Jonathan Pawlowicz

English 250

5 May 2017

It’s safe to say nobody’s perfect and I am definitely slacking in my written, oral, visual, and electronic communication modes.  Within the WOVE modes, I have found written to be my weakest area and oral to be my strongest area. For my rhetorical aspects, I can stay with certainty that my weakest portion is context. This needs to change, and I hope to change that by asking for the help of my friends and by keeping in mind my weaknesses when I write. With these steps, I hope to becoming a better writer and presenter.

WOVE stands for written, oral, visual, and electronic. The acronym was made so that english teachers could save their breath and say the whole thing, as written, oral, visual, and electronic seems much longer to say than WOVE. I believe that my biggest strength is the oral portion. While I am not the biggest fan of papers, I definitely can enjoy or appreciate a presentation more. It allows for body language and excitement towards the topic at hand pull weight where the paper left off. With that in mind, my weakest portion is the written mode. I can write an essay but I do not like to like I can enjoy presentations. On top of that, years of returned papers with bad grades on them have shown me that writing is not my strong-suit, it was what I believe to be the first pointer that proved that I should be an Engineer. With that in mind I believe that my weakest rhetorical aspect is context. I say this because my papers sometimes end up having a significant amount of “fluff”. I have written before with the only goal in mind being to hit the word count. Firstly that’s bad practice, and secondly it means that a lot of useless information ends up being handed to the reader that doesn’t support the progression of the paper. These are all issues that need to be taken care of. To fix this issue, my plan is to read more. Reading is amazing for the brain and I believe that it help my writing in the same way that full immersion trips into other countries help you learn a language. My weakest portion of WOVE modes of communication is writing so I see reading other peoples writing as a way to allow me to catch on to writing techniques that they use in their own writing. I find this the best and most realistic plan because I already lightly read on occasion. By stepping up and making this a daily routine I believe my writing will progress in the long run, and let’s be honest I’m more willing to read a book than write one. This plan is very easy to get support from my friends and family because they will allow me to stay motivated to keep up on reading.

In the long run, I believe that creating a daily habit of reading will increase my skills throughout all my modes of communication with a specific emphasis on my writing. Reading will allow me identify writing styles in other writers that I can use to learn my own style and grow it. Reading will also strengthen my oral skills, because I won’t be able to keep my mouth shut over how great a book is. This will also support my weakest rhetorical aspect, context, because reading non-fiction will allow me to build connections to new ideas to allow for more substantial information instead of unnecessary “fluff”. With this realistic plan, I hope to do what my grandpa always tells me to do, “Learn all you can, and can all you learn.”

Jonathan Pawlowicz

English 250

4 May 2017

        Books and literacy have played a crucial part in forming me into the person that I am today. As a child, my father read to me every night before bed. Around the 9th grade, I discovered TED, a website where intelligent people talk about their life’s work in less than 15 minutes. These videos cover everything from the fight against STDs to how to become a computer hacker. However, my favorite experience that I would like to share is when I fell in love with books in the 11th grade.

        When I was only a few years old, around 5, my father started telling me stories from the Bible. This would not have interested me if they were from the 11-point font books that fit in the palm of somebody’s hand. This book was larger with pictures filling the book that told of stories from the bible. Every night would tell me a story from the book, called the Children’s Bible. There were stories of Moses, and Noah, and David and Goliath. This time reading from the Children’s Bible with my father eventually changes to me reading other books that my parents would buy for me, such as the Magic Treehouse series. My reading habits as a kid eventually peaked my curiosity about TED videos.

        TED videos were, and still are, one of my favorite ways to waste the day away while still feeling productive. Watching a handful of TED talks to me is my equivalent to binge-watching Grey’s Anatomy, it is addicting and impossible to stop once initiated. Their fountain of different topics makes it so that I will never run out of videos to watch. With TED talks, I have learned about nanotechnology, been inspired to learn a new language, learned how to become a better listener, and the list never ends. It was these stories that lead me to the book that made me fall in love with reading.

        A good book can occupy your thoughts better than any social media . If knowledge was Nicotine, a book would be a cigarette. The book that initially got me hooked is How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. I could not put this book down. The reason I couldn’t put it down is because of how many of his examples were relevant in my everyday life. This book led me to surge forward in my pursuit of knowledge and enjoyment of good books, such as books written by Malcolm Gladwell.

