It's difficult for me, really, to make out what other people are wearing when I pass them or when they pass me. I really can't see a whole lot of detail when I look at a person, unless of course I'm really, really trying, and even then things are fuzzyIt's because of this, really, that I feel my own style of dress is most original. I'm sure some people dress the way I do, but I don't see it and therefore can't really be influenced by it. I can say that my own dressing habits then reflect my place in what ever you'd call the community of people who dress comfortably and practically, and like the result.

I would imagine that right now, most people are going out in thick layers. They may be wearing sweaters and heavy jackets, and definitely long pants. At least, this is what I'd expect from people belonging to a group that minds the cold, perhaps native Floridians. I do know I vaguely made out a few girls wearing really short shorts and sandals on the bus the other day. I figure that either they come from up north and hardly consider this to be cold, or they are more concerned with their appearance than their physical comfort or wellbeing. I hope it's the former and not the latter. I can't understand why any girl, no matter what group they belong to, would sacrifice personal comfort and practicality to show off her legs or some designer label.

Creeeping

At this point everyone is wearing layers and layers of clothes to keep warm, especially this past weekend when it was supposed to snow at some point. You can tell a big difference between those who are from up north and those who are originally from Florida. The students that have originated from Florida seem to be more concerned about looking cute and warm, cute being their main priority. On the other hand those who seem to have more experience with the cold actually dress for it and are most concerned about making sure they are freezing and getting sick. It seems like all the girls wear pretty similar things when its cold like Uggs, leggings, and a North Face in some variation. Even when it's cold there is a fashion to being warm.

Safari in Suwannee

On this engaging escapade I traveled deep into Suwannee Cafeteria the usual place to find a good amount of people in their natural environment. I spotted quite a few remarkable things on this expedition. Most notably were that quite a few people had similar styles in that they covered themselves in similar garments and to that regard I categorized the various individuals.
The easiest to spot out were the Athletes whom were wearing exercise shorts and worn out t-shirts with various brands of running shoes. Their style may not be “unique” but it was certainly functional to their activity.
The next group I don’t know much about other than they probably belonged to a sorority since they congregated together in large groups and all had a similar fashion that included a variety of colors really and hair styles. The majority of this group was wearing rain boots that were colored varying shades of the rainbow and they each had a certain “sophistication” in the way they carried themselves. They clothes from what I could tell were mostly name brand ranging from Abercrombie and Finch to probably something like Banana Republic.
Then towards the end of my journey I found a few people whom seem relatively normal since there was nothing I could find just from their clothing to hint at their life, since in my opinion their clothes were neutral for the most part. Though I noticed one person with shirt reading the words “The Cake is a Lie” and that made my trek a success.

Cold!

The main thing that I noticed today is the differences in the way people react to the current weather. A large group of people bundle up, wearing everything they possibly can in and effort to keep as warm as possible, but doing so in a way that shows they aren't part of a community that knows how to deal with the cold. Then you have the group of people that wear Hollister sweatsuits, worried more about how they look than that they're miserable and shivering. Then you see the people that are from somewhere with cold winters, and are prepared for the weather. Then there's always a few people walking around in shorts and sandals, perfectly comfortable and content.

It wasn't too creepy

Well I decided to work on observing peoples' attire today when I was in Fresh Food. Most of the people that were in there had jeans on and sweatshirts which is because of the weather outside and less likely to signal membership in a certain group. Their was one guy that walked by that kind of stuck out, he had a pink and white tie on with a purple/reddish shirt on. I'm not sure exactly why he was wearing such a colorful tie but it's possible that it was for a presentation that the guy might have had. It's still somewhat hard to say whether the guy was a part of a certain group because I didn't see anyone else he was there with.

I noticed that the Fresh Food Company is a great place to people watch. A lot of different kinds of people from many communities go there to eat. I did make some specific observations, however, while I was there other than noticing the huge variety of clothing styles. It seemed like the more "popular" people had far more more layers of clothing than other people, who usually kept thir styles pretty simple for the most part. These people must be much more concerned on what other people think about them, and that is probably what happens often in their community. I also noticed that the only shorts that people wore (other than me) were athletic shorts. I guess that means they could have come from a society where athletics is important, and that sports wear can be interchanged with normal attire.

One particularly interesting clothing I noticed was one person who decided to wear a gold, green, and purple striped shirt. I guess his community was influenced to some extent by the French and/or Cajun peoples, and therefore he had no problem sporting Mardi Gras colors, which, I think, made him look a little weird.

