Blog #12

This year I have learned a lot about writing, critical thinking, and analysis. I came into ENC1102 with the ability to write on any prompt, but I think that this course has furthered that ability. Having to write things like research papers really get you to think about what all you can say on a  topic. Although for the biggest to papers of this course we were allowed to pick our own topics, I still think that this is useful for writing in the future.

I can apply my more developed writing skills on a lot of things in the future, but one area will help me the most. A lot of people do not know that there are a myriad of scholarships out there. There are scholarships based on things like your race to scholarships in which a company like Coca-Cola just wants to help out our youth. As you all know, college can be expensive. No, college IS expensive. Most kids cannot even imagine getting through it without a little, or a lot, of help from their parents. I personally like to help my parents out with the cost by applying for these scholarships. The amount of money they are willing to give you varies but in the end every penny counts. I will you use my writing skills from this course to write the essays that each scholarship requires. They usually are not too long but my more complete understanding on writing on a topic will help me to write them faster and easier.

Bryan: I really got a feel for what you took from the class. Your blog was very different from my own but in a good way. I liked that you explained how specific things we have done in class have helped you in the real world. I also have trouble with grammar and agree that the only way to make it better is to read more often.

Glynnis: This class made me like writing a lot more as well. I agree that this was because of how open the topics on our paper were. A lot of the writing in high school made me feel trapped, but when you can write about anything you want, it made writing tolerable and maybe even fun. The setup of ENC1102 is great because it really opens yours to how writing really should be seen.

Blog #11

For my final paper, I am writing on an inspirational video called Kony 2012. It is about all of the internal war that is going on in Africa today, and how we as a generation have the ability to stop it. Specifically, Kony 2012 hones in on the child aspect of it. There are so many children that are taken from there homes and forced to fight in Kony’s army. With that being said Kony is a war leader of what is called the LRA, or Lord’s Resistance Army. He is the one behind all the deaths that happen there. What’s worse is that he is not even fighting for a cause; he literally is fighting just to stay in power.

                The methods used in this documentary are eye opening to say the least. The way they use imagery and sound to project a certain emotion is spot on, and no normal person can be unaffected by its words. For example, they show flashes of how Kony made his child army mutilate the faces of boys and girls. It is horrifying to watch what he does to these innocent people. But then they also use rhetorical techniques to convince the viewers to actually go out and do something about it. They make it seem fun to put up posters and use music of today to get us pumped about it. It is obviously being directed towrd a younger generation considering all the techniques used and the way they say things.

Nick: I agree with your analysis of your artifact. I honestly have never wondered how it is to be a marching cheif and this got me interested. I agree that the audience is directed to FSU students and coud not have said it any better myself.

Lyndan: From what I can tell, you are spot on with your judgments. Athletes go through so much to be so talented and you really showed that through your analysis.

Blog #9

would not let me post images so I made it in a word doc and emailed to you

Blog #8

               My research paper is on my major, Exercise Science. Exercise science is such a broad field, I feel like it would be useful to look deeper into what jobs are available to those graduating with this degree. And when I say ‘jobs’, I do not mean the normal jobs that anyone can think of for a science major. I am researching the not so traditional jobs in this field as well. I investigate why exercise science is important not only to society but also to me. My major helps society by providing me with the education to get a job that will inevitably help other people. For me, my major will get me a solid job with a good paycheck.

                I interviewed my academic advisor, Margaret Hansard, and she gave me great insight into the many jobs that so few exercise science majors consider when applying to med schools. I also have research in a few books from Strozier Library. They basically explain why the medical field jobs are so important; society would inevitably crash without them. My internet article sources are how I got started; they just explain my major actually is and the most often pursued careers after graduation. My research paper is less of an argument and more an exploratory piece on something that I am very interested in and will directly impact my future in life. I make it clear that Exercise Science is a worthy major to go after because of the  numerously great job possibilities and their impact on the people around us.

Comment for Brian Casale:
Your topic on foriegn policy and how we basically only went into the middle east to help ourselves is a stance that I firmly agree with. This was a great topic becasue one can tell how fired up about it you are. I like that you put the facts out there so that it is hard to disagree with your side.

