it's just like I know the basicsand like as writers,
I feel like we always just knowlike the foundations of it all.
But there's always likewe can always dive deeper into it.
Yeah,
I think instinctively we often understandthe conventions of a genre,
like the way you write on a birthday cardto your friend is in the way you write
in a birthday card to a grandparent.
You know, like we understand there'sthere's, there's audience constraints.

(05:55):
But yeah, it's, it's growing up with thatso much embedded in us.
I think it is around us all the time.
And I think the difference betweenmaybe writers who need
a little bit more help and writersthat can maybe jump right in.
Is that understanding from the get gothat these particular situations
have constraints and also can help usproduce things in them?

(06:17):
I think what's so interesting aboutyour project too, is looking at like
a writer's process, a writer's processlike in these different like situations.
So I was wondering if you couldshare with us, like what were some of your
like main takeaways from looking atyour mom's like writing process
and how she kind of adaptsto different situations and audiences?

(06:37):
What were some of your major takeaways?
AS My major takeaways is definitely likenot every audience, like, responds
the same way as others doand that you have to like
if you are writing for a particularaudience,
you have to think about, okay, like,what can I do to like,
make them feel somethingfrom my writing about something.
She really experiences that she preachesfrom different churches and like,

(06:59):
you might not think about it
as much as students,but I have to think about like, you know,
how can I make my teacher, you know, feelthat I really put effort into this,
that I careabout what they're asking me to do?
And even in my personal writing, like,what kind of audience do I want to reach
and how can I make that connection?
So I think a big
part of that is the transition from

(07:22):
creating this paper where youI think as a student,
we all have a good sense of whatto put into a paper,
maybe a different type of everythingyou've written before,
but you knew kind of going into itthe appropriate tone
and you know, you could include sources,etc..
Talk us through the process ofthen trying to capture that
and put it into a poster, because you area poster presenter for nights, right?
So what was that process likeand what what thoughts or

(07:45):
focusdid you put into certain parts of it?
How did how did that go?
I would say itdefinitely made me think more critically
about my writingbecause I had to think about
what were the most important pointsfor me to present on the poster.
So I printed out my essay, but obviouslyI didn't put my entire essay on the poster
because, you know, not all ofthat is relevant to what I wanted to say.

(08:08):
So like taking
those
points and putting it on the poster,I'd say like it was,
I guess, kind of difficult to be like,okay, like what?
Visuals are going to help meput my point across more
and how am I going to set it up in a waythat flows, in a way
that my audience can be like, okay,so she did this and then this happened

(08:31):
and it was just like,it was interesting because I haven't done
like a poster like thatprobably since like elementary school.
So I was like, okay, so like,how do I even make this like, look pretty
in general instead of just putting,you know, stuff on a poster?
So that was an interesting process.
Yeah, I think that'sone of the real tricks to the poster

(08:52):
presentationis because it's like a three panel science
fair type of type of situationgoing on there.
So I thought you did a great jobdoing that.
Um, my, my next question was
part of what happens at the nightsright event
for the poster presentersis that there's a lot of students
that come in the daythat you were poster presenting.

(09:14):
I had all my classes coming in that dayon the Wednesday
and talking to all the, the,you know, poster
presenters and peoplethat were talking about their work.
So I want to know what was that experience
like talking to a bunch of other studentsabout your work?
Did you? Obviously, you talked about,
you know, what your projectwas about in the findings.

(09:35):
Did you also talk about the processof like doing the work?
Did you get any interesting questionsfrom students that you were talking to
on the day of the event?
Yeah,I mean, I haven't presented like that.
I don't think ever.
So it was definitely a new experiencefor me,
I would say, in termsof like getting questions from students.
A lot of them were just asking like

(09:56):
a lot of them asked about my mom and like,Oh, like, how was that?
Like having your mom being an authorand like, doing all this stuff?
Like, how was that like growing up?
So I thought that was an interestingquestion.
I had a couple of students askabout my own personal writing experience
because I brought up the time
that I went to a writing courseat NYU over the summer.
So they're like, Oh, well, how was that?
Because I never taken like a creativewriting course.

(10:18):
So how was it to experience
that in a college environmentinstead of just doing it on your own?
So I thought that was really interesting.
You know, talk about my own writingexperience and basically give them advice.
So I was like kind of in a positionwhere like people were like looking to me,
like to learn something.
And that was honestly pretty coolfor me as a writer.

(10:40):
I was like, Oh, wow.
Like, I have something to shareand enlighten people about
having grown up
with writing, being such an integral partof your, like, formative experience.
Mm hmm.
How much of of thatthose writing processes that you witnessed
have you either absorbed and duplicatedwhen you go to write or like,

(11:03):
consciously pushed up against like,
I can't work like thatwhen it comes to approaching your work.
I would say meand my mom both work best under pressure.
So that is somethingI definitely kind of took up from her.
Like if I have a paperto write like the night before,
like I'll definitely like, busted outand do my best the same way.

(11:23):
Like if she has a sermonto preach the next day, you know,
she's going to pull an all nighter.
So I definitely took that from her.
And I just feel likealso we're both very detailed
and just passionateabout what we're writing about.
So I don't like to slack when it comesto what's actually
in the writing and like the content,and neither does she.

(11:46):
So that's something that I tookinto my own writing career.
Is there anything that you sawthat you're like,
Now that doesn't work for meor you have found it doesn't work for you?
Um hmm. I didn't think about that.
I feel like just
off of first thought.
No, not really.
Because, I mean, when she writes,she kind of does it like a student would

(12:09):
do, like, study and figure out what worksand what doesn't work.
So I feel like it's been pretty helpful.
Yeah.
I'm curious in the context of the class
that you wrote the paper in,
what were some of the thingsthat you like,
read about or talked about in the class,like concepts

(12:31):
that we talk about in ourin our composition courses here
that kind of led you to, you know,writing about this project or,
you know, ones that kind of really strucka chord with you
or stood out to you as being like, Oh,I like this.
I think I can do something withwith this kind of concept.
Mm hmm.
I feel like with

(12:51):
the stuff that we read in that class,
particularly Victor Villanueva,he was just writing about how
he went from, you know,coming from a Spanish speaking country
to America and how that changedwas so different for him.
And he really had to navigate the writingworld here in order to be successful.

(13:13):
And I think that's definitely somethinglike we can all relate to, like
how to navigate different areas,different environment.
And also just in our course,
we read an excerpt from like micro showswhere he was talking about
different rhetoricsto use to present to different audiences.
So I thought that that was also helpful,especially when it came to my project.

(13:38):
Cool.
Yeah, it's a shift
to, I think an 1101 for a lot of students,and you can either agree or disagree.
It's no pressure.
Mm hmm.
Well, I think it's the first timeyou really get a chance
to write for yourself.
Yeah, you know, Yes,there's a great attached.
And yes,you have a due date and all of that stuff,
But it's it's a very different shiftfrom writing you may have done in school
previously where it'syou're writing to your teacher

(13:59):
to demonstrate understanding of something.
This is more about
actually thinking about the thingsthat connect to your experience,
expressing how those things resonatewith you or impact you.
And taking a look at it as a writer,I think that's a big difference for 1102.
So I love that you were ableto also not just embrace that part of

(14:20):
of transitioningfrom like a high school student
to a college student,but that you're able to pull so much
for your own personal life,I think is really incredible.
Was there anything elseabout the experience that really stood out
to you or that you feel like has changedyour perspectives on writing
or the way that you approachwriting going forward?
I feel like the presenting part definitely

(14:40):
because I had to talkfor like 2 hours straight.
So I guess in generalthat made me think about my writing
in the way like,what if I have to present this one day?
So that was something thatreally stood out to me because I never,
you know, any time you write,you're just like,
okay, I'm just doing this for a gradeor I'm just doing this for me or,
you know, for somebody else.
But like, you know everything about
or at least I never thought about,you know, what?

(15:02):
If I have to go up and speak about this?
So that is just somethingthat was pretty interesting to me.
And I guess also what I liked about
yesterday was the speaker that we had,
she had some valuable things to saybecause just like one of the sources
that I used in my writing,she also came from a speaking

(15:25):
country, a
Spanish speaking country,sorry, and to the U.S.
So it's really interesting to learnabout other people's writing journey.
Yeah, yeah.
The keynote speaker was Dr.
Laura Gonzalez, University of Florida.
I believe that's where she's currently,I think, you know, formerly of UCF.
Yeah.
So the Proud Alumni.

(15:45):
Yeah, that was pretty cool.
Yeah.
I think, you know,
one of the one of the great things aboutthe event is the students presenting
because it sort oftakes your work outside of the classroom
from doing the like assignmentto actually like kind
of seeing it have an effect on an audiencelike right there in front of you.
Like you said, you are,you know, talking nonstop to the students

(16:06):
that were coming byand that was really great.
And so, you know, it's it'sa really interesting kind of experience
to go from, you know, the paperyou wrote in class to to presenting.
Is that something thatthat you think you might want to do again
or, you know, an experience
that that you know, you thinkthat you might use in the future?

(16:29):
Yeah, I mean, I definitely enjoyed it.
So I felt like I kind ofwant to do this more often.
So I guess now when I think about writing,I'm just like, okay, well,
what if I present this to an audience?
Because that is somethingthat I would like to do.
I did like sharing the knowledgethat I had to other students.
So I felt like that was really helpfulin terms of my own writing career

(16:50):
and learning about other people.
So it's definitely somethingI would want to do in the future.
Do you have a declared major yet?
Kind of.
I'm a business major, actually.
Some people were like, surprised.They're like, Wait, what?
Why are you here then?
So, but I've always enjoyed writing,I might add, writing as a minor.
So, um, well, I was just thinking,even as a professional, it's

(17:13):
not uncommon to attend conferencesand have to speak about the work
that you've createdand things that are important to you,
and finding that connectionand how to express that passion
in a professional and professionalenvironment is a little bit different
than like being excited and talkingto a colleague or someone one on one.
So it is a great experienceto give you that taste of,

(17:34):
Wow, this is me sharingwhat is what matters to me.
The work that I've done with an audienceof, you know, like minded individuals
in that kind of environment.So that's great too.
So we are
closing in on the timewe have for this segment.
But I wanted to know, was there anythingthat you wanted to share?
You mentioned, you know, the creativewriting workshop at NYU

(17:56):
and talking to studentsabout your own writing,
and I was wondering if there was anythingyou wanted to share about your own,
your own creative writing.
You know,
what are the things that inspire you orwhat are sort of the, you know, the themes
or ideas that that you're interestedin exploring in your own writing?
I would say like in my own writing,I mainly like gain

(18:16):
inspiration from being by myself.
I really just like to just likesit in quiet, observe, like my area
a lot of times, like maybe I'll just like,go outside and just like,
you know, just start writing.
Usually.
Like Ido that if I'm like writing for poetry
or if I am writing like a short story,I may think about past experience

(18:38):
that I could kind of tweak and makeinto like a fictional kind of story
and just spacing out like all the thingsthat I've, like, read in the past
and mixing those kinds of thingswith my own experience so that in general,
like it could feel down to earthwhat I'm writing about in more relatable.