While eating I have seen some interesting people walk by me.  There is a huge assortment of different clothing styles for different people.  But as I am sitting I notice some of the weirdest things.  For instance, I have seen a great amount of people walking in jeans and flip flops.  On occasion this also includes some kind of T-shirt as well.  At first glance I want to call those people crazy for pretty much freezing themselves by not wearing a sufficient amount of clothing.  But after further thinking about it I realize that perhaps they are used to the cold for a better reason than being weird.  Perhaps they come from state up north, where cold to them is when the highest temperature reached on average is around 20.  The contrast comes from the people i see wearing way too much clothing.  It's one thing to wear a long sleeve shirt and a jacket.  It's another to wear a long sleeve shirt, light jacket, heavy coat, scarf, jeans and large boots, when its only 50 outside.  Those people are most likely from further south than here, its pretty notable seeing as most of the people I've seen that over dressed have a nice tan even though its the middle of winter.  I'm not sure if it is considered a community, but definitely being from different areas leads to different presentations of oneself I find, so I would consider it so.

Creeping Again?!?!

So, I am the kind of person who lacks the skill of take a picture of people with out them noticing (I am not a creeper), so I didn't. I observed the people in my Microeconomics class for this blog. I noticed that a lot of people were either dressed fairly casually, like they want to be comfortable but not sloppy. These people probably have other things to do during the day and are probably early risers. I also noticed many who looked like they either just rolled out of bed or were still wearing their pajamas, I'm assuming these people hate mornings. I also notice that there are many who wear their greek letters, mostly the sorority girls-- I don't want to state the obvious, but we all know what community they belong to. I'd like to think that most people dress to impress, but for those who prefer waking up in the afternoon yet take morning classes, I cannot say they look like they are ready to work.

Oh, goodness...When will this stop?

First of all, I'd like to say--If I had a nicer phone, I'd take a picture. Sadly, my blackberry got wet, and now I have a very weak replacement. But, I'll try to paint a picture.

This is a vast problem that I've been seeing even MORE so here, in the state capital. Now, I understand--Everyone wants to wear somewhat sexy things sometimes, maybe for their significant other, or just to boost self confidence. But I am convinced that certain articles of clothing should not be manufactured in certain sizes. A community they belong to? Eh...That's hard to say. The community of not dressing their size? A bigger girl can look beautiful if she knows how to dress herself properly, this is very, very true. I've seen it done loads of times. But what this is, I don't think it's doing anyone any good. I love fashion, and I have a respect for well dressed people--Yet, when I see these large, large, large individuals wearing tube tops and mini-skirts, I have to ask if they own a mirror. They looked like students, and I saw more than one group of them, which just made my anger and disgust level rise. I'll state this again--Size doesn't matter if you dress well. (I know, I feel the need to be politically correct here. Disgusting, right?) I realized that I know nothing about these people. What music they like, what their major is, what they want to do with their life--And moreso, I don't care to know, because of their obsessive use of dark makeup and skimpy clothes. If they don't respect themselves at all, why should I? Maybe that was my thought. But really, when will this trend stop? Miniskirts don't look good on everyone, believe me.

Time to Creep

When I went to Governor's Square mall on Saturday, I noticed a variety of styles of clothing. Of course there was a group of girls there and one of them had a sorority hoodie on, so I figured the whole group was in a sorority. They were trying to look all nice and pampered in their expensive clothing with the jewelry and the makeup and they succeeded. As I walked through Footlocker, many of the people were wearing Jordan and Nike apparel. Much different than the sorority girls, these people are more cultured in sports and athletic wear. There was also a group of what looked like middle school kids who were dressed in the skater look. They were wearing tight jeans, vans, oddly colored hoodies and had long hair.

The clothing of all three of these groups stereotype what type of people they are. The dressed to impress girls obviously belonged to a sorority and they probably like to go out to the clubs and party and all that fun stuff. The footlocker shoppers probably love college basketball, the NBA, the NFL and watching ESPN. And the middle school skater kids probably like to skate, shop, and just chill with their friends. Sometimes it is just too easy to creep and to guess what kind of lives people have just by what they are wearing. But everyone does it.

Watching people at Fresh Foods

I decided to do this assignment by watching people at Fresh Foods. There seemed to be only three kinds of clothes that people wore. There were the people who wore sports clothes, some that wore casual clothes, such as a random t-shirt, and others who wore very formal clothes such as a suit. Normally you could argue that this may be due to their personalities, but I realised by watching something different. Since they all hung around people that were very similar clothing, it showed that they were parts of a community. The people who were wearing sports clothes normally came from or were planning to go to the gym or a game of some sort, while the people who were wearing very formal clothing were usually part of a fraternity or going to work. They were not very silent about it, so it was very easy to recognize why they were wearing the clothes that they were.

