Reflection

Since the number of rough drafts required for the final project was cut down to one rough draft, a lot of effort went into just that one draft. Cantey required that the rough draft be at least six pages like the final paper. Having to produce only one rough draft did not allow for concentration on specific areas of the paper over various periods of time. However, I must say I did prefer to write only one rough draft. I did not and still do not see the point of writing a rough draft or multiple rough drafts of a paper when the drafts and the actual final paper are required to be the same left. I do not think any real editing will get done. It’s more like proofreading for grammatical errors when that much time and effort is put into a simple rough draft. I personally viewed the rough draft as the actual paper.
In writing the drafts there were certain areas that I wanted to be sure to go into specific detail about. My topic of plastic surgery and youth was a perfect example of when to use descriptive imagery in order to convey emotion. My paper included numerous real life examples of plastic surgery gone wrong and plastic gone right. One example focused on all the diseases and illnesses one girl contracted from a bad reaction to breast implants. Another example focused on a young girl who had her life drastically changed from a nose job. She went from being the girl ridiculed daily by both boys and girls to the girl all guys wanted to date and girls wanted to befriend. Going back and forth between the negative and positive experiences of teenagers who have underwent plastic surgery is how I managed to mediate through the majority of six pages.
However, when I thought I had accomplished my task in mediating between youth and their growing urge to go under the knife, I realized my paper was not quite long enough. Another major factor I thought to include in my paper concerns not only adolescents but adults who consent to plastic surgery in daily growing numbers. I decided to include the doctors’ view points on the growing trend of plastic surgery. Regarding plastic surgery in youth, I found that doctors were split evenly in the belief on whether teens need plastic surgery. This divide made mediating my paper easy. Half of the doctors stated that the majority of youth do not know what they are truly doing when craving and consenting to plastic surgery. Doctors do not think teens realize their bodies are still changing and no person’s body is ever truly perfect. Although, a large portion of doctors believe that plastic surgery is the cure for the social problems of certain teenagers. These doctors think that pinning back ears that stick out, reducing and reshaping a large nose, and increasing or reducing breast size will help lead the teen to social acceptance and higher self-esteem.
In the final revision of my paper I mainly concentrated on grammatical errors. I felt as if I placed all the information I needed to in the rough draft.

Barack Obama: A More Perfect Union

Barack Obama's speech was the first political speech of this election that I have actually sat down and watched in full. I must say I was impressed. I found Obama to be quite relatable. Obama's tone and vocabulary was that of intelligence and sophistication but he did not overdo it. He connected well with his audience. Also, he managed to create an audience. Obama did not just speak to the African American community , the religious community, the elderly, or the young. He mentioned everyone and connected with everyone. In addition I liked the fact he did not disown or downgrade his pastor. He acknowledged the error of his pastor but stood by him. Obama made the perfect of example of with time everything, including people, change.

Photo Essay




I chose the random writing around campus as my topic at first because all the advertisements promoting websites written on the ground use to get on my nerves. I would wonder why anyone would write promotions on the ground. However, when it came time to do my project a lot those kind of advertisements were no where to be found. So I did a more general outlook of all writing seen on campus.

Political Cartoon

I picked this political cartoon because it did not have anything to do with a candidate's particular stance on an issue. The cartoon did not outright target one of the candidate's beliefs or shortcomings. Instead the cartoon depicted what not to do when making a political cartoon. The cartoon almost justifies making fun of a political candidate as long as it is done correctly. There should be no racism or sexism in the cartoon. However, there is one exception, majorities do not count. There should be no direct degradation of a minority. For example, Obama and Clinton should not be targeted about their race or gender. Although, McClain is a white male and can be depicted any kind of way. Even though I do not agree with the cartoon, I do find it funny. If everyone is truly equal then everyone should be respected the same. That statement should also hold true for majorities. Does anyone else feel the same?

This cartoon is credited to Daryl Cagle, MSNBC.com

Photo Essay

In search of a photo essay to review, I tried to find a topic I would be somewhat interested in. I already knew I did not want to look at scenery or people I couldn't not connect in anyway to. I think a photo essay can be as boring or as interesting as you make it. So in search of a photo essay, I stumbled upon one of tattoos. A young woman had the idea to take photos of anyone she knew with a tattoo for a photography class. Some tattoos had meaning behind them, some were unique, and some were just out of place. I think I found the photo essay of tattoos interesting because I am contemplating on a tattoo. I thought I might get some inspiration http://www.ideazoo.com/gallery/tattoo.html. However, I really didn't. I thought a lot their tattoos were weird or in weird places.

Did anyone find any inspiration in their photo essays?

Grammar Confusion

Throughout elementary school and middle school I was always taught that a sentence could not start with and, or, or because. Now the rule is just embedded in my brain. I feel as if I am wrong if I want to use these words as sentence starters. However, in different text I see this so called or so previously taught rule being broken. I want to know the truth about this rule. For example is it possible to say, And I told him I did not care to go to the movies. I found through this link http:///www.towson.edu an answer to part of my question. The link gives an example of because being used as a sentence starter. The link is an informative page of common grammar and sentence structure. I think it may be very helpful to me in the near future because I will be writing numerous papers.

However, I still wonder, if a sentence can start with and, or, or because why was I taught differently in my early years of schooling and was anyone else taught the same?