group 1

In the article "Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Nicholas Carr analyzes the internet’s affect on our lives and the way we read and think today. He goes into great detail explaining how our process of thought is shaped, and cites many different sources within the article. He includes a lot captivating information to help the reader become more interested in the article, and want to continue reading. He also uses title of the article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid” and the quote from the movie “A Space Odyssey” to draw the reader into the article and make them want to find out what the answer is.
Technologically Carr uses a lot of information and stories from other writers to back up his article and provide other point of views to the topic. He starts many of his thoughts or paragraphs with a quote or citation from another piece of work to get his idea rolling. He describes many situations comparing the way we interacted and thought before and after the arrival of the internet, which entices the reader and makes them become very involved in the topic.
It is obvious that Nicholas Carr did a lot of research for this article, to include the amount of information which he did. While the topics of the papers we had to do this semester were nothing like the internet’s effect on our brain, it is still safe to say that Carr’s included a lot more information and different materials than we would have to. He also goes into greater detail to entice the reader and make them interested in the topic.

Challenge Pool

Most challenging: 11 6 20 19 21
Least challenging: 5 12 13 18 22
Most Flexible: 3 9 12 13 15
Least Flexible: 2 5 10 16 21
Most interesting: 1 7 13 23 18
Least interesting: 2 4 5 8 19
Top: 3 9 15
Bottom: 4 8 11

Assignment 4

My challenge to the class would be to write a one page paper, in which you reflect upon and describe what you have learned so far in English 101 and what you hope to learn in the coming weeks. Using examples from the work that has been done so far in class to.

Compare and Contrast

The challenges on the reality tv shows "Project Runway" and "Top Chef" have many things in common with the sample textbook assignments, although in some ways they are also different. One of the biggest things the two have in common is that either the contestants on the shows or the writers correctly identified the topic and followed the given instructions. Another common aspect is, judges for the shows would look for personal taste and uniqueness in the contestant work, just like it is important to add a writers on personal touch to their writings. Spelling and grammar is a very frequent aspect in the sample writings, although this really has nothing to do with making a dress or cooking a meal, it can be related to the proper way to go about ones work as well as the quality of it.

Although there were few differences, a major one is writers providing examples, facts, or citations in their work. In the tv shows there is no need to provide facts or where they received their design or recipe, because for the most part contestants on the shows worked from scratch to create their own pieces of work. Which I also believe is something that was overlooked in the tv shows. Judges should go more in depth with their questioning for the contestants to find out what inspired them to create their work, or where they gained the experience for their project. Judges assume that viewers of the shows have experience or knowledge of the given topic, which for most cases is probably not true.

Project Runway/Top Chef

The reality TV shows “Top Chef” and “Project Runway” each have very similar aspects. In each show contests are given a challenge, whether it be designing a dress or preparing a meal. The contestants are then given a strict set of guidelines to prepare their work around. The contests presentations are then evaluated by a panel of judges, in which they are judged, not only on how well the contestants followed instructions and worked within the guidelines, but also the amount of creativity and personal taste is incorporated into their work. The judges in each of the shows are looking for quality in the contestants work as well as how the worked under pressure and with one and other. Judges were very critical of contestants who strayed too far from the guidelines.

I believe that items which were important to the judges of “Top Chef” and “Project Runway” would also be equally as important to a judge of the course blog. A judge for the course blog would be looking to see whether or not a student followed the instructions for what was assigned as well as how well they were able to incorporate their own personality into their writings.