Peer Edit's

My comments for Mckinnon, Taylor, and Matt are mostly critical of the particular writer’s style, point of view, or tone of voice.  It is hard to push my opinion onto a peers paper because I try to avoid being overly critical of other people.  This might be a hindrance to my commenting but might also deem necessary in order to avoid being too harsh.  The understanding that the writer’s paper is their own is something I try my best to deal with.  I can’t exert my opinion so much as to change the key points but to offer suggestions that will best benefit the work at hand.   Unfortunately, so much of peer reviewing has to do with “telling it the way it is,” rather than giving the easy way out.  I try to offer encouragement and compliments to the writer; however, on some of my peer reviews I have steered away from for a lack of understanding what the key points may be.  I believe I could add comments that assist the writer in further enhancing their writing potential.  I have been confused about how many comments are too many comments?  Is there a limit to the amount or should I just stop at the end when their seems to be nothing more to say? 

Before this class I was afraid of letting other people read my papers because I was scared the opinions of people reading my papers could only be negative.  My writing has benefited greatly from the peer review by allowing me to branch out and seek assistance for my papers.  I have started to approach writing with a more comfortable feeling that my works will not be overly judged by others.  I think that reading has allowed me to expand my writing styles, vocabulary, and way of approaching writing.        

The Virtual Life

Twitter started out as a system of communicating ideas to be viewed easily by your peers.  In this day in age websites such as this go viral in a matter of months.  With teenagers feeling that urging need to post everything that pops into their insignificant heads to internet; a website such as this was destined to flourish.   The initial sign-up is rather simple and the navigation of the pages is so easy an elementary student could figure this out, which isn’t much since every child that was born in the twenty-first century already has an amazing predisposition for using computers as soon as they come out of the womb.  To start following other “writers” or in this sense “posters” tweets, it just takes one search of their domain name to begin.  Some of the most famous tweeters are movie stars, political figures, athletes, and some are just internet sensations.  This website has the capability for anyone who owns a computer and has access to the internet to post their ideas.  Much like the internet phenomenon, Facebook, you develop a following or crowd that views your posts on a daily basis.  Could this not simply be just a blog? Fortunately not because the tweets only allow for a minimal number of characters.  Centuries ago the idea of sharing ideas through mass media seemed impossible, hell the idea that the earth was round seemed impossible up until a few hundred years ago.  Through websites such as twitter, with its easily navigable pages, quick search of friends, and having friends you’ve never met, we have become a technologically dependent country.  The thought of sending a letter to a friend just because you care is history.  This is just the beginning of the depletion of material ideas; we have advanced into the virtual realm of communication.

Putting your Best Foot Foward

When I was first told we would be blogging, I did not get all that excited.  I looked at it as yet another homework assignment that I would have to accomplish on time.  But blogging has become something of a hobby for me now.  I look forward to writing in something that no one has to critique or get mad about.  I can express how I feel about the world and all of its problems.  The blog has transformed into something like a journal.  Unfortunately this journal has a due date.  Some of my setbacks have been remembering when the blogs are due.  I remember at the last minute and realize that I do not have enough time to write the best possible blog that I can.  Though even with the time crunch I still love that I get to release some of the pent up stress I gain on a daily basis with my own journal.  Writing in this “journal” has helped me look at writing as less of a chore or requirement, and more as a way to edit myself and see where I may be lacking.  I see it as something that you are putting in your own words for the entire class to see and critique so why not at least take the extra time to edit your own work before hand.  I would be embarrassed with myself if I put something on the internet with twenty or so grammatical errors.  That being said, I feel that the blog has helped my writing socially and editorially.

Peer Review at a Glance

With the past few weeks being very stressful, I have tried my best to give my group members the best possible reviews.  I used what I learned in the article assigned for us to read to give comments that helped my peers achieve all of what they were capable of.  I personally think that the focus on peer reviews has helped me write my paper.  I now read over my paper multiple times before turning it in and I focus on finding places in my paper that make it more appealing to the reader.  In the past few weeks we have focused on writing a paper that was stimulating for the reader and catered to his/her reading styles.  With my paper I gave more visual descriptions, more examples from memory, and reasons for the reader to stay interested.  I liked peer review because I never really knew what to write on another person’s paper to help them in the later drafts.  It was always something meaningless that had no way of changing their writing styles to better suit the paper.  Now that I know how to comment, I not only help my peer’s paper, but mine as well.  With this ability I have become more interested in writing and may not wait so long to write my next paper; because due to procrastination I almost did not get a chance to turn this one in.  It is easier to begin writing the paper sooner rather than later so you have the opportunity to edit before you turn it in. 

