Final Presentation

My argumentative paper covered the topic of welfare reform in America. I feel like the best way to get the point across would be to create some type of storyboard for a commercial, that could double as a billboard or magazine advertisement. I want to focus on the three families in my story and how they are all affected and inhibited by welfare in America. I would use the element of pathos to appeal to the emotions of the audience. I know it may sound weird, but I feel like my main audience should actually be the poor people themselves. I want them to be able to see that they may be the ones causing the endless cycle of welfare in America.

4th Essay Topic

When I was eight years old, my family spent time with the Bouthany’s. The Bouthany family lives in the inner city projects of Dallas. As a college student I have started mentoring Dayshawn, an eight year old girl living in the inner city of Fort Worth. Both families are on welfare and I have noticed their attitudes toward their sense of entitlement are the same. For the past twelve years I have watched the Bouthany kids grow up and take on the same role as their parents. They chose the benefits that welfare offered to give them the support they need. I don’t want to watch the same thing happen to Dayshawn but it almost seems inevitable. Is our support of people on welfare actually inhibiting them?

Ethnographic Essay

The topic I chose for my ethnographic essay involves a particular group of girls at a public high school in Dallas. I went to a private school and was not exposed to any of the things that I have heard these girls talk about. The group of girls are juniors in high school and I met them through a Bible study I taught last summer. The reason I have chosen to talk about these girls is that their lifestyles (friends, activities, social events) were chosen for them by their mothers when they weren't even in first grade yet. The small town where this public high school is centered has a certain hierarchy that was predetermined by the first generation of women who lived there. Now these women, generations later, are still teaching their daughters that they have to look and act a certain way, not to mention befriend the right people, in order to be a part of the "group." It doesn't matter if a girl doesn't want to be involved in that group, her mother will make sure that she stays in that group, even if it is against that girls wishes. I plan to interview the girls in this particular group and find out the types of things they must do in order to be set a part, and the lifestyle that they have to live in order to belong.

Glossing over the essay blog

In my paper, I researched JuicyCampus.com and I found that the website is far worse than I ever realized. The themes that continue to recur throughout the essay are ones associated with reputation, rumors, gossip, and anonymity. What surprised me most about this topic were the problems that occur as a result of such a small and, what I had originally thought, inconsequential website. The idea of a posted rumor ruining not only someone’s career but reputation forever had never occurred to me. I realize now that I need to focus more on people’s careers and lives that were ruined as a result of online posts, despite the fact that the posts may not even be truthful. I repeat the idea of ruining reputations a lot, and how colleges have tried to ban such a website from their campuses. Instead of arguing more for this website to be taken down, I need to write about ways that this website has affected people and research into the positives, if they do exist.

Research for essay 2

When I was researching for this essay topic it was not an easy experience for me. I first went to the tcu library where I typed in the relationship between technology and relationships. Nothing really showed up under technology and relationships except for weird computer terms. I then typed in about fifteen other terms that were related to relationships and communication or technology and it's negative affects on society. I couldn't find anything that made since or went along with my topic. I went on about three more search engines that were suggested and couldn't get on Ulrich's. I might have to change my topic or figure out better key terms to research from. I found one source that I most likely will use for this topic if I can find other sources that go along with it. The one source I did find was on the tcu library website. I will probably go to the library this weekend to research more titles and find better sources.

Blog Essay 2 topic

Topic: Technology in relationship to personal communication
Question: Does technology have a negative affect on our relationships with other people?
Rationale: In this day and age it seems like people feel like they can’t survive without the use of the internet or their cell phones. The main reason is because we feel out of touch with the world when we can’t call someone or email them. The problem with this is that our perception may be wrong, in actuality the growing dependence on cell phones and emails may be causing us to lose touch with reality, the personal relationships with other people growing less important. I hope to find out how technology is affecting our relationships and whether it is positive or negative.