        My literary experiences have chained together throughout my life.. Reading The Children’s Bible with my father taught me how to enjoy a good book. Reading the Children’s Bible lead me to read other books. Those books led me to TED talks. TED talks taught me how to view my life in a new perspective which increased my urge to read… This book addiction taught me to sit back and relax and enjoy life. Whether or not this chain continues to add links or my craving for knowledge gets stronger, I know I will love the road ahead. Where does your chain start?

`Jonathan Pawlowicz

Terril

English 250

10 April 2017

What’s Behind the Push Up?

The fitness world is a world controlled by the entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs start companies that promise quick results and large increases in strength. Youtube channels have become one of the newer culprits of this fitness takeover. Many of these youtube channels are now businesses that focus on selling their products to the bodybuilding crowd that is susceptible to their selling techniques. These channels sell their workout plans or equipment that promise better results. One common belief about working out is the importance of how your testosterone levels affect your strength. Testosterone is believed to improve your experience at the gym. Furthermore, how long should a workout last and how accurate are these youtube channels? This essay will consider how the common beliefs about weightlifting and calisthenics compare to professional opinions in the athletic fields.

One of the many youtube channels that talks about workouts is the ATHLEAN-X channel. The ATHLEAN-X channel covers their opinion on effective workouts, sporting their own series of get stronger quicker workouts. Looking at their channel page, it seems very similar to many of the other workout channels that I have seen before. The first pointer was that they have workouts aimed towards people with busy schedules and do not want to spend an hour at the gym. Many of their videos are sporting titles such as “quick 10 minute full body workout.” ATHLEAN-X’s ‘quick fix’ videos include “ Chest Workout (SORE IN 6 MINUTES!) as well as Fast, Brutal Leg Workout (SORE IN 6 MINUTES). This use of setting a designated time to complete a workout aimed to give you quick results is used very widely in workout channels. For example, another Youtube channel called Pigmie does the same but in intervals of 5 minute training lessons instead of 6. The second pointer was the countless number of motivational videos found on these channels. These motivational videos attempt to motivate you to workout. You now have almost everything you need to stay in shape. you have workouts, you have motivational videos to keep you motivated, now all you need is a workout plan or fitness product. Luckily for you, that workout plan or fitness product  is advertised at the end of every video on this ATHLEAN-X channel. Now that you’ve experienced a taste of their workout plan or watched their motivational videos and are now ready to leave for the gym, the channel tries to sell you a better solution. This is not a special occurrence, many youtube channels follow suit in this endeavor. The previously stated Pigmie channel attempts to sell you their own training regimen which they call Bodyweight Beast. Another Youtube channel called OFFICIALTHENX tries to sell you their pre-workout powder called THENX Ignite.

This trend of short but intense workouts begs the question, how long should a workout last? According to Todd Schroeder, PhD, on webMD, the length of a workout does not matter as much as how much recovery time you take. The only mention towards time is that he recommends that you have shorter rest periods during your workout. However, you should not push yourself too hard. “Overdoing a workout could backfire. Elite athletes (and amateurs who overtrain), can see a drop in their testosterone level, which is a sign that they’re doing harm to their bodies. In these cases, they tend to have low testosterone and high cortisol, a stress hormone”. He also notes that a rise in cortisol can be linked to a fall in testosterone. Therefore, while the time period in which you lift does not matter to boost testosterone, the intensity and rest period during workouts can increase or decrease your testosterone levels.

After concluding that testosterone can increase or decrease due to intensity and rest periods during a workout, we need to explore the relevance of testosterone to your workout. According to a journal written by many authors, including Philip E Knapp, a boost in testosterone results in increases in strength and well-being. “Leg press strength increased significantly in testosterone-treated (P = 0.027), but not placebo-treated, men. Men receiving testosterone demonstrated significantly greater improvements in mental health and quality-of-life scores than those receiving placebo and improvements in fatigue/energy and mood scores that were not significantly different from those receiving placebo”(Knapp). Testosterone improves muscle growth, improved mental health, and better quality-of-life. Overall, the period of time in which you workout is not important as long as you do not workout too intensively as well as keep the rest periods during your workout minimal.

