My project so far is going well but it could be progressing even further. I had to ask for an extension, and on top of that, like everyone said last class, this process is taking much longer than I anticipated. I have about 780 more words to add to my website in order to fulfill my first 2000 word requirement. 

I mainly worked on my “About Me” homepage where I mention that I go to Ramapo College of New Jersey and that I am a participant of the honors program. I added that my Social Science Inquiry class was assigned this research project and that I chose to research on Hispanic immigration. I expanded on why I chose this topic, mentioning that I was adopted and am therefore an immigrant. I also explained why I chose to do Hispanic immigration since I did not immigrate from a Latin American or Hispanic country, but rather from Russia. I mentioned how I was adopted into a Cuban family and that many of my family members are first-generation immigrants and the fact that my parents own a preschool in North Bergen inspired me to narrow my topic down even more to Hispanic Immigration in Hudson County, New Jersey.

I firstly typed all the text I wanted to include in my homepage on a google doc. My homepage was originally going to include an overview of my topic and the information my readers will find throughout my website in addition to the background information about me. When I copy and pasted the text from the google doc into the website page, I realized that the readers are going to be overwhelmed with all the text on that one page and will probably not wind up reading everything I wrote. This prompted me to add an additional page that introduces my website to my readers. It is called “Research Objectives” and provides the expectations and goals I have concerning what I want to get out of the experience of researching about my topic along with what information my readers should expect to find when navigating through my website. 

I additionally customized the website’s theme, changing the boring grey background to one of a blurred picture I took that has purple and pinkish peach tones and that shows light leaks. This makes the website more aesthetically pleasing to the eye. I also matched it with the picture shown at the top of my website’s homepage. I found two pictures, one of a collage of Latin American flags and the other of an American flag, and photoshopped them together. The collage of Latin American flags looks as if it is framed by the American flag. I blurred the Latin American flags slightly and I made everything monochromatic in a violet tone since violet, according to Bojan Lisjak, symbolizes dreams, the future, and spirituality, perfect for the exploration of my topic [1]. I believe this is a powerful edit since my intention for blurring the Latin American flags together, framing it with the American flag, and then making the picture violet is to symbolize unity, equality, and justice. It reveals my voice concerning this controversial debate, but it is also open to interpretation since I tried not to show much bias.  

I have not done much research nor looked into the digital tools much since I have been focusing on more of the preliminary steps of talking about myself and my topic. I have not adhered to my schedule and I believe I do have to restructure it since I am behind. For these last 780 words that I have to complete in addition to the 2000 words due next week, I have to shift some of my deadlines so that I do not cram in a load of work last minute. My next step will already be typing out the content for the pages that discuss the political perspectives of Republicans and Democrats as well as gathering information to construct my timelines since those were the first topics I found sources for.

Bibliography:

[1] Lisjak, Bojan. “Violet Color.” About Colors – All About Colors in One Place, www.about-colors.com/violet-color/.