Free response #2.

Well today I was not in class because I had to go to the doctors and when I went I got a totally new doctor who changed everything and messed up a lot of stuff. But that's besides that point, I looked at what you went over in class today and from what I understand it was mostly about how to cite your paper and resources. I HATED doing this in High School but understand why it is important. In High School we had our annoying librarian try and teach us how to properly cite and use MLA, which was SOOO boring. But now looking back on it, it really helped a lot. Now when people talk about MLA I know exactly what their talking about and I know how to do it.This project is a little difficult for me because im just not that interested in Kurt Vonnegut and his work. Some of his stories are interesting but to me they are just too out there for me to get interested in them. And for the project we have to write about his life and stories and it was just hard for me to keep a flow going for my paper. But I think I got all the kinks worked out of my paper and it was hard but it’s finally done.

Free Response #4

Today in class we went over how to cite things. Although I knew how to cite books, talking about the website references really helped me out. I was a little confused on exactly what to do. I also liked how we found out how to use Microsoft to help site things. It made me feel a lot better about the process to finally finish this project. I wish that getting to the point I am at now did not take as long as it did. I also went to the writing center yesterday to have someone look over my paper and help me out to get the final thoughts on my paper. I thought I was so far off and that my paper was horrible, but after having a couple more people read it, I feel it really is where it needs to be, or at least will be where it needs to be as I finish it up tonight. Overall, I liked reading the short stories from Vonnegut. It was a good change up to the class and I also liked having the class discussions and the feedback as to what everyone thought about things. It also gave us a chance to get to know everyone in the class better then before. My favorite story was “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” as it brought up a lot of interesting points. I am using this story along with “The Euphio Question” in my paper and am actually really excited about it.

Operation: Citation (March 24)

As the due date draws nearer for Project Three, please be sure that you are keeping in mind the requirements for secondary sources. As you will quickly learn, universities are hyper-aware of the issue of plagiarism, and, while I do not think you WOULD plagiarize your material, you need to be aware of hoe to properly indicate your source material. For that reason, today we will be discussing the academic guidelines to proper citation.

First of all, there are several resources available to you if you have questions about citing sources. The absolute BEST source of information can be found at the following website:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/

The OWL (Online Writing Lab) is hosted by Purdue, and should have a answer for any question you may have about MLA formatting (which is most commonly used in English courses and SHOULD BE FOLLOWED for this paper).

If you would prefer an alternate source, The DK Handbook has an excellent section on MLA citations on pages 350-420. This provides an excellent example of how to format in-text citations (351-353), as well as a useful example on how to format an entire paper for MLA (406-418). BE SURE THAT YOUR PAPER INCLUDES A PROPERLY FORMATTED WORKS CITED PAGE!

However, realizing that you will most likely skim the above resources, I have condensed the essential tenets of MLA citation down into the following points for you to reference:

1. In-text citations

When to use them? - Any time you quote from another author's work or substantially paraphrase another author's work or thoughts. In-text citations simply make a marker in the body of your paper that indicates whom you are indebted to for your information.

How to use them? - In-text citations are very simple. All you need is parentheses, author's name, and page numbers (if available). As an example, if I wanted to quote the opening line of "Harrison Bergeron" (notice the quotation marks!), I would cite it thusly:

"The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal" (Vonnegut, 7).

Notice that the parentheses are outside the quotation marks, and that the puntuation mark for the quote follows the citation. At this point, all you have to worry about is providing a proper citation in your works cited page and you should be good.

2. Works cited page.

When to use them? - Every student asks "Do we need to have a works cited page?" and, though I know you're going to hate this, the simple answer is Yes. Works cited pages may seem like a hassle, but consider them the best way to cover your own ass from charges of plagiarism. If you have used ANY outside resource in assistance to generating your paper, you should consider a works cited page a given. Fortunately, they're a lot easier to do once you know the general rules behind them.

How to use them? - Be sure that your works cited page follows your essay on a separate piece of paper. DO NOT INCLUDE THE WORKS CITED PAGE IN YOUR PAGE COUNT FOR THIS ESSAY. You need to list, alphabetically by last name, any other authors who have influenced your product. Be aware that your works cited page for this project should include a citation for Welcome to the Monkey House.

Since there is such a wide range of different types of sources, I won't be able to tell you here how to cite every individual source you might possibly encounter. However, it may help to keep this general format in mind.

All good citations seek to provide as much of the following information as possible:

- Creator of the source (author, sponsoring organization, etc.)

