Farewell

Farewell

Well here I go for my final blog. This week has been interesting. My car windshield had three big rocks through it. When I came home to it, I was in a state of shock. Obviously I made somebody mad. So this week has been a little crazy for me. As we reach this point in the class it is bittersweet. I am looking forward to the break but I will miss the experience.  Wow I cannot believe it is over. Things still have not changed. I did not read the due date for this assignment and I automatically assumed that it was still due Friday. You would think that by now I would know to read through everything thoroughly. I have been told so many times; read everything all the way do not just skip stuff. Well, apparently I still do not understand. So I apologize for this being late. It kind of sucks that my final blog has to be late. I can't even turn in my final blog on time. Well I hope to keep on blogging. I feel that it is a way for me to practice my writing skills. I think that once out of this class I will use it for personal purposes and see how it goes. I encourage you all to do the same. I think that you will enjoy the benefits that blogging has for you. I think for me that blogging was my favorite part of the class. I enjoyed it. I did not think that I would but I did. I also enjoyed getting to know my classmates. Since we were unable to meet face to face in a class setting, I felt that the blogs gave us the means to get to know each other just a little bit more. I felt like I was able to connect with some people through these blogs. I am also grateful that I do not have to retake this class. I passed, though I guess it is not over. So as I bid say my goodbyes I would like everyone to know that I truly did enjoy this class and it really was great getting to know some of you. I would also like to give a special thank you to my group. Thank you for all the time and effort you put out into revising my essays. It was extremely helpful. So to my fellow classmates Goodbye! Enjoy your holidays! Be safe! And have a wonderful break. Maybe I will actually be able to meet some of you face to face in other classes is future semesters. Cue cheesy quote, "The end is really only the beginning." I feel that even though this is the end of the class that it is the beginning of being able to use the knowledge that we have gained from this class. We now can go out and use this knowledge and be intelligent people with well built language skills. So Goodbye and use your skills wisely.

What? I actually thought critically?

Well this has definitely been a long week. As the fall semester comes to an end I am busily getting ready for finals. As I get ready for finals I am glad that I have already finished my Research project. It was a big assignment. It sounded scarier than it actually was. I was not excited to do it until I actually started it. Once I started I became very interested in it. This week I was also able to stop by and visit our teacher Ms Gross. She was very helpful and I wish that I would have gone in there to see her ten weeks ago. So our blog assignment this week was to reflect on what we learned about our writing skills through our Research paper. This paper actually helped me realized the writing skills that I had learned due to other assignments in this class. I realized how the blogs actually helped. I always thought that the blogs were just a sort of fun assignment where there was no actual purpose. I thought oh yeah this is cool but I am not benefiting from this. But when I was writing my research paper I would notice that I would like get a thought on the prompt then I would be able to give details and talk about it for a while. I was able to expand on one thought. I developed this skill from the blogging. I also saw my grammar skills developing stronger after the other essays that we had to type. My knowledge on the MLA format has definitely increased. I never knew that there were so many details to the format. This research paper has actually helped me realize the writing skills that I did not know I had. I think that my final draft will be a very strong paper. The other thing that I learned was how helpful our peers are. I probably have one of the best peer revisers in my group. She has helped me improve my writing skills way more than anything else I think. Her genuine advice has definitely improved many of my papers and it has especially helped me with this research paper. I think that the main purpose of this research paper to me was to learn and practice the new and improving writing skills that I have developed through this class. I think that it was such good practice and will help me in the future because I have had this experience. I feel that not only my writing skills improved but also my thinking skills. I feel that my thought process has improved greatly. I can now think critically, which is ironic. Is this not the purpose of the class?

