Tag Archives: Thorough

A Raw Reflection on My College Experience

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The commonplace blog is a raw representation of how my learning has improved during this first semester. It showcases my weaknesses and strengths. I really enjoyed doing the reflections, because I realized what I could have done different in my papers. I hate not realizing it before, but I know how to make my papers better the next time. The one thing that is discussed most in my commonplace blog is my writing. After being in this class for one semester, I am more confident in my writing. I do not feel like I am an awful writer anymore. Even though some of my papers have not been amazing, knowing that I did my best is one of the greatest rewards. Besides my new found confidence in writing, the commonplace blog tells of my new found love for sociology. I did not know much about sociology, but I knew I had to take it. After taking it, I wish I could take it again next semester. Analyzing has become more of a strong suit for me. Analyzing is when someone does a detailed examination of something for discussion or interpretation. I used to hate to analyze, but after being in sociology and writing, it is not bad. It is interesting to look deeper into something to see how I would interpret it. The blog also shows how much I have grown as a writer. Even though I still struggle with redundancy, I am not as bad as I used to be. My writing has also improved by the use of transitions words. I know which transition word to put with each sentence. I also know how to transition from paragraph to paragraph better.

Furthermore, my commonplace blog reflects not only my academic learning, but it also showcases what concepts I have learned. As I said before, analyzing is the biggest concept captured in my blog. Analyzing can still be a struggle sometimes, but I am learning how to do it. My biggest problem with analyzing is knowing if I am actually understanding what I am reading or watching. It is not really the concept that trips me up, but the fear of not knowing if I am doing it right. The second concept captured in my commonplace blog, although not as detailed, is rhetoric. I did not know what rhetoric was until I came to college. When the unfamiliar concept was introduced to me, I panicked. Rhetoric is the art of using language effectively and persuasively which was unknown to me.

One thing that is missing from the blog is a more in depth discussion on rhetoric. Rhetoric was the biggest part of our writing experience this semester. However, I do not feel as though I discussed it thoroughly. I wish I would have had a more in depth discussion on how much I learned about rhetoric. Now that I understand what rhetoric means, it is not a bad concept.

The five final tags in the commonplace book are a true representation of my current understanding of what it means for me to be a college-educated person. The first two tags go hand-in-hand with insight. The first is “thorough.” This tag means asking questions to make sure that you understand what you are doing; being thorough in every part of the assignment; doing the research required; and making sure everything is organized correctly. The second tag related to insight is “depth.” This tag represents digging deeper into subjects through analysis and interpretation. Analyzing allows for more information, because of the in depth research on the topic. Interpretation allows for me to discover new ways to look at the topic. The next two tags express my emotion during my writing process. The tag “fear” is the emotion that troubles me the most. The fear of the unknown, meaning what did I receive on that paper or is the audience going to understand what I am trying to convey. The fear of failing because of the unknown, and the fear of inexperience on a concept I have never heard of before are also troubling. In the midst of “fear,” which leads into my fourth tag, I do receive some “confidence.” Throughout my last two years of high school, my teacher told me that I was not a very good writer which made my confidence level decline. After having a college professor tell me that I am a pretty decent writer, my confidence elevated. Confidence is something that I know I will continue to struggle with when it comes to writing. The peer reviews were nerve wrecking at first, but I have really grown to like them. Going to the conferences have helped the most, because there is no sugar coating on how my paper is. My final tag is “perfection.” This tag is a true representation of who I am. It represents my need to be perfect in everything I do which happens rarely. I will always make careless mistakes which might lead to fear, but that is the beauty of college. College is the place to grow and find out who I am as a person. Therefore, I have come to the conclusion that I will continue to be perfectly imperfect.

 

 

Op-Docs Animation

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I learned that I need to have more sources in my voiceover. I also learned how layer can make an animation really effective. Negative Space was something that I had never heard of until today, and I learned how to put that into my presentation. The most important thing that I learned was to have fun with the topic, but still add emphasis on the importance and seriousness of the topic. Do not take away so much from the topic so much that it dumbs it down.

Improving Voiceover

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I learned that it needs to be completely quiet when you are recording your voice. When there is noise going on in the background, it makes it very hard to understand what the person is saying. I learned that the medium needs to be consistent. If the person that I listened to wants to improve her video, she really needs to make sure that there is no noise in the background. There needs to be absolute silence. One way that I can improve my video is making sure that there is music to go with my voice and not just me talking. I also need to try to make it more lively and fun.

Reflection on Arguing

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One thing that I learned while researching physician-assisted suicide is that a lot of people have different opinions. Some see it as an act of compassion or as a way to end a difficult situation due to disease while others see it as devaluing and selfish. I have always seen physician-assisted suicide as selfish and devaluing, and it really surprised me to see that other people saw it that way too. I expected more people to view physician-assisted suicide as a means of ending the suffering of the ones with the disease. I also learned new ways to look at physician-assisted suicide from the other forum writers. For example, Ira Byock said that society should discourage physician-assisted suicide not encourage it, and that there are cures being discovered everyday so that it is not needed. I had always seen the cures perspective, but I had never thought about society encouraging it. I do not really feel like society encourages physician-assisted suicide, but I do believe that society urges people to give up when things become rough which is what I believe physician-assisted suicide does. I also learned that I have a decent writing strategy. I love to organize my thoughts first before jumping into the paper. When I just jump in, it is a mess. I like to write down all of my information first to make sure that I have enough, and then I try to go back and use what is necessary.

