UWRT 1101 Journal Entry

8/20/2014
Throughout the years in school students have always been asked to write reports on random
things, whether it was a persuasive essay or a book report. I personally have always had trouble with the
writing portion of school, I was never a very good writer. Words didnt magically appear on the paper as
easily for me as everyone else. It always seemed like I was sitting there getting no work done when
everyone else was typing away or writing away forming sentences or paragraphs and filling up pages like
it was the easiest thing in the world. I always had trouble with that. I would be sitting there trying to think
of words to type that would make a little bit of sense when talking about a topic. So when My UWRT class
was asked to write about the topic: Are you a writer? my obvious answer was no, I am not a writer. It
doesnt come as easy for me as it does for everyone else.
8/25/2014
The word literacy has many different definitions depending on who you ask. Some may give you
a simple definition like: being able to read and write, others may give you a more descriptive definition
like: having the ability to read, interpret and convey what an author is trying to get across in his/her
writing. I personally would choose the simpler definition to define literacy. I would say that I am not the
most literate person in the world. Some things that I am assigned to read are a little difficult for me to
understand. Sometimes I have to read a paragraph several times just to understand the basic concept of
the paragraph. Others are able to read something and no matter how difficult it is they have the ability to
paraphrase it in their own words within a short time period. I dont have that ability. When compared to
some people, I may come off as more literate than those people but when compared to others, Im not.
Whether or not I am literate depends on who you want to ask really.

8/27/2014
When learning how to read and write you typically started off by copying what other people did.
When you were little you first word was probably a word that was used over and over around you so you
said it out loud. As you got a little older you were able to form sentences while talking just by hearing how
other people talked. When it comes to reading and writing you probably needed to be taught how to do
that. You wouldnt have known the symbols and letters forming words just by speaking them, someone
had to write them out for you and tell you what they meant and how they were used. While you were in
pre-school or kindergarten you probably learned the alphabet and easy words to read and write.
9-3-2014
1.) Most people cannot magically make words appear on paper like professional journalist or
authors. Lamott uses the phrase the fantasy of the uninitiated, to describe how most non-writers think of
writers and authors and how they do the things that they do. Because most people dont write on a daily
basis we have not adapted to the writing process like writers and authors have and it doesnt come as
easily for most people. This is why we she uses the phrase the fantasy of the uninitiated, to describe our
thoughts on how easy writing comes to writers and authors.
2.) Most writers want to do their own thing, which means that they dont really want to follow any
specific process. Sometimes the things they want to do dont really work out as well as they had hoped,
which causes them to trust the process a little more. When she days more or less, shes means she has
a harder time trusting the process rather than doing her own thing. Her wariness is relatable to all writers
because they all have their own methods that work for them and they dont follow a certain process.
3.) Writing a first draft is definitely more about the process rather than the product. When writing a
first draft it is all about just getting your ideas on paper. Once you have your ideas you may choose which
of your thoughts you want to use. After you have chosen your thoughts you can take those a work with
them and improve them as you write more.

9-8-2014
What do I think about writing? Writing is not a fun subject, it is long, exhausting and boring. I feel
like there are plenty of people who can agree with me. Writing is not one of my hobbies I am not good at
it. There are authors and writers who are actually good at writing. These people are the ones who sure
enjoy writing.
9-29-2014
Groups I am apart of:

Soccer Landon, T Mo, Pat

Volunteer Club Tiffany, Lizzy, Alyssa

Appendicitis Club

Spanish Club (A.C.)

FBLA (A.C.)

Alyssa

Basketball

Brian

Golf

Tennis Va

Rick Riordan Fan

Team Galaxy

Team I hate technology

Team Playstation

FIFA

Naughty Dog Games Fan

Walking Dead Tiffany

How I Met Your Mother Brian

Minecraft

The Office

Snowboard

Indianapolis Colts

9-30-2014

Alex, Matt, Brian

Bryan

Alex, Matt

Landon, Julie

You know, in all these movies you see about children and adults that dont get along with other
people or they have an odd social life, its mostly because they dont fit in with society. Most the times
when these characters dont fit in with society its because they arent in a particular group with other
people with similar interests. This whole article is about community discourses, which are basically similar
interest groups within a community. What I dont understand is; whats wrong with being your own person
and not being in a group. Why do you have to be in a group with similar interests to fit in? These
characters in movies that have trouble fitting in and at the end of the movie, they find out it is better to be
yourself rather than being sucked into society.
Discourse communities are good to be involved in. Being in a community like this doesnt literally
mean that you are physically in a community with people with the same interests. It really just means that
you have similar interests with other people but dont necessarily have to communicate with those people.
I am on Team Galaxy, which means I prefer Samsung Galaxy phones or tablets over IPhone or Apple
products. Sure, I know people who use Galaxy products rather than Apple products but that doesnt
necessarily mean I talk to them or that I am friends with them, we are just in the same discourse
community. Any interest of mine could be the same as another or a group of people, which could form a
discourse community.
10-1-2014

