Final Transmission
I have come a long way this semester. I've spent 10 times more time in the library for this class than any other class I have (keep in mind that art classes don't require a great deal of library research...). When I entered into this class on the first day I felt very comfortable about my writing style and ability. As the semester progressed, I retained that philosophy, however what I didnt notice then was that I was actually learning a great deal along the way. Reading over my first drafts and reflecting on that time, I realize now that my writing kinda sucked. It's insane to think how far my writing has come in only 16 weeks, but the proof is in the paper work. I'm scared of what I would find if I dug through my closet and read some of my high school papers. When I first found out that this semster would culminate with a 12 to 15 page paper, it took me a few minutes to pry my jaw off the floor. I was pretty much freaking out because I had never written a paper longer than 8 pages, and that was hell! Now, i'm here today, sitting on 10 pages of quality drafting, and only 2 or 3 more to complete my final paper, and I'm thinking to myself: 'what was I so afraid of? was I expecting not to write huge papers in a college english course?' The main point is, my writing has come a long way, and in the future when I have something I want to get down on paper, I will feel more confident about writing that paper.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Week 14 Blog Post
What is your favorite piece of data (or data source) and why?
My favorite piece of data was a source that I found in the database at the library. It was an article in a journal that documented the experiences of many disc golfers. I thought this was terribly interesting and it kept my attention for almost an hour. I loved getting into the stories of other folfers and seeing how their experiences were the same or different from mine. It was really cool to read how they played, their attitudes, how they reacted to weather and bad shots, who they played with and a whole bunch of other stuff! I know that reading those articles was valuable to my mini ethnography because it gave me a very good perspective on things and showed me how I measured up against some of these people. These articles also gave me some outside experiences that I can add in other than the peoples' whom I interviewed.
Surprising, I know: that research turned out to be one of my favorite parts!
My favorite piece of data was a source that I found in the database at the library. It was an article in a journal that documented the experiences of many disc golfers. I thought this was terribly interesting and it kept my attention for almost an hour. I loved getting into the stories of other folfers and seeing how their experiences were the same or different from mine. It was really cool to read how they played, their attitudes, how they reacted to weather and bad shots, who they played with and a whole bunch of other stuff! I know that reading those articles was valuable to my mini ethnography because it gave me a very good perspective on things and showed me how I measured up against some of these people. These articles also gave me some outside experiences that I can add in other than the peoples' whom I interviewed.
Surprising, I know: that research turned out to be one of my favorite parts!
Thursday, April 16, 2009
April 16th Posting
A Day at McColluc Park
When I think of that day, I think of the sunny, clear skies that hovered overhead; I think of the parking lot jammed full of car, which were at one point jammed full of people hoping to get in a few rounds on this gorgeous day. I myself was with a group of 8 or 9 friends, and we were there for the same reason. The group represented almost every skill level: we had at least 2 really good players, 4 or 5 'once-in-a-whilers,' and 2 almost complete beginners. Needless to say, this was a fieldsite jackpot for this fledgling fieldworker. I watched as discs flew through the air, sometimes followed by cheers and other times followed by swears. It had been raining the previous two days, so we found ourselves dodging small inland seas of stagnent rain water. Every once in a while someone's drive would come splashing down with a splat and the thrower would then comence to roll up his or her pant legs and remove their shoes. Eventuallly though, the players who really weren't excited to be there wandered off to play on the playground as the rest of us finished. I assumed this would happen eventually, because McColluc Park has one of the longest disc golf courses I've ever played, so I knew that a few would become frustrated or bored and soon go off to discover new activities. At the end of the day, there were some good scores and some bad ones, some good shots and some missed 3-foot putts, but everyone was happy (even those covered in mud from sliding into a big puddle.) I didn't learn a lot about disc golfing that day, but I sure did get a lot of good field research in!
When I think of that day, I think of the sunny, clear skies that hovered overhead; I think of the parking lot jammed full of car, which were at one point jammed full of people hoping to get in a few rounds on this gorgeous day. I myself was with a group of 8 or 9 friends, and we were there for the same reason. The group represented almost every skill level: we had at least 2 really good players, 4 or 5 'once-in-a-whilers,' and 2 almost complete beginners. Needless to say, this was a fieldsite jackpot for this fledgling fieldworker. I watched as discs flew through the air, sometimes followed by cheers and other times followed by swears. It had been raining the previous two days, so we found ourselves dodging small inland seas of stagnent rain water. Every once in a while someone's drive would come splashing down with a splat and the thrower would then comence to roll up his or her pant legs and remove their shoes. Eventuallly though, the players who really weren't excited to be there wandered off to play on the playground as the rest of us finished. I assumed this would happen eventually, because McColluc Park has one of the longest disc golf courses I've ever played, so I knew that a few would become frustrated or bored and soon go off to discover new activities. At the end of the day, there were some good scores and some bad ones, some good shots and some missed 3-foot putts, but everyone was happy (even those covered in mud from sliding into a big puddle.) I didn't learn a lot about disc golfing that day, but I sure did get a lot of good field research in!
