Writing to Communicate

A blog to express writing relative content

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Reflections on Project 3

Project 3 was defiantly the most enjoyable of the three projects so far for me. In project three from the start I had a vision of how to outline it(very different from projects 1 and 2). I could build up a narrative of how I became literate in computerized technology. In order to do this I would need to think back to early days. After lots of brainstorming I came up with three main instances of check points that stuck out to me in learning about computers. After displaying these three points and writing the paper came revision. All I got from peer-to-peer review was that they would like to hear more about the checkpoint involving my French uncle and what he taught me. Nevertheless after I recieved the review from Professor Platt I could better realize a few needed revisions. I firstly needed to make a better conclusion I had it saying what had changed from the experiences but I did not state how. Also the introduction was confusing to the reader thus I changed its wording to convey the meaning more effectively. There were other changes in the middle such as more on the third and second checkpoints but besides that the paper what I believe to be my biggest success in this class tied for best grade with my first paper, but on a personal level this was definitely the most beneficial to me academically.

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Responce to Essays Five and Six

Essay Five by Erica Wright did a great job of responding to the essay prompt. She takes her time to develop a story of how she evolved into using Facebook to influence her opinions on to others. She did an alright job with MLA except it seems she has two spaces between her name and page number, she wrote the date in the Americanized format and used a comma in the date. This can also be seen in the timestamps on certain quotes. 

On Essay Six did a worse job of responding to the essay prompt than the previous. It seems to focus more on a story rather than a narrative: giving more of a view of what happened rather than an explanation/analysis. On the MLA side I see the mistakes of the previous are missing. The only thing I notice is that in the WRA part they used a period between the class number and the section rather than a hyphen.

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Revision Plan for Project 3

From the review I got on Eli I know the second and third paragraphs of my essay are areas to focus on additions. The reader said he would like to have heard more in those sections about the story portion. I also need to take a closer look at what it really means to be writing a narrative, possibly by looking at the sample essays to be released. Nevertheless after reviewing these sample essays I will have more in the plans of revision in that category. I should also take a closer look at the professor's review and possibly ask about it if time allows. Another area to look over quick would be the MLA as I did less focusing on this area without a need for a works cited page.

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Response to the Arola Piece

In Arola's piece she gives a survey of her early technological experiences and demonstrates the effects of her lack of at such a young age. A few things that support this accusation can be found all over the piece. First she takes time in multiple parts to defend her lack of technological literacy. She shows how over time she noticed these short comings and adapted to such. Lastly she gives examples of from more recent times of how the adjustments played out; supporting my proposed thesis. When relating it to the essay prompt form project 3 I would have to assess it as a good relation to the narrative. The author gives a good development with a steady story from her childhood until her present day showing how it progressed into a more technologically literate person.

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Reflections over Project 2

Project 2 flew by way faster than project 1 did, despite having more weight on my final grade. Nevertheless it was an informing project that really helped me in evaluating which skills I would need upon entering Medical School. My revision process is vivid due to having the stomach flu during it but most of my changes we're based on the review given by Ms. Platt and little from other students due to only having 1 short and insignificant review from another student. It appears on their review that they did not either read my essay or simply skimmed it but did not follow the word requirement and the other student did not comment. That being said, if I do end up resubmitting this assignment it would be primarily due to a lack of fuel for revision; I wasn't  sure what I could add and I believed I had touched all points approximately and hope what I learned from this project will not only help me in an informing sense but also assist in my last two upcoming projects numbers 3 and 4.

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Top 5 Moments of Technological Literacy

My top five moments of technological literacy:

1. First time I repair a major problem on a computer.

2. First time I overclocked an older computer.

3. First time I learned how to repair a Xbox.

4. Being able to put pictures from my phone onto the internet when phone cameras were in their infancy.

5. When I explored and self-taught myself about disc imaging and how to modify files into such.

The first time I repaired a computer I remember being around 13. It was an XP system is remember correctly and somehow I had locked up the system probably from a virus which at the time were more deadly to computers. I had tried countless things and I remember feeling lost. No one was typically with me, my parents found out I "broke" the computer again and were as usual getting annoyed and telling me to stop fiddling with it. Nevertheless I went ahead and tried everything, safe booting, restoring (still in its infancy) anything that could be thought of. Since it was 2007 I remember trying to reboot it with disk but unfortunately this was the age where all the software companies were going anti-pirate crazy and put unjust locks on their software keeping me the 13 year old owner locked out it. So I went ahead looked for help on the internet which also was in its infancy until I found a way around the security(which still was completely absurd and annoyed me beyond belief) but nevertheless I plowed through it and got the new system installed. Then more problems arose. My parents had this new fancy "WIRELESS DSL" internet which was in its infancy and my computer was only wireless compatible through an external chip. This made me become quite fluent in the workings of drivers are hours of toying an annoyance I eventually figured it out. All this forced a 13 year old who was doing poorly in school to read and work with his hands in order to become technologically fluent on his own.