(18:58):
Yeah.
Thank you so muchfor sharing your experience with us today.
Welcome.
Yeah. Thank you.
You're welcome.
We're joinednow by Meghan Dever and Parker Bowles,
both poster presenters at Night's WrightShowcase.
Thanks so much for comingand talking to us.
So, Meghan, your poster was abouta project you did called Fabulous Asian

(19:20):
or the Reeducationof Theatrical Literacies.
Can you give us a little overviewas to what that project covered?
Yeah, of course.
So fun fact, I'ma history major and a theater minor,
so upon coming to UCF, I realized thatone of the requirements for the theater
degree is to participate backstagein their technical theater program.

(19:43):
And I'd never done that before because,you know, I had been like an actor
and I love to be on stage,but I never have been like behind stage.
So when I signed up for that class,I realized, why not write a history?
Why not write a paper about this?
Because this is suchlike an interesting topic.
So I talked to my professorand we had like come up with like

(20:03):
how can I talk about this experience,like in my writing and stuff?
So we decided to,
you know, she said, Just go for it.
Just write down what you knowor write down what you see.
And I said, Yeah, I'll do that.
And now I discovered the,like, hidden literacies behind backstage
because upon like trying to researchmy project, I noticed that there's like,

(20:23):
no scholarship on this subject, like,at all.
Even in, like, the professional field,there's like, little to no, like,
articles, essays, research aboutthe subject of, like, technical theater.
So by golly, I wanted to help contributeto that very tragic,
you know, lack of scholarship.
So that's how my like,little project was born.

(20:46):
So it's a lot of fun andI really got to learn a lot about myself
and kind of the world of backstagetheater, how hard it is.
It's not easy at all.
So yeah,it was a really rewarding experience.
So I talked about the Hidden Literacies
and I broke my research downin like three subjects.
I broke it down into repurposing,I broke it down into acquisition,

(21:09):
and then like emotional literacyor emotional labor.
And I just talkedabout how those three combine to
create the show.
I guess you can say, Wow.
So my immediate thought was you're
talking about stage directions andthat kind of a little like that literacy.
Yeah. So that's really interestingthat you're it's a whole other thing.
And so you're also indicating
a gap in the current researchwith what the work that you did

(21:33):
and Parker you did a presentation
on who to trust buildingauthority in rhetoric.
Can you walk us through that a little bitin terms of what the project was about?
Yeah.
So with the original paper that wasthe topic was how do you build authority
through rhetoricand the tools used for that,
specificallyin creative nonfiction essays.

(21:53):
So as I was writing the paper,I started using just like credibility
and authority interchangeably,like they sound like the same word.
They kind of mean the same thing.
But as I was writing it, I realizedthey aren't really the same thing
because everyone has credibilityin something,
but not everyonehas authority on that subject.
And when I realized
that, it helped me really focus the ideathat I was working on a white paper.

(22:15):
And then that's what helped me focus onwhat to do for the actual poster board.
So this is open to both of you.
Talk us through what it was liketaking these ideas
that you had masterfully craftedonto the written page
and trying to then deliver theman entirely different medium
for a different purpose
than writing this paper for this courseand doing this research.

(22:37):
What was it likeconverting from paper to poster?
I think you shouldgo first. I need a second.
So I originally met with Professor Bakerand some of the other presenters
to talk about it and we had a good sessionwhere we just like talked
about the ideas, like how we couldtranslate into a poster board.
The issue was, is that after doing that,
all I had was ideas

(22:57):
for how I could write a paperabout my paper
and not actually turn itinto a poster board.
So it took a littlewhile was just like workshopping ideas
like what would look good
and just figure out
what was a good balancebetween putting all my words on the board
and highlighting the really importantideas, along with some good visuals,
and then doing the rest myself,like with the presentation of the board,
which is when I settled on having the idea

(23:19):
of like building authority through bricksthat just like stack up
with all the different stepsthat it takes to build authority.
And then I kind of just ranwith that idea.
Okay.
I would say for myself,I really talk a lot.
I have a hard time trying to like,trim down,
so to say what I wanted to presentand what I want to show.
So my boardI feel like was just a little word heavy.

(23:40):
Just because I struggle.
I will admit thatI have troubles with that.
But I was just trying to
figure out like, okay,what do I put on my board and how?
And I realized like, okay,I can't put everything.
So what? I can't put all this shitlike, speak.
And when I was like doing my presentationand I'm just talking
so I might not even be answeringthe original questions, I'm so sorry.

(24:05):
But I was like, okay, well, since
this is kind of like a theatrical role,like board and stuff,
let me just make like a little theatricallike monologue, so to say.
So when I was giving my presentationand it changed every once in a while,
you know, each person,it was a little different,
but I had like a little spiel,so to say, and just like a little like,

(24:27):
here's what I couldn't put
on my board,but here's what I'm telling you.
And just like added a little flair to it,I guess.
So I hope that answers your question.
No, I think that was a great answerand it kind of segways nicely
into what I wanted to ask next,which was what was the experience like?
So, you know, part of nice rightshowcases, you know,

(24:49):
creating the poster of your project.
But then the other part is like talkingto all the students
that were there that were comingin, you know, stopping by each poster,
maybe asking you questionsabout your project.
So I'm interested to knowwhat that experiences.
You know, what what was that like for you?
And then also,
you know, did in explaining it to studentsand maybe answering their questions,

(25:13):
did you come to some kind of newunderstanding of your project
or new way to talk about your projectthrough the experience of actually like
so, you know,we went from the paper to the poster then
to presenting like in front of studentsthat were coming by.
What, what was that sort of steplike in the process for each of you?

(25:33):
I would say it was really rewarding.
I had a whole bunch of fun,
like presenting, talking to peopleabout my presentation and brought my paper
because like there'ssome things that you can write
and you can try and write itto come off a certain way,
but then maybe the readerswon't always interpret it.
But when you're giving the presentation,you can like make a joke
and then know that everyone knowsyou're like making a joke and stuff.

(25:55):
So you can add a lot of like flairto the presentation
that maybe can't necessarily like always
translate the same way,like through written word and stuff.
So it was really rewardingto like, talk to people
and like get to say like, here'show I spent a month of my life last year.
Now you all have to hear aboutit because I'm talking at you

(26:16):
and I tried to make it a conversation
and but I did say, this might be metalking at you for a couple,
but then please ask me questionsand we'll start a conversation.
Some people didn't know how to make ita conversation.
Like some people are like, okay, and leftand that's fine.
I would probably also do thatif I was in their shoes.
So I get it because yeah, but

(26:38):
it was a lot of fun to answer questionsand it kind of made me think like, Oh,
this is a new idea that I hadn't
considered last yearwhen I was writing my paper last spring.
So it was pretty fun to talk to peopleand see what they had to say.
I would agree with that.
Like it was really rewarding
and it honestly helped melearn more about what I was talking about.

(26:58):
The tricky part was pretendinglike I knew what they were asking me
and just like acting likeI had an answer off the top of my head
when I was actually working through it,like in my head at the same time.
But it was a lot of fun to like, getpeople involved because, like I told you,
my like leading questionwas like about credibility and authority.
So what I would do is I would likeif someone had

(27:20):
like some defining thing, like a characterin their t shirt or a hat or something.
I would likesay, like you might be credible on blank,
like whatever they had on them,but are you authoritative on it?
And so, like, I just did thatto like, get people involved
and it helped generally like getting them
to like, ask more questions afterwards,like understand the topic a bit more.
So it was fun to just like messaround with it a bit.

(27:41):
So when you're composing these originallyin whatever course you're in, it was
either 1102 with Professor Baker
or 3311,which is essays, cultural commentary, also
with Professor Baker,there are considerations of the audience.
You're writing to the professor,
you're writing to other peoplein the class, right?
So when you're now changing that,not only changing the, the,

(28:05):
the delivery of the presentationfrom something that is static
on a page to something that is interactiveand in person with a poster,
was there any other considerations
that you found yourselfmaking in terms of like the
the base level understandingof the audience, like things, terminology
you might need to includeor explanations of things for students
that may not have takenthat class or something like that.

(28:26):
Was there any of that
that went into your thought processwhen you were either presenting or
creating the posters?
Yeah.
So when I took some excerpts from my paperto put on the poster before I printed
them up, did anything with them,
I looked at them and I said, okay,what needs to come out of these?
So anyone who's not a writingand rhetoric, student or professor

(28:47):
can understand it.
So I just had to liketake a look at the language I was using
and just clean it up a little bitso it was more accessible
as opposed to like assumingeveryone knows the definition
of like rhetorical situationsand rhetorical appeals
and just that kind of stuff, rather thanjust throwing it out there and being like,
Yeah, you should already know this,so I'm not going to explain it to you.

(29:09):
Yeah, I would say kind of similar,
like I had to figure out like, okay,since I'm my projects,
like on theatrical concepts,maybe not everyone's going to know that.
And I was pleasantly surprisedthat there were quite a few theater kids.
So I was like, I felt very comfortable. So
that kind of also changed my presentationa little bit depending on my audience.
But I had to just like kind of explainlike my definitions of, okay,

(29:34):
what does it meanto have literacy in this field?
What does it meanto be emotionally literate?
What does it mean to have feignfriendliness stuff like that?
Because if I was coming upin talking to Parker about his poster
and, you know, I wouldn't know how muchrhetoric many rhetorical devices.
So it's important to like

(29:54):
make sure that you explain your termsand stuff to people so that way they know
and then you can like invokelike a deeper conversation about it.
So yeah.
What was the process like of revisitingthis work for Nice right showcase?
You know, when it came to thinking aboutlike what

(30:15):
effects doing this project you had onyou like now.
So, you know, you wrote this
you wrote these papers last academic yearright in these classes.
And so, you know,kind of so part of going to nights,
right, is, you know, presenting your work,but also kind of revisiting it.
You know, you've had a semester or twosince then, probably done

(30:35):
a bunch of other academic workand and stuff like that.
So, you know,what was what was interesting to you
about going back to this this piecethat you wrote in these classes,
not only to reframe it, but the actuallike the findings themselves, you know,
were there
was there anything that stood out to youthat that you realize now that maybe
you didn't at the time or appreciate nowthat now that some more time has passed?

