LAST AND FINAL POST :) :(

Eng 5. The Writing Process. Anne Whitaker. Critical Thinking. A semester of assignments, peer reviews, and they say I say. I knew coming into this class I would have to write a couple papers, but never did I think about all the other stuff we’ve done. Like my favorite, Shitty First Draft. Week after week there was some deadline we had to meet or some blog post that needed to be typed. From all the marks and suggestions on my first drafts to the good job from my peer reviews, English 5 has been a roller coaster. But in all honesty I can say from my first essay in this class to my most previous I have undoubtedly become a stronger writer. I am more confident in my writing and now have tools that can only make my writing get better. I hope this “discourse community” of English 5 shares the same thing. If there’s one thing I learned it’s that paper is never perfect and can always be REVISED OR PROOF READ. And even though I seen these blogs as a burden in the beginning of this semester, I enjoyed reading al your guy’s and I hope mine was a favorite. 

Nuclear Dump

In Richard Mueller’s article Nuclear Waste he discusses the current efforts being taken to address the problems of nuclear waste. He discusses the dangers that it poses and how it’s affecting us. Nuclear waste comes from the both the results of nuclear fuel and the leftover nucleus of elements. He emphasizes that the issue of where we decide to place nuclear waste is a highly debated topic. In his view people shouldn’t just focus on absolute containment or the problem itself. I find his argument weak because it was confusing and hard to follow. He doesn’t clearly choose a side to the argument. Although he had statistical and little opinion, his evidence MADE him credible but he would in a sense contradict himself. But I don’t know that just my opinion. How do you feel?

ARE THEY SERIOUS!!?

How many of you guys played physical sports in elementary schools like kickball and football? I know I did almost everyday and that’s one of the reasons I loved going to school. In my Child Development class because we’re learning about the motor development of a growing child we came across a story in which a middle School in Long Island, New York has banned balls during recess. According to Kelly Wallace, the reporter for CNN who reported the story, “Long Island middle school's decision to ban most balls during recess and also require supervision of tag, even cartwheels, due to safety concerns. No longer allowed at the Weber Middle School: footballs, baseballs, soccer balls, lacrosse balls and any other hardballs that could injure a child. Also off limits: rough games of tag and cartwheels unless an adult supervisor is on hand.” I understand that safety should be a primary concern for schools because children are at very critical age where brain injuries are more likely to have long term affects but is this taking it too far? One argument that I thought posed a good concern was made by Alex Martin, an associate director at a Manhattan nursery school, "Without opportunities to learn how to navigate space with their bodies, and to negotiate rules, risks, and experimentation of cooperative play, how are children going to ever be able to handle themselves in any society as adults?”. I agree with this argument because it was through games of football and kickball and playground games that I leaned to cooperate with others and become very social by making new friends. Being social is a tool in today’s world that is mandatory as it has been proven that kids that are more social have higher self esteem. Now imagine you were back in elementary school and this was BAN was put in place. How would you feel? Do you think something like this is a good idea? How would you argue for or against this. 

Possible source for proposal

Source :  Raney, Arthur, and Anthony Depalma. "The Effect of Viewing Varying Levels and Contexts of Violent Sports Programming on Enjoyment, Mood, and Perceived Violence." Mass Communication & Society, 9.3 (2006): 321-338.

In this article it describes a case study in which the purpose was to evaluate the relationship between the levels and contexts of sports violence and viewer enjoyment, mood, and perceptions of violence. The researches found that viewers enjoyed the violent play more than non-violent, enjoyed the unscripted violent play more than the unscripted, and found the scripted violent play to be less suspenseful and more violent than the unscripted play. People who watched the scripted violence reported less positive moods especially female and non-participants. Unscripted violence refers to presentations of violence that naturally occur in the course of the traditional violent sports like hard checks, rough hits. Scripted violence refers to violent depictions found in the increasingly popular sports such as fighting competitions and wrestling. The researchers found that men tend to report greater enjoyment for combative sports (e.g., football, soccer, boxing), whereas women report greater enjoyment for stylistic sports (gymnastics, figure skating, and tennis). More specifically, enjoyment for men increased the more violent, active, and dangerous they perceived the sport to be. Women, however, tended to enjoy sports that they saw as elegant more than those that were seen as violent or dangerous.

Response:

I think this article can be very useful for my possible topic of the banning of violent sports. I can see how the finding of this study can be true because in most households the men are usually more interested in sports and set aside two hours on Sundays to watch the games. There’s sports year round because as the study said, “early three out of every four Americans claim to be at least “fairly interested” in watching sports” so no matter what time of year someone will always watch. As far as violent sports such as boxing and football in my personal experience when we have family gatherings to watch these type of events, in a room of 10 men there are at most 2 women. Now it could be because they are uninterested in sports overall but the study shows that it could be linked to the fact that women enjoy stylistic sports. I think this article can support the side that it should not be banned because it provides enjoyment and increases mood meaning it doesn’t promote aggression because if it did then it would’ve been noted. The findings were very interesting and informational in this case study.

Turkle's Cell Phone Dilemma.

Almost all of us have heard the phrase whether it be from our parents, aunts or uncles, and out teachers to ; “put your cell phone away.” Being able to have such a powerful device at the palm of your hand that allows us to communicate to one another in just a matter of seconds is an incredible feat in itself. At the press of a fingertip we can be connected through the people around us through the utilization of social media. In the Video Ted Talk by Sherry Turkle she asking us to consider how technology, although useful in everyday situations, is actually crippling our social abilities and actually isolating. Her claim is drawn form the main concept of peoples fear not to be alone and how technology is filling the void we have of being alone.

One specific piece of evidence that she used that I connected to is when she’s discussing why people would rather stray away from face to face communication. She develops the conclusion that people are scared because of the fact that’s its happening in the moment and these no delete button or editing what just came out your mouth, contrary to what our cell phones allow us to do. it may sound funny  but I used to find it a lot more easier to talk to the girl that I thought was cute only through text because in person I would get shy, my cheeks would turn red, and I would always think whatever just came out my mouth was stupid. My cell phone’s text messaging took all that away but as I grew older I realized how much more meaningful talking face to face was. I agree with Turkle’s argument that we are becoming to dependent on our phones and we really need a wake up call so we could revert back t6o the social essence of communication.

This may be a little off topic but do when you guys are trying to “talk” or flirt with someone, do you prefer talk in person or text?