Back | Writer's Memo

The main message that I'm trying to communicate through this website is the existence of the gender gap, the importance of inclusion, how lingustic justice is used (through gender biased language) to further the gender gap, and how we can work to overcome our biases. All of these points are integral to answer my research question, which asks how lingustic injustice comes into play when considering the gender gap and how can we use lingustic justice to do something about it. The first idea, the existence of gender gap, acts as background information to make this message more accessible to those who are unaware of the gender gap in the tech industry. To work to reduce the gender gap, we first have to be wholly aware of its existence.

My intended audience is those who are either hoping to work in the tech industry or those who already work in the tech industry. However, I think that this is an important message (reducing gender bias) that can be applicable to anyone, so I chose to provide background information about how gender bias is seen specifically in tech.

I chose to structure my website by having the explanations and effects of the gender gap first and the concrete action at the end. The reason that I chose to do this was I wanted to really cement not only the existence of but the importance of reducing the gender gap so by the time a reader reached the end of my website, they would be driven by the information they just learned to either better themselves or learn how to better others -- and not just because I'm talking about an action they could take. I also wanted to use a website as the mode of communication as a node to the web developement side of the tech industry.

What I like about this assignment in its current form is the structure, the quotes that I was able to pull, and the fact I was able to code it myself. While being able to code it myself was very rewarding, it also had its challenges due to version & server issues and the tedious nature of web developement. To compose this, I used my outline and ideas from ShA5 to structure my website and pulled from the sources that I found to expand upon each point and to bring up evidence that would answer the questions. I chose to use guiding questions to outline my website because I felt this is my most accessible/comphrehindle for potential readers. There are two main things that I have in mind to reivse, the website's visual and adding speciifcally statistics as evidence pulled from sources. My making that website more visually appealing, a potential reader is more liekly to keep reading and retain the information presented. I also understand that it can get a little boring reading walls of words, so by adding numbers (aka statistics) I can also keep interest while more effectively proving my point. It's one thing just to read examples, but statistics can show how common and prevalent a problem truly is.