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WORKS-IN-PROGRESS

Common First Week Video Reflection

August 29, 2016
  1. Describe your process. Which steps did you find most effective? Least?

       When I was first assigned this project I was very confused. I started to take notes on possible ideas for the video when we went over some of the common struggles our class has with the different modes of communication, WOVEN. After we talked about the disconnect and love hate relationship with electronic communication I had an idea of what I wanted to have my video about. After bouncing some more ideas off with my roommate, I decided that I felt most connected and comfortable with making my video about electronic communication. I then wrote a rough draft script and had my roommate review and edit it for me. Then I read it out loud a couple of times and decided it flowed well and I could start recording. I took around 20 videos before I was satisfied with one video to upload it.

   2. What part of your project are you most satisfied with and why?

     I think I am most satisfied with my script for my video. Usually I have writers block when just starting a piece of writing; however, this time the writing kind of just flowed through me. I felt that it was very easy to get out what I wanted to say and I had fun with the creativity of the script.

  3. If you could redo any part of your process or product, what would you change and why?

     If I could redo any part of my video process, I would probably make the video look more professional. I was a little confused on how exactly the video was supposed to look. Since I live in a dorm, I didn’t really have any other area to film the video on a Sunday afternoon other than my dorm room. This is the first time I have ever filmed on my computer too which was a little awkward for me at first. I think if I had more time, I would have been able to execute the video more professionally. I probably would have also added more elements to the video to make it more entertaining rather than just me sitting in front of the camera talking to it.

Spinning Science Introduction Draft

September 12, 2016

          In a world where the majority of the people are "meat-eaters", the usual response to meat is generally not regarded in a negative way; certainly, nowhere near the level that smoking is. As the scary health effects of smoking have become known, society as a whole has tended to have negative views toward smoking. The normal person would not equate eating meat to smoking cigarettes. While meat provides vital proteins to the human body, smoking provides black tar that leads to heart and lung diseases. The pro-vegan organization PETA takes their message to a whole another level by saying that meat, like smoking will "increase the risk of heart disease and cancer." PETA is an organization created to promote the ethical treatment of animals. They released this advertisement in order to guilt parents in general from letting their children eat meat. This advertisement is encouraging people to go vegan because apparently eating meat is just as dangerous as smoking.  PETA uses each of the appeals pathos, ethos, and logos in order to promote the purpose of the ad, which is to alarm and motivate people to not eat meat and to go vegan. 

Spinning Science Peer Review

September 16, 2016

Peer Review Process: 9/16/16

1. Grade your peer’s project according to the provided grading rubric

Johnny:

Rhetorical Awareness: Competent

Stance: Competent

Development of Ideas: Competent (I feel like you had good ideas but jumped around more than focusing well on the main ideas)

Organization: Exemplary (Your website was easy to navigate and it was obvious which part of the project I was reading)

Conventions: Mature (Some grammatical errors and choppy sentences)

Design for Medium: Mature

2. 1-3 sentences describing what you learned about your writing for your project through the peer review session. 

         I learned that I had a good analysis of each component; however, I need to make a point to have a conclusion at the end of each component. For the PETA section I did well with all aspects analyzing but with the other two pages I need to go more in depth with the picuture. I did well analysing what I already had but I could have added more. 

 

3.Your plan to revise your project.

          I will analyze the childs appearance more along with the significance of the change of yellow background to white. I will add a conclusion to each page. Finally, I will analyze the statement made on the advertisment to a deeper level.

MuddyBot

September 21, 2016

          The primary difference between the two articles about 'MuddyBot' was how in depth the articles went into the science behind researching and creating the robot to resemble the African mudskipper. The Georgia Tech news article explained every process of creating the robot including the research that went behind it. Meanwhile, the Popular Science news article only hit the main points while keeping the article short to keep the reader engaged. The difference between Popular Science and Georgia Tech publications is that Popular Science is posting this news article for an entertainment standpoint while Georgia Tech is reporting their findings and creation. The Georgia Tech article uses very scientific words and is more of a scientific report than a general article relating to the general public. The Georiga Tech one gives credit to everyone who worked and was involved in the project. The Popular Science article only gives credit to Georgia Tech. Another major difference was that Georgia Tech posted within the article their citations and contact information if someone reading the article has a question. As a publication, Popular Science is an entertainment website that gives the short and dirty of scientific findings and the Georiga Tech News is very much a scientific article website. 

Why do talking dogs matter?

September 26, 2016

          Teaching dogs to talk appeals to a vast majority of people because people are interested in helping others, and training dogs to do so allows us to help others through new means. 