- Title of the work being cited

- Publication information, including when it was created and who published it.

The MLA has strict guidelines on how to orient this information based on what sort of source you're using, and I strongly recommend you consult either the OWL or the DK Handbook for the proper format for whatever sources you're using. As an example, however, consider the following citation for Welcome to the Monkey House:

Vonnegut, Kurt. Welcome to the Monkey House. New York: Dial Press, 2006.

Author name goes first, alphabetically by last name. Next, the title of the book in italics. Next, the place of publication, followed by a colon and the publishing company. Last, you need a comma and the year of publication (notice that the year used is when this paperback was issued by Dial, NOT when Monkey House first appeared).

These all may seem pointless, but it is very important that you understand the impact that plagiarism could potentially have on your career as a college student. In the vast majority of cases, the BEST you can hope for if you're caught plagiarizing is an F for the course. Simply put, it's not worth it to skimp on citing your sources!

Free Response #3

Today in class we talked about our drafts for our thesis paper. I was not too sure on exactly how I wanted my paper to come out or what I was really expecting out of it. I had some troubles getting started on the paper and I really am not quite sure even what I want to talk about. I have written thesis papers before, but we were assigned a topic and strict guidelines to follow. Being able to really write about whatever is not the easiest for me. I was able to write three pages of the paper last night, but I am not the happiest with it. I am planning on rewriting the paper and changing things to make it flow a lot better and be much more persuasive in my argument using key elements from the reading. The peer review in class today actually helped me out a lot. I was actually able to sit down and think about what I want my paper to say. I also was able to pick up on some places in my paper that I should go more in depth with and parts that really are irrelevant to my argument. I have a pretty good feeling of what I need to do to make this a successful paper. The other peer reviews helped, but I think this one was very effective, at least for me. This kind of writing is not the easiest for me. I love being able to write about whatever, but I really would never pick to just write about Kurt Vonnegut. My paper is coming together very nicely after our peer review in class today. It gave me time to actually collect my thoughts and be able to really bring my ideas to life.

free response 3, peer reviews

I think the best peer review that we did would be the one today I like that it was on the computer and the email to the opposite or to the one who your revision option. When revising todays paper, there were beter questions on the sheet and ones that can potentially help me write my paper better. The questions kinda help me out more to which direction my paper should be going and shape it for the better. My partner was Christina Mellon and she wrote a very good paper and I think that the answers I gave in the review will help her with her paper more. I basically just told her that she should explain more or go into more detail about certain topics but overall her paper was good and she agreed that mine needed work but was also a good paper. I think the idea of having a peer review is great it gives insight to what others will think about the paper I have written and i appreciate other peoples opinions on what my paper is saying tp them and if it is getting my point clearly across.

Free Response #2 project 3!

Our peer review today was pretty fun. I got good comments on a paper that I dreaded and thought was terrible. It kinda sucked reading out loud because I hate reading my own stuff out loud. I did feel like the review was helpful though. I am glad that my paper is pretty good from my understanding because I thought it was not what was asked for. Sade is a fun partner, i'm glad she came to class today so that I could have her for a partner. I feel like I got helped today and I feel much much better and relieved about this paper because I need a good grade in this class to graduate high school so I have been freaking out about this paper allllllllll week. It's been the stress of my life since we got it and I'm so happy I got comments today on it about how it is good. I'm also glad I got help on what to add and such to make it longer because I was worried about that. Your help made me think of ways to make it longer which will definitly help me make a realllly good paper. I am much more confident in project 3 now!

A stop to humanity.(Free Response #2)

The question about whether or not The Euphio should exist or if it should be used if it did is a tricky one at best, downright dangerous at worse. For me, the answer is a definite 'No.' The dangers of such a device are astronomical while the potential gains are so very limited. The single most dangerous thing about this device and its effect is that it does not discriminate against people wishing to use it and those who get near it. There is no defense, there is no stopping the effect and those under its spell, while I believe are not addicted, are no longer human. Human, and all other life, is a struggle to satisfy needs and desires all pertaining to the few simple truths that all living organisms must accept. We must eat, we seek shelter from dangers, we protect ourselves, and we must breed. Luckily, for humans and to a lesser extent some of the beasts, we have evolved what we call emotional responses to these needs, happiness being one of them. To be happy, one must meet your needs, and by meeting your needs you allow yourself to become happy. You are miserable because you are starving, so you eat, extending your life, and become happier than the moment before. You find a mate, your genes are more likely to be preserved, that part of you is happier than you were before. To simply be able to turn on a machine and experience a distilled, unending and powerful feeling of pure happiness and well being robs you of these functions, ending your participation in the human race.

