Feel the Fear: Learning Graphic Design in Affective Places and Online Spaces
By [Student Name]
Pedagogy in the field of art in design is a topic that is
Replace: This part of the sentence is a little clunky. Because it is the opening sentence maybe
reword to make stronger widely contested across various institutions. As it is such a diverse, creative field,
each educator has his or her own unique way of teaching design to students, and there are undoubtedly benefits and downfalls to each individual method
Feedback: CM: Woohoo! Researching pedagogical practices is super important! Okay, now that I've
said that, I'd like to see this introduction become a bit more developed and specific.
Introduce your article more clearly here and talk about how your article relates to
the discipline of graphic design as well as how it relates to pedagogy; what kind
of argument does it make and why is it important? You begin to to do this in your
next paragraph, but it will be more powerful in your introduction and get your reader
straight to the point..
The article
Expansion:Provide a transition sentence that explains "the article and its connections to what
we just talked about before going further into the details of the journal. Maybe even
include the title of the journal. is broken into a few distinct sections: the introduction, which establishes basic
background information and context for the study of graphic design, and also provides
a space for the author to state her argument; a section on theory, which speaks to
the subject of psychology as it relates to the development of a “design eye”; a thematic
review, which examines the pedagogic aspects of design; a methodology section, which
references pre-established theories and establishes the author’s basic analytic approach
to the pedagogy of graphic design; three sections about affect in graphic design education;
and a conclusion, which summarizes the author’s viewpoints and experiences in graphic
design pedagogy into a concise final argument. However, there are some unique elements to the journal that probably would not be
found in academic journals of other disciplines.
Feedback: This is a really good transition that also clearly links to what Cara wants us to
do with analyzing and not just summarizing. The author includes three sections of anecdotal information regarding her experiences
in observing graphic design take place
Transformation: This probably doesn't go under the transform tag but this needs an insert like design
"that" takein spaces such as physical
Replace: I understand why you put this here but I don't think you need it. hallways, blogs, and social media. Each anecdote is followed by a thorough analysis, which in turn builds her final argument.
Question: CM: I agree with [StudentName] that you begin to move into analysis here. I wonder,
though, why the researcher decided to use anecdotes? You're right that anecdotes are
not the norm across the disciplines, so why do you think they're used in this article?
What makes anecdotal data different from other types of data? Why is it used when
discussing pedagogical practices?
The author’s main argument relates to the problem of finding a foolproof, effective way to teach graphic design
to students.
Feedback: CM: I might push against this statement a bit. While a lot of people who study and
write about pedagogical practices are attempting to find innovative and productive
teaching methods, it's impossible to find a "foolproof" methods because a) every single
class taught is different, b) every single institution is different, and c) there
are so many different types of learners that attempting to build a class that suits
all of them is impossible. The journal
Question: CM: "the journal" as in the journal article or the journal as a whole? The journal
is similar to a magazine in that it has multiple articles within it, and the journal
article is the actual article itself. closely examines the psychology
Feedback: CM: Interesting that this paper in the design and arts discipline discusses psychology;
what does it mean to use an outside discipline to analyze the data? behind graphic design, and furthermore how this psychology plays into the effectiveness
of graphic design pedagogy. The necessity of the author’s input lies not in the realm of immediate, crucial scientific
research aimed at a specific question, but instead in the importance of a group of
educators who are constantly trying to maximize the effectiveness of their teaching
methods.
Question: CM: How does the researcher collect evidence and data? How do you know this is not
"scientific research?" What kind of research is it, then? Can you try to define it
or figure out how the author defines it? In the academic community of art and design, there is less of an emphasis placed
upon state-of-the-art research and more of an emphasis placed upon digging deeper,
uncovering more knowledge, and posing theories regarding the design field. This is
exactly what the author is trying to do: dig into human psychology
Question: What are the psychological ideas behind the article? How do those effect the education
process? as it relates to design, pose a theory and give evidence as to why her theory holds
weight and should be taken into consideration.
The journal cites various sources throughout the entirety of its content. Most of
the sources closer to the beginning of the journal are related to psychology and its
affect on graphic design; more specifically, the ways in which design can invoke emotion in people, and how
that emotion can be harnessed to, in turn, give people a better eye for design.