"Curious" by Kim Todd

October 28, 2016

          In "Curious" by Kim Todd, Todd makes the argument that curiosity is what drives people to discover and innovate new things. The quote on page 5, "This kinship to physical passion—the strength of desire, the burst of delight—makes curiosity waver between vice and virtue. Intellectual curiosity sparks science, art, all kinds of innovation" supports this argument. To me this quote means that as humans we are eager to know or want to learn something, simply the definition of curiosity and once we fulfill our curiosity we often find certain limits or new things. 

Graslie

          The TEDX talk by Emily Graslie talks about the importance of curiosity for the preservation of natural history, and the value it brings to our everyday. Her argument is that human's curiosity is what drives what will be on display in natural history museums. She makes this argument through the visual aspect of showing the pictures of different artifacts that make it to the display in a museum and the ones that do not. People are more likely to want to see an environment or animal that they wouldn't have seen otherwise or a beautiful gem rather than an ugly brown fish. 

Quotation Sandwich Revision!!!

November 2, 2016
November 30, 2016

          I always knew that I had a passion for science; however, usually you hear people say well you are either a science and math person or an English person. I never thought I would take an English class on science, but when I stepped into English 1101 on the first day of class I found out that I would be taking an English course on "Science in Public." At first I had a sigh of relief when I found this out because having known that I was not an inclined writer, at least I would be writing about something that I enjoyed. 

October 28, 2016

Original Blog: 

          "The Really Big One" by Kathryn Schulz is a really terrifying article about the inevitable earthquake that is coming to our demise. Schulz describes the disturbing effects of the Cascadia earthquake and tsunami that we have known about for roughly 45 years. It is estimated that “nearly thirteen thousand people will die…another twenty-seven thousand will be injured, and…shelter will be needed for a million displaced people, and food and water for another two and a half million.” If those statistics don’t make you wonder why American’s aren’t doing anything to prepare for this natural disaster, then I don’t know what will. Before reading this article, I was unaware of the Cascadia earthquake. Maybe that is because I don’t live in an area that will be affected by the earthquake and tsunami but just a few years ago I went on vacation to California and still never heard about this earthquake. That scares me and I don’t think I would want to vacation there again knowing what could possibly happen while I am there. Why are people not talking about this? If I do not want to visit the area that has a potential for an 8-9.5 earthquake, then why are people living there not doing anything to prepare? Perhaps humans believe that nothing bad will happen to them and therefore do not need to prepare for such events. There are so many lifesaving functions that can be currently put in place in order to prepare and minimize the effects of the earthquake as much as possible. However, none of these things are being put in place. I do not believe that the people within the possibly affected area should live everyday of their lives in fear; however, I do believe that they should take some basic steps to protect themselves and those around them in order to understand the inherent risks and work to alleviate some of them.

Revised Quotation Sandwich: 

"The Really Big One" by Kathryn Schulz is a really terrifying article about the inevitable earthquake that is coming to our demise. The Cascadia earthquake and tsunami has been known about for roughly 45 years, yet little is being done to prepare for such a horrific event.  Schulz describes the disturbing effects of the Cascadia earthquake and tsunami by quoting FEMA, the Federal Emergence Management Agency. It is estimated that “nearly thirteen thousand people will die…another twenty-seven thousand will be injured, and…shelter will be needed for a million displaced people, and food and water for another two and a half million.” If those statistics don’t make you wonder why American’s aren’t doing anything to prepare for this natural disaster, then I don’t know what will. Even FEMA, a government agency, is concerned and aware about the magnitude of this earthquake and tsunami, yet nothing is being done still!  Before reading this article, I was unaware of the Cascadia earthquake. Maybe that is because I don’t live in an area that will be affected by the earthquake and tsunami but just a few years ago I went on vacation to California and still never heard about this earthquake. That scares me and I don’t think I would want to vacation there again knowing what could possibly happen while I am there. Why are people not talking about this? If I do not want to visit the area that has a potential for an 8-9.5 magnitude earthquake, then why are people living there not doing anything to prepare? Perhaps humans believe that nothing bad will happen to them and therefore do not need to prepare for such events. There are so many lifesaving functions that can be currently put in place in order to prepare and minimize the effects of the earthquake as much as possible. However, none of these things are being put in place. I do not believe that the people within the possibly affected area should live everyday of their lives in fear; however, I do believe that they should take some basic steps to protect themselves and those around them in order to understand the inherent risks and work to alleviate some of them.

Final Portfolio Introduction Draft

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