The Uneducated American

Shit, i almost forgot to write this, its 1 in the morning lol. Well anyways i thought my analysis essay didn't go to well. But i was thinking about the piece that i wrote about, Uneducated American by Paul Krugman. I'm sure you guys read it, and i was just wanted to say that i completely agree with it. If the American government doesn't do something to get our national education up to snuff, then we could see more of a decline in our graduation rate. i think the government should put more money into education and less in other places. People, once wanted to come to America and study, now i think that in time more will want to go to other countries. Like Krugman said, Education made America great; neglect of education can reverse the process.

Breathe Easy for a while...

WOW! That's over now I can breathe easy for a while...reading those words reminded me of that Sara Bareilles-Love Song...Anyways I really hope that I did everything right in that Rhetorical Analysis essay. Of course, I didn't know what we were going to do so I felt a little blinded in the fact that I did not know exactly what we were going to write about in our essay, but I believe all in all that I met the challenge at least I know I tried my absolute best while writing the Analytical essay. If you think about it it was a kind of interesting, reading the article, The Uneducated American, and then really thinking about every word that the author said...I felt like I was putting the reading under a microscopic scope only I did not need a high magnified glass to do so. So, Fantastic Five, how well do you think you did? I think we where absolutely fantastic! Brittany was definitely all ready to give it her best shot before we walked in to write! :)


-Sarah

Orwell Essay

It was hard to read and understand Orwell's essay but it was totally worth it. It's amazing to see how people manipulate words and phrases to get away with many things. It was kind of ironic that many parts in his essay were very confusing and used complex words like does in his examples, I guess it has alot to do with the essay being written so long ago. The question that keeps bothering me is if we should completely get rid off bad english or should we keep some of it?


Alejandro Perez

Its AMAZING

The article was definately difficult to read but also interesting (that is after Kate disected it a bit for us to get us thinking). But my main focus now is trying to make sure that I make good detailed notes so when we write the essay I am well prepared and can fulfill the assignment with ease. I liked the activities that we did this week dealing with speeches and how one person may use language in different situations. For instance "freedom" was used in a totally different way than many of us would think. But when used in context with "fries" it was like an AAAhhhhh HHHHAAA moment and then the SAME word "freedom" had another definition!----THATS CRAZY :) Well, guys we ARE fantastic five so good luck on those papers and lets AMAZE KATE :)






Brittany

Speech for the better or worse?

In class while watching the Hitler speech, I was thinking about different speakers and how the use of words can really change the way people think about a situation. Martin Luther King Jr., Might have been one of the most influential speakers of all time. You could probably say that this nation would be different if it wasn’t for Dr. King’s words. Just knowing that words can have this kind of effect on people is kind of scary. What if someone in the Middle East started doing the same thing as Hitler did with the Germans?
-Ryan Adair

Keep in Mind: “A speaker can say a lot without saying anything at all.”

I was just thinking about that Hitler video clip Kate showed us in class earlier today. The fact is that it is really scary when a speaker like Hitler is speaking he or she can speak in extremely general terms so the audience doesn’t really know what the speaker is saying. And because the speaker or politician speaks so general, the audience can basically conclude whatever the speaker or politician is saying; the audience can make it into whatever they may feel like, and apply it into their own beliefs and wants.

So here are a few questions that rose in my mind when I was writing this.

Why then would a speaker/politician not want the audience to know his or her agenda?

What’s so wrong with being black and white on a subject?

If a speaker wants to win an audience, then why does it seem like the speaker is hindered when it comes to sharing his or her beliefs? Furthermore, doesn’t everyone want to know the beliefs of a speaker/ politician?

-Sarah

Je ne sais pas

For the essay “Politics and the English Language” I really had to look a bunch of words up. I found the essay quite confusing especially when he was talking about the 5 passages that were examples of how not to write. I feel like this essay should be in a dictionary, I mean what exactly is, “verbal false limbs?” However, when Kate told us to look up images today from World War II, I understand a little bit better on where Orwell is coming from. He was writing after the rise and fall of Nazi Germany and I think that Orwell was concerned on how Hitler used words to “start a revolution.” I think Orwell was trying to open Americans minds about how politicians use language to spark revolutions and he hoped to prevent what happened to Germany from happening to America. Remember what Kate said in class ask yourself when you hear a speech from a politician, “Why do you agree with what someone is saying? Why do you like what you are hearing?”

