Distinctions

There were many distinctions between the article we read for Friday and the "Is Google Making Us Stupid article.'' Both articles focused a lot on technology and how that affects writing in several different ways. The article by Johanna Drucker, "Letterpress Language: Typography as a Medium for the Visual Representation of Language" article focused a lot on typography and the way the words ended up looking on the page. She talked a lot about the structure of the page as well, and how letterpresses used to be used. She notes that writing produces a visual image and the shape, size, font, color, and placement of letters on a page all incorporate into your writing as a whole. She then discussed the visual differences between using a letterpress and using the printing devices that we use today and how big of a difference there is between them. Overall, both articles talked about the ways that technology is making our writing different.

Group 2

Our group talked about the ingredients and materials that make up this article. Carr uses many of these "ingredients" in writing his article. There are little things from pictures, to font size that make up this article and make it what it is. Every writer uses different things like that to catch the reader's eye while they are reading the article.

The picture in the article is more of a comic relief that Carr chose to include. This article is very lengthy and this gives the reader somewhat of a break while reading the article since he is trying to get across his opinion and a lot of facts. Writers often include this to keep their reader interested and want to keep reading and when they see a picture while flipping through before reading they will want to read it and not just give up and say its too long.

The font in this article is very small, and there are a lot of paragraphs included. In some paragraphs however, the first letter is bigger and bolder indicating that paragraph is going to be about a different topic, subject, fact, or just something different than what was in the previous one. This can almost be used as a checkpoint to the reader, and if they have to stop reading its easy for them to find where they left off, of if you are taking notes it's easy to take this article and split it into different sections.

Technology and Writing

Technology has affected so many things in the past few years, including writing. It has a huge impact on writing and on people's papers, mostly the appearance of them. Technology and it's programs have made it possible for people to even more creative when they are writing papers or doing any work on the computer that has to do with writing.

The simple things in technology that we now take for granted, like spell check, have just become so familiar to us but they haven't always been there. Technology makes it so easy for us now where we don't even have to go through our own papers and check for those errors. Even things like word count come in handy so often, and its yet another part of technology. This also makes it easier for the writer to think out of the box, and use bigger words and make sure they are spelled right too.

Technology has also made it so that we can change the font style and size in our papers, which can make a huge difference in how the final paper looks. This gives the writer to make the paper their own and really let their personality show through the way their text looks. You can also add different colored font and backgrounds which makes a huge difference in the look to your paper and really makes it appealing to the eye. They also have different options for fonts like bold, italic, etc which makes it easy to make titles in your paper stand out as well.

Clip art and photoshop is also a huge advance in technology that lets us improve our writing. This makes our paper look a lot more appealing to the eye, and if you're writing a paper on a certain object this makes it very easy for the reader to see what the author is talking about.

Overall, technology is a huge part of the way we write papers today. It's also something that is always changing and there are also always new things coming out everyday. It's also something we all take for granted and use every time we write a paper. We have become so dependent on the little things like spell check. Technology is a great thing thats always changing and you never know what will come out next.

Top=1,3,7

Top: 11,15,6,2,4

Bottom-5,7,8,14,17

Assignment For Wednesday- Challenge Pool

Most Challenging- 20,10,18,21

Least Challenging- 7,4,18,22,14

Most Flexible- 18,14,23,7, 12

Least Flexible- 4,5,11,20,25

Most Interesting- 1,3,8,7,12

Least Interesting- 4,5,6,10,19

Assignment 4-Throwing down the Gauntlet

For my assignment I would like everyone to write a Revenge Essay. In the essay, write about a time when you got revenge on someone in any way at all. Make it a good story line and include descriptive details that will keep the reader hooked and feel like they were really there with you when you got the revenge. Explain what caused you to want the revenge, how you got it, and how you felt after you got this revenge. In this essay, you must use quotes from some of the conversation going on while you're getting your revenge, at least 2 quotes in every paragraph. This is a chance for you to use a personal life experience and tell it in your own words and share it with your peers. Also, I would like you to use the DK Handbook in this assignment. Turn to page 25 and write out a schedule about how you are going to write this paper and please staple that to the back of your paper before handing it in! Have fun with this paper and topic and make sure at least 2 of your peers proofread it before handing in the rough draft.

