My first blog

After viewing the presentations, write a BLOG post regarding one that really stood out to you. Share how it impacted you and why.
After veiwing all of the presentations, I must say that the one that stood out to me is Kelly Parratt’s powerpoint on Suicide.  This was a very informative presentation that included a lot of facts that need to be recognized by the public.  It is unfortunate that people don’t know the effects that depression can have on somebody, and the state of mind that a person suffering from depression is in.  What I really liked about this presentation is the fact that she went the extra mile to ask people to help in the fight.  Instead of just giving a buch of information on the topic, she tried to prevent it.  This was a very good presentation and something that should be used for suicided awareness.  I think this would be beneficial for a lot of parents and teachers to read and become aware of the warning signs.  It impacted me because it showed that she really cared about the topic.  She had a real passion for the topic and showed that she really cared to stop suicide.  Very very good presentation.

After taking this course I have learned a lot about myself.  Most importantly I learned that I can do a lot of things that I didn’t think I could.  Namely, a lot of new technology!  I have always avoided technological advances such as wiki, blogging, twitter, and Flickr.  It has opened up a lot of doors for me technologically speaking and I am happy that I am now familiar with these things.  I am now confident that I can do anything that is thrown my way when dealing with computers.  I am glad that I had the opportunity to learn about all of this stuff, as it always looks good on resumes to say that you are computer literate.  The second biggest thing that I learned is time management.  This course had times when things were due, and when balancing a full time job, a preparation for a wedding, and buying a new home, I always found a way to have my work in on time.  Although sometimes it wasn’t until the last minute, it got done none the less.  While it was very stressfull at times, I always found time to focus on school and made the time to try to write a quality piece of work.  Time management is something that I will use in everything that I encounter and this class is great for learning how to manage.  Las but not least, I had the opportunity to learn the ins and outs of the writing process.  I learned how to critically read a book or article and make sense of them.  I ultimately learned how to use sources effectively in a paper, which will be a huge benefit in the rest of my college journey.

Prompt: How do you plan to apply what you learned in ENG 112 to writing assignments in other classes (i.e. your major classes or classes in other disciplines)? Be specific.

I plan on using a lot of the things that I have encountered in English 112 in my other classes.  But most of all I plan on using my time management.  I learned to balance work and school in a way that has proved to be successful over the past few months.  I worked long and hard on all of my assignments and managed to perform at work as well.  That was the most difficult thing to do throughout the semester.  I have also learned how to analyze my sources in a way that is meaningful and productive.  I have long thought about pursuing a career in journalism and especially sports journalism.  This portion of the class will come in handy because it has taught me to use the research that I find in a more usable manner, and it will make my findings better utilized in any sory that I may have to cover.  Also, we learned how to write a proposal, which can also help in other courses that I will encounter.  This has given me the opportunity to basically make a plan in everything that I do.  Having a plan in advance is something that can be used for every aspect of life, and can be useful especially in an educational aspect.  Most of all the sheer thought of making it through a class that required a lot of time and dedication has given me the optimistic attitude that I can make it through the collegiate ranks.  This class has been a great learning experience for me and I am glad that I had the chance to experience it and ultimately the chance to learn about what is to come for the next few years.

My writing process started with first trying to come up with atopic that would be relevant to today’s society and have enough to do with popular culture to keep the readers interested. The hard part to this process was was also finding something that I could relate to and be interested in enough to spend a considerable amount of time on and not lose interest. My conclusion was sports and I found a topic in that field. My next step was to find sources that would be relevant to my topic. This was probably one of the most time consuming parts of the whole process. I searched the internet, the library, and even thought about interviews, but ultimately came to the conclusion that an interview would not be very beneficial. After hours of research, I was ready to start the writing process. I started off by brainstorming ideas and even made a “web” of thoughts and where I could go with my essay. The Source Analysis made the process of breaking my sources down a much smoother process. It helped me to understand two of my sources in depth and led me to analyze my other sources to a deeper extent as well. I broke down all of my sources and marked them up to find key points of the sources that would help to support or argue my point of view. After analyzing, I went back through and highlighted the points that would make it into my essay. After that I was ready to start an outline, which would be what my paper would look like and what it would cover in each paragraph. At that point I knew that I was ready to start the rough draft. I would compare my writing process to blind driving. I didn’t know where I wsa going but when I got there, I was happy that I chose the path that I did.

