Helpful Letter

Dear Gabi,
CONGRATS!! You are exactly one week away from being done with your first semester of college! Wahoo! Yes, this has been an absolutely crazy ride but it has also been the best journey of your entire life! You have worked so hard all semester so make sure to stick it out until the end! There are only a few finals standing in your way from a long break! You are smart and capable of everything you set your mind to, you just need to stay organized, be healthy, and work hard! Its amazing to look back at all of the work you have done over the past semester. When you get stressed out, just take a deep breath and do as follows:
-go for a run, you know it always makes you feel better
-eat healthy!!
-write a list of things to do and when you're going to do them, this always helps you feel more organized and on top of things
-clean your room, reorganize your clothes, wipe down your counters/desk, and vacuum! This always makes you feel ready to study because you are less clustered and its a great study break!
-Get a good nights sleep! You know staying up past 12 makes your life 10X harder so be efficient  during the day! There will be plenty of time to stay up late over break
-Its okay to take a study break and visit with friends, it will help you clear your mind!
GOOD LUCK ON FINALS STUDY HARD AND DRINK TEA!!

Letter To Myself

If I could write a letter to myself at the beginning semester, I would give myself a lot of advice. First I would tell myself to breath! College is doable! It is all about time management! Next, I would tell myself that prewriting is SO IMPORTANT!! In the past, I have always just jumped into my essays without much preparation, my ideas were always all over the place and the writing was extremely elementary. Prewriting has helped me stay so organized, allowed me to dive deeper into my essays, and put all of my ideas on one piece of paper. I would tell myself to slow down and take my time with prewriting and my essays. It is also very helpful to have others read over your essays because they can catch mistakes you might have looked over. Then, I would tell myself that "you are about to learn a lifetime of useful information so go to every class and take it all in!" This class has improved my writing so much and I truly believe I have learned to write stronger and in a more professional manner. I learned so much and I learned how to manage my time. So....past self...just breath, enjoy school, and work hard!

Thesis for Final Essay

Thesis:
Over the past three months, I barely knew what a quick reference guide, rhetorical analysis and make a public argument was or how to even go about writing one. However, after being enrolled in English 109H, I have learned how to write more direct and with a straightforward manner. For this course, we were required to keep a blog, writing a few posts every week. Originally, I thought the blogs were just busy work, however quickly; I discovered how helpful they were. The blogs encouraged prewriting techniques, which caused me to stay very organized. Over the semester, I have improved my rhetorical skills by learning specifically about tone, the PIE structure, SOAPSTone, and more!
Outline:

• Opening paragraph
• Quick Reference Guide
• Ethos, pathos, logos
• Evaluation of sources
• PIE 
• Rhetorical Analysis
• Observation and Inferences
• SOAPSTone
• Public Argument
• discuss blog and powerpoint
• group conferences 
• Conclusion 

Audience and Invention for Reflective Essay

Prewriting:

• What topic do I want to discuss with my readers? What do I want them to understand about the topic?
• I want to write about how I have improved as a writer over the past three months, I would like to discuss how my writing can easily sound elementary and that I learned to focus on writing about specific topics or events rather than just paraphrasing something. I want my readers to understand how you can fix these problems and why fixing paraphrasing can make an essay so much stronger

• Who is my primary audience? Who is my secondary audience?
• My primary audience is Dr. Bell, my english professor because she has taught me everything I have learned over the past semester and she has read all of my essay and has given me concrete feedback
• My secondary audience is my classmates because they helped me on multiple occasions to make my writing better  
• What do my audience already know or believe about the topic?
• My audience already knows the topics I have written about and how I am as writer. They understand that I paraphrase more than I should and know that I enjoy a large amount of feedback to improve my essays. They also know that sometimes I difficulty writing a sentence after I have used a quote from another source
• How will I organize and develop my ideas?
• I always like to make an outline of what I am going to write and include in my essay. It allows me to easily organize my paper and get everything I want to include on one piece of paper. I also want to specifically discuss what I changed to improve my essay, why and how I changed it, and discuss my strengths and weaknesses. I will also discuss what I have learned throughout this entire course

