Post Numero Uno

This is the first time I am writing a blog outside of the classroom. The main reason for me writing this blog is for my own benefit of getting my thoughts plans out onto a document. Through writing these posts, I will most likely learn more about what is expected of blog posts as well as become a better writer than I already am. I also hope to discover novel ideas as I am actively thinking about different topics being covered in each post. If anyone ever reads these I will be quite surprised, but the off chance someone does I hope I don't bore you to death.

A little bit about myself; I recently graduated college two weekends ago and currently waiting to get accepted into graduate school. With a degree in crop science, I hope to someday work at a seed company in the Midwest creating improved varieties of maize/soybeans/wheat/sorghum. I have always had a huge interest in plants since I was a kid, beginning when I was first given a banana tree for my birthday in middle school. This event sparked a huge interest in me that soon consumed my life and all of my future plans for a career. I knew right away I wanted to breed crops; from planting every seed I could get my hands on to attempting to cross peas in my parents sun-room, I knew plants were a part of my life. Besides plants, I have recently taken a huge interest in computer programming. This was sparked when I researched the famous Elon Musk and discovered he was a self-taught computer programmer. I did not understand the importance of computer programming in the world that we all live in today, and I am certain I still do not come close to fully understanding the basics of programming or the total applications it can be utilized for. I hope to someday understand this completely. In addition to both the plant science and computer programming, I am also an avid exercise enthusiast. I have been quite involved in improving the human body and mind for years and I know without a doubt that this outlet has helped center me through many overbearing situations. People come and go, situations can sometimes not go your way, but when I enter the gym, the only thing that matters is looking myself in the mirror and proving myself wrong when it comes to my limits. This is a little bit about me, and I will most likely go into greater detail as the posts accumulate over time, if I continue with these.

I have always believed that the people taken the unbeaten path will someday be the leaders of the world, and I hope to someday be one of those people. Things in life have not always gone my way, and I am very satisfied for that. Without that struggle, I would not be where I am today, nor the man I am today. One of my favorite sayings I had heard from my old college football coach was "You get what you get in the short term, but you get what you deserve in the long term." This is very deep and inspirational to me as it helps me to understand that the short term means nothing in terms of you overall life success. As I frequently say, "Trust the Process." This will be the end of my first blog post of many more to come. Until next time.

Writing Technology Paper

Wade Webster

Zuzu Feder

Writing 101

11-24-14

The Effect of Twitter on Society

Twitter is a very new form of writing compared to the entire history of writing. Being founded in 2006, Twitter has become a very influential force in the world with over 271 million users to date. Following other social networks such as Zynga, MySpace,  and Facebook, Twitter has become one of the most powerful social networks to date. Changing the opinions of the public in areas of politics, economics, and religion, tweeting has helped change the course of our history. Some people say that this technology has made the life of the human race better, but others believe that Twitter leads to laziness and it can ruin peoples lives for many reasons. In my opinion, Twitter can be both of these, but must be used responsibly by each individual to reap its benefits.

As many people have stuck around with Twitter since the beginning, many more have followed behind the masses. I personally got involved in Twitter after watching one of my friends use it all the time in my earth science class my sophomore year in high school. I had watched him communicate with my entire school at one time. I was amazed by this and saw so many opportunities for this. After roughly a year of using Twitter faithfully, I had accumulated about 150 followers. While in Twitter terms this is not that many followers, I had found that I had some individuals whom I followed that particularly annoyed me with their personal tweets. They had either been negative tweeters or always putting others down. This frustrated me greatly and I eventually went through and unfollowed all of the individuals that made my twitter experience dreadful. Like many analysts have discussed, Twitter can only be used effectively if the followers are specific to each user. This is pegged the term “refining”. As stated by one analyst and Twitter user, “I have refined it to include those people and topics that are meaningful to me and it gets me the information I need better than almost any other platform” (More on Twitter, the Positives/Negatives and Sturgeon, Now Refinement of Sources Makes It Powerful). This shows two things, first that people only want information that is important to them and not any so called fluff, and second it shows that Twitter can be used as one of the best places to get information.

