Proposal Film

Final Thoughts

Introduction

When I entered this class I wanted to learn more about proposal writing, but more specifically, I wanted the motivation to write my thesis proposal. What I found was a supportive environment that allowed me to explore my ideas on a topic, to express these ideas in an organized form and in such a way that my audience would expect and appreciate them, and to think about my research from different perspectives. I gained the ability to write proposals in any situation, as long as I take the time to evaluate it first, and I’m ending the class with an eloquent thesis proposal. Honestly, what I’ve accomplished in this course is beyond what I imagined possible in a five-week period.

As stated in the other three progress reports, my MAPC thesis proposal explores the connections between organizational narrative and strategic communication through the genre of profiles. I will conduct a textual and visual analysis of profiles used by universities on their websites or in print publications. While this study is the culmination of my master’s degree program at Clemson, I’m not certain I would have been able to flesh out my ideas in such detail had I written the proposal on my own. All the pieces were there, but the class continually pushed me to focus on each part of the proposal with a purpose and finally to look at the parts as a whole design.

Work Completed

I’ve written my thesis proposal following the MAPC guidelines, but I’ve also gone beyond these suggestions. My thesis proposal package includes the 10 page proposal with front matter of a letter of transmittal, cover page, table of contents, and abstract, and back matter of an extensive bibliography and biography. I’ve also created my first film – a five minute presentation that highlights the connections between silhouettes and viewpoints, texts and their contexts, and profiles and strategic communication. Thought this film assignment was quite a challenge, I am very proud of my work, and I appreciate the opportunity to explore my topic in a more creative medium that the traditional written proposal. Essentially, this film allowed me to focus on a very visual part of my topic and to see my proposal in a completely different way. I never expected to create a film to supplement the required thesis proposal, but now my proposal would seem incomplete without it.

Next Steps

The next steps include submitted my proposal to my course instructor and committee chair for comments and revisions. I realize that the proposal is only the beginning of a long process of research, but thanks to this course, I’ve created a strong foundation. The next steps also include reflected on this journey in the final report, where I will describe the decisions I made; however, because of the rhetorical focus of the class, I feel able to justify each choice. I also feel confident in my ability to use technology to persuade and connect with my audience. I may use InDesign in the future to give my papers a more professional look, and I will definitely keep Audacity and Jing on my computer for future use. I also plan to teach MovieMaker to my students in English 103 in the fall.

Conclusions

I’m leaving this course with a better understanding of the rhetorical situation of proposal writing and with the knowledge and technical skills to create written and visual proposals. I enjoyed working with other students in the course, and I appreciate the support of the MATRF staff, particularly their software training. The short time period, almost daily meetings, and working environment made this class successful, since it simulated other proposal situations. Upon reflection, I realize that this situation was the most conducive way to write my thesis proposal. I had to decide on an idea; convince myself and my classmates that it was worth pursuing; learn more about it through research; cull down this research into three pages; explain my plan for studying the topic; delineate the schedule for this research; persuade my primary audience from the introduction through the conclusion, and present my ideas in an appealing form. I can’t imagine anything else I would want to add to this course, except to say that it should be offered every summer.

Writing Proposals - Chapter 12

We’ve reached the end of the book, and there’s still so much to be done. This last chapter addresses the final touches to the proposal, mainly the front and back matter. We might consider the presentation as part of our main concerns as well, since it supplements the core of the package: the proposal itself.

The front matter can include a letter of transmittal, cover page, executive summary and table of contents, but when considering including these components, I wonder how many times we need to repeat ourselves. If we include an introduction, do we need an executive summary too? Would an abstract be the academic equivalent, or is that something we save for the thesis itself? Do we need a letter of transmittal? If we are sending a digital copy, could we substitute an email of transmittal? I think it might be a nice touch, particularly to include contact information. Also, the book specifies that a table of contents is not necessary for a proposal of less than 10 pages, but it certainly couldn’t hurt to display the structure up front. Again, I have to wonder whether adding a page is justified though.

In addition, the title page, letter of transmittal, and table of contents, as front matter, set the tone for the proposal. We can use the letter to establish a relationship with our readers, and the title page and table of contents can signal our professionalism and attention to detail. However, having written mostly academic essays, I find it difficult to invent a cover design that still fits within my conventional notions of research papers, and has enough differences to make my proposal unique and attractive.

I also want to examine my use of terminology and citations as I consider the inclusion of back matter, though for a 10 page proposal, extensive back matter again seems to add more weight than it is worth. Instead, I will consider the inclusion of definitions as sidebars, thus enhancing the creative design of the proposal. By looking at the proposal as the sum of its parts as we learned in the visual communication chapter, I can consider these final additions within the overall design and purpose of the proposal, and rethink any areas that creep outside my mission or stray too far from the conventions.

