(CM 1145) Overall Opinion

     For my final blog post I decided to do my overall opinion of the course. I definitely recommend that anybody take this course.

     Now I’m not going to lie, it has a very fast pace and there is a lot of work to it. We were given two assignments to finish per month, so in total there were seven assignments, one research paper, and this blog. It took a lot of time, patience, and dedication but it was worth it. This course tested my writing skills and took them to another level. I’ve never heard of a rhetorical analysis or causal argument before taking this course. I had no idea how to write either of them but that’s the point of writing courses. They allow you to broaden your capability and they test you. I learned to trust in my writing and to try new things, even if it’s scary. I wouldn’t have been able to do that without this course.

     I also learned the definition of team work. I did an assignment with my classmates and I had to put complete trust into them. I didn't like the assignment aspect of it, but I did find the "team effort" very effective. I used to be petrified of group projects because there would always be one person who didn’t pull their weight, but this course changed that. It might be really cheesy to say, but I learned a lot of things that I can take with me throughout my life. I learned how to communicate with people and I learned proper grammar. I was terrible at both grammar and punctuation but I truly believe I improved. I even improved with the MLA format, if that’s even possible. I wrote a lot of essay’s this semester that had to follow the MLA format and eventually I got the hang of it. My first two attempts were pretty awful, but my third attempt showed improvement. 

     My favorite part of CM 1145 was when we were to write an emotional appeal. This allowed me to bring an important issue to the light and convince my audience that there was another way to look at the situation. I learned that there was different ways to write emotional appeals and I found that writing a story is the best way to pervoke feeling. Overall, this assignment was my favorite.

     I definitely believe I improved as a writer because of this course. If I was given a second chance and I was to choose between CM 1135 and CM 1145, I would choose CM 1145. 

(CM 1145) To Lie or Not to Lie? - The Doctor's Dilemma

 “Should doctors ever lie to benefit their patients-to speed recovery or to conceal the approach of death?”

     Take this situation; a forty-five year old man went to the doctor for a routine check-up before going on vacation with his family, and the doctor found cancer in his brain that would kill him within the next six months. Should the doctor wait until the man gets back from his vacation so he can enjoy it, or should the doctor tell him right away and ruin his vacation? In my opinion, it doesn’t matter what the situation or circumstances are; it is not right to lie. If the patient finds out later rather than sooner, they will feel betrayed and mislead and they will probably disown their doctor. There are a lot of benefits for telling the truth, for example it helps patients cope with their illness and helps them tolerate pain better. If doctors lie, a patient who is extremely ill will be unable to make decisions about the end of their life. This could include whether or not to be admitted into a hospital, have surgery, or who to spend the remainder of their life with. Doctors need to realize that time is everything. 

Should adopted children be told about their biological parents? 

     I definitely think they should! When the child reaches a certain age it is the parents’ responsibility to tell the child where they came from. They deserve to know who their real parents are and why they didn’t want them. If the adoptive parents fail to do this and the child eventually figures it out, they will feel very hurt and betrayed. I understand the parents view; they don’t want to hurt the child or worry them but at the same time, all lies come out eventually. The truth hurts but so do lies.

     I was in a relationship for two and a half years and I thought I was in love; what we had was not love. After a year of dating, he began to change. He started to lie constantly and make up excuses for everything. There was one night during the summer when I wanted to hang out with him because we both worked during the week, and night time or weekends were the only time we could see each other. I asked him to hang out and he said no because he was sick and that he just wanted to relax and play x box. I understood completely so I told him that was alright and we could just hang out another night. So the next day I was at the mall and I ran into some of his friends and they told me they saw him at a party at someone’s cabin and he was drinking. I was really hurt by this because he lied to me and this wasn’t the first time he did it. I kept giving him chances but he just kept wasting them.This may sound like a stupid reason to get upset but if you don't have trust in a relationship, than you don't have a relationship. Eventually we broke up and honestly, I’ve never been happier. The truth always comes out in the end so you might as well get it out in the beginning. I was heart broken when the truth came out but I was hurt worse because of the lies. If it wasn’t for the truth, I would still be in a pathetic relationship that had no trust.

"Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters." -Albert Einstein

if only everyone's nose grew when they lied...

(CM 1145) Causal Argument

     My class was given another assignment, but this time we are to write a causal argument of our choice. Now, I have never heard of this and I’m still confused by it. All I know is that they start with a question, such as: Why do some people cry when they laugh? Do magazines impact teenage girls? Does the media glamorize teen pregnancy? After you find a question, you must formulate a claim and somehow link it together by saying A is caused by B because of C. So for example, if I was writing my argument on "Do magazines impact teenage girls?" I would say anorexia and self image is caused by fashion magazines because of the media. Anything along the lines of that would work. The area that I have trouble doing is the work cited page. It has to follow a certain format and for some reason, I never get it right and it’s extremely frustrating. I also don’t know what to include in the body of my argument and how to make it flow coherently. I have my topic but I’m still really confused on what to do. I haven’t even started writing it yet and it’s due on Monday. I can tell you one thing, this definitely isn’t one of my favorite assignments.

(CM 1145) Transitions and Coherence

These are two things that have been drilled into my head since the beginning of high school.  Every English midterm and final exam I have written has had at least one question on coherence, and one essay that had to include transitional terms. After I wrote my grade twelve final, I thought that was the last time I would ever have to answer questions on coherence; I was wrong. When I got to college, it appeared again. It was here when realized how important coherence was, and it’s a shame I didn't realize it sooner because maybe if I had I would have received better marks throughout high school. I used to think coherence was just a pointless question that took up space on exams; I didn't think it had a purpose. I realize now that it is not just a question but it shows up in every form of writing. It shows consistency and it logically places and connects words. It is not something that you can omit from your writing because it links everything together and makes the words flow in unison. In a similar fashion, transitional terms also do this, but in my opinion, they are more difficult to use than coherence and I tend to lose marks in this area. It wasn't until I got to college when I started to understand how important the two of them were. This seems to be a familiar trend; I didn't realize how important certain aspects of writing were until I took the two English courses CM 1120 and CM 1145.

 I wonder which aspect of writing will change my perspective next. 

(CM 1145) Rubric

     This may seem like a stupid and pointless topic, but in my opinion it is extremely important. The CM 1145 Rubric is more than a piece of paper with a grade on it; it is a teacher. It displays your strengths and weaknesses and shows you the areas you need to work on, just like a teacher would. It contains a list of criteria that must be met in your assignment, this includes: form, sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, thesis statement, transitions, etc. To the right of this list there are five categories that express how well you displayed each criterion. On a scale of one to five, one would be poor, two would be fair, three would be satisfactory, four would be strong, and five would be excellent. This allows you to see which areas you excelled in and which ones you lacked in. For example, on one of my assignments I received a five for my style and tone, but I also received a three for my punctuation. This told me that punctuation was an area that I needed to spend more time on. If it wasn’t for the rubric, I wouldn’t have known that.

     Your overall mark is also listed on this sheet, as well as the teachers overall opinion of the assignment and suggestions on how to improve. This is incredibly useful because during your next assignment you can focus more on those areas and hopefully receive a better mark. In high school when I would write essays, the teacher would just make comments throughout the paper and on the final page they would write our grade. Personally, I don’t think this teaches students anything. They need to be able to see where they went wrong so they can fix their mistakes. This is part of the writing process, “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again”. Without the rubric, students wouldn’t know which areas to try again, therefore they would not succeed. 

This is not true at all! Here is a list of benefits from using a rubric:

• assists teachers in being fair, accurate, and consistent in their marking
• helps teachers define excellence and plan instruction so students can achieve it
• aligns curriculum objectives and evaluation  
• it creates consistent expectations for students among teachers in a school
• clarifies the teachers expectations
• supplies the student with feedback on how to improve

The only disadvantage that I can think of is that the creation of a rubric takes time. But I ask this question, should time be the reason a student doesn't succeed? 

