2nd Presidential Debate

I watched this debate with great anticipation - McCain needed to deliver in a big way in order to save his chances at getting elected president. All the news organizations were saying that "the gloves would come off."

However, McCain was on the defensive for the most part. Obama did a good job at playing it safe- not saying anything too crazy, but still keeping McCain on his heels. McCain did however deliver a few blows on obamas spending history and tax plan, but again overall Obama was the clear victor here. This is not because Obama attacked mcCain vigorously, but because Obama didn't give McCain the chance to attack him much at all.

The third debate will be do or die for McCain. If he cant deliver a knock out blow, then his chances for the presidency will be greatly reduced. He will have to hope that he will get the big debate break he's been looking for, or that Obama makes a critical mistake on the campaign between now and the general election in November

Vice Presidential Debate

After watching the vp debate, I was not satisfied with either candidate. Palin avoided question after question and seemed like an eleteist. She seemed very out of touch with the issues that voters wanted to hear about. No one cares what she did in Alaska. They care about what she is going to do for this country. With the little experience she has, this is what americans need to hear about.

Biden was equally dissapointing. He seemed to consistantly attack Palin with everything he had. I did not hear any plans he had to reform government and improve this country. I do not want more people in office who are going to point fingers, we've had enough of that in the past eight years. Hopefully whoever gets elected can reach across the isle and bring change to washington.

Presidential Debate 1

After watching the first presidential debate, I feel Obama was the clear winner. McCain seemed to stutter a lot and deflect questions frequently. I feel that the candidates both did too much back and forth, especially on earmarks. Most Americans probably dont even know what those are. If they get too techniqual, they may alienate voters. However overall, Obama did a great job projecting his views on spending, foreign policy, and taxes.

I hope that the next debate will cover more issues like healthcare and our deteriorating economic conditions. I am interested to hear about both candidates plans for turning the market around and solving our credit crisis. I would also like to hear the candidates views on moral issues like death penalty, abortion, and gay marriage.

Writer's Workshop Page 132

1. What are the purposes of your two Writing to Explore assignments?
2. Who is your audience for your I-Search project? Who is the audience for yourProfile of a Local Agency?
3. What is the rhetorical situation for your I-Search paper? What elements does it include? The Local agency profile?

1. The purposes for my two Writing to Explore assignments is to explore, in depth a particular topic. For example, my I-Search paper. I plan on choosing personal important issues posed by the presidental candidates. Once I have decided on the particular issues I want to explore, I plan on looking at both presidental candidates and analyzing where their particular stance is. For my other Writing to Explore assignment, I plan on focusing on a particular organization on my interest and exploring that organization.
2. The audience for my I-Search paper is myself, my classmates, my instruction and anyone else who in interesting in the particular issues I will be discussing throughout my I-Search paper. The audience for my Profile of a Local Agency Paper will be the same as the I-Search paper. I will be exploring an agency and my targeted audience will be the people who are interested in that particular agency.
3. The rhetorical situation in my paper is myself, the author, exploring two personally important issues in the 2008 election. I am doing this because I think that people should be informed about important issues that concern the environment such as noffshore drilling and global warming. The rhetorical situation in my Local Agency Profile is again myself, the author, exploring and writing about Habitat for Humanity. I am exploring this agency because I feel that people should be made aware of the local community projects put into place by Habitat for Humanity.

Invention Strategies

What are three invention strategies that you use? Why are invention strategies important? How can you incorporate invention strategies into your I-Search and Writing to Explore assignments? What revision strategies do you use? Why are these strategies important? How can you incorporate them into your work?

Three invention strategies I use is outlining my ideas, freewriting, and collaborating a list of information that I know about a particular topic. Invention strategies are important because its the first stage of writing and invention strategies also help to organize ideas already know. By organizing ideas already know about a particular topic, one is able to organize ideas that need to be ressearched better. I plan on incorporating invention strategies into my I-Search and writing to explore paper by using the strategies listed to help me organize my thoughts better. These strategies wil also help me to formulate questions that I have leading to further research, bettering my paper.

The revision strategies I use after I have written my first draft is peer review and having someone read my paper aloud. When someone writes a paper, they know the message they are trying to convey but sometimes that message does not come off in a clear, understandable form. Peer review greatly helps this. Through peer review, the writer can understand how their particular message is being conveyed and what can be done to improve the clairity.