Kinda like me

I went to a dance performance this past Saturday, it was an MFA concert (I do not know but I am pretty sure it is a concert for graduate students in the dance program to show case their work. It was extremely cold outside so everyone was bundled up. When I first arrived in the dance hal,l I observer that most people were dressed like me, ( in some cases, what I wish I was dressed like) there was a lot of layering going on, scarfs, boots and almost everyone had those thick peatcoats I wish I had. But when I actually took my seat, I began to see a few older people ( mostly people that look like they have graduated from college) and people who asserted themselves as if they were actually part of the dance program and they dressed differently. They were in a more 'up class' way, for the most part they were wearing the same fashionable articles of clothing that everyone else was wearing but they wore it in a more 'up tight' way. This show me that they took the dance performance and themselves a little bit more seriously; may too serious because everybody is equally important.

The Only Thing Weirder than this Assignment Would be Staring at Naked People

For this assignment, I bummed around the SLC, waiting for the midnight movie to start, and just decided to take advantage of my situation and check out the attire of the patrons there that night. A lot of the people there were wearing novelty, one-liner T-shirts, which is a staple of the gamer/nerd/geek community. Although this type of dress is not unique, it is most common among them, and it would not be wrong to guess that if you were surrounded by that type of dress, you were surrounded by gamers, geeks, and nerds.

How do I know this? Well, I am one. I have about 3 one-liners in my closet, and I enjoy wearing them on Friday nights for the midnight movie at the SLC. Also, a lot of the people who show up for Friday midnight movies at the SLC are hardcore SLC patrons, and anybody can tell you that people who hang out there a lot are definitely gamers/nerds/geeks, and they probably play HvZ too.

As far as signaling membership goes, there is no application for joining this community. It takes in the fanboys and the fangirls, the foreign kids, the losers and the rejects, the cool people and the jocks, and all of the average people in between. It is easily the most diverse and non-judgmental group out there, and it is always growing, and whether you want to admit it or not, as soon as you hang out with a group of them…you are one of them!

On the Green

Today, I was sitting on a bench outside Landis and saw a variety of different personalities walk by. There was one girl who was wearing colorful rain boots, tight jeans, bright shirt, and big earrings. She was carrying a garnet and gold bag with her initials and greek letters engraved on it. Her hair was down and perfectly straight and her nails were painted lime green. I assume that she belongs to a sorority and is a girl who probably likes to go out a lot especially over going to classes. This style is not very unique and easy to pick out because you see girls dressed like this walking around everywhere all the time. I also saw a girl walk by wearing work out shirts, a white t-shirt, and tennis shoes with her hair up. This makes me think she's either just on her way to the gym and is part of the community that enjoys exercising on a daily basis or she could be someone who plays a sport.

Passers-by

Today while at the Union watching passers-by I saw a girl walk by. While observing I noticed that she had on a Guy Harvey shirt and was carrying a pink flowery bag that had some greek letters on it. Assuming that only sorority chicks have these I must assume that her community is a sorority one. I didn’t catch what the greek letters were so I can’t properly assess her community much further than that because anything more would require me to know the sorority (because the behavior of the sister depends upon her sorority).

The next person to walk by was a dude wearing some Vans and a DC sweatshirt. So I suppose that he would either belong to the skater kid community or the community who thinks skater kid clothes are cool but can’t actually skate. As for this guy, he was holding a skateboard so we can assume that he belonged to the former community as opposed to the latter.

People Watching

I was at the mall on Saturday and watched as people dressed in all types of clothes passed by me while I was eating lunch. Some were in their work clothes and you could tell exactly which store they were going to. Others were dressed in jeans and sweatshirts and looked like they were just having a relaxing Saturday. There was also a lady in scrubs who you could tell just came from work, either at a doctor's or dentist's office. It is easy to tell something about someone in a uniform, whether it be for work or school but it is a little more difficult to conclude something about people in everyday clothes. The people in jeans and sweatshirts were most likely athletic or just enjoyed sports considering they were wearing sneakers and the sweatshirts had different sports teams including the Miami Heat and New York Yankees.

Journal 5: This too will be creepy

Spend some time at a local gathering place (i.e. mall, coffee shop, the Union) and note the type of dress of passers-by. Discuss your observations and what your observations denote about the individuals, their communities, and their culture. How much of their style is unique, and how much signals membership to a particular group? How do you know? PS: Sneaky camera phone photos are definitely encouraged; just don’t be too obvious.

Due: Tuesday, February 16

Paper 2

Honestly I have no idea where to even start with Paper 2. I have been so involved with the communities I am in that I have not had time to think about all the other ones I could possibly research for my paper. I don't want to write about a community I am involved in as much because I feel like it would be too similar to the first paper we had to write. Since we have to conduct an interview I feel like it should be something that I am at least familiar with but I don't know what that would be. I have a hard time being creative with my writing topics and I want this paper to be about something interesting to the reader and well as to research.

