Future English 110 Student

Dear Future English 110 Student,

It has been brought to my attention that you are considering or are taking English 110 in the upcoming quarter. This class, while challenging, is fun, and very helpful. I thought I was a good writer and then I took English 110. This is when I realized that I was a good writer, but there was a lot of room for improvement. In this class you deal with topics that you never think about when you write. These topics include tone, audience, ethos, logos, pathos, and whether your writing is timely, compelling and relevant.

While this class is fun and helpful, you will find yourself challenged in this class. This is by no means an easy A. The teachers know that you have better to offer, so they will push you until they get the best work you can do, and until that happens, you will continue to be pushed. You will not only be pushed to show what you already know, but they push you to include what you are learning in class. They know what they are teaching in class will improve your writing, so they really like to see what you are learning in class to be incorporated into your papers. This was one of my problems on my first paper. The first paper was about taking a primary source and analyzing this source. I wrote the paper, and was disappointed in my grade. I wrote a quality paper, and was confused by my grade. I set up a meeting with the teacher, and after that meeting I understood what I did wrong. I wasn’t applying what we learned in class to the paper, and at that same time I realized how much better my paper would have been if I had incorporated what I learned into the paper.

The other interesting part about this class is the public writing. You are given several chances in this class to write for a public audience and also read and analyze public pieces. This is particularly interesting because most of what you’ve written your whole life has been for teachers, not a public audience. You have to learn to tailor your writing so it is appropriate, and interesting to the public. This class gives you the opportunity to do this.

The bottom line? If you are going to take English 110 be prepared to have fun, learn a lot, be challenged, and become a better writer.

Blog Post #4

This is a very interesting prompt. It was very different analyzing readers comments opposed to analyzing the actual article and it’s contents. The articles I choose were both about sports and how it affected society as a whole, this corresponds to my ARP paper. The first article I found was all about sports and commerce, and how it affected society. It talked about the money that sports brings in, and even though sports was not originally intended to make money, society places such an importance on sports that people choose to exploit it as a business opportunity. The author also talked about how this was wrong for people to us sports as a major income source because it is important to society, and essentially people are exploiting society for money. He argued that this was wrong to do. The great thing about this article, is that it is very controversial, therefore the comments had a wide range of opinions.
There were several things I noticed about these comments. The ones that were the most influential had several defining characteristics. First of all, comments that respected the views of the author were more influential. No one appreciates a comment that is disrespectful, it automatically discredits what that person has to say. Where as when the person respects the authors opinion, it shows not only maturity, it also shows intellectual ability. It shows that the person can understand the authors point of view, and just has the ability to argue against that point of view. Second of all, they present their arguments in a rational, logical way. They provide a step by step, detailed train of thought, were the reader can easily follow them and understand their perspective.
The next article I found was more focused on coaches, and how they can affect the players lives. The author thought that the measure of a successful coach should be how many players return the next year. His logic was that a coaches job is to make sure sports is a positive experience, and that can be shown by the number of returning kids. However, this is also controversial, many people believe that it is the values and the lessons the coach instills in the kids. This created controversy again on the posting walls. This time I noticed some other things that were interesting. People who let passion take over their post, don't make a very convincing argument. While passion shows they care, sometimes passion blinds the person to the facts, and they don’t even use facts, or logic. The other thing that noticed was that people who put one sentence responses such as “I agree with the article” or “that is a good point”, they don’t bring anything useful to the conversation, they do no analysis. It just interrupts the flow of the conversation.
These observations I made were very interesting and show me some examples of what to do, and what not to do in my blog post.

