My B

sorry bout the color change, dunno what happened. If its too hard to read, try highlighting the grey section.

Investigative Reporting Post

ANGEL's layout is very plain and standard. It is headed by a Penn State Crest and a title, "ANGEL Course Management System" in the upper left. In the top center are several links that branch to the other various Penn State online services including: Library, Registrar, Webmail, Portal, and Search Penn State. On the let is a panel with several buttons with symbols: A home symbol, a question symbol for support and a logout symbol. Before signing in, the main ANGEL page has in the middle body section Public Announcements and Top Stories, neither very occupied nor interesting. On the left is where a guest would select logging in and below that is a warning telling me that my server is not supported by ANGEL, but that doesn't stop me from logging in. A new window pops up with the main page still open and I enter my Penn State info and it leads to a new but similar screen. Curved Blue rectangles still manage the organized content, but now the content is student specific, with all my classes in blue writing, on the left is more student-specific announcements and a Teacher Effectiveness Report (whatever that is). I click on one of my class names and it presents a new screen where all the class info, such as lecture notes, quizzes and other activities are placed in different folders. When I click the content I want, sometimes I am brought to a new screen within ANGEL, sometimes I get a pop-up, sometimes it downloads a PDF, and sometimes my browser crashes. For being so organized ANGEL sure can be a handful. And my least favorite part is when I log in but have other Internet windows up, it will deny ANGEL access!

"The specificity of the answers ANGEL wants suck."
&
"I feel like it doesn't help you learn as much as written assignments where you see teachers' remarks."
Zach Prediger-Freshman-Engineering

"Am I blanking? I just can't think how you could add an extra credit question into an ANGEL assessment - not in the gradebook - A faculty member wants to have an extra-credit question at the end of the quiz.... is there a way to get it to calculate automatically as extra credit?"
-Suzanne Shaffer- A PSU Teacher -Got it off a ANGEL community blog


Right on ANGEL's homepage it tells me my browser, common Safari, is not supported by ANGEL, it recommends Internet Explorer 7 or 8 (which also have their share of problems) or FireFox. More exploring of the website also led me to find a wealth of information about the entire university. From Penn State's fact book in ANGEL, I found the operational budget of the entire university is $4,016, 433,000! There was a ton more information to search, and ANGEL acted like a more refined and organized psu.edu. ON the ANGEL help page it further outlined the problems with Safari and Chrome saying mail, discussion forums, and gradebooks do not work right on these. I found this funny cause I use Safari with none of these problems.


During my initial research, I've gotten a better understanding of what I am am to write, this was like an pre-outline. I realize teachers are having much bigger problems with it than students, so they will be my audience when I criticize it. But it is a good program for students, so when I praise its features, they will be my more intended audience. I would rather please the readers than have them second guess themselves for this report. I also forgot about how annoying Internet use got following ANGEL being used, so that will be another critique I forgot about with the program.

• Did You Know?