I can't decide

Before coming into this class I knew I was going to have to write an 8-10 page research paper. The only thing I hoped for was that I would be given a specific topic that I would have to research, because for be picking a topic is the hardest part. I am one of the most indecisive people in the world and am having a lot of trouble picking a topic. I have a couple ideas right now but I am not sure I will be able to get enough information to meet the length requirements for either topic. The first idea was to research the pre-pharmacy community and see what is the appeal of it over pre-med. I would also want to compare the competitiveness of a career in pharmacy over some of the other health related careers. The advantage to this is I am in the pre-pharmacy club and would have easy access to a lot of information. It would also help me to know if this is definitely the path I want to take in my career. The downside is that I am not sure I would be able to write 8-10 pages without going of topic. The other topic idea I had would be to research the Catholic community. I could research how many people stay with their faith after going to college, being on their own and making their own decisions. This topic would interest me because I have seen it firsthand where during college people forget about their faith and after graduating either never go back or it becomes even stronger. The downside to this would be that I am not sure who I would interview or if there is even enough legitimate information to make an argument. I hate having to make these decisions but I will choose by Thursday.

Paper 2 My Epic Quest

So for paper two a few ideas have been swirling around in my head. The first possibility is to base the paper around the Seminole Dungeons and Dragons club of FSU and give the full story about the club and the game itself. Since I’m sure many of you have heard about Dungeons and Dragons but probably have no actual idea of how it’s played or what they do; other than it’s a geek’s game. The bright side of this topic is that I have firsthand experience in the club and that opens doors for me to interview people and gives me greater insight on the topic. The only negatives I foresee is that I’m not quite sure how I’m going to write this paper and what spin I’ll give it, however for now it seems like my best option. The other idea I had is to base it on World of Warcraft, which basically has the same ideology behind it in every aspect except for now it’s receiving a lot of media attention. The positives and negatives are pretty much the same, since I play the game and know others who are avid fans of it. My main problem for the moment however is to better develop an idea on what I’m actually going to write about and for what purpose I am going to write it, besides for the grade.

What to do?

When Leigh told us that she wanted us to compile a research paper on something wacky, I had a great idea: I could research "why black people are stereotyped to always love fried chicken?" I thought this would be great to argue against because one of my best friends is black and he hates fried chicken. I could interview him and my other black friends as well as white friends to get everyones opinion. My close friends and I (we are all diverse) joke about stereotypes all the time and we can be hilarious, so I thought this would be an enjoyable topic. However, I was not sure if there would be scholarly articles on this subject, so I searched: and found nothing.

Now I have a dilemma because I have no idea what to write about. I want to research something interesting that will be intriguing not only to my audience but to me so that I will write a good paper and have fun with it. I really can not think of much to write about though. I had two ideas but then I read everyone else's posts and they stole my ideas (thanks guys). I still have a couple of days to brainstorm and hopefully something interesting will float into my mind.

Paper 2

There are two communities that I would be interested in researching for this paper, as they are ones that I am currently involved in. I would be interested in researching the film community as it is what I hope to be doing in the future. The problem with researching this topic is that I already focused on this for my first paper and that it is difficult to find people to interview, especially in such a short period of time. Another community I would be interested in researching are the people that live abroad and how that affects them. I can relate to this as I have lived in 3 countries, on 3 different continents. It would be interesting to learn how their views are different from mine, and how they feel about their situation. Although my previous paper did touch on this lightly, it was not the main focus of my paper.

Decisions, Decisions...

I wish I could to choose one for the research paper, quite frankly I honestly have no clue what to write about. I have toyed around with several options, each have their own advantages and disadvantages. I could do a paper on Humans versus Zombies, which I played last semester, the interview would be easy to get but finding useful written research would probably be next to impossible. My next thought was on lacrosse, which I had played in high school and would be an easy topic for me to relate to. For lacrosse I could find a plethora of written sources that I could use and I could find someone to interview relatively easily, the down side is that I can't think about any arguments to make about lacrosse. Next came examining Asian societies and comparing them to our own, which is feasible however I can't think of what I could use for an interview. There is probably another topic that I could do my paper on that I just can't think of at the moment, but that would just be adding another decision.

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I'm thinking about researching the videogame/sci-fi nerd group. I'm curious to know what our modern society defines this group as being. We've all seen movies where the nerd is someone that never goes outside, dates, or maintains any meaningful social function. I want to find out if that stereotypical view has changed as our society has advanced and become more technologically based, or if we still hold to our age old traditions. One difficulty in this will be removing my personal bias, because I am a part of what I consider the "nerd" group. I plan to interview people from each point of view; the nerds, jocks, and average joes. This will help alleviate the bias inherent in my own opinion.

