Research on Music = AWESOME!!

Writing a paper on music and videos was great. This was one research paper that I wasn't dreading to write. I chose songs by Adele. To do research for this paper, I just had to listen to Adele's music and watch some of her videos. It doesn't get much better than that. I love music and I believe that it can change your life. I also believe that there is a song out there made for everyone. A person has at least one song that they can relate to and know why that person wrote it. They know what they were going through when they wrote it. This was my favorite paper to write. Music is a very strong tool, and can describe many different things and have many different meanings and moods. Comparing music and videos was a great research topic for this paper

Research Writing

When I hear the word research, I start to panic. I think, twenty page paper on a boring topic. I have recently learned, that that is not the case. Research isn't meant to be scary, it's to be interesting. It is also to be a new learning experience. When researching, you are doing so to learn more, and to benefit others. It's not a scary thing at all. It's even sometimes fun. Research can also be in different forms than just papers. It can be in videos, music, movies, and lots of other different things. I'm not saying research is my most favorite thing to do, but this class has definitely made it more eventful.

Intersting Topics

When choosing a research topic, make sure it is one that you will be interested in. If it does not interest you, then you will not be able to get a "feel" for the paper. It will be boring and hard to research. You also want to make it interesting because when researching, you are always learning new things. If it is not an interesting topic, you will not be able to remember the facts being shown to you. It also make writing a research paper more fun if you're writing about something that you enjoy. So when picking a topic to research or even just write about, make sure it interest you as well.

Writng to your audience

When writing a paper, you always want to keep your audience in mind. For example, you wouldn't write a paper on the ten greatest movies when a group of scientists would read it. When writing, you have to have a connection with your audience. Make sure that they won't be bored with your paper, or that it is way over their heads. Think the way they think. Always keep them in the back of your head.

With the argument of how Pixie Dust is made, (slaughtering pigs),I think that we should ask ourselves, what do we do with pigs normally? We eat them, well at least for the most part. Why not use them to help people grow back limbs? It's helping other people. I love animals to death. I hate seeing them in pain, and I can't kill an animal. But I also have to remember that God put animals on this earth for a reason. He put them here to help us humans. If it came down to being able to save a pig or saving one of my limbs...the pig is going to be dead.

Fads

The 4th paper that we wrote was about fads. It is so strange how things catch on. Like the iPod, dance moves, and songs. I little device makes huge sales. Almost everyone has a portable music player. Learning how to dougie is a dance craze that is still popular and eager to learn. Songs are becoming more popular then the next each and every day. Such small things turn into fads in a matter of seconds.

What is to much?

We watched a video on the lizard man. This guy went as far as splitting his tongue, tattooing his body to look like scales, and even implanting things in his head to look more like a lizard. Is that to much? My thought is how are you going to get a job? Or how are you going to feel when you're 75 years old? I guess it's the way he wants to live but I don't see it as much as a life. He's looked at constantly, he most likely can not get a professional job, and he's going to look horrible when he's much older. I think this is a bit to much.

Video Project

Making a video for a paper was great. I really enjoyed it. It was a nice change of pace after writing several papers. It was fun to get into groups and have a little fun. Even when making a video on writing a research paper, we still managed to have fun. Everyone's videos were done really well and fun to watch.

What is in that chicken nugget?

A presentation was made and it was about what was really in your fast food. Can I just say one thing? Ewwww!! It was so gross. I could not believe that is what we ingest. I'm not sure what exactly is in it, but whatever it is, it doesn't age. Meaning that once in our body, it doesn't break down. The stuff that they put in the nuggets is even worse. It's a pink paste made up of all different animals and pressed out. Will I stop eating this? Probably not.

Proofread, proofread, proofread

Proofreading is extremely important. Even if you think you are the best writer in the world, you should still proofread. The best thing to do is, after a paper is written, step away for an hour. When that hour pasts then go back and read it. That way your brain will tell you what you are really reading and not what it has memorized. Silly mistakes will most likely appear.

Graffiti

When learning about graffiti a question was asked whether or not it was vandalism. Surprisingly a lot of people said yes. They said if something was inappropriate or offended some one then it was then vandalism.

Guest Speaker

We had a guest speaker in class. His name was Jason. He cam in to talk to us about tattoos. He had a tattoo but told us it was a cover up. His previous tattoo was done unprofessionally and at a young age at a music festival. It didn't have any meeting and was not in good shape. He got that tattoo covered up with a purple coy fish. He then proceeded to tell us the meaning behind the tattoo. This time the meeting was much more meaningful then a whim at a music festival. When asked if he thought tattoos were graffiti on people. He said that he thinks that most tattoos that people get are art and it may even tell a story.

