Mapping the Digital Self

Today in class we mapped out what we thought out final project would look like. I used Word to produce a basic layout of project three. This last project will basically be a compilation of project one, project two, and all of the online work we've done in the class. I'll list all the spaces I am apart of online and why exactly these spaces exist. Some posts from Blogger will also be on my display. I'll list my writing checklist which will include tips and strategies for improving your writing. Finally I will includemy webpage. It will be displayed on the laptop computer provided.
My goal for this project is to reflect on all the work I've done throughout the semester. The reason why this project may pose a challenge to some is because most, if not all of this semester's work as been done digitally or online. I'm still bubbling up some creative ideas on how to display my work most effectively.

Editing Process

After Thursday's editing session in class, I revised a paragraph originally written by a classmate. For editing purposes, I utilized syntax, quotations, commas in quotations, puncuation, reduction of redundancy, capitalization, and FANBOYS. The new paragraph is as follows:
Mary spoke to us in class today about writing and how writers must choose the things they write about. She made the comment "High school writing is easy because you write down what you already know, but writing at the university level is tough because you have to choose what to write." I couldn't agree with her more. It is so frustrating when you're writing a paper and realize everything you know about a topic cannot be written. One must pick and choose everything that will be written. Mary wrote a sentence on the board from Picturing Texts stating that "seeing is learned". I wasn't clear on her meaning until she reviewed it with the class. I then realized that one must choose what will and will not be written. And further, I concluded that the decision of what will not be written may sometimes be more critical than what will be written.

Favorable Reception a.k.a. Extra Credit

Today Mary announced that her English 106 students will have the opportunity to earn favorable reception from her. You must submit a "worksheet" exhibiting the use of the editing process dicussed in class today. Be sure to include the attachment with your project two materials. Based on Mary's predisposition toward the grading scale in proportion to the investment of editing that is visible in your work, she will offer reasonable "extra credit". Editing practice may not only give you a grade boost for the second project but it will better the ways in which you present yourself through the four worlds of writing.Your document might include any of the following:
- Paper/project "lined up"
- Resulting realignments
- Selected paragraphs "lined up"
- A selected paragraph demonstrating any edits addressed to the level of mechanics
- the corrected paragraph presented
- A demonstration of the "whole project" addressed for edits

Rhetoric and Creating a Frame

Yesterday in class we briefly discussed some effective rhetorical strategies. The rhetoric of your writing is the intentional composition of your message. The following are some rhetorical devices that can be used to convey your message appropriately: tell a story or narrative, utilize descriptions, illustrations, and or examples, give definitions of key terms, compare and contrast two items, or classify them into different groups. We also discussed how important it is to open up your world to enable yourself to see as much as you can. Text is not bound to words, so when we widen the "frame" we can see all the other parts of the composition which may include images or other mediums. On the other hand, viewing certain selected material allows the deselection of other material. Mary Godwin hit this ideal straight on: "Seeing is a way of not seeing."

How Much is it Worth?

Beginning at day one of my Enlglish 106 course I've learned that the best and only way to become a better writer is to read. In order for reading to mean anything, one must read with comprehension. This means reading at a level that makes you look up about three to five words per page. Picking up "The Cat and the Hat" and taking a quick read is definitely not reading for comprehension. The value of the sentences and paragraphs you write will increase phenomenally through reading. The value or currency of a sentence can be compared to an exchange rate with money. The exchange rate is simply what value your audience will assign to your writing.
There are many ways in which you can increase the value of your composition by breaking down one sentence at a time. Utilizing sentence variety by creating different combinations for the placement of subjects, verbs, and objects will definitely enhance your writing. Employing conjunctive-FANBOYS and introductory words, economic-reducing redundancy, and stacked-prioritized/concentrated ideas you will be a better writer through the improvement of your sentence complexity. Be sure your sentences are clear, without redundancy, certain with authority, and your diction and syntax are sophisticated.
Exercising just a few of these ideas will put you the mind set of becoming a better writer. It is crucial that your audience understands clearly the message you're presenting. Afterall, they will create your exchange rate for you.

Logic in Writing

Yesterday we discussed logic and how important the presence of logic is in any composition. Logic is the idea that particular words make more difference in writing than we though they did. The idea also asks the questions 'What goes with what?' and 'What follows what?'. Argumentation through personal views, contributing views, and opposing views contributes to the logic of a composition. The contributing or supporting views in an argument are implemented the most. Any opposition to the argument is stated nextly, with fewer amount of evidence than the contributing views hold. Lastly are one's personal views. These opinions and stated in the least quantity.
In order to build a solid case for your argument, three crucial steps must be followed. The first step is reasoning logically. The ability to support your case with primary and secondary resources, and facts based on your own experience, makes up the second step. The most important step, also known as the "Money" step, is the ability to anticipate, represent, and respong to your opposition. Without these extremely important building blocks, you will never have a strong case to persuade your audience. You must climb these steps in order to be at the top!