(31:01):
Yeah, I'll go ahead.
It was really kind of funto reread my work and stuff.
I was like, Oh, I completely forgotthat I had this experience
or I completely forgot about this.
So it was really funto like kind of reread
and figure out like, okay,what can I take from mine?
And like, talk about, I would sayin the moment, because my topic

(31:23):
about the literacies of like theatrical,you know, the discourse community,
it was a very emotionallylike intensive time.
So in the moment when I was doing that,I was like, oh goodness gracious.
Like, this is really tough.
This is, you know, I'm in pain, I'm tired.
I want to go like sleep and stuff.
So in the moment I was like, okay,you know, I'm ready for this to be over.

(31:46):
But then when I was rereading
and like revisiting what I had said,I was like, That was so much fun.
Like, I missed that.
I missed doing it like,so it was like kind of nice to just reread
and kind of remember.
Like it was really fun.
And I did mention that alsoin my presentation too, that it was fun,
but it was nice to revisit and rememberlike, Oh, I spent a whole semester

(32:08):
working on this projectand it turned out so wonderfully.
So it was nice.
So I'll start by saying with mine,I wanted to reread all the essays
that I had used for the original paper,so if one of them was in a textbook,
I had to give back to the libraryat the end of last semester.
So it took a lot of diggingto find that essay again.
But it was good to revisit the paper
just because I think of likeI've only been here for two semesters

(32:31):
as a writing and rhetoric student,
but of all the papers I've written,that was one of the more impactful for me.
Just because every time we writesomething, we use authority, or at least
we try to build iteven without paying attention to it.
So after learning the stepsthat we use to do that
and just pay more attentionto the rhetorical methods used,
it made it like every paper I've writtensince then, I've considered that

(32:52):
in a way that I haven't before.
So it was nice revisiting that
and just seeing like, Yeah,I remember how I learned this
and then here'show I've used that since then.
Do you have any other
takeaways from the experience of nightsright itself?
I am better at public speakingthan I thought I was ahead of time.
I was like really nervousbecause I don't generally like speaking,
but once I got there, I got comfortable.

(33:13):
Like I figured out my spiel, like
I enjoyed just like waving at people overand just being like, Hey,
do you know the differencebetween credibility and authority?
Like,I had fun with it by the end. I agree.
It was a lot of funand it was really fun to like
learn how flexible,like talking to people can be
is like you're rememberingwhat was in your paper, but then you're
having these conversations with peopleand it's a lot of fun and it changes.

(33:37):
Like I figured out like my little speechand then it would change
depending on the person.
So I feel like my improv skills,so to say, increased just a little.
But I'm I still get caught off guardsometimes with these questions
we're learning together.
That's what I learned yesterday.
We learn together.
So watch out, Groundlings,You're not quite ready for improv

(34:00):
just yet,but maybe down the road. Yeah, for sure.
We're closing in on
the last few minutesof this segment of the podcast,
and so I wanted to know, you know,you mentioned a little bit before,
you know, Parker, what we're talkingabout, how your paper has kind of impacted
the work that you're doing now, but

(34:22):
but I'm interested in, you know, again,in the reflective side
of doing these projects, likehow do you think you've sort of changed
since doing the project or,
you know, yours was about the theaterdiscourse community.
So how has that sort of changedyour understanding
of, you know, something that you'restill kind of doing and experiencing?

(34:44):
And so, you know,taking from the projects that you did,
you know, how were those kind of impacting
you like a both in your majorsand the work that you're doing now?
I I'll go.
I'll go.
I would say that I've learned a lotbecause the the,
the like technical theater discoursecommunity is a very like social,

(35:07):
very interactive, very like high intense,like discourse community.
And it's a you're a teamwhen you're in that community
and you're learning those literaciestogether, it's you're in a crew
with other people who are going throughthe same experiences that you are.
So one of the things I took awaymost for my experience was like
kind of learning to rely on teamworkand collaboration and stuff.

(35:29):
And I find that I use that a lotin multiple positions that I have here
on campus.
That teamwork is likemakes the dream work, so to say.
But that I would saythat's what I learned most.
And then just from the literacies
of the
discourse community, I learned thatit's everywhere that these concepts
that don't exist just within the textbookof an NC 1102 class, they're everywhere.

(35:54):
You can find them.
Even backstage, you can find them here,you can find them anywhere.
So yeah, that's what I learned.
I think the biggest thing I learned frommaking the poster was one of the other
presenters was actually doing their posteron the same paper from the same class,
and we were right next to each otherpresenting yesterday.
So it was interesting how like we both hadsort of different approaches

(36:17):
to the same subject.
And like, I think it did help me realizehow just like
when it comes to rhetorical theory,there's not always one right answer.
There's A lot of different waysyou can approach it
and still get to the same destination.
And like with rhetoric,you ask anyone how to define it,
they're going to give youa different answer.
So I think that's the same witha lot of theories with in rhetoric, too.
And I think it just helpedme see that a bit more.

(36:40):
Awesome.
Well, thank you both so muchfor taking the time to join us today.
It's always a pleasure
to share the excitementand the good feelings of nights.
Right.So thank you for doing that with us.
Thank you for having us.
Joining us now is Madison Fernandez,
who presented on her project,The Marketplace of Ideas.

(37:01):
Thank you so much for being with ustoday. Madison.
Thank you for having me.I'm excited to be here.
So tell us a little bit for those of usthat weren't attending
or didn't have a chance to talk to you,
can you give us an overviewof what your project covered?
Sure.
So my project was a creativeinterpretation
of the idea of grand narrativesin economic space.

(37:22):
So it kind of takes placein a theoretical farmer's
market themed experience shopping event,and it imagines five theorists
who talk about grand narrativesas vendors in that space.
So kind of thinking aboutthe cost of the grand narratives,
what that theoretical eventwould be like, and it kind of considers

(37:47):
whether you're buying somethingor believing in something
the way that it impacts other people.
So that sounds like it would be ripefor translation
between the written page as a paperand a presentation and a poster.
What was that process like for you fromtaking this well-thought out, beautifully
written essay and trying to highlightthe key ideas and points into something

(38:10):
that is a three dimensional poster projectfor this type of event.
It was actually a lot of fun.
I have someone asked me yesterdayduring the poster presentations
if I did like any revisionover the course of the project, and
I realized I kind of donelike three different iterations of it.
So the Class one,I did it in rhetorical traditions.
You have a point in the semesterwhere you can go back and kind of revise

(38:33):
or revisit or create something newfor a project that you've done before.
So I did that with this.
And so in the first installment,I made kind of a scrapbook to represent
the event.
And then in the next one,I made a website.
And then this is kind of bringing
all of those things togetherand then creating a poster.
So I think in revisiting, I realized thatthe narrative and the kind of things

(38:55):
that I was focusing onwith it shifted a little bit.
I think in the first one, it
was kind of thinking about the idea of,assumed experiences.
What does that space feel like, the spacethat the event would be theoretically,
who would be there,and also the cost of the narrative.
So something that I was thinking through.
So like, what would it cost to, like buysomething from the Hegel table or the

(39:20):
Korean table or something?
For example?
And then I think in the second iterationI was thinking about like,
what is the appeal of this event?
What is the appeal of a grand narrative?
Why would you want to go there?
How would the people who are runningthe event advertise it?
And in this final version or thisthis current version, I was thinking

(39:40):
kind of about access.
You know,who would have time to go to this event,
who would be able to affordto have a table at a farmer's market,
maybe who wouldn't be invited?
And what what would you doif you were there
and you didn't find somethingthat you were looking for?
So it's really been a lot of fun, I think,as far as putting together the poster.

(40:00):
I already had a scrapbook, so that's fun.
I had a visual element after thatand then my website
wasn't too difficult to like represent.
I did like a slideshow of that.
But I think as far as the narrative,I had a lot of fun
sort of putting togetherwhat was the end piece going to be?
Because originallyit was sort of theoretical,
like imaginingif the scholars, you know, like if Scott

(40:22):
wanted to start selling jam or something.
And then in the second iteration,it was more literal, like
if you were going to like, buya book from Connor, like,
believe in the things that kind of saying,what would it cost?
And in this version,I kind of got to merge
a lot of those ideas,
and I think that's how it turned out,being about a lot of things.
But it was so I enjoyed the chance
to revisit all the other themesthat it came out of along the way.

(40:46):
It's really
cool that it has gone throughso many different iterations
and you've done so much process workthrough this.
I'm curious,how did you decide on the farmers
market as being sort of the thethe space, the or the frame for this?
Because, you know,
I'm sure there were maybe other things inin consideration in the running, perhaps.

(41:07):
But, you know,what was it that they kind of.
Can you walk us through the process of youkind of settling on or deciding
on, you know, the farmer's market beingthe one that you thought worked best?
Sure.
I think for this one, itkind of was a natural outpouring for me.
We were talking in class about Bacon'sIdol, the Marketplace,

(41:28):
and so that's kind of considering the ideaof shopping with the metaphor of ideas.
So I guess Baconkind of put those together for me.
And so I was
sort of considering ideaof like shopping for an idea,
how do you evaluateideas, things like that?
And then there were sort of twoart references that I already knew of.

(41:48):
And so one of them was Lucy Sparrowdid an art exhibit where the artist took
a big box store and filled itwith handmade felt groceries,
so it would be like 100 little handmadechicken noodle soup, stuffed animals.
And they were all foodsthat are like mass produced.
And then the other one is Mario Wikströmbook, Performing Consumers,

(42:09):
which is about how storesare themed experiences.
So it's a space
that makes you feel like an actor,like a person who belongs in that space.
So think about how you feelin an Abercrombie
versusa public space is designed to make you
feel like someone who would buy somethingif you were there.
So I kind of put all those ideas togetherand the farmer's market

(42:31):
just made the most sense.
I don't know if I was wanting itto be about accents originally, and that's
maybe where the idea of like foodis a form of privilege maybe came from.
That didn't really end up beinga central part until a little bit later.
But I feel like it just sort of cametogether naturally for me and I this class
with Doctor Wheeler and I took Writerit goes pop culture with her last spring

(42:55):
and I also did a creative projectfor that one.
I think you have an episode about thatone to the class with Gaga.
We do.
So I knew that,
you know, I could kind of ask herif I could do something creative with it,
and she really encourages that.
So I had a lot of fun putting it togetherand kind of talking it through with her.
But I think the idea of the farmer'smarket really naturally

(43:17):
came out of the thingwith Bacon and Sparrow and Wickstrom.
I love that because there's so muchto a farmer's market.
Then you would first consider,
you know, you have the differencein the types of vendors
you have, the peoplethat are making things themselves,
you have thing you have,
and then you have peoplethat are bringing in things
that are pre-madeand there's like the frowning upon

(43:38):
that, like, oh,that doesn't belong in a farmer's market.
That's, that's like they didn't make it.
They didn't grow it, they didn't make it.
You have the, the variety and the peoplethat are actually doing the selling.
Is it the person who created or grewor as a is it an in-between?
You have the the difference in the typesof people attending a farmer's market.
You know, it's a great place for people,you know,

(43:58):
maybe with money to feel likethey're being like, oh, yes, I can.
I can afford to buy from the farm itselfbecause that represents like who I am
as a person versusyou've got people who are like,
Oh, no, produce is way cheaperat the farmer's market.
I'm going to go there.
So you have like this wide varietyin the consumer of a wide variety
and the actual, you know, and the vendors.
So that's a really interesting metaphorto consider.