Film Objectives and Outline

The film will focus on the opportunity to investigate profiles in detail – answering they why question of my proposal.

Objectives/Emphasis

• Spatial and written profiles are selective ways of viewing the world – silhouettes (TRO)
• Profiles of community members construct organizational identity, even if in the case of universities multiple voices overlap
• These profiles can be read an analyzed individually and together (intertextuality).
• Textual features are a way to gain access to situations, context, culture, or ideology.

Outline (storyboard presented in class)

• Intro: Silhouette of iconic university building (.5 min)
• 4-6 Silhouettes of university buildings – 10-15 seconds each (1 min) End with comment of reflection and reproduction – silhouette of reflection pool webcam image.
• Screenshot movie of reflection pool webcam (1 min)
• 4-6 profiles, 10-15 seconds each (1.5 min), voice over quotes
• Corpus of profiles – highlight tower shape – fade into first building silhouette (.5 min)
• Credits and Special Thanks (.5 min) “We will become silhouettes” by The Postal Service

Proposal Style Sheet

I will use the style sheet below to design my thesis proposal, with substitutions made as necessary during the InDesign layout process. However, by categorizing the texts into styles, I will be able to make global edits throughout the document as I see it take shape on the screen.

Line Level:

• Serif font for body text (Bell MT) (Adobe Caslon Pro as alternate)
• 12 pt. font size for body text
• 12 pt. font for table cells and other text boxes
• 10 pt. font for captions, bold title
• Italics for book titles, bold for emphasis, no use of underline

Paragraph Level:

• 1.5 space leading or approximate space for interlinear comments
• Sans serif font for headings (Gill Sans MT) (Franklin Gothic Book as alternate)
• H1 = 16 pt. bold, more leading before, less leading after (so they attached to section)
• H2 = 14 pt. italic, more leading before, less leading after
• Indent first line .4 inches
• Hanging indent of .4 inches for Works Cited
• Left justification, little to no hyphenation
• Small round bullet points or numbers depending on list type

Page Level:

• One column, 1 in. margins on all sides
• Header = MAPC Thesis Proposal ~ name ~ page number
• Graphics = centered with tables labeled on top and figures labeled below

Additional styles, including bibliographic information, will follow the MLA Handbook.

Writing Proposals - Chapter 11

I wish I used more graphics in my writing; unfortunately, I usually think of them as an afterthought. It’s very difficult for me to think of graphics as I compose, even when stumbling through a section that could benefit from a visual representation. I tend to think in words, not in pictures. However, this chapter presents a great overview/reminder of the type of graphics we might find useful in our proposals, and some of the suggested types will probably find their way into my thesis rather than my thesis proposal, though I intend to check my sources for any graphics that I might adapt to my methodology section. This section is the densest part of my proposal, and a graphic could do a lot to explain and elaborate on my plan. I will also consider inserting a screenshot of an example profile, though I believe at this stage the graphic would take up more space than it is worth.

I also think it is important to consider the flow of the proposal, since graphics can both enhance and interrupt this flow. For readers who will most likely skim or selectively read the proposal a graphic can display information in a concise space; break up the text; and restate main points, since it never hurts to say things more than once, in different ways of course. Thus, the graphics will need to be integrated into the proposal with the same quality or ethics as the writing style.

Furthermore, we need to make certain to label all areas of graphics in as much detail as the space allows. As the chapter suggests, we should label x- and y-axes and use callouts to specify important features. In a previous course, I learned that labels appear below figures and above tables (tabletop is an easy way to remember this distinction), and in conjunction with the previous chapter, I believe such consistency will support the overall design of our document.

Multiple Presentation Ideas

As I begin to invent scenes for the multimodal presentation, I find myself choosing between multiple options of visuals and various levels of technical difficulty. Since I’ve never created a film before, I want to limit this endeavor to something I can accomplish in a weak and to a topic that will represent my entire proposal in five-minutes. Below I’ve sketched some initial ideas that I will turn into a storyboard over the weekend, but I would appreciate any advice or suggestions about how to create a persuasive presentation that catches the attention of the audience and highlights the main points of my proposal.

The profiles I want to examine are already multimodal, so the most obvious choice is to construct a film around existing profiles. I could use screenshots to turn web-based profiles into images and then transition through these images like pages in a book, a pseudo-viewbook of sorts. As a result, this presentation would resemble an admissions publication. While admissions are part of the strategic communication of a university, I want to show more than just this perspective.

However, profiles, in the traditional sense of the term, show a side or a perspective, and I think I want to play up this history in the multimodal presentation. Specifically, I want to include silhouettes as the visual manifestation of the original spatial profiles. To connect this representation to the university setting that I plan to analyze, I could create silhouettes of iconic university buildings (see silhouette of Clemson's Tillman Hall). These silhouettes would symbolize the university’s identity, and I could read descriptive profile passages to overlay the individual voices that construct this identity. Through this creative composition, I hope to convey the personal profile in conjunction with the university context of strategic communication. Specifically, I think the main point of this presentation will be to emphasize the construction of profiles and the construction of organizational identity. To make this connection more explicit, I could use some sort of transition that builds or deconstructs the image into pieces. Then the next image would display the actual profiles that partially construct the identity.

