About My Family and Our Legacy of Farming
What has writing about my family in the MA program meant to me?
Writing about my family and reflecting on my childhood has been a joyous and therapeutic experience. The storytelling methods I have gained through the MA program have enabled me to share happy and thoughtful memories that have enriched my relationships with my children and parents and helped connect us to long-held family values. The compositions featured here have brought me closer to my entire family: both those who are living and those who have passed away. I will continue to research and preserve my family traditions because I enjoy do so, but more importantly because, as Relational Dialectic Theory advocates, engaging in rituals can transcend tensions and establish intimate communication among family members.
About Our Legacy of Farming
This digital composition, prepared for Advanced Nonfiction, is a narrative about my family, how we live, and what is important to us. In developing my video/audio compositions, I used principles and practices I learned in Technical Communication Theory, Digital Narratives, Advanced Persuasive Writing, and Composition Theory courses. I used the practice of scripting and storyboarding to maintain a reasonable length for my digital projects, as well as interview skills that I developed through Advanced Nonfiction, Grant Writing, Family Communication, and Conflict Analysis and Intervention courses. Learning to conduct effective research through interviews was an important focus of my studies in the MA program.
I particularly enjoy the role of audio in digital compositions because it rather quickly helps our brain tie elements of the composition together to understand the meaning of the content. Audio can also be very fun! This digital story uses sounds of chickens to help create the feeling of being in a farm environment, banjo music to add a sense of laid-back, old-timey flair, and an alarm sound to abruptly introduce a new dichotomy with skewed sounds and images.
Harris Family Farm
About My Grandma
My grandma taught third graders in Bauxite and Bryant, Arkansas for many years and was a truly loving grandma-teacher to myself and her other grandchildren. Some of my fondest memories are of the years I spent with her. She made me feel loved and curious about the world. Writing about my experiences with Grandma in the Advanced Nonfiction course gave me a new perspective on who she was, not only to me, but her entire family. First, let me introduce you to her in Grandma, Etta Hogue.
Christmas at Grandma’s House was one of my favorite memories to share through writing. My desire was to convey the sense of excitement and togetherness Grandma fostered and to cause the reader to feel secure, just as Grandma made me feel. I modeled this piece after three example stories about people that used eating and cooking themes, the themes being secondary to the stories of the people. Remembering and gathering details about Christmas at Grandma’s house required interviewing my mom, dad, sister, and a cousin--it took all of our memories to piece together accurate accounts for the story because it has been so long since Grandma was alive. I found some of her Christmas decorations in my parent’s attic to help us remember atmosphere, and her house (although owned by someone else) is next door to where my parents live and was helpful even though we could not go inside. There is probably no way for me to tell you how wonderful my grandma was, but I hope this short story is a good start. I hope you also enjoy my recount of visiting Six Flags with Grandma, which was one of the biggest thrills of my childhood.
In Communication Theory, we were encouraged to go beyond the classroom by participating in a collaboration between KUAR’s Tales from the South radio program and the UALR Rhetoric and Writing Department. Being a storyteller by heart, I was excited to share a story that I have told for years to my inner circle of friends. The process of writing my spoken story became more challenging than I expected, though, as I had difficulties writing it from memory; in fact, I mixed events and experiences in time together at first, creating what my mind remembered. I had to interview my dad, review old photos, and record myself telling the story in order to accurately record it on paper.
Jason W. Hogue | jhogue6@gmail.com | 501.915.3253
FEATURED COMPOSITIONS