Goodbye

So, this is my last blog post for this class. I have enjoyed the class much more than I thought I would. Also, I feel like I have learned a few things. Learning to write is really about practice and I have had nearly daily practice for the last few weeks. I really liked the online format of the class. While it may have limited face to face discussion, which can be an important part of English class, I have been able to spend more time on my writing and focus more. I also enjoyed practicing with the different options open to us on the internet. First, I had never used a blog format before, and now I feel very able to write in a blog like setting. Second, my past experience with google docs had not been positive, and now I see the advantage of using a shared doc for group projects. And speaking of group projects, this was my first group project where I never met any members of my group face to face. That experience was also valuable because the way technology is heading right now, completely virtual interaction is a very real possibility in the future, though there will always be the people who prefer to talk face to face. Third, I enjoyed that not all the assignments were straight-up writing, there were both pictures and videos involved in the projects. Finally, I did enjoy the lack of novels, it's not that I don't enjoy reading, it's that I hate reading when it's forced. Overall, this English class was one of my favorite that I have ever had. It was also my first internet course, and after this experience, I would definitely take one again.

My Writing Process Video

Final Draft of Paper

Link can also be seen on the side bar to the right
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B6xzzQdLinkPUUZxaE5TYXgxVDA

Blitzkrieg Kritik

For the critique today I have posted my paper to the right under "Links to Papers." The first link should work for editing
Or try this link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jZkAn2h8I9TgODGpdCAdleAZsEYbNlroB9zZIg4o-MU/edit
This google docs thing is not working well for me.
Also, the pictures were messing up in google docs so I have deleted them in the version above but they should still be in the second version to the right.

Reality?

Reality is a noun, but not a person, place, or thing. I can say I am very glad I do not have to play 20 questions to figure out this word. Reality is an idea. It is a perspective that is completely unique to each person, individual. What is reality to me, may not be reality to you. Sometimes, when a word is difficult to understand, it is helpful to think of its opposite in an attempt to understand better. The closest opposite of reality is fantasy. Fantasy is unreal, made-up, or imaginary. The opposite of all those words is real, and you should not define a word with itself. For inspiration, I often Google image search to get some ideas about what to write about. When I search ‘reality’ in google image I get a bunch of comics and funny road signs, as well as strangely enough, fish sandwiches. This indicates that people do not enjoy reality, thus the number of jokes about reality. When I search ‘fantasy’, I get many images that look really cool and many things that are commonly accepted as not real. So back to reality (pun intended), reality is something that is, not something that you think. When you think of something, that is a mental creation. As soon as you create “it,” then “it” exists, and “it” is reality. So the line between fantasy and reality is very thin, think to create. A broader sense of my reality can be defined as my life. What I am living is what I consider my reality, though my reality is clearly composed of fantasies. I tell myself untrue things all the time, and added together, those things make up a fantasy I have created for myself, but that is the life I am living. The composition of my fantasies makes up my reality. Then, I ask myself, can my fantasies be my reality, or does that make my reality a fantasy?

  Reality                                                           Fantasy

Small Organization

Organization comes in all sizes. From the swirling galaxies all the way down to individual cells, and actually even smaller. During mitosis (cellular division) organization can be seen clearly in metaphase; the phase where the chromosomes line up in the middle of the cell, a sort of symmetry. 

The organization seen above in the video is symmetry. The chromosomes (pink) line up in the middle of the cell in a repetitive pattern seen throughout nearly all eukaryotic cells. This organization is integral to all eukaryotic life on the planet. 