(CM 1145) Rhetorical Analysis

     Have you ever been given an assignment that you've had mixed feelings about? My class was given an assignment last week where we have to perform a Rhetorical Analysis on an editorial. We were given a list of questions which make up the body of our analysis, and we also have to include a bibliography. I decided to do mine on “The War Against America; The National Defense”. This is an article that was written on September 12, 2001 by The New York Times. It just talks about how the nation needs to increase its security and defense systems so there won’t be another event like 9/11. The article is very interesting but I don’t know how I feel about this assignment; I’m torn. I like trying new things because it allows me to grow as a writer but at the same time, it frightens me. This is the first time I’ve heard of a Rhetorical Analysis, so the thought of actually having to write one scares me. What if I don’t format it right? What if my answers aren’t correct? What if it’s not long enough? All of these questions are going through my head and it’s affecting the way I write it. I need to stop worrying and just write it. If I get a bad mark than I’ll know that is an area I need to work on.

"Do one thing everyday that scares you"

-Eleanor Roosevelt 

(CM 1145) The Importance of Writing a Blog

Last semester in CM 1120 I had to write ten blog posts. They had to be about the poems and short stories we studied in class. I personally didn’t like this assignment and I procrastinated while doing it. I had four months to do ten blogs, and I left it to the last minute and ended up doing them all in one night. My mark could have been better and I know I am capable of more. My problem was I didn’t understand the importance of writing a blog.

Blogs may seem like pointless assignments and a waste of time, but they are much more than that. They allow you to discuss your personal opinion and feelings towards something. Although the English blogs have to be completely “English based”, they still allow you to express yourself. It is your own personal journal and other people can read your words and give you feedback. After writing the blog you have to edit, format, and make it look nice by adding pictures, quotes or whatever else you desire. I gained a new appreciation for blogs because they helped me grow as a writer.

As of right now, I have eight blogs done in CM 1145 and I think that is a great achievement, especially if you compare it to last semester.

(CM 1145) Book Review

      My reaction when I was told to write a book review for class was sheer horror. I had never written one before, well I mean I did write book reports in elementary school but that was ten years ago. While I was writing my book review, my feelings began to change. I forgot about the assignment aspect and I focused my attention on the book itself. After doing this book review, I gained tremendous respect towards Elie Wiesel and his memoir “Night”. It takes place during the 1944 War, best known as the Holocaust. Elie writes of his life during this time and all the tragedies he had encountered. He went through several liquidations and selections, he watched as babies were thrown into flaming pits alive, and he had to watch as everyone around him perished. He was torn from his mother and three sisters and he never saw them again. It was just Elie and his father. Their relationship is stupendous in my eyes. Elie gave his father his ration of bread several times, and this is amazing because that was rarely seen in the concentration camps. Bread was the way of life; it was the only way of life. Also, while fathers and sons turned against each other and abandoned one another, Elie stuck with his father till the end. Even though his father was growing ill every day, he stayed by his side. If that doesn’t show Elie’s unconditional love for his father, then I don’t know what will.

     Elie Wiesel is a magnificent man; he survived the War of 1944, that itself displays strength and courage. He didn't go against his morals once, he stayed true to himself and he didn't lose faith. I believe Elie survived so that he could tell the world about the cruelty that took place in the concentration camps, that way it would never happen again. Whatever the reason is for Elie’s survival, it is not relevant. The important thing is that out of the six million Jews that died, Elie survived. I wish that I could be half the person that Elie Wiesel is; he is now and forever, one of my heroes.

“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.”  

-Elie Wiesel

(CM 1145) The Einstein of Happiness

I read an interview today called “The Einstein of Happiness” and it really stuck with me. A woman named Patricia Freeman interviewed Allen Parducci, a fifty-seven year old professor of psychology who is also a happiness scholar. He wanted to test the theory that “every man is a suffering machine and a happiness machine combined, and for every happiness turned out in one department, the other stands ready to modify it with a sorrow or pain.” Now the interview itself isn’t what fascinated me, what caught my attention was the research he gathered.

