Before attending this course, I would communicate through my writing but I did not know how to communicate effectively. I would write down my claims but I lacked providing my evidence explained thoroughly that gave a strong argument. As a high school student I was taught to set down my claims and give supporting details but I learned that there is more to it than to just that. It is also able to engage into the writing. I have to set a stand and give evidence that may get the readers to attract and make them believe what I am saying is valid. Also, through this course, I have learned from the recent essay how to write in MLA format. Being in this English class this semester it has helped me establish a clearer structure in my writing. The reading …show more content…
I had to find good sources about this topic and at some points I could not locate any good topics for my arguments. Then my instructor brought up the library website for Fresno State and it gave scholarly sources for my research paper which was what I most needed. So if you ever need to find scholarly sources that perhaps are already cited, you can look it up in the Fresno State library website. Even if they don’t have it online you can request it or go in to visit the library and they will help you find good sources. You also have to give yourself enough time to read those articles. In this case, I was looking at research studies on how Google affects the cognition. There were several long pages about this research done on many people and how it affected them. I had to read and locate important statements made by these researchers, get the facts that will help back up my claims. Also look at other news websites that may have talked about the issue topic you will be talking about because they can have important things or opinions to say about that research. In my case, the topic of Google affecting people’s cognition was spoken about in 9News website and they showed videos testing out the “Google Effect”, that researchers studied. The news opinion gave me a strong evidence to which how other newscasts view this issue. So be prepared to read and research plenty of articles and websites when doing a research paper to have a strong
The internet is our conduit for accessing a wide variety of information. In his article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” Nicholas Carr discusses how the use of the internet affects our thought process in being unable to focus on books or longer pieces of writing. The author feels that “someone, or something, has been tinkering with [his] brain” over the past few years (Carr 731). While he was easily able to delve into books and longer articles, Carr noticed a change in his research techniques after starting to use the internet. He found that his “concentration often [started] to drift after two or three pages” and it was a struggle to go back to the text (Carr 732). His assertion is that the neural circuits in his brain have changed as a result of surfing endlessly on the internet doing research. He supports this statement by explaining how his fellow writers have had similar experiences in being unable to maintain their concentrations. In analyzing Carr’s argument, I disagree that the internet is slowly degrading our capacity for deep reading and thinking, thereby making us dumber. The Web and Google, indeed, are making us smarter by allowing us access to information through a rapid exchange of ideas and promoting the creativity and individualization of learning.
AP Seminar was my first experience in an environment that was completely dedicated to learning, without the fixation on the letter grades that ‘determine’ success. My peers were my teachers. I discussed, debated, and collaborated with peers that shared various viewpoints on thought provoking issues that challenged my own. I learned to ask the ‘Whys?,’ ‘Hows?,’ and ‘What Ifs?’ and dive deeper into discussion. The environment fostered differences in interests, mindsets, and intellect. My attraction drew me to seek an intellectually diverse learning environment that challenges my preconceived opinions and ideas. Columbia, through the Core system, acknowledges and uniquely accomplishes the same goals of learning as my AP Seminar class. The prospect
In this course, I have acquired skills that have helped me improve my writing. For example, doing the rhetorical analysis and logical fallacies in class. The rhetorical analysis have helped my writing because I can identify the writing strategies and purpose of what the author is acknowledging his/her audience. The logical fallacies have helped me reason the valid or invalid in an argument. Additional, I can identify the logical fallacies in a writing. In class, we also discussed about the sentence core and the workshops. The sentence core exercise has made an impact in my writing, because my sentences were extremely long therefore, I am still working on minimizing my sentences and making them short and clear. The workshops are helpful to me
Throughout the semester I have learned an astounding amount of information. The English 101 curriculum has not only taught me how to write in general, but also taught me a variety of ways to get my point across to the reader. Before I took English 101 I was an average writer at best, but now that I am taking a class that focuses on writing strategies I feel that I have been able to improve as a writer. During the course we were taught how to write an informative essay as well as how to write a persuasive essay. The type of writing that this class has taught me will most definitely help me with future classes as well as my future in the real world. Throughout the English 101 course I have been able to improve as a writer by composing essays
In the articles, “How Facts Backfire” and “Is Google Making Us Stupid”, Keohane and Carr explain the cognitive blocks we are faced with in society. Keohane explains how we can be misinformed because of our beliefs. These beliefs can cloud our judgement of what is true and what isn’t true. Carr focuses on how the internet has changed the way we think. Carr includes how the internet can distract us, making tasks harder to complete. Both Keohane and Carr show us the negatives side effects of cognition.
“Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr and “How Computers Change the Way We Think” by Sherry Turkle are two articles that explore how technology influences our daily lives. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” discusses the effects of the internet in our society, how it is robbing us of our deep thoughts, memories and our ability to read books. Carr also talks about how the internet has become our primary source of getting information. The writer also discusses about how he’s having difficulty focusing on reading. “How Computers Change the Way We Think” is talking about how people don’t use their brains full potential capacity to solve problems. Instead, we depend on technology to do that for us.
Over the course of this semester I have learned a lot from my English 1302 class. Through the instruction of Professor Keck as well as the Pearson textbook and the writing handbook I have been instilled with devices that I can carry with me for as long as I am writing. I have not only learned how to better my writing but also how to write arguments that are not only strong but effective.
Another thing that I learned from taking this course is how to build a better writing and reading skills. Acknowledging reading and writing skills will help me to succeed in my other university courses.
I have been taking advantage of educational opportunities such as AP classes and Honors throughout high school because these courses will prepare me for college. In addition, an AP class will help me save money on tuition, and it will also help me graduate sooner. I decided to take my first AP class my sophomore year because I was encouraged by one of my previous teachers. I am glad that I took AP Spanish Language and Culture my sophomore year because that gave me an idea of how much work to expect when I attend college. Since, I was very dedicated to passing the AP test, I developed new study skills such as asking questions, making flashcards, and taking cornell notes. All of these study skills were very helpful because I passed the AP exam.
Nicholas Carrs article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” makes points that I agree with, although I find his sources to be questionable. The article discusses the effects that the Internet may be having on our ability to focus, the difference in knowledge that we now have, and our reliance on the Internet. The points that are made throughout Carrs article are very thought provoking but his sources make them seem invaluable.
Looking back over the course of the semester, I feel that I learned many new and interesting uses for technology within the classroom – both for classrooms that have a lot of technology and for classrooms that are limited with technology. For the majority of the class, we utilized William Kists’ book The Socially Networked Classroom: Teaching in the New Media Age (2010), which provided multiple modes of instruction that both utilized and/or created technology. One of the first things that I remember, and consequently that stuck with me through the course’s entirety, is that individuals must treat everything as a text. Even a garden is a text. The statement made me change the way that I traditionally viewed Language Arts both as a student and as a teacher, as I very narrowly saw literature and works of the like as texts only; however, by considering nearly anything as a text, one can analyze, study, and even expand his/her knowledge. Kist (2010) states that society is “experiencing a vast transformation of the way we “read” and “write,” and a broadening of the way we conceptualize “literacy” (p. 2). In order to begin to experience and learn with the modern classroom and technologically advanced students, individuals must begin to see new things as literature and analyze those things in a similar manner.
This course has been a huge influence towards improving my writing skills, seeking plagiarism, choice of words and style. I have learned how to use my writing in multiple ways with different literature methods. I honestly believe that writing is essential to life because we live in a world where using your intelligent abilities are necessary. I experience a great deal of mistakes in my writing such as grammar, sentence fragments and punctuation. However, this course has help students by providing a writing center to go to. I think it would be remarkable if this course would hold a class section in the writing center.
Throughout this course, I greatly improved my writing through the projects I did in this course and successfully fulfilled all the course learning outcomes of writing and designing, reading and analyzing, researching and documenting, and the use of technology and media. This course helped me improve my organization in my writing and helped me learn to be more specific to help get the point of what I needed to communicate across faster. The following sections demonstrate how I fulfilled the course learning outcomes and how I grew as a writer through this course.
During the course of this class, I have had the opportunity to read literature from authors who come from different backgrounds and places in the world. Some of the stories and poetry we read were straight forward while others were confusing and sometimes required a second look. But one thing is clear, it changed the way I think about literature in a few ways that I wasn’t expecting. Three works in particular stand out in my mind. “ I Wont Let You Go” by Rabindranath Tagore, “To New York” by Leopold Senghor, and Pedro Peramo by Juan Rulfo all had an impact on my thinking for similar yet different reasons. They all incorporate their cultural backgrounds into their work through the setting of their pieces. They also compose their pieces in a way that makes you want to research their history to find the deeper meaning. Finally, a couple of the authors write about things they are emotionally connected to. Some of the examples we will look at, really opened my eyes to going beyond a superficial understanding of literature.
During this College Composition course, I came across numerous obstacles and educational involvements. Every factor of this course contributed to my overall learning experience. For starters, we often read out of our textbooks, “The Little Seagull Handbook” and “They Say I Say”. These books helped showcase proper writing techniques. In addition, we would have class discussions that everyone would participate in. This opened my eyes to different viewpoints that could influence my writing. I recall one class we had a debate over a topic and everyone had to choose a side to argue. Then when we wrote argument essays, even though they were on a different topic, it helped me view my topic in different ways. Lastly, the most helpful to my writing was peer review. We were told to read our paper out loud to our partner. Although personally I am quiet and dislike reading out loud, I found this very helpful. Instantly, my partner and I could find grammar mistakes that one may not pick up on while reading silently. Then we could also talk about other possible revisions for my paper. For every paper, we would have conferences with the professor. This was effective as well to have a professional giving corrections and ideas. When we would get back our graded rubrics on the assignments we completed, the instructor would leave comments to