Notebook = Visual

Dress Ring = My ring is a very close personal belonging. Its a symbol of rank and year within the Corps of Cadets. My ring is very visual, covered in meaning and tradition. From the Hokie Bird to the large 2015 on the side the detail is very rich. My ring is also aural, because as seniors are want to do, I bang it off every hard surface I can find. The halls of Brodie are full of the glorious ringing of my ring clanking and clattering off walls and doors.

Phone= My phone is visual and also aural obviously, yet I argue that it is also gestural because of the vibration settings which alert me of everything from Facebook posts to my bitties texting me.

Watch=Like all good future officers I wear a watch to make sure I am always on time. This watch is visual, but also aural and gestural with its beeping/vibrating alarm.

My Alpha A=I wear a golden A on my uniform to proudly let the world know that I belong to the best company in the corps. VV for very visual.

The most different of my two items are probably my ring and my phone. Rings have been around forever and have a very simplistic design, phones are a miracle of modern technology and are very complicated.

I really didn’t bring a fine selection of items for this, alas.

Introduction:
For today we are supposed to identify mulitmodal texts that are in my backpack. However, this would prove to be a challenge to me because this is the one day where I only brought a small bag with me because I don’t have any other class and didn’t want to drag my book bag around campus. In my bag were, keys, my wallet, headphones, and a pack of tissues, but with help from Sarah I was able to figure out twelve things.

Multimodal List:
1. Purse (L, V, A, S)
2. Planner (L, V, S)
3. Keys (L, A, V)
4. Tshirt (V, L, S)
5. Tissues (V)
6. Pandora App (A, V, L)
7. Watch (V, S, G, A)
8. Rings (V, L)
9. Necklace (V, L)
10. Wallet (V, G, S, A)
11. Headphones (V)
12. Pen (V, S, L)

Reflection:
My purse used all five modes of communication, while it may not seem to have much sound, when I walk down the street with my keys and wallet in it, it has sound. But as I think about that I wonder if it truly has it’s own sound since it needs other texts to give it the sound. The patterns that I see across the texts are the the majority of them are visual. This does not surprise me because I am a visual person and nine times out of ten I will pick something based on my attraction to it. The texts range but there are definitely categories within them. My watch, rings, tshirt and necklace all fall into the category that I would call style. My planner, pen, headphones, Pandora app, wallet, purse, keys and tissues are my basic necessities that are normally with me wherever I go. My wallet and purse can also be classified into the style category because they add to whatever I am wearing that day.

Most of my texts were bought at separate times, but they all function together to help me be me. Some I have had for years and others I picked up this week. Clearly I don’t throw things away and I just like to make past and present texts function together. But in my defense every item that I wrote was either in my bag or on me, so obviously I use these things that I’ve had for years. The two texts that are most different from each other are my pack of tissues and my necklace. My necklace moves with me and provides a nice visual for me when I look at it. My pack of tissues on the other hand, well honestly I don’t know how long they’ve been in that bag, but they’ve come in good use since my allergies are acting up today. The modes listed above are used in each of these texts in different ways, but for the most part they are visual and linguistic. These items all contribute to who I am and how I function daily.

Today I went through my personal belongings to come up with a list of 12 different items that reflect a mode of communication.

1. Under Armour – V
2. Breast Cancer Awareness Ribbon – V, S, L
3. Cleveland Browns Football Keychain – V
4. Foster’s Bottle Opener – V, L
5. North Face Logo on my Backpack – V, L
6. Virginia Tech Cover on Laptop – V
7. Fruit Ninja App – V, L, A
8. Jetpack App – V, L, A, G
9. Blue Gel Pen (Pilot G-2 07) – L
10. Lexar USB – L
11. Kroger Plus Shoppers Card – V, S, L
12. Virginia Tech ID – V, S, L

I don’t have any particular text have covers all five types of communication, but I do cover all of them throughout my different 12 items. Most of the items that I found were either visual, spatial or linguistic. Most of the texts that I found were visual and linguistic, I tend to have more logos and brand names either on me or around me. I have a tendency of showing these off as well, that is why so many of my items are visual. They are easily identifiable. Most of the items come from the same general area or type of communication, they all have similar characteristics and properties and convey the same message. The biggest difference I have between my items are my apps and then my logos. The apps have a lot more modes of communication just because you are actually doing something, they convey a spatial and aural message; however, some of the logos that I have are just visual, they just have the logo and that is all. Although, the logo is easily identifiable and anyone would recognize it, they tend not to say much more than that. Most of the text that is used on the item enhances it greatly. The text and linguistic only adds to the item. It lets the reader/audience know exactly what they are looking at. Most of the items in my backpack have different modes of communication, we go through the day not even thinking about it but we are in fact being bombarded every moment by these different modes of communication.

I brought my backpack to class today and inside I have a textbook called “Leadership – Enhancing the Lessons of Experience.” This can be classified as both visual and linguistic because it features large sections of text accompanied by visual aids, like political cartoons and diagrams.

I also have a calculator in my backpack, which is a visual mode because it features a screen that displays numbers and symbols, linguistic because the keys are labeled, and spatial because the keys are organized so that similar functions are grouped together.

I found a flash drive with the label “GigaWare” on the front, which is both linguistic and visual because it is a logo that is designed around words.

