Julia’s Blog

This week, the designers were put to the test. They were made to create a look of good or evil. As each episode airs and we get to see the designers more and more, we can start to see each designers strengths and weaknesses. The people who really stuck out to me were Kenya, Batani, and Amy. I personally think Kenya did an amazing job. Her work on the model secluded a sexy, evil party host. With the black and red velvet creeping up on the outfit. Kenya coming from the bottom of last weeks challenge, really made a impact this week as she present the judges with this beautiful velvet pant suit. Next, is Aaron. Aaron, presents the judges with all black. I persoanlly think that this show is about personality, and beauty. I do think black can be a beautiful color, don’t get me wrong. But present the same piece over and over again gets repetitive. I think Aaron has an eye for beauty, but this show is more than beauty. The reflection plays a big part for these designers because after each challenge, they find themselves in a pickle of what they can hopefully imporve and put to challenge next show. These designers go through much, and I respect each and every one of them.

Looking back reading and finishing up projects, these factors all lead into what is called exigency in academic research.

My personal example that I can compare is the Jeep Cherokee 2019 and Tesla model 3. These two cars have been on my mind of buying for about a year now. Currently I own a 2018 Toyota Camry, but I want something a little more. I have been comparing the Jeep and Tesla for awhile, going back and fourth. I have looked at the gas mileage and one way to my job would demolish the gas in the Jeep. The Tesla is a smart car therefore, you charge the cars at the stations you see all around the city. Then, we move onto the yearly checkups. Jeeps require oil changes, Teslas don’t. Jeeps require a yearly checkup, Teslas require a check up every year to get looked at and check the mileage, that’s it! As much as I loved the style of the Jeep and the price, Tesla has persuaded me to buy my car from them.

So, now that we know what a discourse community is. We can apply it to the Project Runway episode. The designers represent a discourse community by working together in groups. We see the designers as a whole group with the same main goal they need to accomplish. The goal the designers have is to design a sleepwear that’s sexy for Heidi Klum’s fashion lingerie line.

The Rhetorical Situation would to be designing the sleepwear for Heidi, knowing must have never done this task before. As we know everyone would dream about having their design to represent Heidi Klum. The difficult task is coming upon them and a few people fall in the making. A few people offer their moral support and opinions on what they can do to help the succeed a little more.

New York City is a city that is all about fashion. With this being said, the designers had to sleep on the Empire State building to regain ideas and support to help them allow this crazy design come to them. For some of the designers, most of them got carried away and got distracted and made the designs not even look like sleepwear anymore. Sleepwear is supposed to be comfy, but also have a sexy look to it. Nothing should be tight or slim fitting. Aaron started with a silk material, but as time crunched his material was nothing anyone would want to wear. It was rough and course and no longer a sexy silky lingerie.

Overall, this episode showed great detail about Discourse Community. The help and ideas to each designer from one another showed that. The audience wanted a show that presented a fun sexy lingerie that could be the face of Heidi Klum. Through the toughness of it all, they showed it in the end.

A Discourse Community is when a group of people share the same ideas, concepts, views, etc. Typically this group of people have the same goals and ambitions that they want to achieve in the group setting or all around accomplish these goals that they have set for themselves.

The paragraph that described Discourse Community in John Swales article gave me a more depth of understanding. This, “discourse community testifies to the increasingly common assumption that discourse operates within conventions defined by communities, be they academic disciplines or social groups. The pedagogies associated with writing across the curriculum and academic English now us the notion of discourse communities to signify a cluster of ideas: that language use in a group is a form of social behaviors, that discourse is a means of maintaining and extending the group’s knowledge and of initiating new members into the group, and that discourse is epistemic or constitutive of the groups knowledge”.

The idea of group settings and goals achieved was explained in this paragraph. To me discourse community is group based with the conversations presented. This could help the audience to get a more depth understanding realizing that the group has intentions to expand their knowledge.

An example of discourse community that I wanted to belong in is a sorority. I wanted to join one, because of the amazing friends you get to meet. The fun activities you get to be involved in and the unconditional amounts of love and support from your sisters. Some of the goals they achieve is to raise money for their philanthropy, grow closer as a sisterhood, and participate in lots of events. The intercommunication would involve facebook, lunch dates, etc.

Works Cited: https://uc.instructure.com/courses/1285840/files/folder/Course%20Files/Assigned%20Readings?preview=98144180

Sorority: https://www.uc.edu/campus-life/fraternity-sorority-life/sororities.html

The episode in Project Runway “A Leap of Innovation!” was based off the movie Leap. This movie was all about dance, movements, innovation, and being able to be comfortable throughout. There was a lot of drama with the designers and their pieces of clothing. When they were shopping at the fabric store, Deyonte was the one that caught my eye the most. He wasn’t able to find the correct material he needed for his outfit, as he kept picking the most expensive fabrics out. As the show kept going, we got to Kudzanai and you could also tell he was struggling. With the colors, feathers, and zippers, everyone could tell that his piece would be too much. As for this, both Deyonte and Kudzanai were in the bottom two.

