Blogging Blog Post

Yes! I really enjoyed using a blog in this class to do assignments. This is my first experience with blogging and I wasn't so sure about it at first, but I really learned to enjoy it throughout the semester. In fact, I am even considering making my own personal blog after this semester is over. Crazy, I know. I enjoyed posting assignments on the blog because it seemed more convenient than turning in a written assignment and it was cool to see what everyone else had to say in their posts.

I really enjoyed reading what my classmates had to say on their blogs. It was nice to get a feel of the different ideas that everyone had on different issues that they had encountered with the different papers that we wrote throughout the semester. So in that way, blogging was very beneficial. I also feel like it helped me get to know everyone in the class a little better and it helped me see that everyone has a unique voice and style that comes across in their writing. So, overall I really enjoyed using a blog for this class and I honestly am going to miss writing these little blog posts each week. Here's to you, little writing blog! 

Analysis of A Website

Alright, so the website that I chose to analyze is nutrition.gov, which I thought was ineffective. Here it goes:
-Alignment: This website uses center alignment which is gives the website a very formal look. I guess it is a .gov website so it should be more formal looking, but this website also is very boring to look at because of the use of center alignment. On the other hand, everything is aligned with something else in a very logical manner and the information is organized very clearly, which is good. I just think that they could have experimented more with left and right alignment to make the home page more interesting to look at.
-Contrast: This web page doesn't really place emphasis on any certain text or image, so my eyes aren't drawn to anything right off the bat. Since nothing really catches my attention by being different and standing out, I don't know what information is the most important. They also don't use colors or fonts that really stand out and catch my attention.
-Proximity: I guess I kind of talked about this aspect with alignment, but the website does a great job of grouping information together and grouping it together in a very logical manner. In that way, I think it is effective. But also, nothing really stands out on the page, so it makes it difficult to know what is the most important information on the page.
-Repetition: There is not a whole lot of repetition in the design of this website. They kind of repeat colors and fonts, but it is mostly dull colors such as navy blue and gray and boring kinds of fonts that aren't very interesting to look at. There is a lot of text on the page as well, which doesn't help it to look unified and simple.
-Composition: I thought that the placement of the picture on the web page could have been better in order to create a better visual effect. It is pretty small and it is centered near the top of the page. I also thought that they could use a better picture to correlate with nutrition that could better represent the purpose of the website. I don't think that the "rule of thirds" was applied here, but I might be wrong.
*I feel like a pessimist now after writing that, but I really do love nutrition! I just happen to think that their website is ineffective haha.

Solutions and Websites

After my conference yesterday, I was able to fix my issue with the organization of my paper. Natalie gave me some great advice about how to deal with organization. She said to copy and paste each of my topic sentences from my paragraphs into a separate word document and then see if they all made sense and flowed nicely. It really helped me to be able to distinguish what ideas worked well together and places where I needed to change my flow of ideas. Also, to help with not sounding redundant in my paper, I found some specific examples that I can include in my argument.

Effective Websites:
http://www.ae.com/web/index.jsp
http://mormon.org/
http://www.apple.com/
 http://www.bettycrocker.com/

Ineffective Websites:
 http://www.nutrition.gov/
 http://nccam.nih.gov/
 http://mhs.d321.k12.id.us/
 http://www.foxnews.com/

Not Patchwriting/Issue Paper Struggles

The meaning of the word 'myth' has changed and adapted throughout time based on people and circumstances. What used to be something of cultural importance is now used to reject another idea that seems to be invalid based on other ideals (Bacchilega 25). 

The hardest part in the writing process for me is making sure that my ideas make sense in the order of my paper. Having a strong appeal to logos is a lot more difficult than I anticipated. Also, in some spots in my paper it feels like I am getting repetitive with my ideas, which could become a problem.

Researching at the Library

Monday's class was extremely helpful in learning about how to start researching. Getting starting on research for research papers can be intimidating, but learning about the numerous resources that are available for our use made it not seem like such a daunting task. It was very cool to learn that the library has a whole page dedicated to Writing 150. I never would have known that before. Also, it was very beneficial to learn that there are several databases that you can find through the library's home page. In the past, I had just used one database and sometimes it can be hard to find adequate information when you are just using one database to find sources. I have already found some great scholarly and peer reviewed journals and articles while searching for the short amount of time that we had in class on Monday. I am anxious to start looking for more sources. The only concern that I have is that I won't be able to find books that relate very well to my topic. Hopefully I will be able to find some beneficial information that isn't just found online. Also, I would just like to mention that I felt super high-tech while using an i-pad and sitting in those nifty little desks :)

Issues Paper Proposal

Initial Stance: Reality television promotes degrading morals and behavior to young-adult audiences.
 
I decided to choose this topic because I think it is very kairotic and it is an interesting topic to discuss with others.  It's not what the topic that I was going to choose originally, but the more I thought about it, the more I decided that I could probably write a research paper about it. I think that as I focus and really narrow in on my topic that it will be easier to find reliable information about the topic.

Some questions that I hope to answer with this topic are:
What kind of values does Reality TV appeal to?
How does the behavior that Reality TV portrays effect the young adult/teenage audiences that tune in to watch?

I am not completely sold on this topic because my feelings are kind of mixed about the whole issue. I think that some so-called "Reality TV" programs serve a good purpose and have good messages to send to viewers (eg. Extreme Home Makeover). On the other hand, some Reality TV shows (eg. Jersey Shore and other MTV shows) are extremely degrading and promote bad morals and ethics to those who watch. I will just have to be specific enough that I can be persuasive to the audience.

20 Interests

1. Effect of cell phones on the way we communicate
2. College Athletics
3. Product placement in movies
4. Childhood obesity
5. Regulation of school lunches
6. Genetically modified foods
7.Music-sharing programs on the internet
8. Facebook
9. Fast food
10. Fluoride in city water
11. Vaccines
12. Decline of newspapers
13. Standardized testing
14. Rating system on television programs
15. Cyberbullying
16. Nutrition
17. Exercise in schools
18. Steroids and professional sports
19. Modern music
20. Animal rights