Compare/Contrast-Reality TV/English

Challenges in reality shows like Project Runway and Top Chef are very similar in some ways, and yet so different in others. They are the same in the aspect that they are given a challenge and expected to follow certain guidelines and meet the criteria while doing it. They will be judged on either their food, item of clothing, or paper in the end and the judge will make sure that all of the directions were followed and that all the criteria was met in the final outcome. Even though there are a lot of guidelines in any challenge, you want to stand out and make the final outcome your own. Making a good impression on the judge is key, and if your piece stands out in the judges mind, that means you succeeded. Another similarity is that everyone in the show, or in the class, is given the same challenge with the same guidelines, and yet everyone has a different outcome. There are however some differences between assignments given on shows and ones given in the classroom; one of the reasons these challenges are different is the TV shows are much more broad and not as detailed as the directions given on writing a paper or an essay. Also, if a student doesn't impress a teacher with their paper they aren't kicked out of the class, whereas in the TV shows if you don't impress the judges well enough you are sent home. When really compared, there are a lot more similarities in assignments students are given, and ones that are given on TV shows then most people might think. All these challenges are all trying to get people to get out of their comfort zones and make them work to their full potential and see what kind of entree, outfit, or paper one can create.

Assignment 2-Judging Philosophy

If I was judging a portfolio there would be many things that I would take into account. The first would be to make sure that the student followed all directions given when having to write the paper, and that they did so correctly. Directions are key to a paper because it doesn't matter how well the paper is written, if its not on the right subject it's completely useless to the class. All of the papers should express the students interpreted ideas and thoughts about the topic or questions given in the paper as well. The next thing I'd look for in the portfolio would be organization and making sure that the papers have an introduction and conclusion, and the paragraphs are well organized and there is good sentence fluency. The reader should be able to go from the beginning of the paper until the end and the paper should flow right through and not have any choppy sentences. All of the papers should have no grammar errors, run-on sentences, prepositional phrases, or bad punctuation either, this is something that the student should take into account before even submitting or handing in a paper to a professor, especially at the college level. Any direct quotes, summaries, ideas, and paraphrases should all be documented and well cited at the end of each paper as well to show that the student is again, well organized and isn't taking another author's quote or idea as their own. It's very easy to tell when someone does a paper because they care and want a good grade on it, or they just want to get it done and pass that class and thats very important as well. It's also very easy to point out when someone really enjoys and puts a lot of time into a paper and I think thats extremely important too. Also, the student should try to relate the subject of their paper to their own lives, and use examples in order to give the reader a better perspective on what they are trying to talk about. This also makes the paper much more interesting for the person reading it and they might feel that they can really relate or agree on the subject being discussed.

Top Chef/Project Runway Assignment

I'm also new to this blogging idea, so hopefully I'm doing this right. There are many similarities between our college English class, Top Chef, and Project Runway, and the main similarity is that we are all given an assignment, and a certain amount of time to complete it. Once we all get the assignment we work hard to make our work as good as we possibly can, and make it to impress the judges, or in our case, the teachers. The challenges differ from either what the Chefs are asked to make, what the designers are asked to design, and what we are asked to write about for that particular assignment. The challenges will become more and more difficult throughout the course of the show, or the year, and we are expected to learn from our mistakes throughout the course of the season, or the year. At the end of each challenge all of the show contestants are either praised or criticized on the work that they have done, and hopefully learn from all of their mistakes and fix them by the time of the next challenge. What most don't realize is that there is so much more to the challenge then just completing it. The point is to complete it in a certain amount of time, and especially when the challenges get harder, it teaches you how to cope with a time limit and complete more difficult assignments or challenges. In both of these shows, and in real life everyone who takes on the challenge is expected to succeed and do their best, and thats what the judges and our teachers expect out of every single person. We are all trying to succeed for the same thing, the winning prize, and in our case thats the A, and in their case its either to become a famous designer or a famous chef. Once we get there, all of the challenges make us appreciate how much hard work it takes to get to that point, and we realize that all of those challenges really did help us succeed and become better writers, designers, and chefs. We also realize that all of the criticism from the judges and teachers is really to our benefit because the most important thing to the judge is to see that their contestants and students do their best and do their work to their best ability and don't take the easy way out. And Judges look for the people who challenge their own abilities yet can still do a good job in the end, and most importantly, succeed.