Essay Exam

The semester has come to an end.  Surprisingly, I am a little disappointed.  My grades may not show it, but for the first time in my life I actually enjoyed English class.  One thing I particularly enjoyed was blogging.  I had heard about blogging beforehand, however, just on myspace.  I had never even thought about using a blog for class assignments.  The blog experience, for me, was very new.  After playing with it during class I had no trouble figuring out how it worked. 

One thing I enjoyed about the blog was that it helped me organize my assignments.  Last semester in English I had to have a portfolio full of printed papers.  Instead of keeping my portfolio organized, I would just stuff my papers in the folders.  By the end of the semester I was frantically searching for all my papers so that I could organize them one by one in my portfolio.  With a blog, finding an assignment was just a click away.

The only problem I met with blogging was, once I was done typing an assignment and I clicked post, the assignment disappeared.   This only occurred twice.  Luckily the assignments were not very difficult so I just retyped them.  Other than that, I had no problems with blogging. 

As for a change in the blogging, I would have to say to use it for more creative writing.  For me, I like to write about my opinions, my dreams, my goals, and my passions.  I believe that would have helped broaden my writing skills as well as gotten to know my classmates better.  I am really interested in what other people have to say and what other people believe in.  I would have enjoyed reading creative posts by my classmates. 

I am sad to say that I will not be using this particular blog in the future.  I may however, take up blogging as an outside school activity.  I have really enjoyed blogging and I am excited to see how far I will go with it.

Questions

1. Will we know the topic before hand so we can study?

2. Will we be able to use “I”?

3. Will there be a page limit?

4. How much time are we going to be given?

Reading Assignment

In the readings I learned that you have to know the material you are being asked to write about.  You need not to stress.  Essay need very narrow and specific responces.  Be specific.  I also learned that the way the question is asked can help you organize your essay.

Why I Hate Essay Exam

I Hate exams because it takes me quite a long time to figure out what I want to write.  I waste most of the alloted time thinking about what I want to write and not enough on the actual writing.   When I do figure out what I want to say, I dont know how I want to organize it.  I will spend so much time organizing how I want my paper to go that there will be little time left to write the essay.  I get very nervous when there is a crunch for time and as a result the outcome of my paper is poor. 

Audience

1. Who is your specific audience?

• My audience is parents.

    2. Why did you choose them?

• I chose them to persuade them not to spank their children.

    3. How will your audience affect the argument you intend to present?

    4.Which fallacies will you need to focus on keeping from your argument? Why are  these (individually) important to consider in  your argument?

• I will need to focus on circular reasoning.  I need to make sure I do not repeat myself with my argument. I also need to focus on either- or reasoning.  I need to make sure I present both sides of the argument.

The American Dr. Mengele

-Two Doctors have given a 6-year-old disabled child a treatment to stop her growth.  The treatment was requested by the parents of the child so that it would be easier to care for the child at home.

-Dr. Mengele can not believe that the medical professionals would agree to such a treatment.

-Dr. Gunther and Dr. Diekma explain that with the disability that the 6-yr old has, make it difficult for caregivers to care for the child as they grow older.

-The size fo the child makes it easier for care.

-The six-year-old responds to her loved ones by smiling and vocalizing.

-The doctors have yet to see any complications for this treatment.

-The writer expresses how disgusted he is with the idea of this treatment.

-After WWII, doctors who used similar treatments were put to death. Now, with parents consent the treatment is distributed.

-The writer asks, whats next?

 This article relates to Ashley X because the treatments were both given with the parents consent.  I think that, in the 6 year olds case, the treatment is very risky.  The doctors say that there have not been any compications, yet.  What happens after growth is stopped?  What happens to the bones? Im sure many people agree with this treatment, but i just don’t see how it is good other than making it easier for caregivers.

narrowing my topic

I chose to write my paper on spanking children. What is the proper way to ‘spank’ a child? Why spank?  Reasons why spanking harms children. Is it ok for schools to spank children and not ok for the parents to? What does the bible say? When does spanking go too far? Where is the line between abuse and safe dicipline?  Some alternatives to spanking?

-The appropriate way of spanking is hitting with the flat of the hand usually on the buttocks for punishment or for stopping a behavior, however, people rarley ever spank the ‘appropriate’ way.

-Parents argue that spanking is an effective way of punishment to manage behavior.  Also, parents believe “I was spanked and I turned out OK.”  Another reason parents spank is because they think that the bible tells them to.

-Spanking or even harmless pat on the hand harm children because it teaches them violence, it destroys the certainty of being loved the baby needs, creates anxiety, and makes the child feel that they don’t deserve respect.

Article Summaries

The article Growing up, Growing Apart was about 3 girls who are best friends but very different races.  In the article they talk about having a birthday party where the races were mixed.  They talk about how annoying it was that the races were very seperated it was during the party.  They tell us how they are teased for being different races. 

I did not read Amy Tan’s article because I recently got a new job which caused me to get behind on a lot of my homework.  I had 2 papers due today and honestly it just slipped my mind.  Sorry, it won’t happen again.

Understanding Culture

What (specifically) is a culture? Put this in your own words. I want to see how well you can define culture on your own.

-Culture in my own words is a set of beliefs, values, traditions, and customs shared within a society

What cultures do you belong to? What specifically makes you a part of this culture?

-I would have to say that I belong to the typical American culture.  I do have a Norwegian heritage, but have not practiced anything from the Norwegian culture.

 What cultures (list 5) would you like to know more about? (Note: these cannot be cultures that you classify yourself among. I want you to explore cultures outside your own.)

-I would love to learn more about the irsh, english, italian, Germa, and chinese cultures.

Now that you have chosen your cultures, rank them by preference (i.e. your top choice should be #1 and the one you wish to consider a last choice should be #5)

1.Italian

2.English

3.Irish

 4.Chinese

 5.German

Finally, for each of the cultures you have listed, make a quick list of what you already know about that culture. 

1.Italian-They speak Italian

2.English-They have a quenn

3.Irish-Most people are catholic

4.Chinese-Years are based on cycles of the moon

5.German-uhh….Dirk Nowitzki is from there..

Delving Further into the Subject

1.  What credibility did you give to the article after a first reading? Did you feel that the author adequately persuaded you to see their side of the issue? How subtle was this persuasion?  

-When I first read this article, I kinda started out a little biased.  I thought and still think the legalizing marijuana is dumb.  Although, reading Anderson’s article did open my eyes to a few issues concerning money and how we are wasting it by putting people in jail for posession or use of marijunana.  I do think it is outragous how much money we do spend on that, but it still doesnt change my mind about not legalizing marijuana.

2.  How have your feelings changed now that you are more aware of the author’s ethos? Do you feel that knowing the credibility of the author changes the way in which you view the argument presented? What have you learned about the author’s education, peripheral writings, and career that altered your view of the article you are studying? 

-My feelings toward the article changed somewhat while reading his article.  Although, Anderson did use slang terms and did not cite his stattistics and facts, throughout his article, it did make me question his education and ability to write a credible article.

3.  If you were writing an argumentative essay on the article’s topic, would you consider using the article as a credible source in your essay? Why or why not? 

-I definetly would not used this article as a credible source.  There is no credibility in the article.  None of his facts are cited.