Another option is to interview my supervisor who edits the profiles I write for the Office of Publications and Promotion. She would be able to describe the current situation from a professional standpoint and perhaps explain why universities use profiles strategically.

Progress Report #3

June 12, 2008

To: Dr. Holmevik
From: Amy Jessee

Introduction

This MAPC thesis proposal explores the connections between organizational narrative and strategic communication through the genre of profiles. I will conduct a textual and visual analysis of profiles used by universities on their websites or in print publications.

Work Completed

I finished a first draft of my proposal by writing the introduction and conclusion. Though I might have been tempted to start with the introduction, this class has taught me the value of saving this important section for the end. By writing the introduction in conjunction with the conclusion, I was able to concisely summarize my thoughts and pinpoint the focus of my research. I pulled ideas from the executive summary drafted early in the writing process and updated certain aspects with revised ideas compiled from my literature review. Surprisingly, my proposal followed this original outline, through with more focus. I think this focus has enhanced my ability to describe my topic in my own words, evidenced in the strong conclusion that I eventually drafted.

Both Dr. Holmevik and Ron noted the strength of my conclusion in their comments on the draft; however, I still have several sentences in need of revision. For instance, I learned that I favor introductory phrases and that I might want to consider shortening some of my sentences, though I will consider their length in conjunction with the flow of my writing. On the other hand, if something interrupts the flow, such as a confusing sentence structure or an awkward word choice or citation, I will revise the sentence or section.

Next Steps

Now that I’ve received feedback on the draft, I will use the comments to guide my revisions. These comments highlight areas that I simply skimmed over in my familiarity with the material, and their suggestions allow me to see my words in a new way. Specifically, I need to check a few citations, add more linguistic theory, and specify my thesis chapters. However, these changes are small compared to the next challenge: the multimodal presentation. I could easily prepare a PowerPoint presentation to accompany my proposal, but I’m not certain that this standard choice would be the most persuasive. We are currently learning about films, and due to my stress on the visual aspect of proposals, this option might fit well with what I’m trying to accomplish. In addition, making a film would be an accomplishment in itself, since I’ve never used the film editing software available in the lab. To prepare for the presentation, I will design a storyboard, record a script, and acquire or take images or video to visually represent my thesis proposal.

Conclusion

At this point in the proposal process I’m literally “revisioning” my research in many different ways. I’ve written my initial vision for the research, and I’m editing this draft for content and style. I’m also revising sections that might be confusing to readers. In addition, I’m visualizing my research in order to add any necessary graphics and to present the research in a five-minute film.

Writing Proposals - Chapter 10

This chapter presents an overview and examples of four design principles: balance, alignment, grouping, and consistency. As someone with little professional design experience, I found these rules to be very helpful as a starting point for thinking about the design of my proposal; however, I had to remind myself to balance these guidelines or handbook approach with an ongoing analysis of the rhetorical situation. In other words, knowing the rules is great, but knowing how to apply them in particular context is what will make one proposal stand out for another. Consequently, I think it would be important to know the conventions for proposals in a discipline. For example, those of us writing MAPC thesis proposals know that we should use 1.5 spacing. This convention differs from standard MLA style, which calls for double spacing, yet it still allows enough space for interlinear comments. If we had used single spacing, we might have ignored one of the primary needs of our primary audience. Thus, I can see how we should think of the design as something that enhances or impinges on readability, particularly if we want readers to be able to choose how they want to read the proposal (183).

Furthermore, in this professional writing context, we should heed the advice for grouping related material together and distinguishing it through alignment and headings. While headings signal new topics, they also reveal the organization of the proposal (190). This organization might be one of the first things a reviewer glances at when deciding the fate of the proposal.

A more subtle area of design is typography, and this chapter highlights traditional typefaces and more progressive or creative typefaces. Again, I think convention will play a part here, particularly because we write most academic research papers in a serif font such as Times New Roman. But, perhaps technology is changing our perception of research. Has anyone else noticed that Word 2007 features Calibri as the default font? I did a little online research and discovered that this font was designed to be more Web friendly. In addition, what do you think about using the templates or styles provided by Word, instead of designing your own combination of typefaces? For proposal writers who wait until the last minute, such conveniences might help them deal with the issue of consistency, since they would only need to click a button to apply styles to each level of heading.

