Blogfolio

I am Asian, specifically Korean, and I go against the stereotype that all Asians have small eyes so their sight must be limited. I can see everything you can see! I was born this way in the image of God and He made me perfect according to His plan. I can see everything you can see! It is very unfortunate that I cannot remember a single year during my elementary, middle, and high school years when a kid at my school has not asked me, “Can you try opening your eyes as big as you can so I can see how small they are compared to mine?” or “ Since you have smaller eyes than me do objects look smaller than they actually are in real life?” How scarred must I have felt that I can recall a time in high school when my teacher called me out in front of the whole class, embarrassing me, proclaiming, “Annie, are you sleeping?” when I was actually looking down and reading a paper that was on my desk… I can see everything you can see! Why do big-eyed people feel the need to try to ruin my day, by asking unnecessary comments? Does it really matter? I can see everything you can see! When I went to the doctor for a yearly checkup, they made stand twenty feet away from the Snellen chart and read it. At the end of my vision test, these were the exact words that came out of the assistant’s mouth, “Wow great! You have 20/20 vision.” You know what, maybe my eyes are normal sized, and you all’s eyes are just big!

Mid Semester Blog Assignment

Timeliness: I strongly believe I should get an “A” for timeliness.  I finished every blog that was assigned to me, and even met every requirement for each blog.  All the blog posts I had to do so far were turned in on time.  Although I have a whole bunch of experience with procrastination, I always get my work done on time.

Thoroughness: With out a doubt all my blogs address and complete all aspects of each assignment.  I always make sure that I meet all the requirements before I post a blog assignment.  I truly believe I deserve an “A” for thoroughness.

Depth: Writing in depth is not my forte.  Every so often I analyze my examples.  However, most of the time I either forget, or I just do not know how.  Unfortunately, I would give myself a “C”, due to my lack to depth-ness in my writing.

Clarity: Obviously I always have spelling mistakes when I type, however, before I post a blog I always make sure I use spellcheck.  I also use a grammar check tool, but it is very possible the grammar tool is not always one hundred percent correct.  The first couple of blogs I posted have distracting formats, however the blog posts after that are clear and easy to read.  I would give myself an “A-“ for clarity.

Creativity: I believe my blogs display a sense of original thought and creativity.  For example, my very first blog post ever, was the first blog assignment assigned to my English 101 class.  My blog post is about hope in the future.  In my opinion, most students probably wrote about themselves, however I took a leap, and wrote about hope in my future.  I would give myself an “A” for creativity.

Audience: It is honestly difficult for me to interest my audience in my writing.  I know how to interest myself, but you never know who is going to read your work so I do not know what they are interested in.  However it is nice to write whom my paper is targeted towards.  I would give myself a “C”, because I know that my work can be boring to read sometimes, however, it could also be enjoyable to read.

 Development: I think my blog posts are getting better, its good because I know they are not getting worse.  Now that I have more and more experience when I write another blog, I feel like I am improving.  I would have given myself a “C” for development if I still wrote like the first one, however, I know I am getting better each time I post a new blog so I want to give myself a “B”.

 Portfolio: As of right now I would like for my This Say/I Say voice blog to be in my portfolio.  The reason I like that blog post is because it is interesting there is a picture most people can relate to in there.  Also, there is a dialogue written by me, which some people would rather read compared to a long paragraph.  Therefore I would grade myself with an “A” for portfolio.

Technology

Why do we like technology?

Why do we use/ not use technology?

Have people become overly dependent on technology?

Why have people become overly dependent on technology?

What are the effects of people becoming overly dependent on technology?

TSIS Voice Blog

PartI:

Truthfully, in high school I wrote very few papers. In every English class I’ve taken at my high school, I never wrote more than four papers a year. The longest paper I had to write all throughout high school was, my graduation paper, approximately six pages long. On the other hand, since I do not have much experience writing papers, I found writing papers in college quite difficult. The papers I have been asked to write by my professors are not as simple as what my high school teachers asked me to write. The papers I had to write for my college classes require more thinking. Most of my papers in college so far, require me to analyze more than summarize. In high school most of my papers were research papers, so I just had to look up facts relating to my topic and paste it to my paper, and cite it.

Instead of my professors expecting awesome writing, I feel like they first want to know where I am at with my writing ability. Most of the diction I use is very simple, high school vocabulary. However I strongly believe my professors want high, college level diction out every one of their students. I feel like it is hard to use tone in papers. Many of my papers are formal so I find it difficult to show emotions. I feel that college professors expect their students to at least be able to use tone, especially in times of joy or anger.