I'm always on...

As soon as I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do is turn the alarm clock off, on my iPhone.  I make sure it has one hundred percent charge and I take it off the charger.  I check Facebook, text the important people, and make sure my Tap Zoo is still up and running.  My iPhone always leaves my apps open for me so that I can look at them whenever I like.  If I go out to a place I like, sometimes I post my location to Facebook.  The point is that I am almost always, "On the Grid."  You can reach me almost anytime of the day because my phone is never turned off.  Most people share the same opinion that if they do not have their cell phone in their pocket/purse, they are lost to the world.  They check it literally every two minutes to see if anything has changed in the world they know.  It's like a drug that has no clinically tested or proven side effects.  For American society this is a serious addiction with no cure and majority does not seem to want to do anything about it.  I personally do not know anyone that does not have at least one cell phone, no less a smartphone.  Smartphones, a dangerous tool in the hands of naive Americans, with no clue about what a technology addiction even is.  With over ten thousand deaths a year do to cell phone use, such as texting and driving, texting and walking, texting and etc.  My new years resolution was to use my cell phone less, and that is the only cure for a technology addiction. 

Something to live by...

"If you've never failed- you're not trying hard enough to succeed."  I like this quote because it shows character and gives everyone a reason to try harder.  Every day I wake to a new challenge and I hope that I can complete it.  It's very hard to just become an adult as soon and you graduate high school and that is what I was forced to do.  I try to be optimistic about a task and try to figure out where I benefit from it.  I believe that organization is the hardest thing for a college student to maintain; between all of the classes, due dates, papers, study time, readings, work, being social, and everything else that comes with the territory.  For myself I think the hardest thing is managing work and school together.  I spend more than fifteen hours a week on my computer.  It can't be good for my eyes, but if I want to succeed in the real world I have to dedicate my life to learning and excelling.  By doing your best in college, you have a better chance and being a well rounded and worth hiring employee.  You pay thousands of dollars to go to school and get a higher education.  I don't see a reason to waste a perfectly good opportunity like this one.  With all of the technology and equipment that goes into our school we should be doing our best to strive for the best education possible.  So why do so many feel the need to waste their time in college by slacking off and not studying?  Is it because their parents have paid for everything their whole life and now they are free from their watchful gaze?  Maybe so, and they might never get the same opportunities as those of us who worked our asses off to succeed.  But I plan to live by this quote as long as I am looking to my future and I hope you will do the same.

What do you mean I had an accent?!

Most of my family lives up North in Vermont and Indiana.  When I went up there to visit as a kid, I took my apparent accent with me.  My cousins had never heard the words "yall", "Ain't", or any sort of true southern accent.  They made fun of me for it for a long time, but when they came to visit us one summer, I noticed my cousin Elliot say "are yall ready to go yet."  I asked him why he was saying yall now and he told me that when I came to visit them, they had never heard someone speak as I had and they took on some of the words I brought with me to Indiana as part of their vocabulary.  I was born in very small town in North Carolina called Locust. Locust, a town so small that you could walk anywhere in the town in under thirty minutes, was very southern. I lived there until I was almost six and then moved closer to the city of Charlotte.  When I was sixteen, I sat down and watched some of our home videos of my family when I was very young.  I noticed that I had a very deep country accent.  My Mom called me her country bumpkin.  My voice had a southern twang that, when I was sixteen, I had already grown out of.  I realized that since I moved closer to a region that did not have as many people from the south, I lost my accent.  I felt disheartened about this because I felt that a part of my heritage had been lost when I lost my original accent.  Of course I am happy now that I don't have the accent because in my mind the accent mad me seem unintelligent.  But I wasn't the only one that lost their accent in the move.  My Mom, born and raised in the south, lost her accent as well.  However, sometimes when I hear her talk on the phone to other southern people, I can hear her accent come out like osmosis through the telephone.  I would consider myself to have had a very deep southern accent when I was young, but now I believe my voice is distinguished and I am happier with it.  Although, I bet if someone from another region of the country heard me speak, they might think otherwise.