The Platinum Rule

never ever ever love thy neighbor

yellow umbrella

belongs to the mother, Ted finds it at a bar

pineapple

Ted wakes up not knowing where it came from

The Captain

Zoeys husband in love with boats

The Blue French Horn the smurf penis

The Red Dragon

Carl

Krav maga

self-defense system developed by Israel military

Beercules

drunk Marshall

lebenslanger Shicksalsschatz

Gumby Barney in his green St. Patricks Day suit

shots of alcohol made by carl

the bartender

the thing that you want

Hoser Hut

Robin Sparkles/Space teens/Robin Daggers

Old King Clancy

Not a Fathers Day

The Cheerleader Effect

Doppelgangers

Slapsgiving/Slap-bet

MacLarens

The Scuba Diver

The Playbook

The Wedding Bride/The Wedding Bride Too

The Arcadian

The Cockamouse

Revertigo

Minnesota Tidal Wave/The Robin Scherbatsky

Mary the Paralegal

Korean Elvis

Characters Names

Canadian Bar

Rules to Fit in:

never question anything

know the names

understand the basic story

Laugh

have a good sense of humor

be willing to watch the show(all of it)

10-09-2014(pre-reading)
In the book The Hunger Games, there are multiple instances of discourse communities because
of each district being separated into specific areas and everybody having the same jobs. District 12, the

main characters district is known for its coal mining. A majority of the people in district 12 are coal miners,
with the exception of a few people. Since a majority of the people in each district have the same job they
all have the same types of conversations. A majority of the conversations coming from district 12 would
most likely consist of coal mining, the Capitol, and their previous losses at the annual Hunger Games.
This is a good example of a discourse community.
In my life I have seen examples of discourse communities by what kinds of hobbies people have.
People who like to party and drink have tend to talk about one thing, partying. They tend to talk about how
drunk they got one night or what they dont remember happening one night. Pretty much anyone who
sees or hears of someone at a party they instantly become best friends and start talking about how wild
and crazy these parties were. This is a good example of a discourse community based on rule number
1, A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals, which are getting drunk
and partying.
Throughout the world there are examples of discourse communities. Being a Democrat or a
Republican based on your views on certain problems in the world can associate you with one or the other
discourse communities. Democrats often have few topics of conversation that commonly come from their
views on arguments throughout the country, as do republicans. Democrats might often be caught talking
about legalizing gay marriage or health care plans. Whatever they are talking about typically they have
the same ideas and opinions.
10-8-2014
Being in the How I Met Your Mother discourse community may have made me a little different than most
other people by the way I talk. I have references from this show locked in my brain that I might start
laughing about randomly when someone says something that can relate to a reference I know of. I will
randomly start laughing at things I think of about how I met your mother. I also tend to quote things from
how I met your mother that no one understands.
10-13-2014
I dont like writing very much, it isnt one of my better skills that I have. I am quite horrible at writing. I often
have grammar errors in my writing and it a recurring issue in my writing. I cant put my ideas and thoughts
on paper like other people who might be better at writing.

10-15-2014 Pre-reading
This article relates to many other articles that I have read because it is talking about punctuation.
There are a lot of articles that are hard to read just because of the punctuation being used in the article.
This article was a little ironic because I had a hard time understanding it because of the punctuation being
used. Scientific articles are the worst for the punctuation used in them. Scientific articles are really hard to
read and understand because it seems like the beef of the paragraph is separated by so many other
things. Whenever I read scientific journals or articles I feel like the paragraphs are so off topic because
there is so much punctuation to separate it all.
I have had many experiences of punctuation getting the best of me. I have had points taken off of
reports or essays I have had to write because I didnt use the correct punctuation. Commas, semi-colons,
dashes, all of it gets me. I have a hard time with knowing when and when not to use punctuation.
Someone told me the saying: when in doubt punctuate, but when I follow that saying I still end up
getting points taken off because I dont use the right punctuation or because punctuation isnt needed.
Constantly I am getting points taken off because of punctuation.
There are many people around the world who have trouble with punctuation. The only people
who really do it correctly are the ones who have been trained to do so. To be taught how to correctly
punctuate you need a good teacher. There are so many rules to be taught and so many complex ideas
that not many people will understand. Most people around the world are just lazy or too ignorant to
punctuate.
10-22-2014 is Google making us Stupid?
With all the technology we have these days, its hard to prevent change in the way we think and
read. Studies show that the average attention span of humans is six seconds. Some social networking
websites have the average human attention span to its advantage by having users make videos that are
only six seconds long. The change in the way we think on a daily has to be caused by Google. A majority
of the people around the world depend on Google to give them the answers.
In the movie The Internship with Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson they play older characters that
have no experience with technology chasing after an internship at Google that is way out of their league.
At one point in the movie Owen Wilsons character says something like: Google has singlehandedly cut

