Group Project Week Two

This is week two of our group project. We are designing a website gearing towards the theme of computers. Our website is called "Are you a Mac or a PC?", so far it is going very well. Last week we created an account for our website and decided on the theme and what everyone in the group would be responsible for.
We are all collaborating during class with giving ideas and being creative for the benefit of the website. We don't have very much time where we can meet outside of class to work on this, so we are taking advantage of the time in class to work on the site. Outside of class we are all responsible for our own things; Morgan and I are responsible for the Mac portion of it, and Jeremy and Jennifer are responsible for the PC part of things. Even though we are all doing things outside of class we have set up and email account that we can all access so we can stay in contact with each other.
So far I think that everything is going as we have planned. I am looking forward towards our library visit on Thursday. I think we are having problems with retrieving pictures and information and putting them on the site without plagiarizing, so I think that will help us out a lot.
We are moving through everything step by step and trying not to miss a beat. Everyone is doing there own part and I think that this project will turn out really well.

-Caley

Media and design

Todays reading assignment is from the The Norton Field Guide to Writing with Readings. The chapters I read today were 47-59 and they were over print text. spoken text, ad electronic text. These readings are relevant to me right now because in my English class we are starting a group project that will involve these topics. This is for media or design of a website, video, or paper. First off, obviously, you need to consider what you are going to start off with. Let's say that someone decides to do a website, then there is decisions to be made. Decisions such as; what type of website, what layout will it have, how will it be processed and things like that. You must decide on the text of your project. They say that you can choose from many different text preferences on almost anything that you choose to do. Of course there will be a need for some sort of visual aid. Now, they say this but it is also common sense to, making sure that the visual aid makes sense is key. If there was a website about cars and there was a picture of a candy bar that would have no relevance to the site.
I think that they were all pretty relevant chapters for me to read. I would have to say that it definitely is all pretty much common sense stuff.

-Caley

Gotta Have A Good Beginning and Ending!!!

Today's blog is over my reading from "The Norton Field Guide to Writing with Readings." Today I read chapters 28 and 29, both chapters I think are very important in any reading and writing. A beginning in writing is like an introduction, attention getter, interesting facts, etc. So for example, when I say "Today's blog is over my reading from..." that is a beginning. Personally I think that beginnings are very important in writing, because I know when I read something the first thing I do is read the first few lines to see if it is interesting. If nothing jumps out at me and I don't find it interesting, I either have a hard time paying attention or I simply put it down. They said that ways of starting a beginning is to state your thesis well. If you can do this with a clear point and make it understandable and interesting, it will be very effective.
The ending however is also very important. Have you ever been watching a really good, suspenseful, movie and you can't wait until the end because you know that it's going to be awesome? Then you finally get to the end and it's horrible and you are disappointed. The same thing happens in writing or when you are reading something. I hate it when I am reading a good book and then I want to finish it to see how it turn out, but then in the end I am just disappointed by the poorly writing ending. They say to have a good ending you can try many things. In writing a paper I like to restate my original thesis and then also summarize what has been written. This gives the reader a better understanding of what they read, and also will not discourage them from maybe reading it again. Bottom line..have a good introduction and ending or it's going to be lame....
Also, in the "Guiding Your Reader" chapter they give you examples and ways to get the point out there so it is easier for your reader to understand. Hence the title "Guiding Your Reader." They say things like picking your title correctly, giving a good thesis statement and so on. I think this is also important too, because if you want to read something but can't even understand it, that can be a big problem.
Overall, it wasn't a bad reading today. I mostly focused on the first chapter with introductions and endings because I believe that is the most important in writing.

-Caley

Some More Fun Writing Stuff!!!

Today's assignment was over three different chapters; Analyzing Cause and Effect, Classifying and Dividing, and Comparing and Contrasting. I would say that all of the readings were equally interesting.
The one that jumped out to me the most was the Comparing and Contrasting chapter. I think that I grasp this concept a bit more than the others because I catch myself doing it in a lot of things. Even when I'm not reading or writing I find myself comparing and contrasting a lot of different things. They say that when you do this you usually take two things and try to find there similarities(comparing) and their differences(contrasting). They also say that as a student you'll often be asked to compare and contrast paintings or poems to other things. I can definitely say they are right for that one. That is all I felt like I did in high school, in any subject, compare and contrast...it got a little bit old.
If you think about it though, everyone does it probably a hundred times a day. When you wake up in the morning and you look in your closet for what you are going to wear. You may pick up a sweater and a t-shirt, then you compare and contrast the two on how you feel. The same probably goes for what you eat for breakfast, which route you take to work, and so on.
This assignment had some pretty good points in all of the chapters, but for some reason this last chapter really just jumped out at me and said, "Hey, blog about me!"