Research paper

In all reality I have no idea what my topic for this research paper is gonna be.  I have thought of an idea:  Engineering "cream of the crop" on campus.  The engineering community is pretty large, but at the same time its kinda away from what most people consider FSU.  I would probably argue the fact that engineering as a major is probably one of the most difficult in terms of critical thinking, possibly even surpassing pre-med.  It would not be a very hard thing for me to interview either, except i would probably have to interview a couple people from a few different majors.  It is a very broad idea and I am having trouble going further with it, but I am sure a little more though will make things easier.  THis topic interests me because this is soon going to be my life, and I figure i better start arguing the facts now than later.

Papel Numero Uno

A few nights ago, I began to come up with topics to write about for my research paper. However, most of my topics seemed too obscure, too void of ideas, too uninteresting, or just too difficult to research. However, there was one topic which stood out, and despite my running through my list several times, it was never deleted: writing a research paper on FSU weathercasters as a community.

Although I am a meteorology student, I have little to do with the FSU weathercasters, mostly because I have no interest in "TV weather." However, I am taking a class in weathercasting, so I at least know a few of the regular weathercasters whom I can interview. In short, this essay should be moderate to easy in difficulty to write.

Another paper?!?!

To be quite honest, I have absolutely no idea what I want to write about for the next research paper, I have been too busy to think. Because we have to include an interview as part of our research, I think it will be easier to write about a community I am involved in, but that seems to be a bit too similar to the previous essay. Perhaps I will write about a community I am involved in on campus. Right now, my essay topic seems to be up in the air. Having read the first chapter of The Curious Researcher (for my presentation) I think I will use the advice given in determining a topic to write about. Hopefully something will come to mind, and soon!

Zombies? In my college campus?!?!

As soon as I heard we were going to be writing an 8-10 page research paper about a community, I knew exactly what community I was going to research. The Humans vs. Zombies community that develops during every time the game is played on campus and that even continues after the game. The topic interests me because I started playing the game last semester and I saw and close knit community develop with the playing of each game. I really want to see the thoughts of other people playing and what they think of the game. The positives are that I know some of people that are part of said community and should be able to get a couple of interviews. The negatives might be finding interviews from other campuses that are playing the game and what they think of the community bringing together people that wouldn't normally hang out. But during a fake zombie apocalypse everyone is working together. Another negative might be taking the bias out of the topic, but I'm sure I'll be able to leave it out in the end.

Facing Controversy, Taking a Stand

When we were first told that we'd be writing a ten page research paper that had something to do with communities this semester, I had no idea what I'd even consider writing. Ten pages sounded like a lot at the time, so if I wasn't going to have trouble finding a community I really cared to make some sort of argument about, I'd be struggling to find a topic with enough substance (and enough available resources) to take up that aount of space. This, of course, became a non-issue just a short time later when I began to realize the severity of a problem I've been having at this university since my date of enrollment.

The topic is controversial, and it's very likely that as soon as this blog post is read, I'll be contacted and told that I need to choose something else, or that I'll be graded more critically if I keep my chosen topic. But even if that happens, RI still intend to use this class and what I learn from this assignment to write a paper on this matter and perhaps submit it elsewhere. The community I choose to write about is the Florida State University administrative body. My argument, my angle as it were will deal with how this university views and treats its disabled students, most especially the blind. I've found in my time here that there are many, many blind students who have experienced discrimination on this campus, in their classes, even in the SDRC. I intend to research the state and federal laws that regulate the treatment of disabled people in public postsecondary institutions, the various relevant university policies and procedures and how they compare to what other universities have in place for the purpose of offering disabled students an even playing field, what the current standards are for equal access at universities, etc. I also plan on interviewing several blind students as well as faculty members in the SDRC and other departments. I would love a direct interview with the university president, and I will certainly try for one, but I think that might be unlikely to happen. i intend to do a very thorough job of finding the facts for this paper and giving everyone a chance to share their side of the story before making the final decision on the overall direction and tone of my paper.

Wish me luck!

Next Paper

As soon as we were introduced to paper 2, I thought I knew exactly what I wanted to write about. I am always drawn to the art community because my major is dance and has always been a huge part of my life, therefore, I'd have a lot to say and would know exactly who to interview. However, it would be similar to my first paper and I'm not sure what aspect of the fine arts community I'd want to portray. Maybe I could show how rough of a life it is because I don't think outsiders realize that's it's not an easy thing to make a living of. I would be able to get first hand, personal stories about life experiences in the dance world. I'm still working on trying to think of other options but nothing has come to mind yet that I think I could write such a great deal on and stay interested.

