AnEnglish ClassBlog

poster analysis

2008-10-30T12:31:00.001-05:00

I chose for my assignment is Friday Night Lights. The title Friday Night Lights is referring to high school football games, played on friday nights. This title is very appropriate for the movie because it is about kids who have all kinds of problems in school or personal lives but when they step on the football field all there problems go away. The font of the title is extremely bright and everything around it is dark. This is because under the lights of the football stadium the students have something to hope and wish for. The poster does not include any one person in particular but includes a line of football players who's faces we cannot see. I think this is to show that not one player is above the team and everyone is equal because they are a team. The players on the poster are standing up tall and proud and are all in a single line. This shows the discipline that is required of these players. They seem like a army that moves as one, and there presence sells the film because it shows the seriousness of these players and football. The background of the poster is fairly simple. It is very dark, which shows the backgrounds these players are coming from. They all have personal problems but everything is forgotten on the football field. The tagline for the film is "HOPE COMES ALIVE ON FRIDAY NIGHTS." This is very appropriate for the film because friday nights is the time where these players shine. It is the only night where they truly become someone. Friday night means everything for these football players because of there troubled lives. I think everything about the poster adds up to a wonderful message, which is shown in the film as well as the poster. It is a message about hope and coming out of adversity.

poster analysis

2008-10-30T00:38:00.001-05:00

http://www.allposters.com/gallery.asp?startat=/getposter.asp&APNum=2370348&CID=71E5E149AD3846B7A745E6667545ECAA&PPID=1&search=96029&f=c&FindID=96029&P=1&PP=1&sortby=PD&cname=Knocked+Up&SearchID=

The poster I chose was for the movie Knocked Up. The title of the movie relates perfectly to the poster, with Seth Rogan and Katherine Heigl sitting in a waiting room, clearly a Gynecologist office because there is a poster in the background and pictures of “Timeline of Pregnancy”. The two have unhappy looks on their face and don’t seem to be happy together while looking at their body language, which is true because they aren’t happy with each other for parts of the movie. The font that is used is a plain, big, and red font that just says Knocked Up. The font is blood red and easily can catch ones attention. This could show that the title is really important, which it is because it basically explains the movie in two short words. The coloring is very light, which definitely doesn’t show scary, it could show a few things, but definitely not a horror film. There are two people in the poster, the two main characters, and they are both unhappy. They are wearing casual clothes, jeans and shirts. They look like completely normal people. The girl basically looks pissed, and the guy looks confused, but they both look unhappy with the situation. This makes the film look like it will be somewhat complicated, because there’s a problem already in the poster, so it’s likely that it will be solved or dealt with throughout the movie. The background of the movie is pretty simple, a Gynecologist office, chairs, and a poster. This doesn’t do much for the main image; it’s a pretty simple background. The tagline in this poster, “From Judd Apatow, Director of “THE 40-YEAR OLD VIRGIN” Comes a comedy about a one night stand That became something more.” It plays off the title and the image pretty well and begins to put pieces of the puzzle together. When putting the words “one night stand” and “knocked up” together, it can’t be good, but it tells more about the movie. It kind of makes us want to think, “uh oh” and watch to find out. It adds a meaning that there’s more that “has” to happen in the movie because of the one night stand. The overall message of this poster is that there is a problem that needs to be solved. Because the tagline says that a one night stand will turn into something more, we now know the problem. Makers of the previous comedy, “The 40-year old virgin” wouldn’t go from a comedy to a completely serious movie, so we know because of this director’s history, it’s going to be a funny movie. The small things such as the tagline and the expressions on their faces assure us that there is a problem, and the background of the poster, tagline, and the title of the movie give us a hint of what that problem is. There are just a lot of pieces of the puzzle that can be put together if you break down parts of the poster.