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Six Word Memoir
Pertaining to disc golf...
"Windy day, maybe save for par"
Pertaining to my life...
"Simple pleasures; Luck the day saves"
"Windy day, maybe save for par"
Pertaining to my life...
"Simple pleasures; Luck the day saves"
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Apri 9th: Rhetoric
What rhetoric is to me
The first time I heard the word rhetoric I was watching a World War II documentary on the History Channel. It was discussing Hitler's rise to power and how his strong skills in rhetoric allowed him to rise to the top very very quickly in Europe; it is for this reason that I often view rhetoric in a negative sense. After that, I came to find that rhetoric wasn't only for dictators. I think rhetoric has less to do with what you say and more to do with how you say it. Sounds cliche, I know, but from what I have learned rhetoric is how comfortable in front of crowds, how efficiently you portray a message, how effectively you speak to your audience, and so on and so on. I've never really been a fan of rhetoric because I've never been any good at it. I get really nervous and studdery in front of crowds. As far as how rhetoric plays into my subculture, that is hard to pin down. I suppose when it comes to me 'recruiting' people to try is out I will have to develop some sort of effective rhetoric in order to convince them it will be fun. I think the most likely way I'll be using rhetoric in my final project is through the interviews. I will need to use rhetoric to effectively reach my interviewees with my questions. And then I will use a little to add their answers into the paper itself.
The first time I heard the word rhetoric I was watching a World War II documentary on the History Channel. It was discussing Hitler's rise to power and how his strong skills in rhetoric allowed him to rise to the top very very quickly in Europe; it is for this reason that I often view rhetoric in a negative sense. After that, I came to find that rhetoric wasn't only for dictators. I think rhetoric has less to do with what you say and more to do with how you say it. Sounds cliche, I know, but from what I have learned rhetoric is how comfortable in front of crowds, how efficiently you portray a message, how effectively you speak to your audience, and so on and so on. I've never really been a fan of rhetoric because I've never been any good at it. I get really nervous and studdery in front of crowds. As far as how rhetoric plays into my subculture, that is hard to pin down. I suppose when it comes to me 'recruiting' people to try is out I will have to develop some sort of effective rhetoric in order to convince them it will be fun. I think the most likely way I'll be using rhetoric in my final project is through the interviews. I will need to use rhetoric to effectively reach my interviewees with my questions. And then I will use a little to add their answers into the paper itself.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Writing Quote
"If due not tomorrow, then do not today."
Unfortunately I cannot take credit for this qu0te; it belongs to my good highschool friend Joe. Although his diagnosed case of procrastination was far more severe than my own, I do believe that we shared similar philosophies about writing papers for school. It's not that we don't want to write the paper now, it's just that there are so many other things that we'd rather be doing instead of a 3-page reflective essay about the reading from "To Kill A Mocking Bird" which we are also putting off reading.
As I matured, I realized that it may be painful to write boring stuff, but it only gets more painful as you get closer and closer to the due date. Thus, a great sense of will power arose in my senior year of highschool, and I began finishing writing assignments well before the due dates just simply out of a sense of responsibility. 'The sooner it gets done,' I thought, 'then the sooner I can do what I want to do with my time and feel relieved that I don't have that writing assignment on my back!
Unfortunately I cannot take credit for this qu0te; it belongs to my good highschool friend Joe. Although his diagnosed case of procrastination was far more severe than my own, I do believe that we shared similar philosophies about writing papers for school. It's not that we don't want to write the paper now, it's just that there are so many other things that we'd rather be doing instead of a 3-page reflective essay about the reading from "To Kill A Mocking Bird" which we are also putting off reading.
As I matured, I realized that it may be painful to write boring stuff, but it only gets more painful as you get closer and closer to the due date. Thus, a great sense of will power arose in my senior year of highschool, and I began finishing writing assignments well before the due dates just simply out of a sense of responsibility. 'The sooner it gets done,' I thought, 'then the sooner I can do what I want to do with my time and feel relieved that I don't have that writing assignment on my back!
OOPS!!
Hey Disarro
I'm going to use my "free card" for this weeks blog posting. I'm not trying to make excuses, but I had that rough draft due, a BIG speech to prepare for, and it was my roommate's birthday so I had a bunch of surprise things planned for him!
Anyway, I'll get it done as soon as I can today. Sorry again!
Nick
I'm going to use my "free card" for this weeks blog posting. I'm not trying to make excuses, but I had that rough draft due, a BIG speech to prepare for, and it was my roommate's birthday so I had a bunch of surprise things planned for him!
Anyway, I'll get it done as soon as I can today. Sorry again!
Nick
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