How-to Guide Takeaways
We finished our how-to guides this week, and I enjoyed that project. Taking a step back to look at something I know well from a new perspective expanded my mind as I struggled to explain things I easily know how to do. Also, creating something of my own was nice. Going into future projects, I will spend more time explaining everything at the front end to help with understanding on the back end. Defining my terms and really thinking about my audience is a trend that carries through all my writing class, and they are skills I definitely need to fine tune.
HTML
We also spent time exploring more HTML. Some of the HTML features seemed excessive or redundant but maybe that is because I haven’t needed to do something that specific yet. I wrote all the code down in my journal just in case I need to quickly see something. One of the most important pieces of code I picked up on was the <DIV> code. Being able to group sections of code for the sake of messing with them in CSS made my life so much easier. This class inspired me to work on my personal site, and I was struggling to do what I wanted until I learned about <DIV>. Another thing I learned is that the Internet is extremely useful for finding ways to do things in code, and the ease of finding answers to my questions regarding code is the reason I am so relaxed towards it. Research and trial and error are necessary aspects of coding. The Internet makes those aspects a breeze. I will continue using HTML long into the future because of its power to specify.
Looking Ahead
There are 2 upcoming projects that I am genuinely excited about: The Verification Quest and The Interactive Nonfiction. The Verification Quest is more exciting to me because verification is an extremely valuable skill that is very similar to journalism or reporting when done correctly. The Quest project will not only be useful to my skillset, it will also be a step towards what I want to do with my life outside of school. There are things in the world I want to discuss and do something about, and this project will give me the opportunity to go ahead and do a part of that. I want to explore my topic and execute my project in a way that allows me to incorporate it into my personal site. The Interactive Nonfiction will be fun because I can explore a topic in a similar way. I want to find something that people are not usually educated about, and I want to let them walk themselves through the facts and details around that topic. EXPERIENCE is often a much better teacher than simple explanations. Rather than shoving the truth down peoples’ throats, I will allow them to explore the truth themselves and ingest as much of it as they are readily available to. That is the theory at least.