NAKED

Naked, in this use, does not stand for the nude body form. It is a story by David Sedaris. He wrote this story as if it was one of his own. I could really understand what the character was going through with their "tics" due to the use of first person narrative by Sedaris. One of the tics I found to be strange is how he would lick almost everything during one of his school years. I know that he could not handle his urge to perform these tics, it is just one tic that I have never noticed or heard of before. I know that a lot of people most likely perform meaningless tics daily, they just do not recognize them. The writing sty used by Sedaris is one that flows together, which makes it easy to read. He doesn't tend to blow things out of proportion, or use meaningless jargon. I feel like he writes as if he is talking to his audience face to face in a conversation. Overall a great piece!

The Power Team

I found The Power Team, by Sharon Mazer, to be interesting. I, myself, and not very into religion at all. It may be wrong to say, but I find it annoying when people are so huge on trying to get everyone to believe in a religion. I also relate my opinion back to the part where Mazer talks about the group of body builders. These body builders say that they reason they are able to do everything is all because of God. Everything they are really doing is fake, which makes their statements false. I think that in religion, along with many other groups, they tend to overemphasize many things in order to get followers. The more followers you have, the more money you are bringing in. This works the same way with fraternities, sororities and student organizations in college. I think that is a bad thing that people and groups tend to lie in order to gain members, but it is something that will not change anytime soon. The world that we live in is one where you have to make yourself marketable in order to succeed. This makes people do whatever they can to reach their goals.

Questions for my Research Paper

 Top of the morning to ya!

The specific question that I plan on answering in my research paper is a combination of my thoughts on the use of technology in the world today. Is the mind of today’s culture being transformed into a new way of thinking that resembles the working of computers? This question leads me to my working thesis. The mass amounts of media that are made easily available to society, as well as the technology innovations that have gained our dependence, have formed a new way of thinking in mind of the current generation that can relate to the workings of a computer. Some of the things that I currently know were gained through my research process. Through my interview with Dr. Wilkie I learned that technology is always going to be advancing as time progresses. The uses of technology are currently creating greater opportunities for students to advance their knowledge in the classroom and in the career force. These improvements in technology also make students more marketable to employers by using things such as digital career portfolios. One thing that I have gained from personal experience is that technology has proven time and time again to be more efficient. I think that today’s generation grasps onto technology so strongly because they are living hectic lives. In my opinion, the technology makes things fit more easily into place and allows people to become multi-talented in areas they previously may not have had chances to. Most jobs that are available to students going through high school or college today require them to be able to multitask. I believe that the use of technology in our world today has made our brains capable of taking in mass amounts of information and processing them at high speeds, similar to the workings of a computer. Some things that I am planning on finding out about this topic are statistics in learning via technology versus learning without technology. I would also like to find out if the effects of learning with technology are due to a different way of thinking brought on through the process. It would be interesting to find out if there is evidence of the brain sending messages differently than before, and if that would be linked to the use of technology. There are many arguments that could go against this new technological movement. Some people may say that technology is one of the main cases in childhood obesity. A lot of arguments that I have found in my research process involve the use of technology being the cause of a lack in communication skills among adolescents. Some people think that today’s generation is so inclined in using their cell phones, Twitter accounts, Facebook accounts, blogs and other social networking tools that they have lost their face to face skills in communicating their thoughts and feelings. I plan on exploring the pros and cons of these social networking tools in my research paper and explaining how they are essential a positive thing in society. I found many of my sources on EBSCOhost, which gave me a great place to start with my research topic. Over Spring break I flew on a plane down to Atlanta and found part of a book in a magazine that caught my eye. I read this chapter of the book, World Wide Mind, and became very interested in it. I ended up using this part of the book as a source also. My interview with Dr. Wilkie helped me obtain two sources for my paper as well. Things seem to be coming together quite well!

Hope everyone has a great St. Patrick's day tomorrow!

Responce to Klosterman and Gabriel

One part of Klosterman's, "Ha ha," he said, "ha ha", that I thought was really funny was his anecdotal example from his childhood. He said that when he was younger he used to sit really close to the television during his favorite show and laugh as hard as he could. He did this because he thought his television worked as a telephone and everyone could hear him laughing, as they could hear him. He use this example to show his first experience with track laughs. I pictured this happening as I read and found it to be very funny. I think that track laughs are a very outdated thing. When I was younger a lot of television programs had track laughs with them and I thought that they were normal. Now most of the shows I watch do not have them. I agree with Klosterman's story about his experience in Germany and how most of his conversations were filled with meaningless laughter. I believe that laughter works today to fill conversations in order to avoid awkwardness. For example: If someone texts something with "haha" following it sounds less serious, when in reality it could be very serious. This is also why my generation uses text more often today. Saying how you feel in text is a lot less awkward than saying it in person. I also agree with Klosterman when he discusses how people are left to think more without track laughs. People can and will determine for themselves more without the use of track laughs.

