E-Portfolio

I sat here for a while deliberating on whether I wanted to write myself a cover letter or a reflective post, and I decided that I was going to do a combination of both. I am guessing that if I really had the choice on who to write to, it would be past me. I'm not saying past me as in years ago, but to past me at the beginning of the semester. I think that version of me really needs to hear what this me has learned over the past 16 or so weeks. Throughout this course, I have been exposed to a whole new way of writing and expressing myself. One of the learning outcomes that most deeply impacted me was the "Critical Thinking, Reading, and Composing" component because before I started this class, critical thinking and then putting a lot of my thoughts into words really scared me. I wasn't super confident in the writing I would put out, and a lot of the time I tended to just stick to what my professors wanted to see and hear. This class has taught me that my voice and my language is what I make of it, and if I take the time to analyze and think about passages or videos I am reading, I can successfully formulate a response to them in my own words. I was able to learn that rhetoric is absolutely everywhere, and within rhetoric I can find credibility of authors and works within it. My struggles with interpreting a text became easier and easier as the weeks went on and when I look at my writing now, I can see a clear difference. I really wish the past me knew that confidence goes a long way in writing, especially when it comes to gaining my own form of rhetorical knowledge. Without rhetorical knowledge, writing in the correct tone and language for an assignment would be lost. I can't stress enough to past me that this class was not to hurt me, but to challenge me healthily and better my writing. Learning about Rhetoric is not a punishment. It is not a "Gen-Ed". Rhetoric is everywhere in life; and without understanding it, I would have missed out on a valuable piece to my education.

 These pictures are of me before the semester (pictured on left) and after (pictured on right). Don't think that I look somber in the second photo, I am only someone who appreciates rhetoric for what it is.

To view my documentary project, click the link below:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xUqJ1oX4SO3eFjSibXVxqu8X_snlEKi6luZBL-sYKHY/edit?usp=sharing

To view my rational argument project, click the link below: 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1T1YNuusPdY_zu8teHPNZqsg4fIh9bB0YIQ5kGhleDn8/edit?usp=sharing

To view my multimodal project, click the links below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02dO-AjOnUI&t=1s

To view my art summary project, click the link below: 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1c08OwSPMr5DkCK9Xr7xEpaj5YOnOiVhkdbKDWV5dOto/edit?usp=sharing

To end the semester off on a good note, I leave you with one of my favorite songs: Linger, by the Cranberries
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HEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLP

I am so beyond freaked out that the end of semester is TWO WEEKS AWAY BEFORE BEING COMPLETELY DONE. I don't know how to organize myself or prepare for the impending doom that is coming for me. This semester has been extremely challenging for me and this whole week I was really sick. We are talking the sick you can't get out of bed sick. I didn't go to any classes Wednesday, and only got out of bed Thursday for Theta's service bake sale. I planned on going to classes on Friday but I woke up with a fever. Literally how am I going to survive this semester if I cannot make it to my final classes before we have the actual final? This is going to be on heck of a super study if you ask me. I am almost at the end of my rope!

Brookfield Zoo and Guardian Angel

My sorority, Theta Kappa Pi, did so much over the last few weeks in Service. Being the Vice-President and Service chair for our organization means that I couldn't help but be so proud of my sisters when we all took the time to decorate a tree at Brookfield Zoo on November 19th. It has become a tradition over the last few years that the service chair uses  some of Theta's money as a donation for the zoo's annual Trim-a-Tree event. Basically the zoo plants a Christmas tree for you to decorate as recognition for the donation. Even though we would have donated the money even if the tree wasn't provided, my sisters and I enjoy making it pretty. This year was a combination of paper ornaments that we made and plastic globe ornaments that each sister customized. I wish we had put more on, but it was still a load of fun! We got to spend the rest of the day in the zoo and hang out. On a side note, Theta also spent the month of November running a donation drive for our main philanthropy services, Guardian Angel. Guardian Angel is a service shelter for women who are in or coming out of abusive relationships and need help. For the donation drive, Theta collected tons of hygiene products and cleaning supplies for the ladies to use. We boxed everything up and dropped it off! It was so successful and I am beyond happy that my sisters have such caring souls. 

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays of the year, and this one actually disappointed me. Even though I got to spend the holiday with my boyfriend and his family, I was still a little down. I think it is because my stress level has been on a clear 100 and I just can't help but think about everything I have to get done. While eating the really yummy food, I somehow kept finding my mind focusing on the end of the semester and everything I need to accomplish before finals week. While watching football, I kept thinking about how my next semester is going to be extremely busy. While shopping later that night, I kept thinking about how much I am going to need to work just to make ends meet. I don't know, maybe I just have horrible anxiety. OR maybe I just need to realize that this is a part of the college experience. Even though it sucks, I is what it is and I just need to toughen up. I guess I can look on the bright side and realize that soon Christmas will be here and I will be ready for the joy and cheer then. 