Blogs and essays are different in several ways. In blogs I feel that it is okay to use slang and contractions. Also, when one writes a blog, he/she does not have to be formal. Usually blogs are meant to be short and concise. On the other hand, essays are supposed to be written formally, without using second or third person. Essays are usually on the longer side.

From experience I feel most confortable writing when I am in a room or library with close to zero people. Listening to music such as “Kiss in the rain” or “River flows in you” by Yiruma, help me write passionately. When I am forced to write during a class, under a certain time frame, I feel most uncomfortable.

English 101 sounds very intimidating to me, because all my life I called English class, just “English”. I feel like whenever I am in English 101 I have to speak formally, better yet write formally. Also because it is my first English class in college, I should speak properly, and write deeply.

PartII:

With this cartoon, I feel like Roz Chast is trying to remind the viewers who read this cartoon, how much society changed. The English that was used hundreds and hundreds of years ago are no longer the same as the English used today. In the year 2013, if a person was randomly selected and asked to read something from Shakespeare and interpret it, the chances of the person understanding the text and being able to translate William Shakespeare’s texts are low. However, if the same person were asked to read the cartoon he/she would most likely be able to understand the cartoon text.

I definitely agree with what Roz Chast is implying. Especially now that we use technology for almost everything, we get lazy and IM/text as short as possible to get our message across. It is very simple to IM/text and let someone know what you are trying to say, unlike before cellphones were invented one had to meet face to face or write a letter to get the message across.

The Conversation between Romeo and Juliet

Juliet: Hello Romeo, are you busy?

Romeo: No, Juliet! How have you been?

Juliet: I am very busy these days, but I am alive. How have you been enjoying college so far?

Romeo: College? College is fun but…

Juliet: But?

Romeo: Honestly, I am having trouble managing my time.

Juliet: Oh, no.

Romeo: Yes I know, but there are so many fun activities to get involved in around campus.

Juliet: I agree but Romeo you need to get your priorities straight.

Romeo: I know I have been procrastinating lately.

Juliet: How? It is only the first week of school.

Romeo: I actually have to write a five-page paper for English 101, and it is due tomorrow; I have yet to start.

Juliet: Wow. Who is your professor?

Romeo: Professor Browning.

Juliet: I know her; she is the awesome professor with the pretty smile, right?

Romeo: Yes.

Juliet: Well it was nice talking to you. I will let you go so you can start your paper. Bye!

Romeo: Thanks, let us talk soon. See you!

Overall the content itself is about how difficult college is, and how important it is to have time management. In my opinion formal “academic” English is needed everywhere, in every situation. In final analysis, in the end grammar does matter, especially in one’s conversation.

Speech posts: Bullying

Your ugly.  Your stupid.  Your nobody!  These words can lead to heartache, and heartache can lead to tears, and tears can lead to a victim of suicide.  Bullying not only affects the victim, but also the peers around him/ her. I chose a song and an inspiring speech. Bullying is a growing problem; it is a global issue.  Bullying is not the same as it was in the past. Sure bullying is still verbal, but now it can also be technical, like cyber bullying.

Some people can be so shallow sometimes. Nick Vujicic is a motivational speaker. In “Love Without Limits”, one of his many speeches, he talks about bullying. During this speech, Nick Vujicic relies on pathos and tells us his story. Nick Vujicic was born with a rare disorder; he was born without any of his four limbs. Nick knows exactly what it is like to be bullied and looked down on. He shares with us how he struggled with bullying and how that led him to hate the way he was born. Nick admitted that he frequently questioned himself and God, “Why me?”  However, he realized how blessed he was, and he overcame the pain of being picked on.  Now Nick Vujicic is the great, inspiring person people know him as today. In his speech “Love Without Limits”, Nick Vujicic talks to a gymnasium full of students and staff, and other citizens.  During this speech he informs, reminds the students, staff, and other citizens how bullying is unnecessary, and how bullying affects the victim.  The fact that Nick Vujicic shares his personal story, he is directly informing the audience on the affect of verbal bullying and cyber bullying.  This direct message implies that we as the same human beings should stop bullying other human beings no matter how they look, smell, talk, eat, or even walk. Nick stated that out of innumerable schools he talked to, the head of one school contacted him and told him that bullying at his/her school stopped for eight months.  Nick Vujicic delivered his message very well, and even better because he used necessary pauses, emphasis, and different facial expressions, while telling his personal story.