C&C Peer Review

I must say that I am very happy we got extra time to go over our and digest our teachers comments. It really helped me see were I stand in the class. Also the peer review was very handy. I didn't participate in the first peer review so this was a new experience for me. Seeing my paper through another's persons eyes really helped me see all the gramatical errors and bad sentence structure I was using. The first time I write something it feels like its done perfectly, but when I read it over again I can see that many of my sentences are confusing and long. I believe that the peer review for my compare and contrast paper really helped me improve it by fixing gramatical errors and restructuring my sentences.



Alejandro Perez

Ethos, Pathos, Logos

So, like many other weeks in the past this week has FLOWN by so fast. I do not know where the time is going but I am glad that its not creepin!!!!! Anyway, at first I was really nervous about the essay but at this moment I am really eager to get to the assignment and see just how it is going to be. I am not saying that I am about to "kill it"-(dominate it) but I am saying that im going to try my hardest and relax a little because after this week of working on paper after paper after paper my stress level is up and I dont wanna hear the word essay for a long while :) but I know that is not going to happen which is why im feeling like "bring it on mr. ethos, pathos, logos" :). That concept is pretty hard to grasp to but I know if I have any difficulty after reviewing it in class Thursday I can go to Kate....and she will definately help me out. It really makes a HUGE difference when you have a good teacher who CARES---thats why I alway pick the GOOD ONES :)


Brittany Peterson

Thank goodness we have more time to read that article. That thing was so hard to read, I read the first page and I was like ill save it for another time. But I hope that new essay we have to do isn’t as bad I think it is. I’ve been thinking about it a lot and I just don’t think I can write a essay in just class time, like that first essay we had to write the first day of class I was freaking out because I didn’t have enough time.
-Ryan Adair ps. I hope you get better Kate!

Hook

Based off of the "Female Fear Factor” essay in the back of the essay "Considering the Issues"; is there to help the reader of this essay expand his or her thoughts. "Considering the Issues“ talk about grabbing the viewer or readers attention, also known as the "hook.” In this video I found Diane Sawyer gives, yet another great example of descriptive words thus trying to capture the attention of an individual; perhaps a busy mother in the early morning before she takes her children to school. Sawyer may be able to hook that mother for at least six minutes or so with these words that she uses: Sawyer states, "Imagine this you can live a healthy vital energetic life well past the age of 100!" Later she states “revolutionary” This video give me a clearer view of what words a journalist may use in order to hype up his or her story.
-Sarah
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eoxRUszL4M

pen is to picture as details are to essays

Today I realized that drawing is a lot like writing; so, I decided to use one of my own pictures as my aesthetic. When I draw I first pencil the outline of the flower; then I go back with a pen and fill in the details. This is just like when you first begin to write an essay, you create an outline or a “ruff draft” that abruptly gets to the main point of what you want to say, and then you go back and fill in the details of your story.

I was comforted today when I found out other people were nervous about the analytical essay too. So, I did some googling and found some tips on how to write your outline for the analytical essay. This can be found at http://www.wikihow.com/Write-an-Analytical-Essay

1. In the first paragraph really explain what it is about.
2. Start to plot out what you want to write. Do this underneath your introduction.
3. Come up with a main idea for each paragraph. Explain your main idea; maybe throw in a quote that will help to explain it in better detail.
4. Back up your ideas with examples. If you're writing a descriptive essay, consider a personal example. Otherwise, find an objective example to support your analysis.
5. Follow these procedures for each paragraph that you need to write.
6. State your conclusion. Restate your introduction and leave the readers thinking. Make your conclusion something very brief that anyone could read.
Tips
7. Beginnings and endings are good places to use quotes, metaphors, and repetition, for effect, because introductions and conclusions should not have any details or in-depth analysis; that is what your body paragraphs are there for.
8. If you are writing a formal analysis or critique, then avoid using colloquial writing. Though informal language may bring some color to a paper, you do not want to risk weakening your argument by influencing it with verbal slang.
9. Ask yourself "What am I trying to prove?" The answer should be in your thesis. If not, go back and fix it.
Warnings
• Avoid making your essay too tacky by using too few quotations. Remember that you want to incorporate others' ideas, too.
• Don't try to add useless sentences to make an analytical essay longer; it is better to leave it short and to the point. Make each sentence count.