Blog #7

"Exercise Science Undergraduate Program." College of Human Sciences. Florida State University,2010.Web. 17 Feb. 2012. http://www.chs.fsu.edu/nfes_undergrad_es.

 

I got this article about my major from google. I typed in ‘exercise science major’ and this was the first website on the list. It turns out that it was also a very helpful one in starting my research. It helped me to find out which jobs were worth researching for after graduation. The article explains that the major exercise science is the combination of nutrition in humans and exercise physiology. It also gives a helpful list of possible careers choices in this major. This was where my paper first started to take shape.

comment for Ingrid

This movie looks very good! From your discription, it made go right to youtube and watch the preview, which says something about how persuasively you write. Your description left me with many questions that only watching the movie could answer, which is exactly what the back of any dvd case on this movie would try to do as well. I liked that you kept it short and sweet, not too many words that would overwhelm those who might read it.

Blog #6 The Notebook

The Notebook is a romantic drama with a star-full cast including Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams. Allie (McAdams) and Noah (Gosling) lived a world apart. Allie’s family live a life of luxury and peace, while Noah has a life full of toil and labor ahead of his almost poverty stricken family. Some how their paths intertwined, but not like normal; they immediately feel the strong bond that pulls them together. This bond is something unheard of and this is their story. Whether it is Allie’s stubborn parents who keep them apart or their own stubbornness that leads to much too many fights, the outcome does not seem too good. But there seems to be something different about their relationship…something keeps it alive even when they are apart for long periods of time, physically and mentally.

The question is can love and passion last when social differences are at their extremes? Watch this movie and you will see a love story materialize before yours eyes that is original and mind-blowingly beautiful to understand. A movie based off of Nicolas Sparks’ award winning novel, The Notebook will keep you guessing and on the edge of your seat the entire time; a passionate love story that will make you sob, laugh, and yell all at once.

Blog #5

A very misleading statement that many people believe about writing is ‘The paper won’t be revised substantially’. The truth of the matter is that this statement has no truth in it what so ever. When you write a paper, it should be written in multiple drafts and then a final paper. What would be the point of all of these drafts if the paper was not going to change much? For the first draft, it is only a very basic skeleton of what your paper should look like at the end. The difference between draft one and your final paper should be drastic, going from just jotting down ideas and where you want to go with the topic to a complete understanding of the topic with clear analysis or your opinion on it.

On the other hand, a very important writing tool that many people condone for some unknown reason is the statement ‘you can use your own writing voice’. When writing a paper, or anything for that matter, it is important to show yourself in your words. As a grew up, I was taught never to use words like ‘I’ or ‘you’ because it was too personal and papers were supposed to be objective. In reality, it is totally fine to use these words as long as it is not overboard. A paper should be abjective, but that does not mean you cannot throw in a splash of color every once and a while. Using your own writing voice is what makes reading your papers fun.

Comment for Alexa B:

I definitely agree with you about using your own experiences and observations. The statement I chose was very similar: ‘you can use your own writing voice’.  Without adding our experiences, a paper would be too dull to comprehend. It is important that we add in our experiences so that the reader is hooked.

Comment for Donovan: You made some good points that I did not think about. I agree with you; one must know their thesis when starting a paper. If you do not knwo the direction in whcih you are writing, your work will be all over the place. I believe that when writing on a topic you must choose a side and firmly stick to it. You cannot write a paper when you have no idea what the direction is.

comment for Donovan Wiseman

I never thought about it but you are definietly right that the interiews from our last paper was us doing research. I think this was because they were actually fun, and I see research as long hard hours looking at a computer screen. I am also relatively new to Tallahassee and have had to mapquest all sorts of things. It is crazy how much research we do in our everyday lives.

Comment for Bryan Casale

I had the exact same thoughts on my highschool research paper. It is definetly easier to research in our everyday lives about things that we are actually interested in than research for a school research paper on a topic not to our liking. It is cool that you are really interested in looking up songs, I have always wanted to be but never put in the time or effort.

