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Visual Argument

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Final Reflection

English 101 Portfolio

Revisions #1:

Title: Position Essay

Audience: Peer students

Purpose Statement: to inform how serial killers are created

Genre: Informative

Revision #2:

Title: Personal Essay

Audience: Peer students

Purpose Statement: Personal story about having hip dysplasia

Genre: Informative

Reflection

           Throughout this semester I was able to expand on my writing skills and be able to break down what is in each reading.  Each reading we had to read helped me understand the main point behind each paragraph.  We were required to participate in the discussion and post responding to the assignment.  With each activity I was able to receive constructive feedback from my peers to improve on certain assignments.  Giving and receiving feedback has improved my work and the others and I feel as if this improved my experience throughout this class.  Throughout this reflection I will be discussing two assignments that I feel were my strongest pieces that I produced throughout this semester.  

           I learned how to communicate more effectively towards others in my class especially towards group projects.  I did gain some new friends and felt comfortable enough to reach them outside of class when I did not understand the assignment.  Group projects have always been a struggle for me to participate in since I like to have a consistent flow.  Having others input expanded my thinking process and I believe it has helped how I will construct any group projects or papers I will write in the future.  

           When we met for our class time we would always have activities to keep the class going and having a full agenda.  I enjoyed having the time to have others read my essays to improve on my writing skills and pushing me outside my usual routine. I felt it was easier to go through the readings in class rather than on my own.  We were able to breakdown the reading and after we would participate in the activity that goes along.

           I feel as if I met the outcome for the critical thinking/reading category because I was able to construct an essay around the criteria.  I was able to connect with my audience by the medical care I needed, many of us had run ins with the doctor.  We can all relate with on some level the medical attention we have needed due to an injury or something one was born with.  In my personal essay I discussed being born with hip dysplasia and the impact it had on my life.  When reading the responses, I received from my peers those could agree with their experience when going to a hospital or doctor.  

           Not everyone is going to understand what I went through, and everyone has their own experience on certain things.  I believe my peers and I were able to understand each other based on any medical experience.  We all have had injuries due to our sport or something we are passionate doing.  Throughout this semester we were given many readings, some of them were rhetorical or argumentative readings.  During class we would discussed the context and taking apart the reading to make sure we fully comprehended each concept.

           While doing my position paper I feel as if I struggled and met the outcome towards the writing/research process.  I was able to organize out how I wanted to write my essay, the research took me a lot longer than I expected.  I had to use a lot of resources to figure out exactly what I wanted to discuss about.  In my position paper I talked about how serial killers are created and not born. I had multiple supporting evidence showing what factors cause these types of behaviors to be acted out.  For example, I had to research in depth the types of abuses and how each can affect the child in its own ways.  While researching the types of abuses I used the Stout’s library database along with using Google’s scholar site.  I did have to revise my paper many times and had multiple people look over my essay to make sure my point was clearly seen.  

           Another aspect I did struggle with was narrowing down a topic, I did do my research on multiple ideas on, but nothing intrigued me.  I chose this topic because I have an interest in the criminal world specifically serial killer’s behaviors and how they grew up. I feel as if I was able to receive positive feedback about my paper and comments on how I could improve with is always beneficial in my opinion. When finishing my essay, I did feel very confident with the amount of research and effort I did put into my paper.  I did feel it was an important topic to understand especially if this is the type of field I go into.  Having those opportunities in class to ask in questions or to take the class period to work on the essay, to me was beneficial.  

I believe I met the academic writing conventions category because I was able to improve in my grammar and mechanics whenever we had a writing assignment to do. Paraphrasing is something that I was able to advance in while writing my position paper.  I did quote in quote in some areas but for the longer information I felt paraphrasing would fit better.  There were many scenarios where we had to write a rhetorical situation.  Presenting our skills through our paper and as we went on through each assignment my skills greatened.  I believe having the discussion board helped keep the momentum of our writing rather than separating it out having our essays.  

Throughout this semester I feel as if I have advanced the set of skills I already have, we were given much time in class to make sure we understood what we were learning.  I was grateful enough to gain more friends and be able to reach them whenever I needed help or did not understand something.  During those group activities and projects, I felt it was a good experience to collaborate with other ideas and expand my thinking process.  I tend to keep to my usual routine and it was fun to hear other ideas on how they wanted to present the project or put it together.  