into my ability to bullshit. This shows that people rely on Google too much even if its the most simplest of
things. Sure Google is a helpful resource to find information but theres some negative feedback.
Since we, including me, read all sorts of information on the internet we are causing our attention
span to shorten. Most of the articles I read, I can hardly understand, they are too long. I can get to the
middle of a paragraph or even just a sentence and completely forget what I just read. I have a hard time
focusing enough to actually read anything longer than a paragraph or two.
10-22-2014
Technology is singlehandedly ruining my life. Technology stresses me out the most out of
anything that could possibly stress me out. I hate technology, I do not get along with it at all. Technology
tends to malfunction for me all the time. I dont care if it is a laptop, phone, printer, TV, anything, it all
malfunctions when I need it most.
Pay it Forward

This movie is about a little boy who is given an assignment to practically change the
world and make a difference. I always see a bunch of stories on the news about these
organizations going to different countries and helping people out. They arent completely
changing the world. In the movie the kid comes up with this idea that if you help three people
and tell them each to help three other people you will make a difference. You see stories about
these organizations helping but they arent following the pay it forward plan.
If someone were to try and execute this plan and it worked along several other countries
it would work. Not many people have been able to do this. When organizations help people in
other countries by volunteering their time and money, they arent doing much to help. There will
only be a difference if the help is transferrable. Someone helps one person and that person
helps another and so on until the whole world is involved.
I once was involved with a food bank that brought food to orphanages to help the kids
there. Even though I was helping that orphanage by giving it food to serve to the kids, I doubt
that the kids will realize what help they were given. All it takes is helping one person that has the
capability to help another.

10-27-2014
Have I ever paid it forward? That is an interesting question. First off, what is meant by
have you paid it forward? I guess if you were directly following how the movie goes, I would
say I have not paid it forward. I have not had someone do something for me that I couldnt do
and expected me to do something for three other people that they couldnt do. Although, I have
volunteered my time and money for a cause, but I wasnt expecting anyone to do anything else
for anyone.

Positive Social Experiment

This assignment is going to be very hard to start off from the beginning. I have to be very
creative to find an experiment that would work and that would be appropriate for the campus. All
I have been able to come up with are surveys that people around campus could fill out. How will
I take the results from my experiment and apply them in a way that will impact the campus? It
takes a lot to change a college students way of thinking, they tend to be much closed minded
which makes improving the campus in some way even harder.
People Illustrated Pre-Reading
All around the world you find people with tattoos of their religious beliefs or what gang or
group they are in. Some people just get tattoos because they look cool. Although, in past times
people had tattoos because they were punished, I find tattooing someone an odd punishment. I
understand that it may hurt, but it doesnt hurt for long unless the tattoo was a degrading symbol
or something like that.
There are a few shows on TV that come on that are all about tattoo artists doing their
thing and using a human body as their canvas. These artists are given a challenge and the
person who accomplishes the challenge the best is the winner. Some of the tattoos that people

get on this show are just weird and outrageous. I understand that people love making
themselves stick out and love being their own person, but why do people insist on getting very
big and ugly tattoos on their body? I question some peoples thought process when I see some
huge tattoo on their body that has no meaning and they just got it because they have the money
to spend.
I personally dont really like tattoos unless they have a real meaning to that person who
has it. Bible verses or crosses are pretty common tattoos to see on people, but how true are
those people to their religion. Some people have crosses tattooed on them and they arent even
Christian or they dont even make an attempt to uphold the statement they are trying to make
with the cross tattoo they have. My brother has four crosses tattooed on his left arm and they
look horrible. The only way I would get a tattoo is if it has a very deep meaning to me or its
something that would motivate me to do better.
11-03-2014 Pre-Reading
All around the world people have Facebook and they are communicating with others and
posting their opinions on certain issues. Most people should know the saying sticks and stones
may break my bones but, words will never hurt me, the experiment done shows that some
things that people post online might have an effect on someone who is reading. People who
were reading more negative posts obviously felt like they could share their negative posts with
the world also.
Cyber bullying is an example of what this experiment is trying to prove. When someone
sees more negative posts online that person will most likely want to chime in and start giving
his/her thoughts. Most of these thoughts will most likely be negative. If there is a post
specifically about a person online many people will chime in and begin cyber-bullying someone.
I used to get on Facebook all the time until I started seeing everyone elses positive
posts. Sure, I was happy for whoever that person is and what they were doing but I really didnt
care. I wanted my life to be positive like that and when I saw everyone elses lives going well it