Political Cartoon

Recently, there was a political cartoon released that is blowing up all over the internet. The context is the fact that many countries are restricting refugees from coming into their countries due to the recent attacks and threats from ISIS. The audience of this cartoon are those in the United States who are closing their borders to refugees. The message the artist is trying to get across is that if the Native Americans refused to let us come across their borders, we wouldn’t be here today. Without the help of the native americans, the pilgrims wouldn’t have survived. The native americans taught them plant and harvest so they could live through the next winter. To understand this cartoon, you need to understand our past history and what is going on in the rest of the world, especially the United States today. Specifically, Texan, Michigan, and Alabama governor's closed their borders due to the ISIS attacks in Paris. The purpose of this cartoon was to show the hypocrisy of the situation. We are saying no one else can come into our country however when we were down on our luck, we were allowed to come over. The cartoon represents the hypocrisies and ironies occurring in our country today.

Rhetorical Thesis

For my public argument, I wrote about why Alta should remain a resort for skiers only. Below is my thesis for my rhetorical paper:

“I argue that the most effective way for me to reach those who live in Utah, participate in outdoor recreational activities, and have a passion for skiing for snowboarding was through a blog post including pictures, personal experience, statistics, facts, and an organized powerpoint to prove that the resort Alta should remain a home for skiers only.”

Background Research

Link to google doc
I commented on:
Arrick Benson and Benjamin Weiss

Audience for My Argument

A huge part in a Public Argument is the audience. For my topic, the people impacted are those who snowboard, are trying to sue Alta, and anyone who cannot decide to learn how to ski or snowboard. Specially, this subject reaches out to the population of those who ski in Utah and anyone in the West who wants to ski or snowboard. The age of these people teenagers to adults. If parents decide to teach their children how to ski or snowboard at an early age, it generally the parents decision. The people who have the power to influence the issue are skiers and the owners of Alta. Also, the judge who overrode the lawsuit to Alta for banning snowboarders. Ultimately it is the jury and judges decision whether or not Alta should be able to ban snowboarders or not.

For my english class, my audience will either be very familiar with the topic or not familiar at all. Many students at the University of Arizona have barely skied or snowboarded before. However, a large amount has. Therefore, for some students this topic will be very well known and for others, they will know nothing about it. A big part of this depends on students interests, where they grew up, and if their parents were skiers or snowboarders. Aside from my ideal audience, people who may encounter my argument are those who have heard about the Alta controversy or those who are moving to a state where skiing and snowboarding is big activity. Those who will be hostile to my argument is anyone who is a snowboarder. Specifically, those who have only snowboarded and not skied. The basic information I need to discuss will be the differences about skiing and snowboarding, basic information about the resorts in Utah, specifically Alta, and the basics of lawsuit against Alta.

My Proposed Public Argument

Our impending English project is the Public Argument! We are supposed to think of a subject and make an argument about either by writing a paper, creating a powerpoint, making a blog, movie, photo essay, or anything creative! I had two ideas originally about what I wanted to write about. First, I was considering arguing that poodles are the best dog to invest in. If I were to argue this, I would discuss the history of the standard poodle, why they are a family friendly dog, and emphasize the fact that they don't shed! My other idea was to discuss why skiing is better than snowboarding while emphasizing the lawsuit against Alta, an all skier resort in Salt Lake City Utah, for banning snowboarders from their slopes. After considering both topics and discussing the two ideas with my teachers, I decided to write about skiing!

I'm still unsure of the genre I want to use for my topic. I was considering making a powerpoint. This would be effective in the sense that I could discuss many different topics briefly. Furthermore, I could add short videos on some of the slides about the dangers of snowboarding. A powerpoint would also allow me to discuss the pros and cons of skiing and snowboarding which helps me recognize the counter argument. Furthermore, I grew up skiing in Salt Lake City. I skied at resorts such as Brighton, Solitude, and Deer Valley, which all allow skiers and snowboarders. However, I currently ski at Alta, so I have a personal experience with all the resorts that I can discuss. Not only this, but I have tried snowboarding as well, so I have that experience to discuss too.