Re: Gilwan's Post

This is a really great post. Gilwan put into words a lot of what I have been thinking. Although this course is challenging, I'm really beginning to grasp what writing is. It's more than just words, it's a combination of process and product. The audience you're directing your writing towards guides to your medium, which in turn leads you to the vocabulary you will chose to use that will be most effective. This is just a short thought. Come back and expand on it.

Re: Gilwans's Post

This is a really great post. Gilwan put into words a lot of what I have been thinking. Although this course is challenging, I'm really beginning to grasp what writing is. It's more than just words, it's a combination of process and product. The audience you're directing your writing towards guides to your medium, which in turn leads you to the vocabulary you will chose to use that will be most effective. This is just a short thought. Come back and expand on it.

Urban Dictionary

When you think about the word 'soldier', I'm sure that an alcoholic beverage distilled from barley and hops isn't the first image that comes to mind. According to Urban Dictionary, it is one of the 26 definitions provided for the word. The idea of having many meanings for one word follows the same idea of the ambiguity of them. From Urban Dictionary I learned that one word can have multiple and many times strange meanings.

Organization

Organization in writing is a very important concept. In order for information to be coherent and easy to understand, it must be organized in a logical way. If the author doesn't organize his or her writing, the reader will get the impression that the writer doesn't know what they're talking about. Once the reader has realized this, they will no longer be interested in reading the rest of the composition or if they do, they won't believe a word of it. In my english class we were given a short paragraph from a book from which our teacher chose. The sentences are out of order and don't make any sense. The paragraph is as follows:


In an article describing the preparation of a dictionary for schoolchildren, Alma Graham recounts the imbalance discovered in schoolbooks in all subjects in use in the early 1970's. In general, the pronouns
he, him and his outnumber she, her, and hers by a ratio of four to one. Not only are women put off, they are also put down, numerically and otherwise. In the real world, women slightly outnumber men. The numbers alone tell us a lot: men outnumber women secen to one, boys outnumber girls two to one; girls are even in the minority in home economics books, where masculine pronouns outnumber feminine ones two to one. But the world created for American schoolchildren presents a different picture. A computer analysis of five million words in context revealed many subtle and no-so-subtle clues to the status of women in American society.

I have organized this clutter of sentences into a paragraph that is chronological, making it easier to understand. This is my new paragraph:

In the real world, women slightly outnumebr men. But the world created for American schoolchildren presents a different picture. A computer analysis of five million words in context revealed many subtle and not-so-subtle clues to the status of women in American society. In an article describing the preparation of a dictionary for schoolchildren, ALma Grahan recounts the imbalance discovered in schoolbooks in all subjects in use in the early 1970's. In general, the pronouns he, him, and his outnumber she, her, and hers by a ratio of four to one. The numbers alone tell us a lot: men outnumber women seven to one, boys outnumber girls two to one; girls are even in the minority in home economics books, where masculine pronouns outnumber feminine ones two to one. Not only are worm put off, they are also put down, numerically and otherwise.

A Precious Gift

As I slept in my ice-cold room last night, I had a nightmare. It was that one of my very good friends was killed in an automobile accident. When I woke up this morning, I came to the realization that I was dreaming. Over the weekend, I lost a close friend. His name was Robby Martin. We'd been friends since middle school and became much closer throughout our high school years. We were each others' "first crushes" years ago. As seniors, we were voted by our class as having the "best rides" in school. Yesterday I looked at our pictures we had taken for the award; it seems like yesterday. After high school, when most were heading off to college, Robby stayed in town and attended Indiana University of South Bend. He worked and hung out with our other friends who stayed in town as well. Unfortunately, Robby's life came to an abrupt end this past weekend.
I've never lost anyone so close in my life. Granted, I've never had to experience a death in my family. Robby's accident has forced me take a step back and look at the big picture, once removed. I've realized that I can't take anything for granted; one second it's there and the next it's gone. This sad situation has caused many of my closest friends and I to become even closer. The girls who moved away to different schools or took different paths than the others - we are now as similar as can be. We share the shock and heartache of this horrifying accident.
I have realized that time is such a precious gift, and I truly believe it is a gift. It should not be wasted on arguing and anger. Rather, it should be directed towards laughter, happiness, and satisfaction. Time should experience friendships and love, not hatred and envy. Unfortunately, it has taken the life of a person who cherished these feelings to make me realize I needed to myself. Thank you Robby. You will stay in our hearts forever.

