THLOG 4

Fourth week of the quarter and things seemed to be going super fast. This week in class we mostly went over various tips and strategies to better our writing. One of the new tips we covered was ‘poemifying’ our paragraphs in order to see the structure better. By separating the sentences, you could see the length better. When I first did it I felt like my sentence structure sucked because I had these HUGE sentences then I would have these short sentences right next to it. But as Zack mentioned, the variation adds flow to the paragraph and makes it less boring and monotone. Another practice that we did to better our writing was the highlighter activity. If I’m being honest at first I thought this activity was really dumb but after words when I got home and took it seriously, it genuinely helped me in revising my WP1. By using the separate colors for everything, it let me see where I had most my evidence in the paper and if I had my analysis where it needed to be. Although I felt I did sort of a good job with the separation of the sources, my analysis was really lacking what it should have been. This activity also helped me find a balance between direct evidence and any extra evidence. On Wednesday, I really enjoyed the Mark Smith murder activity. We’ve been spending so much time learning about genre and at times it sort of just feels like it’s an academic thing and I’m never going to actually use it in real life. Through this activity however it helped me see how with just a few pieces of information, you can frame a story using genres and conventions. Always taking things back to psychology lol, genres to me are starting to seem like schemas that I learned about in psychology 104, introduction to personality. These schemas are sort of a reference guide that helps you remember and define things more accurately. As with genres, each schema is dependent on the framework so you have one for family, one for friends, and one for tv shows and so on. And just like genres, when using a specific schema the ‘conventions’ or your actions/thoughts/words will vary with the topic. 

Thlog week 2

Week 2!! It’s been one hell of a week to say the least, but someone once told me that when you feel you’re getting pulled back-like an arrow-you’re about to shoot forward. So in school and life in general I will continue to do everything to the best of my ability no matter how much I want to give in. Though Writing 2 is not my favorite class, I have to admit that I am picking up a lot of information that will undoubtedly help me to write, read, and communicate better. In Mondays section particularly, Zack gave us tips to be successful in everyday life and writing. One of his tips was to always back up your work, and it was low-key funny to me because I have TERRIBLE luck with technology, and laptops specifically. Last quarter, a few days before my last final my laptop suddenly died on me, taking any chance of getting a good grade with it. I was able to look over lecture slides on Gaucho Space, but all my notes were gone! I then realized I should back up all my documents however I have just been too lazy. After Monday however I started to upload everything to my google drive! Thanks Zack! On Wednesdays section we covered dashes vs hyphens. I learned the difference between them however as dumb as it may sound I don’t know the difference on my keyboard! They hyphen is essentially used to separate a related idea, or add extra information and can be thought of as the same function as a comma. The dash on the other hand in used to bring together two equal words that create a new word in itself. Another thing I learned more about in Wednesdays section is the working thesis statement. Instead of using the thesis statement to write your paper, you write your paper and use what you wrote in order to produce the thesis statement.

Although sometimes learning writing techniques can be boring, it’s essential and I look forward to what else Zack has in store for us to learn.

PB1B

The first pattern I noticed while cycling through the SCIgen website was definitely all the titles of each article were generally the same. The larger sized bold letters and the over use of large, scientific words such as “Autonomous Modalities” or “Decoupling Checksums” was common. Also, each article followed the same structure, an abstract, introduction, a few sections that go into ‘detail’, along with a conclusion followed by a reference section. In each of the articles, there were also a lot of abbreviations that just took the first 3 letters of any 3 words that were in a row. Another convention these article shared was the diagrams. Though there was a mixture of charts and graphs, generally they all had positive increasing slopes. Finally, the last thing I noticed was the use of in-paragraph citations. Though the citations looked like they were used correctly, when going to look in the reference section, the article referred to had absolutely nothing to do with the sentence.

The second website, pandyland.net, was probably really difficult for me to find conventions for until I started to think simply. As a college student, I’m so used to thinking about complex questions and situations that it took me a while to really analyze the basics of each comic. The first convention that struck me was that every statement written was very vague so that it could go along with any sequence of comics it was a part of.  There were no real story lines, so each comic could be seen as individual aspects. I noticed however that the funniest ones flowed and fit together better. Another convention of the comics was the setting and the characters, each comic had the same characters and they were both always wearing the same thing all the time. The setting of all the comics seemed to be in a room with a purplish floor and a light blue wall.  Another major thing I noticed among the comics were a lot of dark jokes (sexuality, suicide/death, depression) between the two characters.

The third website we were asked to look at was a meme generator. This was just as hard, if not harder for me to find conventions for than pandyland. The only thing I generally noticed was the writing. In nearly all memes, the writing is capitalized and bold faced. Most of the time, the set-up of the meme is written on the top and the funny/ironic part in on the bottom part of the image. All memes have some sort of relatable background image that makes the writing on the meme make sense. For example, Fry from Futurama is known on the cartoon as pretty much being brainless and stupid. The meme of him holding cash saying “Shut up and take my money” is always shown with an image of some sort of dumb invention or idea. With knowing the background of why the meme has that specific image, it adds more humor to it. Another think I notice about all the memes is that the genre has tones depending on the meme used. Two example are the grumpy cat meme, which will make you read everything with somewhat of an attitude, and the condescending Wonka meme which will have you read the meme in a sarcastic tone.

