Peer Review Assesment

After further examining my peer reviews and margin comments, as well as those peer reviews and margin comments others have left for me, I have noticed that the theme that continues to be seen is how the paper flows together. Transition from sentence to sentence or paragraph to paragraph seem to be more of an issue in my peers comments than grammar or spelling. This does not mean spelling and grammar do not need work, but rather that my peer reviewers and myself, at this point in the writing process, know that the focus of editing should be content based. I try to include more content based comments in my peer reviews as well as address areas that seem as if they would be confusing to the average reader. This, again, is a tactic that my peers have also used in reviewing my writing, even including suggestions on how the sentence could be reworded to make more sense or take out to clarify a point. I feel that after going through the peer review process with my group members only twice, I have began to see the areas of my writing that readers enjoy as well as areas of repeated concern. Also, in reading my peers papers, I believe I have somewhat taken on aspects of their writing styles that have consequently helped me as a writer. Having said this, the single most helpful step of any peer review or draft process, for me, has probably been the first step in which the writer reads his/her own paper aloud to the other members of the group. This helps tremendously, I think almost everyone I saw or heard read their paper aloud (myself included) found at least one place where he/she could identify a correction that needed to be made, before anyone else had the chance to identify it. 

The Virtual Life We Live

There seems to be an underlying question throughout the article cyber ritual, can virtual interaction adequately replace 'real' interaction. I feel that to accurately access this question one must look no further than the omnipresent Facebook. Facebook is, in a way, a virtual world that allows people to create their profile to represent themselves as they chose, and 'interact' with others that are doing the same. With over 500 million users and growing it is clear that the demographic the site is after seems to be everyone, there seems to be no demographic the site has not reached. The site is used primarily for communication and more recently has become advertisement and business based. Communication on Facebook may be considered by some to be real, but, as mentioned in my research based argumentative paper, there is a substantial difference in the social skills we form as adults stem from much needed face to face interaction and conversation with others as adolescences. In the same way, I think a virtual church or temple seem to adequately supplement the action of church-going worshipers; however, in my eyes, it could never be considered a replacement of the other. Often we see that people are so entangled in the virtual world of Facebook that they seem to be unaware of what is going on in the 'real world'. I'm sure we all know someone that is always on Facebook, if it is not yourself. 

A blog about blogs

 Upon starting this course I had not previously kept any kind of blog, so the concept was definitely a bit overwhelming at first. Not because of the writing required, as that is usually the easy part, and most blogs are on topics of our choosing and the others are on topics that are relevant to what we are doing in class; but the trouble, I find, is writing something that you feel confident on placing on the Internet for any and everyone to see, read, and judge. Coming in as a fairly confident writer, I did not expect that the blog entries would give me any problems, but I could not have been more wrong..  The first blog was to be on a topic of our choice, a challenge unto itself, what topic should I chose? What will be an interesting topic that I know enough about to write about and that my peers will also find interesting and worthy of reading? So I thought, I read some other blogs to get an idea of what other people were writing about and that is when I discovered that I was spending too much time thinking about what I wanted to write instead of just writing it. I felt that the point of the blog was being missed by the attempt to write something that was going to satisfy the reader(s). The proper way to go about it would be to sit down, read the prompt, if any, and then just write, not for the people who may or may not eventually read the post, but for yourself. That is what I found to be the most important thing to remember throughout this process. I have found this in other students writings as well, as the topics that seem to draw the most attention are those on topics that may seem, at first, only relevant or important to those involved. 

My View of Peer Review

       The peer review process is not a new concept to me, as I have been required to do so throughout my education. However, the method we have been asked to use is unlike anything I have ever been exposed to. For me, peer reviews were always a chance to read over another classmates paper, as he or she read over mine, and try to find more grammatical and spelling errors in theirs than he or she could find in mine. I remember at one point we were asked to make what was called a compliment sandwich, this would consist of a compliment, followed by an area that could use some work, and then finished up with another compliment. Lame, I agree, which is probably why no one took it seriously and the comments were usually vague and generic: "I like your story. Use more detail. I like the ending."         The peer review technique that Straub recommends and we have been using in class, on the other hand, is one that is designed to effectively better the writers paper by focusing more on the story and how it is told, than how it has translated onto paper. This technique stresses that the reader/reviewer should not try to fix everything in the paper, but focus on two or three main aspects of the writing. Also, the technique suggests leaving as many compliments as comments. Allow the writer to know which areas you like as well as those that need work, and to be specific with the reasoning behind the comments. Straub reminds us that we are only readers, and in the end the paper will have the writer's name on it; with this in mind, be polite with suggestions as they are only that, a suggestion to the writer.          I feel that this method of peer review will be more helpful than those I have used in the past from the readers standpoint, but I feel it is almost just as helpful from the writers perspective as well as when writing your own paper. The comments I have received on my paper were all very helpful when looking back at my own paper because it gives me a specific area that needs work and goes into detail on why the reviewer thought so, in fact, I even had a few comments which contained examples on how it could be written. I feel like after only one session of peer review I am beginning to understand the benefits of peer review as it should be, and why it is such an important part of he writing process.

