Contained within this online magazine is a topic that each contributor felt was important to cover, the overall theme of the magazine is about types of abuse we experienced in one way or the other during our adolescence. The issues of bullying and abuse are connected in real ways. Each issue can affect the victim in a long term spectrum. In our magazine, we explore the many various forms of abuse from cyber-bullying to child abuse and the effect they have on the human psyche. We also show pertinent facts and data that show the effects that these abuses have on their victims both short term, and long term. For example, domestic child abuse has been shown to have a direct relationship to the creation of the bully mentality. The issues discussed in this magazine are real and extremely serious, the aim of this magazine is to put a spotlight on these difficult social justice issues, and in the end to bring awareness to promote change.
Madison Densley : Madison felt that the pieces she chose to showcase in this magazine were her strongest pieces. She wanted to take these pieces and make them even stronger. Madison accomplished this by strengthening the research and pulling information from quality sources. She believes that this approach helped ideas and revisions come easier to her and move the research and creation process along. She really felt like connecting to the reader and keeping them interested was of the utmost importance.
John Gonzales: During this project, we had to write many papers. Naturally we could not include all of them and unfortunately some pieces had to be chosen over others. John felt a responsibility to the reader to choose his stronger pieces, he believed they contained the most important information that might effect change in a reader’s life. This was not easy for John, for example he wanted to showcase his profile on Draymond Green, but felt that the research was to weak and sources were hard to come by. John learned a lot about the writing process, revision, collaboration and the importance of looking at his work with a critical eye. He hopes that everyone enjoys the magazine we have worked so hard on, and that we can help shed some light on the serious topics discussed within.
Amanda Randall: Amanda chose to include her contribution to this project with three pieces that she felt a strong connection too and wanted to share. The first being her persuasive paper. She loved everything about it and felt that the only thing it lacked was a strong connection to everyday life events. Through the revision process she could rectify this oversight and put forth a piece she was proud to call her own. Her second contribution was her memoir piece she believed this piece could not be left behind, and felt a strong desire to share her personal experience with bully’s. Of all the pieces in our magazine this one hits home the most. The intimate and painful details she shared must have been hard for her. As a group, we are proud that she had the strength to tell this important and impactful story.
Angela Peterson: Angela’s work adds a dimension of overall beauty and quality to our magazine. Among her contributions, she chose to include an infographic which touches on her topic in an artistic yet informative way. Her bold use of colors and information make for an informative read that is both pleasing to the eye and the brain. Overall Angela’s work was chosen over others because the group felt that they would bring a lot of color, and interaction that other pieces lacked. Her work brings so much life to the magazine, and we are sure you the reader will agree with these choices.
Each one of us had to decide what work we wanted to include and through that process a lot of our work was left behind. Many reasons exist for why we decided to exclude these works. Most of that work we felt was too weakly researched, or that it would not fit well in a magazine format.
Some of the choices we made while revising our pieces were because of the suggestions we received from the instructor, peer reviews and group critiques. We learned that it is important to look at our work not as a final product but works in progress our advice for other groups is to go and do. Do not procrastinate, the project is intricate and fully fleshed getting on top of it before it becomes too much is immensley important. We also recommend finding a good online platform to collaborate on. We felt though that meeting in person and working in concert in this fashion is the most effective way to insure the success of the project.
As a group, we have worked tirelessly to bring forth this work. The magazine is well researched, and we each took our time finding reliable sources of information. The layout and design was chosen because we felt ease of use to be so important, we believe that magazine transitions seamlessly and fell that it is pleasant to the eyes. If we had to choose a weakness in our magazine it would have to be attributed to the difficulty of our knowledge in online design. However, WE stand by the work contained within.