Getting Settled with Final Projects and Feedback (10-15 min)

In the Discord text channel for today of # may-17-2022, tell me what work you are going to turn in by May 24 for this class.

Think about a plan. Backwards planning can be especially helpful. For each day you’ll do some work, start from latest date and plan backwards. So, what happens on May 24? On May 23? On May 21? And so on.

Campaign for Circulation feedback: will get you sooner if you plan to revise for grade boost

I give lots of feedback all term but at the end I slow down to give you a chance to own the work–what do you think about what you’ve done? How are you going to take what you valued and move forward into new situations where it might apply?

However, if anyone requests feedback, I will give feedback like I’ve given on previous assignments on their final assignments some time in June.

 

Using Work As Examples (5-10 min)

Survey about using anonymized work as examples in future classes.

 

Closing Remarks (10 min)

If  I could name some things I want you to walk away if at the very least, it would be these:

• Data, before we “do” anything with it, has consequences. The way we seek to collect it (e.g., privacy), what we choose to collect and not collect (e.g., what we miss and how that can tell different stories), how we make categories (e.g., how it might continue certain kinds of oppression like how we might categorize gender or land ownership), how we clean it and if that cleaning might sacrifice nuance for efficiency, it has important context no matter how we collect and categorize it so we must do our best to maintain important contextualizing information to inform how we work with it later.
• Analyzing Data Needs Context. Related to the last point, we should consider that any way we choose to analyze data is a rhetorical decision. It will offer us different kinds of outcomes and, many times, there are many ways to analyze data that can bring about different results but those different results can say different things (and all of them can be valid things). We should be intellectually honest about the variety of things we can do, the good things about those varieties, and the limitations of those varieties. We should be transparent about how and what we analyze.
• Writing About Our Results. Just as there are many ways to analyze, there are many ways to write. We can express things in words and in numbers; we can express numbers by frequency, by ratio, by percentage, and so on; we can visualize numbers in ways that use few or no words and numbers. There are many choices we can make rhetorically and all of those choices can lead to valid ways of representing our results but there are some ways that are more memorable, engaging, and so on that might be better choices.
• Writing About Our Results Needs Context and Directness. We should hope that in our efforts to maintain contextual information to help collect and analyze data that we also communicate that context to our audience when writing about results of analysis. We can’t assume our audience knows this context, and if it is important to us, it should be important to them. However, this will be different than just repeating back everything we know. We should be intentional about how we communicate context of data to our audience(s). Furthermore, especially for public audiences, we should be direct about what our interpretation is. We have the data and spent a lot of time with it, what do we think is the best interpretation of it? How can we be honest about uncertainty that might exist while also being honest in what our interpretation is despite any uncertainty?
• Writing About Our Results Needs To Consider Ways to Reach Audience. Writing something in-depth, like a white paper, is helpful to understand issues and to provide plenty of information for people who want it. However, most folks aren’t going to be able to access (e.g., know to even look for it) or have time to read and digest it. We have to think about how our arguments can get out to a wide public in a variety of ways. Types of text, how to deliver them, and how to consider the data-driven digital landscape of circulation impacts how our arguments can be delivered are all important to think about when trying to reach our audience(s).
• People are hurting, what can we do? Suffering and oppression is always a constant. People take advantage of people. What can we do to mitigate that? Data is not the answer. Organizing groups of people and putting pressure on people in power is most effective, for instance. However, using data to understand problems and to inform how we communicate with a variety of audiences can be part of what helps. It is complicated, flawed, and a lot of work to do this. And, again, it won’t on its own solve anything. But it can be a helpful tool if you care and are interested in helping others.

Next Time (2-5 min)

-Get me makeup work

-Final reflective assignment due by May 24 by 11:59pm

-Any grade boost assignments due by May 24 by 11:59pm