Letter to Me

November 2, 2012

Dear Sixteen Year Old Amanda,

            You love being challenged and learning new things. Take on your junior and senior year in a way that will make you proud of yourself because you only get one chance to do it right. Start with a better attitude, do not make excuses and realize your actions have consequences. Follow the steps below and when you look back you will be free of any kind of regret.

            First of all, it is important that you get yourself into the right frame of mind in order to be successful and happy during your last two years of high school. Improve your outlook on things and be less pessimistic and you will automatically produce better outcomes for yourself. Having a bad attitude and being negative about situations you encounter will only stunt your success. Similarly, listen to your mom’s advice and do not take her words for criticism; she knows what she is talking about. This is the time to realize your actions have consequences and some of the decisions you make today will have lasting effects. Stop making excuses and being lazy, and always remember that anything worth having is worth working for. Think of a goal and work towards it with everything you have. Most of all, enjoy your senior year. Try complaining less and appreciating what you have and all of the people around you more. Take advantage of the time you have right now so you do not have regrets about time that you wasted later on.

            By the same token, your study habits are something that needs your attention. The most important thing you can do as you begin your junior year is to study for the ACT. Your scores need to reflect what you know so that you can go into the correct classes during your freshman year of college. In March, when you take your ACT, do not forget your calculator at home. The test is timed and it is the best tool you can have there with you. When you get your first ACT scores back, work to improve them. Find time in your busy schedule and take an ACT preparatory course. Re-take the test when you are ready. A close second in importance to the ACT’s are your online classes. Take those classes even more seriously than your regular classes. Do not rush through the assignments you are given just to finish the class. Read everything you are assigned and complete your work for understanding. Now is the best time to realize that an A in the class does not mean anything, unless you have learned something. The grades you receive will come and go but what you take away from the class is valuable and will stay with you through the years. Flashcards will be the best study tool for you to utilize. Writing things down and repeating them helps you to understand concepts and memorize facts that will come in handy on your final exams.

            Above all, follow my advice regarding your senior year. Whatever you do, avoid coming down with senioritis. Build up your immune system with motivation, goals and hard-work. Do not wait until the end of the school year to start thinking about how you are going to pay for college. Apply early, complete your FAFSA on January 1^st and submit an application for every scholarship you can find. Get in the habit of planning ahead now so that your freshman year of college is not a shock. As a side note, you do not have to be a people-pleaser. Do not be afraid to tell people you are too busy to do things because you have to study. Make time for yourself and do not feel guilty about it. Avoid stress and drama whenever you can. As a rule, focus on your future.

            In the long run, hard work always pays off. When you start your freshman year of college you will be well-prepared for the task ahead of you. The academic accomplishments you make can never be taken away from you. 

Sincerely,

Your Older Self 

Reflection of the Advertisement Redesign Assigment

Redesigning the Simon G. engagement ring ad was a fun assignment that I learned a lot from. Initially I was worried about how I was going to accomplish such a big overhaul in only one week. I felt overwhelmed at first but the redesign paper ended up being a great way for me to learn how to be creative and analytic at the same time.

I looked through three different magazines that have mainly female audiences before deciding on the Simon G. engagement ring advertisement in Cosmopolitan magazine. A lot of advertisements that I was considering at first were really well-designed and used all three rhetorical appeals effectively. On the other hand, the Simon G. advertisement was very simple and direct. As I began to plan out the project in my head, I came to the conclusion that redesigning a more complex ad that was effective at selling their product, and used the three rhetorical appeals well, would be very difficult. I thought I may have a stronger analysis and an easier time reconstructing the ad if it was basic.

Organization was the most difficult challenge I faced while writing my essay. Unlike other papers I have written in the past, it was hard for me to determine what order the paragraphs should go in. At the time I felt overwhelmed because I had so much information to include, in specific detail, but the flow of the paper did not come naturally. To overcome my initial challenges, I visited the Writing Center to get advice on how to organize my paper in a logical way while using professional language that would appeal the intended audience of the essay. The writing center was a helpful tool that allowed me to better grasp the assignment guidelines and see the organization of the paper objectively.

My favorite part about the assignment was allowing myself to be creative but analytical at the same time. I enjoyed the challenge of writing my paper in the third person voice while explaining what the new advertisement would look like. The extra credit opportunity, which was also a challenge to begin with, was another fun part of the assignment. I do not consider myself to be a creative person but I was surprised and pleased with the redesign that I came up with and was able to execute using Photoshop.

When we first learned about the rhetorical appeals as a class I was confused by them and how they are used in everyday life. It is important for things that I learn to have a logical use otherwise I lose interest quickly. The advertisement redesign project gave me an opportunity to better understand the rhetorical appeals and use them to create my new advertisement. The best thing that came from the redesign paper was being able to practice applying the rhetorical appeals to something common, like an advertisement. I was not only able to see the logical use of rhetoric but I was able to apply my newly learned skills and practice them while I created a fun new advertisement.