In the world of sports and especially the game of baseball, there has become a dimming light that is entering and blemishing the look of all athletics.  It is easy to pin the blame on Major League Baseball, but looking deeper, it could be the media to blame for the situation.  The problem is the use of steroids in the game.  The bigger problem is the media’s coverage of the topic.  While it is well known that steroid use ultimately leads to health problems, the media makes it well known that they do also significantly improve the performance of athletes.  Not to mention make an individual more attractive and they can make a person recover better from injury.  Sounds good, right?  Especially to a young mind!  This is the issue, they are made out to have a huge upside and young individuals want to start seeing the results of the huge upside.  The rewards are far outweighing the risks in these children’s minds.  With a nation that has become totally engulfed in the sports world, and parents pushing their children more than ever to be successful in athletics, it is becoming inevitable that coupled with the maybe unintentional media praise, young adolescents are experimenting with the performance enhancing substances.  There is scientific evidence that steroids increase the speed on a ball that is pitched and that they help to power home runs in the game, but do these stats need to be pushed into our faces everyday by the media?  No, but they are.  The media needs to focus more on the negative side effects of the drugs and quit pushing the positives into the face of Americans, and more importantly the face of our youth.  The fact of the matter is that they are not only being used by athletes, but by non athletes alike.  Not surprising considering the praise that we see every night on Sportscenter…coincidence…you decide!

I feel that this exercise really helped and will contribute a lot to my essay.  I feel like it gave me a chance to vent and speak my mind and just let the world know how I feel about the situation.  With this, I feel like I have made a lot of valid points, and I feel as if some of this piece could be considered for an introductory paragraph!

I beleive that the reason that we were asked to write a proposal is for the simple fact that the instructor wants to see that we are going in the right direction.  It is somewhat of a pre-rough draft.  This gives her the opportunity to direct us in the right direction in what is probably our biggest assignment of the class.  I beleive that it also shows that we ubnderstand our topics well enough to fill up the required length of theh paper.  It shows that we are familiar with the issue and that we have an idea of how we want to present the topic.  I think that learning how to write a proposal gives us the opportunity to learn the steps of writing before we enter some more in depth writing courses.  Perhaps some of us are considering grad school and there we will be asked to submit proposals in almost everything that we do.  It can also be seen as an opportunity to understand just what the instructor expects from our final research paper.  The proposal also lays out ideas for us that we can build upon in our research paper.  It may help us to better understand where we want to go with our papers.  In these same ways, writing a proposal in other classes even if they are not assigned can be very helpful.  It gives us a preliminary work to put all of our overall thoghts together.  I could see myself writing in this genre in a future career.  Let’s for example, say that we are working for a business in the Human Resource Department and we have to give a presentation on safety.  We would want to find sources that backed our opinion on why safety is so important.  Before we just go in and give a presentation, we will want to give a short outline of what we are trying to accomplish and how we will go about meeting our goals.  The best way to do this is to write a proposal.  I can see this kind of writing being encountered in a lot of future career choices.

After looking at the six steps to identifying an issue, I have come to th eissue of steroids in baseball.  As an avid sports fan, I feel like this is a topic that I can relate to and have a lot of fun writing about.  This is the first step in identifying an issue as it is something that is important to me.  It is something that I feel strongly about and something that has puzzled me ever since the first accusations were brought about.  Curiosity presents itself in many different ways with this topic, which is also very good.  It will lead me to a lot of different research topics.  Looking through some of the literature and works of others, I have found that MANY people think in a different manner than I do.  There are a lot of different people that would challenge my stance on the issue.  This also allows me to think about the issue in multiple perspectives.  Reading through som eof the articles, I find that there are many different aspects of the argument that I never eluded to.  Some of the aspects are good and some bad.  I agree with many and disagree with others which leaves the option to include and argue the points in my research paper.  I look to extend and build on others ideas of steroids in baseball.  Many ideas are used to shape these writers arguments including thoughts of the court systems involvement, athletes interests in steroids, the question why would they even do them and so on.  These ideas can help me to shape my arguments in that I agree and disagree with the ideas.  Some of the arguments will strengthen my argument and some will challenge and I will use them in the correct manner.  My audience will be the politicians that find it necessary to pursue this topic through the legal system.  I will use language that will persuade them to stop the legal battle with Major League Baseball.  I am very interested in this topic, as it deals with sports and the American athlete.  I played sports all the way throughHigh School and hope to someday coach.  These things are important to me for these reasons.  The issue with steroids in baseball is that many believe that they do not belong in the sport or in sports at all for that matter.  The issue goes beyond that though.  It is now becoming something that is going  to court and wasting taxpayers money and time that could be spent on more serious issues that need to be dealt with.  My question is, if professional athletes choose to ruin their lives with steroids, why not let them, instead of wasting time and money trying to stop them?  If they want to ruin themselves for the entertainment of others, that’s their perogative!  After all, it is a parents job to teach their parents right and wrong, not an athletes.  I may be looking at this in a completely different aspect than others, but I feel strongly about this!  It will be a lot of fun to argue my stance!