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Scribner's Perspective

Scribner takes a different perspective on literacy; relating it to a more social aspect. She explains that literacy is more than reading but more of a social aspect of everyone's everyday lives. Her argument can be broken down to simply: wholesome literacy consist of the ability to deal with every day life. This brings up the question are illiterate people unable to handle life's situations. She brings up a type of literacy that is being able to read but not being able to appropriate life as "functional"; similar to that of an alcoholic who maintains a normal life. She goes to state the changes in the expected education level and relates to the level of literacy in society compared to society's ability to handle itself. This brings up great point in the change of the individual and how across all cultures persons have had similar evolution of social differences with respect to time. This is to say that as literacy has increased it shows a relating aspect in cultures that have the higher literacy and ones without are similar to us at such a time despite cultural barriers.

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On the Ramsdell Piece

Ramsdell's work on narratives and stories gave me introduced an expert perspective on stories and narratives to me and helped prepare me for my upcoming third project where I will need to write a narrative. It gave a good descriptions of the differences between the two such as in the length and focus. By the use of the story "Who I am" she shows how narratives differ from stories being more than a sequence of events but rather a relationship between actions and events. She also touched in indirect and direct characterization which I will have to look into more prior to the project and make the right decide which is correct for this work. Nevertheless this particular piece helped greatly in planning my project 3 outline and I plan to utilize this information in its making.

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First Digital Experience

My first experience with digital technologies was with computers at a young age, there for I am affluent with hardware and software on most systems. At a very young age my parents introduced me to computers, having a windows 95 system in the home. Coming from a family of immigrants I had very limited family. All my family members that I had contact with were involved in these at the time revolutionizing technologies. My grandfather was a software engineer for ford, Uncle a software engineer for a large engineering firm, other uncle was in charge of technologies at a motor company and also designed computers out of home and my last uncle was a technologies manager for ford. Being surrounded by technology from a young age flourished me into the confident computer expert I am nearly today. I have overclocked 1998 computers into systems such as the one I am blogging on right now, I have modified software to the point that my roommates and I could play a game from before LAN and I have refurbished countless computers for friends and family allowing their older systems last to this very day! All this was made possible from an early digital experience having ages of trial and error, countless computer breaking at a young age and hundreds in parts; all in all being exposed into digital technologies at a young age gave me skills most ITs don't master in 2-4 years of training.

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Project 3 inquiry

Upon reading the Project 3 syllabus I though "Ugh, another essay about technology and literacy". Nevertheless on the last essay which was very similar it seems that the biggest benefit I had was when the example essays where released. I can better understand the idea behind the project better when I see well done example. I guess my true problem is taking the goal of the paper into context. So my questions are will there be examples and will they be released before the initial submission?

I had another question but it completely escaped my mind, anyway I will just wait on this question. The way I see it me asking will not change the time frame of which my professor releases the samples if she does, thus I might as well wait and see and do me best with or without.

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Essay 3 and Essay 4 Assessment

Essay 3 did a great job of responding to the prompt. It focused with a perspective of how writing is needed in veterinary medicine giving applications of where writing is necessary such as applying to veterinary school. I found this particularly useful for another place to possibly analyze on my paper. The writer also goes on to talk about examples where veterinarians saw unexpected writing styles used in their career that they did not use in undergraduate work. Later it states how the typical veterinarian uses reading and writing just as much as applied skills in the job adding emphasis to this necessity that otherwise would appear to be hidden from view. The MLA format in the paper is good; to the internet browser viewing eye it appears to have the correct in text sources, works sited page and order of business in the beginning.

Essay 4 in my opinion responded to the prompt poorly. It seemed to be more like a project 1 essay than a project 2 with its focus on “The social side of technology”. While it did go into the career of a journalist it seemed to focus more on how social media journalist improve the data and information we gather from the news; rather than any level of literacy/writing/rhetoric expected of them or a more related prompt target. The information continued to seem focused mainly on the future of the “social media journalist” and their improvements towards the bringing of news to the people. On the MLA side the information in the beginning has the date in the American format with a comma. While the American format is accepted sometimes the comma is never used.  The Works Cited page seems off aswell but without individual analysis it’s hard to pin-point which are exactly wrong though there are a few I would check with the book.

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Revision Plan for Project 2

So far my rough draft appears to only be a start to the final piece. Upon release of two example essays I realized the intent of this project and made me realize what needs to be done. I am going to start by simply doing more; learning more about the expectations of medical students, possibly talking with my professor about the real focus of this project relative to my interest. Nevertheless dealing with what I have I need to choose whether or not to clean it up for the reader or leave it as is. Upon peer review I realized that the main problem my readers had was relation; most of my readers were students out side the medical profession. The intended audience is supposed to be students with similar interests which leaves me wanting to keep it the same but rather give it a read over and make it slightly more technical, I will have to talk it over with Ms. Platt if I want the paper to be more technical or something that would better suit a broader range of readers; such as my professor the English enthusiast and future doctorate holder in such. Nevertheless the paper has work to do in order to revise it; I should take a good look at these sample essays posted today and base my changes off the better of the two.

