Thlog #2

Already done with two weeks of writing two which means that we are (unfortunately) one fifth of the way through this quarter already. This week I feel has been a rather deep dive into the course writing assignments. PB1 A and B are now behind us, while the first full writing project is quickly approaching. This week, while exploring PB1B, I discovered the creations and capabilities of a genre generator. While before this class I knew what a genre was, and what a generator was, I had yet to put them together into a “genre generator.” Conventions, I learned, are perhaps the most important aspect of these generators. I found myself overlooking the glaringly obvious conventions of different genres, and thus work on not overcomplicating an analysis. For example, in the meme generator, I failed to mention the bold, white, black-outlined, capital font. This is something that before our in class discussion I thought to myself was too obvious to be worth stating. Wrong. Very wrong. After Wednesday’s class I realized that those “obvious” features of a genre are a huge part of what distinguishes it as its own. I tend to find myself struggling with hunting for minimal, complex, and buried details (in this case conventions), and overlooking what is directly in front of me. Not everything needs to be complex, and this project builder was a reminder of that to me. I’m interested to see how the project builders for the first writing project will tie in with it, and to bring together the concepts and skills that we have been focusing on for the last two weeks. Until next week thlogging—we will catch up again soon!