If I was able to rewrite the essay I would choose a different advertisement. The ad I chose was so simple I ended up being unable to meet the length requirement. There was little content from the original advertisement to analyze so I came up short in the end. Although my analysis was thorough, it was simple like the ad. If I was able to rewrite the paper, I would surely pick something that had more to analyze and that used all three rhetorical appeals. Looking back on the assignment it would not have been more difficult to redesign an advertisement that was already a strong showcase of the product because the point of the redesign was to gear it towards a different audience altogether. I am happy with the final result of both my essay and the redesigned advertisement but in hindsight a more complicated advertisement would have better suited me.

It Takes a Village Process Memo

Amanda Harbrueger

Mrs. Rinke

WRT 150

12 October 2012

It Takes a Village Process Memo

When I sat down in class to begin my timeline, the most logical place for me to begin was with my first word. My dad was the one who read to me as I was growing up so I thought an important place for me to begin my timeline was with the fact that my first word was, “dad” and that I said it on Father’s Day. Even though my mom was involved in my school work, my dad is really the reason why I love to read and write. He always made time to read to me or let me read to him. The books my dad used to teach me how to read are ones I’ll never forget. I still have them today. Those books were a very important part of my timeline. They represent part of my childhood.

As I thought about my literary history even the small details came easily to me because they were all good memories. I had a hard time putting every memory and detail into words because I had a lot of good memories and I wanted to document all of them. I never really thought about who helped me become literate but when I sat down and looked at the timeline of my literary history three different people really stood out to me. I did not even have space to mention my freshman English teacher in my literary narrative. However, he really made an impact on how I developed my reading and writing skills too. Throughout my timeline I realized my theme was the people who influenced me as I grew. My dad always motivated me and inspired me to do my best in school. When I lacked the motivation or inspiration I needed to do well he would pull out his old papers from high school and let me look at them. I remember wishing I could write as well as he did which pushed me to work harder and try to improve my skills. When I met Mrs. Grossman during my sophomore year of high school she reminded me a lot of how my dad used to teach me how to read and write. It was difficult to narrow my timeline down to one theme before beginning my essay. I wanted to include everyone and every experience that shaped me along the way. In the end, I decided to focus on the two people that influenced me because they were my inspiration and always provided encouragement which helped me grow and develop. The experience of creating my timeline made me realize how lucky I’ve been. I have parents that have always supported me with school and I also had amazing teachers that actually cared about their students.  

            When it was time to begin my essay I found it easy to narrow down my experiences and focus on one area. I chose to write about the two most important experiences and people that helped me to become literate. I had a difficult time telling my story at first. I had to re-read my essay a lot to make sure I was clear about what happened. Sometimes I think it is hard to write about personal experiences because I end up leaving out important details because I know what happened so I tend to assume my readers do too. I was careful not to leave anything out of this essay. I also thought it was difficult to tell my story in chronological order but in a way that was not repetitive or boring. I did not want to say, “first”, “next”, “last” as a way to transition throughout my essay. My draft was difficult to start because I had so much to say. I did not know where it would all fit so I just started writing. I figured I could always rearrange the order of my sentences later on as long as I got all of my thoughts onto paper.

My partner recognized a few spelling and grammar mistakes that I had. She also pointed out a few places where I could have added a few more details. Overall, I ended the peer-review feeling kind of disappointed. I wish my partner had been a little harsher. I think being critical during the editing stage is important. The peer review would have been a lot more helpful if my partner had felt comfortable being more critical of my paper.

 I did not think about how I was going to turn my paper into a video slideshow at all before I turned in my rough draft. I did not want to change anything I had written just for the purpose of the video. I figured I would worry about that when I went to make the video. During the peer review, my partner ran out of time while highlighting my fifteen best sentences. I did end up using nearly all of the ones she had time to highlight though. The hardest part of the entire project, including the timeline and the essay, was trying to meet the 52-character limit per slide. I had to dramatically shorten my sentences and add words so that my story still made sense and so I could still get my original point across. Every picture I used helped to compliment the text that came before it; whether it was adding to what I said or getting something across to my audience I could not say in words. My images were meant to solidify my thoughts on what I had said on my text slide. For example, I wrote on one text slide, “Mrs. Grossman made an impact on my life.” The next slide was a picture that had words that read, “Thank you for being such a wonderful teacher!” Although I never came out and said she was a great teacher in my video that is what I was trying to convey. I only used two personal pictures in my video. I could not find pictures of myself that related to what I was saying so I chose to use images from the internet. The song I chose helped to cement a theme in my slideshow because the song selection came from the heart. I have always loved that song and when I found it on Animoto I knew I had to use it. I love country music and it just so happened that the beach/country-side theme I chose went well with the song. The words do not necessarily tie into my literary history but I feel like the beat and the rhythm carry the pictures and text well. I think it helps the overall flow of the video. After watching my video again I wish I could have found more personal pictures to use but I am happy with the way my video turned out.  