(44:20):
These, these rhetorical frameworks,
giventhat kind of similar And this is going
I mean, how do I make the sound more
pleasant and nice when you have attendeesand presenters at nights, right?
You also have a variety of levelsof experience and expertise.
You've got professors,you've got first year writing students,

(44:41):
you've got grad students,undergrads everywhere in between.
So were there particular considerationsyou had to make
when you're delivering this informationoutside a class where you're surrounded
with other students who are familiarwith these ideas and concepts,
a professor who understandswhat you're trying to do?
Were there any other considerationsthat you made in then

(45:02):
drafting and creating this posterpresentation of these ideas?
I think so.
I think something that kind ofcame to mind while I was presenting
and talking to differentpeople is the idea of prior knowledge.
And maybe this is just associationbecause I work at the writing center.
So shout out to the writing centerthat I call writing Center.

(45:22):
But into this idea of
what do you already knowbefore you're coming into something?
Idea transfer.
You don't want to like,
assume that the other personis definitely heard of X, Y, Z.
So I would try to make it a pointto like define what a grand narrative is
and kind of talk about the general ideaof what a few of the scholars said,
so that the concept made sense of like,

(45:44):
why am I representing it in this way?
Metaphorically,
you kind of have to have that baseunderstanding and also made sure to make
like a little chart.And I think that helped.
And I think it even helped me to be moresustained when I was explaining it.
But yeah, defining key termsas kind of mentioning
the scholars, that sort of thing,I think was a was a main consideration.

(46:05):
And then anytimeI would go into that spiel and it would be
a teacher, I would be like,Oh no, you probably know what this is.
But yeah, I think that was the main thingthat I was thinking about.
Did you get any interesting questionsfrom students
that kind of made you think about,you know, either your, you know,
what you did in your project or the wayyou were presenting your project?

(46:27):
What were what were those interactionslike day of during nights, right.
With with everyone kind of coming up to itto you, you know, perhaps
asking questions about your projector you kind of explaining it.
I'm multiple times in multiple waysthroughout the day.
What was thatsort of day of experience like for you?

(46:47):
Yeah, I had some people ask me kind of howI landed on the artistic format
and of course I love to talk about that
because I had a really good timeputting that together.
I had someone asked meabout the revision process, which kind of
kind of encouraged me after all thethe different versions of the project.
And then I had someone ask meif there was like
a take awayor like a final sort of answer.

(47:10):
And so asI was trying to talk through that,
I was like,No, it's it's supposed to be like an
like an experience that asks you questionsand then sort of
you get to pick the answer.
So the themes are there, but maybe the
the definitive take away is,is that up to you out of those things?
But something that I thought aboutwas how the the event itself
sort of represents like capitalismis, is a grand narrative.

(47:33):
And in each of the peoplethere are thinking of different things,
each of the theoriesand know each of the theorists
have a different idea about whatthe grand narrative of the world is.
And so I was thinking about how,you know, some of the scholars
I might not have readif it hadn't been for this class
like Karenga, for example,I hadn't read before the course.
And thinkingabout different cultural rhetorics,

(47:55):
that's something that we go overduring rhetorical traditions.
And so just I guess not being discouraged,being willing to look
for for other scholars and other pieces.
So this person I had talked aboutmy research process a little bit too,
so maybe that's why this came up.
But I was like,you know, looking in different directions.
I'm looking atother cultural rhetorics can

(48:15):
can be really helpful.
I feel like I really learned a lotfrom that part of the course.
Yeah, I think those were some of the mostinteresting questions that I got.
My next question is, you know,how do you see
kind of the the influence of this project
that you did kind of
shaping the waythat you approach what you're doing now

(48:38):
and the work that you're doing nowin your classes?
Has therebeen some kind of takeaway for you
from doing this project that you think isis kind of still an influence
or still something that you think aboutwhen you approach
new pieces of researchor new pieces of writing for?
I think so.

(48:59):
I think someone asked meabout some takeaways
from the coursewhen I was sort of talking to the poster,
and I realized,
you know, a lot of the theories
that we talked about in the class,I still reference in context with
with new thingsthat I'm learning in other courses.
I also think just thethe fact that you can make something
more creative and still find meaningin that you can do different formats,

(49:23):
like there's not one strict thingthat writing has to look like
in the same way that there's rhetoricand all of these different things.
You're not limited, I guess, by the medium
if you're, you know, of courserequires something.
I'm not trying to saythat you shouldn't do that.
And of course, I ended up writingsort of a traditional cover
letter to go with this.

(49:43):
But I think the intersection of writingthe cover letter and making a website
and then making a couple of likephysical pieces, I really learned a lot
from like comparingwhat each of those processes looked like.
So yeah, don't be afraid to,to do something different with the medium.
Is there any advice, other adviceyou would give to future participants?
Either good or badthat you learn from process of doing this.

(50:06):
Like pitfalls are like,Hey, don't be afraid to embrace.
I know you just saidthe motto modality component,
but is there anything elsethat you would share
from this experiencefor our future Night's Right participants?
Like the multi modality, I agree with you.
You know,
I think a lot of people were drawn to onesthat had like multiple things going on.

(50:26):
And even me, when I was looking around,I was like, Oh, that was really colorful.
This was really exciting.
I would say pick a topicthat you're genuinely interested in.
There were so many posterswhere the topic really drew me in.
Yeah, I would say, you know,if you're if you're thinking about it,
definitelygo for it and present something.
It's a lot of funto see what everybody did.

(50:50):
Yeah.
And then thinking about audiencewhile you're talking to two people
defining the key terms, I think those wereonly the only considerations.
But yeah, everybody should, should goto a nice writer present at nice, right?
I feel like you really do learn a lotbetween the panels and putting together
a project. All those things.

(51:11):
Well, great.
Thank you so much, Madison, for joining usfor this segment of the special nights
Right Showcase episode and for sharingall your experiences with us.
Yes. Thank you.
Thank you.
So fun to share in The passion. Thank you.
Thank you.
Our next guests are Ariel Fader,

(51:33):
Mark McCluskey and Mackenzie McElroy,
who are panelistsspeaking at nights right about
the writing center.
Tell us more.
Yeah, So
in the panel, I'm going to be talkingabout what we do in the writing center,
what it looks like,what the Sessions offer for students,

(51:55):
and also just basically what it offersfor people working there.
I'm going to be talking about the researchwe do and inquiry projects
and how those kind of workinside of the center and outside as well.
I'll be talking moreabout the professional development
that the students get throughthe committees that we have at the center.
Okay.

(52:15):
Mackenzie,as both a returning guest of the podcast
and a real veteran of nights, Right.
What sort of preparationdid you do approaching this?
And of course, this is opento all of you as well.
I just had to take a momentto give a shout out to Mackenzie.
What was the preparation like from
practice to panel for you?

(52:38):
I'm really getting
going at the hard hitting questionsand oh my God.
So for me, the panel that I'm doingor the part of the panel that I'm doing
specifically is all new content that likeI've never really talked about before.
And so I really had to think aboutwhat I really wanted to say
and like how I wanted to convey itand the important like points to hit.
And so I kind of just wrote out somebullets, then started going from there.

(53:02):
And then we practiced a few timesand went through it together
and just kind of refined what we did have.
I got feedback on mine specificallybecause I didn't know,
like if the stuff that I was includingwas good content, like if it was easily
understandable by an audienceoutside of the writing center.
So once I got that feedback,I was able to kind of refine
it more and I think we went through itone more time altogether.

(53:24):
But I've definitely read it to my roommateseveral times,
so it's kind of my process from it.
Yeah, for me
it was like partially written out,so the process was like personalizing it
and a lot of it was thinking aboutwhat can I offer personally
with my experiences that's unique and just

(53:45):
what about my experiencesin the writing center?
Would people want to hear about?
I started off with an outlineand went with my
I didn't just develop it, developed itas we came together and kept revising.
I think that's the way to say it.
Okay.
Was there something in particular, though,that was like, this is like an area

(54:06):
that is specifically likeinteresting to you or has like something
in your practice as tutors that has ledyou to this idea for these presentations?
I think like in sessions,it's kind of, Whoa, hold on.
Can you repeat your question?
Absolutely not.
I'm just talking.
I have no idea what I said a moment ago.
Now I'm getting it was

(54:29):
I. Was there something specifically
that has come from your experienceas a tutor that has led you to this,
to talking about this particular topicin your presentation?
I think from starting outthe writing center, not being able to like
speak out just because of my shynessand being a tutor at the writing
and for three years has helped meget to the point of where

(54:50):
I can speak in front of peopleabout my experience at the writing center.
So I'm curious,
what were some of the things that youthat you mentioned in your panel?
So like part of, you know, what we wantto talk to people about in this episode
is, you know, kind of whatwhat they're getting into
for either their posters or for youall for your panel presentation.

(55:13):
So you've kind of mentioned that the areasthat you that of you will focus on.
But but what were some of the things
the kind of key pointsor kind of main takeaways
that all of you kind of wanted tonot only talk about in your presentations,
but also talk about to like the Knightswrite showcase audience.

(55:34):
So for me, a lot of it is
trying to get rid of a lot of the mythsthat surround the writing center.
Like a lot of students that are outsideof the writing and rhetoric department or,
you know, still in the department,
they think about the writing centeras something that's for students
that have, quote, bad writing,which just isn't the case.