Google Earth

Google has been pretty popular for me lately. I was amazed when I learned of the new program Gordon introduced to the class on Monday. Unfortunately I was informed about it at the end of class, so I didn't have much time to play with Google Earth. It's one of Google's new features that allows you to view your state, city, and even your house on satellite! It seemed that if my puppies had been outside I could see them too!
Later that evening I made a visit to the computer lab to do some work. My roommate followed along even though she didn't have any work to do in the lab. She kept rushing me to hurry so we could get out of there. I quickly changed her mind. I reached over to her screen and downloaded Google Earth. She didn't say a word for about an hour. It's crazy what technology (and satellite!) can do to people.

Search: Andrea Butiste

Sometimes being able to "Google It" doesn't mean you always want to see it, especially if you're the one being "Googled". This is the situation in my case. I recently spoke in class about how my father "Googled" me and found out some interesting things about my past. We would all find this searching method absolutely harmless. If it's on the Web, it will be there forever. I then realized that I was creating archives, or a history that I would never be able to run from. Here's a thought: people should start being nicer and staying out of trouble. The only problem with this idea is that many people have simply neglected the fact that so much is available on the internet. I never thought either of my parents, or family members for that matter, would have the slightest idea of where or how they could attain this information. It proves Friedman's theory of how the world is getting flatter. People no longer have to go to the library and look through the newspaper archives for hours to get one minute piece of information. Google it, click, and you're there!

The Tenth Flattener - Steroids

Thomas Friedman has come up with ten forces that he's researched and believe have flattened the world. The tenth flattener really does put the icing on the cake, hence the term - steroids. These steroids are turbocharging and amplifying all the other flatteners. They're make it possible for all the others-outsourcing, supply chaining, offshoring, open-sourcing- to be done in a way that is "digital, mobile, virtual, and personal," as Carly Fiorina, former Hewlitt Packard CEO stated. In other words, these "enhancers" are allowing information to be transmitted over computers, satellites, the Internet, and fiber-optic cable for a digital effect. Virtually, information will be transmitted with complete ease and high efficiency. The mobile effect means that this information will be available to you anywhere, with any device, associating with whomever. And finally, these steroids allow you to do all of the transmitting on your own personal device. File sharing, multi-purpose devices like cell phones, laptops, and PDAS, and VoIP (voice over internet protocol) are the smaller pieces to the big picture. The one steroid that sets all the others off is Wireless. Wireless makes being digital, virtual, mobile, and personal all possible. As vice-president of Airespace Alan Cohen stated, "The natural state of communications is wireless." It's what we as humans do to achieve some level of normalcy. All of these steroids are amplifying the other forms of collaboration-the other nine flatteners. People have to do less and less physically to accomplish anything. They're able to work and communicate with anything, from anywhere to anywhere. There are less limits as to what can be accomplished.
Friedman sums up the effect that the tenth flattener has had on us: "Engines talking to computers, talking to people, talking back to the engines, followed by people talking to people-all done from anywhere to anywhere." This is exactly what happens when the other flatteners are enchanced, or turbo-charged by steroids.

20 and On Top of the World

Upon turning twenty this past Wednesday, I had somewhat of a revelation. I was browsing through the newest edition of ever-so-popular magazine Rolling Stone. If I wouldn't have joined this class in August, the article that I stumbled across would never have interested me. It was about Blake Ross. For those of you get absolutely nothing out of that name, you might want to read it again and do some research. This young man is only twenty years old. (Keep in mind that I just celebrated this great age!) The difference between us is that he's not sitting in an English 106 class four days a week. Oh no! He's too busy creating Web browsers like Firefox. Yes, he is the genius who has attracted 87 millions users. Ross has been called "Microsoft's worst nightmare". Firefox improves on Internet Explorer by getting rid of the viruses and pop-ups, something we could all definitely live without. Blake is taking time off from Stanford and the whole Firefox deal to start on something new. He won't tell us what he's brewing up, but I'm sure it will be well worth the time we're waiting. To sum up my findings, I'm 20 years old just like Blake Ross, but the most important thing I've ever created is an English paper that only my teacher sees. This man should definitely come visit me and give me some tips!

FANBOYS

I've never heard of this acronym before. It helps a lot though.

Structure:

T________________________________________________,

FANBOYS_________________________________________.



So you write a complete sentence, then add a comma. After the comma, insert a FANBOYS followed by another complete sentence.

