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Final Portfolio

Cheers to being done everyone!!

https://azamcn.wixsite.com/writingportfolio

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Maps Take 3

I KNOW THIS IS LATE! SORRY!! After 4 hours of sleep and not eating all day plus an exam, all I could think about was eating and sleeping as soon as I got home. Anyways, here’s my theory or writing.

Writing is a process that involves learning, failing and growing. Writers never know everything and they are constantly learning new things and growing as writers and this only comes when you fail a couple of times. 

When looking at my previous two maps, I could see that they have changed so much. Like my first two maps had so many different aspects (which is kind of similar to my third one) but they included the small details that are included in writing and my third map is more broad. But these terms are some key terms that have come from the readings we’ve done. We learned that failing is a part of writing and that writers are always learning new things because you can never know everything there is to writing. Other than the randomness of some things in my maps, there isn’t really anything else that is similar between the three. But it makes me think that writing can be a compilation of random things. 

Just when I look back at my maps, it makes me thing that they’ve evolved much like me as a writer. When I started the quarter, I still had my high school teachings engraved in my brain that the small details like tone, syntax, etc. are the most important things of writing. Then I learned that writing is very diverse and that there is much more to it than grammatical and things of the sort. Finally, my third map shows that writing is a process of learning, failing and growing. Without failing (which is something I hate to do), will only teach me new things and will help me not only grow as a writer but overall.

My third map obviously has the three words, but I’ll describe what the other things mean. Sometimes writing can be scary, but if you want, it can be fun which is why I put the cute monsters. The puff balls are there to represent that sometimes, things can just jump out at you and you may feel overwhelmed but again, you just have to interpret and fix the situation in a way that makes you feel comfortable. Sometimes writing can be confusing and you may have a lot of questions, but there are also a lot oh AH HA moments, which is represented by the ? and !. Lastly, it’s hard to tell what the whale sticker says, but it says “Just dial it in” which I thought fit pretty well with the idea of the process of writing.

There ya go. That’s my theory of writing and my final concept map (which I thought was pretty clever lol).  Here’s to moving on and hopefully learning more to writing as we progress through college and life. Happy writing everyone!

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Research Journal: Week 8

Wow, final research journal of the quarter. Where did the time go. Honestly this quarter went by so fast and summer break is right around the corner. 

Anyways, on to the research paper. After writing my first draft, I know that I need to revise it a lot. It was hard to write it without my interview responses which I will hopefully get tomorrow. I now know that I need to connect the different primary research sources instead of writing out the results separately. 

Since my observations and survey was done with normal people and not experts of the topics, I was able to see how people respond to my topics and get their ideas. It was nice to see that people acknowledge that women do get objectified in movies and that beauty standards are present. This really seen in the survey because a majority of the responses say that these issue exist in movies. As for the observations, I was able to find a small connection. I might be reaching for this one but when I showed the two songs to people and observed the comments, I kind of saw the beauty standards. People (both who I observed and in the comments) seemed to like the newer songs better because the item girl was “hot” and “sexy” which is kind of disturbing because these item girls are reduced to these words.

One thing I need to remember for my essay revisions is to mainly add more synthesis in the lit review section and MAKE CONNECTIONS with the results between the different sources. But after all this research, my eyes have opened up a bit more with the problems with item songs.

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Bergmann and Zepernick

To be completely honest, this reading was a little confusing probably because it was pretty long and had a lot of words. But, I was able to pull out some different ideas from it that connects to everything we’ve been learning in class. Obviously this reading connects to the Perkins and Soloman reading about transfer but this one focused more on transfer with college students and their lack of using it. Somethings I found extremely surprising were the three themes that were mentioned towards the beginning of the reading. So, the first theme which said “Students tend to think of writing in English classes as personal and expressive rather than academic or professional,” was a shocker to me because I don’t really think of writing classes as expressive. The only class that I thought of writing class as kind of expressive was my AP Literature class. Even though we had to analyze poems and prose prompts and all that jazz, we had to come up with our own conclusions and thoughts to write the essays. All of my other English classes in high school focused on the specifics of books and facts and GRAMMAR. Ugh, the one thing I hate the most in feedback from english teachers is on grammar. My AP Lit teacher rarely focused on that and would make suggestions on the actual writing and my thoughts. He would tell me if my thesis was good or not, how I should develop my ideas more and you know, actual tips that are helpful. But even with that, I think of English and Writing classes as more academic. The only class I can really think of as expressive is creative writing. 

