Challenges and Chaos Within an Educational Experience
The second half of the semester in English 1103 has “tricky” for me, to say the least. It has included both great success and also chaotic, confusing failure. I have learned a great amount of persistence and patience from this second half of the semester, and I have also learned more about the environment I live and work in and also within the English 1103 classroom. Apart from my increased ability in the descriptive writing field however, I have struggled to recognize any real improvement of ability and knowledge in my writing portfolio since the end of the first half of the semester.
“Descriptive writing is important to thinking like a writer. It helps you train yourself to be more observant and thus less likely to leap to conclusions or judgements where writers can easily be stranded” (120 Rosenwasser and Stephen). I greatly improved my ability to write descriptively during my time in this class and it has helped me immensely with adding words to papers and just getting ideas out of my head and onto paper better. A major factor I think in helping me was more freedom in my topics this half of the semester for me to choose from when writing mu papers because I do not like to follow a certain script and just do something the same as everyone else, I enjoy free writing on topics I am passionate about because then I have that extra motivation to do my very best.
But this half of the semester was not just all about success in my learning, it had a lot of confusedness and chaos. An assignment that left me a little confused afterwards, but I enjoyed the process of completing was my research project. This project allowed for me to choose my own topic and do my own research on that topic and really choose my own path of intent with my writing. I settled with the topic focusing on “big tech” monopolies and their impact on the American people and why they are not good for the people’s lives and for our economy. I enjoyed writing about it and feel I did a very good job, however, there was not much clear instruction on what I was to do and what I was to accomplish from it. There was not much clarity on what I needed and what the essay is supposed to have and whatnot. There was also a point where I was writing a reflection on a reflection of my own work, and I could not really give back much in my reflections because I truly had no idea if my writing was going in the right direction or not and if I was even close to doing my paper right. Then when I thought the paper was due, we were given another essay assignment due on the same day just a few days before the due date when I still was not yet completely finished with my first assignment. This caused me so much stress that felt unnecessary and also frustrated me a little bit as the entire course I struggled to keep up with dates and when things were due and all things in that category and it felt very unpredictable and unorganized the entire semester. But the patience and persistence that I had developed over the course of the semester kept me calm and I was able to complete both assignments on time.
In the end I felt I did the best I could in this course with the way it played out and was operated at times it was very good and at other times it was one of the toughest things to wrap my mind around and work through, but I did grab some good things from it all. I improved my ability to write descriptively and gained a great amount of patience and persistence through all the chaos and confusion I dealt with throughout and felt I had a pretty decent experience in English 1103.
Works Cited
Rossenwasser, David and Jill Stephen. “Observation exercises: The Value of Close Description” Writing Analytically, 8th edition. Wadsworth/Cengage, 2019. pp. 120-21.
Self-Significance
Finding significance and new habits is something that was not difficult for me in English 1103, in fact there are a few different things that I have loved doing and have helped me become both a better writer, and a better student. Keeping a journal and actively engaging with it is not something I was comfortable with or ever really did until this semester when it was required, and I actually found it quite helpful whenever I needed to stop and reevaluate, or I had forgotten something I needed to remember for an assignment. At first, I did the bare minimum with the journal, just completing the scrabble day reviews and the early assignments to tell our classmates about ourselves. But, after our first blog post which was about who we were and what was special about ourselves, I found the journal very helpful, and I began to use it regularly. It also helped me with my creativity for my writing, “One goal of your writer’s notebook is to teach yourself through repeated practice that you are capable of finding things to write about, rather than always having to rely on topics assigned to you by someone else” (Rossenwasser & Stephen, 126). That quote perfectly sums up my experience with a journal regarding my personal writing creativity and by the time the “Blogs vs Term Papers” assignment came, I was very prepared for it and found it easier than most assignments similar to it that I had done in the past. My journal has had a very significant effect on me this semester, but it is not the only thing that has had a significant impact on me in the class so far.
In English 1103 we do most of our writing by hand, which I very much prefer because my whole life I always wrote by hand, and I also find writing by hand is much more engaging than sitting and typing. Writing by hand is more fun to me, and I actually enjoy it most of the time vs I will usually dread having to sit down and type a paper. This is very much my favorite part of the class because I love to handwrite, it keeps me engaged, and I feel it helps make me a better writer and student.
The final thing that helps me surprisingly is Scrabble. In English 1103 we have a “Friday Word-Play Day” where we play scrabble and for me personally, I took it as a challenge. I am a very competitive person, so I made Scrabble into a competition with some of my friends in the class, keeping highest scoring records, most points on words records, and winning records. Scrabble keeps me engaged with the class and makes me drive to do well during it. Personally, I lead my friends with the most points in one game and an undefeated record at 6 and 0, even with me missing a few days I have more wins than my fellow classmates I keep scores with. But Scrabble also helps keep my mind in touch with the nature of the class, teaches me new words, and helps me better understand the English language.
There is plenty of significance to be found within English 1103 and many great learning tools, strategies, and opportunities that I have been given so far in the first half of the semester. I’ve learned a lot and found new habits that have become almost natural at this point and have only helped me more. Some of which were required, but some of which were completely all up to me to take advantage of and succeed with.
Works Cited
Rosenwasser, David, and Jill Stephen. Writing Analytically.
Writing is something that does not come natural to many people. They choose to learn by their mistakes and by others along the way. Throughout the many years of me having to write, I have learned the tips and tricks of what I should do and what I should not do while writing. By learning these things, it has broadened the other tips that have helped me with my writing along the way as well. A main point that a numerous amount of people has said is to have someone proofread your writing before turning it in. You should never turn in a paper without someone else reading it because you skip over certain mistakes because it looks correct to you. Something that you should not do while writing is copy words from a source word for word because you are not retaining the information that you are reading. To be able to fully understand it, you need to read it and put it into your own words, so you are able to comprehend anything that you are writing about.
