mikekennedy88-blog

[mikekennedy88-blog]

peer review

1. Jack: I enjoyed reading his portfolio, parts that stood out to me included how he didn’t straight up say money buys happiness but rather there are specific strategies that people can utilize to be more happy with how they spend money. “The question over whether money can buy happiness is much more complicated than most think and it takes research to find out why people aren't happy while they have money, and that there are certain ways people can spend money in order to get the most out of their money.” Also I like his layout, about me page and the pictures he uses.

2. Jack: I think his first argument is definitely the strongest. He uses sources from economists who discuss why those who have more money are more commonly happy. People who spend money on others are more likely to feel happy, and of course those who are financially stable don’t need to worry about where the money is coming from and therefore are less stressed. It doesn’t just talk about money but how money impacts self esteem and emotions. I think this works really well and is a logical approach. I also like how he manages a reassuring tone with his advice column. Despite how much I find myself envisioning a rich me in the future, the advice column works and I found myself thinking differently.

3. Jack: Argument 1 is that money can buy happiness but it depends on the strategies you use.Argument 2 is that people shouldn’t chase after fame and wealth and provides examples of where people have made mistakes following that mindset.Argument 3 is a twitter page with advice focused around money and how to get it.

4. Jack: Michael’s theory of writing is that writing provides for a unique way of letting out emotions and parts of the writers personality. (a) From his own writing I can see this to be true. He self references quite a bit and uses the medium in order to discuss topics he might not have before. (b) “By analogy, a theorist of science might well ask, What are the characteristics of situations which inspire scientific thought?” He quotes Bitzer here in order to elaborate and support his theory of writing.

5. Jack: Pathos: “So again, let’s not think that money is the key to happiness, this is not the case. Focus on your loved ones and the things you give a fuck about. Find these things and people and focus your life around them. If you are passionate about teaching, do everything you can to become a teacher, no matter what your salary is.” Michael appeals to the readers desires and passions in order to explain that they should focus on things they care about.Ethos:  “A study done by mathematical economists Charles Bayer and Falko Juessen that went on to be published by the American Economic Journal on Macroeconomics states that while a short term increase in income does not bring much happiness” He quotes reputable economists to support his argument.Logos:  “A Wall Street Journal study found that Americans spend $1.2 trillion annually on non essential items.” Michael uses logical statistics in order to support his argument.

6. Jack: Yes I do understand each of his arguments especially when he puts everything in a helpful advice style tone. Money is a topic that comes up alot in a capitalist society, and considering that I’m taking an Econ class it's easy to understand it. His first argument is helpful when it comes to understanding why certain people are more happy with their accumulated wealth. His second writing assures people that money isn’t necessarily the only route to happiness. The third argument is an amusing twitter page that uses memes and tweets that might be appealing to the younger generation. His theory of writing is also easy to understand considering my own theory is somewhat similar to my own. 

7. Jack: Michael has a great start on his ePortfolio. He needs to edit for simple mistakes but otherwise it's great. In his writing he comes across as thoughtful and concerned about the “money is everything” mindset. He uses a fair amount of pathos in order to appeal to the reader. 

[mikekennedy88-blog]

sunday something

Had some buddies from IU come visit for their spring break this weekend and took them to Keystone.  

[mikekennedy88-blog]

self-assessment reflection

I had no idea what to expect coming into this writing class honestly. I can remember the first day and hearing that we wouldn’t really have grades. That scared the fuck outta me. However as the class went on I realized that I really enjoyed the dynamics of it whether it was the fact that it was on tumblr, that we didn’t have grades really, we’d share some troubling stuff, or that a teacher would be reading to us just like elementary school. The dynamics of this class have made me grow as a writer I think. I’ve really got out of my normal comfort zone regarding writing and talking in class. Overall I think that I have been a pretty good student in class. I speak out in class when I have something good to say, I try to help out my classmates, and I think I’ve turned in almost all my assignments on time. Normally i’ll do the posts and my writings the day before and the day of, but that’s because I have no class from 11-4 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I go to the library and try to be as productive as I possibly can and I normally get a lot of stuff done. If I have learned anything from this class so far and from some of my other classes is that it’s more about the process of learning and understanding than the final grade that I get. While I think I was a pretty solid paper writer before I came into college I don’t think I had the type of understanding regarding writing that I now have after this class. I’ve learned to write in different kinds of ways that I wasn’t very used to before taking this class. I think that I’ve texted a few times during class, but they’re normally when we have a break halfway through class. I have only missed one class so far this quarter. 

Rate myself

Michael shows many instances of great work in his writing. He doesn’t always talk in class but when he does he gets very into what he’s saying. He tries pretty hard on his writings and he enjoys what he writes about. He shows up to class on time and would be a great student to have in any class. 

