Blog Post Week 8

I cannot believe it is the last full week of research! It has been a big time crunch, and since I did not go on the Gettysburg trip, I’ve been completely focused on research and editing this week. It has been a lot of playing around with my maps to make things appear the way I want, and after going back again and again, I now NEVER forget to hit save. I’d say the formatting in StoryMap and work with ArcGIS has been the most frustrating, so I am glad to have most, if not all, of that work completed. As far as text in my site, the next thing to tackle is citing. I’ve also been working with some of the critique I’ve gotten on the styling of text. My project comes across as very conversational, which is something I thought I needed to aim for because it is such an interactive site. I wanted the site to feel as though I am walking you through the project even when I’m not there in person explaining it. However, there definitely needs to be a balance, which is what I have been working on finding in these last few days as well. While the casual text is ok, it cannot come across as too amateur. There still needs to be a level of sophistication in the styling to add to the science behind the topic. This is definitely a topic that needs to be taken more seriously, so I have realized that my writing needs to reflect that more. I think that I have made great strides this week, and I’ll be continuing to make additions and edits into the weekend. It has been so fun seeing this project take shape, and I am starting to see what the end project will be like. All in all, a great week for the progress of my project, and it will be great to finally present this coming Wednesday!