Thursday, April 10, 2008

Impressions on class

There's not much I can say that I haven't said before because I still enjoy the class the way it is. I think that meeting one day a week is more than enough to get through the information we have covered in the class and think if there was another day in there the class would end up repetitive and boring. I especially still like the blog system because there are really only a few people in class that will talk but then I get on the blog and read stuff they have to say and find that they aren't as quiet and shy when posting. But because the younger kids need to learn to be more open and not so afraid of public speaking there should be some kind of points system for participation or maybe an assignment where you have to public speak.

Assessment

Genres are identified by the different aspects of the story, the characters, and the setting and also the intended audience. For the aurgumentative paper I obviously had to have an overall argument for my paper to be in that genre. To identify a genre you have to look at those elements of the story, if I were to read a story about aliens I would guess it’s in the science fiction genre.

When I wrote my argumentative paper I tried to use a strong tone and language to try to not only get my point across but to try to get the reader to think the way I did. I described problems that have occurred because of illegal immigration and tried to state ways in which they could be avoided. I organized the text so that there were counterarguments to what I was arguing against so that I could use the counterarguments to show that I see the other side but also to point out the flaws in their argument.

For the argumentative paper in which I argued that the US needs to be stricter on border control. I felt as though the boundaries of the paper restricted me at times because I was only supposed to argue for one side and there were times when I would find good information that would lead me to lean towards the sides I was arguing against. Then I would feel as though because I was arguing for one side I couldn’t allow certain information into my paper since it would hurt my argument. Many times I felt as though my argumentative paper could have become an ethnology paper since I could’ve profiled men and women who have illegally crossed the borders.

I chose to compare the ethnology and argumentative papers. Both are similar since they are both giving the reader information about people or a topic that they may not know about already. Except that with the ethnology paper you have to start from scratch whereas the argumentative paper you can assume that the reader already knows some facts about what you are writing about. Both are written for an audience that is looking for information on a certain subject. With the argumentative paper you are looking to shape how people feel or view a particular subject.

For a love letter there have to be certain components to actually make it a love letter. First off you will need to have one person as an audience, probably not a good idea to write a love letter to different people. Next you will need to tell that person how you are feeling towards them, this is most important since a love letter has to contain parts in it to show how you care. If you are typing out this love letter it would be nice to include a more elegant style of font instead of the basic times new roman that will make the writing look more cursive, or if you are handwriting the letter then do it in cursive.

Film maker

If I were to look up work by Peter Jackson I would go to www.imdb.com since it is fill with a filmmakers works listed in chronological order.
To make use of this search I would mainly use the internet.
I would try to gather information from people that work in movie stores where Peter Jackson’s movies are for rent
I would decide what movies were applicable to my search by using ones he directed if I was focusing on his directorial work or ones he produced if I wanted to focus on ones where he worked as a producer.
For criteria I would use how much the movie made, what genre the movie is in, if he also produced the movie

Credible sources could be documentary films on the movies Peter has made. Also you could use the movies themselves and the techniques that Peter used while filming. Sources that would not be credible would be magazines that cover celebrity gossip such as Star and the National Enquirer.

I used citation in my argumentative paper to help state facts about immigration and other people’s views on the subject. I citied using direct quotations to show the exact words that people had said about the subject and used direct quotation to try to help my argument out.

Formal Citation works within an essay to back up claims that you try to make yourself and to support the things that you want to get across to your reader. They help create the argument by showing that there are more people who share the same view as you do and also to give some researched facts about the subject. Also you can do a summary which will let the reader know that the information may be changed slightly but the general idea came from somewhere else. This helps create the argument by allowing the reader to know you aren’t just regurgitating someone else’s words but did get some information from an outside source.

Its or it’s, a basic problem but a minor mistake that I used to make all the time. Although I don’t feel like I mastered which one to use because lets face it, even the best writers make mistakes and I’m definitely not the best writer. But, I have felt that I’ve improved in knowing which one to use and at which time and I think this is mainly due to the peer editing because the people that have corrected my papers have always seemed to have a better understanding on which one to use and have helped me by correcting my papers.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Project Proposal

I was thinking of doing a movie analysis on American Beauty. My focus would be on looking at the characteristics of different people in the movie to show how the characters change over time during the movie and how that ends up affecting their lives. Otherwise I would want to do the book The Road about a man and his son trying to survive in a post apocolyptic world. I would focus on the writing style used and also the man and his son and how their relationship is much like the relationship between god and Jesus and what message the writer is trying to get across to the reader

Hillary Clinton

1. Mine: my initial response is that she’s lying because she’s been using Bill to help her campaign, which is a really smart idea so she shouldn’t deny it. Also I like her ending joke about cleaning up after the Bushes.
Roomates: Initial response is that she did a good job of trying to convince people she doesn’t want to be judged by her husband’s accomplishments

2. Mine: It’s emotional because I’m annoyed that she is trying to deny using Bill as a political weapons, I think it’s the right thing for her to do but she shouldn’t deny it.
Roomates: Intellectual because he follows the presidential race closely and thinks he is making the decision because of stuff he’s previously thought

3. Mine: It’s organized by her answering what I’m assuming was a questions to her, which most politicians don’t do, and then making a little joke at the end of it.
Roomates: It’s organized well because she gets her point across but then changes the subject on her own terms

4. Mine: The author wants us to believe that she is not using her husband as a political weapons and wants to be judge solely on what she has done
Roomates: Thinks that Hillary wants us to think she is qualified for presidency because of the stuff she has done

5. Mine: The thesis is Hillary Clinton wants the public to look at her accomplishments not her husbands
Roomates: said pretty much the same thesis I had

6. Neither of us could figure out what genre this would go into

7. We both know about this object because of the new following the elections

Active vs Passive

1. Steve gave the waitress the check



2. He recommended the policy be changed.



3. Jenny made a study of the problem



4. A bolt of lightning hit the tower.



5. Jose caught the fly ball.



6. They overheard that some people will be leaving the company.



7. Mr. Smith gave the donation.



8. A rancher in Wyoming discovered the gold



9. The amount written on the check was one million dollars



10. The family made several donations.

Two papers

The first paper does a good job or order and structure for what they are trying to accomplish but the way it’s laid out to its audience is pretty boring. They just spell it out which is nice because it’s straightforward With the second paper they do it in a more humorous way with pictures which could keep it more interesting but the layout is a lot like a textbook which kind of throws off the whole point of it being different. Also it can be a bit harder to understand since you have to reverse everything they tell you.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Class Structure

I like the class structure we have now. When writing and posting on blogs I think more about my comments so that I can acctually give some people advice that might help them. Also it makes me think about my own work more because I know I'm writing to people around my age which changes how I would write if I was just turning something into a professor. I also like how I can get feedback right from people on if they like a topic or not, or just what they think about it. I would definitely recommend keeping the class this way because it opens people up more and lets them see what other people are doing and get ideas on what to do themselves. Plus I'm not a big fan of class lectures in general and think that in most of my classes I've had as Western the time I spend in there is wasted and unhelpful.