Analysis

This week has been a CRAZY AND STRESSFUL one. I have four papers due, two tests and regular homwork assignments. Taking 5 classes is a great burden!!!!! But, I had no choice because of where I stand in academics and graduation. However, I am still trying my best to do the best that I can because so far in college I never made anything less than a B and I dont even like making those :) BUT......I sure am not going to start making any Cs now and I definately WILL NOT MAKE ANYTHING LESS THAN THAT!!!!!!!!! I do not consider myself a good writer but when I turn in a paper my instructor thinks otherwise. I am reminded of my Junior year in high school we were required to write a research paper and man I stressed and stressed and stressed but to make a long story short my teacher thought it was good and she asked if she could make a copy to keep! It made me feel good but still writing is a weakness. It is ALWAYS hard for me to get started and coming up with a concrete and good introduction. Also, a weakness for me is the conclusion people always say "its the easiest" but somehow tying all the loose ends is hard :) Writing is not my forte I guess but being that I want to get a Masters degree I definately have to work hard to become better and when I hear the word "paper" or "essay" I wont freak out so much. With that being said with the next essay being in class I hope that I can pull off a good one because I usually need w hole lot of time to really get a nice product :)



Brittany Peterson

Food inc. is a moviei think everyone should see. After watching the movie all i could think about was making the change to organic foods. I know I want to, but it’s just so darn expensive. I think for now I will just make my way to the farmer’s market every week and buy just a couple of things. In the movie I found it hard to believe that there are really only four major meat manufactures and almost every grocery store we go to has a different label for their meat. The picture of the desolate field with thousands to cows and absolutely no grass is pretty disturbing and every time I see packed meat I see this picture in my mind. I also found the they way they treated the chickens was horrible the way they grow so fast they can’t even walk without collapsing in a couple of feet. I think I will buy the green wise chicken at Publix for now on. -Ryan Adair

Outline

For me organization in this essay was the hardest to master. Along with thinking about how or what to compare and contrast that to me was also difficult because you can compare/ contrast almost anything anyway in any format. But it wasn’t until I took my fist rough draft to my former prep English teacher, did it become so much clearer to me how to organize a Compare/Contrast paper because I for one had no clue how to create an outline in order to keep my thoughts organized for this compare and contrast essay. He gave me an example of how to use the A/B formula which once I started rewriting did I find order and clearer thoughts on my paper. I find it rather ironic that I did a blog on grammar rules, and my peer reviewer brought to my attention that that was what I needed to work on the most...Oops!
-Sarah

Today was a really stressful day for me. However, I feel much better now that I am home sitting at my own computer after a long shower. This semester is quickly flying along; before we know it it will be Thanksgiving =)

I am anxious to start fixing the errors my peer reviewer noticed in my c/c essay and am looking forward to moving on to the next paper... I wonder what it will be on?

I am really enjoying this class. I really love showing people my writing and I especially enjoy getting better at it. This class is so essential for us who live in the 21st century. To be able to pick a part an advertisement can help you if you are interested in a marketing degree, and it can also help you to understand the next ad you see on T.V. It also opens your mind to a new realm of understanding marketers tactics. I will never look at a billboard, magazine, or commercial the same ever again!

WOW!!!!!!!!

I must say that i just saw the movie Food Inc. at the Hippodrome and it was a really well done documentary from which we can all learn a bit from. I have always had the question of were our food really comes from, but i have never really gone out of my way to research this. It's amazing to believe how miss informed we are about our food and that the reason for this is that the big food corporations and our goverment do anything they can to hide it away from us. This documentary has really made an impact on me; later that day I was eating at Dragonfly and I kept asking myself is this food organic or does it come from those big corporations that show little interest in our well-being.




Alejandro Perez