Writing Proposals - Chapter 9

While this chapter points out several important guidelines for improving style in our proposals, I wonder how much of it comes naturally as we write, particularly concerning the distinction between plain and persuasive sentences and tone. If we know when we want to pour on the persuasion, such as the introduction and conclusion, and when we need to stick to a plain style to define and explain our topic such as the current situation section, we might write in these styles from the beginning of the process. Though we can surely revise these sections to improve the tone, I think we might begin with distinct tones as we draft proposals.

However, perhaps some people need some rules or guidelines for writing with style, and some of the rules remind me of a favorite TV show, What Not to Wear. In this reality show, two hosts pick an unsuspecting fashion novice to make-over during a week’s time. They critique and trash the person’s current wardrobe, give them rules for buying new pieces, and send them on a mission in New York City to transform themselves through style. I think it would be hard to admit if you need such a make-over, but at that point, a strong critique and strict rules would be helpful. Therefore, I can see the usefulness of these style guidelines, such as finding your subject and placing it early in the sentence and choosing strong verbs rather than nominalizations. If I come across a confusing sentence in my writing, I will try to evaluate it and revise it using these guidelines.

On the other hand, I want to question a few rules from the chapter, such as the rule of thumb that we should use similes and analogies more often for inexperienced readers. I think similes and analogies can be helpful for any reader, regardless of experience with a subject, since they make our writing more interesting to read. I would also agree and disagree with the book’s advice to use familiar metaphors. Sure, they can be helpful in instantly connecting with readers, and a powerful tool at a subconscious level (a very Burkean idea, I believe), but they can also become cliché, and I wonder if proposal reviewers tire of reading the same metaphors. I might favor the persuasive power of new metaphors since they convey new ideas in a new perspective. However, I don’t think we should consider such strategy as being manipulative, since that implies a negative connotation toward rhetoric. Instead, persuasion is a natural part of the proposal process, and style might be the area where we can pinpoint our attempts at persuasion.

Writing Proposals - Chapter 8

This chapter on budget basics provides a wealth of information about constructing a budget to include in the proposal, though its greatest wisdom is to consult an accountant. With that said, I have several questions for the accountants in our class, as well as anyone else with budgeting experience. I also wish to point out several ways that this chapter applies to my work beyond the classroom walls.

First, when choosing between the budget considerations of fixed and flexible, how do you factor in time and inflation? The book distinguishes between these two categories on the basis of whether the program has a clear conclusion date or if it is ongoing, yet what is the appropriate amount of time that you can forecast figures? For instance, with the price of oil and plane tickets, would a flexible budget be a more appropriate choice? Again, I’m seeing how even this section requires knowledge of the current situation.

In my own situation, I can see how knowing a little about the elements and presentation of budgets can go a long way in my academic and professional pursuits. Not only would an itemized budge be good practice for a graduate student on a limited income, but perhaps the presentation of a budge can help us secure funds for our research and our travel. Specifically, I’m thinking of the travel grants, called student enrichment grants, offered by the graduate student government each semester. If anyone has had any success with this application process, please share some pointers. In that case, the GSG provides a form to fill out and one section asks for detailed expenses. Any advice about how to calculate the costs for attending a conference, and how to present them in a persuasive way?

I’m also going to have some experience on the other side of the proposal process this summer. For my assistantship, I will be able to participate in the bidding process for a publication that needs printing. Thanks to this chapter I will have a more critical eye toward the budgets that we receive, and I might be able to evaluate them in the terms presented in the chapter. Nevertheless, I think the information is helpful to keep in mind for future projects, even if it is not applicable to a thesis proposal.

Progress Report #2

June 4, 2008

To: Dr. Holmevik
From: Amy Jessee

Introduction

This MAPC thesis proposal explores the connections between organizational narrative and strategic communication through the genre of profiles. I will conduct a textual and visual analysis of profiles used by universities on their websites or print publications.

Work Completed

This week I drafted the current situation and project plan sections of the proposal. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of my thesis topic, I researched three main areas: profile writing, organizational communication with an emphasis on strategic communication, and genre theory. In addition, for the project plan I incorporated research on critical discourse analysis, content analysis, and visual design. As I wrote the sections I begin compiling a bibliography of sources.

The challenges of this part of the writing process were not only finding sources on profile writing, but quickly gaining an understanding of the subject matter in order to distill it to sections of 3 and 4 pages respectively. In addition, I continued to consider my audience as I drafted this chunk of the proposal, and I factored in ideas about constructing a persona as I write. Mainly, I used the literature review to address the issue of authority or credibility, and the project plan to explain how and why I want to carry out my research. In addition, I composed a short bio to include on my blog and save for future proposals and applications.