As for transfer, I understand why students don’t “transfer” their learning and understanding of things from other classes to writing. It’s because different classes are taught in different ways and each teacher is always teaching us something different (except KT because she’s the best). I mean, I would never think about how my science classes and lab writing skills can help me in writing classes because I don’t like the idea of connecting the two since they are different. Also, the students don’t really try to look for connections because I feel that for them, it’s just easier to not mix two classes that are different because it can get confusing.

Another connection and conclusion I found in the reading gears towards the ideas of revising and making drafts. The connects to the Threshold Concepts reading we did which said that “Failure Can Be An Important Part Of Writing Development.” This also leads to a conclusion I made from the reading. College students, I feel don’t like to make mistakes especially in their first two years of college. I know that when I’m writing a draft, I always try to make it perfect and always forget that I can always revise it and get some guidance from my peers and professors. I did this a lot in high school too. Also the ideas that “the final product of any piece of writing in school is the grade it received, and that the final product of a piece of writing at work is the extent of its acceptance and or approval by their supervisor.” This quote is such an accurate representation of my life because I always feel that my grade are what define my work even though I could feel differently about it than the grade I got. This also goes back to my theory of writing how failure is good. And I just wanted to give a shoutout to KT for teaching me that it’s okay to have a shitty first draft because revision is the key to developing the writing which will then help me develop as a writer.

The song I chose that relates to the readings we’ve done is called Just Keep Breathing by We the Kings. This song relates for me because just the title of the songs is teaching me to just keep breathing when I feel overwhelmed with everything that we’ve been learning. Also, one lyric says “just remember that you’re not alone” which I like a lot because it makes me think that I have many people to help me out whether it’s KT or my peers which serves as a discourse community (see what I did there ;)). 

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Research Journal: Week 7

So my secondary research is basically done. I’ve reached my research and source requirements but I feel that I just need to keep on doing more research to make my paper better. The survey is getting there. Haven’t quite gotten as many responses as I need and want but from what I have, I have been able to find some connections between what I’ve found from my primary research. One huge connection is that the movie/entertainment business do have a big part in the area of objectification of women and their beauty standards and expectations. One thing that I found in my survey from the results that I have is that the majority of people who have answered my survey said that they disliked the objectification of the item girl in the songs. This connects to my primary research because some of the sources that I looked through explicitly say that the item girls are being objectified which is shown through different aspects of the item songs like the lyrics and the environment and atmosphere of these songs. 

As for the interview, I have emailed Dr. Rai my questions but haven’t gotten a response yet so hopefully I can get that soon. Also, haven’t gotten any responses that I’ve DMed on Twitter so I’m just going to forget about that lol. Lastly for the observations, I completely forgot that KT said that we can observe the comments section of videos, but when I was reminded, I almost cried tears of joy. I kept thinking of how I would get 90 minutes of observations of showing people videos and observing their reactions. So what I did was observe the comments section of popular item songs. So in the older item songs comment section, people were commenting things like how the songs were classic and modern. The newer item songs had comments saying how the item girl is so hot and things of that sort. 

Hopefully from all of these different connections, I can write a bomb second draft that won’t require too much work to make it into a final draft.

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Maps: Take 2

My little doodle here is pretty random and messy but that’s kind of how my understanding of writing is. Writing can get messy and confusing like my map but if you have your own understanding of writing, it’ll all be ok. Just like my map, I’m probably the only one who really understands what it is, just like I have my own understanding of writing. Anyways, in my doodle map thing, I chose my main word to be diverse because writing is an extremely diverse topic. Not only did I add the different aspects of writing, I added some of the feelings people feel when they are writing, depending on what it is. I also just put random things in the doodle because I tend to do that when I have nothing to do. All of the readings that we’ve looked at can relate to my word. For example, the Threshold Concepts reading. In that reading there were many different concepts to writing like revision, failure and assessment are all important and relevant topics in writing. Also, in the Vatz and Bitzer reading, we learned about the technical parts of writing like rhetoric and rhetorical situation. All of the readings suggest that there are so many different aspects to writing that only increases the diversity of the topic.

