ENG101.12. Spring 2015. Emory University.
Over the spring break, I have revised my Tracing Persepolis project. Through discussions and suggestions from my professor David Morgen, I’ve added more in-depth analysis on what impact do the points that I have investigated have on the readers and their reading experience. In addition to this, I’ve re-arranged my formatting after reading over Dan’s project. After the revision, my arguments have become more fluent, more detailed and easier to read.
(A version of this post was in the queue on Sunday but I didn’t manage to publish it on time, so now the joke of the feature image is sort of ruined. I’m going with it anyway.)
| 9 | 3/16 | Fun Home, “The Ideal Husband” |
| 3/18 | Due: Completed revision of Tracing Persepolis. | |
| 3/20 | Fun Home, “The Antihero’s Journey” | |
| 3/22 | Due: Sunday Funnies 6 |
Note that I revised the schedule slightly. Since we didn’t really talk about “The Ideal Husband” much in class yesterday, I moved back finishing the book to Friday and moved the revision deadline to tomorrow. We’ll discuss “Ideal Husband” in class tomorrow and then on Friday finish the book. We’ll talk some on each of those days about Mapping Fun Home.
(image credit: “Beware the Eyes of Marge“)
Due: 3/22
First, a little bit of inspiration: Take a look at some of the comics that Zen Pencils creates by taking an interesting quote and then creating a comic to illustrate it. (I particularly like Bill Watterson, Jim Henson, Amelia Earhart, and Ira Glass.) Notice how his comics are related to and inspired by the quotes he’s working with but are not simply literal translations of them.
And a second bit of inspiration: Find a quote that inspires you, probably a fairly long quote, at least a paragraph (though length is offered here only as a suggestion, not a rule).
Now illustrate your quote with an image or a series of images. You do not need to make a cartoon like Zen Pencils does, though you can if you’d like to. You can use a series of photographs of your own or CC-licensed ones or draw illustrations. If you’d like to make a video using iMovie, that would be cool. Your goal is to come up with something that takes someone else’s words, puts your own personal spin on them, in order to create a visual representation of the quote.
(image credit: Detail from “ZEN PENCILS » 128 BILL WATTERSON A cartoonist’s advice“)
Here’s an infographic response to Saint Patrick’s Day from The Gentleman’s Armchair.
Once your Tracing Persepolis revisions are completed, publish a post on your site that links to the splash page for the project. Include one or two paragraph where you describe your revision strategy for the project. Explain what you changed and why, and how the revised version of the project is stronger than the draft that you published before spring break?
(image credit: “Traces in the Sand” by Flickr user fdecomite)
In my final product of my Tracing Persepolis project I made a few changes. I went more into depth about my claims regarding the darkness used in each of the panels I chose. I also further supported the themes that I discussed. I used Gaby’s flow of her pages to better link my pages together with hyperlinks.
I have revised my Tracing Persepolis discussion. I received helpful critiques from my professor David Morgen, and realized a valuable point of view by reading a similar discussion that Sam Balogh wrote. I also learned how to format my pictures to have them lay side by side on the page. I used all of this information in my revision of my discussion. I feel that I have increased the quality of the work overall. I will continue to revise slightly as I find places where I can improve the discussion. If anyone has any suggestions or comments post them in the comments section of this blog post or on the respective pages.
, Greer
As you’ve been working on your Persepolis projects, many of you have asked about how to get images to line up in specific ways, especially to get a pair of images to line up side-by-side on a page (like I’ve done with the covers of our three primary texts on this site’s splash page). One really good way to control the layout of your pages is with tables. WordPress uses the HTML code to create tables just fine, but the post editor does not by default include a simple button to insert tables, the way that MS Word or Google Docs do.
One way to create tables, then, is to just switch to the Text tab in the top right of your post or page editor (instead of the Visual tab) and insert the HTML code manually. Here’s the w3schols tutorial page on coding tables.
A much easier method for most users is to add a plugin that opens up the range of options available in the text editor boxes for WordPress. In the “getting started” with Domain help pages on plugins, I recommend that you start by installing a plugin called WP Edit. Since I wrote that page, I’ve found another plugin that I like even better called Easy Bootstrap Shortcode, and that’s the one that used to create the tables on the front page for this site (and the accordion folds in the resources page).
Screenshot of Easy Bootstrap Shortcode buttons. (Table button highlighted.)
If you install Easy Bootstrap Shortcode, it will add a third row of buttons to your text editor. Hover over each to see what it does.
Insert tables dialog box
If you click the button to insert table, you’ll get a dialog box, where you can choose how big the table should be, how many rows and columns it should have, and some other styling features.
Once you’ve set your options, click the Insert Table button and the plugin will insert shortcode to your post or page that generates the table on publication.
Shortcode to insert a table
Here’s what that initial shortcode looks like for a table with a header row plus two more rows and 4 columns: If you just publish that post as is, you’ll get a table that looks like this:
Sample table
If I want to have two images side-by-side, the easiest thing to do is to insert a simple table with only one row and two columns and replace the text with the two images.
So this:
Looks like this when it’s published:
 “Conference Time” by Flickr user Christian Senger |
 “Housekeeping” by Flickr user Fabian Mohr. |
Or here’s another table:
| Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Sed iaculis nunc ligula, ac eleifend libero pellentesque nec. Integer at venenatis arcu. Quisque vel mattis purus. Aliquam erat volutpat. |
 “Train Schedule” by Flickr user Q Family |
Nulla in orci metus. Sed in ullamcorper velit. Nam ornare dapibus urna in eleifend. Quisque nec risus non leo viverra volutpat quis rhoncus est. Mauris congue risus ac nisi vestibulum viverra. |
 “Comments by Flickr user Judit Klein |
| Aliquam sodales efficitur est ut finibus. Nulla enim urna, dapibus bibendum tempor quis, condimentum eu magna. Sed ut aliquet dui, ut finibus ipsum. |
 “Long Tang Table” by Flickr user Jonas erian |
Nullam elementum vel ipsum quis aliquet. Vestibulum quis ultrices ipsum. Suspendisse mollis ultrices felis, eu tincidunt diam tincidunt id. |
|
 “Unclickable Link” by Flickr user quinnanya |
Pellentesque ut suscipit odio, id mattis dui. Nullam congue neque finibus facilisis sodales. Nulla ultricies, purus eget efficitur iaculis, est lectus semper lectus, ullamcorper congue dolor mi molestie neque. Ut neque est, consequat scelerisque semper rhoncus, posuere eget turpis. Sed ante leo, sollicitudin eget blandit ut, molestie sed neque. | Nunc euismod faucibus mi, at ullamcorper turpis laoreet pellentesque. Mauris vel erat egestas, auctor velit eget, pulvinar est. Sed congue, metus in pulvinar posuere, neque leo efficitur nisi, sed facilisis quam enim ut purus. |
(image credit: “Long Tang Table” by Flickr user Jonas Merian)
Here is a link to the Google doc that we’ll be working with in class today. We’ll agree upon a list or rubric as a community that I will apply as I grade your revised projects.
Here’s a form where you can sign up to meet with me one-on-one this week.
