The FInal Countdown

So again the question is What is a Blog? To me a blog is still an alternate place to communicate. More and more people are communicating through the Internet and text messages rather than going and talking to whom ever face to face. If you think about it soon that will be the main mode a communication rather than picking up a phone to talk to some one.
Blogging is a new way to communicate and get ideas across. It can be used for all types of reasons. In this class it is a class assignment and different type of homework and class participation. For some people, blogs can be a type of diary and a way to vent about their feelings or what ever has been going on in their lives.
Up until this class, I had never written a blog. They just never appealed to me. I didn't need to write a blog about my life and what is going on in it and put it on the internet. I had no reason to ever think about writing a blog. I still don't think I will ever use a blog after this class, it just isn't who I am. I find it interesting to read blogs from other people. There are many talented people on the internet and many of them use blogs to put up short stories, poems or other things. So I guess I like blogs but not for my own personal use. I would just rather read others blogs and admire their talent and ideas.
For this class, blogging has been an interesting new way to communicate with the class. It has been a way that is out of the normal do homework and come to class ready to discuss, to learn the current subject. Personally, I don’t think I really like blogging as an assignment. I always forget to do the blog and it obviously counts against me. It’s not like I am purposefully not doing it, it’s just that other things come up and the blog is pushed out of my mind.
Overall I think that doing a blog has added something to the class. They were a new way to learn and express our views as students. Plus most of the time in class there’s only one or two people that talk in class and it makes it hard to hear what everyone has to say. When it’s only a couple of people that talk the class gets boring and people start to loose interest. Through blogging we have been able to see what those silent people have had on their minds through out the semester. It’s been really interesting seeing everyone’s personalities through the layout that they have chosen for their blogs. Everyone can change the colors of the blogs and where everything is located, it’s like a new Myspace. It’s fun to change it up when ever you feel like it.
I like looking at everyone from the class’s blogs. It is fun to look at their ideas. I think my favorites have probably been Cari and Susanne and Mitch’s blogs. Their blogs have always been really interesting and funny in some aspects.

picture

School Uniforms don't have to be stuffy like these are. They can allow students to have their own freedom in choices of which different uniform parts to wear.
The picture can be used to show one side of uniforms, the more rigid side that I don't really like.

Prospectus

I was wondering what are some of the ways people plagiarize?
The questions seem broad.
I wasn't sure what her thesis was.

Black English not a Language?

James Baldwin puts up a great argument about Black English in his essay "If Black English Isn't a Language, then Tell Me, What is?” Language is one of the main ways that we communicate with each other. Baldwin points out that the main reason why Black English isn't thought to be a language because of the discrimination on them from when they first came to the Americas. Black people came to the country as slaves and were not thought of as humans and none of them spoke the same language, so their version of the English evolved from there. Baldwin points out about the different versions of most languages. For example, the French language has so many different dialects like a person in Paris speaks completely different French than a man in Quebec. The Black culture, not just the language, has influenced our society. We wouldn’t have the music and many of the phrases that we commonly hear today. So if they have influenced our culture so much than why can’t Black English be considered a language? Baldwin does a really good job of arguing his position on Black English. He does a really good job of infusing the history of Blacks to help his argument.

Annotation

1."UNIFORMS/DRESS CODES." ECS. 2008. Education Commission of the States. 25 Mar 2008 .

2. The website has a couple of pages related to my topic of school uniforms. There's an overview of the uses of school uniforms in public schools. It also has some statistics and other issues regarding uniforms.
3. It doesn't say who exactly is the author but Education Commission of the States is the group that put up the website.
4. It's overall purpose is to inform people of the issues regarding uniforms. It isn't really for or against uniforms so it gives both sides of the story.
5. It was really helpful to my paper because of the overview page. It was really easy to get a basic summary from it so I could find something else to research and add to my paper. I don't really think it's a good site to reference in my paper but a good jumping off place for it.