This is not to say that it does not have its uses, say for those who wish to die or those who are terminally ill seeking relief from their agony, but the dangers are immense, mostly due to the fact that this effect has an area of effect. Imagine that you built a euphio capable of emitting this effect for 1000 yards, you push it into the middle of the Pentagon and flip the switch. All personal within are now disabled, incapable of performing their critical duties. Imagine if you could emit it over 5 miles. You could shut down the capital of any nation. Even just 10 yards could be used to disable the pilots in an aircraft. The scariest part is that if anyone gets near to try and end the effects, they will be disabled by it as well. A new era of warfare would be ushered in by such a ground breaking device, not of killing, but of undiscriminating disablement.

Throwing the Euphio into the river.

Today's class got everyone a little more involved in the conversation than usual it seemed. All over this questioning of the euphio. I personally said I would throw it into the river. My reason being is I don't see happiness achievable when I press a button. To me happiness is accomplishing everything I need to in a day and because of that rewarding myself by buying myself something with the money i've made, going to a show, or just using my free time to spend with friends. I can clearly remember my happiest day and it was when I took my last dose of chemo June 1st 2009. I went through chemo treatment therapies and surgeries for two years. That last dose meant I was going to finally start to heal. That experience was painful, hard, scary, and not very happy all the time. I would never give it up though. Its put me where I am now. I have an awesome internship and family I would never have without it and those things make me happy everyday. There is no point to just sitting there and being "happy" because you pressed a button. I know everyone's version of happiness is different but how can just BEING happy add up to anything? What is happiness if you're doing nothing. Its true if you know you could just get happiness then many people would just press that button again and again because they wouldn't feel the rest of life necessary to them. To me I guess in the end it all comes down to whether you want your life to mean something or you just want to sit there. What is there to appreciate if you just sit in the awe of happiness. Nothing. I'll take my bad days, weeks, months. In exchange for those rare and few awesome amazing days or moments. Its so worth it. I was given this life, I fought to keep it, and i'm going to run myself dry getting the most out of it as I can. Even if i'm not always happy, its real.

Free Response #2

Today in class we talked about the euphio effect. I was a little unsure what I actually believed in class. I thought about it after and I have come to the conclusion that I really do not think I would want to have anything to do with it. Although it seems okay and leaving no side effects, you waste your live away. It actually reminded me a lot of marijuana. So many people do it because it is the least damaging thing you can do. You have no addiction to it what so ever- or so people say. Even though you can go through no physical withdraw or addiction, there is very much a psychological addiction and a dependence on it in your mind and everyday life. Euphio seems to be that in a sense. People would get so dependent on it that feeling normal so to speak would not even feel normal to you anymore. If that even makes sense. People say you can not buy happiness, which in fact is true. Although I believe there really is no such thing as true happiness, happiness that will last forever, I most certainly do not believe that you can buy whatever happiness is out there. There are points in my life that I hold dear to me, times when I was in deed truly happy, and just the thought that those moments were just handed to me without even having to go through anything seems in a way cheating myself out of memories and a feeling of self accomplishment. Happiness is not something that people should just expect or be handed. To even be happy at all, some effort needs to be there so you are truly able to enjoy the moment or experience. Making yourself happy or feel complete needs to be on the shoulders of the individual, not just being able to get that by experiencing something called euphio.

free response blog #3

(These pictures didn't post how I planned, but after reading below it will make sense why I posted pictures also.)

The euphio question, would I do it? Absolutely not.....