After the election....

So as everyone found out in class on Wednesday, I was really side-swiped by President-Elect Donald Trump's win. Before anyone has anything to say (which I am more than open for critique), I want to share why I am so against the idea of him being the next president of this nation. Firstly, I want to point out that I cannot look past the racist and discriminatory remarks this man has said and used to get elected. Without a doubt he used and promoted misogyny, sexism, and hate in order to win the votes of those who pride on the same values. I am not saying that ALL Trump supporters are bad people, or are misogynistic, racist, or sexist. I am saying that the reason why Trump won was because he appealed to a specific ideology of people that believes minorities, the disabled, and women are lesser in a world that is intended to be equal. As a woman, I honestly don't know if am safe in Trump's America. If anything, his slogan, "Make America Great Again", should have "Make America 1950 Again". A lot of the people who voted for Trump do not realize that he is going to be a prime example to moving backward in time: when women "were seen and not heard" and objectified, the  races remained "within their own kind", we bombed and warred in every nation for absolutely no reason, where the rights of LGBTQ+ were not even considered because it was wrong to not be "normal". Please, do not tell me that his economic stance is a great idea. Cutting taxes to the wealthy in hopes of it being given back to the poor is really not going to work. Trickle down economics has never worked, and will never work. When you look back at "Reaganomics", President Reagan had done the exact same thing and promptly plummeted the classes into a more serious divide. The rich got richer and the poor got poorer. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to say. Maybe it'll be okay, only time will tell.

On the class as a whole..

After enrolling and having taken almost a whole semester of this class, it is pretty easy to say that I know look at english and writing in a way that is different than how I used to. This class as has exposed me to a new way of thinking and has expanded me as a writer and creator. While looking over hollistic rubric in this course last week, I realized that the major components haven't only been reflected in my multimodal and microtheme project. Something that I think was most prominent from the rubric was the emphasis of creative thinking. I have always liked to think that I was a creative person, but after having the documentary project, along with the other blog posts, tweets, and multimodal/microtheme; I discovered that I am more than capable of being a creative person than just how I used to see myself. I can use pretty much anything with my language and turn it into a work of art. I've gained rhetorical knowledge as well, and I am confident that I can see it everywhere now that I know and understand what it is. It's actually quite cool! I would have to give myself an A for enthusiasm in this class! I am enjoying it much more than I thought I would.

Text-To-Text Article

After reading the text-to-text article, Colin Kaepernick’s National Anthem Protest and Frederick Douglass’s ‘What to the Slave is the 4th of July?’, by Katie Harris and Tracey Barrett; I come to the really strained conclusion that Colin Kaepernick's way of protesting is not the best way at going about it. Within the article, we are given a basic summary of the life of Frederick Douglas' life and what his writing embodied regarding patriotism in a torn society. We are also provided with a comparison of our society today and if patriotism is being used the in the same sense then as it is now. In Douglas' writing he claims that the Fourth of July is just a reminder of the "gross injustice" of the country that they live in. In the more recent David Brooks article, Brooks claims that "pulling a Kaepernick" is just "extremely counterproductive". In my opinion, I agree with Brooks more than Douglas. This is NOT because I think that there isn't a problem within the United States regarding the topic of equality, but because the article does make some really good points. The first has to do with national symbols and abolitionism. For instance, the national anthem describes the flag and the article takes the time out to highlight the fact that only abolitionist states prided on that flag throughout the civil war. Anti-abolitionists even took the time to create their own in order to defy freedom of all. Brooks spoke to me on a deeper level because he claims that the national anthem has nothing to do with whats going on within in the country but is solidifying our "foundational creed". It is really hard for me to not feel hurt when I see my fellow and equal Americans kneeling before our flag and national anthem because I have lost family members because they were serving our country. I currently have a brother that is leaving for the Marines in June as well. I understand the anger that comes from not having your voice heard within our country, but if I lose my brother because he was fighting to keep us safe; it would break my heart to know people don't look at the flag and our anthem as a symbol for that.

Planning is Hard (So apparently I never hit publish draft on Oct. 21......Oops)

My life has literally been so hard to keep organized lately. I have so much on my plate that is making everything seem so much worse than it is. As of right now this is what I have to complete in my life: My multimodal and microtheme, I need to finish my training at my new job, study for my philosophy midterm, start planning some major events for my sorority, get my oil changed in my car. Try to get my statistics homework done because I have an exam coming up, I have a service event next Friday, and a TON of little assignments. I honestly do not know where to even start and it is driving me up the wall. I am considering just rewriting out my monthly planner so I can keep on top of my stuff because lets be real, I got so behind that it would be almost impossible to just pick my life up and continue on. I am going to have to just stop, regather my thoughts, and drudge on. Hopefully this will be all put together by Sunday because on Monday, Greek week starts! Let's go Theta Kappa Pi!

Multimodal reflection

When I look back on my multimodal and microtheme project, I can honestly say that I grew so much bigger and better as a writer and creative mind. This was easily one of the biggest challenges I have ever faced in school. It may be that this was so challenging for me because taking my ideas and condensing one topic into one paper and sticking to that theme is SO hard. Sure, I made some rookie mistakes, but is happens. In my multimodal, I forgot to add a quick credit scroll for the free music available on YouTube Editor, so I will give credit to that generous artist now. The audio was called "In Albany New York" by The 126ers (matched my video so well!). While taking a gander at the hollistic rubric in this course, I came across four major components within it. These major components are rhetorical knowledge, critical and creative thinking, genre knowledge, and mechanical knowledge. In this project, I feel like all of these areas were tested; but the one that stuck out to me the most was the rhetorical knowledge. I say this because in order to practice your rhetorical knowledge, you have to come up with an idea, organize it, and refine it down into a legible thought. For the microtheme and multimodal, we had to come up with a question and then try to give precise consequences for it without making completely worldly claims. This required a tremendous amount of work for me because I wanted to go off on a tangent really bad. To completely honest, I got frustrated that I couldn't just say what I wanted the way I wanted. I guess this ties into the component of mechanical knowledge because I needed to try and teach myself how to improve my writing without completely relying on Dr. Kyburz for help. She guided me along the way to get me where I wanted to be, but at the same time she was there to provide insight and let me spread my own wings to write the way I wanted (with some fine tuning). I could probably go on forever about how this project bettered me as a person and writer, but I would end up writing a book rather than a blog post. I just want to thank Dr. Kyburz for helping me with this, I couldn't have done it without her help. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02dO-AjOnUI

Microtheme

This microtheme has easily been one of the most challenging assignments I have ever done. I don't know why, but refining my thoughts to a single page is really difficult! I have made a lot edits because I wanted my writing discussed in class (so all my errors were found), yet I still am trying to get this done. I am thinking that maybe I should continue to look back at the syllabus so that I know that I am following the proper method. That way, I know for sure that I can do this. Apart from the microtheme, I've started compiling pictures for my multimodal, and I think I am going to do something with all the pictures I took in Colorado back in June. I don't know what type of story it will tell, but I am hoping that I can figure something out because I have well over 500 pictures to pick from. I am just ready to be done with microtheme and multimodal because these assignments are making me struggle. At least it is a good learning experience for me.

A little bit of a rant

Okay everyone, I am a day behind, but I promise I am going to make it up with this post. I just recently left my job in retail at a department store (I don't want to say the name because I really don't want to offend anyone if they like to shop there). Now that I am done there; I want to voice my opinion on something. At the front registers, there is stuff there to look at while you wait to be rung up. Typically, this is the stuff like lip glosses, candies, etc. Essentially, its a ton of garbage that is there to tempt you to spend more money while in the store. One of my now former bosses asked me to restock the shelves at the registers with this stuff, and filled a push cart with the items. It wasn't until I was stocking the shelves that I noticed something really peculiar. At the men's side register, the majority of the things I was putting out was candy like M&M's, Snickers, Twix, and Godiva chocolates. There were also a lot of different fun knick-knacks and toys like selfie sticks for your smartphone! When I made my way to the misses side registers, I started noticing the things I was putting out were diet foods, healthy trail mixes, "skinny stix" (a dieting powder for food and drinks), and protein bars. I know I am probably reading way too far into what I was doing, but I found it really peculiar that on the men's side, there was a lot of unhealthy and enjoyable foods and stuff to look at, while at the misses side; it was all pertaining to health and weight. It kind of irritated me because I feel like there was a reason why it was set up that way. No, not because of coincidence, but because there seemed to be a theme. I want to know why the dieting items are conveniently placed at the misses side registers while the men's side register has all the junk. I personally find it really hard to believe that all has to do with marketing, because I for dang sure know that if the candy was on the misses side, I would possibly buy some. I personally just feel like the dieting items on the misses side are there as a guilt purpose. I feel as if that society has really made women so insecure that marketing diet products in a DEPARTMENT store is the new norm. Ugh!

