Self Evaluation

Honestly, during the first week of this class I was somewhat nervous because I did not know what to expect from a freshman English composition class. I realized that this was not like my senior year AP English class where I was just required to read books and write essays about them. I wasn’t sure if I would analyze certain aspects well, like narratives about myself/experiences, society/gender norms, media/propaganda, and ethnography. I was just never required to think about such topics so I worried that they might be difficult. Fortunately, as time progressed I can frankly say that I became more and more interested in these topics. I learned to think about my everyday life experiences and reminiscent upon my childhood memories that hold more truths and meanings than I have ever known. I learned to understand my surroundings through my everyday observations that I previously did not pay attention to. These assignments proved to be quite useful for me; not only did I gain an array of knowledge in all these topics but I also became better acquainted with their writing techniques. At first it took me quite some time to think and come up with ideas for the required essay/blog topics because I was not used to this style of writing where I must write about myself/experiences with family, society or media. But gradually, I was able to get at these topics with ease because I was able to think more independently, critically, and analytically in order to understand everything around me. I was able to put down my everyday observations that have been all around me since childhood, down on paper. This opened my eyes to many details in my life associated with how and why a certain gender acts a certain way and the norms that are engraved in us since birth. This was the kind of writing that I really enjoyed best because it somewhat reminded me of psychology and it was something in my daily life that I liked to understand. As a result, I feel that I have grown intellectually in that I can think more critically and independently. I spent sufficient time on the assignments in this course and I did them whole-heartedly with care so that not only could my writing be well but so that I could benefit from it. Therefore, I believe that I actually put efficient effort in this class in my writing and blogs because I wrote everything according to what was being asked. I believe that the many writing assignments that we had gradually improved my writing skills and I completed every assignment on time. I think that I deserve to be in the A range because of the effort I put in this class. I don’t mean to be asking for too much but just something reasonable with my hard work and dedication to this course which I can truthfully say that I enjoyed and I thank Professor Hannah for this memorable experience in Freshman Composition.

FreeWrite 11/18- Social Networking Addicts

I find it surprising how people have the constant urge to check face book or messages all day to the extent taht they would interrupt doing something just for that. Why would people have to share every moment of their life with everyone else? And who really cares to that great extent that he or she would actually want to check updates about the other person or people as much as possible. I mean no one truly cares about the person him or herself. The people just care about the news or information that they receive as form of entertainment or maybe some people simply have nothing better to do in life and need to have a goal to achieve. Sometimes or actually usually privacy is a good thing. This shows how these recent generations only think about such distractions that are just a waste of time for them; instead of working or doing more important things in life such as being productive. I don not think that it is that necessary to check face book or messages during dinner or family gatherings because it is not more important. To me, spending any amount of time with family is much more significant. This is a problem for this generation because all they think about are these sources of media which usually don not make them prepared for greater aspects of their lives, such as face to face interviews.

Free Write 11/15-List all forms of media that you engage with/depend on? What do you think a week without these things would be like?

The media that I engage in is mostly the internet, such as going online to St. John's central, check my email, sometimes going on face book. Other media sources that I occasionally use are watching television once in awhile as well as listening to music if I have time. But for me a week without these sources of media actually would not be too bad because I do not consider myself to be addicted to them in any way so I think I could survive without them for a week.It would be fine for me because I ma not really used to using them often and I do not have constant urges to do so. I think the hardest part would probably not being able to go on in internet to check St. John's central because that usually has college information or emails that I may need to know about or to do my work or research. However, this assignment would actually be useful in a way because it could teach me along with those that are more attached or dependent upon media to be more patient and practice control. This could help us try to find new sources where we could find information or do our work on our own. We should be able to live on in life without these media sources because the people in the past were able to do so when they did not have such an advancement in technology. This assignment will help us adjust ourselves to living without these sources of media that usually take up most of our time and distract most of us from our work.