[mikekennedy88-blog]

Sunday Something

Do you wanna walk in the cold to get shitty food at Halls

Me: 

[mikekennedy88-blog]

The Unveiling of a Writer

Obituary of Political and Sports writer Michael Kennedy:

Michael Kennedy was loved by many, he was a great friend, brother, husband, father and many other things. Most people know him as a great writer for the last 30 years are so. Michael had a section in the Indianapolis Star every week over the last 30 years. Michael mainly wrote about sports, but occasionally he would write about his opinions on politics too. His ability to stir a conversation and debate about sports or politics was like no other writer ever. Sunday morning discussions were often based off of Michael’s writing for that week. He was very opinionated in his approach, but also always saw the other side of the question. This made him so relatable to his audience, he could understand where everyone was coming from and why some people may think something. We all had the pleasure in knowing Michael or reading his weekly writings in the Indianapolis Star. Michael will be missed by all. 

Reflection:

I decided to make up a story for myself and act like I was a writer for a newspaper. I thought this made it easier to talk about myself as a writer if I actually was a writer haha. I still included all the things that I see myself as a writer right now. I always try my best to be very relatable with my audience even while being pretty opinionated in some of my papers. I also enjoy writing and reading about sports a lot. I’d write about politics too because occasionally I really think that there are things that need to be said because people aren’t using any damn common sense. One writing that I really really enjoyed was the murder writing. It allowed me to be very creative and make up an interesting story and background for a few characters. One paper that I wrote as a senior came from my English class that was a class for college students at IU, so I guess that is kinda like one of my college writings. I wrote about the negative effects that certain politically charged movements have from the radicals in their groups claiming that they align with the movement. The gist of the paper was that in order for some movements, such as the feminist movement, to gain more power and creditability, they must separate themselves from the radical people who are lacking all common sense because they damage the movement. That was one of my favorite papers I’ve written ever. 

[mikekennedy88-blog]

Let’s have a moment

1. So one of the recent readings and posts we did about transfer applies to the “a ha” moments I constantly have. I constantly will have an “a ha” moment when I learn something from one class that is a little hazy and then when I hear something similar in another class it finally makes sense to me. I am always thinking about why I didn’t understand it before and then it weirdly becomes so easy because I learn something very applicable in another class. It’s like that feeling of connecting dots that you get when reading or watching a mystery. 

2. A few weeks ago when we did the reading on reflection I feel like I learned that reflection can be good for a lot of things not just looking at the past but more why you did things, how they made you feel, why you did the things that you did. The reading described reflection as “thinking about thinking” and that kinda tripped me out for a second. This reading makes you really dig in and think about your writing and the why of your papers instead of just aimlessly writing like I think a lot of us do. We get into this groove when writing a paper but we never really think about why we are getting these ideas. Btw if you haven’t seen inception you must watch it. 

3. Throughout this entire class a reoccurring theme has been the question of what good writing is. I think I know part of this question. I know what no so good writing is and that’s because I think I’ve learned that from high school. It used to be so formula based and pretty much say if you do all these things in the exact order we tell you it should turn out pretty well. I think in high school I had plenty of good writings but they were all very similar. This class has helped me find out what better writing is but I don’t have an exact definition of what good writing is. I just know what I should stay away from when I write now. It’s kinda like what we all learned at a younger age is just thrown away as we get older. It’s not just with writing it’s pretty much every class I’ve learned so many things that changes as we get older and the old stuff is just thrown away. 

[mikekennedy88-blog]

sunday something

Good to have the parents in town this weekend and have them buy me good food 

[mikekennedy88-blog]

Redrum

1: On June 6th at 10:37 p.m. the body of Mark Smith was found in the upper deck of a parking garage which is several minutes from the bar that Mark often spends his nights. Mark was brutally murdered, likely with a knife. He had stab wounds all over his body, but it seems that the wound that was fatal was in his left thigh which punctured his femoral artery causing him to bleed to death. My partner and I searched the crime scene thoroughly, however we did not find any weapons or anything that could lead us to a suspect. The only evidence that we have is the fact that Mark’s breath wreaked of Bourbon and his wallet was completely emptied.

2: After examining the body of Mark Smith we have determined that the fatal wound came from the stabbing to his left thigh resulting in Mark bleeding out. Mark is a Caucasian Male who stands at six feet and five inches tall, weighing in at 220 pounds. There are eight total stab wounds on Mark’s body. Six on the back, and two on his left leg. Seven of the eight wounds did not penetrate very deep into Mark’s body, however the wound on his left thigh punctured his femoral artery meaning that the weapon went deep into Mark’s left thigh resulting in an excess loss of blood. Another thing we observed was Mark’s right hand had recently bruised knuckles. Because Mark was coming from a bar we thought that his BAC would likely be high and it was at .14.

