End of semester reflection

1) I did all my work.

Although a vague statement, I did essentially accomplish all of the tasks given to me. No, I did not do every single summary on every article I read, but I did retain a lot of the information in my head and it helped with the process of writing my papers. Something that I enjoyed about doing the work for this class was that we were able to chose our own topics. That was a huge relief because it made the work fun and interesting. Compared to my CW1 class, this was a ton more influential to my life. Being able to voice my opinion on things that I enjoyed was pretty new to me so putting my interests into a paper form was kind of cool.

2) I did my best at all of it.

Eh. I work almost full time as well as being a full time student so often it's hard for me to make time to really look into revisions and format issues. I just write the content and think I can get by with that. I think I got a little too carried away within the "summeritis" when trying to write the Informative and Surprising essay. I do give a lot of things my all and try to work at it when it is not good enough, and that's what I did with my revisions to the Informative and Surprising paper. However, knowing I got a bad grade with that one, I did step my game up with the Rational Argument paper. I truly do not think I've ever made more drafts on any paper than I did with that one.

3) going forward...

Going forward I now fully and completely understand where to put my commas and periods when trying to cite a source in MLA format. (haha). But seriously, coming into this class I had seriously MLA issues, and coming out of it I'm much more confident in that! My writing skills have definitely improved and I can't wait to apply everything I've used from this class into future assignments or papers.

things to improve...

One can always improve. I'm sure my MLA will always need even the tiniest bit of help as well as my rhetorical analysis. I have a hard time trying to voice my opinion in a paper because I feel as though it is not credible. I now know how to apply my voice without sounding too pushy or that I'm of some wonderful influence in the world.

Thanks for the help and patience everyone! I really did enjoy this class. I hope everyone has a wonderful summer!!

Erin

Another Progress Report

Finally, I have finished my Classical Argument!

I think my handwork and research shows all throughout my paper. Since my argument's topic is about my major and minor, I think I've done a really good job on this since I can apply knowledge that I already have gained in other courses I've taken.

I'm excited to get feedback on what others and Dr. Kyburz think of my paper and what details need to be tweaked or changed. I can't believe this is the last project for this semester's class. Time flew by so fast! I'm excited to finish up this paper and be done with my first year of college. (And officially done with College Writing classes, too!)

Thanks for all the help and guidance throughout the way, everyone. Reading everyone else's blog posts were able to help me steer my projects in the right directions as well as make changes to my papers off of your feedback in the comments.

See everyone tomorrow in class!

Erin

Progress Report #1

This is my current progress report and this link is my rough draft.

By clicking on either of the "this"'s the link will bring you to my google docs page.

Very open to suggestions, ideas, comments and critiques. Thanks, guys!

After finding a few educational and popular articles I've finally begun summarizing and writing! I always feel like I'm so behind, but at least I'm making progress.


I think the Roast is really going to help my article because at the very end of the program Justin Bieber makes an "apology" to all the viewers about his downward spiraling career and all the legal altercations he has been in within the last three years that he hasn't been producing music. This shows exactly what I am trying to argue! A roast is getting all of the embarrassing and ridiculously stupid things one has done in their life, being put on blast for it, and 100% owning it. I think it says something when a person can laugh about the stupid things they've done and move on from it. This is what Bieber executed during the airing of his program. During the serious and heartfelt apology, Bieber tells the audience, "I've turned a lot of people off in the last few years, but I know I can still put out good music and turn everything all around." This shows that he is using all of his bad publicity to fuel what is about to come from him. He is determined to change the minds of the people that have petitions to send him back to Canada! But really, this kid is helping me out a lot more than I ever expected he could. 

Happy writing everyone, see you in class tomorrow!

Justin Bieber Roast

I've been having a really rough time trying to decide on topics for my papers this semester and I'm not sure why. I mean, I know I'm indecisive, but this is beyond that. I love the way Dr. Kyburz has us relating our papers to things that mean most to us. It makes us so much easier to write a paper instead of beating the same information out over and over again from some random educational article. 