Taylor's Take on Tech

     Over the weekend I got the chance to babysit my 20 month old niece Makayla Rayne, as I do once every month or so. I could go on for days about the cute things she does and says and how funny it is to watch her, but I am certain everyone has the same or similar stories, so instead I would like to take a different approach and discuss the thing that I witnessed that really got me thinking. I saw her pick up my iPad at one point, with the cover on and closed, I did not think twice that she would so much as begin to open it to get to the touchscreen. Little did I know my niece is the most technologically advanced twenty month old around, not only had she managed to open the iPad, she somehow knew how to turn the screen on and then proceeded to unlock it, navigate to the home screen, and begin to check the weather. Now I am not sure why someone less than two years old would need to know the forecast, and the conclusion I came to is that it was the most colorful 'app' on the homescreen, but nevertheless I was blown away by her ability to use and seemingly comprehend such an advanced piece of technology with relative ease.         With technology like the smartphones and tablets and the rise of social networking that is so abundant today, the generation that is being born now will be exposed to more technological advances and more influence from the global community than ever before. The ability of the internet to connect a vast audience of people, and the capability of technology to keep us constantly connected to the internet have truly changed society today. For example, cell phones twenty years ago were only that, a phone, and today you can surf the internet, send emails, use GPS, or take HD video and post it to the Internet within seconds. Obviously these things are necessary to some people, but at some point there is no denying that a majority of people are becoming unnecessarily dependent on their mobile devices and technology for the wrong reasons. (Your text or game of Angry Birds is not worth getting in a car accident over)          I will admit I have even seen a change in how technology has changed my life as a student. As a matter of fact, at the moment, I am using my iPad to type my homework, which I will submit to my professor and class via blog. This in itself is somewhat of a new concept for me, as I was used to doing most of my writing on paper, and submitting drafts to receive corrections from the teacher. I am fully aware that written language will not just drop off completely, but I do not think it is outrageous to assume that a decline in written language, as it should be, is inevitable. Another facet of the 'modern classroom' that is new to me is the idea of putting my writing, and therefore my thoughts and opinions, on the Internet for everyone to see. I am an outgoing person, but I still have a bit of an issue with displaying my opinions for others to read and critique, especially a large audience such as, I don't know, the Internet... Only time will tell if the balance, or lack thereof, of technology in young peoples lives will be for the better or not, but I am skeptic. As I feel society has passed the days when writing was an art and reading was compelling, to the days where reading is a hassle and writing is only for authors, and those in college writing courses. 

Country. Born and Raised, but tryin' to change.

     I grew up in a rural town about an hour away from anything worth talking about. My high school had a week dedicated to the Future Farmers of America, and a day on which students were even allowed to drive their tractor to school. I think it is safe to say my educational upbringing was into what I assume people would refer to as 'country talk'. 'Country talk' could be indicated by several differences in the spoken language from the speed at which people seem to speak to the tone they speak with. 'Country' slang may consist grammatical errors such as the use of double negatives.  Words such as ain't,  yonder, and y'all come into use often. Speakers often leave the g off of a verb for example "talkin" as opposed to "talking", which is seen in other accents as well, but not as often in the formal speech of the language. The language has what some describe as a "twang", I believe this refers mostly to the way some speakers draw out the vowel sounds in some words.      Having a mother from the north, but not the "Yankee north" (no offense) as well as advanced classes in school had given me a pretty good balance of what proper English was supposed to sound like. With all those things in my favor, I still ended up sounding as if I were raised on a farm.      I do not remember the moment at which it happened, but at some point during my life I realized that it was imperative that I get away from having an accent that indicated that I was from the south. As proud as I am of where I was born and raised, it is undeniable that people associate and most likely always will associate the rural south with uneducated people. I feel that as I get older and continue to travel throughout the United States and the world I feel that I do not want people to mistake me for someone that is not well educated. I aim to be and sound like an intelligent, professional person when I converse and conduct business with others and in order to do this I have to work on how well I speak.       Over the past few years I have been trying to distance myself from and remove the 'country' from my speech. This has been a difficult task as I had been exposed to and surrounded by nothing but this way of speaking for the majority of my childhood. I feel that being at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte has made it easier to drop the accent as I have been surrounded by such a culturally diverse group of people, all with unique accents and dialects of their own, many of which more proper than what I had been exposed to for a majority of my learning career. One thing I cannot drop with the accent, has been my use of the words Sir and Mam. In my travels I have come to realize that people in different parts of the US do not use or hear these words frequently if ever.  Where I am from, regardless of your age or position in society a gentleman will use sir and mam when speaking to a elder or authority figure. I do realize that this may link me to my southern, country upbringing, but in that case, I would rather be mistaken as dumb and respectful, than disrespectful. 