(55:56):
So it's trying to get them to understandthat we come from a place of collaborative
learning where everybody in the situationin the environment
is learning and growing together.
Sorry.
So for my part of the panel,I'm talking about inquiry projects
and the research that we did.
And so specificallyI'm going to go into the fact
like I started research my first yearat the Writing Center,

(56:17):
which I'm in my third year now.
And so I was two years agoand I've taken that research.
I've donefocus groups with different faculty.
I've done an open house with the faculty
and presented my researchat multiple places.
But I also used that researchto write a research proposal
for my researchmethods class in writing and rhetoric.
Use that to further the research,then ended up using that proposal

(56:40):
and revising it
and use it for my grad applicationsfor rhetoric and composition programs.
So I'm kind of hitting like, yes,we do work in the center.
Yes, it betters the center,
but it has purposesand it has uses outside of the work we do.
And it it's helped melike professionally develop.
I think some of the main
points that I focus onwhen I'm speaking on the panel are

(57:01):
that as tutors, well,the outside appearance of tutors is that
we're just therefor our 45 minute sessions.
But through all the other work that we do,we've developed so many other skills
just outside of editingand like being there for.
Yeah, absolutely.
I think that's a big partof showing the university

(57:21):
the work that we do inwriting in rhetoric.
I know that you're not all writingin rhetoric majors,
but the writing centeris an extension of our department.
It's a big part of it,
and I think there are a lot of mythsor stigmas about the writing center, and
I think it's also really importantnot only to see that our tutors
represent such a wonderful cross-sectionof our student population.

(57:43):
It's not all writing and rhetoric majors,
but also that it gives studentsthe opportunity to do real research
throughout their academic careeras undergrads.
That's something oftenthat doesn't even come into play
in a lot of majors until you'rea grad student, that you're actually able
to do this sort of multiyear revision EST
like look at the dataand let's see what else we can do with it.

(58:06):
So I think that's a really important
highlight of nights, right, to showlike that peek
behind the curtain of what'sactually going on in the writing center.
And it's funnybecause I say peek behind the curtain.
It's the big fishbowl,like in Trevor Colburn Hall.
It's not like it's a real mystery.
Like it'slike you have to have a secret password
or pull the certain book on the shelfand the door opens kind of thing.

(58:26):
But it is wonderful to reveal to students
and a lot of the university populationwhat it is that actually goes on there.
Yeah.
So I was wonderingif you all could kind of
you know,you've talked a little bit about,
you know, preconceived notions of what'sgoing on in the writing center.
Um, you know, can you talk about a littlebit from, from your own experiences?

(58:50):
You know, how the reality of that is,is of different than,
than what people mightsort of perceive it to be, as Mark said,
you know, a place to sort of fixsomething, you know,
when that's not really the case,that the sort of more collaborative aspect
of working in the writing center.
Um, maybe you have some,you know, personal experiences with that

(59:10):
that you might want to sharethat might be insightful for, for other
students to hear about.
Yeah,
so like working the front deskat the writing center, I hear people
passing by and they'll say, like,that's the writing center.
You know, they'll say, like,that's the writing center.
And they'll say, like, I don't usethat, though, because I'm a good writer,
but I have sessions with such greatwhite writers all the time.

(59:35):
I recently had a session with somebodyworking on an undergraduate thesis
for Biomed, and he was looking at likeit was written so well.
But what we could do in the sessiontogether was I could just provide,
you know, just an extra
like pair of eyes and providesome sort of like validation
for him to help and say like,Yeah, you're on the right track.

(59:57):
These are my thoughts and this is what I'mpulling from what you're saying.
And we can just
bounce back and forth from there.
I also like my favorite sessionsthat I have at the writing center
aren't ones where writing isactually already like created
or like we're doingwriting in the session.
It's like the brainstorming.
And so a lot of studentsdon't understand that.
Like if they have their assignments,especially from 1101 and 1102 classes,

(01:00:19):
where they're these studentswho are coming in to college
and they're encounteringa completely different type of writing,
and so they don't even knowhow to understand the assignment
or they don't know what they wantto write about.
And so being able to sit down
and brainstorm some ideas with themkind of help them figure out, you know,
what are some topics
that they could talk about,what are things that they can explore
and helping them understand that they dohave the capabilities and the knowledge

(01:00:43):
to complete this writing,even if they don't feel that they do.
I think those are like,that's kind of the biggest thing
that I get out of my sessionsand stuff like that.
One thing that I've really seen inall the session, most of the sessions
that I've had at the Writing Center,is that there's a lot more emotional labor
in a positive way than I wouldhave thought within my first year,

(01:01:05):
that a lot of the work that we dois just trying to get the writer
to trust the process and trust usin the 45 minutes that we have with them.
So that means sharing a little bitabout ourselves
to get the writersto share more about them.
And I think that iswhat really makes our sessions
different and like make our sessionswork with the students of ECF.

(01:01:29):
Did you have any
considerationswhen you were preparing this in terms of
delivering these messagesto an audience of people
that may not be familiar
with the writing centeror may just not be familiar
with our program in general,or what it is that we do?
Did you have any, like real considerationson how you adapted the research and work
you've done to a broader audience?

(01:01:52):
Well, I was going to seeif someone else wanted to go,
but yeah, that's like that'ssomething that I really struggled
with whenever I was writing.
Mine was making surebecause I'm talking about research,
I'm talking aboutlike specifically writing center stuff
that people don't understandunless they're in the writing center.
I wanted to make sure thatwhat I was writing could be understood
by studentswho, like I said, like, have no idea.
And so having to kind of understandmy audience and go through

(01:02:17):
I went through my what I had writtenmultiple times to make sure
I wasn't using like either like languagethat was they weren't
able to understand or just complicatedtopics and stuff like that.
So having to break that downwas kind of a big thing.
Whenever I was writing one,
for me,it was breaking down like my process
of getting into the writing center,

(01:02:38):
because when I was being recruitedby Professor Bryan,
I was taking his class,some writing in Rhetoric foundations,
and that was my first semesterin the program.
So it was taking myselfback to what it was like
being introduced into the programand all the concepts, and
I think people could connectwith that, that kind of outside
and then trying to provide the insightthat I've gained from there,

(01:03:02):
I think, well, sorry,
the question was like your connectionto everything.
What kinds of adaptationsdid you have to do knowing that
your presenting to an audience outsideof like writing center peers?
Oh, okay. I understand.
I think
well, I don't thinkI really needed to change much
because most jobs do have committeesand we talked about what committees?

(01:03:28):
Well, my portion is talking about whatcommittees do.
I guess it's for me it was more changing,
showing how where I came from,like how I got to the writing center,
how I've developed as a person,
how that connects to committeeswas probably the biggest challenge
in adapting itfor a group of people to hear.
I think some of the with yours too,though, was the fact
that you had to explainwhat committees are like,
why we have them, because you'regiving context to the audience as well.

(01:03:51):
And so that
I think that definitely also contributedto you having to understand your audience
and giving them the background informationthat they need to understand
what you're going to continueto talk about.
Mm hmm.
Yeah.
Related questionWhat are the committees and when they do
the committees, we have
the writing center, our social media,so you can follow us or

(01:04:13):
UCF. UW So you can look at thatplatforms on Instagram.
Okay, Is there Facebook?
So our Facebook does still exist.
I'm trying to revamp it.
And so that's just if you search UCFWriting Center, I think it should come up.
Okay.
We also have the workshop committeewhich hosts
and our workshopsto have in about once a month.

(01:04:34):
And it's open to all UCF students and.
They create the content and hostfor students to learn about AP citations,
MLA integrating resourcesand things like that.
We have a special events committeethat puts on special events
throughout the semester,such as our book swap on Valentine's Day
and words of affirmations and are openmic nights and have happened

(01:04:57):
the last two Halloweensand this upcoming spring.
Now at the end of the semester, any other
the newsletter that Mackenzie runs.
Yeah, yeah. Tell us about that. Yeah.
And so we have a committeethat creates a newsletter.
It actually started two years ago.
Yeah, because I was, I wason the committee that actually started it.

(01:05:19):
And so we wanted to create a dialogabout writing at UCF.
And so we have columns that areone of our directors will write about,
just like writing that they're doing.
We have a tutor write about writingthat they're doing.
We have a writer from the center.
We try to get like, maybe if someone hasa recurring writer that they have,
getting them to write eitherabout like what?
What it's been likecoming to the writing center,

(01:05:40):
how their writing is going,like what kind of stuff they're doing.
And then we also have tutors talkingabout inquiry projects that they've done.
So research that they've done in the past
and like what came up from it,what did they learn
and also have like a columnthat's just talking about
like common assignments
that we see in the writing centerand that initially started as like

(01:06:00):
we have a bunch of resourceson our website,
but there are thingsthat we don't have resources for.
And so just having that column
in the newsletter, studentscan look at that and see, Oh, you know,
I need to learn how to write a literacynarrative for my 1101 class.
But the writing center
doesn't have any sources on their websitespecifically like from them.
So maybe I want to golook at the newsletter and it's there.
And so it's just kind of, like I said,creating a dialog about writing at UCF.

(01:06:24):
Is the newsletter linked in the writingson our website?
Yes, it is. UCF, UW SI.com.
It is UW, C dot, c, H, dot, UCF dot edu.
And it's close. No,not at all. We're not a dot com
and I was being intentionally.
Yeah. Wow.

(01:06:44):
Yeah. You get a lot to say about that for
but yeah so it'll be on our websiteand it's linked under I want to say it's
like events and newsletter or somethingone of the tabs newsletters on there
but that comes out once a semesterkind of toward the end of the semester.
And so we're hopingthe next edition will be out mid-April.
Yeah, that'sone of the things that I always think is

(01:07:06):
is great when I hear about, you know,the university writing center activities
is beyond like helping,you know, individual students.
It's also correct me if I'm wrong,like trying to engage like the community
and being sort of or a hub for,
you know, talking about writingand doing all those kinds of events.

(01:07:26):
So I was wondering if you could tell usa little bit about, you know, what happens
with with some of those, you know,brainstorming ideas about how to engage,
you know, the
UCF community or maybe the likethe Orlando community at large
or even the writing center community
nationally, any of those kinds of levels.

(01:07:49):
If you all want to share like whatsome of those conversations
or what some of those goals are like,
I would say that the waywe handle engagement
with the other UCF students would bethrough our social media accounts.
And one of the majorthings that we've done this semester
and last semesterwere our brackets on our stories.

(01:08:10):
And our brackets are mainly we alloweveryone to vote on random topics.
So this month and it's Februaryand Valentine's, we're doing romcoms.
So we allow everyone to voteand then we all just get to see who
which which romcom everyone thinksis the best one for this month.
And then last for fall.
Yeah, last fallwe did Halloween candy for October

(01:08:32):
and that was just funto see what candy everyone likes.
And then for Orlando at large,I think Professor Bryan has workshops
for high school studentswhere they can work on applications,
and he allows some of usto come and help students there as well.
So I think that's a great way to introducehigh school students to what services
will be at their universityif they decide to come to ECF Yeah,

(01:08:55):
and we do the brackets for like engagementpurposes of like getting people
like looking at our social mediabecause they see like,
oh, they have fun at the writing center,like they want to be a part of it.
And so that's how we kind of get themto come in and see what's going on.
And we also, like we have itwritten on the board, like Ariel
spends a lot of time with the rulerwriting out the brackets.
And so students come inand they just kind of

(01:09:16):
look at it and they're like,Oh, what's going on?
Like in the middle of one of my sessionslast semester, I was working with a writer
and she just like zoned out for a secondand looked at the board and she goes, Oh,
cats won that round.
And so like that was an opportunityfor us. Like talk about it.
I don't remember his kick outs.
I'm not going to lie,but it was like something specific.
She was like, Oh, that.
And so, you know, writers are seeing that,oh, you know, like, we are real people.