The message I will be trying to convey is that skiing is better, safer, and a better option that snowboarding. Furthermore, I will be arguing that Alta should be able to ban snowboarders if they choose because it is their resort and they are paying for the land. There are many other resorts snowboarders can use, so one resort should not be a huge problem. Not only this but if snowboarders are so upset that they cannot ski at Alta, they can make their own resort which doesn't allow skiers. The audience of my topic will be snowboarders, those deciding whether or not they should learn to ski or snowboard, and anyone involved in the Alta skiing/snowboarding controversy. The purpose of my argument is to convince everyone that skiing is a better option than snowboarding and that Alta can make whatever rules they choose.

Public Argument Analysis Questions

To begin the process of learning about the Public Argument, I read the chapter about Public Arguments in the book A Student's Guide to First Year Writing. The book has a sample of a public argument with questions following on page 220-221. The following are the answers to the questions asked in book:

-The tone of this letter is informative and helpful. Kassandra conveys this tone by clearly stating the problems with cutting funding to Medicaid and then she suggests ways to prevents the cuts while still balancing the state budget. She explained that by cutting the Medicaid budget tens of thousands of Arizonans would be put into serious debt. 

-The most important convention of this formal letter is that is concise and to the point. Kassandra begins by specifically stating the problem she sees and how to fix it rather than dancing around the topic. She also made a complaint, requested something, and made an enquiry. 

-Kassandra establishes her ethos by using specific research and statistics. This is very effective because it shows that she knows what she is talking about and one can look up the statistics for themselves to see if they are correct.

-Her overall claim is that cutting Medicaid would imperative to many Arizonans and there are better ways to budget without cutting funds to Medicaid. She uses evidence that proves cutting Medicaid will hurt people financially.

-Her call to action is asking the governor to not cut Medicaid funds and rethink the entire budgeting system while making changes to it.

-Reviewing her work, I would suggest that Kassandra should specifically state where she is getting her statistics and research information from. 

Rhetorical Analysis Reflection

            I learned a lot writing this paper. I was very interested by the subject I was studying however I was having a very difficult time organizing the paper and bringing it all together. I had documents full of ideas and things I wanted to include in my essay but I wasn’t sure how. I sat down and tried to make an outline of my essay but everything still seemed out of place. I wrote the essay but I after reading it, I could tell everything was very misplaced and the organization wasn’t working. I went into my professor’s office hours and looked over the paper. She helped me identity what I was doing wrong. Furthermore, I learned that I was writing the purpose of my paragraphs as the explanation. I changed all of these mistakes and reorganized the paper which helped a lot! I definitely believe this is a more successful paper than the last. I felt more confident about my writing and I learned more effective techniques through the process. I learned when writing a rhetorical analysis, it is important to not summarize and paraphrase the ideas! You need to quote, cite, and write your own idea of the topic. I loved this project because I got to write about something that matters and is personal to myself which made the whole paper easier and more interesting. Overall, I had a positive experience writing this essay!
I commented on Cati Krutilla, Davis Lee,  and Katie Lista's blogs! 

Feedback

The two blogs I looked at were Dee Swartz and Arrack Benson's.  I sent my paper to my dad and it helped a lot! Having another set of eyes look at my writing allowed me to see things from a different standpoint. First, he helped me organize it better. I had some very interesting points, however, they were all scrambled around which made the essay difficult to read. I also had a lot of poor and elementary sounding sentences, which I hadn't noticed before. He also made sure every one of my paragraphs was following the PIE format, I realized that I was confusing my explanation with the purpose in many cases. I plan on going to think tank as well to get more insight!
Here is the link to my essay!