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Steve Jobs

Steve was put into a family that did not attend college and his birth mother refused to give him to any family that did not attend college.  The parents made sure he went to college as a promise to his birth mother.  Steve Jobs is known as an inventor and started up the business Apple, he loved what he did after he dropped out of college.  When he was 30 he was fired from Apple and did not know what to do with his life, he made things right by apologizing and starting over.  He believed getting fired from Apple was the best thing that happened to him because he created a new company Pixar which is still very successful and eventually did pair up with Apple.  His third story was about living in the moment and facing death, he quoted "if you live each day as if it's your last, it will one day most certainly be your last".  Throughout his career his main goal was doing something he was passionate about and he did succeed at it.  Being told he has pancreas cancer and having 6 months to live really tests you as a human, even though when he went into for a biopsy and told it was "curable", no one wants to be put in that situation of being told when they are going to die but rather having fate take it.  Live the life you want to live rather than being told what to do.

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Brief but spectacular 

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3 Sources

Mitchell, Heather, and Michael G. Aamodt. "The incidence of child abuse in serial killers." Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology 20.1 (2005): 40-47.

LaBrode, Rebecca Taylor. "Etiology of the psychopathic serial killer: An analysis of antisocial personality disorder, psychopathy, and serial killer personality and crime scene characteristics." Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention 7.2 (2007): 151.

Silva, J. Arturo, Gregory B. Leong, and Michelle M. Ferrari. "A neuropsychiatric developmental model of serial homicidal behavior." Behavioral sciences & the law 22.6 (2004): 787-799.

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List of Positions

Rachel, Jayne, Mariana, Ashly

1. To study for a test

2. To get up and go to class

3. Eating healthy or junk food

5. Cleaning room or leaving it a mess

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Superbowl Commerical

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z_zWIVRIWk 

I found this commercial from the 2015 Superbowl to be persuasive due to the fact this advertisement uses a real 911 call to basically get the point across towards domestic abuse.  The commercial brings up the topic surrounding domestic abuse and how an individual was able to receive the help she needed to leave the situation.  This commercial proves you can leave scenarios like this and receive the help you need.  The res ponder was able to catch on to what she needed, and this was presented to the world having subtle codes can be understood.  Granted they did not show any type of abuse happening but it presents how damaging the situation can be from the evidence shown from damages on the wall to the built up dirty household.  Having the women being persistent with the operator can persuade those to not give up in those situations.  This commercial was also the very first time a commercial was played surrounded any types of abuse.  This became a controversial topic due to the reason accusations during that time.  The strongest point that was presented was having a real 911 call rather than having some type of acting.  Rather than ignoring the conversation they continued it by presenting this.

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Buying Local

1.      I believe the author does a convincing job, uses a lot of supporting evidence and references to back up her statements that is within the article.  She includes the importance of how we are affecting our planet along with the nature around us. She does point out interesting facts such as in 2030 glaciers will no longer exists.

2.      She states that if others begin to buy locally it would affect the workers in 3rd world countries because we would be taking their business and work away.  Which would create a worse situation for them and their families.  On a more positive note, she did make a point that if those that buy locally would open the topic to environmentalism.

3.      I believe the best argument she presents is the this would support those local communities and can help America not spend as much for shipping over a thousand pounds of food across our country.

4.      The photos go along perfectly for the article, presenting the expense of truck driving and how it affects us financially and ecologically.

5.      I believe buying locally is resourceful to a certain point, we cannot always help those in poorer countries.  This generation has shown an increase in buying more organic food and not putting any unnecessary substances in our bodies.

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Brief but Spectacular

My name is Ashly Twisk and this is my brief but spectacular take on buying and raising a dog.  Going into this experience I knew I had to be very responsible for my pet and basically do this on my own since this is what I am investing in.  I can proudly say I have paid for and raised my dog successfully. I always took him out at the early hours and trained him even though he is very stubborn. I did not have many friends in high school because I was so invested in school along with working a lot, but having him is the best thing in my life and always makes me happy whenever I am feeling depressed.  Keeping up with the medical bills and food has been very expensive but worth it in the end.  This story is important to me because it has helped me evolve as a person.  It has shown the dedication and passion I have towards anything I set my mind to, along with owning my dog.  Even though I had to leave for college, my dog, Leo still considers me as his main owner instead of my mom due to the strong bond we built when he was a puppy.