(01:09:37):
We're having fun in the writing center.
This isn't
just we're not just like clockingin tutoring and clocking out like we're
we're having fun,we're doing work. Humanizes these.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And All of our communitiesare our committees.
I mean, all of our committeesare community, like, focused,
like the workshopsthat's just providing our services

(01:09:57):
to students that may not think aboutor want to come in for sessions.
And we can just talk about one topic,our open mics,
the special events committees,that's just providing something fun
where students can just engage withsomething that is like writing related.
Well, I
know it's getting close to when you'llactually be presenting at my house, right?

(01:10:18):
So I hope that these
like some of these links to resourcesand things will be available to students
to see that are attending your panel and,you know, have the chance
to really get more investedin the experience as a student
with the writing center to support themand all the stages of their writing.
Yeah, we're closing in on the time we havefor this particular segment,

(01:10:39):
but I wanted to to kind of throwthe question to you all about
what is it that that you thinkyou get personally out of working
in the writing center, whether it has todo with like your other academic work or,
you know,maybe some future plans that you have,
what's the thing that keeps you kind of,you know, motivated to, to, to work?

(01:11:01):
They're motivated to continueto work there, as all of you do.
And you if we could just share, you know,some of those experiences or things you
you get out of it to the audience.
For me, it's just experiencingeverything in the studies is
just right there in front of you.
You can see it in the writers andyou can see it with all the other tutors.

(01:11:23):
You just kind of engagedin all of the concepts of rhetoric.
Yeah, I do a lot at the writing center.
I do committees.
I've done different eventsand stuff like that.
And so I'm getting like leadershipexperience, collaboration, experience.
And then with our inquiry projects,I'm getting research experience,
but specifically,like I want teach students
and so likeI want to teach at the college level,

(01:11:45):
which I've figured outsince last time I was on the podcast,
because last time I kind of was like,I don't know what I want to do,
but I've really decidedlike I enjoy working with the students
in first year composition.
Like I love the content andI like being able to help those students.
And so my work in the writing centerhas really like fueled
that and has definitely solidifiedwhat I want to do.
And so it's giving me experience,although it's not necessarily teaching,

(01:12:06):
I am helping teach,and so I'm getting that experience there.
And so I think that's the biggest
that I'm taking away from my workat the Writing Center. I'm
in my future.
I would love to
work in law and development policy,and I know that takes a confident writer.
And at the start of meworking at the writing center,
I thought I was a decent writer,but I wasn't the best.
But through tutoring and through helpingother students, I've developed my own

(01:12:29):
writing and become confidentin my writing identity.
And I think that is what has helped mefor the future.
Also with like the aspects,like you were saying, collaboration
and leadership through committeesand through our research
has really developed who I amas a professional in the workplace.
Yeah, I love that you highlight thatbecause I think that's a common myth,

(01:12:50):
is that in order to be involvedin the writing center,
you have to be likethe greatest writer ever.
And the writing center is really moreabout fostering people that are interested
and learning and improvingand taking those experiences
and like really applying them to theirto their own journeys.
Yeah, I think that's a great way to end.
Well, thank you so much
for taking the time to talk to us todayabout the Writing Center in nights.

(01:13:10):
Right.And I wish you a very successful panel.
And again, yeah, we're always happyto have repeat and guests and new guests.
So thanks so much.
Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you.
With us now are NatashaAutumn and Riah Smith.
Natasha presented a postertitled Main Suspect Crime
Dramasand has the Excellence of Paradigms.

(01:13:33):
First of all, I mean,I'm not trying to give preference, but
exigency is one of my favorite wordsof all time.
I say that to all my students
in 1101 on 1102, I'm like,You want to impress people?
Start throwing that aroundlike a Thanksgiving when you go home,
be like, Yeah, I'mconsidering the exigency
of social media posts and they likewill not ask you any more questions.
So tell us a little bit.
Give us like a recapof what your projects were about.

(01:13:57):
You want to go? Sure. Okay.
So my idea behind the crimedrama aspect was basically because I'm
a forensic science
major and I was tired of people ask meif I chose that because of Criminal Minds.
So I was like, Let me look into the showand see why people are thinking
Criminal Minds is forensic science.

(01:14:19):
So I chose to analyzethree episodes on that,
basically see if that was an accuraterepresentation of forensic science,
which I knew it wasn't,but I wanted see to what extent
that really was for the viewerwho has no understanding of science.
And I found a lot of the timesthey didn't distinguish
the roles between scientistsand the FBI agents on the show.

(01:14:43):
So they show the agents doing everythingThe technology they use
on the show doesn't exist.
It was developed years afterthe episodes were aired.
So that was surprising that maybe the show
had some connection to the developmentof the technology later on.
But it's the jury being impacted as well
because they think they know everythingbased off what they've seen on TV.

(01:15:06):
When there is no correlationbetween TV and reality in this case.
Okay.
So is Criminal Minds the one with the girlwho has like she wears pigtails? Yes.
Her makeup and all that. Okay.
All right. Just making sure there's a few.
So I'm just making sureI'm thinking in the right one. Okay,
cool.
So my project is the studentsand paradigms,
and I originally made that as a paperfor Dr.

(01:15:27):
Wheeler's class rhetorical traditions.
And there's not many projectsthat I feel like
I've made that I got really excited about.
But this one I got really excited about.
And so I knewthat I would have a lot offer
because I was excited about it.
I wouldn't just be like, Well,this is the information.
Like, I knew I had stuff to overflowbecause I knew a lot about the topic area.
So I mean, it's very abstract.

(01:15:50):
It's obviously like from the words, it'show paradigms come about.
And excisions was like a key word there,not just the origination of paradigms
but exigent, because exigent impliesthat there's certain things
that cause it to be.
So what are the certain factors that causeparadigms to originate in our society.
Why are new cultural norms instituted?

(01:16:10):
I like all of the people that came up.
Use the illustration of Tik Tok.
Like why did Tik Tokbecome such a popular app in?
So kind of is that because there wasn'tan app like it before scientifically,
or because we wanted deeper connectioninterpersonally?
So kind of like reconciling the differencebetween
scienceand rhetoric was kind of the big thing.

(01:16:30):
So yeah, it was kind of strange
explaining it to peoplebecause there's so many terms to define.
But I feel like it worked out. Yeah.
So I'm curious for both of you,can you talk a little bit
about the processof taking the work that you did?
Um, you know, in each of your classes,right,

(01:16:51):
Yours was in which,
which class again, were rhetoricaltraditions, historical traditions.
And then, and Natasha,you were my the 1102 class when you
when you did your project.
So I'm, I'm interested, you know,in terms of the nights write showcase
what it was like to take those projectsand kind of revisit them
and recontextualize them into theseresearch posters and presentations.

(01:17:15):
I wonder if you could bothtalk a little bit about that.
Well, I guess
putting it into visualform is really difficult
because it was an essayand so I was like, Gosh,
how am I supposed to use visual cuesin order to illustrate this?
So I mean, it was it was a good challenge.
And I found that it helped a lotputting it into visual form.
And for a lot of it,I just kind of like included the normal

(01:17:37):
thingslike hypothesis, inquiry, conclusion.
So that kind of stuff was pretty easyto lay out, but it was mostly
like the theoryand all that kind of really in-depth stuff
that I was having a difficult timeputting into visual cues.
But I mean, we figured it out.
So I guess that was kindof the journey for me
when it comes to putting this projecttogether is how do I condense this

(01:17:59):
not only first into text that's condensedbut into imagery that's condensed.
So that was that was the big thing for me.
The hardest
part for me was probably translating
the length of my essayinto something understandable for
an audience that might not have even heardof the show.

(01:18:19):
So I was trying to explain itin a way that made sense.
So big visuals in the centerof the poster, I thought was important
to show the difference between the showand what it really is like in real life.
So like the testing that doesn't exist,and then the cliché of always
the dark medical officeversus the reality of it
where it's brightand they have the PPE on all of that.

(01:18:41):
But I like the morebecause it was a conversation
explaining my findings, and then I alsosaw people's reactions to it.
They're like, Oh, every time I watched it,I thought that's how it was.
So like you could see how shockedthey were based off my findings.
That's cool.
So you kind of touched on that already.
But I'm curious,was there anything that you learned

(01:19:06):
that was either like a new considerationof your research or like
or you learned about,like yourself in the process of of
talking to studentswhen they were walking around
and looking at your posters
and you're having to realizethis information to them,
was there anythingthat you took away from that
that was new or excitingor changed your perspective at all?

(01:19:26):
Oh well, through my research,I found that a lot of the people
already doing research on the topic,on the whole CSI effect,
they don't havean understanding of science,
so they would use termsinterchangeably like
medical examiner and coroner,which are not the same thing.
So then a lot of their findingsweren't accurate.
So That's why I chose to doCriminal Minds.

(01:19:48):
It has a younger audience, and then I alsoknow the difference between those terms.
So I wanted to see how the languagewould develop
and then explaining that to an audience
who might not also understandwhat that is.
That's interestingbecause I've had so many conversations
where people don't know the differenceand then they also didn't understand
what forensic sciencereally is, applying science to the law.

(01:20:08):
They're like, Oh, so it's like just law.
It's just thisyou go and testify in court.
Not really.
So explaining the bigger idea, there,I feel like
one thing for me is I had to clarifya lot of questions with people.
I mean, first and foremost,a lot of people didn't think that there
was scientific exploration involvedin like the implementation of tic tac.

(01:20:30):
So given that that was my primary example,
that people were like,how is science involved in like tick tock?
And I'm like, well,you have to code algorithms.
There's like immense programing that goesbehind creating such a multimodal app,
you know, like it's a lot of explorationto figure out how you can overlay text
in audio and again,algorithms like that, such dense code

(01:20:53):
that you really have to exploreto make it such an interpersonal app,
like the fact that there'sno other app like it. Like.
So I think that was a big thingis that there is scientific exploration
behind even things like app development,but also just dancing down theorists.
And that theory is
what I kind of realized from thatis that the theory that I'm learning

(01:21:14):
in my classes isn't necessarilyalways nuance information.
It's just new organizational ways ofthought that these theories are bringing
apps like when it comes to Vedic rhetoric,
like when she was talkingabout the difference between speech
and thought versus speech out loud versusthe beginning of an idea,
that's not necessarilysomething that she invented.
That's just something that Melville putnames to of something that already occurs.