Twitter being used as a base for news and other information has been occurring for quite some time and it has shown to be very effective. Many events have been posted live by Twitter in the past such as the Osama bin Laden raid and the Boston Marathon. The reason why this is so important is because Twitter can be used as a base for immediate news that is shared with millions of people with the click of one single button. Compared to other sources of news like the radio, television, and the newspaper, Twitter is instant. One example of this is during the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan a man named Sohain Athar accidentally live tweeted the entire raid without knowing specifically what was occurring. He was able to release this information roughly nine whole hours before the press was able to report anything to the public. Another example is during the Boston Marathon bombing. At 2:56 one Monday afternoon, Twitter blew up with tweets about a bombing during the Boston Marathon. 15 minutes later the first news station to report the nefarious event, CNN, had already showed up late to the party. Millions of people already knew about the bombings. Twitter has taken over as the leader in news delivery. Less than two hours after the bombing, the Boston police department tweeted, "at least 22 injured, two dead". This shows how little, old news sources are used anymore. Many people find this new source of immediate information to be very important in today's society as it helps keep everything running as smoothly  as possible which is very important in today's world. Twitter can spread all sorts of news such as the newest fashion trends, celebrities who died from a drug overdose, local prices of grains like corn or soybeans, and what views politicians have on certain issues.

Politicians also use Twitter avidly. They use it as a base to connect with all of their constituents with ease. Twitter had been seen as a good device for politicians in the beginning of the site, but eventually it began to turn into a negative influence as inappropriate pictures or bad news began appearing about these potential leaders of our country. One example of this is the Democratic representative of New York Anthony Weiner, who a few years ago was accused of sending an obscene picture to a college student over Twitter. With this event, Weiner’s approval by the people of New York and people nationally had dramatically dropped. This Twitter incident greatly affected his political position, and social media has done this to many more politicians also.

Twitter can be used beneficially by political figures too. Today almost all of the political figures in this country use Twitter on a daily basis. They do so in order to remain in contact with the voters and also to help argue their points to the public. This is very beneficial, because the American people are significantly more willing to vote for a candidate if he/she had been talking to this them over Twitter about the people’s needs and how the government would fix them. Before Twitter, political campaigns would have to contact a major news sources before they released a major story, but now all they have to do is post it on the site for everyone to see. This was seen as a huge breakthrough as more people could see the event unfold much quicker than would be able to twenty years ago. Twitter is very important in todays society for it helps to create a more efficient system of government in some aspects.

Twitter can also be important in the process of recruiting for college sports and beyond that. If a student in high school is talking to a college coach about them playing a sport the following year there are a lot of restrictions that in place set by the NCAA. Some of the restrictions include that a coach may only call the student once a week and can not contact them using text messaging. However Twitter is unrestricted as the coach may direct message the student as much as he pleases. This can be very useful in the recruiting process as contact is very crucial for both the coach and the student-athlete. The student must know that the coach is truly interested in them. If the student had a sudden question, they could also contact the coach easily using Twitter. On the other hand, Twitter can also be a way for coaches to drop interest in athletes. One way this could occur is if players have been posting lewd material on their page coaches may realize that isn't the certain type of player they want representing their organization. One actual example of this is the Penn State offensive line coach, Herb Hand, tweeting "Dropped another prospect this AM due to his social media presence...Actually glad I got to see the 'real' person before we offered him." This shows that coaches really do care what their future athletes are actually like. Also since coach Hand tweeted this, it is like a fair warning to other athletes in the future to be very careful with what they put on Twitter.

Twitter has its positives and negatives portrayed by all of these examples, but there is one important part to using Twitter in a positive manner. That is being able to filter what you put on there for everyone to see. People must be smart with what they post because there will always be people in society who will be judging the material you share with world. Just like in most college and professional sports, the athletes must never judge a certain race, sponsor a product unless they had been paid to do it, they must never show disrespect to their respective programs, and never show anything that their grandmother would be ashamed to see. This is a good rule of thumb for every Twitter user as it helps to create a more friendly Twitter where the spread of information is the overall outcome. Nobody wants to see drama on Twitter except teenage girls and boys.

Twitter is a huge force on todays society, and it’s not going away anytime soon. This is apart of the huge world of social media that started a little over a decade ago. The idea of communication with the entire world in a matter of seconds was not ever perceivable one generation ago, now riots in Egypt can be watched over Twitter on a live feed. This shows how much of an impact a device, such as Twitter, can have on the world that we live in. Without it, the modern world would be much slower and could possibly be less advanced. Twitter is a good tool for communication and news updates, but only if it is used correctly.

