Kmb04's Weblog

It all comes together

kmb04 — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 05:04:00 +0000

I get it; I think I finally understand why we keep returning to Bable, we wouldn’t be spending so much time with just any random movie. Like anon136 says, “…everything we see, read, write, or do has a meaning.” I tried to decode this meaning and this is what I got…

In Bable there are a few different story lines that are taking place and at first you think they have nothing to do with each other. But then you learn that each story line relates and affects another. At first I though that Steph was trying to make a correlation between the movie and our actual papers, but I think the real line she is trying to draw is between ourselves as writers and other writers. Like ciaobelllla says, “… we are connected in the world.” Just like the separate story lines in Bable are connected to each other. Without the feedback from others my writing is nothing. Steph has been trying to connect our class with the freshman writing class all semester. She has urged us to read there writing and ask them questions about it. This is what she is talking about in this blog, how the freshman wrote one thing and now she is looking for away to get the juniors involved.

anon136: http://anon136.wordpress.com/2007/10/11/relationships-between-babel-and-com375

ciaobelllla: http://ciaobelllla.wordpress.com/2007/09/10/babel-guess-how-long-this-took-me/

What more can you ask?

kmb04 — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 15:30:23 +0000

What are the other causes of eating disorders other than the media?

This is the one and only big question I have for my next 10 sources of research. When I went through my first 10 sources I only focused on the articles that told me that media was the reason people are too skinny. I am also narrowing my topic from eating disorders to anorexia alone. I think this is the most interesting of all the eating disorders because I don’t understand it. I want to know why someone would purposely starve themselves.

Give Me Some Feedback

kmb04 — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 23:59:23 +0000

All of the feedback that I received on my civic letter was very helpful. I learned both my strengths and my weaknesses. I realized that I need to improve on clarifying what I am saying in my essay by adding in examples. Also I learned that when trying to inform others on a topic try not to commit to facts unless I get this information from a very reliable source. In my next paper, which is on the effects the media has on eating disorders, I am going to try my best to include actual example such as actual famous people that are suffering from eating disorders. Maybe I could include examples of TV shows, movies, and commercials that only hire skinny actors. While I focus on improving my writing in these specific ways I will also carry with my strengths as a writer. Through the feedback that I received on my civic paper I have realized that I am good at organizing my thoughts.

A Little Bit of Both (ritual&transmission)

kmb04 — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 05:12:11 +0000

There are many ways to communicate such as vocally, body language, or through art. However in this class we are communicating with others through our written work. That is why this class is called “Writing as Communication”. Now when you communicate you reveal many things about yourself including your morals, beliefs, and culture. This is why Carey’s communication theory is called “Communication as Culture”. These two titles in themselves communicate. They inform us about what it is that we are studying. These titles use the transmission model of communication because they are telling us in what form one is transmitting information and what type of information they are transmitting.

While these two titles are examples of the transmission model of communication, this Comm375 class as a whole operates in a ritual model. Steph doesn’t just give us information and just expect that we agree and accept it. She puts information out there and encourages our feedback. Often she doesn’t even give us the information directly; instead she instructs us how to figure out problems on our own. This may be why a lot of the students in this class are frustrated. As students we are use to our professors just expecting us to accept what they say and learn it. However Steph takes a completely different approach which is why I think many kids are rejecting it, just because it is unfamiliar.

There is Always Pros and Cons

kmb04 — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 22:10:22 +0000

This is a teacher with a lot on her plate. Steph, one of the only teachers in all of umass that is utilizing the UmassWiki, is attempting to connect all writing classes together. She thoroughly describes of all the work that both her freshman and junior writing classes have done. Then she explains how she has connected the two classes together by way of the wiki and blogging. Steph sees this as a good idea because she is trying to actively show her classes that writing is a public action. She is also probably uniting her classes together so that everyone can receive more feedback and different points of views. The fact that the writing is getting more feedback is the main reason why almost all of her freshman say that they really enjoy Steph’s vision where students from different classes comment on someone else’s work on the web. They enjoy getting feedback from people outside of their own classroom. While the majority of her students are enthusiastic about her ideas, some of them are uneasy about the fact that people they do not know are reading their thoughts and feelings. However not one of them have made a complaint about the actual wiki or weblog in itself. This is where my opinion comes in, like the freshman I also feel like it is important to have readers outside of your classroom. That is why I think that some work on the wiki and wordpress is ok. However in an intensive writing class like this I think that maybe we should focus a little more on the actual act of writing rather than spending entire class periods learning how to get around the UmassWiki website. While this causes much frustration on my part I am confident that Steph is doing all of this for a reason which is why even though I am not a big fan of the wiki, I will still tolerate it and try my best to get something out of this class.

whats wrong with my paper…

kmb04 — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 16:36:53 +0000

The reason why I chose “To Flog or Not To Flog…” and “Un-Flog Your Mind” is because of their catchy titles. This is the first difference between my piece and both of theirs, my title isn’t that intriguing. At first I do a good job like both BellaBerly and Amanda Huggenkis by actually taking Jacoby’s piece and telling why I think that he wrote it this way… and why he might have his point of view. For example the fact I bring up that Jacoby had a history as a law student which could be why he is interested in the justice system is a great point to make in an analysis of someone else’s piece. Amanda Huggenkis uses this same technique when they insinuate that the reason why Jacoby is righting this piece I because it was written at the end of a few decade of increased crime in Massachusetts. However my Essay begins to differ from theirs when I start to add in not only my own views of the justice system but even more off topic, the views of outside sources. This assignment was not suppose to be about my views of the justice system, it was suppose to be about my views of Jacoby’s piece and I was suppose to analyze the reasoning for his own opinion.

Different Views of Learning

kmb04 — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 17:46:11 +0000

I was asked to analyze several different definitions about learning. These are the question I used…

How is each definition different?

Who is coming up with these definitions?

How Does Babel Fit In?

kmb04 — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 20:28:19 +0000

I have read everyone’s input on the movie Babel I have come to a final conclusion on how the movie relate to our class. Almost every post talks about how all the scenarios throughout Babel relate to one another. The fact that this movie brings all these different situations together is similar to how our goal of writing to formulate a essay that wraps together the topics of media, function, context, and content. These four very different things come together to make one essay just like how the four different scenarios come together to make one movie.

Bable: take two

kmb04 — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 21:47:32 +0000

While I still agree with my original statement when watching Bable, “The movie Bable really shows us how many different ways you can share your thoughts and feelings with others.” I think that the movie has more in common with a comm. writing class than simply just displaying the multiple ways there are to communicate. Now that Bable is coming to an end the movie is trying in all these stories that we once thought to be completely irrelevant with each other. Just like when your writing an essay, at the end of the paper the writer wraps up all the points together and the reader is able to see how everything is connected. Well, in Bable the producer has connected the American children at the Mexican wedding with the American adults that were shot in the Middle East. Now the Middle Eastern kids are the shooters while it looks like the Asian girl’s father is the one that sold the gun in the first place. Just like an essay the movie is binding all its parts together, and that is why I really think this movie is appropriate for a writing class.

Bable Comm375

kmb04 — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 21:55:40 +0000

The best part of communticating is that there are so many ways to go about it. This is a point that the movie Bable really captures. This film displays four of the multiple languages present in our world. However the act of communicating does not end there. As shown in Bable some people also use sign language and body language. The movie Bable really shows us how many different ways you can share your thoughts and feelings with others. I think that Bable was a great choice for the first day in a writing class because writing is another way that people can communicate.