Allow me if you will to briefly take you back to 2007. Something I have always wanted to do, run a marathon. Needless to say in order to complete the marathon I had to train. I trained very hard, running 3 to 4 times a week. The marathon I chose to run was the Walt Disney World marathon in January 2008. The marathon itself was in Florida, where it was nice and warm, the training of course, was done where I reside in Ohio during the cold winter months. I would typically run two short runs a week usually 5 or 6 miles and one long run anywhere from 14 to 20 miles depending where I was in my training. I will never forget the day I was supposed to run 16 miles, it was 8 degrees outside and although I wore a mask to breathe through and thermal leggings, my legs would not warm up and my eyes were watering so much from the cold that icicles litterally formed from my eyelashes. I made it eight miles before I decided that if I continued I would only cause injury to my legs. I did make this run up a few days later when it was about 15 degrees warmer. After six months of extensive training January came. We started our marathon day at 3 AM where we were bussed to the starting line. The start of the race came with large pyrotechs and we were off. The first twenty miles weren't nearly as bad as the last 6.2, the last hour or two of the race I was in extreme pain. The muscles in my legs felt as if they were tied into knots upon knots. One of the members of our team stuck by my side, he encouraged me to pull through. Even grabbed my hand at the finish line when I looked up defeated only ten feet from the line and pulled me through. It was a challenge, I trained hard, my hard work and determination paid off. I can not even begin to explain the feeling I had when crossing the finish line. I have heard that most people become very emotional during this time of their first marathon, I would have to agree. Not everyone can say that they ran 26.2 miles, but I can....am I bragging? You bet I am, I EARNED the bragging rights.

I'm sure I would've been just as happy while experiencing euphio, but that is only temporary, and needs to be continually fed into. The fact that I worked so hard and earned this happiness is not a temporary thing, I can look at my pictures of the race, or even think about it and it brings back the memories and the happiness of my accomplishment, so no, I would not try euphio, I have something much better than that.....and it doesn't cost a dime.

Response to Welcome to the Monkey House

Good discussion today, everybody. I hope that you found that enjoyable, but I also want to urge you to view today's class as an example of how you can approach the themes in Vonnegut's writing for Project 3. You are welcome to analyze and disagree with the larger statements he's making, but you absolutely must be sure that you are relying on the text to form your argument.

That being said, it's time for your blog post on Vonnegut. Please respond to the following prompt as a comment to this post no later than Wednesday, March 17, at noon.

Are you enjoying reading this book? Why/why not? What theme/story from Vonnegut's writing interests you the most? Propose a thesis that you might like to work on for Project Three. What supporting material would you use for this thesis? What story/stories do you intend to focus on? What is your favorite animal? What other concerns do you have for Project Three?

For Wednesday, be sure to also read the story "Report on the Barnhouse Effect." It just so happens to be one of my favorites.

free response 2, about harrison bergeron

Due to my absence in class the last week i wanted to post my second and third free response. As i was reading Harrison Bergeron I became very confused. Th story itself kept me interested enough to want to know what had happened but also because I wantede it to clear my confusion. In the beginning it introduced the story as a time when everyone was equal, which set me up for the thoughts that maybe this story would be very interesting, and not that it wasnt but it sure was not what I was expecting. It seemed as if this story was a real life event I would hate it. The government was limiting peoples thoughts and keeping a hold on anyone who wanted to go against it with these handicap radios in their ears. By labeling them handicap you would think that they had a "problem", but in reality (well to me) there was no problem at all. They wanted to have the sense of controlling and that is exactly what they did, because when the time came when Harrison showed himself without this handicap radio and his handicap metals he was looked upon as a threat or dangerous. When truthfully he was not. But when people started to realize what could happen (being shot) they did not choose to follow in fear. So I would hope that this would NEVER happen in real life if so i dont want to be around for this. I think our minds are beautiful and if there are being monitored, controlled or whatever the case may be it limits us, and i personally think only ourselves should be able to limit us.

Themes to watch for

Based on our discussion today, and the information we took from the Preface, here is the list of themes we decided you can find in Welcome to the Monkey House. If you would like to suggest more themes during the course of your reading, feel free to do so as a comment on this post.

- "I am still very much Vonnegut"

- "stream called the Vonne"

- "All that borrowed meat"

- "Here I am cleaning shit off of practically everything"

- "No pain"

- no fan of MLA

- "reasonably funny"

- "I am committing suicide by cigarette"

- "series of narcissistic giggles"

- funny but still serious

- political awareness

- importance of science

- dystopian future

Be sure to read "Harrison Bergeron" for Friday.

