English 112

The Things I Have Learned

hconnor — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 13:18:42 +0000

I have learned many things in English 112 throughout this semester, however, the three most important lessons I have learned are:

1. Synthesizing my sources. I had never known how to do this, and I never knew how effective it is! It really helps an essay to connect the sources in some way and relate them to each other. I have to write many essays in my other courses and this will definitely come in handy for those papers.

2. Writing effective introductions and conclusions. I used to write simple and boring intros and conclusions. They got the point accross, but were not very effective in catching the readers attention. I feel that throughout the course of this semester I have really learned to engage the reader’s attention right from the beginning with and effective and interesting introduction, while finishing the paper out with an effective conclusion.

3. Reading and thinking critically. I took a Critical Thinking course last semester which helped me in this area, however, I feel that this course really helped me with my critical thinking skills. I had to read all of my sources carefully and annotate them and critically think about what they were trying to say. Essay 2 really helped me with this. This will also be important for the future and future essays. I can always use these critical thinking skills in any course I will take and I can use these skills out in the real world.

Overall, English 112 has been hard work, but many valuable lessons have been learned. I can use all of these lessons in some way or another in the future. Therefore, it was worth all the hard work.

Peer’s Blog

hconnor — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 05:27:47 +0000

The presentation that stood out to me the most was Joshua’s, who wrote about steroids in baseball and their effect on youth and the media’s coverage of them.

First, I really enjoyed the topic. I love sports, and definitely baseball. It is frustrating when all you hear about the sport is the use of steroids. Whenever a players does exceptionally well, there is always that speculation on whether he is using steroids. It would be nice to enjoy the sport without the constant speculation on who is using steroids.

Second, I really enjoyed the presentation. It was diffrent from many other presentations and sometimes visual aids work much better for certain people. I really liked all of the pictures and the descriptions for each one.

My Presentation!

hconnor — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 04:56:51 +0000

Here is a link to my presentation. I created a Facebook group.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=11801587146&ref=mf

Enjoy!

Applying English 112

hconnor — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 01:41:17 +0000

I can apply several writing techniques that I have learned in English 112 to my other major classes. First, I can use the different types of introductions and conclusions that I have learned for my future papers. Introductions and conclusions are essential to any paper I will write throughout college, therefore, it is good that I have learned about many different types of intros and conclusion. I can also use what I learned about thesis statements in my other classes. Once again, many papers I will write, no matter what class, will require a thesis statement. Finally, one of the most important things I learned in English 112 that I can use in other classes in how to synthesize sources. For other courses, sometimes I will be using more than one source when writing a paper, therefore, learning how to synthesize sources will come in handy. Just the other day, when I was writing a paper for my Great Ideas class, I felt myself synthesizing two of the sources I was using. I know all of these techniques will come in handy for future courses and papers. I am taking a literature course next fall, and I feel like learning all of these things will be very beneficial when writing papers for that course. Overall, I think everything that I learned in English 112 will apply to my future courses in some way or another.

My Writing Process = My Triathlon

hconnor — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 00:59:22 +0000

Although, this essay is much larger than previous essays I have written, my writing process has been relatively the same. I spent a while thinking about a possible topic, and chose something that related to my interests, which is music. I then spent hours gathering information about my topic and finding reliable resources. From there, I wrote my proposal and my source analysis. On my own, I wrote a preliminary outline which let me organize my main points for my essay. I then wrote a more detailed outline that provide more detail for my main points. Once I did all that, I felt that I was ready to begin writing my rough draft. The textbook also really helped me with my wring process. First, they informed with other forms of research such as interviews. The authors of the textbook also really informed me about developing my thesis, introduction, and conclusion. After reading it, I was really able to decide which types of introduction and conclusion I would use.

To me, the writing process is a triathlon. This sounds a bit extreme, but I will explain. When writing a large researched essay, a lot of time and energy goes into it before you even start writing. You must find a topic, spend hours researching, write a proposal and source analysis, and develop an outline. Then, when you have done all of that, you are prepared to write your rough and final drafts. Once I have completed everything I have a strong feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment. When competing in a triathlon, a lot of time, energy, and hard work must go into it before you even compete in the event. You spend months and months swimming, running, biking, and just training your body to get ready for the event. Once you have done all that, you are prepared to compete in the event. At the end of it all and you have finished the race, you have such an amazing feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction. I chose to compare my writing process to a triathlon because I am planning on competing in one in August and have began to train for it, so this really relates to my life.

The Editorial

hconnor — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 07:33:59 +0000

Have you ever gone anywhere and not heard music somewhere? You hear music on the radio in your car, in the grocery store, or sometimes even in the workplace. Music is everywhere and most people are exposed to it almost everyday. But have you ever wondered if music influences people to do certain things? The media has reported that music lyrics can influence youth listeners to do bad things. However, there is scientific evidence that music which contains lyrics that depict violence may influence young listeners to perform acts of violence or have increased aggression. Even more specifically, studies have shown that rap music is the genre of music that influences the most aggressions in young listeners.

There seem to a couple of possible reasons why certain types of music influences young listeners to do certain things. One reason is that many youth idol these music artists and believe that anything they do or say is what they should do. Another plausible reason of how music influences certain youth is because of the fact that young people are exposed to music quite often. Therefore, if they are hearing the same themes and violent lyrics over and over again, it will have some sort of impact on the child.

Overall, it is a fact that violence depicted in music does have some influence over the young listener. After knowing this fact, music artists should be more careful about what they depict in their lyrics to ensure that they do influence children in any way.

How this helps with essay three:

Writing this editorial helps us with essay three because it allows us to write out our main ideas and what are paper will primarily be about. It serves almost as a pre-writing strategy that helps us organize our thoughts.