8/1 Reading

How do you grade a conversation?
This article, written by Trent Batson, talks about "academic conversations" and the principles for evaluating online conversations. He gives an example of how he talked to a friend who told him about a colleague who based all of the grades for he semester on the students conversations through blackboard. The learning experiance depended on how well they conversed throughout the ongoing conversation.
The criteria he provides for evaluating online conversations is one, creating conherence. This creates a conversation that is easily understood. The second criteria provided is the awareness of audience. By being aware of the audience, the writer is able to target their writing towards a person or a group of people. The third criteria is purpose. A purpose will help to convey the message across in an academic way. And the fourth and final criteria is the diction. The diction is the words. The use of words is very important because it can help to distinguish between an academic and social conversation.

Reaction Blogs

What is happeneing to New Orleans now?

According to an online article from July 2nd, 2008, the lower ninth ward, which was the worst hit, only has about 1 out of 10 original residents living there. many of the buildings and houses are still abandoned.

http://news.cnet.com/2300-13576_3-6242942-1.html?tag=st.nl

Also an article mentions that there are tourists coming to New Orleans. But they are called "disaster tourists." They just come to view the devastation. Many people of New Orleans are mad because these people are paying to just see the devastation. None of them actually get out and experiance the devastion close up.

http://news.cnet.com/2300-13576_3-6242942-6.html?tag=ne.gall.pg

Overall, New Orleans is being rebuilt but very slowly. People are slowly starting to come back to a city that they once called home

Reflection Blog

What is lost if people don't return to New Orleans?

New Orleans is known for having a diversity of cultures and people. I think this widespread diversity is what makes New Orleans itself. I think the city will be hard to return to its original state, and if it ever gets there it will take a while, but it will take even longer if people don't return to New Orleans. The people make New Orleans what it is and what it will always be remembered for.

8/1 Readings

This weeks reading was an article entitled "In the Basement of the Ivory Tower" by "Professor x". This professor works part time in the evenings as a adjunct instructor of English. He teaches Engligh 1101 and 1102 at a small private college and at a community college. In this narrative, he goes on to explain that for many of his students, the colleges that he works at are last resort colleges. And by last resort, he goes on to explain that many of his students have screwed up and all either have children, a full time job, or mortgages to pay. Some of his students are fresh out of highschool and others have been out of high school for quite some time, but for most of them, college was never a goal they worked hard for.

I thought that this article was very interesting to read. I primarily enjoyed when he went on to explain that the classes that he teaches must be passed by students and that his class is not like a biology class where you have to know the facts and the teacher just had to grade a multiple choice exam. His class is a class where he has to grade essays and papers. He is essentially the person who "lowers the hammer". The person who deams whether people are fit for college or not.

I definately agree that college is not for everyone. Not everyone has the patience, time, self discipline, and motivation to complete college and let alone, enter college. I cannot imagine having to be the person who, in a sence, tells a person that college is not right for them.

Questions...
1. How do students treat you after you fail them?
2. How does failing a great number of people make you feel as a professor?
3. How can we tell someone that "college isnt for them" in an easier, lighter way...?

7/25 Readings

I thought that these two articles about media and risky behaviors were very interesting. The scholarly journal entitled "media and risky behaviors" explored different risky behaviors and compared how the media, movies, music and TV influence them. Some of the statistics presented in these articles were very shocking to me. One of the most shocking pieces of information i found was "in 2000, youth between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four accounted for 9.1 million (48 percent) of all new STI cases." I believe that the age that youth engage in sexual activities has decreased. I also think that this data presented in this journal should be presented more to parents. Often when watching the news, there is usually a story on childhood obesity. Kids in today's society spend more time inside playing video games than playing outside and exercising. This is contributing to the morbidity and mortality of youth. Other factors contributing to the morbidity and mortality of youh are smoking, underage drinking, early sexual initiation and violent behavior. As i stated earlier, I believe that this information should be passed around. Parents need to be aware of the possibilities that media can have on health behavior. I believe that if parents were to be more informed, crime and obesity rates could decrease.

7/20 Readings

This graphic narrative, “New Orleans After the Deluge”, tells the story of hurricane Katrina feature different peoples reaction and plans. After reading this narrative, it made me just sit back for a moment and just think about how much these people of New Orleans went through. Not just New Orleans natives, but surrounding cities also suffered from the hurricane. I really enjoyed this graphic narrative because it was just like a movie watching events happen in chronological order.

