Assisting, thus far..

I am having a great time assisting with the class. I think that greatest benefit I draw from the experience is the fact that going through the material again keeps it fresh in my mind. As I am doing other academic things, such as essays for applications or research for a presentation, I am able to more easily remember what I learned last semester and advance my understanding the english language. I will be presenting the different aspects of the process I used to craft my argument about the relationship of senses tomorrow.

While its fresh in my mind I would just like to note a few reminders to look at tomorrow while I speak..

-the argument aspect of the essay, derivative from my urge to analyze and debate

-took about 2hrs to write initially, then like 2 or 3 more to get right

- i enjoyed the process because of the end result, you have to like the topic or have interest

-explore your most random thoughts attributed to the subject

-don’t decide on a genre before you write. think about what you have to say and then find a genre that matches.

Teaching Assistance

I am looking forward to this semester for a couple of reasons. For one, all of the classes I am taking are interesting to me. Although I do have to realize that there is a possibility that one or more of my teachers could be assholes (as that is bound to happen eventually). The Second reason I am looking forward to the next couple of months is that fact that I will be assisting Marlen in his 101 class. I enjoyed English last semester and will enjoy helping others with it as well. I think that the experience will be great for me I have a slight interest in teaching. Although I would like to go to law school and be a Lawyer as my profession, I am open to doing what ever it is that I am called to do and teaching could be something that interests me.

Cadence

As you move further away and we separate, as we have so many times before, your red tail lights fade into the night. They face backward, unblinking and steady as I know you wish you could. Although our distance increases, my heart is still riding shotgun. I left it on the passenger seat just for you, only you. I have left my being right there in that vehicle.

And, for a change, I have not left it in spite. Not in spite of me, in spite of you or in spite of any reason that may exist, NO!

I left it as a life line.

So no matter where you are, you can always pick it up and reach me on the other side. As if it were one end of some primitive tin-can telephone; the string invisible and permeating all matter in between two talking points.

For a change, I leave my heart with out question, with out reservation and with out hesitation. . and for once, it is not only me leaving something behind.

I have yours as well. On my end of the lifeline is your heart. Both sides pulsate with exciting and wild rhythms, mimicking one another.

Beating so similarly, they are virtually indistinguishable.

Blog assignment #12 – My Showcase Essays

For one of my showcaes essays, I will choose my first one which was written about the sense of sight and the picture I brought in to class. I have chosen this essay because I believe that it contains an interesting story and that it exemplifies my creative abilites, evidenced by the fact that I was able to weave an entirely fictional story into a nonfictional event.

For the second one I would like to incorporate my essay on the sense of smell because I believe that I made some very interesting word choice decisions and I also believe that it shows some of my more poetic abilites, evidenced by the nature of the story. I would, however, like to revisit this paper because I do not think that it’s completed in the form that it’s in right now. I think I could improve upon the grammar a little but more.

FUCK

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i want to go home.

Blog Entry #11 – Autoethnography

Dan Burkhardt

College Writing – 101

Professor Harrison

15 November 2008

When I came to IUP three months ago, I was not sure of anything at all. I was not sure about what I wanted to do with my life. I was not sure where I was going to work, if I was going to work, what my major was going to be or if I was going to be able to deal with the pressures associated with college life. I had this vision of college classes that would be full of people who were half hung over most of the week and crazy parties in every hallway of the residence halls twenty four hours a day. I have been pleased to find that the people who would be half hung over opt to just skip class instead and the residence halls are really not that bad (most of the time). I quickly became adjusted to the way the music class was run: pretty much show up and sign the paper so you were there and then act like you are paying attention. Then about every two weeks he has a study session, in which they pretty much go over the answers the test and get an “A” when you go back to class and take the test. Business: go to class, do the slide packets, answer questions, laugh at his jokes and get an “A”. Computer class: go, sit, get the tests, ace the tests and get an “A”. All of this is fairly monotonous although I am learning new things in those classes. English class is a bit different. I have been challenged to rethink my way of writing and I have been forced to make some better writing decisions. This to a great extent has altered the way I think. I feel that since my writing style and conception of ability has been challenged, that I must also challenge the thought process which produces flawed material. I have learned to analyze the way I make decisions and to improve the process.

In my first writing assignment, “What is I?” I think it becomes very clear I have not written in essay form in a very long time by the way I attack the subject.

“I. I am , I want, I need. I feel, I taste, I hear, see and smell. The meaning of the word I, seems to me to be a very contextual thing. For example, I could say or even think, “I want to get some lunch”. In this case I would be using the word I to refer to my body, and describing the need for nourishment at that moment. This can also be applied to any of the other senses to describe my physical body interacting with the physical world around me.

When we use the word I in a way to describe our personalities, we are talking about our will and our social tendencies to be a certain way about something. We are talking about our deep personality and the way in which we emotionally feel about our surroundings or situations. People may also use the word I to portray themselves in a certain light. If you were to say “I like shopping at the mall” then you are trying to let a person know that you enjoy shopping at the mall and if you were to say ” I only like wearing Aeropostale or Hollister” then you might be trying to steer that person to gain an impression of you which would cause them to think of you in a certain way. The point of these statements would be to try and shape the view of who “I” am, to you.

I, me, Is someone that not too many people actually know. I, me, is a will, personality and spirit that has been shaped by different environments, people, influences, wants, needs, interests and talents. I am a person, a being, an incarnation of intelligent thought, insight, retrospect and artistic creation. I am a conjunction of physical, soulful and spiritual existences.”