According to a youtube video called “Calisthenics Workouts: Pros and Cons (TOP 4!)” by ATHLEANX, Calisthenics have a handful of advantages and disadvantages. The first advantage the video mentions is that Calisthenics is the cheapest option compared to lifting weights. One quick search showed me how expensive some weight lifting equipment could be. You could buy equipment for as cheap as $2 for a single weight or as high as $12,000 for an all purpose machine. For reference I have chosen a $50 40-lb dumbbells as dumbbells are one of the most used pieces of equipment used in weightlifting. A person who works out at home will spend $50 for a set of 40-lb dumbbells, or that same person could subscribe for a gym membership. According to their associated websites, Lifetime Fitness costs $121 monthly for 2 All Club Access Memberships, Planet Fitness costs $20 monthly, and LA Fitness costs $30 a month. While these seem hefty prices for gyms, you will have access to countless machines and free weights that you will have access to. As for Calisthenics, all the workouts use minimal external pieces of equipment. The most common piece of equipment is a pull-up bar, most commonly attachable to a door frame. On amazon.com, a higher-end pull-up bar that can be attached to a door frame will cost $50 while a basic pull-up bar can cost as little as $20. In accordance with the video’s first advantage, it can be seen why Calisthenics is known to be less expensive. Calisthenics does not need an expensive gym membership or pricey equipment to get a full workout in.

While considering equipment, ATHLEANX’s video brings up a valid point about calisthenics. Calisthenics can be done anywhere. The producer says in the video, “On my yearly trip to Canada over the summers, I wind up finding myself with no access to anything but my surroundings. I have incorporated stones and rocks into my training if need be”(ATHLEAN-X). I have seen this in my personal life as well as others. The most common Calisthenic workout is the pushup and you could do pushups almost anywhere. Bench dips are more difficult, however they can be accomplished by simply incorporating a chair into your workout.

One of the disadvantages in the video is that calisthenics become much more difficult with an injury. “One of the assets of them being that they’re compound in nature can also be one of their detriments in that they don’t allow you to be very specific or joint specific if you’re trying to train around an injury.” Let’s say you hurt your tricep on your left arm. According to healthline.com, “In the standard pushup, the following muscles are targeted:

• Chest muscles, or pectorals
• Shoulders, or deltoids
• Back of your arms, or triceps
• Abdominals
• The ‘wing’ muscles directly under your armpit, called the serratus anterior”

Therefore, anytime that you hurt one of these muscles, it refrains you from doing many workouts such as pushups. Following with the story of a hurt tricep, all forms of: push ups, dips, pull ups, and planks use the tricep. This results in a complete standstill for almost all forms of upper body calisthenic workouts. Looking at weight lifting workouts, upper body workouts can still be done by avoiding the tricep. For example, the lat pulldown. The lat pulldown is a machine where you sit down and pull a weight from above you. according to healthyliving.com,” The primary muscle worked by the lat pulldown is the latissimus dorsi. This muscle is a large fan-shaped muscle that spans from the middle of the back, wrapping around the side and covering part of the lower three ribs. The lat pulldown also works surrounding muscles, including the teres major and minor, trapezius, rhomboids, infraspinatus and serratus posterior inferior”. All these muscles are part of the upper body while avoiding the use of the tricep. In conclusion, the video accurately articulates this disadvantages that calisthenics are not good for injured people because they can not avoid using a specific muscle like weightlifting.

Another disadvantage mentioned in the video is that calisthenics is harder to progress. “Probably the biggest issue when it comes to bodyweight exercises are that they are going to be harder to progress and it certainly is not going to be as intuitive to you of how to progress so you need a solid understanding about how your body moves.” For example, a progression from a standard pushup can go many different paths: you could spread your hands wider, you could bring your hands closer into a triangle pushup, you can elevate your legs, you can pushup with one arm or one leg. This can become very complex very quickly. A wide grip pushup will emphasize your chest while a T push up targets the whole body. This is a major disadvantage compared to a weightlifting progression that is as simple as adding weight to a bar. During workouts, people who do not want to consider the next progression will choose weight lifting over calisthenics because of the simplicity of the “next step”. In conclusion, ATHLEAN-X is correct in saying that calisthenics has a more complex, and therefore harder, progression to follow.