Starting with the first designer Deyonte, his rhetorical situation started when he was picking his fabric out. Deyonte had an eye for the most expensive fabric that he couldn’t afford. With this, his time was running out and left him with little time to choose a flattering fabric to make his gown out of. When we get back to the workshop the designers start to make their design. We see the struggles the designers are having and it’s such a on the edge feeling. Deyonte wasn’t so familiar with the sewing machine provided by the facility and ended up sewing through his finger. This was a tough obstacle for him because the throbbing pain he was in and basically unable to use his finger because of the pain. We start to see his work minimize in talent. When the show started and they were going through the outfits, we saw that Deyontes outfit wasn’t completely finished as there was pins seen in the back of the dress. The judges were unflattened by his design and unimpressed with the final product. The coloring and sewing were way off. Going through this obstacle as a designer can risk a lot and Deyonte acknowledged that and hopes to impress them next time.

Next designer, Kudzanai. In this episode we can tell that he doesn’t have a steady plan from the very beginning. With all the thoughts and ideas going through his head from the beginning of the sketching, we can see that all of his ideas are going to end up coming out in one big mess. When the second day to design hit, I could tell Kudzanai was stressing about his fit. When the model tried it on, it barely fit. So, with that being a factor taking into consideration, he not only had to resize it, but stop another project already started and continue to work on the size issue. I thought his design would’ve been beautiful if he stepped back on the colors, feathers, and zippers. Time crunch really got the best of Kudzanai and that’s why his outfit was not a fit for the judges.

With this being the case of these two designers in the bottom 2, we can see that minor problems in designs as a designer can end up turning into a major one. It was sad to see Kudzanai to go, because he put a lot into his work an his own personal touch of African background into it. This episode showed me that designers go through a lot as the pressure and stress rises. Being rushed can cause harm, as we saw Deyonte. Not having a steady plan can be overpowering as all your ideas go into one idea, as we saw Kudzanai.

In many writings individuals write, they have goals they want to achieve. Whether it being writing a clear blog, and article, or just simply writing an email, they want it to be simple and concise. Many of those different types of writing we always have a targeted audience we either want to share our writing with or in general just have to. There should always be a specific genre when sharing these writing pieces, followed along with a rhetorical situation point of view.

Audience is a very important factor in writing because we want to be sure we write whatever it is we’re writing in the proper format and manner of that audience. For example, if I were to be writing a scholarship essay for school, I know that my essay would have to be formal, well educated sounding, great sentence structure, and background knowledge. In some forms with writings, audience are capable of changing. Since it is a rhetorical, they have to be convinced about a certain main idea.

Genre is also a big factor in writing because that’s how the audience knows what the writer’s topic is about. There could be multiple categories that fall into a writing, but they all end up subsidizing the same genre the writer talks about. Genre will always be determined by the needs and expectations from the audience. That’s why it’s important to understand your audience and what the point is you’re trying for the to get to know.

Rhetorical Situation is explained throughout the article “Rhetorical Situation”. In a paragraph it said “, I want to know the nature of those contexts in which speakers or writers create rhetorical discourse: How should they be described? What are their characteristics? Why and how do they result in the creation of rhetoric?” With this being said rhetorical situation is basically wanting to know the depth behind the text. What’s being written, why is it being written this way, etc. Rhetorical situation must also be written necessary condition of rhetorical discourse.

I’ve written many papers for school that had all three of these perspectives of writing. As I mentioned a scholarship essay, I wrote one for UC. I knew my audience was going to have to target those with higher education levels than I, and even professors. I knew that I had to write a formal essay, show my personality, and know what I’m wiring about to get what I want. The rhetorical situation to writing this piece was that I was applying for a scholarship to help out finances for school. The audience were whoever reads the scholarship essays ranging from professors, directors, etc. The genre was formal and basic. It was about myself and why I wanted the scholarship I was applying for. The whole purpose was to write about me and hope to have achieved what I wanted.

In the Major Assignment, were being asked to write a 6-8 page paper source based article. We should be making connections between genre, audience, and rhetorical situation. After making connections, we should be able to develop a theory of writing.

I plan to approach this writing by reading the prompts assigned, asking questions if needed, and making sure I follow what’s being asked of this assignment.

Audience- to me is when the writer is writing a paper or any analysis and the person reading or grading would be the audience.

Genre- is a type of writing people write about. Sad, happy, etc. Different types of genre.

Rhetorical question- a question that is then asked for effect rather than an answer right after the question being asked.

In any sense in line of work there will always be an audience. Typically we base our presentations off our audiences. In project runway these designers know who their audiences are. The first round of audience are the judges that potentially could vary from well known artist to big name designers. These incoming designers know that this audience of professionals work with this all the time so they have to stand out in a way to get through.

Reflection would be another key word throughout the two episodes because reflecting on something you do improves you and the work you do. With this I know these designer reflect every small detail they put into their fashion and clothes. Working in such a diverse and competetive field, there’s nothing better to do than reflect on your actions and what the judges say to help them out.

In the show, both reflection and audience play big roles throughout. Each time they present something to the judges, the reflect on what they have to say and fix whatever they feel could be better. The judges which play as the audience.