Statue: Power of Thought

From: http://www.hudsonalpha.org/hudsonalpha-journal-2010-volume-2-issue-5

The bronze statue above, by Victor Issa titled “Power of Thought,” illustrates the evolution of thinking and ideas in several ways. It is located in front of the HudsonAlpha Institute in Huntsville, Alabama, which is a center housing small businesses and research facilities in biotech and pharmaceutical to promote innovation. In several places on the statue the viewer can see how the artist depicted technology through art. In the right hand of the statue, it appears he is holding DNA. Though if you look closer (and in person), you can see that the strand is an evolution that ends in DNA. The beginning of the strand is a wheel, and the wheel morphs into an old-fashion train, and that train into a more modern bullet train, and then that train appears to be driving up the tracks that lead to the strand of DNA that the figure is holding. Thus, the artist is indicating that the wheel is the invention that started the proverbial ‘wheel’ rolling to the discovery of DNA. In the other hand of the statue, he is releasing a modern plane. Behind the released plane, not quite visible in this picture, is a plane by the Wright Brothers, once again depicting the evolution of technology. Around the base of the statue appear different ‘landmarks’ through the ages, including some architecture I cannot quite distinguish, a person that is probably an important person in history, and a footprint, which I am guessing is to depict man walking in new places and directions, or possibly on the moon. I really enjoyed this sculpture because it really integrates and shows the transition from old technology to new technology and how far humans have developed technology.

From: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2010639629/

Questions for Paper

What in advertising makes people want to go on diets?
Who feels like they need to go on a diet and why do they feel that way?

Website Evaluations

Bad: Blackboard

Blackboard is not a student user friendly site; it has many functions that are not useful, and it is not user friendly on the teacher side either. First, the site is not visually appealing because the simple design does not look clean. After logging in, the MyCLEmson tab is nearly useless with nearly nothing that I use on that page. The only reason I check blackboard is for new documents and grades. To find these two things, I must make at least four clicks, and usually more, to even see if there is something new for me to look at. On the main page after logging in, nothing on the left column of the page I have ever clicked on. And I usually don’t click on the courses on the right side either because they take longer to load than clicking the Courses tab at the top of the page. Not being user friendly on the teacher side is an assumption I have made based off of what I see as a student. Announcements, tasks, and calendar events are never posted so I must go through each individual course to figure out when are all test days and assignments. I assume that if they were easy to post or automated the teachers would put them up. If blackboard was designed better, there would be more of an automated filling in of the calendar and tasks for the student as well as a better notification system for new content.

Good: Pandora

Pandora is an ingenious internet radio site. In addition to the brilliant idea of the site, the design of the site is pleasing to the eye and simple to use. The welcome screen while loading is blue with circles and simply says PANDORA. It has no slow loading of parts of the page or a bar that goes to 99% and stays there. 

After loading, the only screen is the main one, so no more waiting for pages to load. From the main screen, on the top left there is a simple search bar for creating new stations. All your current stations are listed clearly down the left column. What is now playing is in the dark blue box in the middle with the album art and a description below of the song. Finally, the play and thumbs up/thumbs down button are clearly at the top next to the sound. This site has gone through a renovation since I began using it and the web designer did a great job of improving their previous design. Now it is all blue and simple, just like Facebook.

Magazine Cover Story

In the July 2012 issue of Today’s Diet & Nutrition, the cover story title boasts “A Perfect Picnic.” The background of the cover photo already gives a hint at the topic of the article. The unfocused green leaves in the background with the sun playing gently though them gives the immediate impression of a warm summer’s day outdoors. Then, in the bottom half of the photo, there is the stereotypical picnic item: a red checkered blanket or table cloth. The main focus of the photo is a sandwich on a ciabatta rolls; however, the sandwich is not the stereotypical sandwich. The lunch meat is noticeably absent in this sandwich advertised in a nutrition magazine. The sandwich appears to have tomato, fresh mozzarella, red onion, and arugula; a fact that is confirmed when reading the article. The “Easy Caprese Sandwich” also includes, “basil pesto and kalamata olives” which I wish would have been included in the picture. It would give the final touch to the photo that really communicates the fact that this sandwich is really just a salad put on fancy bread. After reading the article, this sandwich could not be much easier to make, with the instructions even including the phrase “and close each sandwich with the other side of the roll” as if that wasn’t self-explanatory, but I do understand that you cannot assume the reader knows anything when writing a recipe.To end, the article included several suggestions on what to have with this picnic sandwich. The list included items such as “a bottle of wine, a bowl of fresh berries, and your best friends.” While I am not sure about the sandwich, the rest of that list sounds like a wonderful picnic to me.