-Caley

Let's Find Out How To Read....

Today’s assignment was reading strategies. We all know how to read, right? That’s exactly what I was thinking when I looked at the chapter before I read it. When I think about reading I think about reading for pleasure or reading textbooks for school. When I read for pleasure I am usually very precise, knowing what I am reading about and giving myself a little summery every once in a while before I go on. When I am reading a textbook for school I usually just skim and scan the chapters or paragraphs for the main points that I think I might need.
As I was doing my assignment today I learned that I’m not completely wrong, but I’m also not completely right about how to read. They said the same things as me about some strategies to reading such as; skimming and scanning etc. What I didn’t think of when thinking about reading strategies is all the other things that they mentioned. I know how to do them all but I just never really thought about using them to read. They say you should preview a text first before you read it, to kind of get a feel for what you are about to be reading. I think that is a good strategy; it’s about the same as skimming over something before you read it, normally how I do things. They also talked about annotating, which is highlighting key words or phrases and seeing how the different ideas connect to the reading. This is also a strategy that I have used many times before but never would have thought of as a reading strategy. When I read a textbook it’s all about highlighting the main points. I like to highlight them so when I go back over it to study I know exactly what I have to study and where it’s at in my book, making things so much easier. Like I said when I am reading for pleasure I like to summarize to myself what is going on in the text so it is easier for me to remember. They say the exact same thing, summarizing can make it easier to pick out the main points or how the ideas relate to each other. Something that I have never really thought of before are patterns in writing. This could be anything; recurring words or phrases, or even the use of the same person over and over again. Identifying these patterns can make the reading experience a whole lot easier.
It wasn’t a bad reading; I definitely did not like it as much as some of the past ones. It was a good thing though because like I said, we all know how to read right? Well, I guess that is wrong. I guess I judged to quickly because I actually did learn a little something from this.

Analyzing!!!

Today I was assigned reading over analyzing texts, boring right? Well, actually it wasn't as bad as it sounds. Most of the readings were actually pretty interesting. They say that with magazines and newspaper or television ads they might all cover the same thing but each one interprets them differently. If TIME magazine did an article on the reality show, John and Kate Plus 8, it would have a whole different interpretation then if Cosmopolitan did an article. Yes, they are both magazines, but the interpretations differ because of the targeted audience or just the stature of the magazine.
I enjoyed most of the readings, but I really liked William Safire's analysis of the Gettysburg Address for the Americans of 9/11. He showed the connection that President Lincoln had with 9/11 when he presented the Gettysburg Address and how it effects the Americans now. This would be a tough document to analyze, especially with all of the old English to filter through. I know that when I am reading over a text I usually just skim and scan. In this case that is not what you need to do. I think that all of the readings were pretty good examples of analyzing, but in my opinion I think that William Safire did it the best. He tried bringing the text alive with examples that show how it is relevant to us now.
All in all this was a long, but relevant reading assignment. I can't say that I didn't enjoy some parts of it.

-Caley

Too Much Editing..

Today for English 103 I read Editing and Proofreading. The main point was, obviously, to edit and proofread all of you paper thoroughly. Now, I am all for proofreading something a few times before you turn it over to someone else. They say that you should look at every paragraph and sentence individually and edit it that way. They also say to look at each individual word and make edit that way.
I agree with them in the aspect that you can't turn in second grade writing to an employer and expect to get the job. What I don't really agree with is the fact that they say you should be editing so much. In my opinion and past experiences I think the paper may come out worse if there is too much editing and proofreading done to it. When you first writing something down those are your best points, after editing so much one may find them unnecessary and take them out. That is a major reason why I think over-editing is a problem.
All in all it was a good reading assignment, I just didn't really agree with everything that they had to say. I like to proofread and edit my papers well, but not to the point of terminating the whole writing.

-Caley