free response blog 2

Since I won't be in class due to training for work, I thought I would use one of my free response blogs to talk about The Barnhouse Effect in place of being able to discuss the topic on Wednesday. I found it a very interesting story. If I didn't know the background of the writer, that he served in the U.S. Army, I would go on one of my typical rampage of how the military go unappreciated, and how war is essential. Since the writer has experience, and has even been a prisoner of war, this story is looked at from a different perspective. Clearly the message is to be able to end all war and create world peace. This would be every American's dream, but since we don't live in a fantasy land, as a realist I can see that even if we were to have the power to destroy all weaponry, there would still be wars. Long before atomic bombs and AK-47's were invented people fought over territories, belongings, etc. Does this mean that I like the fact that we, at times, do have to go to war? Absolutely not, but I do see how it is esstential in order to maintain our freedoms. My boyfriend serves in the Army, has for twelve years now, he has been deployed twice and was supposed to deploy this past February. I absolutely did not want him to go to Afghanistan, but I totally supported him, because I understand his reasoning for wanting to go. He himself does not like "war", but when the time comes that he is called up for duty, he is more than willing to go fight and possibly die for his country. War in of itself is not something that anybody likes, death in of itself is not something that anybody likes, but doing what you have to do to insure that your children will be able to experience the freedoms that we have had the opportunity to experience is well worth going to war. Just ask the protestors that stand with their protest signs, they would not have the ability to protest if it weren't for the soldiers that go overseas to war and protect their freedom to protest. I have the utmost respect for those who have the courage to speak their minds and to stand up for what they believe in, if I didn't believe in war and fighting for our freedom I couldn't believe in their right to do so.

I wish I didn't have to miss class on Wednesday, needless to say, this is a topic that I am very passionate about. I have always been patriotic, even before September 11, 2001, when most Americans became "patriotic". I love my God and my country, and if that means that I would have to endure wars to protect my right to love my God and country, then so be it.

Class discussion, Mar. 8

For today's class, I want you to reflect on the reading you just completed in The DK Handbook and reflect on how the information contained in those pages will influence your approach to Project Three. Since your next essay will need to analyze an argument as well as present an interesting relevant response to that argument, it is important that you devote ample time to the processes of reading and researching equally.

To that end, today's discussion will focus on the proper mindsets to prepare you to do your best work for our unit on Welcome to the Monkey House. Since any discussion of Vonnegut must necessarily begin with reading Vonnegut, I want you to reflect on the following as a comment on this post, in order to prepare you for what I hope will be a revelatory discussion.

Please be sure to read the entire prompt first, and then respond. Too often students have been responding piece by piece to the posts, which I think greatly limits your ability to respond organically. I am not interested in doing your thinking for you; read the prompt, digest it for a minute, and then write a response that emphasizes YOUR THOUGHTS on the matter.

Do you ever read for pleasure? Why/why not? How often would you say you choose not to do assigned reading for classes in general (not just this class)? What is your thought process when you skip assigned reading? Do you think reading for pleasure differs in any way from assigned, in-class reading? If yes, how so? If not, elaborate. Are there "better" or "worse" ways to read for pleasure? Are there "better" or "worse" ways to read for class? If yes, give examples. If no, explain why you think that. What is your favorite color? Why do you think professors assign reading in their classes? Is there a kind of reading for class that you would be pleased to do? Is there a kind of reading for class that you would refuse to do, no matter what? How are reading and writing connected? How are they different? Who would play you in a movie about your life? Why do you think I had you read the assignment for today? What did you take away from it?

Devote some serious thought and effort to this, and then make sure you write quickly, because, come on, we're on a schedule here.

So far I actually really enjoy being in this class, in this short about of time ive learned more in this class then I did in my whole high school years of English class and writing papers. All the examples I need in order to succeed in this class are short and to the point to where I can fully understand what is expected for college writing. The projects we do in and out of class help me in a lot of ways. Also the projects that are already do were fun and interesting to do. Plus you cant outlook the mild humor you bring to class and your terrible methophors.

Project 2 going on to Project 3

I'm pretty glad project two is out of my way now. Let me say it wasn't one of my favorite papers to write. For some reason I found it very hard to present my argument without repeating myself a lot. I loved doing my new medium because it came naturally and took very little time to compose. I really did feel my medium was the best one I could have used to get my story of musica across but I still found that very hard to present in a paper. I don't know if it was because my writing has not been as strong lately or that i've been more stressed out. I would have liked to feel more confident about that paper though and I really don't feel more time would have helped me get there. In the end I wasn't completely disappointed with the paper I turned in I edited and revised it a lot. So I feel confident about it now. I feel a lot more comfortable with what we will be doing for project three. I really like Kurt Vonnegut and defending one of his arguments will seem pretty interesting and easy if you take the time to research which isn't that hard. So all in all i'm glad to be finished with project two and start on project 3.

