McChrystal 1

Adrienne McChrystal
Megan Keaton
ENC 2135
1 August 2016
Project 3 Draft 2
For my first genre I chose to create a comic strip. This decision was determined by the
audience, my mom. My mom is a middle school science teacher, and she asks her students to
create a comic strip each year to explain the water cycle. I know my mom is familiar with the
different conventions of this genre including tone, style, design, etc. Her background knowledge
of comic strips, allowed me to focus more on the content of the composition rather than whether
she would understand the genre it was presented in or not. The tone of the comic strip was
informal, but slightly academic when the concrete definition of genre was stated. Other than a
few instances, I attempted to keep the tone informal to mirror that of a traditional comic strip. I
feel that this genre is known to have a more whimsical tone, which gave me an appropriate
platform to delivery dense information in a more inviting way. The style and design of the comic
strip were also mirrored after the usual conventions of the genre. I made sure to keep the word
count of each panel relatively low. Most comic strips just graze the surface of a topic, commonly
used to introduce a new subject. I found this to be a necessary convention because I had one
composition to teach what I had learned in six weeks. The design, visual aspects, of the comic
strip were like most other texts within the genre. Each panel was separated by a small amount of
white space to represent the start and end of each thought. The pause between each new panel
was used to help achieve an informal tone, giving the audience time to relax and retain the
information. The visual elements used to design the comic strip include color, background
(negative and positive space), and the presence or absence of characters. The color scheme of
each panel was relatively similar, even if the scene changed. This was done to help link each
individual part of the presentation to the whole. The background of some panels changed, but not

McChrystal 2
every time. The change in background was related to the introduction of new topics. Even if the
audience did not consciously realize the change, they are likely to link certain pieces of
information with images from that specific background. There were two characters in the entire
comic strip. It was a literal interpretation of the purpose of this assignment. One character was
teaching the other about genre. Both characters were present when a mutual conversation was
occurring, but only one character was present when the lesson was being taught. I used both
characters in this scenario because my mom is a teacher and understands the conventions of
teaching a lesson and comic strips.
For my second genre I chose to create an online Prezi presentation. Since my mom is a
teacher she is familiar with presentation software such as Prezi. One of the main reasons I
decided to create a Prezi rather than a Power Point was because I believe Prezis are more
versatile, personal, and intriguing. My mom usually uses Power Point presentations to provide
her class with information. This was my chance to prove to her that the unique features
incorporated in a Prezi presentation help the audience retain more information. I thought if I
could convince her by turning the tables, and making her the student, she would have no choice
but to believe me. The versatile features of a Prezi presentation include design, style, and
accessibility. The design of my presentation focused on three main visual conventions layout,
font, and color scheme. The first step of the presentation pathway shows an overview of the
whole web of information. This gives the audience a general idea of the length and detail that
will be provided in the upcoming presentation. The layout of this software allows the composer
to focus on main ideas while listing more detailed concepts as the branches. Prezi allows the
composer to go more in-depth than Power Points without appearing to drag on. The ability to
zoom in and out, change perspective, and angle keep the audience more engaged than simply
changing slides. Each theme included with Prezi comes with a preset color scheme, which pairs

McChrystal 3
complimentary colors to appeal to the audience. The font and colors are able to be changed by
the composer, but default to options that seem appropriate to each given theme. Online
presentations can be made much more accessible than traditional Power Points. While you can
post Power Points online, Prezis are already uploaded. This means that all the composer has to
do is share the link with their audience to grant them access to the information. All of these
conventions and features are reasons why I am attempting to convince my mom to convert from
an avid Power Point creator to a Prezi composer.
Links each genre
1. https://Pixton.com/ic:v3vhaquq
2. http://prezi.com/sdpjzop4hl45/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy