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1) Me, a Writer - Attitude: Describe your attitude toward completing this English Composition course. As part of the description, explore how your feelings about being required to take a composition course may affect your performance in accomplishing the course objectives. (1 paragraph, 5 sentences)

 

Word is everything, and must be used wisely, as it is our primary means of communicating and receiving information. I’m not always sure my writing style is strong so it clearly and honestly conveys what I want to say. I’m hoping this composition course gives me the basics in developing a good writing style, but that writing so rote doesn’t destroy my ‘free writing style.’ Doing journal entries gives me a little trepidation. Will the revelations strengthen my writer’s resolve, or put me on another path?

 

2) Brainstorm about specific positive and negative effects computers have had on your personal,

professional and academic life. (a list of 5 would be good.)

 

Personal

Pro

1. Email and the social online membership sites, such as Facebook, allow you to keep in contact with more people and more often.

2. Online news sites: You can read more news from different sources, and hopefully providing it from different perspectives, allowing you to be fully informed and form an opinion on current events.

Con

1. There’s so much you can do online, it’s addictive and overuse can cause physical pain.

Professional

Pro

1. Software allows employees to telecommute.

Academic Life

Pro

1. The number of educational materials now online, previously accessible only through print and in libraries, makes it so much easier to find resources and information.

Thesis: based on your brainstorming,

Write a one-sentence working thesis statement that focuses on the impact of computers related to a single area of your life (personal, professional, or academic). The thesis should be directed to readers of your local newspaper. (Thesis statement written out. One sentence. No particular format)

 

Using computers is addictive, and causes physical pains, but the ability to keep in contact with family, friends, and even telecommute, as well as quickly resource information, means every person should own a computer.

 

3) This entry builds on the brainstorming and thesis you developed.

Evidence: Identify three different types of evidence you could use to develop your working thesis. Use specific information from your brainstorming list, as well as any other ideas that come to you (Length open)

 

1. Interview family members, co-workers, and schoolmates:

- How many hours do they use the computer each day? Determine an average.

- What physical discomforts or pains, if any, do they get from using the computer, and how often?

2. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Obtain usage of computer data.

U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2005). Computer and Internet Use at Work, 2005. Washington D.C.: U. S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved (date) from .

3. Articles on computer usage and medical issues arising from the use of computers, such as …

Wiley-Blackwell (2009, May 6). Computer Use Significantly Affected By Arthritis. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 4, 2010, from /releases/2009/04/090430144733.htm

Organization: Choose a method of organization for your evidence. Using that evidence, prepare an outline or simulate a graphic organizer to show your organizational plan for the one page essay. (Length open)

Title: Computers – Benefits for Use Outweigh Medical Issues in Usage

Abstract

Introduction

Number and categories of people in the United States who own and use computers, at work and for personal use

 

Most popular reasons a computer is used in one’s personal, professional, and educational life

Medical issues that arise from computer use

Summary and Conclusion

References

 

4) Narration - Outline one specific time in your life when you felt extremely stressed by the pressure to succeed in your studies, perform on the job (if applicable), and spend time with family and friends. Use the following labels to sketch out the details for your narrative of that time.

 (Martha, replace Ruthie with the name of your mom.)

Scene: Around 11pm, College dorm room

Key actions:

Ruthie, Martha’s mom, chain smokes as she moves through Martha’s dorm room, snooping through the closet, her books, her bed sheets, while giving every inch of the room the ‘dust finger.’

Martha does homework on her computer, trying not to be distracted by her mother’s actions and questions.

Key participants:

Ruthie, Martha’s mom.

Martha, a first year college student.

Key lines of dialogue

Martha

I can get one of my friends to take you back to the bus station. You don’t have to take a cab.

Ruthie

Have you gained weight? You probably eat nothing but junk food with the schedule you keep. School, work. I took a cab here. I’ll take a cab back.

Martha

I’ll ride in the cab with you.

Ruthie

I can ride by myself. I’m a grown woman. I can get to your uncle’s funeral, even if your father didn’t want to come.

Martha

I offered to go with you. You …

Ruthie

How can you go to a funeral when you don’t have time to come home? Your uncle’s dead. He’ll survive.

Martha

I can take my computer with me.

Ruthie

… but I guess you can’t bring it home! What time is it?

Feelings:

Ruthie – distant, angry

Martha – angry, sad

5.) Description - Think of an experience in which you faced an important test (either in school, work, or a personal situation).

Sensory Details: List two specific concrete, original details for each sense describing the particular testing event (Open):

 

Sight

1. The store manager’s office was small, crammed, cluttered, with no windows.

2. Dressed in jeans, t-shirt, and hooded sweat jacket, I sat facing the manager, crammed between his desk and a file cabinet.

Sound

1. Outside his closed door are the muted sounds of store activity – shoppers talking, bags rustling, shoes scuffling across the carpet.

2. Inside his office the loudest sound is the quiet hum of his computer.

Smell

1. Office air stale from no ventilation, body odor and coffee.

2. Slight mustard smell from opened mustard packet in the trashcan.

Taste

1. Stale office air that settles around the inside of my mouth.

2. The sour apple Jolly Ranger that’s now just sitting inside my mouth.

Touch

1. The roughness in the denim of my jeans.

2. The hard steel chair slats against my back.

Comparison: write one fresh, creative comparison for one of your details (one simile or metaphor).

