Sommers

Sommers article starts off very strongly in the fact that she draws on your emotions, using very good tactics of pathos, to describe her child life and in doing so, got me thinking very much so about her topic. The way she uses terms in her child life really got me thinking and involved in her paper. She talks about revisions and how each individual writer needs to stick with his or her guns and go off their own thoughts in their papers and forget the thoughts of others as they look to write. She wants you to adapt a sort of writers voice in your work in that it is original and it sounds extremely unique. I find it interesting is because that is what I attempt to do in my writing now that I look back on my past. In the past I would write for the content mind off my teacher; or another words, to make my teacher happy, but after I look at it more in depth, I need to write what I enjoy and what will make me happy, not the teacher. Writing shouldn't be looked at as a sort of torture, it should be seen in the light of a way to express yourself freely without boundaries. She speaks of revisions as being the best way of doing so as well. She states that revisions are re looking the paper entirely and not just changing grammatical errors in it. A good way to take on revisions that she mentions is that you can take a "refreshing shower" in between to take a break from your work and clear your mind. Having a clear mind and a new approach to each and every paper is what you want. With having new ideas, is the exact reason you use revision in papers; to revisit the work you did and add those ideas that you just thought of into it.

Walk on By

Brent Staples's article, "Just Walk on By," really disturbed me when thinking about if it was true that African Americans were viewed like that in our society today. It showed me that a lot of people, including myself, view African American's as somewhat dangerous people in general. Even though a minority might just be walking through the park, watching a movie in the movie theatre, or merely taking out money at the ATM, people look at them weirdly. I know one instance I did this; a black male was driving next to me, and I accidentally cut him off because my lane ended and I needed to merge. As I cut him off, my first initial thought of what he was going to do. I was afraid he was going to either speed up and hit me out of anger or go around me just to cut me off, but he merely backed up and gave me driving room. This is a perfect description of this minority trouble they STILL to this day.
It's a shame they still go through scrutiny for merely being alive. Staples showed us that he feels afraid to be black because people discriminate just on what he wears in public and his skin tone. African American males often avoid Caucasians like Staples said he did to avoid the harsh looks and angry words. This needs to change in America, myself included. It isn’t fair for someone to be afraid to go outside and be discriminated against like Staples merely for something they can’t help (their skin tone) and the fact that people are so harsh in doing so cannot be tolerated anymore. Everyone should feel just as safe as the other person walking down the street. With the discrimination that is happening against back people merely because they're black can't continue to happen anymore.

Activism

Spainer brings to the table what most adults feel about students and children these days. Spainer, along with myself, agree that young adults and teens are very focused on their surroundings in their individual lives and not necessarily taking in and understanding the entire world around them like in the times of the Vietnam War. It is interesting to think that our generation is more focused on the popular culture stature rather than the world as a whole and its' problems. There are many reasons why people's views would change from being concerned about the world to what might be interesting in the United State. Often times, the news can be VERY depressing. Having all these sad stories and hearing of death and despair, it makes people want to turn their heads to the whole ordeal.
Allison Fine's article demonstrated our generation is a, "quiet" one. She says that we do not protest like we used to like on college campuses. This isn't necessarily true in the fact that we are a very technologically savvy generation. We have different means of expressing ourselves than before; we make Facebook groups, join clubs, and start events that raise awareness. We no longer use riots and or large arguments because our generation feels that is ineffective. These new ways of expressing our views is hard to see by older generations because maybe they don’t understand the concept of the internet and wouldn’t know how to go about finding our Facebook groups or such. We are very loud and active in our community and it just takes some looking into from different generations to find our views on matter.
We are not a quiet generations. We express ourselves differently than previous ones. We are very active in our community by means of internet and smaller groups. We aren't as focused in one on world issues, but then again, is that a bad thing?

Ad Council

Based on what I saw from the "Ad Council", the one that caught my attention was the article about drunk driving. The article that the ad council created on Drunk Driving showed what problems can arise. When in the video, the glasses clink together There wouldn't be a way to find the jobs in the different videos regarding certain aspects of drunk driving that people don't think about. If no one drank and drove then I think that there would be less overall fatalities as opposed to other types of deaths. If more people drank and drove, I think there would be more crashes related to death and injury on the road. I feel like the video is meant to scare you with the noises and the voice in the background as well as the slow motion. The sight of the wine glasses brings feminine aspects to mind. It is almost like the video is saying "no matter if you are a female or a male, you can still die drunk driving and crash". So if there weren't enough crashes from just normal sober drivers, there are even more crashes due to inebriated partygoers who think they are sober enough to drive home. I can only wonder what their thought process is when they leave a party and get into their car. "Will I injure or kill myself or random strangers in order to just avoid having to take a cab or use the bus?". If I was ever in that position I would definately answer yes to the questions and decide to take a taxi.
Unfortunately, a close family member of mine made the wrong decision and decided to drive himself and a friend home one night five years ago. They got into a wreck and got seriously injured. Every time I heard the screeching of brakes in the video I could just imagine him getting into that wreck.