Corpus:

Tweet Science

http://nymag.com/news/media/twitter-2011-10/

More on Twitter, the Positives/Negatives and Sturgeon, Now Refinement of Sources Makes It Powerful

http://johnsimonds.com/2008/12/01/more-on-twitter-the-positivesnegatives-and-sturgeon/

The Positives and Pitfalls of Social Media

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/the-positives-and-pitfalls-of-social-media-20140709-zt0mh.html

Twitter: What Is It Good For?

http://www.yuppee.com/2013/04/16/twitter-what-is-it-good-for/

The Positives and Negatives of Twitter: Exploring How Student-Athletes Use Twitter and Respond to Critical Tweets

http://chronicle.com/blogs/players/files/2012/12/athletes_twitter.pdf

Recruits Learn Positives, Negatives of Social Media Exposure

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/2014/02/01/2929913/recruits-learn-positives-negatives.html

Positives and Pain of a Twitter Life

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/media/opinion/the-positives-and-the-pain-of-a-twitter-life/story-e6frg99o-1226174571121?nk=aca500cc5e99d7ca8a898ba39f55bbaf

How Twitter has Changed Politics-and Political Journalism

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/11/07/how-twitter-has-changed-politics-and-political-journalism/

Twitter is Becoming the First and Quickest Source of Investment News

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/apr/23/twitter-first-source-investment-news

Will Twitter War Become the New Norm?

http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/15/tech/social-media/twitter-war-gaza-israel/

Twitter, Other Social Media Outlets Causing Problems for Politicians

http://www.christianpost.com/news/twitter-and-other-social-media-outlets-causing-problems-for-politicians-50736/

Sources Cited

"More on Twitter, the Positives/Negatives and Sturgeon, Now Refinement of Sources Makes It Powerful." Delusions of Adequacy. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 20

Kohl et al Post

This text makes me very upset because I believe that authors should write their own work. If this continues it will create a very corrupt system of people stealing other people's ideas and claiming them as their own. This is not a good situation at all. If scientists for example steal other scientists theories or experiments it could cause a great hassle of trying to give credit where credit is due. This takes all of the honor in each authors writing. I personally believe that people should receive everything they work for and if people start writing their own pieces with work composed by someone else it takes away the validity of the work. It also makes people lazy because individuals will soon forget what it is like to write their own texts. This will eventually affect the education system as well by students not using their own brains to write papers and use other important writing skills in their schooling, I am completely against this.

Grabill Post

2. I frequently use texting, email, Twitter, and other social media devices such as Facebook and Instagram. I use these devices in order to help me stay connected with friends and family back home. Most of these are done for pleasure but they can also be done for work. For example I can email my TA in my soils class to help we write my essay that is due in a couple weeks. I've also been able use Twitter as a resource to help me connect with my teacher in an educational environment in which I respond to a daily question that is posted. However I also use research paper, academic papers and lecture notes. These are strictly for educational purposes and no pleasure whatsoever. I have done these for proximately five years now and they have become much easier to write. I could say that the importance of each writing style could be determined by the situation. In a relaxed and pleasurable environment I would state that texting would probably be the most important resource that I use. And an educational environment I would say that lecture notes would be the most important resource. This is because they help me take down and note all the information that was given to me that is obviously important enough to go over in class.


Meta Moment: I concept of writing has not changed because of this article. Is simply reinforce my belief of what writing is. It has however help me explain my writing styles, such as I am an avid Twitter user and also I will find myself frequently writing academic. Without a device such as Twitter I know for a fact that I would not be able to keep up to date with everything going on the back in Iowa. This goes as far as my friends and what they are up to and also the scores of football and volleyball games. I also use Twitter to help me keep me up-to-date with the national news such as the Ebola outbreak down in Texas. I can also use Twitter to help me keep me up-to-date with other school news such as delays and warnings such as physical abuse in South Hedges. Without these devices the news that I want to know and need to know would not be as accessible to me as they are now

Baron Response

Allie Lindsay

Baron Post

2. The problem with this question is what is defined as normal. There are many normals that could be defined and I shall assume that all language used today is considered normal. As an individual of the culture that I grew up in, both educated college graduates on one side and farming hicks on the other, I have my personal views on the different languages that should remain and others that should be left to die through the course of time. In my biased preference, I think that more of the slang of the inner cities should be allowed to die as there less productive wording coming from these languages. People may argue that the slang of rednecks and hicks can also be allowed to die but I would state that these individuals and their lifestyles have been the backbone of this country and without them this country would never be where it is today. This is all from my personal believes and my upbringing greatly affects my opinions. I also believe that the language of the upper class must stay where it is as it serves as a base for all serious business. This is used for strictly matters that require the utmost attention such as work interviews, college application essays, or government paperwork. This is how I feel about languages around the country and where they must be in the upcoming future.  