3: Hello everyone, thank you so much for coming today in this tragic time for our family. My name is Allen, I am Mark’s older brother. It pains me to have to stand in front of you all and give a speech about my baby brother who was only 44 years old. While Mark wasn’t always pleasant to be around we all loved him in our own way. While I am a few years older than Mark he was almost always bigger than me. He really would beat my ass in all the sports we’d play as kids. One thing that I can think of that really shows who Mark was as a person comes from back when we played football together in high school. I was a senior and Mark was a sophomore. We were playing our bitter rival and about half way through the game one of the smaller kids on our team had gotten cheap shotted for the third time and the players on the other team were talking major trash to him. Mark got up from the bench and ran over and gave some of those kids a taste of their own medicine. While coach wasn’t too thrilled with Mark’s actions it showed exactly who Mark was. A little bit of a hot head, but really a guy who would always stand up for you and have your back. Mark didn't always do the right thing, but he was as loyal as it gets and would always stand up for the little guy and have your back. Let’s remember Mark as the guy who was loyal as hell to his family and friends, stood up for what he thought was right, and the guy would have your back no matter what. Thank you.

4: Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, we are here today to discuss the murder of Mark Smith. The lone suspect for this case is Tim Scott. He and Mark have a history of getting into arguments at the bar which they were both at prior to the fatality. Tim had clear motives to commit this egregious and sinister act. Mike Webster the owner of the bar has testified and said that Mark and Tim had gotten into a scuffle which resulted in Tim getting a black eye. Mike said that this scuffle happened around 10 p.m. and Mark left around 30 minutes after while Tim left a few minutes after that. Tim often sits at the far end of the bar and there are noticeable carvings under the counter that seem to be from a hunting knife which matches the exact measurements of the weapon used to murder Mark. It is clear here, nothing more needs to be said other than that Tim Scott is guilty. Thank you.

Discussion:

The easiest was the detective because I had some information to work with while all the other ones I had to completely make up. However, I enjoyed this activity so none of them were extremely difficult.

I think the eulogy was probably the hardest because I had to make up a background for this man’s life. I kinda started to ramble on when I thought of a story and had to make the story fit the personality I had thought about with the murder.

The rhetorical situation of academic writing demands for an audience that expects a clearly articulated argument that goes along perfectly with the question that is being asked. The audience normally is whoever your teacher is and whoever is grading your paper, and the tone that is normally is appropriate depends on who your teacher is. Based on who the teacher is depends the tone that I’m going to write in. In high school i never used jargon because the teachers that I had wouldn’t have accepted it unless it was in reference to the topic. Information that needs to be included is background information on the topic and what would be rejected would be anything that isn’t coming from a very academic source.

[mikekennedy88-blog]

first year learning and writing

One of the most important skills in life is to be able to transfer your knowledge from one thing to another. In high school this was very important to me because a lot of my science classes, I needed to transfer my mathematical knowledge to the science classes. I also can always remember myself and other kids saying, “why do we have to learn this?” Well we had to learn all this stuff because you don’t ever know when it is going to apply to another class or part of your life. There has been many instances where I learn something from sports and it applies directly to something else in my life. I think that transfer of knowledge can happen consciously and unconsciously. Sometimes I realize that I am applying information from one part of my life to another and other times I have absolutely zero idea that I’m doing that. I normally will notice after the fact if i were to do it unconsciously, but during the process I often have no idea. Being able to transfer knowledge from different aspects of your life is one of the most vital skills that a person can have. This is because it makes your life so much easier. Even if you don’t know how to do something you can apply knowledge from another area to whatever the new thing you’re learning may be. Transferring knowledge is very similar to be able to relate, which I have said is one of the most important things in writing. If you can relate two different things and find what they have in common, I think you’ll look much smarter. Transferring knowledge and relatability are two very important things in life and writing too.

[mikekennedy88-blog]

sunday something

How I've been feeling with all these papers and projects I could have got finished last week that I didn’t and decided to give to future Michael

[mikekennedy88-blog]

Revision vs editing

Before a few years ago I thought of revision and editing as the same thing or very similar. Now and within the last few years I’ve realized that revision is part of the process of being a good writer. I used to just think revision was reading through my entire paper out loud and making sure everything sounds normal. Now I think of it as something that can be done anytime while writing a paper to clear up the way that your voice is being portrayed. I also think that revising should be more than just looking for repetition in vocab. It should be making sure that your argument is logically placed and ordered the best way possible so that all the points are building off of each other.  

For me editing is just going through your paper sentence by sentence making sure there aren’t many grammar mistakes. I’d rather have someone edit my paper completely and do the revising on my own. I say this because a lot of time when someone is trying to revise your paper they may not understand all the directions that are gong into your writing. Many times when I have had people try to revise my papers they always try to change my arguments, therefore messing with the personal ideas I have in the paper. 