#1 Party School

My initial thoughts, before even listening, thought this would be an underachieving documentary without visual stimulant. But the ambient sound layered over the dialogue is actually more interesting than just seeing it. I think it "unbiases" what is going on; if you were to see the drinking and the partying, one may be inclined to think it is acceptable and fun what they are doing, but the audio only takes the words and sounds being recorded, and this makes listeners to face what is going on much more straight forward for what it is. As I got into the special, I started feeling like this show was mocking us and made us look like assholes, even President Graham. I know I'm taking it personal, but I for one am not like that, my friends are not like that when we go out. I will definitely not contest that are still problems like that, and drinking is major problem, but I realize the only way to make a point, the reporters want to focus on the extreme problems. I think as it is stated in the show, it is part of the culture and tradition, and as much of a problem it is, it is also a unifying and enjoyable. But what is recorded is extremely embarrassing, despite the good arguments that the partying is tradition and this college experience is the only time to do it. It actually made me second guess myself for this weekend though, as to not fuel this bad publicity fire. And I feel really bad for residence, who came to this AMAZING town to enjoy there lives, but have to deal with a bunch of asshole punk-ass kids who cant control themselves or understand their limitations and responsibility. It reminds me of senior week in Myrtle, but everyday, all year. I wish, as he did in the beginning, the narrator would not pinpoint State College as the main problem, but more of a global epidemic of college life that needs to be slowed. Just because we are number one that particular year, we get picked on, when in fact we are no longer number one to Florida, I think, and things are the same if not worse there, as well a other big colleges. As for the questions: The speaker is very good at targeting the many problems with our college, the living conditions for residences, binge drinking, business practices, academic underachievement, and it's very direct. Through narration and personal experience, the issues are very easy to understand and hard to ignore. I think a lot of the special is to reveal the issue, and the reasons it is bad are to be implied, like health/ death risks, residential disturbance interfering with happiness, and academic/ judicial consequences. The episode really captures all the groups affected by the college's rowdy activities in State College. For businesses owners, it's tough to deal with but profitable, students are just so wrapped up in it to worry, residence are shocked but unable to halt the partying, and the cops are still quite relevant. The sound bytes are almost better than quotes in papers, because it gives the words more character. The students just paint a better picture of the attitude as well as the locals quotes representing the resentment/frustration. Those who don't drink are being lumped together with the whole campus, so their perspective (minus the pizza delivery guy) is kind of clouded. I think the report wants to highlight the inherent problems with excessive college partying, and hopefully will help deter the dangerous behaviour and lead to a safer way to have fun.

Journal Response Three; 2nd Try

Ok, let me try again. This article is incredibly relatable to me. When I was walking home from class on Friday, I was actually thinking about how I thought I had a competence for writing, but by no means when I consider myself a writer; the act of writing is just not pleasurable to me. But Lamott's opening of how other writers- good writers in fact- have a difficult time with their writing process too. I really did have the image of my mind of good writers having the ability to just pour out ideas seamlessly without writers block and the construct the perfect word choice with the perfect word choice all at once. So knowing that writers also have distaste for starting to write too, it kind of boosted my confidence right away. I also really felt better when she described her frantic fear when her ideas weren't finding the page, because I always have the toughest time channeling my initial thoughts to something articulate. And going through a progression of procrastinating is also similar to how I operate as a writer. How I differ is my total avoidance of a first draft. I usually don't have the time to make one, so I just make a short outline and build of that. I never let myself type anything until I have formulated the perfect wording in my mind; unlike Lamott who just throws up whatever she is thinking. Considering the success she and other writer's have with that, plus the pleasing results I had with writing my memoir, I think I will start relying more heavily on first drafts. I don't plan on making them shitty per say, but if I were to turn in my first memoir draft, it wouldn't in hell be up to snuff. So I guess I can now appreciate how my first writing isn't the best or even close to good and quality writing does require some fixing and drafting. I really liked the down, up and dental draft system, it kind of gave me a guide on how to work through my papers now. One thing I had a problem with the article is Lamott's lack of description in the fix up stage. That is the step I have the least experience with, so it is the hardest for me to do. I would have liked to know how she fixes it, what she looks for, how to condense her thoughts. But overall, I really can take a lot away from this article. I usually don't take anything away from reading school required material, let alone enjoy it. But this dispelled a lot of doubt I had in my writing ability and as long as I go through with putting the time into making shitty first drafts, I might derive some pleasure form writing now.This isn't exactly what I had the first time, and I really wish my first attempt to respond was posted, but this entry flowed out pretty well too, and now I'm back on the good side of writing.

Journal 3 Response

I am seething right now. I am beyond pure rage and cannot focus my thoughts until I create something to commemorate this frustration or destroy something, so I will choose the former. I had formulated a really appropriate and fitting response to the post. I enjoyed reading the article and it was very relatable. But as soon as I finish the writing I was proud of, this stupid fucking computer deleted all my work and kicked me off the Internet. Granted I could have saved my progress throughout or written it in word, but please. Why did it have to wait until I was done and simply perfecting it to fuck me over like that? I can't bring myself to return to respond to this article because of what just happened. I came home excited about writing right after class and I put a good hour into this post and I just got screwed. I was actually cozying up to the fact that writing is something I'm good at and am comfortable with, but no. Now I full on and passionately despise writing again. Consider this my get it out on the page shitty first draft because I cannot concentrate until I write how ill-tempered I am. I suppose I will polish this and actually respond to the prompt with my second draft, but do not expect that for a couple bitter hours.

