English 112 Expectations

This writing course is the second one I have taken since I began classes at BGSU (Last semester I took English 111.). And, as with the last writing course, my expectations are to continue to improve my writing skills so that both writings I will do in my future classes as well as writings I may do in my career can be both informative and of high quality. The main strengths of my writing include grammar and expressing ideas coherently. Something that I would like to continue working on in my writing is audience appeal. Even though this has been a strength in some of my essays, it has needed a good deal of work in others. I would like to have audience appeal be more constant in my work. The only expectation that I have of the instructor is that she give specific feedback where needed so that my writing can improve in problem areas.

An Overall Reflection of English 111

At the beginning of the semester, I wanted to learn how to express my ideas fully to my audience, have them understand my positions as well as reasons for them, and have my audience to find my overall essays engaging. I have learned how to better do each of these and more. An example I have given in the past of something new I have learned is how to effectively use source support. In addition to this, where sources are concerned, I have learned how to better cite them on a Works Cited page. And, though I still have problems at times citing sources, I do not have nearly as many problems as I had before taking English 111. With time, I think I will completely get the hang of citations.

Another thing that I will be taking away from this class that I feel is very important is confidence in my writing abilities. I have found that I now have more confidence in myself as a writer than I ever had before. Is my writing perfect? Of course not, but it is much improved. Along with the writing skills I have learned in this course, confidence, in my opinion, is also an essential key to better writing.

In my midterm evaluation of the class, I said that there was nothing that I could see that could be improved about the class in general. I still feel the same way. Everything about the class has been helpful to me, and so, there is nothing I would have changed for future classes.

Week 14 Reflections

I did not see a blog prompt for this week, so I thought I would share my reflections thus far. It is hard to believe that we have already made it through 14 weeks in our English 111 class. By this time, I am happy to admit that I have come a long way as writer. Thanks to the feedback from both my instructor and classmates, I feel that I have gained a better knowledge of how to write more effectively. Even though I am sure that I still have a great deal to learn, I feel that my writing has been strengthened much by taking this course, and I look forward to taking English 112 next semester.

Criteria

Evaluating criteria is a very important part of everyday life, and it is especially important when making major decisions. For example, if you wished to major in Psychology (as I do), you would need to evaluate different colleges to see which ones best suited that major. Criteria that you may consider would be: 1. Does the school offer the classes necessary to obtain a Psychology degree? 2. How far could you go with your degree? That is, could you obtain a doctorate, a Master's Degree, or only an Associate's or Bachelor's Degree? Depending on the level at which you wished to work this type of criteria could be very important. If the schools you were thinking about going to did not pass your criteria, you would know in advance and could choose an alternative route. Without evaluating the criteria, there would be no way for you to make an informed choice.

From Trend To Television

Since my topic for essay 4 is rather on the serious side of things, I believe if I were to make a television show about it, it would have to be an educational sort of program - one that shows teens the effects of eating disorders and explains why it is crucial that they not get caught up in the trend. The main star of the show would have to be someone who has experienced an eating disorder or eating disorders (either as a teenager or as an adult) directly as I believe wisdom that can be given to others often comes through experience. And there may be any number of women who have first hand experience with this issue in Hollywood. The questions would be who is finding a positive way of dealing with the problem, and how willing would they be to help others by speaking about it?

The Importance of Speculation

Speculating causes can be a useful tool in solving problems in the real world. This is so because the more plausible causes a person is able to speculate for a particular issue, the more possible solutions there may be to the problem. Speculation may include causes that people have already thought of, but it may also include new possibilities. Therefore, speculation can lead to new and creative ways to confront an issue.

Speculation (like we are doing in essay 4) could also be a means of showing a different way of looking at something. For example, if one were to ask, "Why do so many people enjoy reality TV?", it may seem that the obvious answer is because it is entertaining. But, some other reasons could also be explored. Reasons may include that it is a temporary escape from the stressors of every day life . Or, perhaps people enjoy imagining what it would be like if they were on a particular reality show. In short, specualtions show that there is more than one way of looking at things, and for some questions, there could be endless answers.

Trends

In today's society, there are many trends that are popular that could be questioned about why they are. Two that I would like to discuss are eating disorders among girls and young women and celebrity substance abuse being so popular in the media.

Today it seems that the mind set of "thin is in" is ever popular. Everywhere one looks, one sees thin models, actresses, and even reality TV contestants. And, more and more, girls and young women are taking their cues on what an "ideal woman" looks like from what they see in the media. To become the "ideal woman" - the one that men look at with awe - many young women are resorting to eating disorders (anorexia and bulimia). Whether they are already thin or not, they want to be what others will consider perfect. To do so, they put their health at risk, and many die each year as a result. It is hard for women to be content with their own self image when everywhere they look, they see women who are thought to have something they don't - especially in terms of size.

The second trend I want to discuss is celebrity substance abuse being made so popular by the media. I cannot say how many times I have seen celebrities all over the news for having substance abuse problems and wondered why the story continued to make the news day after day. Why not report on more serious issues? Is it that stories of celebrities with substance abuse problems are so much more exciting than more serious pieces? Do these stories boost the ratings more for the networks that continually broadcast them? I really do not know the answer to these questions, and that is why I question what makes celebrities with substance abuse problems so alluring to the public.