Ruben Ruiz

Absolutely in LOVE with the outdoors! I also enjoy hiking, exercising, being active, taking sick pictures, and having loads of FUN!

[cnrodz-blog]

Week 4: Reading Response

During this weeks reading response I will be responding the Norton Field Guide chapter 58. This chapter is about how to create the most effective way to give a speech. It tells the speaker to have a clear stucture in order to help the audience follow along without getting confused with so much information. Also use signpost language when jumping from one point to the next. When speaking it tells us that our tone is important we have to be confident and have a more academic tone. Along with how we speak it says that powerpoint can also be a good tool to enhance our presentation

This information was important to know because it helped me with my presention during class. I also hope to carry these techniques outside of the classroom in the future. It taught me how to approach a certain audience depending on genre and stance of my speech. The reading assignment taught me how to properly make slides for a presentation without making everything cluttered. Also states how to a person should stand in order to perceive a speaker as confidence and formal. Many of these tips seems to be small however, it can have a huge impact on your speech. 

I know that will be properly prepared next time present a speech. Whether it’s during my academic career at UTEP or in my profession after college. I want all my speeches to have the audiences attention from beginning to end and I believe this chapter was the key to having the perfect speech.

[roohbn-blog]

Nice post Nick! I agree with the reading you did this week and with everything you stated. When giving a speech there are many things to keep in mind. In fact, I was actually also taking a speech class along with this RWS course, and I must say that everything you mentioned, are things that we were taught in my speech course. Things like structure, tone, design, volume, and visuals greatly affect the speech or presentation that a certain person is giving. I like the fact that you mentioned a few ways that this reading could help you throughout your academic and professional career, and I'm sure many of us can benefit from this reading as well. 

Overall I think you did a great job of summarizing the reading and how it affects you personally. I personally think that this reading did help you during your presentation as it was well structured, your group had good tone and overall the language was good. Confidence is something else you talk about, and that is also a major key to many other things, like speaking in front of crowds, and well to approach and talk to pretty ladies... ;)  Overall great response man! 

[roohbn-blog]

Week 4: Media/Design

For this weeks reading response, I chose to read CH. 9 in the NFG book that talked about Media/Design. Media/Design is very important when trying to expose information from one person to another. We can communicate with others by using many types of communication, those being through media, verbally and nonverbally, through body language and well through other forms such as handwriting, print, telephone etc. Some things that the chapter also talks about is how a text’s design affects the way that it is received and understood. For example, pie charts and bar graphs are an easier way to show statistics and data rather than doing it in the form of paragraphs. It offers a much easier visual to the audience, while still containing important information.

Some questions that you should ask yourself when thinking about media are what medium are you using? Print? Electronic? Visual? Also, how does using the medium affect your overall organization? How does it affect the language and modes of expression? These questions are some of the things to keep in mind when making media. However, you must also think of the design. Things like the use of appropriate fonts, visuals, headings, and formats, such as APA or MLA, must also be considered.

The way that this relates to my major is that throughout my academic career, I am going to need to communicate with many people, using different types of communication. As a student that’s going into the medical field, communication is key, not only because you need to effectively communicate with others, but also because there will be many forms in which you will have to communicate by. 

The reason as to why I chose this video is because here we see how Jim Carrey uses different kinds of communication, to “effectively” communicate with others. We see some body language involved, the use of facial expressions and also the use of different sounds he makes. To me this video is hilarious and I believe it shows how we can communicate using different ways, of course, this being by far the weirdest one, but it counts. 

[loganutep-blog]

Week 3: Reading Response

In the NFG book, there was a reading of the design of media, purpose, and catching attention of the viewers. It was very interesting reading about the aspects of design. Personally I have always been a creative individual, and reading through it was very fascinating. How to use the different shapes to catch attention, colors for emotion, and also how to keep the viewers attention through the use of short sentences, and the use of words.

I have always been interested in media design, but besides photography I have never got a chance to actually try it. Through this section of the book, it really helped me understood the different strategies to use media design. We applied the different strategies that the NFG provided for us to the infograph, and it was very fun to apply them.

Photography has always been a passion of mine, and even though the reading didn’t had to do with photography, I related it to photography. The reading of media design explained the use of color, word capacity, sentence structure, picture placement, and shapes. In photography there’s a lot of aspects to look at while editing a picture, and if it fits together in one piece. Things such as brilliance, exposure, highlights, shadows, brightness, contrast, and black point. It’s almost the same strategy while creating an info-graph, because we just had to make sure all the different aspects fitted together, and that all the information required flowed together. It was really fun.