(01:21:39):
So that's kind of another thingthat I was like, Oh, that's interesting.
So how is that?
And again, for both of you taking these,you know, kind of more complicated things
that that are in each of your studies,
What was that like talking to students
like in the eventsyou know, during the poster events?
You know,I know all my my classes were there,

(01:22:00):
you know, and everyone was kind of goingaround talking to all the presenters.
How Did you find yourself
translating or explainingsome of these concepts,
you know, to to other studentsthat were just sort of walking up almost
without any sort of preconceivednotions about,
you know, some students knewwhat we're going to be there.

(01:22:21):
So, for example, I told some ofmy students about your project
that was there, and and actuallyone of my students in class on Monday
just happened to be wearing a criminal'scriminal mind sweatshirt.
And I was like,That's really a great coincidence.
But anyway,
so my question is like,what was it like to to as students

(01:22:41):
were just approaching toto sort of be that expert and kind of
take these concepts and explain it,explain it to them?
And one thing for me isI asked them their major before
I started discussing analogies.
So whenever I was explaining the project,I was like, okay, let me explain a term
that you identify with. What's your major?
They say, Okay, aerospace engineering.
I'm like,All right, well, let's think about this

(01:23:03):
in the context of space flight,spaceflight is a scientific exploration
that's based in a wantfor meaning making in something.
And then I had other people come upand they would say, oh, English or math.
And so I would try to form analogiesaround some type
of academic conversationthat they could relate with.
So that's one thing that I did.
And at first they're like,Why are you asking me that?

(01:23:23):
I'm using rhetorical awareness coming in.
Clutch Yeah, for real? Yeah, Yeah.
How about you, NatashaI would say I asked them first
if they were familiar with the showbecause I also realize that maybe I'm
a bigger fan of the showthan the general audience,
because even though I know a lot of itis fake,

(01:23:45):
everyone there,they're like, Yeah, I've heard of it.
I've seen a few episodes,
but they don't have like an attachmentto the characters or the plot.
But that did make it easier for mebecause then I was just
explaining the science within the show.
I wasn't saying, Oh, well,this character really has
no scientific awarenessthroughout the show.
It's these were my findingsand this is how it's important for us.

(01:24:08):
Beyond watching TV
two, you're
to me on a personal levelbecause my father in law was career Navy.
And so any time there's a movie or TV showthat has anything related
to something with submarinesso we all just like immediately
turn to him and wait for him to be like,That's wrong.
I never do that.That's that's nonsense, you know?

(01:24:28):
And he, like, just debunks the whole,you know mystery of the scene.
So I feel like you'd be an awesome personto watch any kind of movie or TV show
that has to do with forensic science
because I can just turn toyou and be like, What is it really?
Fraser hates every time we're watching it.
She's like,Did you learn about that in class?
And I'm like, That doesn't exist.
And she's heartbroken every single time.

(01:24:51):
Do you have any advice for future nightsright participants
now that you've gotten it under your belt,you've I know you've both
presented on a panel, Rayaas well as posters.
Do you have any advice for future nights?
Right. Participantsthat are thinking about doing this,
just do it.
Just do it.
I literally like two days was like,I don't know if I want to do this.

(01:25:13):
I was thinking about all the timethat was going to go into the poster
and I was like,I cannot explain this worth anything.
And then I was like, Mom,should I do this?
And she's like, Yeah, We're not like,All right, answer enough for me.
Let's do it.
So if you're thinking about doing it,just do it.
Just go for it. You'll enjoy it. Okay?
I would say to choose a topicyou're passionate about that

(01:25:33):
makes it so much easier to do the researchand then talk about it
with peoplewho might not know what you're saying.
So that's the best part,actually sharing what you found.
Because if you're already spending so muchtime on something you're interested in
and then being able to share thatwith people, that's where it's worth it.
Yeah.
I'm curious, what was it like to go back?

(01:25:53):
You know,part of presenting at the Knights right
showcase is kind of looking backat something that you've done
a couple semesters ago.
So I'm curious likewhat was that process like for you?
Did you realize something newabout your work or appreciate something
new about your work in going backand not only translating it into a poster

(01:26:14):
and a presentation, but just,
just from the the time that you've hadbetween when you wrote it
in the context of a classand then kind of going back to it.
So can you talk a little bit about that,what that was like for each of you?
I feel like it was kind of hard
because I have not had a classlike rhetorical tradition since I took it.
Like I have not had a classwhere I discussed theorist and what,

(01:26:38):
you know, like it'sbeen so long since I've been in that kind
of conversational modality,if that's the right word.
And so like a lot of my other classeshave been like professional writing
or writing with communities or nonprofits
where it's very applicationbased and straight forward.
And so for me,I had to like get myself back
into the mentalityof what it was like discussing theory and

(01:27:01):
interpreting theory.
So it was both difficult, but it was alsonice because I love that class,
so I'm glad that I had the chanceto revisit it, but I just hadn't been
in that mindset in a while.
So yeah, I would say the same.
For me, it's a different way of thinkingbecause all my classes now are mainly
so it's like going back into the otherpart of my brain and thinking,

(01:27:23):
How do I explain this in a waywithout using all this jargon,
this heavy terminologythat people can actually digest?
Yeah,and not giving too specific of examples
so that I still get the idea across.
So my next question is, you know,
how can you connect or what connectiondo you see between, you know,

(01:27:46):
this particular work that you presentedat nights where I showcase
and some of the work that you're doingnow, either
you know, in your other classesor continuing with your major, you know,
what are some of the sort of takeawaysor things that you're
you're usingfrom this particular experience
in your classesor when you think about, you know,

(01:28:08):
even even beyond your classes,beyond your major in
how you're kind of been affected byby doing this project?
Um, let me think.
I think I've got great practiceexplaining concepts to people
first and foremost, because I was doing itfor 2 hours straight.
You know, I'm like, I'mbefore whenever people had asked me about

(01:28:29):
the stuff that I learn about,I feel like I didn't have much to say.
But after that intense practice,I feel like I'm able to hold better
conversations about it.
I feel like I got greater
exposure to the types of projectsthat also exist within rhetoric,
which is really cool because sometimesjust do your work, you turn it in.
If it's a discussion post,maybe you see other people's stuff.

(01:28:50):
But I thought it was really coolto kind of
get exposed to the ecosphere of all thatpeople are doing because
like Natasha was saying, everyone'sdoing stuff that they're interested in.
So it's cool because when you go around,you don't just see
projects,you see like the people that you work with
and the people that you have classes withand what they're really passionate about.
So I think it was cool just to kind ofget introduced to a bigger conversation.

(01:29:13):
Yeah, I would say the same thing.
Just talking aboutwhat you're passionate about with people.
Can you repeat the question again?
Yeah, Yeah, sure it was.
I was just thinking about, you know,when you're thinking about the
the work that you're doing now, you know,
was there anything that you,you know, take
from the paper or the projector the experience at night nights.

(01:29:34):
Right.
That, that you think you may usein, in a future class
or you know, in the futurelike maybe even professional situation?
Yes, I think well, I'm
going to the conference next weekfor a forensic science conference here.
So if people joke aroundand ask me why I chose forensic science,
I have something ready to say, Oh, well,I actually conducted research on this

(01:29:59):
and it's not criminal Minds.
I'll have something readyevery time someone asks me.
So I think that part's kind of cool.
That's fantastic.
It's always so fun.
I call it contagious enthusiasm.
When you get to
when you get to talk about thingsthat you're passionate about
and you're excitedand seeing other people respond and react.
And it's just so much fun in those momentswhen there's that energy in the room

(01:30:22):
and people are really connectingbecause maybe they just have like a
a little bit of an understandingor an exposure to some of these concepts
and seeing them in application,like you're saying,
like getting to walk around the roomand seeing how people are applying
their own experiences, their ownperspectives to these like shared ideas
that occur across the different curriculumin our department and how fun that is.
So it's always fun to sharein that excitement

(01:30:44):
with the presenters and the students.
Yeah, yeah.
We're closing in on the time we havefor this particular segment, but
I wanted to ask, what are you all
working on next?
What's on the horizon for you?
What are you excited about?
Again,this can be in terms of like a class
or a project or you know, Natasha,I know we talked briefly.

(01:31:04):
You have an internship coming up.
I just wanted to give you an opportunityto to share some of the things that,
that you're kind of looking forward tothat are coming up for you.
I'm also a James mentor,so mentoring the incoming students
for forensic science,keeping them interested in the program
and helping them be successful.
I think really important,

(01:31:24):
especially because the program is gearedtowards women in STEM.
So keeping them part of STEM.
And then I'm also going to do researchthis summer with Dr.
Hansen,and that's on body fluid identification.
And she uses some micro manipulationtechniques, which sounds scary,
but she singles out cells to see if it'sa match with things found at Crime Scene.

(01:31:46):
So I'm really excited for that.
Wow, that's so cool.
That's a way coolerthan so that I'm about to say
I'm going to write a grant proposal forone of my classes, which is kind of cool.
That's cool.
So yeah, I work in a nonprofit now,so I think it'll be really cool.
I don't work in any type of donorrelations, so this is my first exposure.
I'm usually in like media managementand stuff,

(01:32:07):
so it's my first exposurewith grant proposals.
I'm trying to think other stuff.
I mean, for again, from my job that I do,I manage media.
So I think being able to just refinea lot of my rhetorical skills
and being able to run campaignsand I think it was awesome as I'm able
to apply what I learned directlyto what I do like simultaneously.

(01:32:28):
So I mean, it is kind of hard sometimesto work and do school at the same time,
but it's so because I'm able to implementthose tactics like right then and there.
So yeah, well,thank you so much for taking the time.
I know that yesterday was a lotin the presenting and talking you've done
so we really appreciate youtaking the time
to talk with usabout that experience today.
Thank you.
Thank you. Thanks.

(01:32:52):
Closing out the episode.
Our final guest is Brandon Kelly,who presented on rhetoric and tragedy
an exploration of identificationand narrative in sending letters.
That's a lot to unpack.
That's so incredible.
So talk to us.
Give us an overview of your projectsin general.
Yeah, sure.

(01:33:13):
So I wrote this paper in in CE 1101and the prompt was explain
a time where you've used rhetoricallike in casual writing.
And that reminded me of a timethat I started
this letter exchange with my grandfatherwhen I was a sophomore high school.
So I was about 16 years old,and I decided to start writing him

(01:33:37):
just because we were very closewhen I was younger.
But, you know, time anddistance we became estranged.
So and he was growing older, and so was I.
So I just wanted to revisitthat kind of re-introduce myself.
So I decided to write him letters.
Yeah.
And as I reread those letters for myin C class, I noticed that I had used

(01:34:02):
rhetorical devices without really knowingit, which was super interesting,
specifically identification and narrative.
I did that by identifying subtle waysin my writing
that I could tweak and kind of changeto appeal to an elderly man.
You know what I mean?
Because like as a 16 year old,I can't write him too casually.