Baron Blog Post

Baron talks a lot about the computer and the internet. As a teenager and young adult in this day and age I have had a lot of experience with both of these. Growing up I remember having dial up internet and always making sure I had to ask my parents before I could get on. Then one day we got internet that wasn't connected to our phone and that was amazing. The speed of the internet had sped up so greatly. After this I discovered Facebook because of my cousins talking about it one weekend in Iowa City at a family reunion. I had gotten my entire family involved into the social media trend. Then one day my dad came home with wifi and I could use my Wii as a device to play with my friends online. This was the best gift I had received. I remember that day very vividly. Then I got an iPhone touch after I had saved up all my money for about two years and I could start to use Facebook on my iPod. Then after about Twitter had become a pretty big influential force in the social media sector. After many months of telling myself I would it give in to to Twitter I finally caved and got a page. After this snapchat and Instagram followed very soon. I had started to feel like I fit in with the other people in my age group. This is sad but this is the reality of the internet these days. This is a brief history of how I have personally experienced the changes in the internet over my life time.

McCarthy Blog Post

I never experienced this much, at least later into my education. I can see maybe back in early high school, but I was taught that all writing was the same, just the information was different. In college so far all of my writing has been very simple, and I haven't had any problems with altering back and forth between writing styles in different classes. In the future I see this remaining the same unless I have a professor that requires a specific style of writing. I have found that looking at all writing assignments as fitting the info into specific spots in the paper as like a common outline between papers. While I hate to say that it is like a machine, this has always helped me significantly.  

Branick-Football Coach Post

No, I had already thought that they were a discourse community. They have so many different responsibilities, and most of these are completed by writing in one form or another. The playbook, the play script, the rules of the game, and especially the ability to read the players. This is huge because if a coach can not understand what the athlete is experiencing, the ability for the player to improve decreases dramatically. If a coach is not teaching how to run block in a manner that a certain individual is understanding, the coach had better find a new way to teach it. However, the coach must be able to recognize that the athlete isn’t responding to this drill first and ensure that the problem isn’t just a lack of effort. This ability isn’t something learned in a matter of a few days or weeks. This can take a number of seasons for a coach to master. In my experiences, coaches are also pressured into reading many documents and novels written by other historical coaches techniques in order to be the best coach they can possibly be. The coaching profession has many different reasons for being a discourse community and more people should recognize this as a fact.

Marro Blog

If I were to guess, this is not a stereotypical sorority. This group is very conscience of doing good in the community. They want to strictly help people as much as possible. The goal of being the best person possible is also very important to them as they want to grow as individuals as well as help the community to grow too. They do this by communicating in different ways to help them stay connected. They are able to succeed so greatly because they have solid values such as they do which help them stay in check.

  Brandon Crandall 

Activity Systems

An activity system is a group of individuals coming together to form a group which has common goals and desires. This group must be able to act in an effective manner by using tools that each member of the activity system is able to use. I am apart of/ have been apart of activity systems myself. For example back in high school I was a part of my high school football team. Our overall goal of the activity system was to win games and also become good young men that I am proud to call myself today. I was also apart of the track and field team where I threw the shotput. While this was one of my favorite things to participate in we all had goals that we wanted to complete. Each individual had their own goals in which they had determined at the beginning of the season. These goals helped us reach a level of satisfaction and achievement. I was also employed at the YMCA where I worked as a counselor at kids camps. We all had the goal of making each child's life a little better. You did this by making sure each child had fun while also helping them connect with other children. These are the three activity systems I have been a part of.

Response to Mirabelli

Allie Lindsay
Danielle Jones

Mirabelli Reading

Based off this reading, how do you now feel towards waitresses or waiters? Did the article change your opinion and will this change your actions towards them in the future? Explain in detail using examples from the text.