Proposals

hconnor — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 01:27:07 +0000

You asked us to write a proposal for Essay 3 because you want us to have an understanding of our topic and idea of what we want to say about our particular topic. The proposal will help us gather our thoughts and articulate them so our research and writing processes can be more focused. Also, the proposal will allow you to know what is the best way to assist us in this process.

Learning to write a proposal can be very beneficial in several ways. First, there are the several reasons that I stated previously. Second, it really forces the student to sit down and really think about their topic well before they even begin writing their rough draft. This is important because I believe too many students rush into the writing part without really organizing any of their ideas or thoughts.

A proposal can also be used in many other classes where a project or a paper is assigned. The proposal can help organize a person’s thoughts and ideas so that they fully understand what they are writing about. This can also be used for a project. You can organize everything that will be involved with the project to ensure that you are including everything that you need to include.

Overall, learning to write a proposal has many advantages and it can be used in many other classes as well. I could see myself using a proposal for my research projects that I have in both my Intro to Film class and my Biology 205 class.

Identifying Issues

hconnor — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 20:30:17 +0000

I will be doing my research paper on a topic related to music. I was originally going to discuss the illegal downloading of music, however, the topic has already been debated heavily and I wanted to do something that is not discussed very often. I think my topic will be whether the drug abuse and violence depicted in music has an influence on young listeners. I arrived at this issue using the six steps stated in our textbook.

First, I drew on personal experience. I have listened to all types of music and have heard lyrics that range from love stories, to the strange, bizarre lyrics that do not make sense, to the most disturbing and offensive music. Many songs have some sort of drug reference in it and numerous songs also discuss violence. I have always wondered whether these types of lyrics have ever influenced a young listener to do drugs or commit an act of violence.

Second, I identified what is open to dispute. The use of drugs and violence are very real issues in today’s society. Especially with the numerous school shootings that have occurred, people will think that lyrics in songs may have caused these young people to commit these crimes. However, people from the music industry may dispute this claim and say that their music does not influence young adults to do anything. Therefore, this topic is really open to dispute between several types of people.

Third, I resisted binary thinking. I did not just think about this issue from my point of view. I thought about it from the perspective of people in the music industry as wells as from people who may be against music that involves drug references or violence. It is important to know the issue from many different perspectives because if you are to persuade one of these different people to believe what you think, you should know where they are coming from and then decide what is the best way to go about persuading them.

Fourth, I built on and extended the ideas of others. When I started to do some research for this topic, I saw that the issue can be looked at in different ways and I that I will have to take these ideas of other people into consideration when I begin to formulate an outline.

Fifth, I set out to find theories that shape my primary focus in my argument.

Finally, I considered the constraints of the situation. I had to determine what possible counterarguments there would be and then finally decide on my issue.

Overall, I chose this topic because I have a big interest in music and all of the aspects of it. I really want to do research and decide whether I do believe lyrics of songs influence people to do certain things.

Most likely, my topic will be:

Do they drug abuse and violence depicted in the lyrics of songs have an influence on young listeners?

I am really excited to begin my research on this topic.

Writing Process

hconnor — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 23:46:00 +0000

For the most part, I am practicing the writing processes that the authors of our textbooks suggest. I do use their steps on revising my essays. I think the steps are extremely helpful and really help me strengthen my essay. I also use many of the writing techniques that the authors suggest, such as annotating, summarizing, and synthesizing. These are all very important when writing an essay and I follow the steps listed in the book to ensure that I am doing them correctly. One thing that I do not do that the authors suggest is to form issue-based questions. I do not do this and formulate my ideas from reading and annotating the text. One more part of my writing process that I use that the authors suggest is the different types of thesis and how to formulate the thesis. The textbook is really helpful when is comes to writing a thesis and I really rely on it.

hconnor — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 17:07:35 +0000

I play softball competitively over the summer, therefore I want the best equipment. One of the main pieces of equipment is the bat. However, a decent softball bat is very expensive and I could not afford it on my own. Therefore, I had to persuade my mom to buy the bat for me. I had several good reasons ready to persuade my mom.

My first argument would be that it had all of the specifications that I was looking for in a bat:

Product Description
New Louisville Slugger Catalyst 2 FP72C * 2007 Model * 100% Composite Design * Balanced Swing Weight * -8oz Design * Synthetic Grip * 7/8 inch handle * ASA, USSA, ISA, ISF, and NSA Approved * FP72C replaced model FPC305

My second way to persuade her was to show her the good ratings and reviews that it received to prove that it was a decent bat.

http://www.batreviews.com/louisville_slugger_catalyst.html

The bat is very expensive, however, I did find it on eBay (my mom is a big ebayer) a lot cheaper. Therefore, she is more likely to buy it if she can find it cheaper.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Louisville-CATALYST-2-Fastpitch-Softball-Bat-8-33-25_W0QQitemZ220200164412QQihZ012QQcategoryZ47263QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I also had a good friend, Olivia, who used the bad and had nothing but good things to say about it. She said, “The bat is so great. The ball comes off it really fast, and you feel very powerful with it. ”

Finally, my final way to win her over is to show her how pretty the bat is. You have to have a good looking bat!

My plan to persuade my mom is:

Casually bring up the topic of softball while relaxing in the family room. While on the topic of softball, I will bring up softball equipment and all the new bats out on the market today. I will then proceed to tell my mom how I need a new bat. I first will explain to her the specifications of the bat and the great ratings and reviews it received. If she is not persuaded then I will move on to my next step….

I will then explain how she can buy the bat on eBay (her favorite thing) for a very cheap price. I will then explain how my best friend has used the bat and how much she loved it. Finally, I will explain how nice the bat looks.

Overall, I know she will be persuade if I bring up all the things I mentioned above. I believe she will definitely be persuaded by the fact that she can get it cheaper on eBay.