 Simile: The stale air was like an interrogation itself, feeling like a straight jacket around my body and a vise around my lungs.

Evaluation: For which of the five senses was it easiest to write sensory details? For which was it most difficult? Why? (1 paragraph, 5 sentences)

 

The easiest sense to write about was sight because I’m a visual person. When I remember, I look up to see ‘it.’ Trying to remember, then describe, touch was the most difficult of the five senses. While we touch things all day long, we don’t always remember how it feels until we can recall the jar to our senses. The chair slats were very hard.

6.) Illustration - Think about what life is like when you're able to keep a healthy balance among all your responsibilities - studies, career, family, friends, and your own needs. Remember specific times you struggled to achieve this balance. Through each experience you learned something that helped you better balance being a student with the other demands of your life.

 

Feelings and situations: First, list several words describing how you feel about this balancing act (at least 10 words). Then for three of the words, identify an example from our experience that illustrates your feelings. Use a different experience for each word. (3 paragraphs, 3 sentences each).

Angry

Sad

Out of sorts

Elated

Accomplished

Smart

Strong

Free

Disappointed

Distracted

Failure

For the first time in my life, I was on my own, in college, away from home. I had to balance my full class schedule with a full-time job, but I was working it. I was elated that I was doing so well.

When this high school honor roll student got her first Econ grade, a D+, I felt like a failure. Maybe I wasn’t all that anymore, nor could do all that, as I thought. I took to my bed, fetal under the covers.

I’m not a quitter. I rebalanced when and how I studied. At the end of the semester I pulled a B+ average overall, feeling accomplished.

 

7.) Definition - Prewrite: Examine the term cheating as it relates to one of the following contexts: your career, your family, or your personal needs. Don't write about cheating as it relates to academic studies. Explore the meaning of cheating by describing the feelings you associate with the term, the history or etymology of the word (check a dictionary), and distinguishing characteristics with supporting details, Also use negation and exceptions ( 1 page, Open)

(- single spaced, - history, feelings, characteristics of the feelings you describe, - include exceptions to these characteristics, as well as negations of the characteristics)

 

Cheating

Cheating

Origin: 1325–75; ME chet (n.) (aph. for achet, var. of eschet escheat); cheten to escheat, deriv. of chet (n.)

Verb (used without object)

1. To take an examination or test in a dishonest way, as by improper access to answers.

Informal. to be sexually unfaithful (often fol. by on).

2. To violate rules or regulations.

3. To defraud; swindle.

Noun

1. A person who acts dishonestly, deceives, or defrauds.

2. An impostor.

I cheated my grandmother from the time I was six until she died. I told her the same lie over and over – mom won’t take me with her shopping unless I have some money. So grandma slipped into her worn leather coin purse and gave me 50 cents, every time. I then left her to scamper downtown with my mom and sister. The two shiny quarters burning a hole in my pocket, not from guilt, but desire to spend. I lied until my grandmother died. Then I stopped. I stopped cheating grandma, and most of all myself.

See cheaters are liars. According to writer Tracy Mcalpin, knowing when a child is lying is simply a matter of observing (Mcalpin, n.d.). A lying child has a hard time telling their story and simultaneously looking the adult in the eye. The look around the room and down on the ground, anywhere but at the adult. The more they lie the more they can’t make eye contact. Mcalpin says because the blood rushes to our head when we lie, other characteristics are the liar shifts positions, sweats, scratches their nose, and swallows a lot.

Mcalpin’s derived the characteristics of a liar from watching her teenage daughters. Her characteristics, however, correlate with the characteristics consultant and author David Straker identified when detecting liars of any age (Straker, 2010). Straker compiled a list associating characteristics with their specific body action or reaction. For instance, because liars/cheaters are often afraid of being caught (characteristic), they speak in a higher pitched voice, make speech errors, and speak hesitantly (body reactions). Liars who fear they are being detected (characteristic) say as little as possible. Parrot what you say or try to change the subject, if confronted, and deny and exaggerate their honest nature (body reactions). There are exceptions. Some people are so cold-blooded they can lie without ‘blinking an eye.’

I was a parroter. Generally, grandmother gave me her money without any inquiry or requiring further explanation. But on those rare occasions she asked, ‘Your mother actually said that (I needed money to go shopping)?’ or ‘Is 50 cents enough?’ I would say yes, parrot back what she said, and say little else.

Yes, I felt a little horrible lying to my grandmother. She was my favorite person in the whole wide world. But my feeling of horridness evaporated as soon as I got the money. That made me happy. I felt happier when I was later shopping with my mother. More happy when I let mom know ‘I had money,’ and ecstatic when I let my sister know I had money and she didn’t. It took growing up for me to understand my happiness didn’t come from the money, but what I felt was acceptance. My mother favored my sister. To my childhood mind, by having money, mommy would have to love me because I was now worth more than my broke sister.

