Revision

Sommers article relates well to our class this semester. We did two papers and both of them where we wrote our own ideas about topics that we chose to write on instead of the teacher telling us what to do. Sommer's does a good job in realizing the strength of students and to make them good writers she quotes "When we create opportunities for something to happen between the drafts, when we create writing exercises that allow students to work with sources of their own that can complicate and enrich their primary sources, they will find new ways to write scholarly essays that are exploratory, thoughtful, and reflective". It seems like professor martin read this piece because her teaching style mimics Sommer's teaching style and I think it is a beneficial one. No one really likes to revise papers un less you have to, to get a better grade. I for one hate revising papers after I have read them I just feel like it is a waste of time to keep still working on the same paper over and over again. Depending on how important the matter might be decides if I will revise that paper or not. The way the piece started out seemed really random, at first I thought I was reading the wrong article because she started talking about Germans and how she speaks German. To be honest I dont even know why she put that in there, I was confused. All in all the article was a good article which explained alot about revison and how important it is. Revision is a key component for writing papers. It is in the thrill of the pull between someone else's authority and our own, between submission and independence that we must discover how to define ourselves. In the uncertainty of that struggle, we have a chance of finding the voice of our own authority.

The Ad Council

The Ad Council is a neat and significant organization. They specialize in commercials that are geared toward a certain cause that needs to be seriously looked at in today's society. Three particular events or commercials that they have done were Pollution Prevention, Drunk Driving Prevention, and "I am An American". All these articles were really good and I learned a lot from them. Pollution Prevention used the icon "The Crying Indian" to help get the point across on how pollution is harming the environment. This commercial helped established Earth Day in 1971 and the Environmental Protection Agency and is described as one of the top 50 commercials of all time. This cause reduced litter by 88 percent in 300 different communities in 38 states and even in several countries. Drunk Driving Prevention I thought was probably the most influential one of them all. The tagline "Friends don’t let friends drive drunk" is one of the most memorable things from this campaign and 90 percent of adults in America know this slogan. I know from personal experience that a lot of my friends say this, some jokingly; moreover, it’s the fact that we know if you’re drunk, don’t drive period, call a sober driver or designated driver that is the common term used today. This word was started from this campaign and used on the college level with fraternities and sororities so an impact is being made. The proportion traffic fatalities caused by alcohol related crashes has dropped from 60 percent in 1982 to about 45 percent today. Its amazing what campaigns can do to change something that once was socially accepted to something that’s looked down upon; now and days the penalties are really stringent and to get a DUI, kiss your life good bye. The particular article "I am an American" basically explains itself. This campaign was made right after 9/11 during the most troubling time in history. The commercials itself were just amazing, it made you feel happy to be an American and it was easing to watch something positive on TV. Although 9/11 was a tragic event, I thought it brought our country together after this as in more loving towards others and more patriotism was uprooted from this. It seemed like no one was that active as being proud to be an American until this tragic incident happened. Using the Latin word E pluribus Unum meaning "Out of many" was a powerful way to end the commercials. Basically, it was saying that we are all Americans so we should come together as Americans during this troubling time. All in all the ad council does a great job with the campaigns they put on.

Blog on Social Citizenship

This article was interesting but repetitive in some of the points that were trying to be proved. Social citizenship is defined as people who "are energetic and passionate about social causes; brimming with new approaches and ideas for problem-solving; disposed toward sharing the responsibilities and rewards of affecting change in the world; and equipped with the digital tools and people power to make it happen". In the paper it is said that our generation the Millennial are more social citizenship. I do agree with the article that our generation is a lot more technologically advanced compared to previous generations. We do use the internet and use the web to protest certain events that we do not agree with. I myself get several cause event invitations on facebook and some of them seem interesting but I usually click the ignore button because I actually do not want to get contacted by the group and get myself into something I thought was interesting for that particular moment. I think one reason older generations look at our generation, sometime referred to the "Q generation" as Thomas Friedman wrote in The New York Times, as quiet and inactive is because everything we do is either on a phone or a computer, we are not old fashioned like our parents or their parents. To some this might seem lazy but you can reach more people through mass emails, mass text, or a good example social networks like facebook. Something interesting I read in the article was that some scholars feel that behavioral patterns begin to repeat every three generations and we are compared according to the article the greatest generation of World War II. This makes me wonder if they are saying history is bound to repeat itself if our characteristics are the same, so what does the next generation bring forth?