Ford F-150 Commercial

            I can identify with the Ford F-150 commercial and I received the message without a doubt. I was a dominant-hegemonic reader. I agree with the commercial’s overall message,“it ain’t a luxury.” The main ideologies used in this particular visual literacy are the value of blue-collar hard work and masculinity. One of the main points in the commercial was that working people (the target audience for this commercial) can have it all. They can have excellent towing power and capability, plenty of room for cargo in the bed all while getting twenty-one miles to the gallon. The main audience for this commercial would be men working at a manual-labor job, between the ages of twenty-five and forty who need the power and space of a pickup truck but who need gas to be affordable in order to make their living. Additionally, the type of men this commercial appeals to tend to be competitive in nature which goes along with the masculine theme. To appeal to that characteristic, the commercial mentioned that the new F-150 will give you an “unfair advantage”. The images and words used in this commercial definitely appeal to this commercial’s particular audience. The creators of the commercial used big block letters stating simple facts. They also used humor and a reference to alcohol which probably captured and kept the audience’s attention throughout the commercial. 

Digital Literacy Blog Post

            In elementary and middle school my teachers didn’t do much of anything to prepare me for the technological requirements in college. In high school, a program was offered called Flex where students could take one or two of their classes online. I participated in this program both my junior and senior year of high school. I feel as though it prepared me for what I’m expected to do this year on Moodle. I think I now have an advantage over students who didn’t take online classes in high school because I’m already used to all of the pros and cons that come with it. I’ve experienced many tech issues and I’ve learned to check my assignments online often and ahead of time just in case any problems should arise at the last minute. With my other four classes that I didn’t take online my teachers didn’t do anything to prepare me for the online aspect of college classes. This semester every single one of my classes has an online component and even though I have experience with online classes it’s still an adjustment. I would suggest to elementary, middle and high school teachers to do what they can to make their students turn their assignments in online and get them familiar with doing school work on the computer.

            I will often use computers in my career as a nurse. Recently, most hospitals and doctors’ offices have chosen to go “paper-less”. This means every patients’ medical charts are online and doctors and nurses use iPads or other tablet devices in order to access them. Not only has technology made things easier for the doctors, nurses and other staff, mainly because charts are no longer misplaced, but it’s also been good for the environment and for the economy. Office supplies tend to be expensive and that aspect has been cut out using the new online system. The time I spend here at Oakland University will undoubtedly prepare me for the technology I’ll be using while I work. By being familiarized with an online system I’ll already be comfortable doing that when I go to work for a hospital or doctors’ office that uses computerized medical charts.

            I write better in a less formal document, like a blog or email. I feel stress and pressure to be perfect while I’m writing a formal paper and those constraints don’t exist with informal writing.  When I’m writing a paper I feel like if every comma isn’t in place and I’ve removed every conjunction then I’ll be penalized and that anxiety tends to give me writer’s block. When I’m writing informally the words tend to flow and I tend to worry less about structure which in the end produces better, more authentic writing.

            I would not want the responsibility of being a teacher in this day and age. It’s too difficult to try to prepare kids for the known future let alone the unknown. I would do my best to prepare my students for the real world by preparing them for all of the technology they’ll be using by letting them practice with it.

            To me, the tone of the piece seemed cautionary. It warned that teachers and parents should be preparing kids for a new world, not the same one we’re living in today. I fully agree with the thesis and have experienced the problem first hand. Technology is such a big part of the world now and kids aren’t being taught how to use it properly for educational purposes, even though it’s a great tool, because the generation teaching them doesn’t necessarily know how to use it. Now more than ever kids aren’t prepared for the real world when they leave school. Technology has the capability to better prepare students for careers and life in general if taught and used properly.   

Personal Narrative – Literacy Essay

Timeline

Born in August 1994

Father’s Day, June 1995 – My very first word was “Dad”

Every night before bed my dad would read me bedtime stories because my mom worked at night…we always read the same books, Little Bear, Curious George, Go Dog Go and No Jumping on the Bed

December 1999 – My little brother was born, I was 5

My dad read to us both, even though my brother couldn’t understand the books yet

Around this time my Dad and I had been reading the same books for so long that while he was reading to me I would say the next sentence in the book before he could say it.