So, with that being said, I never thought I'd be able to find Justin Bieber and his horrible reputation "inspiring", but I did. Last night while watching his Roast, Kevin Hart spoke directly to me when making fun of Bieber...I realized I had my topic for my Classical Argument paper. 

Any publicity is good publicity, right? Obviously all PR agents want positive, wholesome information being circulated about their client or company, but negativity is what most people feed off of. Although negative publicity makes for a lot more explaining, that means you're getting your name out there. People are more likely to remember something that was complained about rather than something that was given a good review. Causing a commotion like this could end up with an increase in sales or getting your name on the map.

I'm not implying that more celebrities should end up like Bieber, I'm just saying that despite all the legal disputes he's been in, as well as falling off the "teenage heartthrob" radar, he still has thousands of people tuning in to watch a show that is all about him and what was his career. Although this may have been a brutal public penance for his bad boy behavior, people are still talking about him. 

Being a PR and Marketing major, things like this really excite me. Negativity can always be changed into positivity.

Thanks for the inspiration, Bieber. 

Academic Article

The picture I chose is from the fitness center that I work at. We are hosting a bootcamp for people over the age of 50. This is what caught my attention...usually we don't associate "bootcamps" or such intense fitness with older people. From my own observations, I don't see many people above the age of 50 doing intense workouts. I thought this was slightly odd so I decided that this would be a good thing to research. Maybe I'm just underestimating older people who are into fitness or I could not be working when their crowd is typically at the gym, but I decided to research this. 

The article that I found went perfectly with this "Ageless Champions" bootcamp. The article reads that although aging has already started at ages 50+, you can still decrease aging effects by staying active.  The article tells about a Chicagoland woman who realized she was so out of shape that it was effecting her health. After a year of continuous working out and healthy eating, she had lost over 30 pounds and also got her cholesterol back to normal. This woman shows that no matter what age you are, you can always make improvements to your health. It also made me realize that maybe I shouldn't judge the older people working out at Inwood anymore...when I'm that age I hope to be as active and dedicated as them!

http://web.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.lewisu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=7&sid=c960023d-5547-40ec-8f10-4905536b42c8%40sessionmgr110&hid=123

Rant Reflection

The way I chose to share my rant to an audience seems the most fitting because it shows the people my age hard facts about what their priorities are. I understand that the younger generation is not interested in heavily consuming themselves with the news, but serious, major problems should be something they should be aware and knowledgable of. Comparing and contrasting the two tests would reveal the ideas and facts that I need to speak about to the class I gave the quizzes to. My rant or theory does not pertain to every single person my age. I know that there are a lot of people educated on the situations in Iraq and Syria, but the amount of people that are not or have yet to hear about it is what frightens me. Getting these facts out to the students at my old high school might be able to raise awareness. They could go back onto their own social media accounts and post something about what they learned. That could potentially start a trend and get more young people talking about ISIS. Overall, I think they have the capability to make many different changes as long as they are aware and informed.

Secondly, the tweet I sent out applies to what I stated about the student's social media sites as well. After I posted that tweet I had people responding and agreeing with what I said. I had people that don't follow me retweeting and favoriting what I wrote. My tweet did not go viral, unlike most irrelevant and meaningless tweets do. However, it did catch the attention of almost twenty people. If someone else shares the same opinion I have, then it must be a problem that I am not the only one noticing. Twitter has become a huge part of everyday life for the younger generation, including myself. I am on twitter every single day, whether I am posting a tweet or reading others, I am still on the app and getting notifications from other people. Rarely do I ever see anything on my timeline about serious dilemmas the world is facing or anything regarding politics. This is the exact issue I am trying to bring out of the dark.

The video and article that I posted did not change my feelings or shed a new light on the problem, it just verified everything that I believed to be true. The article influenced me to create and submit a tweet about it. Since I only have a personal twitter account I wanted to see how many followers of mine cared about the issue enough to show the tweet some attention. The ages of people that follow me on twitter range from about 16-22. I have about 500 followers on twitter and could barely get 20 people to favorite my tweet. I think that example alone is able to speak for itself.