End of the Documentary Project

So over roughly the last two weeks, I have/had been working on the Documentary Summary project that we got assigned. I had decided on After Tiller, a documentary film about the final four physicians who will perform late term abortion in the United States. This project wasn't the hardest but also not the easiest work I have done with my writing. I did get a good refresher on how to effectively use MLA and also how to format a summary correctly. I don't know why, but summaries always have seemed straight forward to me, but at the same time I always end up needing to revise a ton. Who knows, maybe I will learn to be perfect at it one day. The film as a whole was intriguing and I encourage everyone to watch it because it really isn't about what it looks like on the surface. Honestly, it was more about the doctors themselves and how their lives are on a day to day basis because of their occupation. There is a Youtube video on my blog last week that has the film if anyone is interested, and its free to watch. I promise, it is well worth the time put into it.

What I need to get done for the Documentary Project

I am sitting here in class taking the time to think about what I need to get done on my documentary summary for After Tiller. I know for a fact that I need to 1.) Completely read through the summary and decide if I have way too much detail in places that is probably unnecessary, 2.) Check for any grammar errors that I know are there, 3.) Add a formal citation, 4.) Condense/compress some of my paragraphs into better formed ones, and 5.) double check all my verb tenses. Sometimes I am guilty for not doing that, yikes. I am going to set a goal for myself to try and have this done by Wednesday. That way, if there are any more little revisions that need to be done, I can get them out of the way. This will leave me time to actually pride on my work that I put into this project and let me overcome my procrastination.

Documentary Project, Updated

As I watched my documentary, After Tiller, I sat back and thought about why we are discouraged to do a lot of background searching for information on the film prior to viewing it. I came to a consensus that a lot of the reason why we shouldn't is because adding "extra textual" information to a summary would hurt the quality of it. This is because when doing research, a lot of things that you can be exposed to on the internet is based off of opinion. If you find an article based on the film you are going to watch, and they have something really negative about it or completely miss the mark on what the main point of the plot was about, it could hinder your approach to the work when you watch it for the first time. It is almost like setting your first time experience up for disaster! When you view something for the first time without prior knowledge, it is almost as if you are clear and open-booked for the story and information you're about to receive. There may not be some planted bias that was added to bias you may have already had when walking into the viewing.

Documentary Choice

I am beyond excited for the documentary project. I have always been a pretty big fan of them; so whenever I get to have an assignment that includes one, I get excited because I know it will actually be a project I enjoy. Last semester, we did the same project in College Writing I and I did my report on the Shapiro's "Keep the River on Your Right". It was beyond fascinating, and I am hopeful that the one I have been starting to watch is just as good. I chose "After Tiller" because I personally am not bothered by the discussion of abortion and I really feel like it is interesting. The only thing that I am worried about is finding a way to write my summary in a way that gives the film justice.

Religious Extremism: Not what you perceive

Over the weekend, I had a weekend workshop on "The Psychology of Religious Extremism". Let me start off by raving about how unbelievably amazing it was! The professor was kind, funny, and the material she taught answered a lot of the questions I had about extremism: Was it always violent? How long has it been around? How do you identify extremism? I had walked into the course generally believing that religious extremism was when a small group of people of any faith do one horrible act against humanity. In turn, I learned that religious extremism doesn't exactly have to be violent towards other people, but can be violent or harmful within itself. To explain what I mean, I'll make an example of the Heaven's Gate mass suicide in March of 1997. Heaven's Gate was cult founded in 1974 lead by Marshall Applewhite. Within Heaven's Gate were it's followers, who all believed in basically a more scientific and modern twist to Christianity. Eventually, these beliefs lead to them committing mass suicide in order for them all to escape earth before the "end". What is peculiar about Heaven's Gate is that it's followers were completely at ease. There was no murdering of non-believers and, believe it or not, the Heaven's Gate members were very excluded from society themselves (so they left people alone). Overall, Heaven's Gate showed me that religious extremism is not the stereotypical attacking of others. It taught me that extremism is sometimes much more than violence to others, but problematic within itself. 

This Is Water

On class on Wednesday, we watched a short film called "This is Water" by David Foster Wallace. I have always been a complete "sucker" for emotional films, so when I realized that the video was actually making a point about growing up and having a "default setting", I was interested. Foster-Wallace uses his rhetoric to bring this " default setting" of the human life to surface and focuses on trying to get past our own frustrations to try and realize that we need to consider those around us as well. While watching the film, it actually made me consider my self. I reflected on whether or not I tread around in a default mindset or if I truly try to consider those around me. Will I be that nine to fiver who is stuck in such a monotonous routine that I forget to consider others? Or will I be aware of those around me? All I know is I am going to try and not delve into that default setting for once and look around to the people around me who are going through the same thing.