Journal 1

When I think of writing, I am haunted with memories of sitting idly in front of a computer screen at 4:30 in the morning still trying to finish the paper that is due in 3 hours. So if procrastinating is a weakness for a writer/rhetor, that is definitely one of mine. It’s not that I can't write or refuse to write, I just take so long to articulate each sentence perfectly; so one or two sentences takes me twenty minutes. I usually have good direction and I use strong points with detailed evidence when critically writing or critiquing, but my overuse of vocabulary while trying to weave it into a scholarly argument sometimes makes my sentence structures confusing. Another reason my papers are sometimes hard to follow is because I do have so much to say, and I can't condense my thoughts well. I think continued drafting during free write sessions and outlining my papers will cut down the time it takes me to type my reports. I haven’t really had to write creatively, so I doubt I’m very good at that either, and we probably won’t get into creative writing in this course but the majority of books I enjoy have some sort of creative element to it, like the book I am currently reading, World War Z*. Those books probably appeal to me so much probably they are made into the best films, and my major is Film/Video in the Communication College. So developing my writing skills could also help me get a point across better visually. Last year, my English class was wicked difficult because of the high expectations my high-and-mighty teacher, so I first want to prove to myself that my writing is college polished, or at least how close I am to that. Further I want to really develop a commanding voice/style in my papers. Everything I have written has just been boring research and highly professional topic papers. I really want to make what I write sound more like what I say. I am almost never this uptight and serious, I really like to laugh and make others laugh, and if I could do that in a witty and sarcastic way that matches how I speak act, I’d be really happy. Watching The Daily Show with Jon Stewart* this summer and enjoying his satirizing of American society and politics made me truly admire their writers for their ability to take news coverage and turning it on itself in smart, but still easy to understand way. That is another skill I would like to improve on; making easy to understand points in an interesting way. At the end of writing my papers, I am usually confident I answered the prompt and provided a feasible thesis, but other than the teacher, I don’t think anyone would read my papers. So if I could practice and learn to cut down on my writing time, making my points clearer and more interesting, I will be very happy with my college English experience.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_Z

http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/tue-august-3-2010-will-ferrell

Journal 2

Because I have serious difficulty conjuring my own conversation naturally and, despite the moving rhetoric filled with riveting emotion, I didn't want to start crying in my dorm to "My Addicted Son," so I decided to read the David Giffels article, "Shirt Worthy." I chose it because the synopsis I got in class fit more into my interest with a slightly humorous side and a topic I find very dear to my heart (I have nearly 20 different band shirts). The subject of his writing is his experience has a punk-rock-tested father finally obtaining the hallowed Ramones tee-shirt from his younger years through fatherhood. Giffels highlights the trial a young man had to go through to earn the honor to wear a band shirt, but his son, growing up in a different time, is not held to the same requirements to wear the shirt has his father. This is very similar to my life because I share my interest in rock just like my parents, and they have amazingly worn out concert shirts from the Stones, Clapton and the Dead, and I just got freshly made shirts that don't harness the same genuine coolness; they aren't battle tested so to speak.  I believe Giffels’ exigence comes from a sort of internal joy that has been fulfilled with the “earning” of the shirt. I don’t know if Giffels writing is limited to any audience, but I believe he wrote it to parents looking to the past, proving you can find childhood pleasure from parenting and restraint. I think this was an entertaining article, but the message was by holding onto a childhood love, it can be even more fulfilling by earning it the right way later in life, in this case as a parent. I feel he used mostly pathos in this writing, making his former worship of the Ramones a relatable and interesting to his audience, but it’s also ethos writing in his obedience not to buy the shirt until he earns it. I think the logos is tougher to find, but it might be the connecting of how the rip is not actually a bad thing, but a good thing. I would like to use a lot of pathos in my writing because it is the most personal and entertaining, but I also think it is the hardest to write well. Overall, I thought it could been a little more looser writing; I guess from the preview I expected less of a writer and more of a dude writing about earning his band shirt. It wasn’t as funny as I would have liked, but a good article I am pleased to have read nonetheless.