In Class Free Write

The semester is winding down and all of my professors are trying to cram in as much information, quizzes, tests and projects as they possibly can. I really wonder why sometimes teachers can realize that they all do this so it is inevitable that a class or two will go by the way side in order to achieve a better grade in another class. This entire process is frustrating. As the semester ends and the summer begins my life will still be consumed with school and work like always. I know that everyone who graduates college says that you will want to be back in school once you are out, but I cant help but wonder if life would be nicer without that looming test that you need to get an A on to pass the class. Maybe it is just me and I take grades and classes too seriously, but looming tests can be a constant source of anxiety. As the seniors go on to graduate they all decided to give us younger girls some words of advice. I found their advice very limiting and it consisted mainly of them telling us to not worry so much about grades because in the end they dont really matter. I wonder if they all had good or even decent grades and that is why it did not matter. Once they said this I was like wait you think grades do not matter? Seems to me that all my life grades have mattered and those with better grades seem to achieve more. It is a nice notion to think that in the real world life is not based on grades but on personal achievment and effort which can only be determined by personal and professional climbing and achievement. I still feel I am too young to be so worried about such things, but it was on my mind when this free write started.

Unit 3 Proposal

The topic we chose was the issue of childhood obesity in America. We would like to argue that having a healthy diet and exercising more will help this obesity issue, in the sense that if the parents create these habits, then their children will be akin to them and improve their quality of life. We decided that a newspaper article would be a good medium to reach most obese adults that could channel the information to children and overall help the issue in our nation. The newspaper article would run in a newspaper in a known obese city. The second argument will come in the form of a comic strip that discusses improving a child's life using emotional appeals, and cartoons are something everyone can grasp, especially younger people. The third argument is a bumper sticker using humor to get the point across. This argument is one that we normally do not think about, but it is a pertinent and continually persuasive element in our "driven" society. As a group we will hope that we can put together these arguments effectively, along the lines of the issue at hand. Other than that, we are ready to rock out.

Visual Argument Free Write

The visit bullet point that I believe applies to unit there is the first one under 'About the Medium.'n It states which media are used for this visual text? Image only? Words and images? Sound, video, graphs, charts? I think this is important in unit three because that it one of the biggest decisions we have to make. We are supposed to use a medium that is pertinent to our topic and makes sense. For instance if the topic is national then we would want to try to use electronic sources so that they could be accessed more easily national than something like a local paper. The medium must be relevant to the topic and must be cohesive. You should not just pick a flyer because it might be an easier choice, but you should choose a flyer because its the best medium to get your information heard.

Also another good point that the book makes is about the viewers and readers. What does the visual text assume about its viewers, and about what they know and agree with? This encompasses a lot of different elements of the audience. First who are you trying to appeal to and who is your target audience? When creating visual arguments you must decide what age group, gender, economic circumstances, and race you are trying to reach. Then you need to develop your argument in a way that is best understood by that audience. For instance when talking about child obesity our group would want to appeal to the hard working mother so we would not want to just put an article in the paper but we would want to perhaps put those articles in a magazine specifically targeted towards women, or if it was a flyer we would want to hang it in places were women with children frequent like a supermarket. These things are very important because they allow your argument to be heard accurately and make an actual impact on the people you are trying to reach. With out evaluating your audience your argument will be lost.

In Class Free Write

Well to be honest I completely forgot that we had a reading assignment. I believe it discussed styles. Of course I will now go back and read the chapter I missed. As I walked into class I thought to myself oh shoot I wonder if there was a reading assignment. Well there was which is very unfortunate for me because I did not read the chapter. At the schools I have attended so far there has been a heavy emphasis on writing, but I have felt many times there is not very much room for my own unique style of writing. I find it very hard to branch off from the fact, evidence, evidence detailed paragraph style. I feel like through out this class I have become more comfortable with my writing and I am better able to go beyond the specific taught paragraph and paper style and attempt to create a style of writing. Unit three has a huge aspect of style incorporated into it. The very fact that we are allowed to make any type of media evokes style. When it comes to different media other than writing we are allowed to expand our thoughts and create things that we might not have been able to think of when just writing a paper. I personally like using other media because it gives me a chance to use my creative side, which it not heavily utilized being a science major. I really love pictures and art so any time that I am able to incorporate these into a project and I usually use them to my benefit.