Paper 2

For my second paper I have a few ideas. The first is the Austrian Economist community. However, a negative to this is that it makes me feel like a boring and one dimensional person, since my first paper dealt a lot with how I agree with the Austrian perspective. The positives to this would be that I have the ability to easily get an interview with an Austrian Economist (this has nothing to do with nationality it’s just a perspective or a school of thought), and I could get information to write ten pages about this topic. My other idea is to research the saltwater fishing community. A negative to this is that I don’t know who to interview. Could it be a random saltwater fisherman? Because I could just talk to my father then. If that is the case then that is a positive. To be quite honest, I’d rather not research either because in either case it’s going to be a very boring paper, but I can’t think of anything else to pick to write about.

The first topic interests me because economics is my major and a big interest of mine. After that, the last topic doesn’t really interest me as far as research goes. This is because, while I enjoy saltwater fishing, it isn’t something that I care about writing a ten page paper about.

Oooh, another paper.

As far as the research paper goes, I figured out the topic the second I heard the prompt. There is one thing I know that I want to put down on paper, as an expression of something very near and dear to my heart--Language. I want to write about the community of bilinguals, of polyglots, and about those who believe that this country should be primarily English speaking only. While English as a lingua franca is certainly understandable, there is a strange trend in America that dictates that two years of a language is enough. In Europe, and in other parts of the world, most children are raised bilingual, or trilingual. Why is it that in America, we don't stress this at all? Why is it that high schools feel that two year of a language is sufficient, while in other countries, children begin learning a new language in elementary school? It's a community that has such merits, yet is constantly overlooked by the American school system, and society at large. As far as research goes, because I am a foreign language major, I'm interested in interviewing my Japanese professors, and their outlook on this trend. There are most likely tons of internet resources, showing how this outlook began, and why it is not being changed.

Journal #4: Really, Another Paper?

Use this journal to consider some topics you’re considering writing about for Paper 2. Weigh their positives and negatives, and consider how you might conduct research. Why do these possible topics interest you?

Due: Tuesday, February 9

Paper 1 Reflection

Writing paper number 1 was somewhat of a challenge for me. I couldn’t exactly fit what I actually felt to go with the topic and had difficulty coming up with ideas that went along with it. Up until after turning in the second draft and having the teacher conference I pretty much knew my paper was terrible. If I had turned it in as it was it would be returned to be with a D grade at best. However after the conference, where I was told that I could bend the topic to allow me to express what I wanted to say, I felt that I would be able to write a much more accurate and “attention grabbing” paper. After that it felt like it was all downhill (despite the fact that I only had four days after my conference to rewrite the paper) and my thoughts came relatively quickly. Now I know that I don’t have to stick to the topic as hard as I did on the first two drafts in my next essays. Hopefully, very very hopefully, I do extremely well on this paper and all the other ones that are yet to come.

Reflection

I think the process of paper one was easy. Going through the paper and making corrections on my mistakes was easy and reaching the page limit was not at all difficult. The workshops were helpful because I understood what that person saw in my paper and what they wanted me to fix.
When I first started writing, I did not enjoy it because it was a person topic and I knew that others were going to read it and I like keeping most of my personal life private. Therefore i felt very repressed in my writing. I feel like if I am writing about a topic and most of my ideas are held in it will not be a good paper. But when I got feed back on what details I should add to the paper, it really helped and I started to enjoy the process. Even though I might feel like I wrote a good paper, only my GRADE will tell. :)

Reflection.

From the moment we were assigned this paper to the moment that I finished it, I enjoyed writing this paper.  This is probably because it was about me, and more importantly is the fact that I was writing about a part of my life that i had never put into word.  The overall writing process was fairly easy for the most part asides from a couple of sentences that just would not come to me.  Was it challenging?  Hard to say.  For me the most challenging part of this assignment was choosing what I was gonna write about and then have 5+ pages of things to write about.  And not just random sentences compiled together, but things that could all flow together well.  I guess for me the tough part is getting things to come together.  Because of that, i have definitely learned how I can make papers smoother, so to say.  I've definitely learned that creativity can be almost anything, even just little tweaks to papers can make it more unique.  On my next paper I plan to work harder on coming up with a very good topic (argument) and a really good way to present it.  

Thoughts about paper 1

Paper one was not that difficult because it was just simply writing. There were not very many options to choose from which helps me because then I start thinking of too many ideas. Because I knew the topic was communities it was easy for me to just write without looking up information like I will have to with the research paper. Although it was easy to write it was hard for me to write the entire paper on one community. It was also hard because I couldn't choose just one I wanted to write about. For the next paper I know I need to choose one topic and stick with. The more I change my mind the harder it is to write alot about that topic and fulfil the length requirement. After paper one and the conference I now feel I know how to expand on my ideas a little better, not perfect but still better, and I plan to use that when writing the next paper.