Fitness is a topic near and dear to many people’s hearts. Many believe that their training method is the best method for increasing in strength and health. The Youtube fitness takeover has resulted in many entrepreneurs to enter the world of fitness through this venue. Many of these channels tell you of the advantages and disadvantages of certain workouts, such as our example with ATHLEAN-X’s video. This new outburst on fitness channels sends us on a fact search to see whether or not the information given to us is valid. The period of time that you workout is not as important as we previously thought as well as the information about testosterone and muscle growth has held its ground. Many of ATHLEAN-X’s beliefs on calisthenics are correct. The common beliefs of many fitness channels stand true when compared to academic opinions in the athletic field

Works Cited

Knapp, Philip E., Thomas W. Storer, Karen L. Herbst, Atam B. Singh, Connie Dzekov, Jeanne

Dzekov, Michael LaValley, Anqi Zhang, Jagadish Ulloor, and Shalender Bhasin. “Effects of

a Supraphysiological Dose of Testosterone on Physical Function, Muscle Performance,

Mood, and Fatigue in Men with HIV-Associated Weight Loss.” American Journal of

Physiology: Endocrinology and Metabolism 294, no. 6 (06, 2008): E1135-E1143,

(accessed April 12, 2017).

Metcalf, Eric, MPH. “Does Working Out Affect Testosterone Levels?” WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2017.

ATHLEAN-X. Calisthenics Workouts: Pros and Cons (TOP 4!). YouTube, 10 Mar. 2016. Web. 12 Apr. 2017.

Bowling, Nicole. “What Muscles Do Pushups Work?” Healthline. Ed. Peggy Plethcer.

Healthline Media, 19 July 2016. Web. 13 Apr. 2017.

Martin, Ronny Marie. “What Muscle Does the Lat Pulldown Work?” Azcentral.

Healthyliving.azcentral.com, 08 Jan. 2013. Web. 13 Apr. 2017.

Jonathan Pawlowicz

English 250

9 March 2017

Assignment 4 Visual Analysis

Marinella is an Italian necktie company that takes prides in its craftsmanship. Over the years, Marinella has chosen the path of quality over quantity. Luis Marie says in her article, “Nothing ups the suavity stakes quite like a traditional handmade five-, seven- or nine-fold tie”. This pride in elegance lead to the creation of their advertisement below. Marinella’s advertisement effectively promotes their products by focusing on their intended audience and using various rhetorical devices.

Showing off the E. Marinella brand is very important for this advertisement. Without the logo and name there would be no way of knowing which company it was. Some brand are inherently obvious. For instance, car advertisements or Harley Davidson advertisements do not need names because they are easily identifiable in the real world. Same can go for certain foods such as the Big Mac or Whopper. Ties are a completely different circumstance. Marinella wanted it inherently obvious what brand they were advertising. The other objects in the picture are chopsticks and ties made to look like sushi rolls on a white plate. The reason they chose sushi rolls was because the chosen audience was Japan. This makes sense because according to www.marinellanapoli.it , their home website,  they have a store located in Tokyo. But why did Marinella choose ties for their advertisement. Their website sells countless other products such as bags, watches, perfumes, cufflinks. Why did they not use a bag in the commercial instead of the tie? Besides the fact that the tie is their key product that they’re known for, I believe that the tie was chosen because it is the most generic symbol of wealth and business fashion. The tie appeals to the largest crowd. The company will not thrive from their profits by selling bags, watches, perfumes, or cufflinks. The source of Marinella’s main profits will be from those ties found in the advertisements.

Another aspect of the picture worth thinking about is the white background. I believe white was chosen because it allows everything else to pop out of the paper more. Black letters on white background show a lot better than blue writing with a background on another shade of blue. Those are the only things happening in the picture. There is nothing in the background to distract you. The image is supposed to be ‘elegant’ and to the point. Many of Marinella’s advertisements follow the same style. For Lugano, it is a tie wrapped in a chocolate wrapper, paris is a tie the shape of a croissant, naples is a tie shaped coffee cup, portofino a tie shaped cup of ice cream. All of Marinella’s advertise specifically to the country that they are located in. To my surprise, according to their website, they are not located in america or anywhere in the Eastern Hemisphere. I believe the reason behind this is because america as a whole prefers quantity over quality, they prefer 10 ok ties at $20 versus 1 really nice tie at $200. However there is also a niche market for these kinds of ties within the United States. This includes the rich and top 1%. However for these people, traveling to other countries is not an issue. Therefore, these people will simply travel to a store whether it be in japan or France.