Blog Assignment Number 3

My ARP paper is about sports and how many people think it is just a game, but in reality, it can change people’s lives. For my paper I found two secondary sources about sports, motivation, and how sports encourages motivation and changes people lives. However, these sources were both research articles targeted to a highly academic audience. I found two more secondary sources that support my thesis, however these sources are more personal and persuasive and less academic.
The first source was a personal article by a Pittsburgh Steelers fan explaining why sports brings people together. She starts off the article by stating: “Many people are under the impression that sports aren't important and just involve someone throwing or catching a ball. This is simply not true. Sports are just as much a part of our culture as language and television.” (Maddy Pumulia) She further goes on to explain how when she attends a Steelers game she is automatically bonded to the people around her by just being a fan of the same team. They have common ground and she has even hugged complete strangers in the heat of the game. She makes the point that she is Republican, Catholic and loves country music. She then states “I don’t care if the person next to me is a Democrat, Atheist, and loves rap, for the time that game is being played, none of that matters.” The thing I noticed about this source is that it is much more personable. It is not all research, it is personal experiences. This source uses words such as: “I” and “We”. She is trying to connect to her audience by using these words.
My next source was by a sports writer that writes columns for a local newspaper. He write about how people say: “how can being a sports writer make any difference in the world?” He uses the specific example of the when the 10-Year Old Girls Softball team from Washington Township captured the New Jersey State Championship. He explained how the players and the family member rushed the field in celebration, and he, had the job of somehow trying to explain this euphoria in a new article. He said that the most he can hope for is maybe a keepsake for the family, or maybe for a little girl to send that article to her grandmother. At least thats some difference made in their lives. The difference I noticed in his writing, is his tone. He takes up such a personal, friendly tone. He also appears to be addressing you, as opposed to an academic article that appears to be addressing a large audience. The result? An easier, more appealing read to every reader. To accomplish this, he again uses more personal words such as “I” and “We”.
These two sources are the perfect example of how you can take a subject that is largely academic, and make it into a largely persuasive and entertaining article. They also demonstrate how a entertaining and persuasive article can do the same job as a highly academic article.

Sports

My thesis is all about how sports is more than just a game and how it can change lives. Many people view sports as nothing more than silly competition, they see it as black and white. There is a winner, there is a loser. Sports is much deeper than that. It has the ability to make your day happy, sad, gloomy or bright. On an even bigger scale, sports has the ability to inspire hope not only in an individual, but in a whole town, community, state, even the nation. When USA beat the the heavily favored Russian hockey team in 1980 it united America and showed that hockey was more than just a game. It put tensions of the cold war on hold, and more importantly brought all Americans together. This photo is just a spin off the concept that "sports can change a life" because one man's life may be changing forever here. Though, this is not the way sports generally changes lives, it just proves that it can change people's lives in more ways than we can know.

The Horseshoe

Ohio Stadium is perhaps the most recognizable building on Ohio State’s campus. Also known as “The Horseshoe” this is the stadium that The Ohio State football team plays their home games in. The stadium was built in 1922 because the previous stadium was to small to seat everyone who wanted to see the games. Originally built to seat 60,000 there were concerns that the stadium would never be full! Eventually the school made several renovations and the current capacity is now listed at 102,329.

Many people follow and treat Ohio State football religiously. If Ohio State football is a religion, then “The Horseshoe” is the cathedral in which the many faithful followers come to worship. On saturday’s during football season I often feel as if fans are attending their weekly religious session. The stadium contributes greatly to this feeling, but why? Is it the history? Is it the tradition? Is it the actual architecture? All of these things contribute. It could be the victory bell thats played after every win. It could be the rotunda and the columns that give the stadium a very Romanesque feel. Is it just the pure wave of sound that issues from the stadium on gameday. Or is it the traditional singing of "Carmen Ohio" after every game, win or lose? Whatever is it, It makes for the best game day experience in America. I don’t think anyone can answer the question. The only thing people can do is explain the feeling that they receive when they attend a Buckeye game with 105,000 other believers. Trust me, it’s a great feeling.

Aaron Stevenson

Blog Assignment Number 1

Does anyone else love public writing? I do. To me, no writing is better than public writing. The thrill that I receive from seeing or hearing my writing in public is second to none. When I see my writing in public, I see my work, my thoughts, and my opinion being broadcast to everyone. What other kind of writing could be better? I mean, isn’t that the inherit point of writing? To put your thoughts and feelings down on paper and have others read it? If you ask me, there is not point to writing if no one reads it.

Now, when I write, and I know that others will read it, that makes writing exciting. If only one or two people are going to read it, thats not exciting. The bigger the audience the more exciting writing becomes. When there is an extremely big audience I try to make it creative, fun, and the best paper possible because I know that every single person will read it and critique it. I would say its the pressure that makes public writing exciting. It’s the pressure that other people will judge me off of how I write and how I think. This pressure makes me concentrate and focus on every word, every sentence, every page, and all the little things in between. Thats what makes it nerve-racking and exciting. Some people say it’s the ability to thrive under pressure, I just think its the ability to realize pressure, and enjoy it.

Aaron Stevenson