Literacy and Language

  In continuing the discussion on literacy I feel it necessary to mention the separation of regions, dialects, and social classes as mentioned in the readings. I will admit I had very little knowledge of the number of variations of the Spanish language. These variations strengthen the bonds of the local community by drawing them nearer with a common bond, while spreading the language as a whole at the same time. This can be a good thing to a  certain degree, but does it also come with a price? Will regional, social, and dialect variations cause us to one day get so far from a central language that one person may be misjudged or subject to prejudice because another's misinterpretation.  Another thing that I feel is changing is the bountries that prevent these variations of language from spreading. The most obvious boundary has always been physical, seperation of colonies and tribes by land and water created it's own limits on where any given language could travel. In the present, the physical boundaries are no longer an issue to a greater majority of our country and I would think the civilized world in general. As technology, networking, and more specifically social networking expands we will only become closer to those in other cultures and parts of the world, perhaps picking up subtleties in other languages and incorporating and infusing them into our own. While, this will be something that would likely take years or decades to begin seeing in our everyday lives, I am certain that one day we will begin to see it. I think people today take for granted how easily language is changed and manipulated, even within a family, from generation to generation there are differences that are brought on only by influences in society. Will it be for the better or for the worse? That is for us to decide.

Literacy.

        After the discussion in class Tuesday about literacy I found myself with more questions than answers regarding the correlation between literacy and knowledge. Also, I began to question how either relates to a persons worth and place in society as well as in the workforce. I feel that there are several misconceptions that are common when discussing literacy in these contexts.                              First, we must find a definition, that most accurately matches what literacy means to us as a society. This may prove to be the hardest part, as being able to test ones ability to read and write may be a simple task, but being able to determine who can do so well, may be more difficult. Then, we must ask ourselves if those who are literate, by the standards of our tests, are any more intelligent than those whom the test deem illiterate. Also, not a simple task as there are numerous reasons that could cause inconsistencies in the results of the test. These reasons include such things as dialect, cultural influences, regional influences, and formality or context of the situation. As an example I refer to a study that I have read about in the past. The study compared similar students in high income schools to those in lower income schools in the same general area, the students were asked to provide synonyms for the words provided. Many of the words received the same answers, but a few of the words drew attention from the scorers. The word 'blaze' in particular stood out to me, as the high income schools' students were able to provide an answer that was 'correct' such as fire or burn. Several students at the lower income schools however used the words 'to smoke' as their answer, which was marked wrong for the purpose of the test, but given their history and the culture that they have been accustomed to, it was a correct answer to them. Literacy would be an easy quality to quantify if there were not so many subtle differences and inconsistencies throughout our language, however there are those differences. Those differences and the ability of language to adapt and evolve to fit the surroundings and the situation is what makes it so important in society today.         Next, we discussed the relation of ones worth or place in society and said persons literary ability. This topic is one that, I feel, has likely changed the most over time, as in the early years of the 20th century the literacy requirements in the workplace were probably of the least importance they have been, something that eventually changed into  more of what we see today where an employee must show the ability to read and write just to apply for a position. However, I believe that technology is leading us to become more lazy and complacent with what we have learned about reading and writing. Twenty years ago there was no such thing as spell check on computers and now our PHONES will auto complete and auto correct our sentences and words for us, if we even still type them, as now many programs have been developed to read and write for us by speaking. I feel that this advance in technology is solely responsible what I consider to be the beginning of the end as far as intelligent language is concerned. A statistic that I feel supports this theory is that of the most recent SAT scoring studies that prove the generation of students (those graduating 2013) have had the lowest SAT scores since the conception of the SAT in 1926. I feel this to be a direct result of the technology dependent society we live in today.

I will do it... Later

Webster's dictionary defines the word procrastination as putting off intentionally  something you know must be done. I believe everyone can relate or think back to a time when they may have put off an important task which need to be finished or may have had a deadline for something of less importance. Maybe it was a task as minuscule as writing a blog for your English course and instead you decided that going to the mountains because it snowed this weekend and you haven't been snowboarding since last season. (hypothetically speaking of course). Or perhaps it was something more serious such as missing a plane and having to take an extra thirty hours and almost fifteen hundred miles of flights just to get to an airport that could fly me home. If I remember correctly the trip went San Francisco to Oakland via bus, then flew from Oakland to Phoenix, from Phoenix to Las Vegas, from Vegas to San Diego and San Diego to Charlotte. 
My ability to procrastinate, or inability to prioritize, to has certainly caused a bit of problem and some undue stress in my life, but I feel that it may also be somewhat beneficial, because I seem to do my best work when I have a strict deadline to work with. However, I feel that eventually the negatives of my habitual procrastination will outweigh the benefits I get from always being motivated by a deadline, and I am going to do my best to better prioritize and stop procrastinating. Tomorrow...