F-For A-And N-Nor B-But O-Or Y-Yet S-So

Andrea Butiste: Purdue English 106

I was very excited to have become part of two more online spaces yesterday in class. The first was del.icio.us. It's a great idea for one person to be able to locate another person's bookmarklets. This allows people to communicate and interact with others who share the same interests, or in the case of this Enlish 106 class, to find people who are researching and discussing the same non-profit organizations. The other space we explored was Flickr, an online space that allows you to view and even upload your own images. Flickr has many interesting features. You can have your name spelled out with different images. Flickr also shows you how to turn your images in gifts and create collections. I never thought that I could be present in so many spaces in the online world. Pretty neat!

Where to Start?

My roommate, Jenny, just received her computer in the mail. And we all think 'Wow! How does any college student go for even a week without their own personal computer'? Her computer had been on order for about two and a half weeks, so she was ecstatic when it finally arrived. I remember her telling me when her parents ordered it and how it was "the best computer on the market right now." The two of us were watching television about a week ago, soon after her computer was ordered, and there was a commercial for a Toshiba laptop. It was the newest on the Toshiba line. Jenny immediately said, "Of course! As soon as I order the newest and best computer, an even better one comes out!" Jenny is a perfect example of Thomas Friedman's idea on how the world is flattening. We're constantly upgrading and trying to get the best of technology-computers, cell phones, iPods, MP3 players-when we can be absolutely sure that within months, weeks, days, or even hours, we'll no longer be able to associate our product with the word 'newest'. You have to start somewhere, though. As I sit and type this blog, some huge technological advances are in action. Huge plans are being thought of, one of which is most likely an online space where I can create another presence. I can't contribute anything to the creators, but they will definitely contribute to my search for new places to identify myself with.
Creating these online presences and returning to them 10 to 15 times a day is still a concept I'm trying to get used to. However, I know that if I don't keep up, I will be stumbled over and left in the dirt. Self-motivation is the key. It's just something you have to do in order to keep up with this ever-changing internet ecosphere. It may be very possible that in the time it takes for me to turn on the TV, I've been run over. Yet I will get up and dust myself off because the longer I wait, the more things will pass me up.
Engl106
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butiste

The Internet as an Ecosphere

David Isenberg said it perfectly: "the value soars when you move the intelligence to the edges and away from the center." A "branching" action like the one Isenberg has described, is true with all systems. Everything you see online is connected or has a correlation to something else. Someone first posts something on the web, which in some way or another is connected to a thought they had or something that happened to them. It may be a complete webpage, a picture, or even just a small blog. ANyone is allowed to comment about anything they to and actually make a change to that site, even though it is not "owned" by the person making the change. A bit confusing, but this process continues and takes on a cyclical form.
How does this sphere pertain the worlds of writing? Mail lists and forums, weblogs, Wikipedia, SMS, and SRS are a few of the branches of the sphere. For one's personal writing, blogging is the perfect tool. That doesn't mean that blogging can only be used for personal writing. At this moment, I'm only blogging for an academic purpose. My English teacher assigned me to write about the ecosphere. So you see, blogging is just a way to get your thoughts down out through some type of medium. One can use just about every branch of this internet ecosphere for all the worlds or writing. Many can be used for more than just one world. And that is the reason this ecosphere is so beneficial to the people who employ it.

Online presence

So I never really realized what exactly an online presence was. I've had some very minimal experience with blogging in the past, but that was the only form of presence I really knew of. I've already been introduced to two more types with the Bloglines aggregator and now Stat Counter. I never knew you could not only see who exactly was reading your writings, but you can also know these people's first and last names and all of their personal information. I hope I don't get any strange phone calls any time soon. I'll know exactly what it was linked to. An online presence is extremely important and most people don't even know what that is, as was the case with me. Our world is advancing day by day, second by second, and if one doesn't establish this presence sometime soon, they'll fall behind and miss out on tons of information that would be beneficial for them to survive in this constantly changing world.

Andrea Butiste: Purdue English 106

I just wanted to comment on our class discussion yesterday. It was more of an analysis of everyone's writing. Not once in my life have I ever been "constructively criticized" in front of everyone in the class. I found it very effective. Not only did this form of discussion make me want to step up the level of my writing abilities, but it also made me aware of the fact that almost everyone is experiencing the same troubles as their fellow classmates are. I felt a sense of unity with others in the class. When Mary first announced that she was going to go through a list with everyone's name on it and tell each student what they needed to work on and what their strong points are, I thought to myself "Oh geez. This is going to be embarassing, at least for me." But when she began to give comments, I realized that she actually took the time to look into each student's writing and choose a few things that she thought would be important to share. Sure, I'm sure Mary could have taken time to meet with each student and discuss these issues, but I definitely prefer this way over any other. Thank you.