There is also a binder in my backpack that includes notes that I have taken from previous courses. These are linguistic modes because they convey information from the class through text, but are also visual and spatial modes because I have drawn diagrams and arranged my notes in a particular fashion.

My phone would cover nearly all modes because it features a screen for web browsing, games, and apps(visual), speakers for music and alarms(aural), buttons that are arranged for efficiency (spatial), apps and web browsers that display text (linguistic), and you can use these apps and web browsers to find images of information being conveyed through emotion (gestural). The “Maps” app on the phone is an excellent example of a multimodal medium. It uses 3-D maps that are based on images of a location(visual), an instructor that tells you where you drive (aural), and text directions and distances (linguistic).

There was also a granola bar in my backpack, which is a linguistic mode because of the text on the front describing the granola bar and the nutritional facts on the back. It is also a visual mode because of the designed used on the wrapper to make the bar more appealing.

I also have a number of mechanical pencils and pens, which all have logos (visual) and small text that describes the size and type of the graphite used in the mechanical pencils (linguistic).

• My watch VS
• Ring (has Virginia Tech engraved around it) VS
• My T-shirt has an insignia VS
• Chapstick VSL
• The button on my purse has text around it VS
• My Hokie Passport VSL
• My pen from Housing and Residence Life VSL
• The Airheads candy in my backpack VSL
• The sticker on my laptop VS
• The tag on my shirt VL
• Gmail app on my phone VASGL
• Driver’s License VSL
• Twitter on my phone VASG

A pattern that I see is that all of the unusual texts I have are visual. The ones that have all five modes of very modern, digital texts. I only had two that used all five, but they were both apps on my smart phone. A lot of the texts that I used are items that I had on me and are just knick knacks in my back pack. They are similar in that they aren’t books or normal modes of text, but they all have different uses. I believe that the two modes that are most different from each other are the pen and the twitter app because they are basically opposites. Twitter writes using digital means and a pen is the most traditional way to write things.

Of course, today is the one day I decide to bring nothing to class with me.  Literally, nothing.  This, however, gives me the opportunity to use my imagination, hooray! 

Something that is not too unique is my ABP coffee cup (V).  I prefer to use a reusable one, but apparently the school deems that unsafe.  

The coffee up has text (L) on it saying the name of the company and also to warn me that it is pretty dang hott.

My phone(V&A) has my email on it and does the most annoying ding when I get emails which is about 100 times a day.

Since  I’m super cool and a cadet, I usually wear funny little hats (V&S).  You can always tell which way someone is going by looking at their cover which makes them mildly useful.   

I also wear cool little shirts with patches (V&L&S) on them. The text says “US ROTC”  which is sort of misleading because this is not even a ROTC uniform but nonetheless, they show the world that we wake up early and hate our lives Monday thru Friday, from 0500 to 1700. 

The gold ranks (V) on my uniform show that I hate my life a little less than the average cadet. It means I am a senior and on my way out to freedom!!!!! 

The gold across the hat (V&G) I mentioned previously means that along with almost freedom, under class cadets get to salute me which really makes my right hand tired.  Such is life.

On a happier note, MAWWIAGE. If I were to have a DVD with me at all times, I would probably carry ‘The Princess Bride’ with me everywhere (V&A&L). If you haven’t seen it, stop reading this post and watch it. 

Along with mawwiage, I am getting married and am usually distracted like a baby bird and almost drive off the road by looking at the giant sparkle on my hand (V).  It means hands off boys.  But actually that did not stop that guy downtown last night… but that’s for a different post. 

Last, but certainly not least, my watch (V&S&L&G&A). This small item seriously saves my life.  I know what time it is, what day it, what direction I’m going, and it wakes me up in the morning. It’s da bombdiggaty. 

More to come later babes.

XOXO,

Jenna 

What I Did

Today, I made two major changes to the overall appearance of my WordPress Site. First, I changed the theme from “Edin” to “Eighties.” I did this because I liked the photo of Times Square, New York City in the banner at the top of the web page. However, I discovered that I was able to put my own image in the banner. So, I decided to insert a photograph of a co-worker and I doing a broadcast of a Virginia Tech softball game that was seen on ESPN3.

Why I Did It

I decided to change the overall theme of my WordPress Site because I felt the original theme was too bland. I added my own image to the banner of the site for two reasons: 1) I wanted to give my site a more personal feel to it and 2) This photograph best represents what I do at my internship and what I want to continue doing for a living when I graduate from Virginia Tech. Now that I feel I have a better base for what I want my site to represent, I can continue to personalize it and add different features.

Although I still haven’t accomplished a significant amount of work on my blog, I think it’s important to think about how I would like to implement my strategies first. There’s a lot of things to consider: the logo, the theme, background, menu navigation, or other mixed media I should add to the site. I’m likely to chose the same color scheme that I had in one of my previous blogs, which will be green, white, and black, and red. I’ll consider this color scheme when I create my logo design as well. Lastly, I’ll choose two permanent photographs for the site, one will be a header and the other will be portrait shot to include in a side bar that will have a short blurb about myself. I’m a little nervous about how the color scheme will turn out and choosing appropriate content, but I think that if I apply the five modes of expression that I read about in the textbook, then I know I should be fine. For now, the only way to find out what works and what doesn’t is if I experiment!