Facebook

A Facebook blog was brought up in class. Instead of having a blog through Google we should have ir through Facebook. I personally think that it's a great idea. Almost everyone is on Facebook all the time. It would be so much easier to write on Facebook, then go to a separate site like Google.

Feminism

What to think about feminism. I think it's a crock. Women say that the reason they are feminists is because they don't want to cause attention to themselves. But when they yell at men, dress in not so nice clothes, and don't shave their armpits...you're going to draw attention to yourself. I think all feminism is, is a reason for attention. I could be way out of line, but that's just an opinion.

Advantages on working with a group to finish a paper.

When the class found out that we would have to work in groups to finish the last to papers, I was scared. I thought it would be more difficult to work with a lot of people. They might not do their job or have so many different views that it would be impossible to write a whole paper together. Luckily, it was quite the opposite. Everyone agrees on at least a few topics. When working with a large group it make things go faster as well. If each person takes one section of the paper, the project flies by. Working with a group to do papers was a great plan!

Writing Group Papers!

Although sometimes it is harder to write papers with other people sometimes because people have different ideas than yourself, it has many benefits to it. These past two papers have been with small to larger group sizes which helped myself learn to really see other people's points of views and ideas. Sometimes its good to see the other side of the spectrum especially when you work with people that have different ideas on how to make a paper successful or just ideas in topics. This was really my first time ever doing a legitimate group paper and I think through this new experience it helped me learn how to bring other people pieces of writing with your own and still make it cohesive with your own writing.

With so many different ideas it makes things interesting because I realized that in order to have a successful research paper you need other people's point of views which makes a paper interesting. With these past papers I liked reading them more because of how each part was assigned to a different person and each had a different style of writing. I see now that although group papers may take a little more work to come together, it makes it easier as well in having a successful paper with people bringing different elements to the paper.

Group Papers aren’t So Bad After All

In the beginning when Mr. Mohamed stated that we were going to do a group project, I thought to myself this will not work out. My first group project there was two of us working together, researching graffiti. The last group project there was a total of 6 people working together, researching fashion. Working in a group isn’t so bad its way less stressful and it’s very interesting.

As a group there are many different opinions, as a group you can learn so much about each individual.When you work together your paper comes out stronger than it would when working by yourself. When there is more than one person working on a paper, there are many different outlooks on things. After finishing the two papers I have come to realize, Group papers aren’t so bad after all, it was actually very interesting. We all worked together and came out with a very strong intelligent paper.

Jasmine Farlow

Benefits of Writing a Group Paper!

The past two papers that our class has written have been group papers. First there was a small group paper consisting of two people, and our last paper that was a large group paper. When the groups were discussing their papers and writing in groups on Friday most of the groups said that it was interesting working in large groups. Groups also said that working in a larger group helped take some of the stress off of writing the paper by breaking the sections of the paper up equally among the group members.

There is an old saying “two heads is better than one.” Having more than one person working on a writing project increases the amount of combined knowledge of the authors. In areas of intelligence where one person is weak, others may be strong, and vice versa. If done properly, the collective intelligence of a group of writers can be a powerful resource.
Rachel Holland

About memes!

Today as we were discussing memes, Mr. Ahmed had mentioned something that caught my attention. He had mentioned that memes are presented with conflicts that at that time determine the strength of the meme, which in turn, determines whether its existence continues or dies out. Before class had begun, I was watching the news. They were reporting on “Occupy Wall Street”. For those of you who may not know, this is a nationwide protest located in major cities throughout the United States. Particularly, “Occupy Wall Street”, is a resistance movement of the greed and corruption of corporate ownership, social injustice, and high unemployment, just to name a few. These demonstrations and protests are held, not only in New York, but are also in Pittsburgh, PA and Oklahoma City, OK.

The relationship between the survival of a meme and these protests comes in the form of eviction letters given to the protestors to discontinue their movements and move out of the area. This clearly demonstrates the conflict a meme can endure through its process of development. Just as these protests are being noticed and becoming a huge ordeal, the government decides it’s in the best interests of everyone to knock them down, blaming them for uncleanly circumstances. As many of the protestors are standing strong, this truly will determine whether this meme of standing up for what’s right is to stay or go.
Jessica Young