Monday, November 15, 2010
BSU Midyear Symposium
Click here to read about and submit to the BSU mid-year symposium sponsored by the Office of Undergraduate Research. This is an excellent opportunity to get involved with the OUR, share your work with your peers, and experience presenting at a conference.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Scribd
Scribd is a website that allows you to upload documents and then provides you with embed codes and other ways to share them across the web. By using the embed code you can place the document on your own website. I use scribd with my assignment sheets on our course website. You can think of Scribd as youtube for documents.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Excellent blog post example
This blog post was done by a student in response to an assigned reading. She does a fantastic job of analyzing the essay and bringing in her own opinion. It is a very thoughtful response.
Response to "A Twisted World"
So, tonight I was having trouble sleeping, and when this happens, I just lay in bed, thinking about the week, the day's events, and tomorrow. I usually think about school work, any homework or tests that will be coming up soon, and this only makes me stressed out, anxious, and everything that is the opposite if what I want when I go to bed. So, I was in bed, thinking about school (please don't think of me as a nerd...), when I remembered something we read in English class. This very short story, "A Twisted World" by James McMorrow Jr., wouldn't get out of my head. I decided to get out of bed and re-read it.
This story gives a hypothetical situation: What would happen if celebrities ran the country? McMorrow replaces our government heads with celebrities, and explains how things would be different. For example, he says, "Presidential debates would occur in front of the American Idol judges. I can just picture Simon Cowell telling a candidate how pathetic his healthcare plan is." This story is filled with humor like that, and that is why I love it so much- that is why is made such an impact on me. He uses celebrity names and gives examples of how they would change the system if they were in charge. With these examples, though extremely humours, they hold an underlying truth behind the words that hits the reader. It holds a realization of the fact that things could always be worse, and to stop looking at the negatives, and start seeing the positive side of things. We as humans, have a common flaw: pessimism and being judgemental. We are so concerned on political party and judge someone based upon their mistakes that we instantly close down on that person and can't see all the good they have actually done for the country and just in general. For example, away from politics so not to upset anyone, but General Custer. He will forever be remembered for his mistake at the Battle of Little Bighorn, and judged. In fact, if ever you mention his name, people only know him and associate him with Custer's Last Stand. People have forgotten all his acheivements. Granted, I am not saying his defeat was bad, I am all for civil rights and equality, it was just an example of how one mistake can overshadow so many accomplishments of a person. And why is this? Why is it that we, as humans, focus on the bad more than the good? Why is it that once one person does something wrong (such as a friend lying to a friend) we instantly see that person as forever bad? Why are we so judgy? Don't we all make mistakes? Can't we all relate? I mean, who hasn't done something they are not proud of in their life? Don't we want forgiveness? So, why is it so hard to give other people second chances, when if we were in that position, we'd beg for one saying that we'd never make the same mistake again? Perhaps McMorrow is right when he says at the end of his humours story, "As citizens we are a bit too quick to judge how our political representatives have done their jobs...Clearly, things could be worse." Now, I don't mean to support our current political situation, or not support it, but in general, we are judgy people, and McMorrow made an excelent point in showing that with his humor filled with underlying truths.
Anyway, back to the humor. In school, especially creative writing and free style writing, I always wrote funny stories with a moral at the end. This paper reminded me of those times. This story had the overall argument that we should not judge our current leaders and government officials because it could be worse; we could be run by celebrites, which as he proved is a lot worse. Arguing and using humor to portray your meaning, to me, is so effective, and I love it. I wish in classes we could do more papers that involve humor and getting a point across in effective ways. It is more fun than the typical essays with the boring facts and quotes put in, and the same old intro and conclusion. I love writing humor, and this story by McMorrow reminded me of all that fun it can be.
With that happy though of his story, and the memories of the ones I have written, in my head, I began to smile. I went back to bed and fell asleep. I guess what I am also saying, is that we all need to relax once in awhile and have fun in classes, and one way to do that would be by writing a fun, humorous argument instead of the same old, same old, essays.