Rhetorical Paper

 Wade Webster

Zuzu Feder

Writing 101

9-15-2014

Analysis of

Helping Students Use Textual Sources Persuasively

by Margaret Kantz

I've always had trouble writing research papers in a manner that would emphasize the information in a way that would help prove the thesis of my paper. I had never been taught any specific style of process to express my opinion or prove information. This was extremely difficult, because I could not write about topics while I only stated facts and never anything analytical or thought provoking. Margaret Kantz however wrote this article called “Helping Students Use Textual Sources Persuasively” about the processes needed to write a solid research paper. It focused strictly on how to analyze research and other factual sources. Kantz first discussed a girl named Shirley who was writing a paper. She could not go into great depth about her research area, the Battle of Agincourt, but she could only retell information that had been given to her. Then Kantz goes on to talk about a theory of thought called Kinneavey's Triangle. After that the differences between facts and opinions are discussed. Finally Kantz discusses a process of constantly producing questions while reading any text. This is all what Kantz believes and wants to spread to her audience.

Margaret Kantz is the author of this piece and she taught at the University of Central Missouri for twenty-one years before retiring. She is a very smart woman who has taught multiple English classes such as Freshman English, World Literature, and Advanced Rhetoric. She also holds a doctorate degree in Rhetoric from Carnegie Mellon University (Margaret (Peggy) Kantz). In 1990, Kantzs' article was published by the College English, which is a peer reviewed journal with editions published once every other month. College English was first published in 1939 and is still in operation today. This journal, which is directed at college writing teachers and graduate students, focuses on topics such as literacy, rhetoric and other common reading and writing theories (College English). In this article, the amount of data shown is very limited, but the impact it has is very strong. In the findings by James E. Ford and Dennis R. Perry written in Research Paper Instruction in the Undergraduate Writing Program, only 84% of college freshman composition course and 40% of advanced course give any instructions on the writing of research papers (Ford, James E., and Dennis R. Perry). Kantz wrote this article to get her point across about using her methods to write a research paper, but she had written this for specifically college professors and also graduate and undergraduate students. She makes the statement that many classes are not teaching their students the correct way to write research papers or let alone interpret textual sources accurately. She is writing this paper to help these students learn the accurate technique that should be implemented. In my personal opinion she did this in a very effective manner. She had poised all of her points strongly and supported them with accurate descriptions and evidence.

Kantzs' article starts off with a description of common mistakes made by students. As described earlier, Shirley was used as an example of such mistakes. She was a very smart student and had always been able to succeed in school with ease, but one assignment she was assigned made her realize that she had been lacking in one certain area of literacy comprehension. She could not analyze information given to her about her topic and in the end received a C- on her paper. Shirley then consulted help from her friend, Alice, who taught her ways of properly analyzing a textual source. Processes such as identifying bias in the sources is very helpful to easily understand the topic better and the author of the source. Like the old saying goes, “the victor writes the textbooks,” and this is incredibly accurate in that only the information the successor wants released will be released. If after a war, would the winner want to document any war crimes they had committed, or would they rather document in great detail the war crimes the enemy had committed? The answer is quite obviously the latter, as he wants to make his actions seem just and convince the audience that they had done justice. This is exactly what readers must identify as they read different texts. The reader must also think about cultural differences in texts. An author at Woodstock would have a much different view on the use of drugs compared to an author who is an elderly individual during the 1950's. Kantz then goes on to talk about a theory of interpretation of texts called Kinneavey's Triangle. This triangle is made up of terms needed to understand any literacy pieces. These terms are encoder, decoder, and reality. The encoder is the author of the piece and is named this because of his ability to inscribe details into the page. The decoder is the audience, and they must discover the message of the encoder. The reality is the subject of the matter being written or read. The basis of this triangle is that the decoder stops at each point and poses questions such as “Am I the intended audience?” This is important, because if done correctly the reader should be actively thinking about the piece while reading and will leave the reading completely understanding it. Lastly, Kantz moves to a point about the difference between facts and opinions. She states that both are presenting information to the audience, but the difference between the two is the way the audience interprets the new knowledge.

This new information is interesting, but what is the purpose of it all. First, talking about Shirley having trouble reading the texts. She had been reading these texts like a story, similar to young kids reading the Magic Tree House books. During elementary school as the teacher read to the class about Jack and Annie going back to the age of dinosaurs, the students believed absolutely everything that was in the book. This is wrong to do as a student writer in college, because as you read you should not be accepting everything that is presented to you. Like my high school physics teacher, Mr. Like, frequently stated, “we are scientists, and scientists don't accept anything to be 100% truthful.” Nothing can be guaranteed that is found in a textbook. There are too many outside variables that could have affected the writing of it, such as politics, economics, or religious factors. Shirley also needs to learn the difference between fact and opinion in order to implement the most effective writing possible. As stated earlier the difference between the two is how the audience takes in the information and how much they believe it. If the writer doesn't state their claim with confidence the audience will most likely consider it an opinion as they have no reason to believe it. In writing, the author must put their facts or opinions, regardless of what they are, on the paper in a manner that will help them prove their point. This will help Shirley prove her thesis of any essay every time.