Social Citizens Questions

“Social Citizens” by Allison Fine
Respond in writing to the following:
1. What is Fine’s purpose in writing? What goal(s) does she have for this text? Who is her audience? Find a sentence/passage where she communicates the rhetorical situation and paste it below.
a. I believe one of the purposes of her writing is to re-examine certain aspects of culture and society that we believe to be set in stone. Another purpose of her writing is to explain who social citizens are. They are anyone who has three different characteristics; digital fluency, idealism, and immersion in social causes. I’m pretty sure a goal she has for her text was to convince older generations that millenails are not “generation Q”, that is, inactive and lazy, but are actually quite the opposite. They are engaged in social activism using new technology and social networking. A sentence in which she outlines a rhetorical situation would be when she talks about how people of other generations

2. Fine makes many, many assertions about “millennials” in her text. What is one assertion? How does she support it? Is the support effective? In other words, does it build her logos effectively? Explain. Based on your experience as a member of the “millennial” generation, do you agree? Explain.
An assertion that is made in her text is the reference to millenails as “Generation Q” in that they are too laid back and lazy regarding many of the pressing issues

3. How does Fine’s piece clarify some of the observations Spanier made in “Is Campus Activism Dead”? How does she account for millennials’ lack of interest in protesting.
i. It doesn't. She says that the millennials' lack of interest is due to technology and entertainment and their lack of commitment to important issues outside of the realm of entertainment.

4. What are some of the dangers/drawbacks of online activism, according to Fine’s text?
Some of the dangers involved could be the misuse of facts and information that are spun to make the issues sound different than they actually are. Another problem is legitimate sources of the information could not be legitimate at all. Personal research is key but also finding credentials and using proven legitimate databases are helpful as well.

5. Overall, do you think online activism is an effective means to evoke social change? Explain.
i. I do. More people than ever before have access to computers, telephones and the internet.

6. What cause(s) are you considering for your class project? What makes these causes attractive to you?
a. A cause I’m considering would be immigration reform because of all the illegal immigrants trafficking drugs and causing crimes along the border and throughout the U.S. Also, immigration laws need to reconsider whether or not the influx of immigrants is as beneficial as it once was.

A personal discovery

Tomkins and the discovery of WAL-MART
A few days ago I discovered that Mr. Chips greatly overcharges customers for food and other ordinary products. I took a trip to Wal-mart and went on a food shopping spree that involved potato chips, soup, pretzels, and of course, my favorite food, pizza Lunchables. I got back to the dorms and was looking at my mere $21.50 charge for a large assortment of items and decided to test a theory. The next day during my free time, I took the receipt from Wal-mart to Mr. Chips and compared prices on the items that Mr. Chips had in stock that were the same exact products that I purchased from Wal-mart. Mr. Chips didn't even have most of the items I desired and the ones that they did have were just about double in price!
What I learned is that choosing something for availability, such as shopping at a very close convenience store over traveling an extra mile and a half to Walmart, has it's drawbacks. The more things you buy, the more money you waste. From now on, I try to make usual trips to Wal-mart every other weekend to stock up on items I use a lot of because that way I save the most money buying two-weeks worth of items for a cheap cost than having to make regular trips to Mr.Chips to pay an outrageous amount of money for the same products you could get at half the cost. If anyone is up for splitting a fare in the near future, it's a great way to save money in the long run on important groceries one enjoys.

Revisionism Revisited

I feel like Mortimer's article put an entirely new spin on whether or not one should accept what is traditionally accepted as "the past" and past events. At first when I began his piece about the comment made by Bush I thought he was just being bitter about the general opinion of revisionist historians. He drones on and on about how revisionists deserve more respect and how valuable their work is, but I feel that this may be biased due to his own profession as a historian and perhaps himself feels that by writing this article, he himself will gain respect. I feel as though in the beginning of the article, Mortimer takes personal offense to the quote by George W. Bush in which he casts revisionist historians in a negative light. After this passage it seems that Mortimer is set off in a flurry of counterpoints defending what revisionist historians do and why they are so very important. He brings up American examples of revised history such as the stories of George Washington and the cherry tree and JFK's assassination to try and convince readers that most of history has been revised at some point for infinite benefits to society. I can agree that as more facts and information are discovered about a mysterious past event that the story should be slightly altered to represent the truth, but not constantly revised to the point of people having personal opinions about past events and wanting to incorporate their own spin or conspiracy theory to the actual entry in encyclopedias. Major alterations to records that misrepresent the truth seem to be beneficial but constant minor alterations that try to make the event seem favorable or less favorable to readers is just abuse of revisionism. That's my final judgment on the argument he poses but that's my reaction to the points he presented and I understood. I feel like I would have to be a revisionist historian myself to fully understand what it was he was trying to argue exactly.