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Old Lady Hips

As I child my mom would joke around that I was her little “China Doll” because I would also have so many injuries from figure skating.  It was never enough to have to stop doing what I truly love. I was a competitive figure skater for twelve years and unfortunately, I had to quit the sport due to a birth defect that did not come affect me until later in life.  I was born with hip dysplasia which essentially means I had very shallow hip cups.  This pain started when I was a freshman in high school.  I slipped on ice and from that point on it triggered this unbearable pain that would affect my ability to figure skate.  I went to so many doctor appointments trying to figure out what was wrong with me and in the beginning no doctor had a clue why I was in extreme pain. I have been in an MRI, I had an ultra sound done for an injection that would put a gel in between the ball and socket. I was exhausted from getting results from doctors saying there was nothing they could do.  

We went to one final doctor and he took a hard-long look at my x-ray, he was the first one to point it out that I was born with hip dysplasia.  I was in complete relief that someone found something wrong with me and was a solution.  My two options were pain medication for the rest of my life or surgery. There was an 20% chance it would not work for me and I was willing to take the risk.  Surgery lasted 4 and a half hours, during that time they cut into my hip socket and curved the cup properly, so I would not feel anymore pain. I was in the hospital for a total of four days, I cannot remember that time due to the amount of medication I was on. I was bed rested for a month and unfortunately missed a lot of school.  I had two months of physical therapy, I went 3-4 times a week to essentially learn how to walk again because they had to cut through all my muscles and nerves.  To this day I cannot feel a portion of my thigh because my nerves died off.  

When I finally hit my one year, I had to meet with my surgeon.  He told me he was extremely impressed with my progress but told me I was not able to competitively figure skate again.  I was heartbroken, I did not take in consideration my life after my surgery and what I was/wasn’t able to do.   I miss being out on the ice occasionally or whenever I see a competition.  But I am grateful for those times I was able to do what I love for twelve years of my life.

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Tell me Something

1.    What is the purpose of the story?

Protesting war through sharing the stories of those who have lost a member due to war.

2.    Why do you think the story is compelling?

I think the story us compelling because it gives a personal insight one how this one individual was affected and what could change.  

3.    What kind of tone does the story have?

The tone is about being anti-war through the stories they share; the author is able to support this through her own stories of losing someone and the negative aspects of the war.

4.    Does the story emotionally impact you? Why?

It did not emotionally impact me, but it can be to those who have lost someone from the war and having to grieve through that process.

5.    Why does this story matter?

The United States is still at war and has been for decades, and soldiers are constantly sent over and some do not come back.

What is great about America is you can be whoever you want to be, you are in the land of the free.  We are a very strong country, we have overcome many things and came back together as a country to become stronger.  We have fought for our rights and what we believe in, many protest and marches have happened and yet again the country has come together and supported each other.  We have many opportunities to better yourself and receive the education you need to become successful.

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Position Essay

How a child was raised can influence the type of person they become when they are an adult.  When it comes to serial killers, there has been a repeating pattern on how they are created.  It has been proven repeatedly that how one was raised as a child effect the type of person they will become as an adult.  This can vary from the environment they were raised in, parental influence, being a victim towards child abuse, and specifically the top triggering abuses leading to these types of behaviors.  As shown serial killers are not born but created through nature/nurture.

           Child abuse has been a reoccurring factor for what forms a serial killer.  Abuse can be broken into five main subcategories, such as physical, sexual, psychological, neglect, and forms of maltreatment.  According to “The Incidence of Child Abuse in Serial Killers” by Heather Mitchell and Michael G Aamodt, they broke down each category for what percent the 50 serial killers they researched into experienced these types of abuse.  Maltreatment (68%), Physical abuse (36%), sexual abuse (26%), psychological abuse (50%), neglect (18%), and no abuse (32%).  With these results the top two was maltreatment and psychological abuse. As defined by Mitchell and Aamodt, the top abuse maltreatment is “In the Code of Virginia this term applies to threatening to cause a physical injury, abandoning a child, and drug addiction while in utero” (41).  Also quotes by Mitchell and Aamodt, the second highest abuse “psychological abuse refers to any acts such as intentional humiliation, causing emotional conflict, or any act that could be psychologically damaging to the child, such as dressing a boy like a girl” (41).  How these types of abuses can be damaging is this break down their self-confidence and worth.