Blog #4:Research

When it comes to research for papers and classes, I do not have very much experience. I went through high school with all my teachers scaring us, telling us that in college we would have to write enormous papers on the most dull of topics. Just the word ‘research’ makes me nervous. I prefer writing about things I already know; for example, I like writing about my opinion on things. I guess you could say that just like every other high school and college student I am very lazy. I consider myself lucky because I only had to do one research paper in all my four years. It was called our ‘Senior Research Project’, and one of the most stressful tings I have ever had to do. Unlike now in college, they just told us it had to be ten pages and the due date. There were no drafts or conferences, so basically we all had no idea whether we were doing it right or not. I was lucky because I had a teacher that actually cared about us and helped when we were stressed.

                With that being said, research is not as bad as I made it out to be in my head. In fact, just minutes ago I was researching how to do an impossible chemistry homework problem. I research things on Google all day every day. As long as you give yourself enough time to research, also known as not procrastinating, the work will most likely be enjoyable.

comment for Donovan Wiseman

I actually saw this movie as well and thought it was amazing. I saw the commercial once and was automatically hooked just like you. I feel that this was a great commercial to pick because it truely does draw you in no matter your age or interests. Watching the commercial before reading you blog made me want to go see it again; I guess that goes to show just how enticing it is!

comment for Alexa Broderick

It is very suprising that a corporation as family oriented as McDonalds would put up such a riskay advertisment. I question its legitamency but for the purpose of this assignment I would say you were probably right about teenagers-young adults being the target audience. If my grandma saw this she would have no idea what was going on! Its great that you brought some comedy into your blog; it makes homework assignments go by alot faster!

Blog #3- Dr. Pepper Commercial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iuG1OpnHP8
^I highly suggest you watch this youtube video before reading this blog; it will make way more sense.  The advertisement I chose is a Dr Pepper 10 commercial that aired recently. It is a widely sexist commercial trying a little too hard to get the attention of men. When one thinks about something that is trying hard to sell something to a certain type of audience, this is always the first advertisement on mind. The whole entire commercial is a huge action scene supposedly from a movie women would not be interested in. There are, but not limited to, laser beams, snakes, doonbuggies, and even the famous net trapping the bad guys. The main character is a buff and rugged man in what seems to be his late forties. Everything he utters from the mouth on his manly jaw is either offensive to women or declaring how great men are. If you have not realized this by now, the commercial is directed toward men (though I would only hope you have).  The design teams’ strategy for this fine piece of work is simple: go big or go home. After doing a little research, it turns out that this commercial was launched when the company got feedback that Dr Pepper was drunken by mostly women. Thus, they created a flashy and enticing new product in steel gray, the most manly of colors, and an action packed commercial to go with it. This commercial draws in the audience no matter who it is because it is ridiculous and a bit comical. I can honestly say that this commercial did exactly what they wanted it to do; it got loads of attention.

Comment for Bryan Casale

I can tell from reading your ost that you have a passion for guitar like I have a passion for dance. These things get us through the hard times and it is good to know that you can always rely on it. I actually want to start playin gthe guitar but I do not have the time. The truth is that I got a guitar for Christmas in eighth grade and never used it.

comment for Alexa Broderick

The fact that the fox hat can make you so comfortable is amazing to me because I have always wondered why people wear hats like these and your blg has helped me to understand. I wish I had a magic hat that would help me in the awkward moments of my life!

Bog#2: Dance

Dance has been something that really helped me get through hard times. I am the type of person that really needs something to focus all my energy on; for me this was dance. Dancing on my school’s dance team was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. We had class every day and practiced thirty five hours a week. I am sure that in seeing how much we practiced, it is no surprise that we were ranked in the top dance teams of the United States. The four years that I spent dancing were probably the most intense and painful years of my life. There was constant stress put on me to work a little harder, to be a little more flexible, to practice for a few more minutes, and I felt as though any moment I would break. The truth is that what got me through the injuries and long hours was my passion. I feel like everyone has the potential to be great, and jazz and lyrical dancing was what I was amazing at doing. I could lose myself in the music no matter how many times we repeated the song or step. Without dance, I honestly do not think I would have made it into Florida State University. The friends I made on my dance team and my coach all pushed me to be the best I could, and although I felt as though the world was pressing hard against my shoulders back then, I now look back and wish I had the chance to be on the team once again. Dance was and still is something that I can put my full heart into and feel like everything will be ok.