This advertisement focuses primarily in an appeal to pathos with the line “since 1914, the taste of elegance”. This sentence uses techniques that try to use its history and prestige to the sell the product. The taste of elegance is meant to send the message that the rich clothe themselves with Marinella. This is a classical bandwagon method. To be considered a rich person you have to have Marinella ties because everybody else wears Marinella.

In conclusion, The Marinella uses many classical tricks to get you to buy their products. Marinella emphasizes the locations of their stores and designs their advertisements around that feature. They also integrate their products into regular objects, such as making a sushi roll out of ties. Each advertisement has a geographical relevance, for example they do not push rolls of sushi in an advertisement directed to people in switzerland. Finally, they use bandwagon techniques to pressure people to buy their ties. In the end of the day, Marinella has created a great advertisement that attempts to pressure you into buying their products with the promise of elegance and prestige

Works Cited

Muir, Lucie. “Marinella Handmade Ties Naples.” Billionaire. N.p., 7 Jan. 2014. Web. 05 Mar. 2017.

“E. MARINELLA – Napoli – Official Site.” E. MARINELLA – Napoli – Official Site. N.p., n.d. Web.

10 Mar. 2017.

Jonathan Pawlowicz

English 250

17 February 2017

AIDS Inc.

One of the major issues found in Africa are sexually transmitted diseases. Without the right treatment, these diseases cause life-altering changes to the body. This is an issue very important in Africa even today. This problem has been around for many years and people are still trying to come up with helpful solutions. The author of AIDS Inc., Helen Epstein, approaches the issue of AIDS and how it is being resolved in South Africa with a grain of salt.

Epstein starts off the article with a ‘reason for change’. The South African health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang was accused of murder by and activist group for not supplying millions of africans with access to AIDS treatment. Looking into exactly what this activist group is asking for, in 2015 there were 54.96 million people in South Africa. According to healthline.com, HIV treatment medication prices vary from $600 to $3,434. That means that the activist group want the South African government to spend somewhere between $32,976 billion or $188,732 billion exclusively on HIV treatment for all of South Africa. Keep in mind these numbers are only for one round of treatment pills as of 2015. This number has probably only increased since then, not accounting for the fact that many people will need more than just 1 series of treatment. On top of all of this according to tradingEconomics, South Africa’s gross income is $3,095,467. This means that just one round of HIV for every person in South Africa would cost the equivalent of all the income South Africa would make for 10 consecutive years. Epstein starts off with this piece of information to prove a point, some form of change is necessary however mass treatment is completely out of the question.

One solution that was attempted was the LoveLife program. The LoveLife program was focused on increasing the general education of the students in the hopes that this would indirectly impact the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, specifically HIV. The LiveLife program kept students active and educated. Their facilities contained sports facilities, sexual health education, and skills training all under one roof. All this was done while also avoiding a political fight. The LoveLife system stayed out of the issue of Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. They did this by excluding HIV positive people. No matter how crude this seemed to be, they received an endorsement from the archbishop of Cape Town, the Kaiser Family Foundation, UNICEF, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. One way the LoveLife program educated these kids is by trying to change their mindset about sex. On page 111, David Harrison is quoted saying, “ The average age at which young South Africans lose their virginity — around seventeen — is not much different from the age at which teenagers in other countries do. What’s different was that many of the young South Africans who were sexually active were very sexually active and more likely to start at much younger ages. This leads to more sexual partners and an increased chance of sexually transmitted diseases. So LoveLife attempted to fix this issue by educating students about self-esteem and self-worth, all without mentioning AIDS or HIV. While all these points are good for these younger people, is it working? What data shows is that it wasn’t. While the South African students were being educated about self-esteem, they were also avoiding the issue of AIDS like the plague. This avoidance manifested itself within the students. The student’s attitudes towards HIV went from worry and caution to carelessness and annoyance. They became blind to a problem that is right before their eyes. It would be the equivalent not believing in the Iowa State albino squirrel. At the end of the day, LoveLife never returned results and many, if not all, of the backers that were giving money dropped out of the deal.

