advice to future students!

My advice for ENGL 254 students would be:

• Bartholomae sucks, so don't stress too much about that reading. The readings get easier and the content is actually applicable.
• Don't drop the class after reading Bartholomae. This class is actually really great. and Zach is funny, sooooooooo.
• Take the opportunity to get to know the other students in your class because it makes dissuasions go way less awkwardly (and group work).
• When you get the chance to pick your topics for papers pick something that really interests you so that the research becomes less about homework and more about fun.
• Remember that you have 3 days to skip.

Blogging in the Classroom

"Given the fact that blogging exposes students to a wider audience for their writing, we can hypothesize that students might attend more carefully to online writing opportunities (as opposed to papers submit- ted to an instructor). In the case of the writing prompts that ask students to read and reflect upon specific texts, it might be expected that students will read these texts more carefully when they know their interpretations will be online and therefore accountable to a larger audience." - Blogging in the Classroom

"Grades are of course a superficial way of showing students what we value. Direct and immediate descriptive feedback does more than a single letter or number can." - A Rubric for Evaluating Student Blogs

I thought the readings for this week were really interesting. I really liked this quote from Blogging in the classroom because I think it proves a very good point: if our work is to but viewed by not only our teacher but the whole class, then I think it subconsciously makes students put more effort into their work. On the other hand, I think that having assignment for other students to view can cause some trouble with "borrowing" ideas if a student just wants to get an assignment done. 

My second quote I thought brought up an interesting point. We talked about this in class, but I think it is worth mentioning again that it is so hard to grade students based on if work is considered "good". I do like the idea, though, of how professors comment back on the blogs and provide feedback that way rather than just assigning a letter grade. I value this interaction and feedback more than nothing at all. 

Blogging trends

There are many different trends within blogging, and I feel that one of the biggest trends you will see are personal blogging and informative blogging. Personal blogging is more a collection of experiences and personal stories while informative blogs are tutorials on DIY projects or information being displayed.

I think one interesting "new" trend to blogging is the idea of Tumblr. I think this takes blogging to a new level. With the option of following people and having a news feed it has sort of merged together traditional blogs with popular online social media sites like Facebook or Twitter. I think that this is interesting because some of the blogs that I look at on Tumblr are just a collection of reposts and pictures and nothing really of their own writing.

I think the way blogs are evolving and changing into more of a public "friendship" site is interesting and it also seems to be taking off pretty well. It will be interesting to see what other blog sites start to follow Tumblr's footsteps. Times are changing and blogs are too.

Messy Rhetoric: Identity Performance as Rhetorical Agency in Online Public Forums

"Identity performances are understood to be a central part of the discursive practice of everyday life. As Charles Antaki and Sue Widdicombe explain, ‘‘Membership of a category is ascribed (and rejected), avowed (and disavowed), displayed (and ignored) in local places and at certain times, and it does these things as part of the interactional work that constitutes people’s lives’’. (Grabill and Pigg, pg 102)

I chose this quote because I thought this was very interesting to think about. I feel like this fits in to the discussion about Myspace and Facebook and all of the ways we are conditioned to prove our selves to others. For example, a person might put thought into their status updates (or it is assumed they do) simply for the fact that they want a certain person or group of people to "like" their status or think its funny or whatever that may be. Social media keeps making it easier and easier to prop yourself up, make yourself look better than you are, and to more importantly, make the people who don't know you personally wish they did. In today's world, there are many people who cannot go without checking their phones and Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, whatever it may be, at least every 15 minutes (I'm not saying that I do not fit into this category). But where is their identity? I don't know, but it's definitely interesting to think about. 

Myspace vs. Facebok

I thought that this article was very interesting because I haven't even thought about my Myspace in ages. As much as it was interesting, I also thought it was strange to read because I felt like the article was analyzing my "middle school self", and I started to see where I fit in with her assumptions. Where I live: "i like, Chad" is what gets me the most...gosh, what was i thinking!? ;)
One part that I thought was most interesting that she brought up was how parents were not as approving of Myspace and how a lot of children were not aloud to have a Myspace. I think this kind of thinking is different now with Facebook. I know many of my friends parents as well as my own mother (and grandparents!) have Facebook. Although in my family's case it is not for communication but simply for entertainment. Although, I know many "older" parents who do use Facebook to stay in touch with old friends and family members.

Freaks and Queers

"I learned early that words could bruise a body". - Clare

Retard.
At one point in history, calling someone mentally retarded was stickily a medical diagnosis. Now, it is thrown around in middle school hallways, jokes at parties, and has developed as a term that separates one person from another while not within its original origins.
You're so retarded translates into: "that was really dumb of you to say". Its a denotation of intelligence and separates someone by calling them into a different group.
Not that any kind of derogatory word is ever okay to call someone, but retard is one word that I can not tolerate.

USA Haters

UNL Haters is a website that specifically looks at tweets and Facebook posts said by UNL students that are considered racist, homophobic, and sexist. They are submitted through screen shots by other students and placed on this website to "expose tweets from haters, especially those which were deleted".
NoHomophobes.com is a website that in real time posts tweets that have the words, "no homo", "faggot", "so gay", and "dyke". The sites purpose is to be a "social mirror" that brings light to the fact that we use these words not always to be hurtful but to show how often we do it without thinking what we're saying.
After looking into both of these sites it is clear that both sites are not trying to bring out bashing on others, but are merely trying to shed light on a situation that is tolerated. On the UNL Haters website they state, "not everyone featured are haters, many are simply ignorant". I believe that both websites are doing their job as providing our society with a "social mirror", as NoHomophobes.com described it.
I picked the 10 most resent post from both sites and compiled my research from those. From the information from UNL Haters, their tweets and posts range a lot in time difference. Their most recent post was added a month a go and the one before that was added 2 months ago. The 10th post was from 3 moths ago. Out of these 10 posts 60% of them were tagged racist, 30% were tagged homophobic, and 10% was tagged xenophobic. 50% of the 10 were written by the same person, as well as 30% were written by another person. Although it is not known who submits these tweets to the website, one can assume there is at least a few "members" who monitor tweets and send in those which are offensive.
NoHomophobes.com is different that UNL haters in the fact that it is a live feed, constantly streaming in tweets the moment they are submitted to the internet and flagged if they contain any of the words mentioned above. From the beginning of today until I took this screen shot there had been this many recordings of these phrases.

Out of those tweets, I chose the 10 most recent tweets. Out of the 10 tweets 60% had "faggot" and 40% had "no homo". 100% of the sampled tweets did not use the language in the true since of the word. Because this is not monitored by a specific person who submits every tweet, most likely the people who are on this website don't even know that their tweets are being placed here. Not only that, but the sample size isn't limited to a small community, such as UNL, and is more broad and does not single anyone out.