That’s when I first remember reading being fun because when I would tell my dad the next sentence in the book he would laugh and that made me happy

2^nd grade – I read Charlotte’s Web for the first time

I checked it out in the library and I brought it home and for a few weeks, every night before we went to bed my dad would let me read to him

4^th grade – I had a teacher who was from Germany

She didn’t speak English in a way that little kids could understand her because her accent was so thick

This was the first year I felt discouraged about school but my parent’s always encouraged me to keep working hard

6^th grade – We were required to read a certain number of pages every quarter in school

This is when I first read Monkey Island although now reading felt like a punishment

8^th grade – I took an aptitude test in school that was meant to determine our placement for high school classes

I scored very high in the reading and writing categories so I was placed in Honors English classes

9^th grade – Looking back now, I had the best English teacher I could have ever asked for when I was a freshman in high school

He was a tough grader and he was particularly harsh on my essays and at the time I didn’t understand why

Now I realize when I was in ninth grade I wasn’t as focused on school as I should have been

My teacher, Mr. Szymanski, realized my potential and always expected more from me

I believe this was a shaping year for my literacy history because even though I didn’t see it then, I realize now my teacher didn’t let me give up and be mediocre, he challenged me so that I might challenge myself

*Mr. Szymanski made every student that took his class not fear reading Shakespeare

I remember we spent months on Romeo and Juliet, reading, writing, listening, acting and watching it, so that when we left his class we better understood Shakespeare as an author and the story of Romeo and Juliet in its entirety – theme, meaning, purpose and all

10^th grade – This year I left the Honors English program, to Mr. Szymanski’s disappointment

I regret the decision sometimes

I’m also thankful for this decision because I was in Mrs. Grossman’s English class and she left an impact on my life, both personally and academically

Mrs. Grossman was an elderly lady, one year away from retirement

She loved her job, and loved American literature and transcendentalism in particular. (Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson)

She rekindled my love for books that I hadn’t felt since the days when my Dad would read to me

She brought Fahrenheit 451 and the Crucible alive

Funny memory: Mrs. Grossman had a crush on Arthur Miller and so she would always talk about the Crucible and relate things back to that, she loved when you made those references in your essays

When we would read in class she would read the book aloud with such fervor, emotion and excitement that I looked forward to hearing her read the next day – even the boring short stories from our outdated literature books were intriguing and worth-while when she read them

I know it sounds silly, being read to when you’re 15 and even though I wouldn’t have admitted it then, I miss the days of hearing Mrs. Grossman read those novels and I often think about trying to get in touch with her - to thank her for changing the way I looked at English literature, mainly transcendentalist authors, and for the kind words she spoke on the last day of school before summer vacation

11^th and 12^th grade – I started taking English classes online and I didn’t read a novel for two years

The stories I was supposed to read for my class didn’t make sense because I couldn’t understand them and I didn’t take the time to “un-pack” what I was reading

The transition to this college English class has been difficult so far because I haven’t been in a formal English class with essays in 3 years

Summary and Response –

“Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie

            To Sherman Alexie, an Indian child growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in east-central Washington State, being literate wasn’t just about being able to read and write; it served a greater purpose. In his personal literacy narrative, Sherman Alexie brought to light the low expectations that were placed on the children on the reservation. Most people on the reservation live at or below poverty and education isn’t greatly valued. No one expected them to amount to much because of their circumstances but that standard wasn’t good enough for Sherman Alexie. His dad was an avid reader and when Sherman was old enough he picked up the habit. Sherman Alexie first learned to read by matching pictures with what he thought was being said in a Superman comic book. In this way he learned that books are oriented from left to right. He considered himself intelligent, lucky and maybe even better than everyone else. Sherman Alexie used this revelation to be better. He’s now a successful published author and a positive figure for young Indian children to look up to. He visits classrooms on Indian reservations to teach kids about creative writing and hopefully plant a seed for future success.

            I think Sherman Alexie has a positive message. It’s no secret that everyone isn’t given the same chance in life and not everyone has the same circumstances. Sherman Alexie’s message to the students he teaches on the reservation is to rise above those circumstances and to not be a victim of your environment.   

Why Writing Is Important

Writing is one of the most important ways to communicate with one another. As students, writing is a skill we've been developing since our very first days of school. I've found that writing is not only important in academics but also in relationships, jobs and for enjoyment. When I reach my career goal of being a nurse, I will use writing often in order to communicate with my peers, colleagues, patients and doctors I work with. The most obvious way writing will be important when I'm a nurse is when I have to create care plans for my patients. It will be important for me to be able to effectively convey my thoughts and intentions in order to protect the well-being of my patients. If I were to be misunderstood because of my poor writing skills it could potentially be life-threatening. In addition to writing care plans, I will inevitably be sending professional emails or memos while I work as a nurse, especially if I choose to work in the hospital setting. Writing will be a fundamental skill I use throughout my career.