[roohbn-blog]

What’s up Diego! I noticed we both read the Designing text chapter in the NFG book, and I must say we have a very similar way of thinking and we both enjoy photography! I love how you summarized the whole chapter and broke it down making it easier to understand. I also really like how you related the chapter to yourself and your personal interests. You also mentioned that you have an interest in media design, and I believe that this chapter may have helped you a little more in understanding what it takes to make some serious EYE-CANDY for any audience. I also like how you incorporated an example of design we’re doing in class, the infographic. 

I also agree with you that this reading relates to photography like you said, “Things such as brilliance, exposure, highlights, shadows, brightness, contrast and black point.” Your response was great Diego and I really like how you organized everything! Props to you man, your response was great! Keep up the great work and I'm sure you’ll do great things in media design and photography!

[roohbn-blog]

Week 3: Designing Text

This week I decided to read over design text in the NFG book. What it primarily talks about is how to grab the audience's attention and how to help it achieve a purpose, depending on what is being presented. The chapter also talks about some principles of design, some of which are recommended to keep in mind while working on a specific design. Those principles are to keep the design simple, be consistent, keep it balanced, use color and contrast carefully, and be creative! It also talks about fonts may affect the audience, for example, if it's hard to read or not, and also briefly talks of ways that font provokes a certain tone to your presentation.

The way this reading relates to me is by keeping everything simple and chill. Some people fake who they are just to fit in into today's society, but I say just be you and don't care what others think. To me, the simpler the better. I want to be creative with my life and have some color in it. keep it balanced and consistent! In fact, life can be seen as a design if you think about it. It is up to you to structure that design and make it unique! This reading helped me understand how to make a good design on the current Infographic we are working on and offered some tips on how to do so.

The reason as to why I chose this gif is simply because, like I stated before, our lives are like our own personalized design, we are able to make what we want from it, add color to it, set a tone to it, keep it balanced, consistent, and primarily, keep it simple. If you guys don’t know who Baby Groot is, well there you have him, and I think that he is an exact representation of what I mean by our lives being like a design. I myself enjoy keeping it cool and simple, don't like being too fancy, but I also like to have fun, have some color in my life and keep it consistent. I believe this gif also represents me, because even during bad times, I’m always having fun and enjoying the moment!

[cnrodz-blog]

Week 2 Rhetorical Analysis

In this weeks reading I found what was most useful was Rhetorical Analysis. This was far more than just seeing a picture and describing it. We had to actually go deep in the meaning using pathos, ethos ,and logos. As we analysis photos we connect it with society and how certain people could feel. We think about the reason this photo was made and what audience it was intended for. We also see look at who the photo was made by and if the person or comany is trustworthy. So things to think about and when writing a rhetorical analysis and so many ways to interpret one photo.

Look at this advertisement for voting. From a glance it seems like it is asking citizens to vote ,however when we analyze this the meaning is far more. We can the mans posture which seems as if hes forcing her to vote. In that it shows that white men show more power than minorities do when it comes to voting. We could ask ask ourselves why the man is supporting the seesaw in order to make it seem equal? Or why the background is appartments and not houses? Rhetorical Analysis is looking beyond the picture and how it ties in with society.

We should be thinking more often about what we see on a common basis. We should take Rhetorical analysis outside of the classroom and analysis things we see day to day.

[roohbn-blog]

What’s up Nick! I agree with you that Rhetorical analysis is not just looking at a picture and that's it, no, we have to actually study it and think of the different things it contains. You also mentioned how we use the rhetorical appeals, ethos, pathos, and logos, to determine how each one of them contributed to the certain picture. I also like how you briefly explained what we did in class, how we analyzed the photo and went into deeper meaning with it, determined who the audience was, and how we connect it to our current society.

I also like the way you included a picture and gave an exmaple of how you analyzed that picture and demonstrated how a picture can hold many meanings and things behind it. You also gave some great questions to ask when analyzing a picture. Overall I think you did a great job of explaining what rhetorical analysis does and how we can use it when analyzing pictures. The fact that you mentioned that we should take rhetorical anaylsis out of class is a great idea, I coudn’t agree more with you on that! Overall GREAT JOB Nick!