Glorious

Today in class we spoke about free repsonce posts and turned in our project 2 papers. It was nice outside. not too nice but nice like summer in Canada nice like it was like still in the high 30s but still a lil bit nippy with plenty of sunshine....glorious sunshine. But enough of my rambling we spoke about free response posts and how Mr.Sabo wanted us to post some free response posts and some students in the class were having trouble as the original requirements said that they had to be at most posted 24 hours after class and some students were like "crap dude its 27 hours after class i cant do this!" .In light of this disturbing development Mr.Sabo then decided to be more lenient on the time period on which to post free responses.After we discussed the blog Mr.Sabo was about to let us eave but one of the students decided to ask if we could do a post in class and we all did a post instead of leaving early....:). My project 2 was very enjoyable to do I was very clear and concise on what i was posting and I'm sure anyone who decides to read and watch it will be entertained and surprised on what they witness. so in conclusion in class we learned alot and did plenty of work i look forward to coming to class next week and learning what we are doing then because I'm sure it be very enjoyable good night and good luck.

Sorta Excited

I am sort of excited about the up coming project for a single reason. Being able to choose the single, Kurt Vonnegut, short story that stricks my fancy to anaylse is the only resounding highlight. I loath researching with every inch of my being! Every teacher, in my personal experience mind you, can find a different way of telling you have done something wrong when it comes to researching. One such scary aspect of researching is the prospect of plagerism. How possibly can one plagerize a paper when they read though all of the information and go off of memory to piece together a researched argument? I have never plagerized in my life but I'm always afriad that some instructer is trying to find ways of claiming plagerisium. Citations, citations, CITATIONS!!!! So many rules so many ways to screw up and lose points. Such a headache. However, I do realise that all of these aspects are very important and I have respect for them, but it doesn't mean I have to like all of these rules. Like I had said previously I am excited to pick one short story of my choosing. That's my little spat about how much I hate researching.

Project 2 was unlike any other project I have ever completed; unlike the majority of the class I enjoyed working on this. The idea of building upon an original piece of literature, transforming it into a new media, then additionally comparing the two through a argumentive essay might seem complex but in reality was not. For me the biggest challenge was coming up with an idea of what to write about, and then figuring out a media that represented this event. i also was very frustereated when writing my argumentive essay because i felt that i couldnt grasp the correct way to argue and i wanted it to be more effective then how it came out. The truth is my movie was not better then my original essay. I believe the reason for this is because i am a stronger free writer then a script writer; and my attempts to humor the audience came out very corny and not funny at all. my argumentive essay was more of a lie essay; but i hope that although it was not nessearily truthful i followed the rubric and completed the requirements. aside from lieing in my paper and struggiling with a topic, the project ran very smoothly and i really did enjoy completing it.

Project 2

For project two I thought that it was very difficult. I thought the project was very repeating, even though I had to create a new medium, which was very interesting. I felt like I repeated myself from project one. Seeing an example of a good essay and a bad essay really helped me a lot on understanding what was expected from me. I used the good essay as a guide to help me create my new essay. My new medium was a slideshow of pictures from last year’s softball season, our team made it to state so it was a big deal.
I think this project helped me explore new ideas and new creative ways of doing a project. In Sabo’s example he used his new medium as The Lion King, this was something that everyone could relate to and understand very well. The Lion King is a famous children’s movie and is known worldwide. It comes from Shakespeare which not many people would know. This was a good way of expressing the story in a new interesting way. This project made me think of new ways to write a project that keeps the reader interesting and keeps the reader involved. Now when I write my projects I will think of a way I could do it in a new medium and to keep the story very interesting and creative.

Free Response 1

Project two was a little bit boring, but it helped us show our creativity. I don't really have any creativity, so I didn't really show much, but hey. I like how the Projects are flowing into the next projects. It helps because we are not creating an entire new idea for the next project. We are just going off our previous ideas. For the paper part of project two, it was very difficult for me to think of what to say to put in the paper to make it longer. I felt like I was repeating myself a lot and wasn't really understanding to what you wanted me to write about. I also was not sure what fundamental success meant, so I looked it up online and could not find it. I did my best to figure out what it meant and implemented that into my writing. My paper is definitely not the longest, but like I stated earlier in the post, I had a hard time writing about this because I felt like I was repeating myself.