           Parental influence plays a huge factor on how the child’s emotions can be formed.  From “The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers” by Michael Newton, he explains how important early childhood development is to physical and mental health of the adult. As quotes “the crucial element is variously labeled “bonding” or “attachment” and refers to the emotional connection formed between an infant and its parents, starting virtually from the moment of its birth” (41).  Without these types of connection, the child is not able to form those crucial feelings of sympathy, affection, or remorse (Newton).  Not having to fully develop these emotions, the child can suffer from antisocial personality disorder, which can be described from the “Etiology of the Psychopathic Serial Killer” by Rebecca Taylor LaBrode as “conceptualized by sense of entitlement, lack of remorse, apathetic to others, unconscionable, blameful of others, manipulative and conning, affectively cold, disparate understanding of socially acceptable behavior, disregardful of social obligations, nonconforming to social norms and irresponsible” (152).  The child will find their behavior acceptable due to not knowing any better from their past experiences.  Trauma caused to the child can be formed from before being born, whether that is malnutrition or alcohol/drug used during pregnancy. Malnutrition and drug/alcohol usage can cause irregular brain development which can restrict the child’s ability to control impulsive behaviors and violence.  

           Where a child was raised can play a role because they may not have a true sense on what is called ‘home’.  Connecting back to parental interactions the child may have been neglected and was forced to do tasks by themselves.  This can be reflected on whether the mother wanted the child or gave them to the adaptation agency.  If the mother kept the child, abuse will be shown towards psychological disorder.  The parent could be abusing drugs/alcohol around the child giving them a sense of abandonment.  If the child was given to foster care, there could be negative factor for being given to a dysfunctional family further creating dysfunction towards brain development. Within the household, being exposed to child abuse can cause many ongoing issues, such as social isolation, learning abilities, symptoms of neurological impairment, problems with authority or self-control, precocious of bizarre sexual activities, substance abuse, and destructive behavior (The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers, Newton). Neglect and abandonment can cause a greater risk for how violent the crime can be.  There can be genetic factors, as stated from “Neurodevelopment and psychosocial risk factors in serial killers and mass murderers” by Clare S. Allely, Helen Minnis, Lucy Thompson, Philip Wilson, and Christopher Gillberg they point out “adoption studies have also shown that if a child’s biological parents and their adoptive parents are both violent, 40% will be criminal compared to 12.1% if only the genetic factor were present, 6.7% if just a violent environment and only 2.1% will be a criminal if they have none of the above risk factors.”  These statistics prove that if the child is exposed to violence, it will carry on into their adult life.  Once exposed to these types of behaviors, the child retains it and thinks it is acceptable to obtain these habits.

           With all the evidence lined up on how influential their childhood impacts how they are formed today, it can be shown that serial killers are made.  Some could argue they are made from the lack of nutrients received while in utero, but there is more evidence showing multiple factors contributing to these types of behaviors.  Some of the types of murders can be portrayed from the types of abuses they may have experienced during early childhood.  The mother has been shown to have the biggest impact on the child while growing up and when it comes to emotional development.  Without these main points, a serial killer would not have been brought into this world.

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Assignment 12

1. I believe all six students have a valid point that correlates directly to the article, they address the issues they face towards education.  For example, John Dunn does not have any access to a computer for school.  Autumn Crawford is concerned about being judged fro mothers due to their morals/beliefs.  Emily Steele is worried about not having enough money to pay for college.  These issues can be a major conflict for having a successful education in their future.

2. I have always thought once students start college, they gain this new level of independence and really grow as a person.  Autumn will not return due to her career choice, John Dunn will return due to his career in agriculture, Emily Steele will return due to wanting to be close to home.  I feel the rest will stay, leaving home can be hard for students and gaining that new level of independence some are not ready for

3. Autumn, follow what you want in life, being successful in life is something no one should ever be ashamed of.  Always stick to yourself, never change for anyone or if they think you should change, I have been there and it ends up biting you in the butt.  Don't be ashamed of your mistakes, you're allowed to make mistakes, we are all human.  College is truly a fun time and I never thought I would love it this much and actually taking my education seriously and enjoying it.  You live and learn in life.

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Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

           Imagine being sucked into a video game and experiencing what the characters feel.  That is exactly what the characters in the newer version of Jumanji, released in December of 2017.  The movie starts out with a flashback to the 90’s, the son’s dad found a board game called “Jumanji”.  He proceeded to give it to his son to play with, the son takes the box but does nothing with it.  During the middle of the night a green flash appears startling the son, he opens the box and finds the game in a version of a video game.  The son plugs it into his game console and then disappears.  The movie proceeds to the future day showing these four high school students that cause trouble resulting them to be called down to the principal’s office.

