My posters are a repurpose of my “This I Believe” Article, from a previous English Class. The original piece argued for a woman’s power over her reproductive rights; I argued that the people who dispute pro-choice legislation are mainly men, and that men are only indirectly affected by this kind of policy. In other words, I was initially arguing for freedom of choice as it pertains to women’s reproductive rights, with a small mention of how rape and sexual assault are related to this issue.

 

That said, my original audience was limited to my classmates in that English class, but for my posters, I have widened the scope of my audience: I’m now speaking to the entirety of the Undergraduate student body here at U of M. This was a challenge for me because I wanted my posters to make a statement by denouncing sexual misconduct on our campus, but I didn’t want them to be as politically loaded as my original piece. However, using the results of the Campus Climate Survey made it easier to appeal to a larger audience because the survey results are independent of a political agenda, and simply reflect the severity and pervasiveness of sexual negligence here at U of M. Also, I was able to harness some linguistic appeal within my posters, without using personal pronouns like I used in my original piece. My “This I Believe” was more or less an op-ed, with a heavy emphasis on my personal opinion, whereas my language on my posters is concise, and devoid of the first-person voice that was so present in my original paper.

 

This is my final draft, after a number of rounds of revision, photo-shoots, and general trial-and-error strategy. I would make rough drafts, take the pictures that I felt would be the best fit for my argument on each poster, and then merge those two components by inserting my visuals into my textual drafts. This process was frustrating because often times there were disconnects between my vision for a draft and the photographs that I took. Had I been a better photographer, or fluent in a program like Illustrator, this process would’ve been much easier. But alas, I gained visual, spatial, and aesthetic experience in researching for this repurposing, and can now appreciate the challenges behind graphic design: especially when you’re trying to inform an audience, not just get their attention. In addition, making a revision plan was helpful because I got to thoroughly think through the steps I had to take to reach a draft that I felt was polished enough to be considered my final draft.