Outline

Link to my outline for #likeagirl paper

Personal Response

For our upcoming essay, we were given the option between three texts to write about. The text I chose to discuss is the #likeagirl commercial campaign. From the very moment we watched the commercial, I knew that this subject was important to me. I had watched the video before yet when I watched it again I got the same feeling of empowerment and the feeling that of confidence in myself and every woman around me I received the first time I watched the video. Growing up, I would hear the phrase "like a girl" used in a negative way. Whenever I would play sports or do any activity with the boys, I would hear that term. I remember I always stood up for myself and other girls when boys would tease me about being a female. This was because I played on an all girls soccer team in a boys league.
When I was in third grade, I joined an all girls soccer team known as "The Mighty Cheetas." During our first season, we won every single game so our coach moved our team up so we were playing girls a year older than us. During that season, we won every single game as well. So, our coach moved us up one more grade level where we were playing teams of girls that were two years older than us. We never a lost a game that season either. Well, our coach wanted to give us a challenge so she enrolled our all girls team in a boys league. Of course, as one can imagine, there was a huge uproar. All of our parents were extremely supportive and wanted us to play in a more competitive league which happened to be against boys. However, the parents of the boys we were playing were furious! They would complain and say things like, "Girls can't compete with boys, they aren't good enough" or "Our boys will hurt the girls!" Despite all of these negative comments, my team still decided to stay in the league.
I remember our first game, our team walked onto the field and we received a large amount of strange stares. Parents would look at one another and whisper hushed comments. We didn't care though, we just there to play the sport we loved. We lost the first game and it definitely put a damper on our confidence. However, our coach picked us up and the next game we won. Then we won the next and the next. Before every single game, the boys would tease us and talk about how we weren't good enough to play them and it was actually very amusing when we would beat them. Eventually, the word about our all girls team playing in a boys league caught wind and someone decided to make a documentary about our soccer team. The documentary is called Kick Like a Girl and contains photage of our team in action, interviews with our players, boys on the other teams, and interviews with our coaches. The documentary was a huge success and was shown all around the west, in places like Utah, Colorado, and even California. Growing up with this experience, I would always stand up for girls when I heard "like a girl" because I had first hand experience of being teased and picked on for being a girl.  This subject is very important to me and I hate the fact that this term in society portrays women as weak, unintelligent, lesser than men, and it places them on a lower standard. "Like a girl" should not be a bad term and the thoughts that go along with those three words should be positive and empowering to all women today.

Prewriting Techniques

For our upcoming paper, we were asked to use a few prewriting techniques to get the juice flowing. The techniques I used were SOAPStone, an outline of information we discussed in class, and an observation and inference chart. I used SOAPSTone because it allowed me to understand the simple knowledge of my essay. I identified the speaker, occasion, audience, purpose, subjects, and tones. This allowed me to get a better idea of the material and it showed me exactly what I was working with. The outline from class is necessary because not only does it have many questions I can consider discussing in my essay, it has many different view points based on my peers from class. These questions and view points will allow me to look at my subject from a different perspective or give me further insight to what I am trying to argue. Last, the observation and inferences chart allowed me to dive deeper into my material and really think about what the commercial means and why is important.
This is the link for my prewriting strategies
I commented on Cait Krutilla's blog and Davis Lee's bloghttp://davislee97.blogspot.com/2015/10/pre-writing-activities-for-like-girl.html?showComment=1444787107292#c337138001012061600

Sex Trafficking Outline and Reflection

About the essay:

A very strong paragraph in this essay was the fifth paragraph. In this paragraph the writer discusses camera angles in depth and specific metaphors. She references the metaphor of a tunnel and explains that a tunnel can feel like a “dead end.” She further proves her point by writing, “This perspective tool in imaging functions as a visual representation to show that hope in finding a way out of the business-a light out a tunnel-is diminishing.” This allows the reader to relate to the feeling of lost hope. Then, she explains how the circular camera angles and fading scenes to black ties in with the tunnel metaphor and influences the viewers to want to help the victims. In this paragraph, the writer made some interesting points and described how filmmakers use their instruments to make an emotional connection and appeal to their audience.