When looking at my doodled map, there’s really only one conclusion that I can draw from it. There are so many aspects of writing that will confuse you, but if you can formulate your own understanding of it, then it won’t seem as confusing. Also, when people think about diversity, they think about cultural and demographical diversity. But diversity can exist in other topics like writing. 

This key word that I chose helps my understanding of writing because it helpms me understand that you can’t summarize writing into one word or phrase. It’s an accumulation of hundreds and thousands of concepts and ideas. As of now, my theory of writing is to focus on the bigger and broader picture of writing instead of focusing on too many specifics because you could be missing out on some other important aspects to writing. 

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Transfer of Learning

Overall, transfer of learning is a pretty easy concept to understand. It’s when different skills and things you already know is “transferred” when trying to learn something new. Some of things you already know depending on the subject will make a connection with something you are trying to learn which will make it easier. But transfer isn’t always positive and help you. It can also be negative because sometimes the skills you have already developed will hinder in learning something new because you’re already used to using some skills that you already have. 

Transfer literally happens in any situation. An example from the reading talks about driving. If you already know how to drive, then it will be easy to start driving a big truck live a moving truck/van. This is kind of something I can relate to. When I learned how to drive, I didn’t really practice that much but I learned how to in my mom’s van. Then, I practiced way more in my car which is a sedan. I then had to drive an SUV for a couple of months but it didn’t take long to adjust because moving from a small car to a big car is easy, but moving back  to a small car took some time. But now, it’s easy to transition between cars.

From the reading there are a couple of things that stuck with me that I would see myself using to become a better writer. One thing is thorough and diverse practice. If I don’t practice writing which means writing more often, then I can’t become a better writer. Also, being more diverse. Writing different genres will help me learn new techniques and mechanics to writing which will only help me get better. The other ideas are mindfulness and reflexiveness. We’ve talked a lot about reflection in writing, but I seriously believe that reflecting on your writing only helps you. Also, being mindful. Being abstract and exploring connections is something that I will use which relates to what we’re doing in class now (the lit review) which will hopefully help me understand things more.

These different aspects of transfer fit perfectly like a puzzle into my theory of writing which includes reflection and cognition. Reflecting on writing and sitting down to think about what you’re writing will help you become a better writer. 

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Research Journal: Week 6

So this week I focused on my lit review second draft which went way better than the first draft but I still have some editing to do. I need to work more on making connections, putting a little less analysis and citing my sources in the correct format. I also focused on my survey and interview. 

For the interview, I’ve contacted a couple of people to get an interview. I’ve emailed Amit Rai which is a professor at QMUL who Dr. KT also knows from her time at Florida State. He’s written a couple of blog posts about Bollywood so when KT recommended him I knew I had to try and interview him. I’ve also resorted to Twitter to contact people who have worked in Bollywood specifically directors. It’s a long reach but there’s no harm in trying! Hopefully I can get a response soon.

For the survey, I’ve finalized my questions and the answer choices. Hopefully I can get some good results and enough results also. I asked questions about beauty standards in general and in movies and objectification of women in movies. I also asked how they can be reduced.

For the observations, I still have yet to organize something but I know what I am going to do. I’m going to show people two item songs from different time periods and ask them what they thought about. I’m going to record these to get the people’s reaction. Let’s see what this week brings!

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Poster Page

Revision

Definition: The formal definition of revision is “the act of revising” because that isn’t obvious at all. But to me, revision is basically going through the writing piece and finding different changes that can be made and changing them which is basically the same as the formal definition but a little more simple. Revision requires reflection on the writing and reflection on what needs to be changed. Revision really helps in becoming a different writer and writing good pieces because you can learn new things from each revision whether it be about grammar, tone, themes or anything.

Significance: As a freshman, it doesn’t really seem important to us to do revisions. A lot of us are used to just writing one draft and just turning it in and hoping for the best. But not only does revising help us get a better grade (because that’s all students care about now), it helps us grow as writers and helps us get used to it for the future. Whether you’re an arts and humanities student, a business student or a science student, you will probably be revising quite a bit in the four years of college. Again, revising helps us grow because we can fix the mistakes made in the previous drafts because first drafts are never perfect and will teach you the different mechanics of writing. Yes revision is difficult, but it doesn’t always mean complete failure. It just means some “failure” meaning you just have to try again. If you put in the effort and be open minded to changes then it won’t seem as hard and boring to do it. For me revision isn’t that much of a struggle for me because I did many revisions in my time in high school and even in college but I understand why people don’t really like to do them. As long as you persevere, then you can get it done.