Paper 1

Our first paper wasn't too difficult to write. It's usually relatively easy to write about personal experiences since you know what your going to say throughout the entire paper and no research or learning of new information is needed. However I did find It difficult to get up to the required length without feeling like I was getting too off topic. Which brings me to my next problem of keeping everything on topic and coherent with the rest of the paper. I feel like on personal papers its harder to stay on topic than to actually write, while on research papers its harder to actually write but easier to stay on topic. Overall, I enjoyed this paper compared to what it could of been. It wasn't all that difficult and i struggled at the beginning but overall I think I made a good final draft.

Paper 1

Paper one wasn't hard to write the original draft for me because it's easier to write about personal experiences. The only thing that was difficult with writing the first draft was making sure everything tied into the overall topic and maintained a thread throughout the paper. It got more difficult as the editing and writing continued to make my personal experiences understandable to the reader. I have had to talk about a lot of the experiences I wrote about frequently and am around people in Greek Life so much that I wasn't really writing for an audience who wasn't familiar with sorority life. I learned that making my experiences more detailed doesn't necessarily make the paper drag on but makes it more understandable and relatable to the reader. I also had to learn to make my paper more unique and less like it could apply to anyone in my situation.

My Writing.

I realized in paper one how hard it is to break the mold of only writing five paragraph essays. This paper definitely wasn't the kind of writing that I was used to writing, so it was a new experience for me. I also found it surprisingly difficult to input my own voice into the paper, because I usually only write things that are straight facts, and therefore it made my paper so much less interesting. Also, trying to connect two communities together proved to be much more of a challenge than what I would have thought.

I also learned that I should spend less time thinking of how the paper shold go, and more time writing the paper itself. I think it will be easier for me with paper two if I write my ideas down, instead of just trying to keep them all in my head.

Paper 1 is done

I found that finding a topic for this paper was easy because it was a personal narrative. Even though being able to write about yourself seems like a simple task, I found it somewhat difficult. There is so much to write about yourself that it is hard to choose what is important in your paper, what you shouldn't include, and what will be effective in your writing. A lot of thought was necessary and I feel like I procrastinated a little too much with this paper. I will need to start writing in advance for the next two papers that way I do not have to cram before I turn them in. Overall, I enjoyed writing a personal narrative. I was able to talk about something that is extremely important to me and about how it impacted my life. I hope that the other papers will intrigue me and cause me to be excited to write.

In memory of Paper 1

Paper one for me was indeed a challenge simply because the basis of the paper was difficult to approach, since I didn’t really have an answer to the question it was proposing. In actually writing the paper I found it easiest to just write everything I could think of that related to the topic of communities that described me and from there I trimmed and refined my thoughts into something respectable. For the next paper I write it would be important for me to have an idea of what I want to accomplish in the paper before writing it. Since this last paper came out a little convoluted and had no real point and after making changes it still didn’t seem quite “right”. Also I think I am stuck in a creative writing style do to having to write a lyric essay and several poems last semester, which creates the problem of me conveying ideas in a very abstract manner.

I can't write creatively

Give me a paper where I have to research something and write specifically about the prompt and I do fine. But when I had to write this first paper, I definitely ran into some problems. The hardest thing for me was the language in my paper. I had trouble getting away from using the words role and community, and it showed in my paper and how it wasn't really able to flow that well in the beginning. The paper did get a lot easier however when I was told that it was supposed to be more of a story and that informed me that I could take a more creative look at what I was writing. For this paper I'm definitely going to rethink the ways that I previously looked at research papers and will probably change the way I go about writing it.

easy? really? is that what we're calling it?

At first I wasn't sure what community to write this assignment about, until it hit me. I would write about the family that I have helped build and raise. I definitely got into the basis of this paper, there's a lot that I can say about my family. They're my focal community, everything I do can be somehow linked back to them, and this made the paper easier. I don't have a problem opening up in my writing, which strikes me as odd because I hardly ever talk about the things I write. This openness in writing definitely made this paper easier than it would have been otherwise. The ideas and memories just seemed to flow and flow, and that was part of the problem I had. I had a plethora of ideas and emotions that I wanted to express but the way that I tried to do it just didn't work.