Margaret Kantz wrote this article in the hopes of teaching students and teachers the proper way to compose a research paper. This is important in college especially, because as the number of papers assigned rises, the skill needed to write better papers must also increase. This is Kantzs' goal as she described the story of Shirley and her improvements from the help of her friend Alice. Shirley learned to not believe everything that was presented to her and to not read texts and books as stories but as what they are, sources of information. She also learned that bias views are also present in texts and the reader should be weary of them. Kantz also wanted to emphasize the process of using Kinneavey's triangle. This was very important to her in that she believed this was the basis for the complete understanding of a text. In my opinion, Kantz did a very spectacular job explaining her process of creating a perfect research paper.

Sources Cited

"College English." NCTE Comprehensive News. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Oct. 2014”

“Ford, James E., and Dennis R. Perry. JSTOR. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Oct. 2014”

"Margaret (Peggy) Kantz." Margaret Kantz. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Oct. 2014”

Blog Post 5

1. I can state truthfully that my writing style holds up to the gender standards set before me. I always end up talking about accomplishments and triumphs more than relationships and connections between people. Whether I want to or not, I always fit the typical male role. In my first paper for this class I briefly mentioned any relationships at all. However, I spent most of my time discussing my own accomplishments in reading and writing. I talked about how I was able to memorize a book and would learn words by trying to read along to the book. This was an accomplishment I praised myself for, and this exemplifies perfectly how I fit into a male role of writing. In real life I see myself as more breaking the stereotypes, because I am able to feel more compassion than most men are able to. Contrarily I don’t ever see myself breaking this stereotype in writing, because I am just not able to write in such a way naturally.

2. Six pages was needed for Magee to reach her research and results. This is important, because she helped set up her research in a manner that ensured the reader was able to fully comprehend and relate to her own statements. She did so by describing in great detail the gender specific roles in stating that men are more concerned about accomplishments while women are more worried about human connections and relations. She also stated that men are more realistic thinkers in a way that they are more intellectual in fields of math and science, and woman are more conceptual and are more focused on connections. I would say that this is true for the most part, strictly because both men and women are only trying to fit into their role in society as most people do. Magee also uses two girl’s college essays to describe them as breaking the gender stereotype in writing. These were important, because they help set up her research description and interesting results.

Blog Post 4

1. Facts, opinions, and arguments are all parts of a paper. All three are incredibly different but still important. Each has different characteristics and purposes which will be discussed. Facts are what are expected to be by their name. They are simply stated information which can be about anything. Facts are given as the truth but they all should never be believed to be the truth. There are many reasons why they shouldn't be believed, but there are certain facts which should be agreed upon which are truthful. These facts should be the ones introduced into papers, because they help bring needed information to support other statements previously stated. Opinions are the reason why you should be weary of all facts. In textbooks and other sources, different sources tell the same story differently. Like the old saying goes, the winner always writes history. This has been true for most of history. Opinions are based off of one individuals outlook on a situation. They can be either talking about facts or about the individual trying to sway the reader to believe a certain way. Arguments are different than opinions, because they don’t only state facts and beliefs but they try to contest  some other perspective or fact. Arguments try to create immediate action by making the reader desire change.

Meta Moment: Kantz is trying to help writers learn to not just copy facts from sources and put them into their essays or papers. Instead, Kantz wants to explain to the reader how to analyze the information and be able to ask analytical questions regarding the sources and their statements. This will be incredibly beneficial for young college writers and others aspiring to increase their writing abilities. This style of writing explained by Kantz will help because the methods will help point out facts and also explain them more efficiently. This will also help the writer find possible problems or faults in the sources if this style of analyzing is used which would also help writing abilities.

Blog Post 3

 The genre that I decided to write about is a football playbook. These are very common in my life, and I have been around them for many years. A playbook is written in a language that is only understood if you put in work and effort to understand it. Most people think that they are only just X's and O's but a playbook in this day and age is compiled of both diagrams and descriptions of each formation or specific play. On average 4 pages are used to describe each play. I compare football to a separate class, like chemistry or calculus. The playbook is the text book and games are tests. You need to learn each chapter, or play, completely or else you won't do well on the test, game. There will also be many pictures of the team on and in the playbook in order to create a sense of team pride. Playbooks are also very universal in their layout and purpose. Each one must explain the plays in order to run the perfectly, however each team will not own the same playbook, so each team must use their own playbooks.  