Too Full To Think

Happy After Thanksgiving!! I hope you all had a good one. For this week's blog we were supposed to vent about our Research Project--how is it coming along? What do we need to do to complete it? How do we plan to accomplish this? What areas of difficulty are we encountering? How we might overcome these obstacles? Honestly I am pretty sure that it is coming along just as any other Research project is coming. This is definitely not my favorite assignment of the class. I also feel like I ate too much food on Thanksgiving to even start to think about how my project is going. My whole week has just been thrown off schedule and things have just been not going as planned. We did not even have turkey for thanksgiving. We had prime rib, which do not get me wrong it was delicious but it is throwing me off. You are always supposed to have turkey for thanksgiving. I had this whole week off at my one job, which was supposed to give me time to work on my research project. Do you think that I worked on it, no? I chose to relax and do other things. On top of that I also woke up at 2:30 am to go "Black Friday" shopping with my mom so my brain is not functioning, as it should. So yeah my research project is coming along I guess. I am almost done. I made the mistake of waiting until the last minute to start my project. I did not reread the section I chose until Monday. I think that this was the worst assignment to procrastinate on. I am not motivated to do this assignment and I have no interest in it. The essay on Bullshit and Doublespeak was easier for me to write on. Not because it was a shorter assignment but because I was interested in it. The topic intrigued me. The Rlit book does not catch my interest. I have tried to get into the book but I have found it to be extremely difficult. I think that my most difficult obstacle for this assignment is going to be creating five pages of information. I now have probably only two. That is a serious problem. All I have to do know is try to expand on my ideas and add more information to my research project. I at this time only have five sources so I am hoping to maybe find more sources to give me some more information. As you can tell I am running just a little behind. I need to do some catching up. As I type this blog all I am able to sit here and do is think about how behind I am on this research project and how I really need to get cracking down on it. I also am sitting here thinking about how I really do not want to work on it because I am tired because I decided to be a crazy person and went shopping at the wee hours of the morning. So my plan to overcome this obstacle is to go take maybe a two-hour nap, hopefully get some energy back and attempt to finish this project by tonight or early tomorrow.

idk

There is a major difference between the language in out conversations through email and our language in our ordinary conversations that we have face to face or through the phone anything where we actually speak words. I feel that it is a different scenario for every person. Some business people have very professional emails and they use correct and specific grammar and mechanics. Then when it comes to their ordinary conversations that they have face to face with others maybe they are not so professional. They may not use correct grammar and mechanics with their language. They often may even use slang. On the other hand some people use such correct grammar and mechanics in their ordinary conversation but if you were to see their emails they are not as well written. It is almost like they do not even know how to use grammar. But I truly believe that the situation varies between people individually. Some people use correct grammar and mechanics in both their emails and ordinary conversations. And there are some people who are not so correct in both ordinary conversation and emails, some to the point where they almost seem illiterate. I do not think that the problem is that we do not know how to speak but that we are lazy. For me I try to use correct grammar in my speech in ordinary conversations but when it comes to my emails I could care less. The problem that I find with that is when it is time to write an email to a teacher it is hard to remember "Oh yeah" I have to use correct grammar. It has also made it difficult to write papers. I find myself in a habit that has become extremely difficult to break. I have started to try to stop abbreviating everything and I have tried to touch up on my skills in grammar and mechanics. I also do not think that the problem is necessary in emails but in our generation it is all the stuff we type on facebook or myspace and other social networks. We get in such a habit of typing such things as LOL or JK that it becomes a part of our language. I have at times found myself saying LOL or JK in a conversation that I am having with someone face to face and I think to myself wow did I really just say that. I think that the real problem is that people just do not care anymore. I think that most people think, "Oh it is not affecting me". When really it is. We need to start using our skills in everything or we are going to look stupid I think. Look at the difference. You could say "...because I am going to go, do you want to go?" or "cuz Im gonna go, u wanna go?" I think we are all in the habit of the latter but it looks so much better the first way. It really was not that hard and I think that we should all try to practice our conversation skills not only through our ordinary conversations but also the ones that we have through email, facebook, or myspace.

editorial cartoons

When having to choose a topic for this week I was not motivated. I was not sure where to even start. I think that this affect is because I am at the beach and while at the beach I am sitting here doing homework. So I decided to open up the book and start. When I saw the topic of editorial cartoons also known as political cartoons, I was intrigued. The first thing that comes to my mind was year 2004 when I was in eighth grade. This was the year that all of us knew we were about to start American History. We all had heard stories from previous students and how they did not like the class. We all knew it was going to be a difficult class with a difficult teacher. So as I braved the class there was one thing that I did enjoy doing. Every week she would give us a magazine and at the end of each magazine there was always a political cartoon that we had to evaluate and answer questions on. I always liked that because it made me think and I found a chance to think critically on our world. They were typically on things that had happened in the past, but they were still enjoyable. As an eighth grade student I found that they were a great tool to help teach us stuff in regards to history. I think that they serve a great purpose as a tool for teachers to use in a class room.

