Kyle Malanowski

Dr. Childs

Engl 411

26 March 26, 2019

Revision Write-Up

For my major revision I decided to take a chapter from the scalar book I wrote dealing

with Uncanniness within the horror game The Evil Within and turn the website chapter into a

theoretical paper analyzing the Uncanny Valley model and its conceptual flaws. I chose to revise

this work because I love combining theoretical concepts and ideologies to the tech my life

revolves around daily. The Uncanny Valley Model and concept of Uncanniness interests me

greatly I know what effects it has and have experienced them personally. I find it fascinating that

when forced into these foreign situations we undergo our greatest transformations and adapt to

comprehend what we are experiencing.

One of the major changes I made was to the actual structure of the work. I decided to take

what was previously a digital book chapter and transform it into a more academic essay. I know

that digital novels and academic essay hold the same level of validity in the evaluation of

content, but I personally feel like the writing I do is better when in the pretense of an academic

essay. Another large reason for the structural changes was the fact that a large portion of the

writing done for the scalar chapter I wasn’t proud of, I didn’t believe it was necessary to the

comprehension or provided any additional insight to the topic of the chapter. I took what was

originally 10+ pages of “fluff” at times, and graphics and trimmed it into a solid 6 pages of

academic theoretical analysis. The last major reason I changed the structure/format is because I
personally believed that all the graphics and media took away from the purpose of the writing.

Undoubtedly interaction is critical to the enjoyment of digital texts and projects, but I believe

that at the time of having to create the scalar chapter, I over encumbered the text with digital

media which acted as a distraction to my writing.

The other major change I made was to the topic content within the writing. I decided that

rather than focus on a single game I wanted to broaden the ways in which I apply and analyze the

Uncanny Valley. Classes I have taken after this digital theory class showed me that Uncanniness

has more applications that just simply gaming. By limiting myself in the original work to

specifically applying uncanniness to the game, I missed out on discussing not only some of the

flaws of the model, but also its potentiality of effecting other mediums and fields. Not only did I

change the topic to cut out all the nonessential fluff, but I feel that in choosing to analyze a video

game for Uncanniness I did not grant uncanniness sufficient credit or attention as the topic. In

the scalar all I did was look for moments that contain uncanniness and demonstrate it, whereas in

this paper I talked about the cause of uncanniness and how we can benefit from being forced to

interact with it.

My hopes for adding this work to my portfolio is that it can prove my growth as a writer

in both facets of academia and theory. I enjoy writing about these topics that can sometimes

induce headaches and revising this work not only allowed me to experience my own growth by

examining my thought process then vs. now but allowed me to refine the piece into a more clear

and concise work. This work in my portfolio will be accompanied by another theoretical piece

that I will revise as well to put together a professional and academic work that will aid in landing

my dream career.