While writing for all my classes throughout the years, my teachers have been able to help me while writing by explaining to me that I should do to improve my writing skills and how to choose a source to use. I have learned that the best thing to do when beginning a paper is to brainstorm ideas, get sources, and make an outline. Making an outline before starting a paper has helped me in many ways, for example instead of getting stuck about what to write about next, the outline gives you an idea about what to talk about. Getting a number of sources before starting the assignment will help you be able to get some sort of information and knowledge about the specific topic that you are writing about. When finding sources to use, I have learned that I need to find credible sources and not just the first ones that pop up in a google search. Not every source that comes up in a google search can be credible because people can edit and change information. I have learned that I have to make sure the author is credible as well when using a source to look up information.
There are many different things that you should not do while writing a paper and I have learned a good number of them. Something that I have learned that I should never do while writing a paper is hand it in without peer review. Teachers have found a numerous number of errors on my papers that I have read over and not seen because to me it looks correct since it is the way I talk normally but it actually is either missing words or even letters. Having someone look over one of your papers is not the hardest thing in the world. I used to think it was not important to do but then I have come to realize how many points I have lost within assignments due to errors that could have been resolved if someone had looked over my paper.
A few things that I have learned about over the years with writing are proofreading, making outlines, brainstorming, and finding credible sources. Just by doing these simple tasks, it can greatly improve your writing along with the grade you might get on an assignment. Other people may skip completing these things but in the long run, they are going to help you become a better writer. I have learned that myself. These things have helped me get better grades on my assignments and throughout the years, they have helped me improve my writing and learn many other things that will help me on my assignments in the future. I used to not think any of those tips were going to be useful but then I have come to learn and realize that they benefit me when it comes to having an assignment for school that I need to be able to write a long and thought-out paper.
Big Tech Monopolies Are Ruining America and the American Dream
Monopolies have always been prevalent in America and have always had somewhat of a grip over the economy and even politics. Before social media and the internet monopolies could bribe or persuade big news companies to push an agenda that benefits the asking monopoly and depending on the company it chose to go to, sometimes the news company would go with it and sometimes they wouldn’t. Regardless, even if all the big companies assisted the monopolies, there would always be the small “mom n pop” news companies that would not fall into the traps and would give people the real perspective.
Now skip forward to modern day and the monopolies that used to run the country still have a heavy hand over the economy, but their public presence has faded a bit with newer “big technology” companies like Amazon and Facebook emerging. Now these companies continue to do what they did to get where they have gotten and how they got their success but also now with social media being so prevalent in the world and private control of censorship within these companies, they can not only “better” themselves 24/7 but they can also push an agenda that abides by the views of the people running these companies and completely shut out any other views the public may have that don’t agree with the companies. This comes into play with politics and elections and big tech making sure they get the candidates that they want. There is no concrete proof just yet, but Facebook is currently getting looked at for “censoring certain accounts and people to the audience that may benefit from seeing the things posted from these accounts during the past elections and for creating bias for the news stories that people can and cannot see regarding political figures”. Google is being looked at for choosing and picking out ads for people that can persuade them one way or another and it all creates a big mess for regular people and law enforcement all over the country and world.
Another issue that comes with big tech having such a large part in our economy is most of the companies that are considered big tech have completely wiped out any opportunity for more companies to emerge and grow in their field. Amazon, for example, began as a bookstore and now is the kingpin of online shopping, and has basically eliminated bookstores from existence in first world countries. It also has a heavy hold in the TV and movie streaming industry now and is becoming a major body in music streaming and many more fields. Using it’s one edge it had over competition and now with social media and politics, slowly over time Amazon is looking at becoming the kingpin in not only the industries previously stated but even more and potentially a majority of the worlds businesses could be run by amazon. Eventually this will lead to big tech companies like Amazon and Facebook having essentially complete control both the minds and the lives of a vast majority of citizens with access to their products. Then for those without access there would very quickly be a way for them to gain access with no problems or trouble.
The chokehold these companies have on the world economy, politicians, and civilians is very dangerous and it’s either leading, or has already led, to a world where presidents and kings no longer run the countries and world but the CEO’s of companies running their respective industries within the “big tech” community do and with the censorship and abilities available to them the world will truly never know when the switch off will or has occurred.
An issue with these companies having a grasp on the economy is if something were to happen and a company was unable to function for a few days there would be chaos. Whenever Facebook or Instagram has an outage people’s lives are put on pause and some find that they cannot even function when there is no access to these platforms. This comes to show the importance of these big tech monopolies in peoples lives and the negativity brought from them. Not much positivity comes from them having the chokehold on American’s daily lives and in fact has made things more complicated and difficult in regard to dealing with politics, financial reasons, business ethics, and more and have shown exactly why big tech monopolies are not good for the present world and the future ahead of us.
Works Cited
Reck, Johannes. “The Regulation of Tech Monopolies Will Decide the Fate of Western Democracies.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 8 Feb. 2021, https://www.businessinsider.com/regulation-of-big-tech-decide-fate-of-western-democracies-2021-2#:~:text=1%20Large%20tech%20monopolies%20such%20as%20Google%2C%20Apple%2C,it%20will%20destabilize%20liberal%20democracy.%20More%20items…%20.
Scholarly Resources for Learning and Research | Gale. https://www.gale.com/.
Weiss, Jamie, et al. “Today’s Facebook & Instagram Outage Improved Millions of Peoples’ Lives.” DMARGE, 5 Oct. 2021, https://www.dmarge.com/2021/10/facebook-instagram-outage-health-effects.html.
Connor Yager 