Overall, Helen Epstein in AIDS Inc. takes a close look at the impact of LoveLife on HIV in South Africa as well as how this solution was created. Many activists believe that the government should pass out medications to those who need them like candy. Others believe that the solution to dissolving AIDS and HIV are to educate younger people and teenagers and change their mindset to a belief of more self-worth. From analysing Helen’s article AIDS Inc., I believe that the solution does not come from throwing metric tons of dollar bills on the issue, rather teach awareness and learn to protect one another.

More of a summary, but still good information and good points! Could easily pull out rhetorical arguments the author provides for the reader and analyze them. Organization is strong and introduction is effective.

Works Cited

Wenger, Adam. “The Cost of Treating HIV: One Man’s Monthly Medical Bill.” Healthline. Ed.

George T. Krucik. N.p., 16 Dec. 2014. Web. 17 Feb. 2017.

“South Africa Average Monthly Gross Wage | 2004-2017 | Data | Chart.”

South Africa Average Monthly Gross Wage | 2004-2017 | Data | Chart.

TradingEconomics, n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2017.

Jonathan Pawlowicz

English 250
27 January 2017

In Ethan Watters “Being WEIRD: How Culture Shapes the Mind”, Watters explains why many social science theories are skewed because westerners approach the world with different thought processes. Watters covers the story of a scientist named Joe Henrich who, while studying the Machiguenga people, ran an experiment that came up with unexpected results. Watter wrote, “Henrich used a ‘game’ — along the lines of the famous prisoner’s dilemma… the first player is given an amount of money, say, $100, and told that he has to offer some of the cash, in an amount of his choosing, to the second player can accept or refuse the split. But there’s a hitch: players know that if the recipient refuses the off, both leave empty-handed.” Watters proceeds to tell the story that Henrich later does the same “game” in 14 other small-scale societies. Watters continues with Henrich’s story, how he earned a position next to two other people who continue these experiments but with different approaches. Watters then proceeds to emphasize the work that they Henrich and his co-workers were doing using many examples, including a visual illusion where two lines appear to be different sizes but are the same. The illusion is illustrated in the book and is called the Muller-Lyer illusion. The more and more they traveled and studied different people, the more they found a group that were the outliers of the outliers, the western culture. Watters writes that western culture focuses more on each individual versus all in a group. Watters uses another example to prove the point. Another visual illusion is a single vertical line inside a skewed frame. Watters writes that westerners were less susceptible to getting this illusion wrong because they see the vertical line apart from the frame just like they see themselves as a separate piece in a bigger picture.

Jonathan Pawlowicz

English 250

11 January 2017

        There are specific times in my life where I had the best experience with books and literacy. As a child, my father read to me every night before bed. Around the 9th grade, I discovered TED, a website where intelligent people talk about their life’s work in less than 15 minutes. These videos cover everything from the fight against STDs to how to become a computer hacker. However, my favorite experience that I would like to share is when I fell in love with books in the 11th grade.

        When I was only a few years old, around 5, my father started telling me stories from the Bible. This would not have interested me if they were from the 11-point font books that fit in the palm of somebody’s hand. This book was as big as a coloring book and had pictures everywhere with hand-picking stories straight from the Bible. Every night would tell me a story from the book, called the Children’s Bible. There were stories of Moses, and Noah, and David and Goliath. I loved this time with my father, and it rapidly evolved to other books, such as the Magic Treehouse series, and eventually steered me towards TED videos.

        TED videos were, and still are, one of my favorite ways to waste the day away while still feeling productive. Watching a handful of TED talks to me is my equivalent to binge-watching Grey’s Anatomy, it is addicting and impossible to stop once initiated. Their fountain of different topics makes it so that I will never run out of videos to watch. With TED talks, I have learned about nanotechnology, been inspired to learn a new language, learned how to become a better listener, and the list never ends. It was these stories that lead me to the book that made me fall in love with reading.

        Nothing is more addicting than an amazing book. I knowledge was Nicotine, a book would be a cigarette. The one book that I blame for getting me hooked is How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. I could not put this book down. The reason I couldn’t put it down is because of how many of his examples I found in my everyday life. This book led me to surge forward in my pursuit of knowledge and enjoyment of good books, such as books written by Malcom Gladwell.