Prompt: Discuss whether or not you are practicing the writing process that the authors of our textbook suggest.  Why or why haven’t you used their writing process?  Describe your writing process if it differs from the one suggested in From Inquiry to Academic Writing.

While I do try to keep the authors style of writng in mind, I usually just go my own way and try to do my own thing.  I do refer back to the book a lot to be sure that I am staying on track with them a little bit, but for the most part I just go my own direction.  I feel as if it is more important to study the requirements that the instructor gives us and focus more on what she wants out of me rather than the book.  The book offers a lot of important information, but in the long run we have to accomplish these papers by doing what the instructor asks.  My writing process does, though, follow what the book suggests as far as prewriting, developing a thesis, etc., so I feel like I am keeping up with the text pretty well anyway.

My synthesis story deals with the difference between LCD televisions and plasma televisions.  In order to make a choice, I wanted to know all the details about the two sets of televisions.  I needed to know the pros and cons of both.  After careful deliberations with my fiancee, we decided to get the plasma.  The reason that we made our decision was because the salesman informed us that sunlight would not affect the plasma television by means of a glare as bad as it would with an LCD.  Another selling point was the fact that the salesman informed us that the plasma’s typically last longer than the LCD’s.  To further address his point the salesman showed us the consumer report on the televisions which backed his information, as the site suggested that plasma televisions typically last 5 years on average, longer than the LCD’s.  The report also said that there was virtually no glare off the plasma televisions.  By introducing his information and supporting it with the website, the salesman offered synthesizing information in my purchasing process.  Luckily I found the perfect television to watch my perfect Patriots lose their perfect season in an imperfect Superbowl. (#@!$#@!%^&)!!!!!!!!!!

When asked how I feel after turning in the final draft, one thing comes to mind…relieved!  Seriously, I always feel like the first paper is the hardest one of them all.  It gets us back into the swing of things after our breaks and it really tests if we are ready to go for the reast of the semester.  In terms of how I think I did, I think that I managed alright.  It is always a difficult process and it is always time consuming, but when I was done putting in all the work, I felt pretty good about the whole deal.  There was a lot of room for improvement after the rough draft, but I feel like I got a lot of the kinks out.  There is definitely still going to be some mistakes, but overall I feel pretty good about it.  Thank goodness that there is more time to improve on our future essays and I hope to do a little better on the rest, but I feel like I put in a lot of time and effort into this particular paper and I can only hope for the best.

My writing process included brainstorming, a lot of repeated reading of the text, Writing outlines, writing the rough draft, and most of all planning.  That was one of the hardest parts of the whole essay.  It is hard to work full time and find time for the essays.  We learn to sacrifice a lot, but in the end it will be well worth it.  Definetly, planning was the biggest part of my writing process.

The part of the process that I would keep is just that, the planning.  I felt like I managed my time well and left enough time for myself to complete the paper and revise it until it suited me.  The part that I would change is the reading process.  I feel like I didn’t mark my text enough and I found myself searching for the important parts or the parts of the essay that I wanted to emphasize in my own work.  I found out quick that marking my text would only benefit me in the end.

I feel like essay 2 will build on essay 1 mainly because essay one taught us to read critically and that will be essential to essay 2.  we will be thinking more about our own arguments in essay 2 and I think that the critique prepared us well for learning how to find the main points of an argument.