Hello! This post should be a bit briefer than my previous ones so far. I just want to reiterate the purpose of last week's primitive genre analysis and provide some more examples that I'll be inspecting in a matter of days.
To recap, I've been incredibly passionate about politics and voting from a young age, and my involvement with an on-campus student advocacy organization has only intensified such feelings! Thus I've decided to analyze U.S. voter registration forms to see if there are any implicit factors that may be leading to such low turnout. Of course, the optimal solution to low voter turnout would be automatic voter registration at birth, but until such a process comes into effect, we could devise optimized paper forms and/or other mediums through which to attract new voters. So then what examples will I cite for this, exactly? Well, as a Nutmegger, I've already used Connecticut's official voter registration form as a sort of standard-bearer. But of course, I need a bit more than that to create something insightful. Given my obligations as a full-time university student (and yours as humans who don't wish to be bored to death), I simply can't peruse every state's forms! Therefore, I'll focus upon some of the states that are most critical to our electoral process: our swing states. I know that swing state has quite a flexible defintion and that a given state's connotation as one could turn on a dime, so I'll be taking a look at some of the most populous and wide-ranging among the following historically consistent pendulum-shifters:
Once I become a bit less preoccupied and decide upon a small assortment of these states, I'll compile their official voter registration forms and include their PDFs within my genre analysis for reference. Look out for my in-depth post this Friday! That's about all I have for you today, and until next time, I'll leave you with a Melodramatic Mike Drop™!
0 Comments
Hello again! As I become more ingrained within my Media Publishing class at UConn, I'll be tasked with developing a portfolio that documents my work toward a grander goal. After two weeks, it's finally time for me to kickstart this capstone project! But don't anticipate anything too big right now, for I'll be taking baby steps throughout the semester. Are you ready for me to reveal the first component of my project? Well, before I dive into that, I figure it'd be appropriate to provide some personal context. Ever since I was old enough to understand the basic landscape (i.e. when I was in upper elementary school), I've been a politically-minded individual. I credit my stepdad for getting me so heavily invested in politics (heck, he even allowed me to sneak into the voting booth and bubble in his ballot during the 2012 presidential election - FYI I was only about 15 at the time!). I also remember initiating awareness of each significant party's presidential candidates for my sixth grade classmates (seriously, it's kind of a miracle that my peers never bullied me or avoided me like you would one of those rats carrying the Black Plague). But such nerdy enthusiasm for democratic advocacy persists within me. Remember how I cited my affiliation with UConnPIRG in my last blog post? Well, about a year ago I contributed heavily to the organization's New Voters Project, a campaign geared toward registering UConn students to vote on-campus prior to the 2018 midterm elections. With over 2,000 new students registered to vote and a 90% increase in turnout at the local Mansfield Community Center from that for the previous midterm elections in 2014, it's safe to say that we attained great success! Anyway, one of our most critical tactics - as you can see in the lovely candid above - was (and still is) convincing students to complete Connecticut's official voter registration form. Take a look:
So, this document's pretty straightforward, right? In a concise, yet explicit manner, it gives you all the info you need to fill out the form properly. Each section is signified in ALL CAPS for easy access, with its main points arranged in bulleted or numbered lists and any especially pertinent details either underlined or emboldened. And the best part is that these instructions only take up about half the page, while the other half is devoted to individual documentation of each prospective voter. If I had to critique anything about the form, I'd say that it's quite achromatic, feels a bit cramped (particularly in the documentation section), and lacks variation in communication medium (i.e. the document's contents are predominantly text-based). But what relevance does any of this have to my long-term project, exactly? See, I just conducted an analysis of a work within the "U.S. voter registration form" genre. In a week's time, I aim to compare my home state's official document with that of some other states across the country. My hope is to compile the similar and contrasting elements of these voter registration forms, find areas of improvement, and (much further down the road) devise the ideal document (or, if necessary, another vessel entirely through which to register voters en masse) for use by all Americans, regardless of state residence. Our voter turnout numbers for municipal, state, and federal elections are simply way too low considering the domestic and global implications that come with performing our civic duty regularly, and perhaps my project will prove to be a step in the right direction as we head into a major election cycle in 2020 (or it'll merely become a footnote in Internet history; either outcome seems likely). That's about all I have for you today! Look out for my more detailed genre analysis next week, and until next time, I'll leave you with a Melodramatic Mike Drop™! |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
November 2019
Categories |