had a negative impact on me. Thats when I decided to delete my Facebook account and not
log on anymore.
11-05-14 Pre-Reading
The author of this article is discussing whether or not the emotional contagion
Facebook experiment was ethical or even legal. It makes me wonder how many other
experiments the government has done without us even knowing. This makes me curious about
how many peoples texts or emails are being monitored on a daily basis for experimental
purposes.
All over the world people are signing up for these online social networking websites.
When people sign up for these websites they have to accept the terms of service document
saying that they read it and understand what data may be collected or used from their accounts.
Even though, the terms of service of Facebook didnt specifically include the term research
until May of 2012, I feel like the experiment was completely ethical. People accept these terms
of service, most of the time without even reading them, allowing the government to do
experiments using these accounts. If you dont like that an experiment was done using your
Facebook account, get over it, you accepted the terms of service.
I feel like there are shenanigans that happen all the time with your personal information
from the social networking websites you are on and you may not even know it. Everything you
put on the internet is permanently on the internet, it cant be deleted. It reminds me of an
episode of How I Met Your Mother when Ted sends an embarrassing text to a girl and
immediately as he hit send he realized that he shouldnt have sent it. Ted couldnt take that text
back after he hit send. People dont realize that is what is happening when you post something
on the internet.

11-05-2014
Personally, I think social media is a burden on the economy as well as peoples lives.
People are constantly worrying about checking their Facebook updates and their Twitter feed. I
am just standing over here not giving a crap about any of the social media. I regret ever getting
on the social networking websites. Sure, I communicate with a select group of people across the
internet but, if I had their phone numbers or emails, I wouldnt have to get online anymore. A
majority of the social networking websites are just loaded with drama, drama, and more drama.
Drama ends up stressing people out even if it is the silliest stuff ever. The only people who love
drama are attention whores. Some of the social networking drama even causes people to go
crazy or get in a really depressed state of mind that they cant get out of. The world would be a
better place without social media.
11-10-2014 Portfolio Pre-Reading
I had similar experience with making a portfolio in my senior year of high school. We
were assigned a Senior Project which was necessary to graduate. Everyone knew we had a
portfolio to do at the end of the assignment to show all the work we had done towards the
completion of the project. Most people, including myself put it off until like a few nights before or
even the night before so we knew what had to be in there and we could put everything in at
once. When I did it, it stressed me out. Obviously I didnt know what I was doing. I knew what
had to be in the portfolio, I didnt know how to put the stuff in it though.
In movies you tend to see people who work in an office setting always preparing
portfolios. Of course they are acting but they seem like they know what they are doing and they
are supposed to. Most people who work in the office setting probably had correct training on
how to create a portfolio and how to do it correctly.
I figure biologists and scientists have to make a portfolio on all of their experiments. Most
of the experiments work is shown or talked about in the final lab report. If someone were to
search hard enough you could most likely find a portfolio of all the work done by scientists in a

particular experiment. When making a portfolio for something is a frequent occurrence for
someone it becomes easier because they will learn how to properly complete it within the time
restraints with little stress because they know how to put it together as they finish each
assignment related to one particular topic or experiment.
11-10-2014
I am having a hard time working on my portfolio for my 1101 UWRT class. We were
supposed to used one of two internet sites to create our online portfolio, the two websites to
choose from were Wix.com and weebly.com. I decided to go with wix and it seems like
everyone else chose weebly. I tried to work on my portfolio and add my work to it but I couldnt
quite figure out how to add documents to it correctly. I am deciding to change my portfolio to a
weebly internet site, with my professors permission of course. Because I am now using weebly
instead of wix I have to start all over and try to figure out how to use it correctly. I will need some
help putting my work onto my portfolio. It is going to be a little harder than usual and definitely
time consuming. I will just have to put in a solid amount of time one day or multiple days and
just get it done, along with any other assignments I have to get done.
11-12-2014 Pre-Reading
I believe reflective writing would work in some cases. I also believe that the amount and
quality of writing being produced by someone really depends on who that person is. Personally I
wouldnt write much about a topic that I didnt enjoy reading about. Most likely after a while my
opinion of that topic might change but there probably wouldnt be much reflection on what was
said before. If I were to write about something I enjoy I would be able to write for a while and as
I grow older and wiser I would be able to reflect on what I said before in more detail. I would be
able to reflect on something that interests me for a while.
11-12-2014
The due date for our portfolio is coming up quick. If I do not get started on the portfolio I
feel like it is going to bite me in the butt. There are also other things that I need to do for the

portfolio. I have to fix all of my reports according to my professors comments on the original
copy. Obviously, there is a lot of writing that needs to be done. I didnt understand how to use
the website I initially started with so now I have to start on a new website, which I probably wont
understand how to use either. It is crunch time and I need to get to work.