This song has such meaningful lyrics. Christina Aguilera song “Beautiful” encourages especially, people all over the world that are bullied, abused. It sings, “Now and then I get insecure. From all the pain, I’m so ashamed.” The context of this song is that “one is beautiful, no matter what they say, and words can’t bring you down.” I feel like Christina Aguilera wrote this song for a lot of reasons. This song gives much hope or gives people reminders that they are beautiful no matter what other people say. I think Christina Aguilera’s direct message is that no matter whom you are, what you’ve done, or where you’re from, it does not matter; she knows that everyone is beautiful. Christina Aguilera  might be implying that there are people in this world who suffer from a lot of imperfections, and on top of that, are made fun of. I feel like through this song she is stopping to say that everyone is beautiful. She is making, trying to show people that they are loved and it’s not always about the looks. I think Christina Aguilera uses a plethora of ethos, by using a lot of emotions. The outcome of the speech is, whoever has a low confidence level, a low self-esteem level, don’t accept what people have to say about you. Don’t let people look down on you. You are not who they say you are. One canon that was impressive throughout this speech is the style. Christina’s rhythm when she sings, “you are beautiful, no matter what they say,” emphasizes how important it is for her.

Nick Vujicic- Love Without Limits-Bully Talk

Beautiful- Christina Aguilera lyrics

Graduation

           Maya Angelou, an African America woman, was born in 1928, Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri (50 Essays, Angelou, Graduation, pg. 20). Maya Angelou has shown her talent in many different occupations. Angelou has been an actor, poet, fiction writer, producer, dancer, director, playwright newspaper editor, and civil rights leader (50 Essays, Angelou, Graduation, pg. 20). Maya Angelou is well known for her writing (50 Essays, Angelou, Graduation, pg. 20). In fact, in 1969, Maya wrote an autobiographical book called, I Know Why the Bird Sings (50 Essays, Angelou, Graduation, pg. 20).

            In Angelou’s autobiography book I Know Why the Bird Sings, Angelou shows us how big of a deal it was for her, African Americans to graduate. Apparently, around the time of Maya Angelou’s graduation, the relationship between Americans and African Americans, they were not getting along to well. There were more opportunities given to whites, the whites were treated better. The whites were treated, as they were superior to non-whites. There was segregation involved, “Unlike the white high school, Lafayette County Training School…Its two buildings were set on a dirt hill…” (50 Essays, Angelou, Graduation, pg. 21) When Maya Angelou wrote this it was when segregation still exist. That is why it was extra special for an African American to graduate. Angelou wrote this to inform us about the trouble times she and her fellow African American classmates went through because they were black, and how they were looked down on because of their skin color.

            Edward Donleavy was one of the speakers at Maya Angelou’s graduation. On a very exciting day for Maya Angelou and her fellow African American classmates, they expected Edward Donleavy to say encouraging words because the students were moving into the next level of education. On the other hand, instead of Edward’s speech being encouraging it upset Maya. She felt that his speech was racist, “ The man’s dead words fell like bricks around the auditorium and too many settled in my belly.” (50 Essays, Angelou, Graduation, pg. 28), “It was awful to be a Negro and have no control over my life.” (50 Essays, Angelou, Graduation, pg. 29). Angelou explains how awful, angry she felt after hearing Edward Donleavy’s speech.

            However, Henry Reed did another speech. Henry Reed is an African American, giving his valedictory address (50 Essays, Angelou, Graduation, pg. 30). At this point, many were feeling angry, upset because of Edward Donleavy’s racist speech. Unexpectedly, Henry Reed turns the atmosphere upside down. Henry sang the “Negro National Anthem”. In the speech Henry worked hard to prepare, the words that came out of Henry’s mouth was surprisingly encouraging. At the end of Henry’s speech, Angelou stated, “We were on top again”, and “ I was a proud member of the wonderful, beautiful Negro race” (50 Essays, Angelou, Graduation, pg. 31).

            In final analysis, both Edward Donleavy and Henry Reed had strong impacts. In my opinion, because of Henry’s awesome speech many African Americans, including Maya Angelou, became a stronger, prouder African American.

“Inventing the University” -Bartholomae

Bartholomae starts off with the title “Inventing the University”. If you ask a college student to put it in his/her own words, for example, he/she might say, “Creating the School”. Just like that Bartholomae wants us to create our community by learning and speaking a language. Like the title states Bartholomae’s wants us to invent the university.

Quite often amateur writers have a tough time connecting with the audience. In my opinion, it is possible for many students to struggle with creativity. There are many times when I feel like I should not, cannot put my fullest potential of creativity in my writings. When writing a paper I always feel like it should be formal. However, I came to realization that this is not always the case. The writing style all depends on the audience.