Blog Post 2

1. I have never thought of this idea before, but it makes sense. While I have thought of the author attempting to convince the reader to take their opinion or take action through persuasion. I would say the difference between talking and negotiating is that talking is more casual and friendly while negotiating is more about finding a solution to a problem that is common between at least two individuals. Talking is writing about a story or facts that are presented by scientific means or other similar fields. The facts are important because they don't bring in opinion and only presents the truth, or what is thought to be the truth. I think what you are writing about or for would determine which style you should write in. In a children's book you should write as if you are talking, and if you are writing a discussion or a rebuttal to someone else's statement or opinion you would want to write in a negotiating voice. You can do this by being very convincing and always have the audiences interests in mind as you try to share your point of view.

4. Simply put, constraints are means to prevent the rhetor from getting their points across to the audience. However it is stated that the authors should use the constraints to their benefit by constraining the audience and better persuading them with the authors idea. Examples of such constraints could be family or cultural traditions, books, common knowledge and facts, an other such ideas. They can be used to convince the audience of an argument quicker if they are reminded or taught these so called constraints. There is also the problem for authors of what to do when they are presented with constraints. There are positive constraints, which can be used to help persuade the audience, and there are negative constraints which can hurt the authors basis of argument.

7. First the discourse is needed, because it was preempted by an event or situation which needs to be discussed and presented to the audience. An example of this is when a football coach must address the team about an event like a big loss to their rival. He must explain what happened and what they must do to move on and get better. This leads into what is the discourse trying to accomplish? In this example the coach is trying to fix mistakes and not let moral of the team and the players individually get low so they collapse and won't overcome this obstacle. The discourse is trying to explain the rhetors objective and present the ideas that he feels important.

Literacy Paper

Wade Webster

Zuzu Feder

Writing 101

9-15-2014

My History of Everything Literacy

Writing has always been a big part of my life. Since I was a kid to now, I have always had a desire to read and learn new information. This information could be in the form of science books or just stories, such as fictional novels. My first memories of books were of my mom reading me a book titled The Digging-est Dog by Al Perkins. This book was my favorite for close to two years, and I would need to have to read to me every night before I went to bed. I had gotten to the point where I had memorized the entire book, and I was able to tell the whole story without even being able to read yet. This was also how I first started to learn my first words. I had been able to talk at a young age but I was also able write and read at a young age, and I credit this all to The Digging-est Dog.

Like I stated earlier, my mom was always a big sponsor for my reading skills and enjoyment of books. Up until 3rd grade we would always read close to an hour every night before bed. We read everything from kids books, such as The Great Fuzz Frenzy, and Ten Little Mummies, to adventure books such as many Gary Paulsen books, which were my favorite. She always tried to make me love reading, and she did just that. She was also a big sponsor in my writing abilities. Whenever I had to write a paper during middle school she would always help me look over the paper and check for grammar and other writing mistakes. While most times we would get in arguments over the paper, we always got it done correctly. This help was very beneficial for me, because it helped me correct my papers on my own. My introduction to writing was similar to learning how to ride a bicycle, and my mom is like the training wheels. She helped teach me how to ride the bicycle, or write, before she let me write on my own. I owe a lot of where I am today with my reading and writing abilities to my mom helping and being patient with me during my learning stages of literacy.

Also during fourth grade, I had a huge love for reading that outweighed everything else. My parents would yell at me for locking myself in my room all day, and told me I needed to go outside and do something active. I was hooked onto the Warrior series by Erin Hunter, which is about a tribe of feral cats that fought other tribes for territory and food. While most people would be ashamed for reading such a book, I am very thankful for reading these books for two reasons; it got me to love reading with a passion I had never experienced before, and it also helped me learn new vocabulary. Reading and vocabulary go hand in hand. If while I were reading a book and I didn't understand a word that popped up, I would go find out what that word meant. Reading was always one of my huge passions as a kid, and sadly it has dwindled over the years due to stress from school and sports and an inadequate amount of time to engulf myself in books and novels. I didn't just love to read short books, I loved to read long novels that intrigued me. Some of these were Firebringer, The DiVinci Code, Watership Down, The Lighthouse Trilogy, and the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series. I also went through a period of reading a lot of war stories such as Unbroken and No Easy Day. This was during a period about two years ago when I had changed my life dramatically, and I wanted nothing more than to be as tough as these individuals. I had no aspiration to join the military in anyway, but I envied their toughness greatly. Allowing myself very little time to relax and forcing myself to go 100% in everything I did, I had made myself into a mock warrior, at least I thought so. I changed my life due to books and these authors heroic stories of their adventure and sacrifice to our country. Having a book or a genre of books change your life is extremely invigorating, especially in this day and age, when most people are changed by either drugs, sex, or money; it is great to have changed due to a very honorable source. While books have changed my life in many ways, there's still one person outside of my family that has influenced my reading and writing dramatically.