[mikekennedy88-blog]

reflecting on reflection

In the reading reflection is defined in tons of different ways by several different people. One definition says that it is “goal-driven” and is “Active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and the further conclusions to which it tends.” The reading discusses the connection with writing and reflection and how it enhances your writing and makes you more skillful in terms of rhetoric. 

I feel like when I write i’m not always actively reflecting but kinda doing it without really knowing I am. I think to develop my writing I can actively use reflection because as the reading says it can enhance my writing skills. Some activities that I do regarding reflection are taking a break while writing my papers and actually think about what i’m writing. I often don’t really think about what i’m saying when im writing so its good to lay back and actually plan and think about what im writing. 

I’ve never really thought about reflection be rhetorical before, but I would say that reflection is part of all the rhetorical terms because reflection is a process that is used with all the terms. I would say that writing changed for me pretty quickly into the class. While I think I had great writing and English teachers in high school, almost all of them had a very formula based version of writing and that is how it has changed a lot in this class. 

[mikekennedy88-blog]

Sunday Something

Went to opening lacrosse game this weekend, pumped to watch all the games this season, made me miss high school lacrosse tho

[mikekennedy88-blog]

Threshold

Throughout middle school and high school I was always told that reflection was very important. In middle school once a week in class I was told to reflect about the week, but of course I never did. I thought reflection was pretty stupid honestly, but towards the end of high school I started to understand its importance. However, I never thought of it in the way that the reading discusses it. The reading connects the importance that reflection has on writing, “Reflection has the unique ability to connect across the various threshold concepts because it offers writers the ability to be active agents of change, making meaningful contributions to any rhetorical exchange.” I used to just think of reflection as journaling about whatever it may be, but this reading has given me a new perspective. 

1. Remember that experiences have shaped you, so reflect on them. 

When making decisions and thinking about your daily life reflect on what experiences have brought you to wherever you are. 

2. Use reflection as an outline or plan for writing. 

Before jumping into your writing reflect and it will help you plan out your writing. It can be a good way to help you brainstorm for you writing, then form it into an outline.

3. Use reflection to help revise your paper. 

After making a first draft reflect and see if you have any new ideas for your writing on what you can improve on. 

[mikekennedy88-blog]

good ideas

My collage is a ton of pictures of the type of places that my brain tends to flow and good ideas come from. I have a few pictures out in nature because this is where I tend to think very well and ideas come to me very naturally. When I am out hiking and I lose myself from the people that I’m with I can concentrate and focus very easily. Out in nature is one of the best environments where I can breed new ideas effortlessly like Johnson mentions in the reading. I also included the picture of the cliff bar because obviously it is easier to have a nice train of thought when you get some good energy. 

The next place where my ideas came to me very easily is when I was playing sports, mainly lacrosse. During games and practices I was always hyper-focused which made me think of lots of good ideas normally connected to sports. I was always very locked in to my games so when we would end up taking a big lead and I could relax I was still very focused, so I could think of good ideas whether it was sports or related to school. 

The last place where my ideas come very easily is when I’m just chilling with my friends. My gateway to business idea came to me when my friends and I were just talking on a Sunday while watching football. Normally we are just talking about stuff we wish we had and then we will think of a way we could make that happen by also possibly making money and our lives easier. 

All of these places are the environments where ideas normally come to me really easily. Johnson talks about how Darwin had all these ideas unfold within his brain, but they never would have been possible without the environments he was in when these ideas came into place. I think this is similar to me because I don’t know if all my ideas would have come to me without being in these places.

[mikekennedy88-blog]

Sunday something

Watched Tom Brady win another super bowl, I understand why people call him the GOAT but Brees, Peyton manning and Rodgers are all better QBs 

[mikekennedy88-blog]

Theory of writing

I think that writing should be a way to express what you normally can’t through words on a paper. A place where you can simply tell a story that you wouldn’t be able to tell as well by speaking or a place that you can try and better your argument and persuade people. In the Russell and Yanez article they examined students who all believed that “Good writing is the same no matter the discipline.” Their theory of writing changed by the end of class as they got a better understanding. This is similar to what we are going through now with a new understanding of rhetoric and writing in general in college. Our theory of writing and definition of good writing will likely be much different by the end of our writing requirements. My understanding of writing has somewhat already changed from the boring high school writing formulas that are taught to get you an A if you just follow the steps. The Bitzer article references the importance of rhetorical situation and uses a good example of the type of questions a certain profession might ask regarding rhetorical situation, “By analogy, a theorist of science might well ask, What are the characteristics of situations which inspire scientific thought?” The characteristics that surround your situation are key in writing because it lets us build are argument or writing style given the audience.

Part 2

Been thinking for hours,

I couldn’t even brainstorm in the shower,

I’m in college now,

I need to change my writing somehow,

High school was so different,

What’s important is how I deliver it,

I’ll express myself,

I’ve got as much knowledge as a full bookshelf.