Resources:

Dryer, Dylan. “Writing is (Also Always) a Cognitive Activity.” Excerpts from Naming what We Know: Threshold Concepts in Writing Studies (2015): (2-9).

Online Writing Lab. (n.d.). Retrieved May 04, 2017, from http://www.aims.edu/student/online-writing-lab/process/revision.php

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Self Analysis: Lit Review

My main goal for the lit review is to find more quotes from different sources that say the same or similar things as the other sources instead of mentioning the points from the same source over and over. I also want to aim to smoother transitions into the quotes that I use so that the review flows more and can show better connections between sources. To make connections, I am finding similar thoughts from different sources and try to analyze them as little as I can to show the connections between them. Beyond the assignment expectations, I hope to learn more about this topic also while I research it and try to find ways to fight the bad parts of my topic and be more proactive about it. And after reading my lit review, I hope that my audience will understand that the objectification of women and their beauty standards and expectations is a topic that is extremely relevant in society today and how lightly it is taken in the entertainment business. 

For revision, I need to work on smoother transitions when leading into my quotes and trying to incorporate them better into the review. I also have to work on finding more connections between more sources instead of just two or three. Lastly, a little less summary of the sources and quotes and more synthesis.

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Threshold Concepts #2

Incorporating cognition into writing will help develop your writing.

This is a concept that I believe is important for every writer to know. The definition of cognition is the process of acquiring knowledge (here comes new knowledge) and understanding through thought, experience and the senses. This idea not only connects cognition with writing but it also connects it with knowledge and reflection which are two topics which we have discussed quite a bit in class. While writing, if you think of cognition, then you are also reflecting in order to understand what you are writing and acquiring new knowledge because you are learning at least one thing while reflecting and writing. Cognition also ties into revision because when errors are made, then they are only corrected with the knowledge that the writer has which ties back to cognition. See, it all connects! This also connects from the first threshold concept reading that we did where is says that all writers have more to learn, assessment is essential in writing and that revision doesn’t always mean failure because the errors can always be corrected. 

My meme shows that thinking about cognition which is similar to thinking about thinking is very deep and can transfer you into another realm. 

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Research Journal #5

So Week 5 was focused around research and specifically primary research. We did a practice run with primary research during week 4 and presented our findings to the class. Throughout the week we were supposed to think of questions for our interview and survey and also finish up our secondary research. But I haven’t quite finished my secondary research because to be honest, does research ever end? Anyways, while I was stuck at work today for 9+ hours (tragic, I know) I was trying to think of some interview and survey questions to ask. I know that for observations, I’m most likely going to do a react type video where I show two items songs from different time periods and observe people’s reactions and interactions with the video so that’s all set. But here’s what I have so far for the questions:

Survey-

1. Do you know what Bollywood is?

2. When you hear the word item song what do you think of?

3. Do you think women’s beauty standards exist?

4. How do you think they would exist in movies (specifically Bollywood movies if you’ve watched them)?

5. Do women get objectified in movies?

Interview-

1. How long have you been exposed to Bollywood?

2. What do you think of item songs?

3. Why do you think item songs are becoming so popular?

4. What is one good thing and one bad thing about item songs?

5. What do you think about objectification of women and their beauty standards in general?

6. Do you think the entertainment business plays a part in the two topics?

So, this is all I have for now but it isn’t set in stone. These types of things takes a lot of thinking and revising so I know for a fact that my questions will change or I will think of different ones.

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Driscoll Student Center

Methods:

For our primary research practice run, we decided to do research the question, “Why isn’t renovating Driscoll a priority?” Our primary research included a survey, observations and an interview. We made an online survey and posted it on Facebook to try to get as many responses as possible. Some of the survey questions included: what is your favorite building, should Driscoll be renovated and what one building on campus would you renovate. For the observations, we observed 30 minutes in Driscoll Underground and then 30 minutes in Jazzman’s. Part of our primary research was to conduct an interview, so we interviewed a student who is the desk manager in Driscoll.