I feel that Gabriel does a good job at explaining the meaning of plagiarism between ages in, "Plagiarism Lines Blur for Students in Digital Age." In my college career I have found writing to be very different than from in high school. I agree with the following statement from Ms. Wilensky in an interview. "The main reason it occurs, she said, is because students leave high school unprepared for the intellectual rigors of college writing." In my experience, I have become a much better writer with the more writing classes I take in college. I do believe that high school level English classes do not take on plagiarism as strong as they should, especially with the overload of information available to students today. I think that some students do find really good information from their research, but they do not know how to form it correctly in a paper. This is where plagiarism occurs.

English Undergrad Program 2011

Today I went to the English Undergrad Program to check out some of the speakers (and to also earn some extra credit!). I went to Panel 12, which involved two speakers, Jenna Enright and Dara Fennell.

Jenna Enright read her short story, "Sitting Outside a Coffee Shop in Paris, France." This short story contained the life a woman that was in her early ages of adult hood. She went through life doing daily tasks that she thought she was supposed to do because of her age, such as drinking coffee and cappuccino at coffee shops. She never really took the time to wonder why she was doing these things. The woman thought that she should live her life by performing normal tasks of peers so that she would not stand out. She started to question her daily routines when she ran into a man a few times at the coffee shop. Throughout the story the woman leaves us questioning what is really happening in her life and what she is imagining happening. It also ends leaving the readers, or listeners, open minded to what happened.

Dara Fennell read her research paper, "A Love-Hate-Zombie Relationship?: Gender Equality in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies." Out of the two readings this one was more interesting to me. I found it more interesting because I read the book Pride and Prejudice in high school, and I was unaware that this new book was written from it. Her paper was discussing how the prejudice between men and women change throughout the book. In the beginning of the book men and women are both able to defend themselves from zombies by carrying weapons around, such as daggers and swords. The women typically carried around daggers, and the men usually carried around swords. One rule that the women had to follow was that they could only defend themselves themselves from zombies until they are married. After marriage it was the job of the men to defend the women from zombies. The women were also not able to carry daggers with them anymore. The story ends with the main couple working together to fight off zombies, which was against prior rules. Throughout the book they overcome their "pride and prejudice" and realize that they are equally involved in their relationship.

I think this is a great thing that the English department does for the students. It teaches them how to write for an audience, and also allows them to get feedback from their peers and professors. I know that some of the students were also taking their writing to bigger conventions in other locations, so this would be a very good practice for them. I had a good time hearing different forms of writing from the other students as well.

Adios!

Exploring Topics for My Research Paper

Hello!

The following are some topics that I have been considering for my English research paper:


Technology may be considered a new movement in culture, causing a new way of thinking.

This is one of the topics that I am considering writing about for my research paper. We touched on this topic when we had a debate about technology in my English class. When I heard this idea I became very interested in it. We also read an article for class that involved this theory. The theory discussed how people think that our brains are being rewired into working differently due to the advancement in technology and our dependence on it. This topic interests me so much because I think it is very true. I think that all generations go through their own types of changes in society, and this one involves my generation. I also believe that there is a lot of information available that could help me support my opinion about this topic. Some things I am looking to research about this more is the psychological differences that have occurred in the brain due to this new technology. In my opinion, people are becoming more efficient with this new technology making us great multi-taskers. I would like to see if there are signs of this being true.



The implementation of technology into college courses increases their skills and makes them more marketable in finding a career.

This is another topic that I came about throughout discussions in my English class. This is a topic that I have always agreed with, but I have never given much thought in backing up my opinion. This topic is highly debated within people that use technology and support it and people that don’t use technology often and are not in support of it. Where this debate interests me is when people that use technology often, but are not in support of it increases learning come involved. My interview with my Dr. Wilkie is what really gave me a strong opinion on this subject. The article that she suggested for me to read discussed strong signs of this topic being true and helping students tremendously. I would like to find out the new statistics of BTST students that are getting jobs with the new digital career portfolios, discussed in the article, over BTST students using old fashioned resumes. I would also like to hear the business perspective on this topic.

WISH ME LUCK!!

Full Annoation

Willis, L. & Wilkie, L. "Digital Career Portfolios: Expanding Instituional Opportunities." Journal of Employment Counseling 47.2 (June, 2009).

This scholarly article discussing the success Business Technology Support and Training students would gain from the implementation of Digital Career Portfolios in their fields. This change will give students a better chance at making themselves marketable in their career searches. This new form of a resume will also provide students a better chance to use their skills in technology that they have obtained in their field. I find this improvement to be very positive as technology is always changing in the world. I gained knowledge of the available changes to resumes and the positive effects they have on students, businesses and the environment in this article.