"A Perfect Picnic." Today's Diet & Nutrition July 2012: 38-39. Print.

[Sorry if this was not exactly what you were looking for, the only magazines we have are about food. My family is food obsessed.] 

Possible Sources

Cruise, Jorge. The 3-hour diet for teens: lose weight and feel great in two weeks!. New York: HarperCollins, 2007. Print.

        The book is a general diet book for teens. In the introduction section there is a paragraph about how media and advertising impacts dieting.


Hungrige, Angela . Unequal Treatment: The Differences of Body Image Advertisements Containing Food and Supplements in Fashion Magazines for Men and Women. University of Houston-Clear Lake: ProQuest, 2008. Print.

         May be more of an article summary paper than a book. However, it has some good information about ads targeting body image, and has sources at the end that I could investigate. 

Lester, Paul Martin. Visual communication: images with messages. 4th ed. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2006. Print.

        The book is more of a general visual rhetoric book but it does have several mentions of diets.

All found from google books search online

Freewriting

The advertising of diets: it's all about the image

Diets have become more and more typical in the recient years. There are isles and isles of books about how to diet, what supposedly works and what doesn’t. And while I am interested in what diet is most effective for weight loss, what is more interesting is: why is the general public (especially women) so obsessed with diets. Is it the research in how being healthier makes you live longer? Or is it the fact that we are constantly bombarded with the pictures of the ‘ideal’ human figure. Opening of the paper should contain an in your face statement with shock value like: do you think your fat? Are you fat? Or Do you feel fat?. Something that is catchy like magazine and newspaper headlines are catchy. Every summer magazine, always next to candy bars, has glamour magazines with articles about special diet and exercises for ab and butt toning. All the magazines have something telling you “you should be dieting” and “you should look this way”. There are healthy reasons you should eat certain diets, but it is the image that compels people to follow the diet. There are other reasons people diet than appearance, mostly medical (Anaphylactic shock, high blood pressure, and other specific diseases), However, in my age group, the reason is mostly appearance. In an older age group, the reason is mostly medical. Walking though the grocery store, headlines grab attention. Even if standing in long line, and happen to open up the magazine, then the first paragraph is designed to draw you in. What sells? Peoples’ wants = be thin, have hard muscles, and be pleasing in bed. What I would like to investigate is: how or why advertising makes people desire to go on a special diet? Tentative thesis: advertising uses the ideal image to promote new diets, even in cases that the diet is not for image reasons. Specialized diets have not always been around; the concept is a human invention and idea, but the question remains: why?

To research this topic I will look at magazine covers and articles advertising diets or other weight loss techniques (excluding specific medicines). I will also investigate the history of diets and the evolution of specialized diets to determine how they came about. In addition, I will research articles that look into the psychology of advertising and dieting and how they are related. I plan to focus on American magazines and advertising so that I can also include obesity facts because obesity is a large problem in the United States.

The most difficult part of the assignment may be narrowing down exactly what I would like to write my paper on. It is difficult to answer why questions and so I will try to make my questions more direct and concrete so that I can answer them in my paper. Another difficult area will be finding journal articles specifically about the topic I would like to discuss. There will be many about advertising and diets, but I will be looking for articles specifically about advertising for diets using visuals.

Mindmap

Why Diet?

Does it suck?

The game where I am supposed to state my opinion. 

Elephant with US flag colors: It doesn’t suck; elephants are cool animals and elephants with the American flag on them can only be better than normal dull grey elephants.