Results:

After posting the survey online, we received a total of 35 responses from various students. For the question, what is your favorite building, no one responded with Driscoll. A question about the state of Driscoll was asked and student’s responses were: 9 people said it was fair/adequate, 10 said it was good, 6 said it was excellent and 10 others said it was poor. 22 people then said that Driscoll needs renovation while 13 people said that it does not. We also asked people how long they typically spend in Driscoll; 26 people said less than an hour and 9 people said between 1-2 hours a day. Another question we asked was, which building on campus would you change and out of the 35 responses, 9 people answered with Driscoll while 13 people said Sturm (the answer with the most responses). The last question we asked in the online survey was, if Driscoll was renovated would you spend more time in there and 22 people said yes, while 13 said that they would not.

For the interview, we talked with a DU student who works as the main desk manager in Driscoll. She has been working in the main desk for the past two years. She mentioned that she does not have a fixed schedule, which means that she comes and goes every day, typically working about four hours every day. In the interview, she said that the main times Driscoll is busy is during passing periods when everyone is rushing to class, and that it’s usually quiet on the evenings and during the weekends. She really likes the bridge but does not like the people who advertise for different organizations there. Another thing, is that she dislikes the fact that there are not many dining places, as Subway and Jazzman’s are the only two. One thing she said repeatedly was that she wished that there were more dining options like a Starbucks, which was on the future renovation plan. She felt that having more places to eat and hang out, would eventually attract more students to be at Driscoll. She felt that Driscoll did not need a knock down renovation, on the other hand it just needed extra additions like more dining options and space for students to spend time because then, it would feel more like a student center.

During the observations, we observed from 10-11am,  30 minutes in Driscoll Underground and then 30 minutes in Jazzman’s. Driscoll Underground was extremely silent because, other than us, there were only two other students actually sitting there working on their own things. The only sounds we really heard were the conversations from the offices and the ventilation system. There were quite a few people coming in and out of the offices like CME, the Student Organization center and the DUPB/Clarion office. But in terms of sitting down, chilling/hanging out or doing homework, there were not many students. After 30 minutes, we moved to Jazzman’s which had a completely different vibe and atmosphere. There was music playing and about 15 people were sitting down doing their homework/studying. There were a lot of people coming to buy coffee and then leaving immediately after they had their order served. There was definitely a lot more activity going on at Jazzman’s than in Driscoll Underground.

Discussion:

While looking at the results from all of our primary research conducted, there were a couple of trends that we found, as well as differences and surprises. One trend that we were definitely able to catch, was that there were not many people who considered Driscoll a student center. An interesting anecdote was that in the survey, the majority of the results, pointed out that people spend less than an hour in Driscoll. Despite it being a student center, not many students actually spend time there, which completely contradicts the main purpose of Driscoll. People usually use Driscoll as a passageway to get to class or others go in to consume either at Jazzman’s or Subway. Some people answered in their surveys that they felt that Driscoll should be renovated, but there was a majority who said that Sturm was in a desperate need for renovations, since a lot of students take classes there. Based on the research, we concluded that people believe that Driscoll could be renovated, but should not be a priority since not many people spend their time there; students believe that Sturm is in a more urgent need for renovations. Based on the research conducted, it can be inferred that students prioritize renovations to academic buildings rather than social/student center buildings. This is a possible result of the fact that Driscoll is not as well known by students as a student center, but rather as the main passageway to classes.

Another conclusion that we encountered was that although Driscoll’s main purpose is to be a student center, that sensation is not really conveyed. It seemed to us that there are more offices in Driscoll than social places for students to be. An observation we made, was that the places that are meant to be for students, are not really used because students have no idea of their existence or that they they are not well suited for their needs. Not only did we find this observation to be true in our primary research, but we also encountered it within our research group. Some of us had no idea that there was a student life rooftop patio. Just to gain more background information about Driscoll, we decided to investigate this building using the University of Denver’s official website. Referring back to the student life rooftop patio, the description of this place said, “Another lesser known gem…” It is very ironic to see the description of the place be very similar to all of our primary research conducted. A concept that we discussed as a group was that a potential reason that renovating Driscoll might not be a priority/option, was that if all of the offices had to be taken out from Driscoll, where would they place them? In our own opinion, it would be very nice for Driscoll to be renovated and to be converted into a “real” student center, but we have also discussed that this could potentially involve many futuristic conflicts dealing with space.