[roohbn-blog]

Week 2 Reading Response

For this weeks reading response, I chose to do the Bb article “It wasn’t me, was it?”. The main theme can be obvious, simply to not plagiarize. But not only that, it also explains how easy it is to plagiarize without even knowing it! Scary right! It's particularly scary on how easily you can fall in the hole of plagiarizing. The reading connects to my discipline because I avoid plagiarizing, and I know most of my colleagues do as well. And throughout the rest of our academic career, we’ll need to avoid it.

The reading helped me further what plagiarizing really is, and to simply stay away from it because it's like a virus, it gets in you and the turnout isn't all that great. This reading also helped me understand that for the each and every statement we take from a certain website, book or any other forms of resources, they all must be cited correctly. We’ve worked on several writing assignments and that's something we’ve take into consideration in each and every one of our assignments. The questions one should ask is, where am I taking this piece of information from? is it a picture? An article? A book? Website? These things we the things you should ask ourlseves. Who is the author? When was it published? etc. etc.

The reason i chose this gif is because citing sources can sometimes be long and irritating! Sometimes theres things you cant find when citing the source and then you have to go to owl purdue for assitance. However, sometimes owl purdue doesn’t answer all your questions and it just drives me crazy! Pretty sure some of you are relatable. 

[loganutep-blog]

Week 1: Reading Response

Activity Systems are defined as “Scholars in many different fields, as well as workplace consultants, use the lens of activity theory to look at groups of people doing work together” (Kain, Wardel 273). Meaning how students from different majors can collaborate to promote change within the community. The article asks three main questions about how does the text work, who used them?, how they got written?, and what they accomplished?. The purpose of this is teach the students how to share their common motives through text. 

Activity systems consist on who, what, when, where, why, and how. Who will I become? What will I do? When will I get there? Where will I be? Why will I be there? and How did I get there? Those are questions that I ask myself after reading this article, and how in my classes we are all working to get where we want to be. My future medical community, that’s where I want to be. To work on an environment where we are all working towards the same goal, saving lives.

“People meet social needs by working and learning together over time to achieve particular goals” I have always been a big fan of Grey’s Anatomy, and Doctor House. TV Shows that show the lives of surgeons, and other team mates that chose the medical career. Since I was young that’s how it all began, through being inspired by those shows. Drama had a lot to do with the show, but what would fascinate me the most is how at the end of the day, no matter who was next to them, they all worked as a team to save lives. They all worked together, learned together, suffered through losses together, because they are a team. I hope that one day I have a team just like they did in the tv shows.

[roohbn-blog]

Hey Diego!

I also read about activity systems and what Kain and Wardle had to say! :-)

 I completely agree with you that activity systems consist on the who, what, when, where, why and how. The questions you asked are great and help someone understand what it is that they want to do and how it is that they want to do it. The way you talk about teamwork is awesome! I like how you strive to reach a goal and work with others to reach a certain goal as well, thats something that we all are currently doing in this course, and will probably continue doing so throughout our academic career and future career. Hey and you know what, I’ve only seen like two episodes of Dr. House and like one of Grey’s Anatomy, and I must say I enjoyed both, they actually show how important it is to work as a team to get somehting done, for example, they work together to save other lives. You know, I also aspire to be in the medical field, and you bet, there is going to be a lot of teamwork involved in that. And hey, maybe we’ll be a team someday in the medical community! Overall I enjoyed reading your response and I thought you connected it to your future in a great way. Great job!

[roohbn-blog]

Week 1: Reading Response

After reading the Activity theory passage by Klein and Wardle, I now have a better understanding of what activity systems are. An activity system is simply people in a group gathering and sharing their motives and finding a way to get to successfully achieve those motives. Something I thought was quite interesting is that the activity theory is useful because it acknowledges the importance of literacy histories, and they can also act as part of an activity system. A way this article has a connection to me is that most of us are working in groups, and well, it is said that people meet social needs by working and learning together over time to achieve particular goal, which is our case, we were set in groups, with the same major or partially identical majors. We also use tools to make our learning much more efficient, such as Bb, e-books and online quizzes. 

The reading helped me understand more in depth the concept of what an activity system illustrates and how it breaks down an idea into multiple parts and how those parts affect that community. Most parts of an activity system are related, for example, motives include an object and an outcome, which then you need tools, to accomplish that objective, which then leads to an outcome. The correlation is pretty straight forward, it's like a puzzle, you need to gather the info, connect the pieces, then reach the outcome. Of course, then you have the rules and regulations, the type of community, and the division of labor. The reading helped me understand the assignment by allowing me to understand how to use the activity theory to analyze texts used within a particular system of activity. There are things we should look out for such as the formatting, style, and the organization of the text. 