Teenage generation in New Direction

Graham Spanier president of Pennsylvania State University made a good point in his paper. At first he was questioning the drive of America’s teenage generation and lack of voicing opinions on current issues and quoted "I marvel on the one hand at the silence of today's young people on major issues and on the other hand at the inadequate understanding of the issues that some students choose for protest." One thing Spanier pointed out was that our generation is more tuned into to television more and no more about what’s going on in Hollywood than our country. "After all, according to a Newsweek study last year, more Americans were able to name Jordin Sparks as the winner of the American Idol competition than could identify John Roberts as the U.S. chief justice." Spanier was right on with this observation because I am always on facebook and watching the latest television shows and I never really watch the news unless I have too. He then switched up his argument and started to praise this new generation the strong will to help people through voluntary work. There was a 16% increase in applications to the Peace Corps and applications are up 28% for teach in America. I know I did a lot of voluntary work in high school and I loved helping out the community to make it a better place. I do consider myself a genuine person when it comes to helping people in need. I was really pleased with reading this article and it clearly reflects our generation today and how we are headed into a new direction, maybe it’s because of the technology improvement or that’s just the focus on the world today with all the poverty and unfortunate people. Spanier quoted our generation perfectly “while we see fewer marches and angry fists pumping the air, many students are still making a difference, and that is something worth shouting about.”

Said States

This piece was not the easiest to read or understand. It has taken me some time to read because it was so long, I had to take several breaks in reading this. One thing I do have to commend Said on is his ability to tell a story from a non bias point of view. Said himself recognizes, the Palestinian view has been lost and rarely acknowledged in history. I can’t imagine having to go through all of what Said describes and feeling as if I had lost my identity and did not belong anywhere. The colors of the Palestinian flag are outlawed by Israeli law, I think this is a shame and this hurts patriotism for the Palestinians. I really feel bad for them that they cannot exercise this freedom. Having a flag shows your pride of your country and not having one is demoralizing. There is a negative view on Palestinian society due to that fact that from a western point of view that most Muslims are terrorist. This piece did a really good job in depicting that negative contestation. It seems like the Palestinian culture itself is doing more damage than helping it, they have forbidden their history. I still haven’t understood why they do that, I think they are just a confusing culture in itself. In the article Said says that he is Christian. This makes his article stronger on the fact that he is from another religion writing about the hardships of his people in the Middle East. He is trying to bring change and make people aware of what really is going on overseas instead of what we see on the news because the news only shows the violent side of the Middle East. Over all this essay was pretty good and it was well written and he got his point across. Said has changed my mind on how I few Muslims and that Middle East as a whole.

Discover Something New

I have discovered just because you accidently forgot one of your belongings in church, does not mean it will be there or in lost and found when you get back. One would think, being in church, if you accidently left some of your belongings in church they will be there when you get back, or a fellow member would put it in lost and found. Well did not happen to me. About four years ago, a little bit after Christmas, I dropped my wallet in church. I just got finished putting money in the offering and I thought I put my wallet in my back pocket. As we were heading to the car to leave, I realized I did not have my wallet, and I immediately went right back to the chair I was sitting in. Searched all around and still no wallet. I decided to be optimistic and check the lost and found, my wallet was not there. I was distraught; I gave them my information just in case my wallet happened to turn up. I lost $200 cash, $100worth of gift cards, and family photos that I will never get back again. You would think being in the house of the lord no one would steal/take what’s not theirs. From that instance, I learned not to trust anyone to be honest even in the house of the lord. I think this is important because it re-evaluates what is taught in the church and peoples morale character. I was taught never to take what was not mine, let alone in church. Other people should learn not to trust anyone no matter what the circumstances are.

Jane and the Indians

Jane Tompkins in her essay "Indians": Textualism, Morality, and the Problem of History explains the problems she faces when she tried to learn about Indians history. In the first part of her essay she speaks about her knowledge of Indians when she was a child and how she decide to investigate their history. Then, in the second part of her essay, she tells us about a research she made on Indians. She took many sources, like first or second hand account. In order to learn anything about the world around , it is imperative that you take in mind that different people will have these bias' and prejudices views. Therefore when learning from them you may only see one point of view. To learn the whole truth, you must take in as many points of view as possible. This will allow you to possibly filter out the conflicting points of view, and try to realize the common story in all of them. By doing this you will be able to see the closest thing to the truth as possible. This took a long time to decifer and i did not enjoy this long drawn out reading. I hope we do not have another one of these in the future.

Revsionism Revisited

Revisionism is the reinterpretation of orthodox views on evidence, motivations and decision-making processes surrounding an historical event. Most historical revisionist can cause some controversial assumptions or conclusions about a specific subject, person, or event in history. One controversy introduced in the paper was Edward II's death. All along we went with the fact that he died in somewhere around 1329-1330 but this historical revisionist Ian Mortimer found evidence, in reading his biography on Roger Mortimer, leading to the fact that Edward II might possibly still be alive in 133o, possibly even till 1338-1339. It seems like revisionist try to rewrite or say to speak fix history. History can't be changed for the fact it has already happened. Revisionism makes you question everything you learned in gradeschool and makes the culture itself re-examine their hertige beliefs. Revisionism is not the most highly accepted profession but one of the most controversial ones.