Barack Obama: He doesn’t suck; he is president. Being president is a difficult job and he has managed to not be the worst president ever. He is also black, and black people don’t suck.

Harry Potter: It doesn’t suck; it has an interesting and eventful story line with fun characters and magic. The books were better than the movies but I liked both.

Apple: It doesn’t suck; apple makes the iphone, and iphones can do nearly everything.
Star Wars: It doesn’t suck; the movies are full of action and futuristic space stuff which is cool.

Facebook: It doesn’t suck; I can creep on all my friends and even people I don’t know. It also makes sharing pictures with everyone easier.

McDonalds: It sucks; it smells funny in there, nearly all the food is horribly unhealthy, and lots of people get fat from McDonalds. Even their salads taste bad.

Clemson University: It doesn’t suck; I have lots of friends at Clemson, the campus is nice, and it is far enough away from home my parents don’t visit me too often.

Lady Gaga: She sucks; her music is really over played, and she wears lots of strange clothes.

Justin Bieber: He doesn’t suck; his music is catchy and he is easy to write an English paper about.

Sudoku: It doesn’t suck; it is entertaining for some people and it exercises the brain. Though, I don’t do them because I don’t think they are fun and I would rather exercise my brain in other ways.

Avatar: It doesn’t suck; I haven’t seen it but the blue people look like they could be interesting. It is on my list of movies to see.

Xbox 360: It doesn’t suck; I can connect my Kinect to it and play awesome dance games that are also exercise.

American Idol: It doesn’t suck; I have never watched it, but many people do so right now my opinion is based off of assumption (a bad way to form an opinion, I know).

Glee: It doesn’t suck; the show follows high school kids who follow their dreams and sing about their dreams all the time in public places and no one thinks it is strange.

Ciggaretts: They suck; anything that is addictive and causes cancer sucks.

Guns: They suck; they kill people and killing people is bad.

Abortion: They suck; they also kill people, but sometimes they are needed (in extreme cases).

Dogs wearing clothes: They suck; why would you force your animal into wearing something that it doesn’t want to be wearing. You give the animal no choice. I am not a dog person so my opinion is swayed by that fact as well.

My Writing Process

Writing has never been my favorite subject, but in this class, it has not been too bad. A definite benefit is that the class is online, so I can go at my own pace and do not have to talk, and it is in the summer, so I have nearly nothing else to do. Writing for me is not something that is slow and meticulous (usually). I am not one to painstakingly pick out each word I type, I would much rather type it all out and go back and put in better word choices. I just write whatever comes into my head with my fingers going as fast as possible just trying to get my ideas out. But then I have to go back through and edit all the crap I have just written, as well as all the grammatical and spelling errors I have just made. Last week, while at home, I would wake up in the morning (or sometimes afternoon), and pull out my laptop and finish the assignment while still in bed to get it out of the way before my day even began. It is nice to not worry about it for the rest of the day. This week, I have been on vacation with my family at the beach, and luckily we have had internet, though it has been very slow. I am currently sitting at the long dining room table looking out, over the low sand dunes, watching the ocean gently crash against the sand. In the background, the twelve or so family members are rustling around in the making lunch or just making noise. Luckily the noise, music, and eating does not distract me. When I go back home next week I am going to miss the view, my family, and the noise, but it will be nice to go back to sitting in my bed and writing.

Introductory Comma

From the side of a cereal box

Introductory comma can be seen below the barcode in the paragraph under the title "In Partnership with Organic Farms"

m&m's

·         Saucer shaped

·         Red, yellow, green, blue, brown

 Used to have light brown and dark brown

 Alternate colors: purple – dark chocolate

·         White m on one side (lower case)

·         Come in many flavors

Original, dark chocolate, peanut, peanut butter, mint, pretzel

·         Commercials have character m&m’s in them

 Green one and brown one = girl

·         If put in water, the color comes off and they all look the same

·         Will eventually melt in your hand but slower than plain chocolate

·         Go well in trail mix

·         On the m&m website you can order custom m&m with custom messages and colors