Poster Analysis

2008-10-30T00:10:00.003-05:00

The movie poster that I chose to analyze was that of "Beowulf." "Beo", in the actual movie (recent film), is said to mean bear. The movie poster shows his strength by what he is wearing. He looks like a warrior so it could be said that he has the strength of a bear. "Wulf", pronounced like "wolf" is also a descriptive word of how he behaves during battle. Thoughout the movie he shows that he is cunning and quick on his feet like a wolf. The wolf is also displayed on his chest like a badge of honor. The title's font is displayed like it was meant to have a certain "oldness" to it. It makes me think of medieval days when there was a king. It is appropriate because that idea is what is shown in the movie. The poster shows Beowulf in a bluish-grey tone while being contrasted with fiery red spots. If you look hard enough it almost appears as if there was an evil, fiery face coming toward him. This is validated in the movie when in fact a dragon attacks him. Beowulf is dressed in a way that seems more boastful. His armor does not cover his arms and he wears no helmet. Perhaps he feels that he does not need the extra armor because he sees himself as such a successful fighter. He was probably portrayed in this manner to reveal to the audience his ability as a fighter. On the poster, Beowulf's name is underlined. This signifies importance, and it could be a justification as to why he is the only person on the poster. It is almost like he is a warrior, but he has no army behind him. This could describe his character. Maybe he feels he does not need any others to help him fight. The background of the poster is simply clouds. There are no distracting colors. Everything seems to just focus on him. Basically the entire message of the poster is that Beowulf is a very strong and very cunning warrior from the medieval times who fights what is thought to be evil or monstrous.

Poster Analysis

2008-10-29T00:39:00.003-05:00

The word mystic seems to represent ideas or concepts that are just not understandable or very complex. Just by reading the title of the movie Mystic River, it seems like the plot may revolve around this concept of phenomenon that is not known or not understood. The title is not very showy, it is very bland actually. The only part of the title that sticks out is the shading of it which is still very simple. But this shading gives off a strong meaning. From left to right, the title starts off with a white and slowly fades into a dark shadow of gray. My interpretation was that the white side could be the knowledge that is known while the darker side could represent the undiscovered or the unknown. The rest of the poster continues the theme of this unknown. The dark body of water that takes up most of the poster has an eerily sense to it. It is very bleak but also very vast. With something that big, it would be hard to discover everything there is to know about it which may be a connection to the ideas in the movie. These ideas may be so complex that there is just no physical way of knowing and understanding every aspect. Then there are the reflections of what seems like three men. Strangely, these reflections fall right into a light spot in the water although it is very faint. These characters may be studying this unknown concept of the movie and the light spot may symbolize the knowledge that they have about it. But back to the men, the poster shows no other details of them. They themselves are mysterious to the viewer. If the men were actually be able to be seen would most likely cause a clash with the rest of the poster. Just by looking at a person’s physical features, a lot could be extracted about that person. All in all, there is not much information that could lead to a definite plot to the movie. But with all the mysterious parts to the poster leaves the viewer with this suspense of wanting to know and to satisfy their curiosity as to what the plot is.

Poster analysis

2008-10-28T23:51:00.001-05:00

The poster that I will be analyzing is a poster from the movie The Dark Knight. The poster of the movie relates to the movie because the image of batman standing on top of a building is dark. His face is covered with shadows and so is most of his body. This relates to the story because the batman in the movie is a really dark character. The font of the title is really small and this shows that the poster was to focus more on the image of batman than the actual words. There are not a lot of colors used in this poster. The only colors used are black, brown and a little bit of grey. The color does affect the message of the poster because it shows that the movie or the main character is a really dark character or movie. There is only one person in the poster and it is batman. He is in the poster because he is the main character of the movie and the title relates to him. He is standing on the top of a building wearing his bat suit. He is staring down at the audience and he is holding fist as if he is ready to fight someone. He looks like he is ignoring the call of batman which is right behind him. Batman here does not look friendly because of how dark his figure is and how his hands are in fists. The background of the poster is the city and it seems that batman is ignoring it because he is looking away from it and the batman call. The background of the poster also adds darkness to the movie. It shows how dark and cloudy a city could be without batman. The tagline is included in the poster. It adds the same darkness as the poster. It really doesn’t matter if it was there or not because the poster is really dark as it is. The overall message of the poster is to show that this movie is going to be a very dark and evil movie. It shows the main character as a dark and evil character. You can tell that batman will be a lot darker and evil in but not in a villan sort of way.
http://www.allposters.com/-sp/The-Dark-Knight-Posters_i3399187_.htm