Research and Writing: create the title and summary of the "perfect" secondary resource for your paper

The title for my secondary resource for my research paper is "Selling Techniques in Television Commercials That Affect Society's View of Gender". The article would be about the methods that television commercials use to influence society's views on gender and form stereotypes about males and females and their gender roles. The article would discuss how these commercials influence and persuade society to purchase certain products to become better people (mostly physically or appearance wise). The article would also have statistics about certain commercials that sell certain products and how they appeal to people and how much of the product is sold and interviews of people of what they thought of the product or why they bought it. The article would also claim that today's television commercials influence society's view of gender through the products that they sell. Our research strategy is obtaining information from articles and books with statistics about how advertisers use sexual images and innuendos to sell their products and to show how it affects our views on gender. We will analyze each commercial by asking what is the commercial portraying, what is the message, who does the commercial appeal to, what is it selling, what techniques does it use to get its point across, what are the sexual components, how does it make the viewer feel, and what stereotypes are reinforced in the commercial? We will watch a series of commercials and analyze them to express our viewpoints. As well as doing this, we will count how many include some sort of gender stereotype.

Analysis

Casey- medium height girl with short, shiny, straight orange hair. She is wearing a button down beige dress with white flip flops. She has green eyes with broad black glasses. She has freckles all over her face and arms. Her freckles somewhat compliment her eyes and hair. It provides a seemingly tanned skin tone. I noticed that she has a darker freckle above, in the middle of her top lip, surrounded by lighter freckles all around her face. She has dark black mascara on which makes her orange eye lashes seem black. Her overall appearance makes her seem like a sweet, quiet, nice and friendly person with a light sense of humor.
Ruhama- She has long, black, thick, wavy hair put up in a ponytail, but not too high or too low. Her glasses are black on bronze. She has small flower earrings on and on her top left ear she has a second piercing with a small, gold hoop earring on. She is wearing a watch on her right wrist. She is dresses in a red t-shirt, jeans, and white sneakers. Her gold earring stands out because her hair is put up in a ponytail and her other earrings are silver. She is the shy and quiet type, yet is quite friendly, kind, and seems like a responsible person.

10/07 Free Write

Propaganda is a major aspect of mass media because it is through it that mass media delivers its messages. The media delivers information in many ways, whether positive or negative revealing the good or the bad in the people. There is no privacy in the media because it is something that everyone around the world views or listens to; especially since there is a variety of sources of media today. The internet, radio, newspaper, television, magazines, and many new forms of technology are all sources of media that influence people's thoughts and decisions.Information may be revealed either to harm to help others depending on the situation. For example, the media can reveal places of crime or criminals, which can be harmful to the criminals but helpful to other people because they will be aware of the situation. Propaganda can also reveal scandals therefore harming the prestige of certain individuals. Sometimes information spread by propaganda can be aimed at certain people or groups in order to influence them or influence the public to from various decisions. Propaganda can exaggerate information to make the public and society as a whole be for or against something or someone.

Death of Reutgers Freshman response to article

This current event is tragic due to teh opposition that gay people are receiving from society. The media plays an important part in this because it delivers these messages to the rest of the world and then lets the people view such "abnormal" events. People may display opposition to this because it is not a norm that has been passed down from generation to generation. Therefore, when media releases these kinds of situations that are considered as taboos against society norms much opposition and hatred occur. It was inhumane for the boy to be taped with another guy and it was the media that literally embarrassed him to death. Therefore, even though the media may be useful by providing news/information, it is definitely harmful because it hurts those whom the news is about. Because of media sources such as the internet the freshman could not handle the hatred, embarrassment, and opposition that he was receiving from many other people. And what his friend did was considered as a violation of one's privacy. This shows how friends can never be trusted and the neither can the internet. Our society today views gays as a taboo or something that is not normal because we have certain gender norms that have been engraved in us since birth and have been apparent since the past. Males have certain roles and characteristics as well as females. Males are tough, built, and dominant, while females are elegant, emotional,and nurturers. We have been raised that the future of a woman is to get married to a man; not that a two men or two women end up in this kind of relationship. Because this norm has been around for so long, there is usually an uproar when something the complete opposite of this happens. It is sad to see the hatred and opposition that gay people are facing, especially when it leads to death like how it did with this Reutgers freshman.