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Plain-M%26Ms-Pile.jpg

I Will Not Plagiarize

Copying another person's work and using it as my own is plagiarism. Plagiarism, a word I just learned to spell, is stealing. Stealing is wrong. If I plagiarized, I would be devaluing the source of what I plagiarized. Also, if I what I plagiarize is wrong, then I would be propagating misinformation. Plagiarism indicates that I am not able to do something by myself. Using plagiarism to complete an assignment would demonstrate a skill set I may not possess. If I used plagiarism to misrepresent myself, then I am posing as something I am not, such as an expert on a subject I know nothing about. Posing as an expert would foster a false trust in my information, which could be wrong, and then I am back to fostering misinformation. I will not plagiarize because there is no reason I should need to plagiarize; I am smart enough to succeed in this class without the help from outside sources such as copying from the internet and I have the time to do the assignments. Also, for me, the risk from plagiarizing is greater than the reward. Plagiarizing would merit an immediate failure of the class, all for saving myself less than thirty minutes of work on an assignment. The risk of failing is a much greater risk than I am willing to take. I promise I will not plagiarize because plagiarizing is wrong: it is stealing and misrepresents me.

The Amazingly Lame Crocodile

Crocodiles are majestic, powerful, and amazing creatures.The tilt of the crocodile’s head when posed to come out of the water irrefutably trumpets its majestic nature. Historically crocodiles have been associated with royalty; I can almost see the crown that should be sitting atop its smooth head. With the eyes looking confidently out over the surrounding land, the royalty of the crocodile is irrefutable. The crocodile pushes itself out of the clear water using the power of its thick hind legs. The front legs support the massive upper body easily as the crocodile shows its long, sharp teeth. The sharp, scaly spines on its back subtly indicate that nothing can ruffle this crocodile’s proverbial feathers. Without fear, the crocodile displays its beautiful chest to the world, saying once and for all, “I am amazing.” Amazing is a criminally overused adjective in the English language, but there is no better word to describe a crocodile.
Crocodiles are ridiculous looking, silly, and lame creatures. When the crocodile pushes up on its thin scaly legs, it looks like nothing more than a ridiculously oversized, garden lizard sunning itself. It’s like it the crocodile thinks no one can see the struggle it has just holding half of its body up, never mind the rest of the body that just drags along the ground. Its beady eyes sit oddly on top of its funnily-shaped head, looking around the beach for any kind of cowardly retreat. The silly spines on its back do not even help it fight; they are just there to protect its sorry excuse for a cold-blooded body. At any moment, the crocodile is going to flop back onto that soft, carelessly scaled, and nearly translucent belly. This lame crocodile is going to go lay in the sun for hours doing nothing, trying to warm up enough to be able to do something, anything. If I did not know better I would call this crocodile an alligator, and its mouth is already closed as if it has already given up.

Visual Rhetoric: Bread Ad

Picture taken near where I lived in Sarigurren, Pamplona, Spain in front of a Panderia (Bread shop)
Translation of phrase: Always with you

The bread ad offers a persuasive argument for repeat buyers promising to be “always with you”, suggesting that their mission is to offer sincere, reliable service to everyone. Through their non-flashy poster, the ad draws in everyone through the use of white space as a means to be transparent and show that providing you bread is their only concern. Centered in the top of the poster is the word siempre (always) in bold red print emphasizing the continuity and consistency of the company providing the bread. Under the word siempre is the end of the phrase con usted (with you) which is seen in simple black print and also in a simple sans serif font indicating the simplicity and with the simplicity, sincerity of the ad. Under the simple title lies the top of a baguette loaf cut perfectly and sprinkled lightly with flour which informs the casual observer exactly what the ad is for: bread. Without this simple picture, or with more than the simple picture, the ad loses its very nature of being powerful because of its simplicity.