Some questions that are recommended to ask are, what is the long term purpose (outcome)of using this tool and others like it? Why are the people here doing what they're doing? What is motivating them to take the time to use this tool and achieve their short term objectives and long term outcome? It all ties in with the activity system and the activity theory. 

The reason why I chose this gif is because teamwork is one of the greatest factors in working with groups. Working together to accomplish a task is much easier when working in groups, especially when we are all in the same stem field or partially related in some way. To me teamwork is very important and with the energy of multiple brains working, we can reach a goal. 

[roohbn-blog]

What’s up fellow colleagues! My name is Ruben Ruiz, I was born in French Camp, California, then moved to San Diego, where I lived for about 5 years of my life. Later we then moved to the beautiful city of El Paso where I have lived most of my life. I have a brother, his name is Michael, but I call him Mike, and he is about 32 years old and currently, lives in what we call “Sin City” a.k.a Las Vegas. 

I have a dog, his name is Rayito, he’s about 11 years old and he's my spoiled little baby. I live my life day by day, and try to have fun at all times. Overall I would say I am a pretty “chill dude”, I love being outdoors, exercising, being active, jumping, laughing, dancing (Pura Cumbia y merengue!!!), taking pictures, making videos, helping others, socializing (networking), and all of the GOOD/FUN things you can think of, I also probably enjoy doing. IN FACT, I've had several people say that I’m the life of the party! I also like playing and watching sports, such as boxing, UFC, football, basketball, lacrosse, and plenty of others.  

I hope to further my education and in the future become a pediatrician. I’ve always admired and enjoyed the beauty of watching little kiddos grow and how they develop differently over the course of time. I have a whole backstory on why I also want to pursue that career, so if you want to hear it holla at me. In my family, I would be the first doctor, and currently, I am the first in my family to attend to College. I have ambition, and I know that with the help of God, I will reach my goal of becoming a Pediatrician. 

[audreyfay]

#Week 1: Intro

Happy Spring Everyone! My name is Audrey, I am your instructor and I’m excited to get to know all of you. This Intro Post assignment is the first step in that direction and here’s a chance for you to get to know a little about me as well.

I’m an El Paso native, born and raised in EPT/Ciudad Juarez, and I love it here. I have a son—Daniel, who is the smartest, kindest, sweetest, funniest, most handsome thing to arrive on planet earth. Through him, I’ve also learned that the best kind of entertainment is the kind you get when people think no one is watching. For example…

Much of my life surrounds school and Danny—aka Peanut. (He acts like he hates that I call him that, but I know he loves it). But I try and make space for me: I run regularly and lift often.

I salsa! #Salsera #Dancetilyoudrop

And I love soccer. Liga MX, La Liga, English Premier League, Champions League, Bundesliga, Serie A, MLS, and so on and so on and so on.

I strive to achieve life GOALS, estilo Neymar Jr.

I have a BA in Political Science, an MA in Rhetoric and Writing, a Graduate Certificate in Intelligence and National Security, and I’m wrapping up my PhD in Rhetoric and Composition.

My humanitarian and activists efforts center on freedom and justice for Palestine. #EndTheOccupation #PeaceforPalestine

In my time here as a PhD student, I have focused on rhetoric and resistance. I’m currently researching big data and social impact—think Twitter conversations and what they mean to society, people, governments, and social movements. I argue that the discourse happening on social media gives us the chance to understand real people, real desires, and can offer lots of opportunities for shared knowledge and lead the way to diplomatic, counterinsurgency, and peace building efforts worldwide. So I’m basically trying to be this guy.

I’m also researching issues of diversity and disparity among marginalized populations in various ways, like diversity among minorities and women in Higher Education. I ask questions like who’s in power, where is our voice, our place in our fields, in our jobs, in our societies, and why does it all matter?

Soon you too will have some new insight into the current state of minorities in your fields in higher education. Why do YOU think researching a topic like this matters?

[audreyfay]

Audrey’s Intro! Week 1

[audreyfay]

Mrs. Cisneros’ Intro is LIT, if I do say so myself. 

[audreyfay]

My Intro, again. Also, check out the required #hashtags. (semester, course, week#, theme) #CAKE

[roohbn-blog]

Ruben Ruiz >>> roohbn