Next Steps

Now that I’ve drafted more than half of the proposal, I will restate my main points, the purpose, and the structure of the proposal in the introduction and conclusion sections. Thought I wrote an executive summary earlier in the class, I have a much more refined idea about what I want to study now that I’ve learned more about previous research and direction for future research. I’ve learned that my study will fit into genre studies, and I believe critical discourse analysis will be a useful methodology. Now I need to make sure these two sections fit together and transition smoothly, add transitions to connect the body of the paper to the bookend sections as I’m calling them, and read through and revise the proposal as a complete draft. If there is time, I would also like to address the suggestions in the comments from my peers, including explicitly stating my purpose in the current situation section, though it might be too repetitive depending on the transition from the introduction, and to add more information about discourse communities and ideologies to the project plan section, or at least make this part more prominent in the literature review. I will also revise my project plan according to possible thesis chapters.

Conclusion

Overall, I need to focus on the main points of my proposal and the transitions between them. I want to make sure I hit the key points in an order that my readers expect and that the structure of the proposal is clear from the introduction. I think I have a strong start, with several good transitions already in place, specifically between the small section of the proposal and between the current situation and project plan. The peer readers have helped me see things I might miss in my own “re-visions,” but by thinking of these larger issues now, I will be able to focus on small editing issues later in the revising process.

Writing Proposals - Chapter 7

The introduction may be the first part of a proposal, but we write it at the end of our drafting process. Perhaps we delay writing it because it is the most important part of the proposal, and thus the most difficult, or perhaps we wait to write it because we don’t know what we want to say until we’ve already said it in mindmaps, in outlines, and in rough drafts. We want to make sure the first impression is a good one, short but sweet, and with that sentiment in mind, I want to focus on several good lines from this chapter, if only to remind myself of them as I draft these bookends of the proposal. (It can’t hurt to read it, write it, and talk about it, much like the adage to tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, and tell them what you told them).

To begin with the subject of the proposal, and as stated in Figure 7.1., what is not the subject of the proposal. Oddly enough, I often find it helpful to narrow down my ideas by describing what they are not. In that way I am able to whittle down my subject to the essentials as I do my best to remember to explicitly state what my subject is. When we only have a page for an introduction, we don’t have time to be subtle.

Similarly, the conclusion is as short with a similar goal to stress the main point, but end on a positive note. Ironically, the conclusion also is a beginning of sorts, since we want to encourage our readers to not only say yes to our plan, but also to take action on our proposal. I think the advice to use active headings and transitional phrases are good points, as is the suggestion to include only the bottom line. Though most of us writing thesis proposals do not have a budget, we can still think in terms of a bottom line. In other words, how will our proposed research advance the discipline or field in which we are working? Even if we don’t speak in monetary terms, we can discuss the contributions. For instance, in the book’s term of hard benefits a report results in understanding and insight.

In conclusion, the conclusion of our proposal is often the beginning of the next step of the writing process, while the introduction of the proposal is often the end of the proposal drafting process. Yet, both sections are essential to the proposal, even if we don’t know what we are going to say until we are in the middle of the proposal itself. Hopefully, as I revise, I learn to make the proposal more cohesive without be repetitive, though I can certainly understand how proposal writing is an art of rhetoric rather than a handbook tradition. As stressed throughout this class, there’s no set template for writing a proposal. We must evaluate each proposal based on the situation, the page requirements, and our audiences expectations.

Writing Proposals - Chapter 6

This chapter reinforces the importance of knowing your audience, but it also describes ways to know yourself in the proposal writing process. When writing the qualification section of a proposal, we should think of our audience to determine whether the section is needed at all. We would want to introduce ourselves to a client unfamiliar with our credentials, as would be the case with a organization to funding source; we might want to tell more about ourselves to a source familiar to us but not to our previous work in a team to management situation; and we might want to write more of a recommendation to include outside agencies. However, in the unique case of the MAPC thesis proposal, where the committee members are probably familiar with us already, we might prefer omitting the qualification section as a separate component of the proposal. For the 10 page limit, a qualification section would only take up space, so I’m curious to learn how I might weave in this information in other parts of my proposal, particularly in response to the project plan’s why question.

This chapter also has several other superfluous suggestions, which may not be necessary in every proposal writing situation. In fact, some of the suggestions stray into the category of want to tell information. For instance, the chapter discusses the dreaded organizational chart, calling it a requisite for the proposal. But if the theme of the chapter is to know your audience and to know yourself, including your strengths and weakness, then the organizational chart could be deceptive, since rarely does the organizational chart depict actual relationships in an organization. It may be the formal map of the organizational hierarchy, but communication does not necessarily follow the chain of command. Displaying such a graphic may provide reassurance for the funding agency, but I doubt it depicts actual relationships. As the book states, the image eventually needs to measure up to reality.

I prefer the suggestion to describe specific people leading or working on the projects, though again for the MAPC proposal, this description may not be necessary. However, the advice to develop a persona using a theme and key words may be adapted to our proposals. Certainly, as we revise we can think how we refer to ourselves in relationship to the research we are proposing. Do we use passive or active voice? Do we take responsibility for our work? Are we engaged in the subject? Later in the revision process, I hope to consider this aspect of my writing in relation to my persona, particularly as I reconsider the details of my audiences.