The genre generator I chose to analyze is movies on http://www.randomlists.com/random-movies. The one thing I noticed right away was that all the movies that popped up on the website were relatively new.  Although movies have been around since at least the 1900s, none of the movies were aged before 2010. Another convention I seen through this generator was that all of the movies were teen-adult aged movies. I did not see any children’s movies at all. The last convention I found between the movies was that they were all American, English speaking films. There were no foreign made movies or movies in any other language. 

PB1A

As a college student the first thing you receive from a teacher or professor is most likely the syllabus for the class. Aimed at all incoming college student enrolled in the course, the syllabus gives you information that everyone should know for the first day of class as well as the rest of the quarter/semester. Most professors give a syllabus to answer any question they may have about the course such as dates of exams, grade scales/percentages, rules and expectations of course, and contact information among many other things. Most of the time, professors will email the syllabus before class in order for enrolled students to go over it, then while in the lecture hall or classroom, the professor will give their own presentation on the syllabus in front of all the students. Generally, in order to provide the most amount of information in the least amount of space, professors will likely write their syllabus in a technical yet professional style, leaving out most colloquial terms and phrases. The tone of a professors writing in a syllabus is usually formal and welcoming while at the same time being strict and direct. The convection of a syllabus are as follows; class information at top including the name, dates and times, as well as the quarter and year. Instructor information consisting of professors’ name, office hours and location, as well as phone or email information. Teaching assistants’ information is generally next (if applicable) followed by a general class overview which in terms summarizes the purpose of the course. Grade information usually consist of how grades will be weighted as well as an explanation of a curve if there is any for plus and minus grades. Required materials are always listed somewhere on the syllabus along with a class timeline laying out a reading and homework schedule, exam and quiz dates, as well as holiday breaks if there are any. Lastly, at the end of the syllabus there is usually a warning about cheating and plagiarism as well as the attendance policy if any.

thlog?

Week 1

The first week of a new quarter is always hectic no matter which courses I chose to take.  Writing 2 is no different. I never considered myself a great writer so if I’m being honest, it’s safe to say I was not looking forward to this class. However now that I am reflecting on what we’ve covered so far, and peeked into the reader on what we will cover in these next 9 weeks, I realize that this class is not only necessary for success in my academic world, but in the professional and personal worlds as well.

The reading we did in class, 2 kinds of thinking (elbow), was really interesting in my opinion and genuinely captured my attention. In the reading, Elbow talked about first order and second order thinking and how each are essential in personal, professional, and academic writing. For first order thinking, the class described it as ’word vomiting, brainstorming, talking out loud, and exploring’. Personally, being a psychology student, I related first order thinking to Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of free association in which he made his patients bounce ideas off of themselves in order to unveil their authentic thoughts and feelings. Like free associating, first order thinking gives you un-edited raw material that is free of outside biases, inputs, and judgments. Second order thinking on the other hand was described by the class as ‘analyzing, clarifying, and deconstruction’. Going along with the class, I also saw second order thinking as contentious proofreading, or being careful of your surroundings. Again relating everything in my life to psychology theories, I compared second order thinking to the mental schemas which according to social psychologists, everybody has. With schemas, everything that you do, say, or feels is always dependent on the setting you’re currently in. As with second order thinking, depending on who you want to communicate your first order thinking ideas to is going to affect your second order thinking and how you relay the message. For example, if you wanted to greet somebody, your first order thinking would automatically most likely go directly to “hi”. However, with second order thinking, if you were talking to a professor you’d say something along the line of “hello, good evening” ect. Rather than to a friend where you could say “yo wassup” or something along those lines. 

Along with the readings, we also focused on genres a lot which I feel like I have a pretty good grasps of after all the examples we’ve gone through.

About Me

My name is James Eric Olivieri Jr., but since I was a baby I’ve gone by Junior. I’m 20 years old and currently a 2^nd year Psychology major, however I’m looking into double majoring in Political Science as well. I was born in San Jose, California but grew up in Sacramento since around 1^st grade. Two of my four sisters have kids making me an uncle to 2 nieces and 2 nephews! Being an uncle is one of the best aspects of myself and I love those kids more than anything! They give me the inspiration and motivation to be a better person, to be a good role model, and to show them that no matter what, they can be successful.

As a first generation college student, moving so far away from home right after high school to come to such prestigious school was something I never even dreamed of. It wasn’t until my 11^th grade English teacher forced me to talk to my guidance counselor that I realized that college was actually going to be a real option for me. Without Mr. Melchor and Mrs. Nevarez, I would not be where I am today. Because of them, I decided I wanted to peruse psychology and become a counselor to underprivileged youth not only to help with personal issues, but to be able to give to them what I found with Mr. Melchor and Mrs. Nevarez.  

I have learned so much about the world we live in, the things that affect our day to day lives, and most importantly, myself by risking everything to be here. I know that I still have a long way to go in order become the person I was meant to be, but for now I am content with who I have become. My number one priority in life since becoming a teenager was to simply be happy. And to me, as long as I wake up every day achieving that goal, I know I can accomplish any and everything else I set my mind to. Thanks for taking the time to read!