Sunday, October 21, 2012

To Post, or Not to Post....

Active voice/ Intransitive verbs
Abstract subject
Linking verbs                       

                                      An Engaging Title


    When I first registered for this course - English 205 - all I was thinking was ‘I really hope we do not have to read Romeo and Juliet.’ The only reason I did not want to read this particular play is because to me it feels like a song on the radio that is over played in today’s culture. When I read something I want it to be new and vibrant so that I can actually get through it because it’s what I wanted. My previous experience with Shakespeare plays, dates back to high school when we read the play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” which I found to be thoroughly entertaining. After having read this play we watched a fairly recent movie on it. So while entering into this class I feel as though I was heavily prepared for what was yet to come; the only difference is that we do not perform Socratic seminars, but rather in-class discussions that are quite entertaining.
    On the first day of class we were all (well the ones that actually show up) handed a paper with plays that we would be choosing to read over. While looking over it, I noticed that there were plays that I had seen or heard of before, but never realized they were written by Shakespeare. Such plays include: “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” “Othello,” “Julius Caesar,” and “All’s Well That Ends Well.” Maybe if we have time we will be able to read through one or more of these plays by the end of the semester.
    So far, I have really enjoyed each of these plays, well maybe not the history “Henry V.” The only reason I didn’t like this play nearly as much as the others is because I found it to be boring, however, I find myself enjoying fictions more than non-fictions regardless. To be honest, I liked the action scene when the English were battling the French; especially with swords and arrows. I am not sure why but I have always had a fascination with the medieval era.
    As I had said earlier I enjoyed each play, but my favorite thus far has been “Hamlet.” This is the one play that I was most enthused to read out of any other given play, so when I found out we were going to be reading this play, you can guarantee I was doing the party boy dance all the way home. “Hamlet” definitely had its moments that you love as well as moments that you…well, love a little bit less. I was really hoping that Hamlet and Ophelia could have been together, but my heart was shattered once Ophelia drowned. After reading this part of the play my opinion is that she committed suicide, but Shakespeare didn’t exactly state this to be true. One could only guess that it is because suicides were heavily frowned upon during this time frame, that and maybe Shakespeare wanted to give Ophelia a last shot at dignity upon her death bed. And as if that were not enough, poor Hamlet and the rest of his kin are killed off in the end after a long gruesome fight. This brought me great sorrow because I liked Hamlet, but I feel he was misunderstood by most, yet he proved to be quite intelligent.



                                      An Engaging Title (Revised)


    I was thinking ‘I really hope we do not have to read Romeo and Juliet,' as I entered into English 205. I did not want to read this particular play because it feels like a song on the radio that is over played in today’s culture. When I read something I want it to be new and vibrant so that I can actually get through it because it’s what I wanted. My previous experience with Shakespeare plays, dates back to high school when we read the play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” which I found to be thoroughly entertaining. After having read this play, we watched a fairly recent movie on it. I feel as though I was heavily prepared for what was yet to come due to my previous experience. The only difference is that we have in-class discussions instead of performing Socratic seminars.
    On the first day of class we were all (well the ones that actually show up) handed a list of plays, which we had to vote upon. I noticed that there were plays I had seen or heard of before, but never realized they were written by Shakespeare. Such plays include: “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” “Othello,” “Julius Caesar,” and “All’s Well That Ends Well.” Maybe if we have time we will be able to read through one or more of these plays by the end of the semester.
    So far, I have really enjoyed each of these plays, well maybe not the history “Henry V.” Compared to the other plays, I hated this one because I found it to be boring, regardless, I find myself enjoying fictions more than non-fictions. To be honest, I liked the action scene when the English were battling the French; especially with swords and arrows. I am not sure why but I have always had a fascination with the medieval era.
    As I had said earlier, I enjoyed each play, but my favorite thus far has been “Hamlet.” This is the one play that I was most anxious to read out of any other given play. So when I found out we would be reading this play, you can only imagine I was doing the party boy dance all the way home. “Hamlet” definitely had its moments that you love as well as moments that you…well, love a little bit less. My heart was shattered once Ophelia drowned, for I wanted Hamlet to be with her forever. In my opinion I believe that she committed suicide, but Shakespeare didn’t exactly state this to be true. One could only guess that this is because suicides were heavily frowned upon during this time frame, or maybe Shakespeare gave Ophelia a last shot at dignity upon her death bed. And after a long gruesome fight, poor Hamlet and the rest of his kin are killed off in the end. This brought me great sorrow because I liked Hamlet, though he proved to be quite intelligent, I feel he was greatly misunderstood by most.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

How Will my Reflection Show, How I Write to You Guys?