My thoughts about project 2 -free response

After turning in project 2 with my new medium of a video I realized that this project was okay. The only thing that I did not like about this project is having to write another paper. I would have been more satisfied with just making a new medium. I liked making a video it was fun creating it but I lacked in filling up more than two pages in the argument paper. I struggled even with two pages and made exactly that a two page argument about how my video and my essay differed and the similarities. Next time we are assigned a project where we have to come up with a new medium I personally think that it should be all we have to do that way we can focus more on making our new medium interesting and invigorating. Overall the project was fun because it gave a insight on different things you can do with your imagination and gave us the opportunity to drift away from a normal paper. I would enjoy doing this more in the future and in other classes. So I am happy that you as a teacher Mr. Sabo came up with a good idea to keep us entertained in a English class, also knowing that English is not a very interesting subject, well to me it is not. So thank you for giving us a different way to do things in class.

jacks first free response

I really did not like project two for the most part. I did not mind the new medium aspect of it, but i felt like it was hard to get alot of content in my paper. I like when i can write freely, write what i want to write about. I really really hate history papers, or pretty much any paper that requires citation. I do like this class, its small so by this time of the year everyone feels comfortable infront of each other already which is good because it makes class discussions last longer. I actually dont dread coming to this class like i do most of my classes. I feel like these free writing responses will let you (mr. sabo) understand how each of us are on a more personal level. i wish for project one i would have had a couple more expirienced writers go over my paper. I felt like it was a good paper but there were alot of spelling and grammatical errors which always appear in my papers. I need to sit down and really learn how to profreed my papers. When teachers say "you have spelling and grammer problems" that does nothing to help me fix them. It just points out that i have them which i already know.

Free Response 1

Project two was sort of boring. I am not creative so the creative aspect of the project was not fun for me, and it probably looks terrible and might not even make sense for the rest of the project. I also do not like writing too much so I always rush myself to get it done the first time around so i suppose the peer review is helpful to have me look over my work before I just turn it in for whatever grade my rushed work would give me. Project two was a little more difficult than project one because it wasn't just about our lives it was having to have a strong point backing up our work. I'm pretty sure i will get a lower grade on project two than on one because when i was writing two it seemed really repetitive and even the person that looked over mine said it was. I tried to find a way to change it but I couldn't think of any other way to make my point strong and to make sure it was fully backed up seemed as though I thought that the picture slideshow was the best medium to choose. It definitely isn't but it was the least creative choice that I could actually handle and do so I guess I'll find out how bad it was when I get it back with my grade.

class in general

Overall i like the class. The class is lively, interactive, and fun to be in. Assignment one was not bad at all because we were able to write on things we liked so it was easy to write 4-6 pages on it and it seemed like every one grasped the concept on it and was able to do it with ease. Assignment 2 was not my favorite just because the material needed for the 2 - 4 pages was hard to write about in detail because i could sum up why i changed it the way i did in 2 sentences. So if we did not have to do assignment 2 i would have been much happier. Your metaphors need a little work, but all in all this class is not bad at all and is enjoyable.

August's Free Response

Well it's about time I did one of these. Hopefully it's not the last one I do. It's pretty hard to write about just anything related to class. I think I would be more inclined to do these if we could just write about anything at all - related to class or not. At the same time that would just make it pretty random and things could get out of control. If you told us what to write about for these it would make me more inclined to do them too, because my main problem with papers is the initiative to get started, but then again that would kind of take out the "free response" aspect of these blogs. I think the reason why nobody in class has taken the initiative to do one of these is because blogging is a new thing to (almost) all of us, so we're a little uneasy on what to do. Other than this very piece that I am writing right now, though, I have really enjoyed this class. Writing assignments are always pretty captivating to me, because I enjoy writing, and the assignments haven't been too dull. I usually HATE the actual English classes, but Mr. Sabo actually makes them fun by handing out really cool sheep and making really cool metaphors to keep what is usually a pretty boring in-class subject a little more fun. Anyway, I look forward to the next project and what the rest of this semester will bring for me and my writing experiences and capabilities.

Free Respone

Today was March 5, 2010. In college writing today, we turned in project two, which I did not enjoy. I did not have a chance to staple my project either because it was too thick and I already broke my stapler trying to. I do like this class because there are fun people in here and it’s little so it’s easy to interact with each other. I did not want to come to school today and so all day I have been waiting to get here and get out because it is my last class. I am not happy that we have another project when we just finished one. Now, I have project three to think about all weekend. Woop dee doo. Now, I am sitting here typing this wanting to leave so I can go drive my new car and go home to go to bed and get gas in my car. I think that project three won’t be fun and it’s going to be hard for me because I hate citing things and doing research from outside sources. I also wish I could find a time in the library to do my writing commons visit because I haven’t yet and now I need to do it for project three and four or I won’t get all my points. But last I looked, the writing commons was really filled up. I think I will probably need an office hours appointment to do project three and I’m not excited about it at all. I'm also glad I got reminded that I need to do free responses because I probably would have never done them if I wasn't reminded to do them.