Learning to connect, appeal to the audience is a common struggle. The text “Developing an Idea of the Audience” shows us an example of how to connect with the audience. When texting a friend I would not text formally, such as, “Dear Annie, how are you doing?” instead I would text “Hey girl, what’s up!” Abbreviations are regularly used when texting peers. Depending on the audience the “language” of the writer changes. For instance, “Developing an Idea of the Audience” also gives an example of historians. If a basic writer was writing to a group of historians, he/she would not have a paper full of data, data would not match with the historians “language”; but instead the writer would fill the letter up with records of events. Just like that any writer should look for ways to relate to their audience.

When Bartholomae replies, “writers have to ‘build bridges’ between their point of view and the reader’s”, I believe he is trying to tell writers the importance of the audience. The reason for an audience is to inform them about what you have to say to them. No matter how great your writing is, if you do not unite with your audience and speak a different “language” than the crowd of people you are talking to, and then you are not accomplishing your goal as a writer. That is what Bartholomae means by “sentence-level error”, no matter how good the text is if the audience cannot comprehend it, time is wasted.

I can definitely relate to Bartholomae when he says the writer should speak the language of the community. I agree one hundred percent, because there is no point if the audience cannot relate to what the writer is trying to tell them. The text written by Bartholomae was very informative, and interesting because I could relate to his writing.

Entering The Conversation: Athletic Policy

Many people would agree that talented high-school basketball players should not be required to attend college or have a waiting period before going to the NBA. However, I can understand both sides of the argument. Those talented high-school basketball players should focus on the tournament so they are able to center their thoughts on the game while playing in the NBA. Health is a major part of an athlete’s career. If an athlete is not eating healthy and not exercising than it can truly disturb how he/she plays during a game. Say an athlete does not have to attend college before playing in the NBA. Not going to college will save him/her from high levels of stress. By not going to college the athlete will not have to worry about writing papers, reading assignments, taking exams. Most of the time when we turn on the Television to watch the NBA, we usually do not see elders playing on the court. In the most recent NBA tournament, the oldest, active NBA players are both forty years old. Most athletes are fairly young. Okay, lets try looking from another point of view. If talented high-school basketball players should not be required to attend college or have a waiting period before going to the NBA, then what about after they retire, or what if they are not successful in their basketball career? According to U.S. News University Directory “Having a degree means that if you don’t turn pro, you still have a valuable skill set to fall back on. (Neuman)” That statement is most definitely true. Many athletes retire in there 20s or 30s, most of them do not have long careers. After an athlete retires or quits, I am sure he/she does not want to go out into the real world uneducated.  As stated by Education Priority, “Education – like religion, medicine, economics and law – is one of the cornerstones of organized society. (Carkeet)” Now people should be able to realize how important education is. Many people would probably still agree that talented high-school basketball players should not be required to attend college or have a waiting period before going to the NBA, on the other hand, most would disagree with this statement.

Works cited

Carkeet, John L. “Education Priority”

            Orlando Sentinel, 14 November, 1998, 28 Aug, 2013

<http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/keyword/uneducated&gt;

Neuman, Greg Scott. “Listen Up, Athletes – Earning Your College Degree is Important!” U.S. News University Directory, 2012, 28 Aug, 2013

            <http://www.usnewsuniversitydirectory.com/articles/athletes-earning-your-                  college-degree-is-important_12261.aspx#.Uh645BbIYzZ>

Hope in Future

Many people may be wondering why I chose this theme. If I could describe myself in one word I would probably say hopeful. If hope were a picture, I would imagine it as a peaceful looking trail. Each person describes hope differently. The more trials I experience in my life the more vivid hope becomes. Hope is knowing that the hardships in my life will make me into a stronger person; however, if I decide to give up because what I am suffering through right now is to painful to endure it will not help me grow as a person. I believe being able to endure the troubles in my life will lead to endless opportunities out there waiting for me further down the trail. Hope for me is being the best I can be. In high school, I was aspired to become a better me. I wanted to improve myself, become more educated. My hope in making myself a better person led me to come to college, to pursue bigger dreams and goals.  This pathway will not end unless I give up. The theme this picture illustrates is my path of hope. The reason why I chose this specific picture to be my background is because whenever I look at it makes me feel happy, joyous, and even more hopeful. Most definitely many of us are walking down this path right now. This path of hope is different for everyone. Some people have more hills in their path than others. Without a doubt, I firmly believe if one strives to become the best person they can be the outcome will show the person’s effort. The subject of hope can be general but inspirational.