CRAAP Test

I did the CRAAP test on the Improbable Research website.
Currency
It seemed relatively current. The only date that I saw was that it was published in Sept./Oct. of 1999. It didn't seem like the site had been updated or revised since it was originally posted. It seems current but it's just random to me. The links on the page are functional.
Relevance
It answers my nonexistent questions about how cats react to men with beards. I think it was more for entertainment because it's all really random. I could be for people who are really interested in cats.
Authority
Annals of Improbable Research seems to be the author. It doesn't really show any credentials given on the page. The writers don't seem really qualified to do the experiments. It was a .com website. I didn't see any contact information on the page.
Accuracy
The information seemed to come from a bunch of college students. It is clear what their intentions are. It seemed more like a science project because of how they wrote up their "findings". It was like the ones that are done in Junior High. The language doesn't seem biased and I didn't see any spelling or grammar mistakes, but I also wasn't paying that close attention to the spelling or grammar.
Purpose
Its purpose was mainly to entertain the readers. They make a purpose clear in the beginning. Because it is set up like a science project, their intentions are clear in the Abstract of the project. Its mainly opinion because some of the things they tested aren't really the easiest thing to test, like how much hair was shed. It was objective in a way. It didn't seem to had any biases.

Middle Schoolers and the pill

The article talks about the issue of Portland, Maine middle school girls getting the pill from the school nurses on their school campuses. These girls are usually between the ages of 11 to 13 and are getting the pill and the patch from their school nurses without their parents knowing. These girls are too young to be becoming sexually active and many of them who are don't know the consequences of having sex.
One of the counterpoints is that if they are planning shouldn't they at least be safe. They should be able to learn the consequences and learn how to use the pill or patch safely (taking the pill daily and the patch being changed weekly. The areas where this is being taken affect are in lower class areas where these girls don't have the resources to go to a gyno and this is the best they can do. If being safe is their whole idea then why not just condoms rather than going so far?
They overlooked the parents in this article. Why do they not say anything about how the parents think about this? But at the same time if these girls are just going to their school nurse for protection then they are most likely not telling their parents everything.

Looking back

When looking throughout my rhetorical analysis, I notice how I really need to proof read my paper before I turn in my paper. But I already know that that’s the hardest thing for me to do. I don’t want to look at my paper again after I’ve written it. I just want to turn it in and not deal with it anymore.

I think my ideas worked really well. The only problem was how I executed it. That’s the hardest thing. I have to just sit down and write and get everything out until the paper is done. The hardest thing for me to do when I have to write a paper is to just write. I can’t pay attention for a long enough time get all my ideas out. Plus some times I’ll be talking to other people about my ideas and a little bit later when I try to put it down on paper I get end up forgetting everything that I had just talked about.

Proof reading is one of the basic things that go along with writing a paper. I know that I need to just get someone else to proof read it and then I can rewrite it with less mistakes. I also have problems with the words that I chose. I write more like the way I talk. Obviously that can’t happen in a college paper but it is easier for me to write that way. I would rather write like that than properly like everyone is supposed to.

Another thing that I know I need to work on is the way my papers flow. Through out high school and elementary school it wasn’t taught very well. It wasn’t easy for me to learn. I get the concept but I never want to take so much time to work on the flow.

Blotto

Six ways that I'm hidden from the light: I've gone to private Catholic schools for my entire education up until now, so that has sheltered me in a way. I'm only an outgoing person to the people that I'm close to, it may not take me long to come out of my shell but at first I'm reserved. I prefer to hang out with a small group of friends usually doing nothing in particular rather than going out with a large group of people that I only know a few of them. I've never been the one to try out for plays or anything that puts me into the main spotlight, I was in plays when I was in middle school only because our entire class had to be apart of it. I would rather be part of a sport team where everyone gets the credit and all works together for the rewards. I've applied to be apart of major groups in my high school, but was never enough of an "individual" to become a part of the group, because of this I have not wanted to apply for groups like that in college. I fear being rejected whether its by a job or a person or a group that I've wanted to join.
A manifesto according to dictionary.com is a public declaration of intentions, objectives, opinions, or motives. Typically this is related to companies and people in public offices like the in politics of some sort. To me a manifesto is a public way of saying where you are coming from and what you want to get out of a certain subject, whether it is a class, a sport or what ever.
I try to face the world with as much confidence as I can. I shouldn't worry about how other people see me. I believe the only times I should worry is when I'm going for an interview or something that important for my future. I want to just be myself around everyone that I encounter. Why do I have to change who I am just for those around me. I don't want to look back on my life and not like how I acted because I was not true to myself.