Surprisingly Okay

When I first heard what our writing assignment would be, I wasn't exactly thrilled. I was happy that we would actually be doing a bit of creative, personal work, I didn't feel very enthusiastic about the topic. I belonged to a number of communities. There was my family, my close friends, my fellow Fencers (competitive sword fighting), the blind, homeschoolers, my band, etc. I didn't know where to begin. I didn't want to write about all of these obscure groups, but I also didn't have much to say about any particular group on its own. Furthermore, I doubted any of these topics would interest anyone. I mean, some of them even bore me! Figuring out what I wanted to write, and feeling like I had something worth putting down on paper had to have been the hardest hurdle I had to make it over with this paper... but I did, and I found to my surprise that I was actually really getting into my topic. I started to feel good about my work, and proud of it. That, I think, was huge for me, and I think my future writing will be better because of it.

Paper 1 Reflection

Paper one was not hard to write per say, but it was more difficult to come up with a topic and explain my role in a community. I really don't like writing papers about myself because I personally feel that writing is a poor way (for me) to divulge my feelings and emotions. I can't say I really learned anything about writing, I learned more about myself, in a way. The easiest part, which could also double as the hardest part, was editing. The workshopping provided some helpful hints, but thinking of a different way of conveying a message/ idea was not as easy as I initially thought it would be.

Paper 1- Communities

The writing process in this first paper wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t abnormally hard. Only one thing about it was relatively challenging or hard, and that was not allowing myself to appear to radical in the process of painting a clear picture of where I stand within the community that I wrote about. What made this challenging was the fact that my position within the community is somewhat radical, not compared to the rest of the community, but it is perceived as very radical relative to the rest of the world. This required me to wisely craft my word choice, and this is not to say that I don’t normally try to wisely choose my words, but it is to say that I had to put more effort into it this time than I normally do.

I learned that peer editing was actually useful in writing my paper. Of course this doesn’t change what I would do or not do next time, with the exception that I will continue to put forth effort in peer editing in hopes the my peers will do the same for me.

thumbs up!

I thought that paper one was overall, a fun topic to work with. Since it had so much to do with yourself and personal opinions and experiences, I found it easy to find enough to say. Actually, I ran into the problem of having too many ideas and not knowing how to organize it all successfully. I think that this paper was easier than the upcoming ones will be because it didn't require a lot of effort regarding the research that went into it. Also, I found the peer editing and conferences very helpful. It helped me understand what you would be looking for when reading our papers and students pointed out parts that didn't make sense or didn't have enough detail that I wouldn't have caught myself.

The First Paper, fun!

I will say, I'm not a very open person in general, and paper one called upon me to at least display a little of myself. I didn't mind it, not with the prompt itself really being so open to whatever I wanted to write. It was nice to talk about something that I feel so strongly about, and I'm going to carry that over to paper two. The only way to become a better writer is to simply write--And I think this paper accomplished what it meant to. I found the 'opening up' part difficult, but the writing itself flowed as usual. My usual habit is to write it in one sitting, then come back at certain intervals and revise. That worked well for me this time, and I'm glad that it was well received. I love to write, and I loved working on this paper. The research paper, I'm excited for it. (Not at all sarcasm.) Written assignments are the best things in college, for sure.

After Paper 1

I believe that topic overall was an easy one, especially because it had to do with yourself. The problem with this is that there are many things you can talk about. A difficulty I encountered while writing this paper was trying to keep it within the limits. Since life is always continuing and does not just jump from one situation to another, there is always more that you can include in a paper like this. All of these experiences can be related to your topic somehow, as it is about you, and would end up making an extremely long paper. I believe that by having to include only the most important parts of your life in this paper, we had to learn what was considered essential in writing a paper like this. Another difficulty I found in writing this paper was trying to get the reader to relate to the topic. Since my topic has a lot to do with international views, it is very difficult for people to understand, especially if they have not traveled very much. Next time I would take more time to decide what to talk about, as well as brainstorm more before beginning to write.

Writing paper 1 was interesting for me. I'd never really written anything so deep about myself before, and it allowed me to look inside to see who I really was, who I really had been, why I became who I am today.

Overall, writing the paper was relatively easy since I was just writing about myself; it came naturally. Of course, the first two drafts needed work, but by the third draft, I knew I had something really solid.

Some challenging aspects of the paper were choosing what was important enough to put in and \what was unimportant enought to leave out. However, a vast majority of what I wanted to put into my paper made it into the final cut.

From writing this paper, I learned how to dig through my paper to find more intriguing introductory lines, and I learned that 5 word paragraphs are totally okay to use now that there are no more FCAT graders. Next time I write a semi-narrative piece, I plan to use these strategies more freely and comfortably, and thus more effectively.

Journal 3: Glad That’s Over With!

Now that you’re done with Paper 1, reflect on the writing process. What was easy? What was challenging? What did you learn to do (or not) for next time?

Due: Thursday, February 4