Amanda Bonet Tkacs
05/13/17
Prof. Martin
Reflection Paper: Project 3
With this remix of my essay 2, I wanted to be able to communicate why the stigma surrounding mental illness has affected the amount of accessible treatments available to the people suffering from them. At first, I was having trouble narrowing down my audience of choice, but I ultimately opt for teenagers, specifically high school students as this is an age where many may be insensitive when it comes to this topic even though thousands of high school students around the country suffer from mental illness, ranging from depression to more severe illnesses like schizophrenia. I want it to help them understand the severity of these illnesses and how it is something that can affect us all, thus it is not a laughing matter or something that can be disregarded as not being a big deal. For this, I decided to go with a Prezi presentation since I believe it is a very straightforward yet frequently used tool during high school and students seem to be used to it. It was difficult for me to include the information necessary to convey my message since I did not want to make it too verbal and perhaps too plain, but I think the balance of videos and text made it better. I decided to divide it into three main points, which are the workplace, education systems, and the media since the first two are quite relevant for the present and future of young students, and the third one helps to understand why we have these preconceptions about the mentally ill, even though they are often inaccurate. I was interested in interviewing people who have suffered from the burdens of stigma, whether on a personal level or in public settings, to provide a more personal touch instead of a simple presentation with words on it. However, I did not have time to do so, thus I opt for videos from YouTube that provide a little bit of the struggles people go through in schools and in the workplace, as well as the negative portrayals provided by the media about the mentally ill. I chose this since it not only shows personal testimonies, but it also provides information and statistics from professionals in the field. By doing this presentation, I was able to narrow down my essay in a very dramatic way. I have always been the type that adds too much information to my written work, but by doing this, I was able to force myself to narrow down my research and focus on my main argument and main points in a concise and direct way. I was also able to do this after receiving feedback on my work since my presentation was a bit too wordy; the feedback also helped with refining my audience.
Although I do not consider my project 100% ready for my audience, I feel like the argument is very clear and my main points help build up to it. As I mentioned before, I would have liked to interview people myself to add it to my presentation since I think it would have been more genuine and relatable, in a way. Also, it would have been a rewarding experience for myself as the producer of the work. I would have also liked to add much more information in a simple and straightforward manner so my audience would better understand the negative impact stigma has on the ones who suffer from mental illness, but perhaps adding too much information would have made my audience lose interest much quicker. Overall, I am satisfied with my project even though I would have liked to refine it a bit more before sharing it. I believe it can bring some awareness to this issue in younger generations since, as I mentioned above, many treat it lightly and casually, despite it being a serious subject.