Outsourcing

The article talked about outsourcing and the way it's affecting the economy. It started with the outsourcing in the clothing industry and how consumer preferences affect the buyer-driver chains. In the eighties cheaper blouses were made in low-wage East Asia, and Italy was the main exporter of wool. Next it talks about the agricultural industry and how it's better described as a "trader-driven" chains rather than a buyer-driven chain. Many of the traders in the agricultural industry were international traders. The auto industry has become more and more globalized over the past two decades. Before the seventies, the "Big Three" built most of their products with very little imported parts. But they were also having to build their products for two different countries with two separate plans. After that they combined the main plants to consolidate the company.
It relates to Roger and Me with the auto industry and how the plant in Flint closed because of outsourcing.

Rothstein, Jeffrey S.. "Economic Development Policymaking Down the Global Commodity Chain: Attracting an Auto Industry to Silao, Mexico." Social Forces 84(2005): 49-69.

San Jose Sharks

The author is the San Jose Sharks, most likely the team’s webmaster. The audience is anyone who is a hockey fan, most importantly the fans of the Sharks. Fans of other teams can go to the team’s website to see how their competition is doing. They have the site to keep fans informed on how the team is doing and the main things going on with some of the players. They use pictures that go along with the major head lines for the team that sets up ethos/credibility. It has a calendar that has all of their games on it along with all the scores for the past games. Logically, they use the main colors of the team, teal and now orange, as well as highlighting colors like white for the background of the major texts and the main background is darker so that the stories pop out to the viewers. The site is similar to the CNN site we were looking at in class. They both have a focus on one major thing, in the CNN case it was US news, but in the Sharks site they focused on the team with minor links at the top of the page to other teams and more things on their site.
It’s important to take a critical approach on a website because most websites don’t have the same credibility as articles or books that get published on paper. Plus you can get the same information from two different sites but they will be worded differently and set up completely opposite. We have to critically analyze the websites to be able to make sure that the information is fact and not just written by anyone.

Mother Tongue

Amy Tan, the author of Mother Tongue, is a first generation American born Chinese. In this story she writes about the two different types of English that she speaks, the type she uses with her mother and the type she uses with everyone else. She also talks about how her mom gets screwed over with things by people just because she doesn't speak very good English. It's interesting how our society does things like that. We use people's disabilities against them. I know with my mom people always look and treat her different at first just because of the fact that she's in a wheelchair, but once they see how that doesn't define her they look at her like a normal person. Amy Tan is writing this for all the people that have to deal with the exact same things she does with her mom. There's the people with parents that don't speak much English as well as other people that have to act in a way as caretakers for people that can't do things for themselves. This story just reminds me of her book The Joy Luck Club because it has some very similar messages about knowing who you are as a person. Her purpose was to hopefully make people realize how they were treating others who are different.

What Is A Blog?

I’ve never written a blog. So I don’t know what a blog should be. I guess a blog can be like an online journal. It is a way to reflect on what is going on in your life. It doesn’t just have to be an online journal though because I doubt many people would want to look at your blog and it would defeat the purpose of writing a blog.
A blog can also be used as a way to communicate to other people. It is a way to express your views. They are ways to get your views across to many people in an easy way. Now because of the internet it is a lot easier to get your opinions, poems, stories, etc. across to the “entire: world because it can be accessed by practically everyone.
I have no clue what I would use a blog for other than this class. I’m not the type of person to write a daily journal and even more so not to write one online that everyone can read. I don’t really write stories or other things that many people would want to read. But of course we have to for this class and I’m going to give it a chance and you never know I may get used to it and will like writing blogs, but only time will tell.

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