           The principal gives them an activity to clean up the basement as a form of there punishment.  The students find the game “Jumanji” and proceeds to play it, they realize they are beginning to get sucked into the game.  The movie then changes to a jungle scene with the game characters being presented.  Each member realizes they are experiencing the video game.  The goal of the game is to return the jewel to the tiger statue. The cast goes through a series of levels completing each challenge successfully.  They run into the boy that played the game from the 90’s and try to understand how dire the situation is that they need to complete the mission.  

           They finally come to the last level, and they realized they need to work as a team to complete the mission.  Eventually they do, and they are finally sent home from the game, the group of students learned a lesson when they return to reality.  In the end of the movie, it shows how close they are now compared to in the beginning of the movie.  When I left the movie, I thought it was hilarious and filled with action.  Some characters in the movie were well known and they did an excellent job.  Throughout the movie you could tell they added some emotional element that the audience would feel, but it was mainly comedy based.

           I believe they tried to make is humorous when the teenagers get sucked into the movie and become total opposites from who they are. For example, the jock football player that is over 6 foot becomes a 5-foot little man who studies animals for a living. Another example is when the have the popular girl turns into a heavier man in his late 40’s and she finds herself very ugly.  The main character of the video game is a regular gaming nerd who transforms into a 6-foot very muscular man, he feels very confident about himself and almost does not want to return to the real world after completing the mission.  

           I would rate this movie very highly because of the amount of humor they added which was not cheesy but made majority of the audience members laugh.  The action they added which they need to conquer to move on to the next level and the touch of emotions they included to create a heartfelt moment.

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Mutt Love Rescue

The website in my opinion was easy to follow, they present the dogs that need "rescuing" very adorable.  The website could be updated and more appealing, seemed dull and outdated.  Each dog was cute in there own way and created a feeling of "wanting to buy them", website was very clear on descriptions of each dog and had a nice variety of photos to present to the viewer.  Website did a very well job on having compelling information.

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Hamilton and 4 a.m.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zhR6d6LDzM

I truly enjoyed this video, presents a different way of expressing music towards younger audiences, throughout the song truly portrays all three pathos, logos, and ethos.  Pathos is presented by adding a sad element within the song lyrics along, logos they use stories while presenting the song, truly brings the audience in.  Ethos is presented by keeping the story consistent throughout the song.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPrAKuOBWzw

The Broadway cast of “Hamilton” was invited to the White House by President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.  President Obama introduces the cast sincerely stating the show brings everyone together, and this musical should be heard by everyone.  Pathos was presented by expressing his thoughts towards how Hamilton shaped our nation.  Logos was used due to this being a historical event, and ethos was used on how each member put emotions throughout the performance and captivating the audience with the amazing performance.  

https://www.ted.com/talks/rives_on_4_a_m

Throughout this speech, he gives multiple examples on how everything happens at 4 in the morning, examples vary from songs, to newspapers, to movies explaining how nothing good happens at this early in the morning.  While analyzing this speech, logos was presented many times due to all the supporting evidence to claim 4 in the morning is never a good thing.

 Work Cited:

“Hamilton – “Wrote My Way Out” (Nas, Dave East, Lin-Manuel Miranda & Aloe Blacc) [Official Video].” Youtube, Youtube, 19 Jan. 2018

Cbsnewswebextra. “Hamilton Cast Performs “Alexander Hamilton” at White House.” Youtube, Youtube, 14 Mar. 2016

Rivers, Poet. “The 4 a.m. Mystery.” TED: Ideas Worth Spreading, Mar. 2007, www.ted.com/rivers_on_4_a_m.

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Flash Mob Idea

“Happy” by Pharrell Williams (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbZSe6N_BXs)  

We started out with a few select people to plan out a flash mob, we picked the song ‘Happy’, after this we reached out to fellow dancers

They will need to hire a choreographer to design the type of performance along with a videographer to record when this event actually takes place

The performers will need to find time to practice for the dance to make it seem well put together

After picking our dancers we decided to perform this at the MSC at stout Menomonie WI at Noon on friday.

We told everyone to dress casual with bright colors but also able to blend into a crowd so they were not obvious enough to draw attention to themselves.

We’re all going to sit at different tables and we’re all going to wait for the one person who is going to start dancing at 12

Every 10 seconds groups of two start joining in and dancing along to the song.People were assigned groups in designated parts of the song.

We perform exaggerated dance movements to draw attention to those who are performing

Once they song reaches towards the end, some will start to fade out and leave the dancing “stage”

The same person who started out the dancing will be the last person to leave as the song ends and as the song gets quieter

Everyone walks away as if no one knows each other and goes back to their regular day