                I chose to answer prompt number six on page 366 in the Exploring Language book. The editorial cartoon can also be known as political criticism. They support and criticize political views through satire means. It is a way to communicate visually instead of verbally. They always tend to leave a strong impression whether it is a humorous one or not. They use powerful symbols and metaphors. As a communication medium they are a way to get a message across but in a easy let down way. To me I relate this to when people will say something but then they add a just kidding at the end of their statement. They are trying to get a message across without getting people hurt too much. I think that the editorial cartoons can be looked at in the same way. It is like saying their message then adding a just kidding at the end, knowing that it eased up the tension but that the message was loud and clear. I also believe that they are bad. I think that this makes people look at our problems in our government less seriously. When you look at our government now and all of its issues, it is a serious problem. One that should not be taken lightly. When people look at the cartoons people think that our problems are not that serious and they think that it is funny. I do not know if editorial cartoons are the best idea but personally I like them. I do find them entertaining.

Is there an equation for that?

            In this class my writing has improved. I feel like it has improved through the blog assignments and Exploring Language assignments. The blog has helped me be very expressive in my writing. I think that my writings are not as boring as they use to be. I have been able to put more thought and details into my writings. The blog writing assignments have been the most beneficial. I am not only learning how to express myself better but also learning to respond to a prompt and being organized in doing it. The Exploring Language assignments have helped me with my critical thinking skills. I have found that the questions make me think more than I thought they were going to require me to. I thought they were going to be easy questions about the previous essay but they actually made me stop and think. I think this has become helpful because I can now use the skills that I am developing from these assignments when writing essays in this class or any class in the future. I have also find the Peer draft revising extremely beneficial. I do not know if it is just that I was very lucky and one of the students in my group is extremely helpful, organized and intelligent.  She takes the serious time to read my essay through and gives wonderful comments that are beneficial to me. I also try to take the time to revise other's essays but I do not feel that I am that much helps since I too need to still develop skills. Another thing that I have enjoyed in this class is responding to other student's blogs. I do not know if it is much help to improving my writing skills but I enjoy it so I guess you can consider it good practice. So I feel like any writing is actually beneficial to me since I could probably use any practice that I can get. As far as my essays go I do not feel like I am getting improvement from them. I feel like I am struggling with them and since We have only done two so far and are working on our third one I have not had much time from improvement. I understand that they are great tools for me to use but I feel overall I have not made any improvements yet. I am hoping to see a change in that after this third essay. I am aiming to make any improvements I can. I have always been a math person. I always was able to use critical thinking skills for solving problems in that manner but when asked to write an essay about it I would much rather write an equation for it. So though I feel I am improving I still feel that I have a great need for improvement. I am hoping that by the end of this class I have found an answer to my problem.....Hey maybe there is an equation for it.

CENSORED

CENSORED

            In "Letting Words Fly", John McWhater points out that taboo language simply reflects our social mores. Social mores that I feel are declining with each decade. When asked do I feel that we should be able to use taboo language uncensored in the media, my feelings go both ways. I feel very strongly that taboo language should be censored, but that is just my personal opinion and I know that the whole world does not revolve around me. I just would rather not here such language especially as often as it is put out there in various forms of media. I believe there is a strong conservative population that feels the way I do. There are many organizations that focus on censoring language in the media and protecting our children. There are also many groups that fight to protect a persons right to free speech and not be censored. These groups would argue that people have the right to express themselves and people who might be offended by such language can choose not to listen and therefore not be offended. So I guess socially it should be allowed. I think that it should be done in a respectful manner. Those using taboo language should make sure it is in their rating and under parental guidance. I still think that it should be our utmost goal to protect the children and what they hear. I do think that what we do censor and what we do not censor is inconsistent. We should censor things in a consistently regulated manner. For example we can allow people to speak freely and say whatever they desire but make sure that the audience knows and is aware. They can then make the decision whether or not they are going to watch it or let their children watch it. You listen to our culture's music today and it has f-word, s-word, b-word, and h-word in almost every sentence. Yes they censor it out only enough so it is not the actual work but you can still tell what the word is supposed to be. Yes we have people that are against this language but we have more that accept it. It is in our culture. In the 1960's the morals were higher than what we have today. I do not know why language is being fussed over when you watch any television show and in at least one episode someone is practically naked and two people might as well be having sex. In most television shows the story lines revolve around sex. So I do not think that the language should be such a big deal but that we have bigger issues to work out. In Conclusion, I do not think that the true root of the problem is our media. They only do and will go as far as the public approves and allows. If such material did not sell it would not be a problem. If people did not make such an issue out of what was being said then things would not be censored. So technically the decision is on you. You call the shot what are you going to do about it?