He said that if people want to be happy than they have to stop thinking in the future. They can’t keep thinking that they would be happier if they had a bigger income, or if they married a certain person. Instead, they should learn to delight in what they have and look forward to things that happen every day. I agree with this completely. People today are so consumed with having top-of-the-line stuff that they are missing out on the important things in life. People need to be grateful for what they have because there are individual’s in this world that have nothing at all. Parducci said “if I made a million dollars, would I be happier?” He said he had friends who have made that kind of money but it did not make them happy.  People think that having expensive things will make them happy, but money doesn’t buy you happiness.

Parducci met a women who was dying of cancer and he said that she was the happiest person he had ever met. The six months before she died was like a party every night and when Parducci asked her how she felt about death, she replied “I know I could die any time, but I’m very happy.”  I find this woman amazing. She knows her days are numbered and she still has a smile on her face.I find it crazy how she is dying and yet she is happier than several other people in the world.

Parducci thinks that people make themselves out to be happier than they really are, because there’s an implication that there’s something wrong with you if you can’t arrange your life to be satisfying. I found myself in this exact position last year. I had been dating this guy for two and a half years but I wasn’t happy, and everybody knew I wasn't happy because I looked depressed every time they saw me. People would ask me “why don’t you smile?” and “why are you always sad?” After a while all the questions and comments got to me, and I started feeling more unhappy. Eventually I had to make myself believe I was happy with this guy when I really wasn’t. I made myself out to be happier than I really was, because I was afraid there was something wrong with me since my relationship wasn't satisfying.

TIPS

• Happiness can’t be bought or learned, it has to come from within. 
• Don’t live in the future, live for today and cherish what you have. 

(CM 1145) Emotional Appeals

I love writing emotional appeals! This is my favourite part of CM 1145 so far. You can write about anything you want as long as it provokes emotion.  Perhaps the reason I enjoy this is because, for once in my life I can make my reader feel something other than boredom. I had an assignment to do a few weeks ago where I could either write a logical, ethical, or emotional appeal. I chose to write an emotional appeal in the form of a story. My topic was something that is seen as morally wrong, but I wanted to convince my audience otherwise. The topic I am speaking of is abortion.

I started off my story by asking the question “Is it morally wrong to have an abortion?” Most people say yes because a human fetus is a human being with a right to live, making abortion morally the same as murder. I told a story in the eyes of a fourteen year old girl who was sexually abused by her step father since she was seven years old. Her biological father had died in a car accident when she was five years old, and after a year of being a widow, her mother decided to start dating again. That is when she met Joseph Lee Walker; they married a year later. Joseph was drinking a lot one day because he had just lost his job at a law firm where, ironically, he prosecuted rapists and child molesters while he himself was molesting his own child. He took his frustrations out on his step daughter, and six weeks later she found out she was pregnant with his child. Her mother thought she was promiscuous and had no idea the father was her own husband. Her friends abandoned her because they didn’t want to associate with “sluts”. She had to walk through the halls at school while every person she passed stared with disgust. She didn’t know what to do, she did not want to keep the child but she wass afraid of what people would think. I ended with, “What if your child was sexually abused by a family member and got pregnant. So, I ask again, is it morally wrong to have an abortion?”

I personally am so tired of people saying it’s morally wrong to have an abortion. I am pro choice and I wish society was too. It is nobody else’s business whether a person decides to have an abortion or not. People think abortions are the “easy way out” and that people who get them done are poor, lazy drug addicts. This may be the case for some people but it is wrong to characterize everybody with this label. Some people are financially enabled while others were forced into the situation. What about people who were in abusive relationships and want out? What about innocent women who were raped on the street and left with a baby? Think about your mother, or sister or even your own child. If they were raped and got pregnant, would you stick them with this label too?

What do you think? I would love to hear your opinion about this topic.

Is it morally wrong to have an abortion?