Writing Process Reflection Memo

The Hope Project

Dongxiong chen

WRIT 112

The Hope Project

The photos that I chose for the project are from China and reveal one of the most touching and significant problems of the country. The above mentioned photos depict Chinese children that do not have any proper environment for studying. In addition, the photos incorporate the ideas of a well known philanthropy in China that is entitled “The Hope Project” (Postiglione, 2015). My desire to write about these photos bases on my perception of the problem. I strongly believe that it is a very serious issue that concerns not only China, but also many other countries all over the world. The aim of my photo essay is to make audience realize all the difficulty through which poor children eager for studying have to walk. Due to the financial state of their families, they have no opportunity to achieve their goal. In fact, there are lots of students in schools and universities who have perfect academic environment but still waste it. They have financial ability, all the needed conditions, and time for studying; nevertheless, they lack the desire to study and are often rather lazy (Maume, 2007). On the contrary, children who want to study have nothing with the exception of their exceedingly strong desire. Such children have to walk twenty miles a day to reach the school (Postiglione, 2015). Besides, they have to study without the necessary equipment and material. For instance, they have to share books between themselves in the class, from five to eight students per book. Thus, I want the audience to focus on this problem watching at the photos. The more people care about this problem, the more children will be helped in the future.

The method that I chose for communicating my message to the audience is photo-essay. This method allows me to provide certain statistics and credible facts so that the audience was sure that this situation is real and requires attention. Evidence is necessary in order to give the audience comprehension that my speech is not only mere words without a serious background. Moreover, choosing this method to communicate my thoughts and ideas, I aimed to evoke certain feelings and emotions in the audience. The right choice of words and the tone of a speaker are very important for making a persuasive speech. However, photos or pictures can even strengthen the necessary effect, which will obviously bring the desired result. I chose only three photos in order not to flood the audience with unnecessary pictures. These photos focus on three main points that I want to reveal in my project. Undoubtedly, the photos that I chose for the project can appeal to people’s emotions and feelings. In fact, everything in this project is logically structured and has certain aims. Even the sequence of the photos has its logical explanation. In the first photo, one can see a Chinese girl that looks from the photo with a strong desire to study in her eyes. The next photo depicts the terrible academic environment in which poor Chinese children have to study. The last photo is the most important in the project. It shows children sitting in a rough classroom with happiness on their faces. My aim was to capture the audience’s attention and make them feel more and more sadness and concern from the first to the last photo. Visualization is always a good and effective technique to show the audience that one’s words are not a mere sound. Watching at the first photo, they will see desire. The second photo will show them difficulties and challenges on the way of poor children to their education. Finally, the third photo depicts sincere happiness that poor Chinese children feel because their desire to study is satisfied even though it is done in such horrible conditions.

The main aim of my project is to make the audience focus on the discussed problem and even try to make a difference. I am sure that everyone can do at least something in order to help these poor children all over the world to make their dream come true. Buying one book or one copybook or some other stationeries for children that are in need, will help them greatly. I understand that if I buy one book for such a child, I will not become poor because it will not take much of my money, but the child that will get this book will become richer. I hope that after seeing my project the audience will have the same thoughts and desires on the issue as I do. Indeed, I believe that if everyone shares this point of view, the world will become a better place to live and all poor children will become at least a bit happier. I must admit that I prefer photo essay to traditional one in case it is a persuasive essay. The reason is that a photo essay can describe feelings, environment and a problem much more realistic than a traditional one. To some extent, it may be compared to the difference between a book and a movie. However, reading a book, an individual can imagine whatever his or her mind wants, and it is usually an advantage of books to movies. In contrast, persuasive speech or essay does not need imagination to be involved. The only necessary thing is to make audience see and clearly understand everything that a speaker or an author attempts to show and explain. Thus, there is no doubt that a photo essay manages with this task better than a traditional essay.

References

Maume,D. J. (2007). Child Poverty in America Today: The promise of education. New York, NY: Greenwood Publishing Group.

Postiglione, G. A. (2015). Education and social change in china: Inequality in a market economy. New York, NY: Routledge.