Blog 4

The topic I have chosen to reflect upon for my personal essay is one that I hadn’t thought about until we brought an object to class that in some way represented a piece of us. I never thought that my ring I always wear would bring back so many memories of the time in my life when I almost drowned. The topic I would like to discuss is a flag. The flag I am talking about is one that marks a huge change in my life. On a beach in the panhandle of Florida about 5 years ago, two drowning incidents almost occurred and if a flag had been there at that time I doubt either of them would have. I never really think about that day out on the water, the memory is too painful; my mistake could have cost my life and the life of my father. I always wonder why I almost drowned, why I didn’t drown and why my dad would risk everything to save me. The flag wasn’t there that day, the 2nd day of January. Of course the flag is there now, which is why it is so important to me. Families might see that flag and think nothing of it; to them it is a color coded guide of the sea, an indicator of whether it is safe to enter the ocean. I will always see that flag for what it is, a memory of a day in my life, a life changing event that opened my eyes at such a young age and taught me how to see things differently.

Writerly Roles Blog

This assignment was interesting to me because I never thought about how many different ways I write to different people. As I began looking through artifacts, old text messages, emails, etc., I began to realize it’s not only the way I write things, it is the different mediums I use depending on who it is I am talking to. I noticed that my college friends and I text message all the time about when we’re going out, who we’re meeting up with or where we are at the moment. My texts with friends who don’t go to TCU are more serious, involving pieces of information that matter more, not just “let’s go see 27 dresses tonight.” My texts with friends from other schools lead to longer conversations, we’ll say things like, “hey what time do you get out of class? I really want to call you and catch up.” My mom, on the other hand, sends me about twenty e-mails a day and four or five texts. I think my mom believes that text messaging is the same as e-mailing, because her texts are always long and end with “love, Mom.” Whenever I get a long text message from my mom, I usually respond to it with an e-mail. The e-mails I send my mom are always in response to her concern about my daily life, such as appointments I attended, people I’m meeting with about internships this summer, etc. I send my dad short and concise e-mails about specific things but we usually just talk on the phone. Throughout this project I realized that I send a lot more text messages than I do e-mail. I occasionally get on facebook, but generally only write on people’s walls if they have written on mine.

2nd blog

I believe that I can learn to write well since it is something that develops with practice and time spend developing different writing skills. Writing can be really frustrating at times when you don’t know what to say and even more so when you know what to say but don’t know how to get the point across in a way for the reader to understand. It’s difficult to make yourself do something if you don’t feel like you can improve. Ballenger mentions the idea that you have to believe that you can learn to write well in order to grow as a writer. I think that aspect is true for just about anything, if you believe you can be a good writer, and you practice and learn how to write, there is no reason why you shouldn’t improve. It makes since that writing well comes with practicing and learning, people can write all day long but that doesn’t mean their writing will improve unless someone teaches them to write well.

Introductory Letter

Ms. Patrick,

My name is Whitney Williams and I am currently a sophomore. I went to Baylor my freshman year of college and this summer decided to transfer to TCU. I was raised in Dallas, Texas where I attended a small private Christian school. I am a journalism major in Advertising/ Public Relations. I am interested in taking this writing course because I have always enjoyed writing. When I was in high school I was on the newspaper staff and eventually became the editor. I really enjoyed writing for the newspaper because it gave me a break from assigned class writings. The reason I like newspaper writing is because the papers are brief and descriptive, but they have to capture the audience’s attention on a page full of many other stories. Your class will be my first writing class at TCU, I really enjoy writing on my own and I keep a journal that I try to write in every day. The journal is used as an outlet for me to write about things I’m going through. I have always liked non-fictional writings, because of the truth that is portrayed and most times the author has experienced the things he or she is writing about, so it brings something personal and unique to the story. I think writing is really important, it is a way of expressing your thoughts on paper for you or other people to read. Without stories written down, whether they are fiction or non fiction, we wouldn’t know the history of the world; the way people thought hundreds of years ago, which is why writing is one of the most important parts of our lives. Writing also makes you think, you have to decide how to get your viewpoint across in a manner that other people will understand. Writing is an interesting way to see how people think differently, even though each person has to write about the same topic sometimes, it is impossible for each paper to be the same. This semester I hope to improve all aspects of my writing, I feel like writing is something you can always improve upon. I have read, understand, and agree to the terms of the course syllabus. I look forward to taking this course.

Sincerely,
Whitney Williams