Transformation: So this answers my Q1 but I think you could move it up to the other paragraph. This establishes credibility
Question: CM: What does "credibility" mean in the design discipline? Credibility has different
definitions across the disciplines, so how does your discipline define "credibility?" for the beginning of the author’s argument. Furthermore, much of the research the
author incorporates is based in two major theories: the Actor-Network Theory, which
deals with the relationship between “objects, people, and ideas”, and the Non-Representational
Theories, which deal with the effects of our environments on how we express ourselves.
The author states that she takes an “assemblage analytic approach” to the data, meaning
that she will look closely at the connections between data and practices. Not only
does the author incorporate several working theories into the journal, she also interweaves
some of her own data, including observational and interactive data, collected over
the years of her teaching graphic design online. All of the variety of sources that
the author incorporates into her journal are widely dispersed. This is complementary
to the piece because its argument is one that requires both a breadth and depth of
data from multiple fields and viewpoints. The author is dispersing research throughout
the journal in order to maintain a constantly strong foundation for her argument,
as it is based both in psychology and design
Feedback: This paragraph does a really nice job of analyzing a part of the article that could
be seen as un-analyze-able. .
Data, in this journal, is exclusively qualitative.
Replace: The data in this journal is exclusively qualitative. (you don’t need to use the commas
if you add the) No data in the form of numbers can be found anywhere in the article.
Replace: This can be deleted because it just repeats the previous sentence. Evidence takes the form of established, working theories (such as the aforementioned ANT and NRT),
Replace: Maybe use dashes instead of parenthesis previous psychological
Feedback: CM: this has absolutely nothing to do with your paper, but both you and [StudentName]
made opposite suggestions on each other's work; she told you to use dashes and you
told her to use parenthesis. Hah! articles that speak to the feelings and emotions that can be invoked by good design,
and the author’s own qualitative data from her years of professional experience in
the field. What is unique about the article is that much of the data that is included
does not immediately come across as actual data. Rather, it primarily comes across
as other people's’ opinions, or simply anecdotes created by the author. However, just because there are no hard numbers or figures, the research and analysis
is not inherently less valid or relevant. Simply, it is put together in a different
manner that is more appropriate for the field of art and design. The audience of this
article is primarily educators interested in what other professionals have to say
about the pedagogy of graphic design; these educators would rather listen to the author
recount her own real-life experiences and cite meaningful theories and sources than
sort through a mess of numbers and figures.
Feedback: CM: Yes! Absolutely! A thousand times yes! You're thinking about the audience, how
the "data" looks in this article, how the data is used, and why it is used that way.
Fantastic paragraph. Similar question to my credibility question, but how do you think
validity is measured in this type of article? Why do you think this article was published?
Obviously the editors found it to be useful and valid in some way, so how do you think
this was measured? Therefore, the data makes sense in the context of the article.
The citations are in APA format.
Question: CM: you mention that it's important to have current data for this type of work. Why
is that?This is because it is important that the relevant data in the article is current and relevant
Replace: you use "relevant" twice, maybe change one to "timely" or "pertinent" or "important"
, especially the data relating to psychology. In-text citations are used throughout
the journal, which makes sense as data is dispersed throughout the journal as well.
Replace: I feel like i'm using these tags poorly, but maybe move this paragraph to early in
the paper around where you talk about previous sources?
The conclusion brings all of the author’s previously established theories and analysis
to a head. She effectively ties together the theories that she previously cited and
the anecdotes the she herself wove into the text. The argument that has been floating
around the article for its entirety finally comes together: the most effective pedagogic
graphic design spaces are those which promote peer and community interaction and engagement,
so that the student or learner can form an eye for design in the presence of others.
Cooperation and collaboration is highly encouraged. The conclusion is subtle, yet
effective; the author almost leaves it open for creative interpretation. The piece itself ends on a hopeful note
Analysis: CM: Fantastic job! There are parts I'd like for you to work on. For example in the
second paragraph, I recommend breaking down not only what each section does, but the
reason the section is there and placed where it is. Otherwise, you balance your analysis
and examples from the article well. Also, I love that you chose a piece on pedagogy
:), as if the author has given her best advice for other educators to continue to effectively
foster the design community.
Analysis: This whole piece does a really great job of not just summarizing but actively figuring
out why things are done the way they are in the article. I think you might be able
to relate the way it is written to graphic design /journals/ as a whole a bit more,
but you do connect it well to its implications in the discipline.