Former reporter, now scholar John Merrow, evaluated academic cheating (Merrow, 2009). He questioned, ‘What makes a cheater stop?’ His answer – respect. Creating a ‘moral atmosphere’ encourages the cheater to stop their actions, and gives them respect for not doing so.

I stopped because my grandmother created my moral atmosphere. On her deathbed she told my mother to tell me, that she always knew I was cheating her. That despite knowing, she loved me so much she wanted me to be happy. That she loved me unconditionally then, and always would. I never felt such shame, but I also finally felt loved, and respected.

Today I tell my story to help others not make the mistake I made. For friends and family who try to cheat me, I let them know I see through them. Despite being a cheat, I will respect them if they change, but not respect them if they don’t. Cheaters are not to be respected as it enables them. Most importantly, I tell and show them my love is unconditional. Not loving someone because they’ve done wrong is wrong. Being unconditional is probably the actual healer.

Cheating. (2010) In Random House Dictionary online. Retrieved on March 5, 2010 from .

Mcalpin, T. (n.d.). How to tell if your child is lying. Helium. Retrieved March 5, 2010 from .

Merrow, J. (2009, May 27). Sometimes It’s Better to Get Caught. Learning Matters. Retrieved from .

Straker, D. (2010). Detecting Lies. Changing Minds. Retrieved March 5, 2010 from .

Define: freewrite an extended definition of cheating based on your prewriting. To develop that definition, use another pattern of development. (2 paragraphs, 5 sentences each)

The previous narration used the development patterns of definition (defining cheating), illustration (showing examples of the body reaction to cheating), narration (telling the story of how I cheated my grandmother), description (painting the setting of how I cheated my grandmother), process (how to redeem a cheater), cause and effect (telling why I lied), and persuasion (citing authoritative evidence).

Cheating – a classification pattern freewrite

Cheating can be found in all areas of life and is committed by all walks of people. Generally cheating occurs in one of two areas: one’s personal or one’s professional life. Two of the most popular types of cheating found in one’s personal life, is cheating students and cheating spouses. Areas of cheating professionally range from the small, employees stealing office supplies, to the run of the mill, lying to your employer about being sick. Two other areas are lying on one’s resume and defrauding one’s clients.

Whether one cheats personally or professionally, the cost of cheating generally falls into one of four categories. They are punishment, opportunity, social stigma, and moral. Punishment, social stigma, and moral are self-explanatory. Opportunity costs are a balance of the effort it takes to cheat against using other efforts to effectuate your goal. When the former is less than the latter, the chance of cheating decreases.

The Economics of Cheating (2005, May 27). Half Sigma. Retrieved from .

 

8.) Web Site Evaluation - First, identify or make up a particular career need you've faced or might face, such as earning a promotion at your current job, switching jobs, or entering the job market. Next, examine each of the following two sites: and . Argue in favor of the site you believe is most relevant for your career need and most reliable. Discuss specific reasons to support your thesis. Include your evidence why the other site isn't as satisfactory for your purpose. (5 paragraphs, 5 sentences each)

Which site is best for looking for a job?

Next 3 paragraphs explain the 3 things you like

Why the other site isn’t good

Summary

In looking for a job, the best Web site is one that first offers a database for searching for jobs. Next the site should offer a wide range of information on how to perfect your job application process. TheRileyGuide meets both of these requirements. In addition the site offers a guide to salaries, and a database for employer research. Compared to the MyGuidesUSA site, TheRileyGuide site ranks 10 for employment search, while MyGuidesUSA ranks a 5.

To start your path to finding a job, TheRileyGuide web site offers a list of sites that have job listings. It is organized by type of sites. For instance, you will find a link to a listing of sites that offer contract opportunities to self-employed individuals. For the person seeking full-time employment, there are links to newspaper sites, employers looking for executives, veterans, or a diverse audience, as well as specific occupational categories such as engineers, humanities/social services, law and government, and business and commercial positions. Links to searching geographically (state and county) help refine your search.

To perfect your job application process TheRileyGuide includes information on cover letters, resumes, networking, interviewing, and negotiating. Each section then addresses realistic concerns, and also provides samples and examples. Been rejected for a job? The cover letter section not only tells you how to cope, but gives a sample letter to hopefully turn that rejection into an offer. Everything the site offers is then orderly organized – the link for ‘How to Search’ comes before the list of Sites to Search) in a left column navigation bar, as well as in the body of the web site making TheRileyGuide very user friendly.

In contrast, MyGuidesUSA is disorganized. Its user friendliness is destroyed when you see that information on Careers comes before Cover Letters, while Entrepreneurs are addressed before Interviewing. Prominently displayed links go to MyGuidesUSA and StateGuidesUSA, but what are these sections. Not until you click either link are you directed to a web page that explains what these Guides are. You may not care, as the topics include non-job information like buying and selling a home and medical conditions.

The country is in an economic crisis. Unemployment is close to 10%. Individuals seeking work opportunities need to arm themselves with the most current employment information, as well as present themselves in the best and most professional manner. TheRileyGuides satisfactorily meets both requirements. And don’t forget it is user friendly.

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