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Intrinsic Benefits of Project 2

In writing Project 2 I realized this essay has more use than just a grade from my instructor. This essay provided me with information on what will be expected from me applying and attending a medical school in the future. It made me realize that for my generation they are trying to make writing and rhetorical reasoning more essential to the doctoral initiation process. I also learned that for my exact graduating class there will be no testing of my writing abilities due to a reassessment of the necessary level of writing occurring specifically during my generation something I am happy to now know. The people this project is written for is any student considering applying to medical school. Any student who is interested in attending medical school needs to know the level of technology and literacy expected of them and I was very specific in my writing to include both my graduating class and classes to come. As people they would be characterized as students of decent academic standing who are very interested in preparing for entrance into the medical profession. There concerns would lie with the level of literacy expected of them as they proceed with this profession and by emphasizing a more direct point towards interest I share with them as a pre-medicine student I can more effectively communicate with them. They could access the writing by viewing my tumblr. after it is finished and they would best be reading it after completion of their freshman year at their university as that is when the information becomes most valid and students really decide which area of pre-health they are truly interested in.

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Annotated Bibliography on Human Medicine

Here are three sources I am considering for my second project in my writing class:

Taylor, Robert B. "Medical writing: A guide for clinicians, educators, and researchers" Michigan State University Library.  Springer. c2011. Web. 10 June 2012.

This is a guide for writing in the medical profession. An electronic source at the MSU library giving it a quick skim will provide the reader with a sense of what is expected in all fields of the medical profession.

Kramme, Rudiger. "Springer handbook of medical technology" Michigan State University Library. Springer. 2011. Web. 10 June 2012.

This book is an index of the technology used in medicine and the level of expertise and exceptions of each. One can use this as a broader material source that also provides an in-depth look into specifics when a topic is reached.

Bleakley, Alan. "Medical education for the Future" Michigan State Library. Springer. February 2011. Web. 10 June 2012

This source is gives a more idea finding perspective to one for the topic of technology in medicine. As with all books by Springer publishing it gives a perspective of self-bettering in the field of medicine.

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The Library and You

Regardless of your major here at MSU, you will most definitely need to be able to use the library's resources in order to prosper. More specifically if you are a social sciences or arts and letters major taking a writing class your first semester is necessary; for all other majors you will need writing skills for your more disciplined classes later in your academic year. Nevertheless I will take you step by step on to through the basics of the MSU library.

Your research journey begins on the MSU library website where immediately you will want to click the undergraduate colored box to the right to be redirected to an appropriated site. Click on the Research help tab; here you can find a link to a Primary sources search engine, research guides, course guides and citation guides which come in handy in writing classes. When using the primary sources engine it is very important to understand what a primary source is relative to the research project. For example: if you were to be researching the great depression and needed primary sources you would want to look for sources from the 1930s; any source after that would be irreverent to your topic's goal. Back on that tab the research guide is a great read prior to a research project, but in a classroom setting is typically preached to you.

When you come across questions in your research you should contact a librarian for help. They are willing to help professionals there 24 hours of the day 7 days a week by 1 manner or another. They can be contacted by the "Ask a librarian" chat service on the MSU library site, email and they can be talked to at the library which is open 24 hours a day during weekdays and business hours during the weekends during a typical school year day. Never hesitate to ask them for help as they are are all knowing professional for are there for you.

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Reflections on Project 1

When I started project 1 I had no idea what I was going to do, but I knew that it would deal with piracy. After large amounts of deduction and analyzing what an artifact really is, I decided upon file sharing. After that I just took a crack at it, doing research on the side and building up to the pirate bay after visiting Napster. Discussing how its influence has derived from Scandinavian culture. After initial submission I was informed of how my MLA citation was outdated and also how I while I did look at the Scandinavian influence I only brushed over western and needed more of it. I finished by appropriating the MLA format in a long tedious process and lastly an additional paragraph with a more in depth identity of western relation to it. Project 1 was very beneficial to the development to my research and writing skills and I am satisfied with the topic I picked.

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Learning to Read to Write

In Mike Bunn’s piece “How to read like a writer” he teaches how to read to write which he abbreviates as RTW. RTW means that when you’re reading to think in the place of the author, to understand that each word was chosen and ran through the head of the artist during its conduction. Mike’s teachings brought the main point to me that when reading I need to notice, analyze and then lastly appreciate word choice, syntax and sentence formation. Lastly the piece made me realize that this form of reading should be used selectively and is not meant for all types of writing but rather ones of merit.

In Dana Goodyear’s piece “I <3 Novels” Goodyear displays how cell-phone stories were used as a method of self-expression for Japanese females who due to cultural barriers could not do so otherwise. The author uses fine diction and syntax to express the influence this had the culture of Japanese girls and its evolutionary influence. Using the read to write method I was able to develop a few possible research questions Goodyear had in mind when composing the piece.

How do girls in Japan express themselves despite cultural limitations?

How does cellphone novel influence self expression?

Who is involved in this cellphone novel culture?

How did cellphone stories become popular in Japan

I got these questions by deducting from the in the read to write format. She makes it clear by her focus on the cultural influence of the novels and their form of self expression.