(01:34:25):
And especially my grandfather,he was very big on formality and respect.
So I wanted to be very mindful about that
as well as narrative.
I narrated different stories that I feltkind of summed up my character,
encapsulated who I amand what I stood for, because

(01:34:45):
the whole point of the letterswas to reintroduce myself to him and like,
let him know who I was, what I stoodfor, make him proud, you know?
That's really fascinating.
So what were some of the thingsthat you noticed? So
what I think is really greatabout your project is, you know, it's
it's a it's a rhetorical analysis,but it's a rhetorical analysis of your

(01:35:10):
your own writingin a particular time and place.
So what were some of the thingsthat that kind of stood out to you in
in doing this,you know, kind of undertaking of of
looking backat these letters that you wrote were
what were some of the strategiesthat you kind of saw yourself doing
And then how did that kind of takeyou back?
Or did it take you back to thatmoment of of, you know, writing

(01:35:33):
those letters, Looking back at them,it was kind of funny because
I was a 16
year old trying to sound very formaland like older,
but it didn't really work out toowell for me.
It was pretty horribly written
and actually being appreciated.

(01:35:55):
It, which is nice.
And I revisited some storiesthat I kind of forgot about
that were really a big deal to me backwhen I younger
and I revisited like
a very emotional partwhere I decided to come out to him,
my grandfather, as gayand that was really intimate,

(01:36:17):
revisiting that and
looking at how I formed that, you know,
form those sentences to appeal to him.
Wow, that that just I feel like asking.
I had another question
I was going to ask you about nowthat that was so impactful hearing that.
So you're taking topic that's

(01:36:40):
incredibly personal and meaningfuland has a lot of weight to it for you.
And you're now choosing to sharethat not only in your class
when you wrote the paper
because you're showing your professorand possibly your peers for peer review.
But then nights, right, is a chancefor you to also, like share that with
with a greater student population,a greater cross-section of people.

(01:37:02):
So what was that process
like in particular with itbeing such a personal and weighted topic?
That's not likeyou were doing an analysis of,
you know, your favoritetiktoker or something.
This is like a really meaningful andand personal thing.
What was that like for you?
At first I was a bit hesitant.
I didn't really know what I couldput on the board

(01:37:23):
because obviously I didn'twant to put the letters in selves
just because that's a bit too personal
for my comfort, especially with thatmany people looking at it.
So I talked to my mentor Joel,
and he that I just take out quotes,maybe put some photos of him, photos of me
and like kind of incorporatedifferent parts of our personalities.

(01:37:47):
So on one half of the board,I put like this map
because he was likethis big world traveler.
And then on my side I put like line paperin different references to literature
because I really loved to read and write.
So you have this process of transforming
not only your experience into a paper,your paper into a poster.

(01:38:09):
Then what was it like to have the timewhere you were talking with students
individuallythat were reviewing the posters
and you had a chance to, you know, bothexplain your project and answer questions?
What was that like?
It was definitely interesting.
I would say that's like the mostI've talked in a while.
It was nice.

(01:38:29):
It was nice sharing that part of mewith other people.
It was nice unpacking itand talking about it, you know.
Did anything surprise you aboutthe experience or was unexpected? Hmm.
I was surprised by the small amount
of other personal essaysthat were being presented.

(01:38:52):
That was a little bitunnerving for a second
because I find kind of fell out of place.
I can tell you,I can speak to that a little bit.
I think
at ninth rate showcase, like what ends upgetting submitted for and that's right.
Showcase a lot of times are, you know,the Ian C11 oh to like research project

(01:39:14):
so I can imagine
you kind of looking around at the otheror seeing like more research projects
but yours is, is kind of
the type of work that that we're wantingto like get more of in Nice right showcase
because we really are trying to make it,you know, both 1101 and 1102

(01:39:34):
and really like just the kinds of varietythat's available for students to explore
and the kinds of variety of work thatwe can kind of celebrate and in feature.
So, you know, the main point being don't
feel bad about itor don't don't feel like out of place.
You know, it's it's one of those thingswhere we're we're really trying to show,

(01:39:54):
like all the different kinds of projectsthat students do.
And I know like I had all my classes
at ninth Rate Showcase on Wednesday
talking to all the post presenters.
I had several students come up to meand and mention yours specifically
as as being one that theythey really liked and they really enjoyed

(01:40:16):
and they thought waswas really unique and interesting.
So yeah,I'm wondering, did you have like students
asking you particular questionsthat that stood out to you,
you know, when when they were coming byand talking to you about your project?
Um, I would say the most frequently asked
questions were kind ofabout my grandfather as a person

(01:40:38):
because the photos that I had of him onthe board were very good.
There was one of him boxing,which was super interesting,
and a lot of people asked about that,which was nice.
I remember seeing that. Yeah.
Yeah.
It was very captivating visually.
Yeah.
So did you think in a way that, you know,
you talk about narrativeas a feature in your paper,

(01:41:02):
as a, as a strategy that you used,but did you find the whole process
like kind of also telling a narrativeabout who your grandfather was as well?
You know, in the process of eitherwriting the paper or now looking back and,
and kind of presenting or,or thinking about your own work?
Yeah, most definitely.

(01:41:24):
I definitely characterized himthroughout my paper and the board.
He's very open minded.
I would say definitely ahead of his time.
I mean, when I came out to him,he was very gracious about it.
He was very kind
to give you an idea,he doesn't even need a fil
A like he's very yeah, he's a good man.

(01:41:48):
And characterizing him was empowering.
I would say.
What was the hardest part about looking
at such personal narrativesobjectively through a scholarly lens?
What was that experience like?
Um, at first I would say kind of
finding a tie betweensuch personal writing

(01:42:08):
and academic writingthat was pretty tough at first.
But I reread those letters so many times,and after doing that
and like looking back and forth,I finally got the hang of it.
And of course,Miss Richardson helped me out with that.
Yeah, she's she's excellentthat way at helping to, like,

(01:42:30):
untie the not so to speak.
You know, she's good at getting inand problem solving.
So I'm curiousif you can kind of think back to
to being in Professor Richardson's class.
What were some of the eitherlike readings or,
concepts or things from that coursethat, um,
maybe kind of sparked your interestnot only for this project,

(01:42:52):
but this kind of in general too,to have kind
of a different kind of approachto a type of study that you could do.
Do you remember what, what some of thosewere for you that stood out?
Um, there
were a few articles in particular just
literally about approaching your writing
and the right way to do itversus the wrong way to do it.
And that kind of allowed me

(01:43:16):
to enjoy writing a lotmore than I ever have been in C-level.
No One was a great class for mebecause before then
I wasn't really much of a fan of writingbecause especially in high school,
it's all very standardized, formal,not very fun at all.
But um.
Ms.. Richardsondefinitely like cultivated an environment

(01:43:37):
where I felt like I could really enjoy itand express myself.
I loved teaching 11 and one and 11 or twobecause
they give students oftenfor the first time,
the chance to approach a project that isthat has a personal connection to them,
which like her to sing.
Often writing up until then is very it'stask oriented.

(01:43:58):
I'm trying to demonstratean understanding.
I'm trying to prove thatI know this thing,
I'm going to write this essayor whatever is.
So I love that.
1101 and 1102 in our first writingapproach really allows students
that freedom to practically apply
what they're learning in classto their personal lived experiences.
So is there anything that you've takenfrom that,
that class or that experienceof that paper that you have seen yourself

(01:44:21):
kind of caring forward in your other workor personal life or anything like that?
Oh, yeah, definitely.
It's helped me develop a style of writing
that I think is pretty unique to me.
Um, it's helped mewrite a lot more personally,
if that makes sense.
Um, sure.

(01:44:44):
Can you think about, like,examples of where you've kind of applied
some of the experiences that you hadfrom this project to,
um, other pieces of writing, eitherlike personal pieces of writing
or even approachesthat you've had to other kind of
academic assignments, things that you've,you've been writing recently.

(01:45:05):
Um, yeah, I have actually been
starting to write poetrya lot more recently.
It's really great.
It's like an outlet for me,and I definitely revisit a lot of
just the things
that we've learned in NC 1101 Definitely.
Um, whether that be likerhetorical devices because

(01:45:30):
quite honestly, I didn't really knowwhat they were before that class and how
I can put that into my writingto get my point across.
Um, and I can really use those throughany forms of writing, whether that be like
my personal poetryor like different case studies
for my classes
or things of those sorts.

(01:45:50):
I think that'sone of the other things about 1101
is it gives studentsthe opportunity an 1111 or two as well.
It gives students the opportunityto realize that their voice matters,
you know, because again, it's not likeyou're just doing this writing
because someone gave you a topic,but like, what is your purpose?
Active.
And that's really valuableto bring to the writing experience.

(01:46:11):
It makes engaging writing.It makes the process more
somewhat less painful for the writers.
So if we have other studentsthat are listening to this,
that are thinking aboutmaybe being a participant next year,
is there any advice you would give to thembased on your experiences at nights,
right, doing this project?
Um, I would definitely saygive yourself enough time to prepare

(01:46:35):
for everything because finding that posterboard was very hard.
I don't know if anybody elsehas told you that, but I had to go
to at least likefour different craft stores to find that.
So yeah, definitely give yourself enoughtime.
And I would definitely say to do itbecause this isn't
like an every daychance that you get to have.

(01:46:57):
I liked it a lot.It was a great experience.
Great.
We are closing in on our timefor for this particular segment,
but I just wanted to open it upand see if you wanted to talk about any,
um, kind of future projectsthat you have coming up
or things that you'rekind of looking forward to either

(01:47:17):
in your own writing or,you know, maybe in your classes or majors
or things that you'rekind of looking forward to on the horizon.
Um, that's a good question.
Um, as far as my writing goes,I don't know if I have any plans
other than just personal writingand things of that nature, but,

(01:47:40):
um, I did just apply to study abroad.
So that's something on the horizonthat I'm looking forward to.
That's exciting. Yeah.
And I think that would probably inspirea lot of personal for me,
the a great
opportunity or excuse to dabblein some writing and even journaling
just so you don't ever
forget any of those momentsbecause what a fantastic opportunity.

(01:48:01):
Yeah.
Well, it's always so nice to talkabout the experience with our nights right
participants and thank you for sharingall of that information.
It was it was really lovelyto hear that personal connection
and get that experience today.
So thank you so much for joining us.
Yes, thank you forhaving me. Yeah, Thank you.

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