This person was my 11th and 12th grade English teacher, Mrs. Montgomery. Through grammar class and AP English, she taught me not just how to read and write properly, but she also taught me how to enjoy reading again. She helped teach me that reading shouldn't be a required portion of homework but an escape from reality. It was a time to let my imagination run wild and postulate opinions and possible answers to questions I had come up with while reading. It helped me finally understand what I was reading in a shorter amount of time, which was very nice noting that I was involved with extracurricular activities and had very little time or energy at nights to complete my homework. I also learned how to write like I do today. For years beforehand, I had always been taught to write papers in a five paragraph essay form and to use the pyramid technique for the intro and conclusion, but Mrs. Montgomery taught my class that it didn't matter what the format was as long as it makes sense, and you are able to get your point across. I loved this more than anyone would expect, because I had always compared writing papers to a machine. You would enter information where it was supposed to fit like an assembly line. Now with this new type of writing style I was free to make whatever choices i wanted to make about how my papers would look. I remember specifically my first paper in this style was an in class essay over The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I had about 50 minutes to write the essay, and it only took me about 40 minutes to write more than I had ever written before. I felt so free and capable of writing anything that came to my head. Transitioning from a feeling of having very little control and ability to put forth your own imagination into your own paper to having total control and desired imagination and voice was very smooth. It was like I had been freed from the chains of the writing style I had been taught for over four years.

My reading and writing over the period of my life have increased quite dramatically. While most peoples do also, I feel that I had an accelerated learning due to all of my sponsors such as my mom, my individual reading and my high school english teacher. I had always had so much assistance when it came to reading and writing that I rarely had to struggle through much of my developmental stages of language in school. I also had such a huge drive to read that I never once dreaded reading at school or at home. It helped me to learn new words and write my own stories. I am looking forward to learning even more in my writing class this semester and adding onto my knowledge of writing now. I wish I could see what my progress will be at the end of the semester now.

Writing Blog Post 1- Murray

2- Murray states that everything you write is an autobiography, because you always put your voice in your writing. You gain a sense of voice or attitude as a teenager or young adult and by the time you're twenty, you don't enhance your voice anymore, you simply flow with your own voice that you currently have. He also states that your writing is based off all of your previous memories, and these are portrayed through your words. Everything you write comes from your life, whether they were happy or sad memories, they all influence your writing. Categorizing these all are difficult because they change between person to person, but they can be roughly catogorized by your past memories, your attitude, and your perception of the world around you.

5- Considering his arguments and seemingly flawless logic, yes, I will change my writing habits by trying to realize my own voice, and instead of thinking about what I will compose onto paper, I will hopefully just let it all flow out of my imaginative and memory filled brain. I have happy and sad memories just like everyone else, but I have never thought to let those show in my writing. Knowing those are available, I will not consciencely write this way, but I will be able to notice these more easliy. It is nice to be able to recognize this idea, because it helps to give yourself a sort of writing individualism. It makes you stand out from the crowd, and I have, since I was a little kid, wanted to stand out and not fit in to the social norms or the so called crowd. I wanted to be noticed but also know that I had done something significant or worth being recognized for. Murray's essay helped me realize that in writing I am able to do just this.

6- Now knowing this idea and being able to recognize that most papers or books are autobiographies, besides science papers usually. I can reflect on my own writings and say with confidence that my last few essays were in fact autobiographies. This can be justified by my voice being present in all of these papers. I unconsciencely do this and it helps me think quicker and in turn write quicker as well. I am also adding my voice into this assignment as I type making this assignment an autobiography. Murray was very correct in this theory of his, but you must buy into it to reap any benefits from this viewpoint.