The simple store ad for the small local store contrasts greatly with the large chain stores and their typically flashy and more complex ads, giving the idea that the small family store has a more sincere business compared to the larger chain stores that are in the business only to make the largest profit.

The use of the singular formal you (usted) indicates that the store is committed to you individually and the formal offers a respect that many people in Spain feel is dying out. It is always better, when in doubt, to go with the formal as to not offend when possible. I particularly enjoy investigating other languages, especially romantic languages, because they have two forms of you: formal and informal. To me, being from the US where we only have one form of you (though some people count ya’ll as another form of you) it is difficult for me to understand when to use each of the forms. The one used in this ad (usted) is the formal singular you, which indicates that this ad is really for anyone because the company did not assume any familiarity by using the informal form (tu). The audience of this ad is everyone. Even if you cannot read, the large loaf of bread indicates that this is a bread shop (panderia).

Less is more. There are few bright colors and no louds pictures to draw the passerby to the ad. In today’s ad campaigning it has gotten to the point where we often ignore bright, loud ads because we see them so much. With the white background, 3 words, and simple picture, no study of the ad is needed to understand the message, which is perfect if you are just riding by on the bus or in a car or even jogging by.

I choose this ad for many reasons, but mostly because I spent so much time looking at it. I saw this ad everyday while in Spain. While waiting for the bus, I would stare at this ad across the road. The first day that I saw it I literally laughed out loud. “Always with you” sounded like a creeper ad. But as the days went on, I would contemplate the ad more and more, and then, when I saw this project, it was a great opportunity to investigate the ad further and attempt to figure out why it is effective and what it really means. 

Introduction

 At the beach in San Sebastian, Spain

In front of the Olympic Stadium 1992 in Barcelona, Spain

My name is Grace Arney, and I just got back yesterday from studying in Spain for five weeks where I studied Spanish and Food Science. I was born in Charlotte, North Carolina. I lived in Germany for two years and went to Kindergarten there. Next I moved Raleigh, North Carolina and attended first through fifth grades at a small Montessori school. Then for sixth through twelve grades, I lived in Huntsville, Alabama and went to a small private school (graduating with 63 students). My parents and younger brother still live in Huntsville, Alabama, and that is where I am now and for the rest of the summer.  

At Clemson, I have just finished my freshman year studying Food Science and Technology and I am also working on a Spanish Minor (because I really like Spanish). With my Food Science degree I hope to go into product development, or development of new foods and food products.

I really like Clemson; I loved my first year there and did not want to leave at either break. I am looking forward to going back. There is something fun about living with all your friends less than a 10 minute walk away and without your parents. Other things I like, just off the top of my head, include warm sunny days, the beach (where I will be next week), purple, cooking, watching movies, and hanging out with friends. I really enjoyed the month plus I spent in Spain learning about Spanish and food. Those topics are two of my favorite things to study and I was able to spend five weeks in Spain studying them.

I try not to spend much time thinking about what I hate, mostly because that thought line is very negative. However, there are many things that I hate. A large portion of things I hate include foods, including but not limited to: ground meat, shell fish, catsup, mustard, mayonnaise, boiled white asparagus (a discovery while in Spain), most soup, anise, liquorish, fennel, celery, cumin, pepper, and anything spicy. And on top of my picky eating, I am also gluten intolerant, which is not something I hate, but it definitely limits my food choices. Related to gluten intolerance, I hate when people who know I am gluten intolerance, repeatedly offer me foods with gluten in them. I am never sure if they honestly forgot five times in a row, are being passive aggressive, or even just mean. Also, I hate packing to go home from college, because that means I am leaving college. I was packed and ready to go to college a week early, but I packed to move out the night before.

I hope this post has introduced me well and accurately. I like talking about myself so this post will probably be the easiest for me. I am looking forward to this class online. It is my first online class and I am excited to see how it goes.