Project Plan (draft)

Following the genre perspective developed by Miller, Russell, and Barwarshi, this study will need to describe profiles as a genre in relation to an activity system or discourse community. I hope to make this connection through the use of a combined methodology of content analysis to compile and analyze the linguistic and visual features of a corpus of texts and critical discourse analysis to relate the textual analysis to the larger sociocultural context. In addition, I will check my results with members of discourse communities that produced the texts.

Methodology

The methodology for this research attempts to account for the discursive relationship between genres and recurring situations. Essentially, critical discourse analysis (CDA) links text to ideology, which is the crux of genre theory. As defined by Richardson in his analysis of newspapers, “CDA approaches discourse as a circular process in which social practices influence texts, via shaping the context and mode in which they are produced, and in turn texts help influence society via shaping the viewpoints of those who read or otherwise consume them” (37). The method, particularly as described by Fairclough, stems from earlier theories of Bourdieu and Foucault, who articulate the interaction between discourse and power. For Fairclough discourse refers to written or spoken language, and discursive practices refer to the production, distribution, and consumption of theses texts (Discourse and Social Change, 78). Accordingly, critical discourse analysis links linguistic analysis with social analysis. In Richardson’s description, it incorporates methods of textual analysis (see MacNealy), with discourse analysis of text production and consumption. For the purposes of this study, a content analysis will focus on linguistic and structural features of the texts. As explained by Huckin this type of analysis works well to empirically ground other methodologies as it focuses on “identifying, quantifying, and analyzing of specific words, phrases, concepts, or other observable semantic data in a text or body of texts with the aim of uncovering some underlying thematic or rhetorical pattern running through these texts” (14).

The framework described by Kress and van Leeuwen will extend critical discourse analysis to the visual. Taking the page as the semiotic unit, a layout can be compared from left to right, as given and new; from top to bottom as the ideal and real; and from center and margin as the nucleus of information. For images, the analysis will include gaze as a form of direct address, size of frame and length of body shown in relation to social distance, and angles as displays of power relations. Thus, the grammar of visual design as they title it (1996), is functionally equivalent to grammar in a traditional CDA approach, as a way to uncover the ideological subtext in media production, through description extended by modality clues to the explanation of the composition.

In this framework of three stages, outlined by Fairclough in 1989 and 1995, interpretation and explanation complement the first stage of description of the textual and visual features. These latter two stages respectively involve elements and changes of member resources stemming from what may be called common sense, in order to highlight the function of power and ideology. In other words, as Fairclough restated in Media Discourse in 1995, CDA consists of three levels of analysis. A linguistic analysis of a text focuses on “superficial” features such as vocabulary and metaphor. An intertextual analysis refers to the interpretive art of drawing upon member resources. At the third tier, a sociocultural analysis addresses issues of underlying relations of power and associated ideological effects. Yet, these levels of analysis may not be as separate as they seem. As Fairclough states, “both selections amongst available discourses and selections of particular ways of articulating them together are likely to be ideologically significant choices” (1995a, p. 102). However, for the purposes of better understanding the connections, I will attempt to delineate the steps into data collection, levels of analysis, and project evaluation.

Project Steps

1. Compile a corpus of profiles from approximately 10 universities within a defined region. Both the profiles and university will have similar defining characteristics.

2. Conduct a content analysis to record and describe the textual and visual features of the texts, following Yates and Orlikowski’s division of substance and form, with additional image and design components drawn from Kress and van Leeuwen’s work in reading images.

3. Relate the texts to each other and to other resources such as the university style guide to interpret the conventions of the genre or the member resources of the discourse community.

4. Explain the genre conventions in relation to the discourse community and check the explanation with members of the community, such as the writer or editor.

Project Schedule

June 30, 2008 - Thesis Proposal (committee chair)

December 18, 2008 - Final GS2 Form (Enrolled Services)

January 16, 2009 - Chapter 1

January 30, 2009 - Chapter 2

February 13, 2009 - Chapter 3

February 27, 2009 - Chapter 4

March 13, 2009 - Chapter 5

March 23, 2009 - Complete Thesis (committee)

April 10, 2009 - Thesis Defense (committee)

April 24, 2009 - GS7 Form (Enrolled Services)

April 24, 2009 - Complete thesis (Manuscript Review Office)

May 2, 2009 - Format revisions (Manuscript Review Office)

Mindmap of Solution

A map of my thoughts on the project plan/methodology.