One of the two questions that I have after composing this project is how do you know if you refuted something or someone correctly. I was struggling with that in the paper. I was not sure if I refuted the topic or the two debaters of the forum correctly. I feel like I did by using facts to prove why physician-assisted suicide should not be legal, but I am very skeptical. The other question I have is how do you know if your writing strategies are working and also which ones are best for what paper. I feel like mine work most of the time, but I really struggled with using my writing strategies for this paper. At first, I felt like my paper was a complete mess. Everything that I normally do for a paper seemed to not work at all. I tried to organize my thoughts correctly and then start, but that did not seem to work. The only writing strategy I used was getting all the information and writing it down. The reason why this paper was such a struggle for me was, because at the start of the paper, I had a lot going on. I was sick with an upper respiratory infection, and I had a sociology exam to study for. Being sick, trying to study for an exam, and starting a paper were not a good mix.

One opinion that I have after completing this project is that I stress out having to write papers when I am sick or studying for another class. This was the most difficult paper that I have had to do in college, because of all the things that I was going through that week. However, I was able to complete every assignment and felt good about my accomplishments.

Argument

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I have seen persuasion on the screens of my dorm with the teachers telling us to go to class. They use pathos by telling us that if we do not go, we will pay the price or our grades will suffer. Nobody wants to start failing their first semester of college. They are persuading us to go to class in order for us to get a good education and make something out of ourselves. They have good intentions, and it makes it seem like the teachers actually care if we go to class. These photos have been really effective, and I really like them. They make me feel like people actually care about us.

What I love to learn

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I learn to love about about sociology. It is a very interesting way to look at the world and is very interesting. At first, I did not think that I would like it, because I felt like it would be really difficult, but it has been pretty easy. Looking at the world in a imaginative way instead of just black and white is very different. It has caused me to look at things I never would have thought to look at, and it has also caused me to look different at things that I never would have thought of to look at that way.

Daily Write 3

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I learned what other people found interesting to write about. Another thing I learned was that the New York Times has links in it that can link you to a different form of the same story or to a completely different story that may be related in some way. I also learned that the New York Times is very easy to navigate, but the access code is not.

Unit Reflection

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My first in-class essay taught me a lot about time management and how not successful I had been with it in the past. While in high school, I had a little experience with timed writing and answering essay questions, but some of the teachers would be a little lenient and still give extra time. Now, with me being in college, I see how serious it is to finish in a timely manner. What I took from this unit is to pay more attention to my time but not too much that I get distracted from the assignment. I also learned that I should try to answer all of the questions quickly, but not so fast that I forget where I am or what I am answering. My best strategy for timed writing would have to be to not stress out about being timed. My problem was that I always use to stress out when I was being timed. This hurt me because that was all I could think about. I would be so focused on completing the assignment in time that I would actually not finish in time. I applied this time management strategy by only looking at the time three times. I looked when I first started, the halfway mark, and when there was five minutes left in class. This strategy was very successful for me. I was able to do everything that was required of me and feel confident in what I wrote. The strategies I used to understand the questions were going back and looking at the questions that my teacher had given me. I also looked over my notes. I tried to make sense of what the question was asking and went from there. Once I understood, I was able to see where I wanted to go. These strategies proved very successful, and I will continue to use these strategies as long as I have in-class essays.

The reason why I chose the question that I wrote about was because that part of the book spoke to me the most. I am very confident in my decision of that question, because Robert Khayat’s persistence reminded me of my persistence. I am most confident in my in-class essay, because I feel like I knew the point I touched on. I am least confident about if I answered the question too thoroughly, because I have been told that I can be very wordy. My strategies for reading Education of a Lifetime were getting done in time and making sure that I understood what was going on. I believe that I was very successful in doing so because like I said before, I actually understood what was going on. I was thoroughly surprised at how well I enjoyed the book. It was an easy read and very informative. This book also taught me a lot. I learned a lot about the history of the University of Mississippi and how much has changed for the better. I also learned from Khayat to stand up for what you believe in no matter who stands against you. The advice that I would give my future self is to read the question thoroughly, know what is going on, relax, and try to answer the questions to the best of my ability.

New York Times

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I read an article that was under the health section of the New York Times, and it read Louisiana Lays Bare Difficulty in Push to Cut Planned Parenthood by Jackie Calmes on September 1, 2015. This story peaked my interest, because I was very surprised at how many people could not afford to go to the doctor. The statistics for the number of people who had diseases and knew nothing about it was astonishing. Planned Parenthood is normally used to fund abortions, which they hardly ever do. However, last year they tested for sexually transmitted diseases for nearly 10,000 low-income patients. What drew me to this article was that I had no idea that so many people could not afford healthcare. It really hurt my heart to see all those statistics for the people in Louisiana. Congress cutting the funding for the Planned Parenthood would hurt so many people, because they would not be able to afford to see what is going on in their bodies. Even though cutting funds for low-income people would hurt, it would put a halt on the abortions which I think is a good thing. I am totally against people getting abortions. Rather than seeing the baby as a mistake or a reminder of something awful that happened, see it as a blessing. Therefore, I think Congress should let Planned Parenthood keep the funding for people of low-income, but I do not think Planned Parenthood should fund abortions.