Project 2, at first, made me feel some-what apprehensive. I was not sure exactly what I wanted to do, or even if my project was going to be somewhat good. I tried writing my rough draft without actually doing my new medium. My paper fell short of a good argument, however. Once I sat down and constructed my new medium it was so much easier to write a strong argument defending my work. Once I did my recording I was able to blow threw my paper no problem. The assignment also made so much more sense and was made clear. My rough draft and my final paper ended up being so much different. Also, the hand out you gave us about the good essay and the bad essay was a very helpful tool and reference in finalizing my paper. Project two turned out not being as bad as I thought it was going to be. I was dreading it and not looking forward to the recording at all. Once I got going everything became a piece of cake. Although, I was much happier with my final draft of project one and much more confident in my work as an overall piece. Being creative is not one of my strong points and writing about things that are personal to me is much easier than writing about specific things and trying to write about things that interest someone else. All and all I did not hate project two like everyone seemed to do. It was not my favorite thing to do, but overall I did not think it was terrible.

Free response post 1

So far I like this college writing class. In alot of college classes you are usually expected to write about specific topics that the professor/teacher wants you to write about. In this class though, we have been given a little more freedom in our writing. It's easier to write about our personal experiences as we did in the first and second projects than it is to write about other's experiences and/or views. I actually enjoyed the first and second project, especially the medium that was used. Drawing is very relaxing for me, it's a nice escape from screaming children, housework, my job, etc. It had been awhile since I picked up my sketch book and used my clay pencils, so I really did enjoy this. Project three will require more motivation for me though. In my opinion, it is more of a traditional college writing assignment. I'm sure once I actually get into the story that I chose for the assignment and when I actually start writing about it I will become more motivated about it. I'm looking forward to utilizing the two outside sources to enhance the thesis. I like doing research either via computer, or the old fashioned way of actually going to a library and looking it up in a book. The one thing that I am somewhat concerned about is actually finding the time to read the book. Not that I cannot find a half-hour, or fifteen minutes in a day to read, but that I cannot find time that there is not chaos going on at my house so that I can concentrate on what the author is trying to say. But, as usual, I will find some point and time of the day to read one of the stories, more than likely it will be in a corner booth at a McDonald's play place where my child and the children I watch can play and run off their energy while I work.

Free Response #1

Project #2 was a personal hell for me, like an outlined tour of suffering similar to Dante's own. It played on my insecurities about my own creativity, my hatred of my own works and how little I can do outside of standard mediums without eventually throwing out everything I made progress on well before it is completed. Needless to say, I never got it done. I went through at least 6 different reincarnations of the project throughout the assigned time and eventually, through my own perfectionism (or something similar) and lack of skill, they were all scrapped. I'm fairly confident that if I ever had gotten to the paper portion of the project, I would have been able to complete it easily, but with the medium I chose it would have been near impossible and out of context to even try without having that part of the project done. Project #3 seems much more like my own style and assignments in the past I enjoyed, but I can't help but worry about how having a missing assignment will affect my grade when I turn in my portfolio. Will not having done the project damage my grade twice, after already dropping me down a full letter grade? I imagine that it would, since I would not have a revision of it.

Structured Response, March 3

For class on Wednesday, March 3, please respond to the following prompt. In the interest of a more personalized response, I am purposely leaving this question more open-ended. It is your responsibility to determine what you think should be included in a substantial response.

Keeping in mind the "Net Generation" article and your own experience with multimodal writing for Project Two, how does multimodalism/new medium writing influence you? Why is multimodalism important for modern students?

Be sure to respond substantially by noon on Wednesday. IN ADDITION - START GIVING SERIOUS THOUGHT TO THE FREE RESPONSE POSTS YOU ARE EXPECTED TO MAKE. IF YOU ARE STILL UNCLEAR ON THE EXPECTATIONS OF FREE RESPONSE POSTS, IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO DISCUSS IT WITH ME. I CAN ONLY HOLD YOUR HAND SO MUCH ON GENERATING THE CONTENT FROM WHICH YOUR GRADE IS DERIVED.