Group Work

My role in our group project is the leader.  We decided that my title would be pretty clear as to what I am in charge of.  My main role is the organization of the group.  After our group decides on our official topic and we decide on the times and place we will meet I am in charge of e-mailing each member of the group.  I will also act as the secretary and document anything that needs to be documented. Towards the end of the project I will be the person who puts the finishing touches and the reports together as a whole.  We decided that we would help each member with the research and brainstorming about ideas.  We also decided that the final memo would also be collaborative.  The other aspect of the group project that I am in charge of is making a informational video on our topic.  The idea is still a dough draft but I will work on that and get the idea more concrete.

Group Members:

Tripp

Priest

Elora

In Class Free Write

I hate group work. Every time I get put into groups at least one of the members does not follow through or does not care what so ever about their grade in their class. Since I probably care too much I usually have to do their work as well in order to get the good grade that I want. This is completely unfair because that means that person gets a good grade for doing absolutly nothing. Also I am generally a very busy person because I have two jobs and go to class and study so the time that I am available is pretty slim which is not the case for most people. Also I find myself always being on time with my group work because I think it is very important to be considerate of other people so I try to get my work done on time or at least ahead of time. Most people do not recipracate. Now after all this complaining about people and group work there are some fellow classmates that I know would be considerate of others in their group and get their work in on time and well done. So I can not generalize the population and say that everyone is like this, but just most of the experiences I have had in the past the group does well except for that one bad apple who drags us down. Last semester I had a group project and the girl never did her part and most of the time did not show up to our meetings unless she was 30 minutes late which was a problem since our meetings generally were only 30 minutes. Then she used sources like Wikipedia which really drove me crazy.

An ideal group work situation would entail all of the people in the group doing their part. By splitting up the work evenly one person would not feel the most responsible for the project and it would probably be just about the same amount of work for each person and in the end be easier for each member. Also by being timely and efficent in our in class workshops and out of class meeting we could probably have the project done way before we needed to which would allow us to focus on the other finals that we will be having that week. If everyone does their part of the project at home ahead of time then our work in class would be much easier and it would go more smoothly.

In this project the first role will be the leader of the group which mostly directs the group and makes sure all parts of the project are accomplished as well as helping the other members with brain storming about the argument we will choose and then researching our topic. Everyone in the group should have an equal small role in thinking of a good argument and the complex stance that the group is taking on that argument. Once that is decided the group as a whole can decide on what type of media should be used which will be best for the topic that we chose. Next each memeber should choose which media they want to focus on and the fourth member should help which ever member has the hardest one. After research and development of those arguments the group should collaborate on the cover letter so that there is a consensus on what the overall project is saying.

In Class Free Write

It actually surprised me how long my blog actually has become. Scrolling from my most up to date post to my very first post took quite a while. Throughout the class it did not even seem like we were writing that much and generating that much text, but in fact professor Irvin was correct about how we would be generating about thirty pages of text for each unit. It does not seem like it was that long ago that we were blogging about the inauguration, but by scrolling through the blog posts it was actually a long time ago. Also we have not blogged or done a free write in class for a about four weeks and it was actually really weird to begin to blog again.

The semester is coming to an end an all of our classes are cramming in as much as they can in this last month. I am very glad now that this class is heavy up front because it will give me a chance to focus on everything I need to focus on with out being overwhelmed. I am also looking forward to the next unit because I enjoy visual project more than written papers. I might be changing my tune after I am done with it, but for now I am optimistic.