Here is a link if you want to learn more about General Custer (because to be honest, I don't know much about him myself, except for Custer's Last Stand):
http://www.sonofthesouth.net/union-generals/custer/george-custer.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Armstrong_Custer
Response to "A Twisted World"
So, tonight I was having trouble sleeping, and when this happens, I just lay in bed, thinking about the week, the day's events, and tomorrow. I usually think about school work, any homework or tests that will be coming up soon, and this only makes me stressed out, anxious, and everything that is the opposite if what I want when I go to bed. So, I was in bed, thinking about school (please don't think of me as a nerd...), when I remembered something we read in English class. This very short story, "A Twisted World" by James McMorrow Jr., wouldn't get out of my head. I decided to get out of bed and re-read it.
This story gives a hypothetical situation: What would happen if celebrities ran the country? McMorrow replaces our government heads with celebrities, and explains how things would be different. For example, he says, "Presidential debates would occur in front of the American Idol judges. I can just picture Simon Cowell telling a candidate how pathetic his healthcare plan is." This story is filled with humor like that, and that is why I love it so much- that is why is made such an impact on me. He uses celebrity names and gives examples of how they would change the system if they were in charge. With these examples, though extremely humours, they hold an underlying truth behind the words that hits the reader. It holds a realization of the fact that things could always be worse, and to stop looking at the negatives, and start seeing the positive side of things. We as humans, have a common flaw: pessimism and being judgemental. We are so concerned on political party and judge someone based upon their mistakes that we instantly close down on that person and can't see all the good they have actually done for the country and just in general. For example, away from politics so not to upset anyone, but General Custer. He will forever be remembered for his mistake at the Battle of Little Bighorn, and judged. In fact, if ever you mention his name, people only know him and associate him with Custer's Last Stand. People have forgotten all his acheivements. Granted, I am not saying his defeat was bad, I am all for civil rights and equality, it was just an example of how one mistake can overshadow so many accomplishments of a person. And why is this? Why is it that we, as humans, focus on the bad more than the good? Why is it that once one person does something wrong (such as a friend lying to a friend) we instantly see that person as forever bad? Why are we so judgy? Don't we all make mistakes? Can't we all relate? I mean, who hasn't done something they are not proud of in their life? Don't we want forgiveness? So, why is it so hard to give other people second chances, when if we were in that position, we'd beg for one saying that we'd never make the same mistake again? Perhaps McMorrow is right when he says at the end of his humours story, "As citizens we are a bit too quick to judge how our political representatives have done their jobs...Clearly, things could be worse." Now, I don't mean to support our current political situation, or not support it, but in general, we are judgy people, and McMorrow made an excelent point in showing that with his humor filled with underlying truths.
Anyway, back to the humor. In school, especially creative writing and free style writing, I always wrote funny stories with a moral at the end. This paper reminded me of those times. This story had the overall argument that we should not judge our current leaders and government officials because it could be worse; we could be run by celebrites, which as he proved is a lot worse. Arguing and using humor to portray your meaning, to me, is so effective, and I love it. I wish in classes we could do more papers that involve humor and getting a point across in effective ways. It is more fun than the typical essays with the boring facts and quotes put in, and the same old intro and conclusion. I love writing humor, and this story by McMorrow reminded me of all that fun it can be.
With that happy though of his story, and the memories of the ones I have written, in my head, I began to smile. I went back to bed and fell asleep. I guess what I am also saying, is that we all need to relax once in awhile and have fun in classes, and one way to do that would be by writing a fun, humorous argument instead of the same old, same old, essays.
Here is a link if you want to learn more about General Custer (because to be honest, I don't know much about him myself, except for Custer's Last Stand):
http://www.sonofthesouth.net/union-generals/custer/george-custer.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Armstrong_Custer
Monday, September 27, 2010
Creative Commons
Creative Commons is a great place to find works in the public domain that you can use for your projects. They abide by Fair Use.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Welcome
We will use blogs to reflect on the reading, writing, and discussion we do in class this semester. Details of blog requirements can be found on the course website under assignments then blogs. Additionally, use your blog space to pose any questions relating to English 101 that you want to share with your classmates and me, any interesting or helpful class related items you come across, and to respond and communicate with your peers. Be sure to write not only on your own blogs, but on your classmates as well. In addition, be sure to take advantage of the affordances blogs have to offer. Use hyper links to link to material on other places of the web and put images, video, and any thing else available to you in your blog posts. Most importantly, have fun blogging!
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