This is a paper that I had written for my criminal justice in English course at my previous college. The paper is a reflection on what I had learned, how the writings had helped me, and which of the writings was my favorite.
Participles
Absolutes 
Appositives
Adjectives
Active Voice
Passive Voice 


This quarter has really been interesting to me and surprisingly I learned some new things that have never really had an impact until now. Entering into this course I knew very little about how to research a topic, especially a topic within the criminal justice system. Now I realize how scholars feel when they conduct their research. Research is a very difficult task because you have to find the information that is useful for supporting your subject. I learned a lot within this course about research, including how to properly use the databases to find information, as well as scholarly journals.
    My identity has changed dramatically this quarter because I have become experienced with writing researched based articles. Before this class my knowledge pertaining to research articles was very shy. I’m not going to lie, when it came down to writing the literature review I felt unprepared, mainly because I had psyched myself up for it. Once I had started writing it, the process seemed to just jolt right along. Out of all the papers I had written, I think that my strongest paper had to have been the background essay because I was more familiar with writing those and it was really well structured. The only way to write these papers was to not procrastinate, but also once you start push yourself to keep moving.
    All of the assignments allowed for me to get a better understanding on how to take the information received and put it into your own article. The Stanford prison experiment I believe had to have been the most obvious researched based film. It showed that a lot of research must be conducted before a research question can be solved. Within this video it also provided examples of the research process through secondary research.
    I really enjoyed doing peer reviews because you are giving your insights on how others can perfect their articles, while also being critiqued as well. While writing out reviews I was very cautious on how the comments I made could help the reviewer with both likes and dislikes. When any of my papers came back to me after being reviewed I felt gratitude because it informed me on how I could fix any mistakes, or even go into more discussion on a certain issue. It also gave me an idea of what interests the reader has and what they would like to learn more about.
    The argument probably was my favorite piece of writing in the final research article. This is because it was all about my word against theirs while setting up a trial and error process. It also allowed for me to support my thesis by providing examples and statistics. It reintroduced some of the previous claims and summed it all up with an analysis. By writing out an argument, my research question had been restated and provided answers to it.
    I learned a lot of new techniques this quarter and I hope that I will be able to take what I learned and apply it to papers in the future. One of the most important things I learned throughout this class was that everything requires some form of research no matter what it is. Well I’m actually going into the field of screenwriting, so I would really like to apply some of what I learned into this. I believe that if I am to keep practicing these newly learned skills, there will be much more I can gain and expand upon. As much as I enjoyed researching malpractice, I don’t think I am going to continue researching the topic, just because I don’t feel that there is much I can take away from it. I think that if I am persistent with reading and researching, those will allow for me to become a better writer, as well as boost my confidence.
    This class was very well structured and I was able to learn a lot throughout this course. However, I think that if you were to add secondary research to the list for the final research article, I would imagine that students could take a lot more away from this class as to gaining a new outlook on researching. The secondary research may consist of interviews, conducting surveys, job shadows, or anything else the students can think up. I also have to mention that on the first day I was a little afraid of your class and was thinking “oh no, what have I gotten myself into”. Later on throughout this quarter I realized that this actually helped in bettering my understanding for research based papers. So I thank you for that.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Let's leave it at that.


Here is an analysis that my 302 class had to write about our poems for the creative writing section.
Participles
Absolutes 
Appositives
Adjectives

    While writing this poem I was heavily inspired by all the political activity that is going on in our society. My poem, Grand Old Party Plays World Of Warcraft, is based on what would happen if Mitt Romney were to become president. I chose to do a lot of rhyming within this poem because I like being able to feel like a kid again and rhyming definitely takes me back to the old nursery days. Speaking of rhyme schemes, I used more alliteration, rhyming with consonants, than assonance which is rhyming with vowels.
    If you couldn’t tell this poem comes off as a narrative through the point of view of Mitt Romney, as I have previously stated above and in the title of the poem. In the 3rd and 4th lines of the poem I used repetition of a word by using the oval office and Microsoft office, this brings the audience’s attention from  large scale down to a smaller one, downsizing Romney if you will. My poem also uses different forms of punctuation to let the reader know when an acceptable time to pause may be.
    My favorite part, both fun and creative, is the formatting stage because I made it not only enjoyable for the readers, but also styled it so the words match what they are doing. For instance, for the word ‘grow’ I increased the text size per letter to give the appearance of growth. I also enjoyed the placement of “I click it here, I click it there” because the intention behind this was to imagine a mouse going from one side of the screen to the other. I also put some of the sentences in all caps to give the emphasis that the narrator is excited or yelling.
    So basically the point for writing this poem is not me choosing a political side, it is more about poking fun at Romney through the use of poetry. I feel this gives a new angle on things and maybe politicians are just sitting around playing role playing games in there free time, or maybe I just have a large imagination.


Here is the poem I wrote my paper on. Hope you all enjoy!!!


Grand Old Party Plays World of Warcraft (G.O.P.-P-W.O.W.)
Narrated by Mitt Romney


My nation needs a guy like me.
Someone who knows how to play the Wii.
After a long hard day at the oval office,
I like to loosen up my tie and start up Microsoft Office.
I click it here
                                                                                                            I click it there                                    
HEY!!! I DIDN’T KNOW I HAVE SPIDERMAN UNDERWEAR!
As the game starts to load,
My excitement begins to GROW.
That ogre is slain by my mighty sword.
Forget president, I have the power of the Lord.
On here I don’t have to sign pesky bills.
I get to venture on quests to find golden seals.
My high elf is now lvl 73
Wait…what’s that? What do you mean I have a press-conference at 2:30?!