Said's States

The article "States", by Edward Said, really drew many different emotions from me. I was sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians and guilty that the U.S. is so biased on the side of the Israelis due to political ties. The way he portrays the Palestinians as outcasts who have no identity and live in bad conditions was quite moving. The method in which he showed certain pictures to evoke emotions worked brilliantly for his argument. I believe pathos was the strongest element within his piece. In the picture of the wedding, it is obvious that western values and beliefs have infiltrated the minds of many in the Middle East, while the one person in the background is wearing a traditional headpiece to show how the two cultures are co-existing. This picture is a good example of the political ties that the western world has with the Middle East and how we are influencing their culture. The western world (mostly the U.S.) has such a strong influence that I believe we can decide who may win this conflict by throwing our support behind one faction or the other. I believe we already may have and Said would agree that we strongly support Israelis and condemn Palestinians to their fates. He wants us to see the other side we don’t support and are forced to live a life of homelessness and turmoil. This is portrayed perfectly in the picture of the sad Palestinian boy wearing the dirty western T-shirt. He seems to be homeless, scared and unsure of where to go. I could never imagine being forced out of where I call home and having to live in refugee conditions. This article really made me count my blessings and sympathize with the Palestinian side of the Middle East conflict that I've never really been exposed to. His use of images instead of words made his piece very strong and effective at keeping my attention. It felt like I was watching a Red Cross advertisement for impoverished people. Although in this case, these people are starving for a homeland and an identity that they are willing to sacrifice their lives for.

Wickedpedia....or good?

The more I read into Dunkel's article the more confused I become about a multitude of topics. I personally have no problem using Wikipedia as a primary source to find out some interesting information on a topic I am just discovering. Because of the recommendations of my teachers, I would never have thought about using Wikipedia as an actual source. Firstly, if the saying goes "there are two sides to every story", how can any controversial entry into Wikipedia not be endlessly argued until the entry is dropped entirely? I'm not an expert on Iranian foreign policy, but when I read some of the harsh comments from the entry for Ahmadinejad, I could tell that a lot of people were angry, or at least had something to say. However, these comments were made anonymously with little or no textual support. I don't believe you should be able to voice an opinion or make a statement that you expect others to consider credible if you post anonymously.
As for the credibility of the Wikipedia entries themselves, isn't the people publishing the entry solely have the power to bias the article one way or another? I understood from Dunkel's article that there are certain checks and balances instituted to keep articles relatively unchanged after they have been published. However, the publisher has the final say on what the article will actually contain. Perhaps that article is one on Ahmadinejad, and the publisher is an Iranian supporter. Will he say the president lashed out at Israelites harshly like many people believe? I don't believe he will. Another scenario that leads me to believe nothing in Wikipedia can be set in stone is the voting machine story. If Wikipedia can be altered for the benefit of certain people then I don't believe it should be credible at all.
Ultimately, I believe my true opinion of Wikipedia really has not changed. To me, it is still a great way to learn pieces of information that may interest you in choosing a topic for a research paper or an experiment, but using and/or citing Wikipedia as a credible source is not a good idea.

Sondra Perl's Composing Guidelines

1. While using the Perl guidelines, I did make progress in finding a topic even when all I had written down was "nothing" like the guidelines suggested. When it asked "what distractions may prevent you from writing", things really took off. I wrote about how random cold gusts of wind would sneak in from the window or the sound of people's voices walking by would make me totally lose my train of thought. Refocusing on writing/my topic is how the guidelines really helped me out. When checking my "felt sense", I found that proofreading was essential. I could look over what I had written, usually being general ideas or facts about the topic, and then branch out from there until I had quite a body of work.

2. Choosing the idea for me was the hardest part of the process. I wanted to focus on something that was important to me but also something that could be subject to criticism or debated for the sake of presenting it in a discussion. Relaxing and finding my "center" probably never happened. If I get too comfortable I begin to drift off or focus on something else. I belief that challenging one's topic with questions actually does generate more ideas and more abundant flow of writing.

