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Original Piece: The Facebook Post
Experiment #1: Research Paper
Experiment #2: Podcast
Experiment #3: Blog Post
Original Piece
Experiment 1
Experiment 2
Experiment 3
The Minor in Writing Gateway course started with one simple idea--take a single piece of writing and "radically change" it three times. Through theses experiments, our original text and our writing abilities would show growth.
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For my original text, I chose a Facebook picture with a short caption about a Planned Parenthood support rally I had attended the previous year. It was an experience I had gained a lot from, but wrote so little about at the time. I saw it as an opportunity to explore women's healthcare, the act of protesting, and feminism through a variety of genres.
Caption Reads:
Just a couple of peaceful protesters at their first rally!
*Disclaimer: No healthcare was compromised as a result of this demonstration. The Planned Parenthood clinics were closed so neither healthcare specialists nor patients were disrupted.
My first experiment was a research paper on the topic of women's healthcare. Looking back, that was probably my first mistake, as that (entirely too broad of a) topic could fill 10 encyclopedias. I attempted to pinpoint a more manageable topic, and landed on the ways in which healthcare has been gendered throughout history, resulting in inadequate services for women. Perfect, now I only had to write 5 encyclopedias.
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While I stand by the idea of this paper on the grounds that it is in an interesting and important topic, it felt like a safe, if unexciting, choice. Don't get me wrong, I actually enjoy writing research papers now and again *cue shock and horror,* but this was time for vast exploration into new genres. While too much experimentation felt daunting, a research paper felt like something I had already done (I mean, I've written two this semester alone). Not to mention, I clearly didn't have a good plan of how to get where I was trying to go.
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Reason for Failure:
Lack of direction. Also, been there, done that.
Oh, the podcast. My primary text evolved into a podcast about women's healthcare. From there, it spiraled into an entire mini series on feminism by the name of "The F-Word." My first episode would cover why the word feminism makes so many people clutch their pearls and duck in case anyone swings a burning bra at them.
It was an idea I held (and still hold) near and dear to my heart. However, I realized that there was no way I was going to be able to fully realize this project in the manner that I wanted to with the limited time left in the semester. It was sad to put the dream on hold, but hopefully in a subsequent MiW class, such as the Capstone, I can one day see out this idea.
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Reason for Failure:
Such high hopes, so little time.
Me, feeling very confused about where exactly my paper was going or what it was about, but turning in all the assignments anyway.
Bidding farewell to my dear podcast project in the hopes that one day we will meet again.
This last experiment ultimately led me to my final, fully realized project for the Gateway course. It started as a blog post about, you guessed it, some facet of women's healthcare (what facet exactly I had yet to decide). Initially, I didn't give this experiment everything it deserved, because I was wrapped up in planning my inevitably award-winning, critically acclaimed podcast mini series. But then that fell through. So in the end it was just the blog post and I left with only each other to create a final project that reflected a semester's worth of work.
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After this realization, and some reflection on my project and current events, I decided to write a post about how women, especially those who have jobs that necessitate an online presence, face much harsher online harassment at much higher levels than men. As a women putting my work online, this seemed especially pertinent.
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Reason for Success:
The death of the podcast = the life of the blog post.
Realizing this was not a drill, and it was time to pick one of my experiments for the final project.
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