        All my literary experiences have led me towards my next experience and they have always led me to better places in life. Reading The Children’s Bible with my father taught me that reading is fun. TED talks taught me about compassion and many other life factors. Finally, my book addiction taught me to sit back and relax every once in a while to just enjoy life.

• What brainstorming/invention/prewriting activities work best for you?
  • My favorite way to brainstorm new ideas for a paper is to allow my mind to just run with the idea. A majority of the ideas that my mind comes up with would not be very effective in paper, however that is not to say that I do not find good ideas from that manner. On top of this, I find my other most effective way to come up with ideas is to go onto google. I am finding more and more that I am becoming dependent on the internet. While this is not good, it allows a new venue to find my answers.
• How might different genres require different types of brainstorming (e.g., lists, outlines, graphic bubbles, freewriting, talking to someone about your ideas, research, etc.)
  • In this paper, the best option was to allow my mind to wonder, this is not always the case. my approach at brainstorming drastically changes depending on what kind of paper I am writing. For example, for a persuasive essay I would use a list and write out the stances for each side of my essay. In a research paper, my brainstorming would mostly be used in research rather than other ways. Each of these brainstorming ideas is a good choice to use in ways that the other options can not do.

• What did you learn about yourself as a writer? Think about the level of detail you included. Do you have a tendency to include too many or too few details? When do you think it would be valuable to include more? Less?
  • As a writer, my worst strength I feel is using enough words to fill up the page. I can write down details and statistics, but lengthy assignments always get the best of me because of their word minimums or paragraphs requirements
• What feedback did you receive from your instructor or your peers that you agreed with? What did you decide to do about that feedback? If there was feedback you received that you did not agree with, discuss what that was, why you did not agree with it, and what you did about it (It is perfectly fine to disagree with feedback—this is your paper). Use specific examples from your paper.
  • For this assignment, I was given some rather small changes. I basically told to just add ‘a little meat to it’. In other words, I needed more words.
• What was the most difficult part of this assignment for you? What did you do to meet this challenge? What goals are you setting for the next assignment? Knowing yourself, what do you need to do in order to accomplish your goals?
  • The hardest part about creating assignment 2 was writing the essay without delving into the piece deeply. They asked me to just summarize and not go any further with it, that was where my issues came from. In order for me to get assignments like these done, I have to hunker down and just get-er done.
• What (if anything) changed in your writing process for this assignment? Do you think your approach worked for this assignment? Do you think it will work for future assignments? Why or why not?
  • I don’t think my writing process has changed at all this year. I think that my writing needs work but I don’t have the slightest idea on how to approach this problem and fix it. My inner engineer is telling me to take every separate stages of the essay and work on each piece individually, such as work on the introduction paragraph only until I have intro’s down to a science.

• Reflect about how you handled the deadline for this assignment—are you happy with the way you managed your time? Why or why not? Were there unforeseen issues that delayed you? How does this compare with the way you have handled deadlines in the past? What feedback did you receive from your instructor or your peers that you agreed with? What did you decide to do about that feedback? If there was feedback you received that you did not agree with, discuss what that was, why you did not agree with it, and what you did about it (It is perfectly fine to disagree with feedback—this is your paper). Use specific examples from your paper.
  • I believe that I managed this paper better than previous papers. I am notorious for finishing papers hours before they’re due rather than days. For me to be a little past halfway done 2 days before the paper is due is surprising at best. To be finished a day early is just as surprising. I am happy with how I managed this paper. I split it up into two writing days and I completed the paper after about 6 hours of on and off work. So I believe I was rather leisurely with my time at best. I had many unforeseen issues when it came to finding sources that backed or refuted my claims. Not many academic sources could be used in my paper.
• What was the most difficult part of this assignment for you? What did you do to meet this challenge? What goals are you setting for the next assignment? Knowing yourself, what do you need to do in order to accomplish your goals?
  • The most challenging part was definitely finding sources that I could use in my paper. There are plenty of magazines and youtube videos that attempt to go into my question in depth. However, since they are not academic sources, I can’t use them as my primary medium of information gathering. Many of the questions I wanted to cover in my writing just couldn’t be done because I couldn’t find a source for it. For me to have better sources and have a more well-written paper, I need to stop waiting for the last couple days to work on an assignment.