Word War III-The controversial Wikipedia

Wikipedia is an online database that allows anyone to post on whatever topic they feel like without having any scholarly background information about the given topic. In turn it has become in scholars eyes to be an unworthy site and teachers have tried to steer students away from using this source. Although anyone can make a post on Wikipedia, they do have editors that filter through the site and delete up to 1,500 non-relevant topics a day! A conscience effort is being made to make the site as trust worthy as possible. In Tom Dunkels article he talks about a mini-biography post that was made about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, current Iran president, that started out to be 73 words long but after other active Wikipedia members got to it; it ended up being a whole article on his character and accusations that he was anti Semitic. When on a public server, your words have to be chosen wisely so it does not seem offensive from a third party point-of-view. Most editors of Wikipedia or admins try to encourage people that post to write in NPOV, neutral point of view, so discrepancy of words are limited and bias articles are limited. Of course they cannot catch all of them, so some articles are not written in NPOV. I think Wikipedia is a valid site sometimes depending on the topic at hand. I actually use Wikipedia a lot but I always check my information with another credible site to eliminate the possibility of using falsified information. Like Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, stated "once compared the wiki universe to a 'softball league for geeks'." Anyone that can type and form sentences can post on Wikipedia, there is no restrictions on age or educational background so always check your sources when dealing with Wikipedia.

The Pearl

1. It was not that hard trying to find a topic to write on, I simply choice football. Thats all that has been on my mind other than if the Packers are going to win tonight and if I am going to watch entourage at my friends house. I just got back from the Maryland vs JMU game today, we suffered a tough loss in OT but we played hard. Just about every college game this year has been close, which shows the drive and determination to win. I love football season, I can go on and on all day and not get tired of talking about football especially college. During this process, I have stopped a couple of times just to watch some of the Packer game and the typical distraction of the cell phone.
2. The open-ended process was actually helpful, it made me narrow my topic down to specificly what I was aiming for in talking about college football. I narrowed it down to talk about camaraderie because it takes every guy to be in sync in order to win and make it to the top.
3. I learned if I take my time and organize my thoughts, I can come up with a solid topic to write about. Making a list is a sufficient tool in trying to narrow down topics to pick the one that best fits your ability. Sondra Perl's Composing Guidelines is a helpful tool.

To Cheat or Not to Cheat?

Cheating has been a substantial occurrence throughout the years not only in the classroom but in other areas such as sports, businesses, and life in general. There have been several rules set in place to try and subdue cheating and people are expected to adhere to them but yet people still cheat. Clearly the sang "rules are meant to be broken" is evidently true. Just recently Alex Rodriguez tested positive for steroids along with Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, and Sammy Sosa, future Hall-of-famers of baseball cheating? The only simple answer is the desire to be the best. It is seen in the business world daily to do whatever it takes to get ahead of the competition and basically that is the attitude for most students towards their studies. I am not a big fan of cheating just because the repercussions are so devastating now and days, you can get expelled out of college and possibly never get into another college or university. I think cheating is repeatedly occurred on the stress levels of not being able to succeed in a particular area or just trying to get by without doing little or no work as possible.
“Excuse me, but there are worse things to do than cheat on homework” a quote from Nathans paper from a student at a university. This quote clearly displays how cheating is viewed in today’s society on the academic level, lackadaisical. No one see’s, besides professors and administrators, the big deal of doing a little peak here and there on someone’s paper to get by on a test or quiz that is needed to do well in the course. I am not justifying cheating and I certainly do not condone cheating because I don’t think; well actually I know you do not learn anything by copying off someone else’s paper for answers.

I am really not a big fan of writing papers but if I have to write one I will. I prefer to write on more of compare and contrast topics just because it is easier to break them down and write a solid paper. Another reason I dislike writing papers is because they take too long and they take too much thought and for some reason I always get these insane English teachers that expect over the top work and that’s been a major factor of me being strayed away from writing papers for an English class. It seems like every time you turn a paper into an English teacher, you always get it ridiculed with red ink and it feels like defamation of character. It is just not a good feeling getting a paper back that you thought you worked hard on and it is all marked up.
I strongly dislike writing on assignments that are based off plays especially Hamlet. I had a paper due in AP English where we had to analyze Hamlet Polonius and Fortinbras characters and we had to incorporate a theme off of their actions in the story. Well I thought it was a solid paper, put a lot of thought into it, and thought she was going to like it. I got the paper back and she wrote on it saying “Redo, I could not read anymore after the first paragraph”, it was a three page assignment. It was actually pretty funny because I never thought a teacher would flat out be that blunt but I ended up redoing the paper and I got an A on it. Although I am not a big fan of writing, I have liked all my English teachers I have had in the past and they have helped me to improve my writing.