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Research Journal: Week 4

So this week I actually started reading through some sources to see which ones I could use and if I could find some common themes between a few for my lit review. A lot of the sources I found were popular sources so like blog post and things like that. But a lot of the pieces of writing that I did find were really interesting and you could tell that the writers had strong opinions on item songs and all that’s wrong with them. After writing my lit review, I’ve decided to focus on two topics which are the objectification of women in item songs and the effect of item songs on women’s beauty standards and expectations.

For the primary research, there’s one idea that I have which I really want to do. I basically want to show two item songs from different time periods and do a little react video which will include a small interview and survey combined together. I was thinking on whether or not I want to show people the same song where one is the old version and the other is the newer remixed version of the song because then there could be a comparison between the two generations of songs and videos. It would be really interesting to see the results of this. But I also want to do a serious interview with someone who either has some sort of connection to Bollywood or is educated and involved in issues regarding women’s beauty standards and expectations. 

After my conference, I’ve realized that I have to find the connection between the sources and how they all connect to my theme and not analyze them too much because it will only help my research paper get better. Hopefully I can find the energy to do some more research in the coming weeks!

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Research Check-In

Our group decided to take advantage of the internet and do an online survey through Facebook.  We had six questions that opinions on if Driscoll was a place they enjoyed spending time there or not.  It was pretty conclusive, from the survey at least, that Denver students are not likely to spend time there.  Many would like to see improvements in the facilities offered and if improvements were made they would spend more time there. Interestingly enough, however, many students felt that Driscoll was not the most important building to get renovated, but rather that Sturm Hall should be the building that gets more attention. When asked about what building they would change on campus, people replied Sturm over Driscoll, although Driscoll was a close second.

We also decided to split up our observations in Driscoll.  When I went to observe others in Driscoll, I first sat in the underground for 20 minutes to observe there.  It was very interesting to see how few people walked down there.  It was not a very popular area despite being the ‘student center’.  After that I decided to go and sit in Subway where there was a flurry of activity. The Subway was busy for about 15 minutes when the main rush came in but then died down soon after.  Many sat alone and did homework while some others were there with friends talking.  I plan on observing the coffee shop and Driscoll South this weekend.

We have yet to do the interview.

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RESEARCH CHECK-IN

     Even though last week I said that I was not going to procrastinate, here I am during week four doing it. Ben and Charlene already posted almost all the things that we worked on during this week. On Monday’s class, we decided to research about Driscoll and acquire some opinions from students about this place. During class, we came up with six questions together as a group that could be used to ask on an online survey. We decided to do this survey through Facebook, and as of today we received 40 responses. It was nice to see that students took the time and interest to do a survey that was related to the institution. In his Tumblr post, Ben pretty much explained in detail what were the overall conclusions from doing this survey. Just like Charlene said in her Tumblr post, we decided that we would split the observations, but we had no idea that we had to do the observations all together. For my own part, I decided that I was going to observe the area by Jazzman’s Café, which is the second floor in Driscoll. I observed this area for about 40 minutes, and the conclusions that I got were very interesting. To be completely honest, at the beginning it was weird “observing” this area because I was just sitting there looking strangely at people. As time passed, it became kind of interesting seeing what people do; I had never really paid that much attention to people. I observed this area in the morning and throughout the time that I was there I noticed that the first 15 minutes, the area was busy. Some people would go in and leave immediately, while others would stay for about 20 minutes max. These observations were done in the café area. On the other side of the café, there are sofas and tables. This is where I noticed that people stayed the longest, which was about the same time that I observed. Now that we know that the observations must be done as a group, we decided that we would go all together and observe one more time. Like Charlene mentioned, it will be very interesting to observe one more time and mark the differences from the first time we observed by ourselves, since it will be on a different day and at a different hour of the day.      One thing that we still must work on, is the interview. We decided that we will work together as a group on making observations at Driscoll and interviewing people, on the days that are up to come!