A weak paragraph was the second paragraph because some of the sentences didn’t make sense or were confusing and difficult to understand. Although the writer made good points, some of the sentences were not well written. For example, she wrote,“Thus, reenactment shocks viewers because fashion shows are no longer representations of an accepted common practice, but instead a means of dominant control and a way to exploit someone’s body in a negative manner.” This sentence is very long it is unclear what the author is trying to say. There were a few of these sentences in this paragraph which made it confusing and hard to follow.

The thesis statement was “Through the use of reenactments and cinematography, Nolot effectively illustrates the dire need for the cessation of human sex-trafficking and appeals to his viewer’s emotions.” The topic sentences of each paragraph related directly to the thesis. In the second paragraph, the topic sentence describes how Nolot appeals to his viewers emotions, specifically by showing that victims are treated as capital objects. The third paragraph topic sentence discusses another angle of emotional appeal by a psychologist known as Melissa Farley. The fourth paragraph topic sentence discusses the use of a video text. Last, the fifth topic sentence discusses specific camera angles and how that allows the author to get his point across. Every topic sentence relates directly to the thesis statement.

Link to the outline of the essay

Observations and Inferences

If I were to write about HONY for my rhetorical analysis I would focus on the contrast of the different cultures represented in many of the pictures. A large part of these photos discuss and represent ethnicities and gender struggles people go through everyday. Those photographed all live in the same central area and lead similar lives with similar stories. I would also focus on the beauty represented by each person photographed. Brandon Stanton acknowledges that struggle and pain can be beautiful and I think that is an important value everyone needs to have and understand.

Observations: S: Brandon Stanton-photographer ethos: portraits young in age motivations extremely passionate,borderline “obsessed” with projects,non traditional career path,goes where things strike him, he takes major risks-he is all in ex.) betting $3,000 in student loans on Obama winning presidency O: tumblr, blog, facebook, book A:those who are on social media or are connected through any type of media today P: to tell people’s personal stories S: people, their life, people of New York T: deep, personal, emotional,

Inferences S: -exterior/interior -anonymity -respeaking the individual's preference  -capture the beauty in the world that is seen in everyday life but not always acknowledged O: -wants lots of people to see it -wants to share people’s stories, he has a message he wants to show A: -those who read want to receive a greater understanding of those around them -each person photographed holds somewhat of a mystery -can be a distraction from people’s own lives P:   -everyone has their own personal story and experiences that others can learn from S: -people are not just what they seem -their stories are far more complex than what others assume them to be despite discrimination based on race, looks, gender, etc.) T: Everyone’s stories are different and have an experienced to be learned from Other inferences: -He want to influence his followers in a positive way and unite and unify everyone. -He wants to show everyone that there is something beautiful about their story and their life -He chooses people he sees on the streets where he thinks he kind find a profound story -The experiences help those appreciate what they having going well in theirs lives. It also allows people to sympathize with one another

SOAPSTone Humans of New York

Humans of New York is popular photo blog by Brandon Stanton that began in 2010 and soon erupted in mass media. Brandon Stanton began his blog by planning to photograph 10,000 New Yorkers and plot their photos on a map. Over some time, Stanton began collecting quotes and short stories from the people he met and placed them beside the photographs he posted. Eventually his blog received over 14.6 million followers on Facebook and 3.7 million followers in Instagram. Stanton’s blog has completely overtaken all aspects of social media. The speaker of the photo blog is Brandon Stanton himself because he is the one taking the photographs and interviews and publishing them. The occasion are objects, events, or people that people see in everyday life but don’t take time to notice the significant beauty of the moments. In a video on Tumblr, Stanton stated, “I try and photograph things that make me happy and I guess my still pictures makes others happy as well.” The audience for his blog are people in the United States who are connected to any social media. Those who watch television, use the internet, or even have an iPhone can easily hear about this blog.The purpose of the photo blog is to focus on beauty in the world that is easily overlooked. It is also to share people’s personal stories and celebrate each and every individual. The subject of the blog is the people’s personal stories. Last, the tone of the blog is deep, personal, amazing, and  directs people to appreciate each other more.