I find several things wrong with this answer to the question. For one, I didn’t really begin exploring the true concept until the last section. I began with a very superficial understanding of the topic and to be honest, I think it is sad that my first instinct to define myself was by the outward perception of who I am. I feel like the middle paragraph where I am discussing the whole shopping thing was very jumbled and confusing, although I think a reader would still be able to understand the point. Simply put, there are a whole lot of grammatical and word choice errors that exemplified the rusty nature of my writing abilities. I think that the last paragraph contains the only redeeming quality in the whole assignment in which I write, “I am a conjunction of physical, soulful and spiritual existences”. I feel at this point that I had found what I was really trying to say and made a good argument. This is about the only point of view and method of description with which I agree.

What is I? This is such a profoundly complicated question to answer and I have a hard time peeling back all of the layers. As stated earlier, the concept of “I” has to do with a conjunction of physical, soulful and spiritual existences. When I look at the works I have written in the past 3 months, I have a couple of questions to ask myself. One, have I put all of my effort into the work I have done? If yes then I must proceed to assume that the work has embodied a reflection of who I am either in the way I have described my ideas or by the method I chose to describe them. I would like to choose a couple of instances which I believe display those qualities and expand upon the reasons why.

The first essay I wrote was about the picture I brought in to share. I chose a picture which was the view from the top of a mountain I hiked with my girlfriend. You can see in the distance a slew of shorter mountains and hills which appear very small. I chose this picture at the time because I was thinking about her a lot and the fact that this was such good experience that we had together.

The stars were out in full. Miles away from any major sources of light pollution; the sight that lay before us was one that could not be held from our suburban neighborhoods. 360 degrees around us, the sky was clear, and almost any constellation we thought of could be seen. We sat, talking and admiring the sky for a while, and then walked back to camp to retire for the night.

I feel like this paragraph specifically speaks to the great time that we had while on this trip. The description of this moment, although probably the shortest paragraph in the whole essay, was really the reason I wanted to write the paper in the first place. There is something so profound and spiritually soothing about feeling small and insignificant under a blanket of cosmic beauty like the rural night sky. There is also something equally profound and distinctively securing and about being there with someone else who looks toward the sky with the same perception.

I wrote my essay on the sense of hearing so that it would read like a research paper. I wanted to first give the reader a background to understand the hearing process and then dive into the details about how the human brain interprets sounds. In preparation for writing my paper about the sense of hearing I decided that I would utilize a book about studio recording to help illustrate the way a sound wave travels.

“An analogy of how sound waves travel can be demonstrated by dropping a stone into a pool of still water”. The waves will travel from the source of the disturbance in the water and radiate outward. “Likewise, sound pressure waves are generated by a vibrating body that’s in contact with air (such as a loudspeaker, a person’s vocal chords, or a guitar string that vibrates the body of an instrument)”<!–[if supportFields]> CITATION Hub97 \p 23-24 \l 1033 <![endif]–> (Huber and Runstein 23-24)<!–[if supportFields]><![endif]–>. The inner ear then translates these vibrations into electrical nerve impulses which travel to the brain for interpretation.

This type of writing showcases a part of my personality that is a trait I am very proud of. I am extremely inquisitive and I love to learn new things. This section of the first chapter talks about the process of sound waves and how they operate and when I read this the first time, I was glued to it. It really blew me away to realize just how sensitive the sound faculties of the body are and how complicated a sound wave is. A sound wave is nothing but a wave of pressure that infects the air molecules surrounding it. I was so fascinated after I read this that I spent more time on the internet looking up facts about sound waves and the hearing process. I believe in any situation, that the more knowledge that you arm yourself with, the better.

The next example of this drive for understanding and knowledge come later in my paper when I begin to discuss auditory hallucinations and the effects of such a disorder.

Dear Dan (tooting my own horn)

I think that you have been showing initiative in order to make things happen for yourself. i feel as though you have demonstrated a level of motovation that will benefit  you through college. i think that you have goals and that you are a person who know how to get thigns done. I think that you origional wiritng  pieces have been sub par but that you have shown a desire to make changes and tho improve you writing abilities and that you have been handiling criticism in a mature fashion and treated it as an opprotunity to learn.

Dear Marlen (lots of errors)

Today I fell like im not really into it. I feel like i would rather be sleeping at the moment, althought this morning I had this exciting bit of energy when i first woke up that seemed like it would last all day. I dont feel this way often but I think it is affectin my performandce and atttentiveness in classt his afternoon.

any way,, not that I got that out of the way soy ou know why i half assed the outline i just wrote, I feel like this class has been very helpful. I think i neede to spend some real time sitting and thinking about hoe i write and not just assume that i do it well because when i look back at my first couple of things form this class i am amazed thtat they turned out so bad the first time. im sure you noticed in my first essay but the dumb mistakes were simply stupid and rediculous but i feel like i have made some big improvements  since then. yhe best things that I was able to do was t o write creatively because i enjoy the freedom. I think that you understand that I am not an english major but that I want to succeed and get everything out of this class as possible.

Final Paper Outline

1. start with the definiton of an a/e
2. what a/e means to me and what I could get out of it

I would like to take the first blog entry that i wrote and elaborate upon it. i would use that as a guide line for topics to speak of.