Current Situation (Draft)

Due to the comprehensive nature of this study of profiles, this literature review presents cases for the use of profiles, their connection to organizational communication, and their status as a genre of communication. Like the nature of profiles themselves, it can only sketch a partial picture at this point, since research on the profile genre has only skimmed the surface of its salient features. Though the profile has risen from the pages of such publications as The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, the abbreviated, local manifestations of profiles on university websites provides a more accessible site of study, yet the evolution of the genre and a review of its status in the journalism profession and the writing classroom are necessary first steps to gaining insight into its adaptation and purpose in strategic communication of organizations.

Profile Writing

The origins of written profiles lie in their spatial counterpart. As recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary, the word profile was first used in 1656 to denote a painting seen in cross-sectional contours. Contemporary, general usage of the term refers to the outline of a physical object or a representation of the object, which in its visual form could be a silhouette, particularly of a person’s face or head, and it its written form could be a short biographical sketch or a character study (“profile” 1a, 10a). Whether visual or written, the word carries a connotation of a partial or side view, where the position of the subject is often turned away from the viewer. In the case of the first written profiles, coined and copyrighted by The New Yorker in 1926, words are the means of taking a sidelong glance (Kaufer 764). In these lengthy life stories, writers take an ironical approach to their biographical task, yet, as reflected in the current definition of profile, they typically sketch the life of public figures. The celebrity approach to profiles also proliferates the advice to future profile writers and journalists (see Whitman; Phillips), yet students may find examples closer to their work.

For many students, their first profile writing experience will take the form of a cover letter or what Kaufer identifies as a self-profile. In his articulation of types of personal profiles, he lists cover letters but concentrates on a comparison of descriptive or New Yorker style profiles with classificatory profiles, specifically profiles of people-on-the-move (765). Because this third type of profile typically centers on achievement and accomplishment, he is able to analyze personal profiles written about Indian Americans for signs of a model minority ethnic identity. For comparison purposes, he asks students in an advanced writing course to compose character sketches of other students, an assignment resulting in a corpus of descriptive profiles. Other instructors have used similar profile assignments in first-year composition and technical writing courses, with a goal to have students learn more about a profession by interviewing a person in that career and by sketching the salient features (Loehr, Beidler and Mackes, Duerden et al). Taken one step further, profiles might allow students to learn more about specific organizations, including universities, yet instructors and researchers have not focused on this level of discourse.

Related narrative research at other levels of the organization is readily available however. For instance, Barge outlines theories for narrative and antenarrative, where organizational members collectively tell stories. Through social construction, “systemic stories” become a part of managerial strategy (117). Similarly, in the more specific case of profiles, Kaufer finds that for the third category of classificatory profiles, “the functions of these profiles are public relations more than personal acquaintance, a way of extending credit to the companies and regions whose economic agility and nimbleness have provided the wherewithal to hire and advance people on the move” (765). Thus, for the purposes of connecting profiles with their sponsoring organization, this study will consider them a form of strategic communication, encompassing their public relation function.

Strategic Communication

As strategic communication, profiles would be a facet of an organization’s marketing or public relations activities. Furthermore, through this paradigm, as defined by Hallahan et al., such communication works to advance an organization’s mission. Yet, this categorization is not to say that profiles should only be directed outward toward external audiences, as several scholars have integrated organizations’ internal and external communication under the umbrella term of strategic communication and more specifically brand identity (Cheney and Christensen; Nandan). In particular, Faber notes that in traditional notions of organizational narrative, “narratives are constructed internally as manisfestation of ‘insiderness’ within in the organization. Images are constructed externally by competitors, clients, customers, and other interested groups. At any point in time, an organization’s identity is reflected in the convergence of its narratives and images” (31, see also Nandan). Thus, the overall goal of strategic communication is to promote a consistent message, epitomized through concepts of integrate marketing, corporate identity, or corporate visual identity (Firat and Christensen; Melewar and Akel).

For universities in particular, corporate visual identity (CVI) has resulted in new logos, revised color schemes, and an overall concern with the image or face of the university, even when multiple identities might exist. Within this tension, several scholars have noted the normalization and difference in constructing brand identity in higher education, particularly along the lines of Foucault’s theories of discourse (Lowrie; Leitch and Motion). Through this theoretical lens, we can view an organization’s identity as constructed within a context of power and ideology. Such a position is necessary for the study of profiles as well, to connect the text to its context and to analyze the public product in relation to its production or construction.

Genre Theory

Genre theory and the related study of activity systems provides the necessary link between textual forms and their rhetorical situations. Miller first advanced the view of genre as social action in an article of the same name, thus asserting that “as action, [genre] acquires meaning from situation and from the social context that the situation arose” (163, see also Bitzer). The textual form we associate with genres is simply the resulting conventions from recurring situations. Instead of texts as static forms, genres become dynamic, relational to their discourse communities, communities of practice, or activity systems (see also Russell; Bawarshi). This view of genres also allows us to reverse the relationship and “to investigate the roles that genre plays in the constitution not only of texts but of their contexts, including the identities of those who write them and those who are represented within them” (Bawarshi 335). In addition, genres extend to multimodal texts, as Kress incorporates images into Foucault’s notion of discourse (38-40).