My dad owns his own hurricane website and tracks them. So when hurricane Katrina was approaching, I was very involved and knew what was going on. In the months following after Katrina, many shocking pictures and video clips were surfacing around America. I saw many of those clips and pictures and in the past few years, I have sort of forgotten how much damage Katrina actually did cause. Living in Florida, hurricanes can be a great danger. Luckily we haven’t had one hit the Tampa bay area in a while [KNOCK ON WOOODDD!] but in the past few weeks, through watching “when the levees broke” and reading “New Orleans After the Deluge” has really made me think. How lucky we are to have dodged so many bullets. But it wont last forever. We cant dodge EVERY bullet. Eventually a hurricane WILL hit. What will the residents of Florida do…? Stay…? Evacuate…? Will we be hit with one as worse as Katrina…? Has FEMA learned what to do…? Only God knows. So for now, its pretty much a waiting game….

7/13 Readings

Persepolis is a graphic narrative written by Marjane Satrapi. She uses pictures and writing to portray her childhood and the struggle in Iran. Satrapi talks about many terrifying experiences that took place during her childhood. Some of those include mass murders, bombing and executions. After reading this, I can’t even begin to imagine being a child having to see all of this take place. In "The Texture of Retracing In Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis" by Hilary Chute, she not only analyzes Persepolis’ text but also the pictures and layout of the graphic narrative. I never really realized how the layout and spacing can impact the interpretation of a graphic narrative until reading Chute’s article. I thought it was very interesting how even though Marjane was a child she wanted to fight for what was right and wanted to participate in the demonstrations even though there was a chance of getting shot. I also thought that it was very motivating that through such a hard time, Marjane was able to make light of the situation somewhat. I especially enjoyed the part where Marjane was being stopped by the Guardians of the Revolution and they were asking her about her pin with Michael Jackson on it and she included that the bottom, “back then Michael Jackson was still black.” :)
If i could ask three questions, I would ask Marjane...
if her parents got a chance to read the narrative?
how her childhood has affected her life today?
how did she feel when her parents went off to the demostration?

Katrina

After watching another section of "when the levees broke" I have a better understanding on how to write my own memoir. I need to write my memoir with a lot of emotion and detail. So that the person reading my memoir could create a picture as if they were there looking onto the situation.

7/2 Readings

In writing a memoir, by Frank Mathias, he uses a memoir to capture details from the war. He looks at writing a memoir as an art. I find it very interesting how Frank uses the letters from the war to recapture many details and to realize the boy who he once was. He also makes the point that you must be a historian to write a memoir, a historian on your life. I also enjoyed “Knocked Up” by Nicole Filmore. I thought this memoir was very interesting and comical. Nicole Filmore used a memoir to express her feelings that she couldn’t to her family. Many feelings of anger, happiness, and abandonment. I also thought the use of profanity allowed her to actually show those feelings of anger more.

I personally thought the readings for this week were very interesting. From Frank Mathais’s war memories to Nicole Filmore’s pregnant sister, I can see how writing a memoir can be truly therapeutic. I think it would be very interesting for Nicole’s sister to read Nicole’s memoir after her pregnancy to help her understand how Nicole was feeling and how her pregnancy was through another view other than her own.

If I could ask the authors questions…
I would ask Frank what if I can’t recall many memories from a specific event. How do I go about doing that?
I would ask Nicole how the baby made such an impact on her life?

6/30 Readings

Summary
In Jerry Waxler’s, “Is writing a memoir therapeutic”, he states that memoirs can be very therapeutic. He observes that writing a memoir is not always going to be easy because recalling past memories might require some thought, but once those thoughts, feelings, and experiences are expressed onto paper, many lessons can be learned. Waxler has came to learn how past experiences and hopes have helped him to arrive where he is today through writing memoirs. He also turns to other books to try to understand how a memoir can heal ones past regrets and feelings. In the NPR listening, Iriel Franklin and her aunt Antoinette Franklin talk about their experiences through and after hurricane Katrina. They talk about their hardest times after the hurricane. Antoinette expresses that her hardest day after the hurricane was seeing her mother and aunt, the strongest women in the family, break down. Iriel than states that her hardest time was not being able to know where her loved ones are. After hearing Iriel almost break down in tears talking about her hardest times. Antoinette says that she needs to stay strong during this whole ordeal.

Reaction
After reading Waxler’s story, I have been giving thought to what I’m going to write my own memoir on. I have started to think about whom and what has given me inspiration to get where I am today. I think this reading has really helped me to somewhat understand more how to write a memoir and how memoirs can help. After listening to NPR, my heart really goes out to the people who had to experience that. I have lived in Florida all my life and have yet to experience a hurricane. I cannot imagine losing everything and having to be relocated from somewhere I have called home for the past eighteen years.

Questions
1. How did Walxer let his feelings “bubble up deep from within”?
2. Will Antoinette and Iriel ever move back to New Orleans?
3. How did Antoinette and Iriel cope with the fact that they got displaced from their home?