MacKenzie,+Amanda

Biography: My name is Amanda MacKenzie. I was born in Michigan and moved around a lot as a child. I currently reside in Cadillac, MI (the home of the Chestnut Festival). Chestnuts are the most interesting thing about my town. Seriously. On a more personal level, I am a slightly neurotic English major with a good heart and a penchant for Sour Patch Kids. I have odd thoughts and crazy ideas, but most people like me because I'm basically fantastic. My hobbies include reading, writing, viewing films and spending time with the people I hold dear. I also love to dance. This, to the untrained eye, looks like I have been suddenly stricken with some sort of degenerative nerve disease. These are some relevant details of my life. Welcome to my page! This is an image I chose to represent myself. It is quirky and funny. Who couldn't use some more humor in their lives?

Here is a membership form that I created. I am pretty cool! Here is my journal from Unit 1. I am still cool! Here is a picture of a balloon. Unit 3 Write-Up: 1-14-08 (This was completed by Scott and Erin, but it also represents how I feel about the project and our group goals, so I thought I'd post it as well.) Purpose:

What do you hope to accomplish? We're considering an expansion of the audience to not just medical professionals but to parents and caregivers of those to whom musical therapy would be a great benefit. For example, many medical professionals might be skeptic or even vindictive of music therapy methods; however, we feel this information and these exercises are pertinent and important.

Why would anyone bother reading this? It gives an alternative to strictly medicinal healing. For those who don't want to depend on medication, there are alternative methods. After all, healing is not entirely physical; healing can be emotional, even, debatably, spiritual.

Are you trying to persuade? Yes.

Do you need to inform? Yes.

Audience:

What does your audience already know? I believe the ideas of music and therapy are both known well, but only separately. Also, the problems brought on by communicative disorders are known by many. It would be up to us to inform others about music therapy.

What does your audience value? The well-being of those affected by such disorders.

What are your audiences' needs? To know how sweet music therapy can be.

What biases might your audience have? A lot of people probably feel that medicine is the only way to control such internal functions. While there are medical advances which have brought forth many near-miraculous results, the mental well-being can be enriched through the powerful and unifying form of music.

Genre:

What genre will be most appropriate for your purpose (instructions or proposal)? A proposal would work well with this material.

What genre makes the most sense given your audience? Same.

Voice:

How do you want to represent yourself here? As cheerful? Hopeful? Angry? Concerned? Concerned and excited. We want others to open their minds, even just a little bit, to new ideas and concepts. We, our group, have come upon a great form of rejuvination, of sorts, which can bring forth community-building and enlightening results. We want to share that.

Do you want to sound authoritative or are you more likely to sound persuasive if your status as a student is plain?

I think our material should focus primarily on the positive aspects and potential opportunities that music therapy brings. People have a good idea of what both music and therapy are, and the idea of music therapy isn't necessarily too far off. However, we are of the opinion that music therapy as an idea brings forth negative prejudices because of its easily accessible nature. However, it is important to keep in mind that even the smallest interactions with music can bring forth great consequences.

How will your voice affect your ability to persuade? We're hoping our sheer enthusiasm for the material, along with a good deal of supporting evidence, will be convincing.

Formatting:

Does this genre call for traditional formatting, or are more diverse ways of presenting your information more effective? I think yes, because we want to come off as professional.

Will you use charts and graphs? Weve thought up ideas for charts and graphs to implement into the project.

Will you add photos? Are they necessary or just for appeal? Yup. We feel they are necessary and for appeal, not only as providing examples but also as casting the fun and exciting nature of music therapy into the limelight.

Problem:

Do you need to point out any sort of problem? We feel the problem is with the holier-than-thou feeling toward medicine and the "granola" nature of music therapy.

Will your audience be quick to agree that there is a problem? Or will they resist? A little bit of both. Some want to use alternatives while others operate strictly by the book.

How much of the problem do you need to convey? I feel that we can't too much of "just no medicine", as medicine does help a great deal.

Appeals:

What appeals will be most important here? Mostly emotional and logical, so pathos and logos.

Is an emphasis on logic important? About as much logic as would be emotion.

How will you establish your credibility? Charts, graphs, research, interviews.

What do you want your readers to feel? How will you accomplish this? Energized by our energy.