3. I really learned a lot about the way I write. Starting off was the hardest part. Once I narrowed down a topic and went about free-writing whatever came to my mind about the topic, the words and writing came easier. I don't believe that writing down distractions really helped very much. It made me focus on what was going on around me not what I need to do on paper. Overall, I think this is a great process and can help me in the future generate a flow of writing to succeed when writing papers.

"Something Borrowed"

I personally agree with Malcolm Gladwell's opinion of plagiarism he presents in the article "Something Borrowed". Specifically, he says that "it's not the fact that something has been copied, it’s what has been copied and how much of it has been copied". If I entirely rip off another student’s research for an important project, then that should probably be constituted as plagiarism. Alternately, if I ask him what he named his graph on excel, and I use the same title, that really should not be something punishable under plagiarism rules and/or the honor code. Also, when Gladwell mentions how the girl Dorothy received no credit for the play in which she modeled after herself, this is an instance where almost 100% of the play was copied from the girls life and there really should be something done about what Lavery took. It really angers me when people may plagiarize all the time and large amounts of material with no repercussions. However, such as in the instance of music, if an artist were to use a beat from an old song and nothing else, there really should be no tribute paid or serious repercussions for his actions. Recycling beats and music can really only refine it and improve the industry. It happens all the time and especially in the hip hop industry. So this is really the one changing circumstance where plagiarism is really entirely throughout the situation with nothing really restrained or regulated. On the other hand, I feel that there is a big “gray area” on the topic of plagiarism. If two people work together to research a topic but write separate papers how plagiaristic are their actions? If they use the same quotes from the same research but have different topics wouldn’t that be called plagiarism by certain teachers? I feel that teachers merely try to scare students into not working together because of the fear of being caught “plagiarizing” when working together can get assignments or even important research papers done faster and more efficiently.

The Art Of College Management/CHEATING!

My reaction to the article "The Art of College: Cheating", by Rebekah Nathan, was one of ABSOLUTE HORROR. Why would anyone want to be interviewed or admit to having habits of cheating that will be recorded and obviously published? The obvious answer: they wouldn't. So, in her other strategy, she decides to tape a paper to a wall in a general education class and hope that her classmates will give serious thoughtful responses. Really? The last time someone asked me to give an anonymous response to a serious question through a mandatory online survey, let's just say my friends and I have been laughing about it every time the subject comes up. People don't take things like that seriously. You are basically putting thought and time into a project you don't even get any sort of credit for. It's like spending four hours hitting on a chick then discovering she has a boyfriend. Tartar sauce!
Anyway, when it comes to cheating, I feel that if you truly do not understand the subject matter in the course, or feel that you are disadvantaged in any way, you are probably better off cheating to make it through the course as long as you make an effort to improve your skills in that subject or to drop it altogether. Essentially, cheating has to be your last possible option when it comes to anything you do. You're basically going for broke. I think the whole idea of studying cheating in college was a good idea originally, but when you see articles in the news about how students get so stressed out they overdose on drugs or jump off the roofs of buildings, I can honestly see how cheating would be a great way to squeak by a certain course you would normally bomb.

Writer's Profile/Clogger The Blogger

Mainly, my attitude toward writing has always been one of indifference. If I have to write to pass a class or write a thank you letter for a graduation gift, I try to get by with the minimal amount of writing necessary to get the job done. I am not someone who blogs regularly or does creative writing “for the heck of it” or whatever reason people use to justify blathering on and on about a random topic to promote their “writing skills”, while many teachers encourage succinct writing that outlines a point, provides an example, and finally draws a conclusion. There are bigger and better things to be doing, for instance hanging out with people like Tyler, Rachel and everyone else from Hanson at some sick pad in Stone e what college kids do. You know what I’m saying? Writing will be writing and partying or living it up will always be what’s good.

However, some writing will be universally necessary. For instance, filling out emergency information forms in case something goes wrong one late college night, or even spelling your name correctly into a cute girl’s phone. You’ve got to get that right. The former “technically” being more important than the latter, but that really depends on the situation at hand. Writing and reading are absolutely necessary in order to carry out certain mundane daily tasks from reading how much detergent to add to my laundry, to assessing the proof of a sinister looking bottle of liquid looking lonely at a friendly get-together.

Because the world is so big and there are so many different forms of writing, I recognize that writing does play a bigger part in the world than perhaps I realize. How would you know there’s a party going on in Tokyo if you can only read events over facebook in English? Just something to think about.