For the practical side of Context of Practice we have to create a body of work that links to our essay. Today we had a crit for this, explaining our ideas and what we wanted to make.
This crit confused me even more to an extent, as I went in with a clear idea of what I wanted to do, and came out with peoples opinions and other ideas.
My idea is to create a series of typographical posters with quotes about different decades, describing how women were portrayed through advertising at that time. I'm not sure whether to create these posters each with their own distinct style from that decade, or have them all matching.
I feel like creating a booklet would be better, as it will be easier to create a consistent style. It will also be more of a narrative and the timeline will be clearer.
I want to have the majority of my poster shown before the crit, so that I can explain my ideas and the direction I want to take it in. I started to design my first poster with inspiration from 1950s diner menus, with the colour scheme of a pale mint green, pink and off-white.
This is as far as I've got with my poster. I feel like it looks good, but it will be hard to incorporate other designs with it. I think getting feedback from the crit so far is crucial at this point, as I can get ideas off other people and see what they think.
For this study task we were asked to look at at least two dissertations from the library and compare their writing styles, tone of voice and the content within, and see how this can help me with my own written practice.
The first dissertation that I chose was from 2011/2012 titled "What effect does the media have on women when considering the male gaze in todays society?". I thought that this would be relevant to me because it is very similar to what I am focusing on within my own written practice. The first thing I noticed is that the dissertation is split up into chapters, and each chapter is explained in the introduction - what she is going to talk about and how these issues will be discussed. I think her introduction is good as she sets up the essay nicely, though it is quite confusing as she jumps between chapters and doesn't make things very clear sometimes, e.g. "another question i will look into is...", this was the start of a new paragraph at the end of the introduction. It doesn't seem very well structured to me.
The tone of voice within this dissertation is very matter of fact. She explains and states the facts from her research, and links them back to her question, and I feel that this is appropriate for this type of academic writing. There are high levels of punctuation and grammar that suit the text, and I feel this essay is quite well written for the most part. Her conclusion is relevant and ties in all of her points made across the essay into one final point - that as long as the media continue to normalise unrealistic body standards, women will carry on to have unattainable goals which is very dangerous for their health and well being. I think this is a suitable conclusion, given her research and main body.
The next dissertation I looked at was from 2011/2012 again, titled "The function of Female representation in British World War One and Two propaganda". This is a similar type of text as to what i'm writing at the moment so I decided to pick this one too. The introduction to this dissertation is very straight forward and to the point. It explains what the essay is about and what each chapter will explore. I feel that this introduction is more successful than the first one, because it isn't as confusing or jumbled. It tells you what the essay is about and what will be discussed in each section.
The main body of the dissertation is well written and thoroughly researched. The tone of voice is appropriate for this writing, as it is easy to read and understand, but it also informs you and you can relate back to the research easily. With this dissertation, you are not bombarded with research, and points are discussed at length. Her conclusion is quite short and concise, she explains her opinions from her research and comes to the conclusion that men and women will always be divided, but the divide has decreased within the times of the war.
I feel this dissertation is more successful than the first one that I looked at, as it is well structured and points were made and discussed, rather than just stating facts and talking about the research.
The 3 things I have learned from this study task is that I feel for a dissertation to be successful, you have to be thorough and well planned. A good essay has a clear direction and a structure to follow. I think I could apply this to my own practice, and make sure my essay is well thought out and has a proper direction. I have also learned that it is important to structure the essay within the introduction, and give a good representation to what the essay is about. Finally, I think it is important to conduct proper research, so that the essay can be easily planned and written. It makes it easier to structure because there are set guidelines to follow because all of the research is already there.