An analysis of multimodal texts within the specific context of organizational communication also requires an extension of genre theory to the situation at hand. Yates and Orlikowski provide the groundwork for this proposed study through their situation of genres within processes of organizational structuration. In their words, “A genre of organizational communication is a typified communicative action invoked in response to a recurrent situation,” and they characterize such genres according to substance and form (301). However, their concept of form only refers to linguistic features such as structure or text formatting, communication medium, and language formality. To apply to multimodal texts, the characterization must account for document design. Accordingly, this research will expand their genre characteristics, while exploring the narrow example of profiles within the situation of university strategic communication activities.

Writing Proposals - Chatper 5

Again, because I am working on a thesis proposal, I try to apply the suggestions in our book to the special case of research proposals. Reading the material on the project plan or the methodology section reminded me of several important components of the proposal. Perhaps the most important feature is answering the why question, as discussed on page 83. However, in most of my coursework, instructors have referred to this aspect as the “so what” question. By asking “so what” as I write, I’m constantly delving deeper into my topic. It’s also about anticipating and answering your readers’ why questions before they have a chance to ask them, and doing so in a way that doesn’t interrupt the flow of the proposal. If you include the information upfront they have more reason to continue reading. At the same time, I think this issue brings up similar concerns from our previous discussion of the audience, specifically to what level do we write the proposal? If we try to anticipate every question, we may include too much want to tell information.

I think one way to learn more about the ideal amount of information is to study the form of proposals and of theses as well. For instance, for another research project an instructor suggested that I skim journals in my field to discover what methodologies article authors found useful. In doing so, I could quickly review methodology sections to determine how much detail they include and to see if I could replicate the study in my own case. I’m a firm believer that we need to read other work in order to improve our own writing, so this method fit well into my thinking about my own research.

I also found it helpful to review other MAPC thesis as I formulated my ideas. While the library stores mostly print copies, you can find several online, including those from other subjects for the purpose of this class. If you are interested in learning more about the structure of the final thesis, so that you can better map out a project plan or chapter outline, the website is http://etd.lib.clemson.edu/. (Note: the database begins with December 2006 submissions.)

Mindmap of Opportunity

Instead of mapping the causes or effects of the identified research opportunity, I decided to consider the research leading to the proposal and what I hope my research will lead to or accomplish. I've flagged the ideas that I hope to concentrate on in my thesis proposal.

Writing Proposals - Chapter 4

I appreciated that this chapter included a special case of research grants and literature review which applies to those of us working on thesis or project proposals. Moreover, I think we can gain insight from other sections of the chapter, and I want to speculate on some concerns for academic and professional proposal writers.

First, how does Guideline 3: Blame Change, Not People translate to research proposals? With this special case of literature review and research gaps, how do we balance a critique of prior research without stating that it is no longer valid? In other words, I think there is a precarious, perhaps even stylistic balance, between reviewing current literature, building upon it, refuting it, and finding your own space to insert a new idea or voice. While Johnson-Sheehan’s advice still applies, in that we certainly don’t want to attack fellow scholars, I think more should be said about developing a research gap by focusing on change rather than people. Such a discussion would easily tie into the sections on structuring the proposal according to different trends in the field or in its evolution over time.

Second, I cannot stress enough the importance of triangulation in academic research. As a student of research methods I learned about triangulation of data, methods, and theories, and I think any of these strategies would be useful to provide a more complete, albeit still subjective, perspective on a subject. In addition, I stress triangulation to my students in English 103, though I’ve not referred to it in such technical terms. For their first research project, I require them to use at least three different types of sources: a book, a periodical, and a website, so they not only explore the reliability and relevance of these different sources of information, but they also learn different citation details. I’m particularly interested in the book’s list because I would have never chosen electronic sources, print sources, and empirical sources as parallel items in a list. Instead, I tend to think of sources as books, periodicals, electronic sources, and miscellaneous, which in past works cited has included films, advertisements, interviews, and presentations.

I guess the terminology would depend on the subject. Likewise, I also want to discuss headings in proposals and in the MAPC thesis as well. The examples in the book use descriptive headings for each section, but for the theses I’ve read through the headings seem more utilitarian or conventional such as introduction, methods, results, analysis, discussion, and I wonder to what extent we need to stick to these conventions or if more descriptive headings might be a better approach in certain situations. For instance, I’m reminded of Flower, Hayes, and Swarts’ scenario principle and their suggestion to use readers’ questions as headings. Should we think about our readers as we create our headings, and if so how do we structure the document into sections and label them to meet readers’ expectations, ease the document’s usability, and attract their attention?