Poster Analysis

2008-10-28T22:43:00.000-05:00

I am analyzing the movie poster to Mr. & Mrs. Smith. The title of the movie relates to the image shown in multiple ways. For one Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are married in the film and also Mr. & Mrs. Smith is sort of a basic title which properly displays their marital roles in the film. There are two types of fonts on the poster and this is significant to the movie. As previous stated, the main title Mr. & Mrs. Smith is written in a simple text. This text is important because during the film Angelina and Brad are a married couple who together lead a basic lifestyle. They are both oblivious to their identical alternate lifestyles. Both Angelina and Brad are world class assassins whose most recent job is to kill each other, and this fact makes the bolder font on the movie poster acceptable. The bullet holes as dots are also important in this poster giving the couples occupations. Once again, the low-key lifestyle of the main characters calls for the simple black and white colors of the background, but the red is definitely significant to and portrays the alter ego’s in this film. The color affects the message of the poster because the red throws a twist into the simplicity. The two people on the poster are of course Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. On the poster they are facing each other, but there is a large gap between the two. This can show the actual distance that is amid the main characters of the movie, but at the same time shows their devotion to each other which comes across in the latter parts of the film when the two refuse to kill each other and eventually team up. In the poster they are wearing elegant clothing as if going on a date, but their facial expressions and weaponry tell a different story. A lack of trust is sensed within this detail. The background of this poster is a simple white back drop. This could have been done to draw more attention to the characters. The entire poster can be used as foreshadowing of the film through aspects of the details. The simple design along with the outstanding features of the characters gives this film a action feel which is accompanied by a graceful subplot.

http://ritch.up.seesaa.net/image/Mr-and-Mrs_Smith.jpg

Movie Poster Assignment

2008-10-28T18:27:00.001-05:00

The Fountain is a very interesting and mind boggling movie that requires an in depth analysis to explain. The poster for this movie is just as intricate as the story line itself. When you first gaze at the poster your eyes are attached to two main features which are the title “The Fountain” and the tree in the background. The main connection between these two features is the fountain of life and the tree of life. It may not be so obvious at first but a deep thought about the main connection between the fountain and the tree may be more helpful. Along with these two features in the poster there are semi captivating symbols in the poster as well. The tree itself is located in some sort of glass sphere with two people, a male and a female, inside with the tree. Right below the sphere there is a historical Aztec symbol or some kind of ancient symbol. The three things inside the sphere all resemble the similarity to what is located at the bottom of the poster. At the bottom there is a timeline stretching from 1500-2500 with 2006 highlighted. The main connection between the timeline and the three objects inside the sphere is the tree is fairly large and leafless so it must be hundreds of years old symbolizing the past. The lady is dressed in present day fashion so she is the 2006 timeframe or present day. The man is bald wearing a grey robe staring into a beautiful exotic space scene. Space and simplicity in his body would have to resemble the future or 2500 in the timeline. Right below the title of the movie, there is a text that says “What If You Could Live Forever?” This is another hint or clue into the timeline, and the connection between the fountain of life and tree of life. It appears that multiple times in the poster there is symbolism for eternity and everlasting life. One last clue to the connection between the two main features is the glass sphere itself. The sphere is floating in space and appears to be heading towards the direction of where the male is staring. The large old tree in the sphere, the lady, and the man all resemble the circle of life contained inside one area (the glass sphere or a planet) The male and female resemble humanity and the tree may resemble nature. The basic elements to human’s environment in earth. The cycle of life that goes in inside this sphere further supports the connection between the tree of life and the fountain of life. One last observation in the poster is the yellow color that is placed in the main text, the clouds and reflecting off of the sphere. Yellow can resemble the sun or the giver of life. The one object in space that enables the circle of life to continue and for humans to continue to live in harmony with nature.

2008-10-28T17:11:00.000-05:00

I am analyzing the movie poster Blades of Glory. There are several different movie posters for this movie, but this poster, I think, shows the most controversial image. The title “Blades of Glory” relates to the image of Will Ferrell and Jon Heder skating. The word “blades” relates to the ice skating that the two characters do for the Olympics. The word “glory” relates to the fame and admiration of being in the Olympics. The phase “blades of glory” also relates to the honor and praise of being in the double ice skating Olympics performance since they were banned from the men’s single skating division. The color of the title is of the same color of ice. The darker blue outline contrasts with the background color of the ice ring. The font is similar to divots of ice that has been skated on, especially the darker blue outline of the title. There is also an Olympic torch representing the light of the Olympics. The two main characters, Chazz Michael Michaels and Jimmy MacElroy, are positioned in some impossible figure skating move. The move they are doing on this poster is impractical to figure skating, which shows how amazing they are compared to other competition. The two skating together is comical because in doubles figure skating competition it is always a guy and a girl. So with the two skating together there is a humorous homosexual theme. Also the customs of each character relates to the differences. In the movie they didn’t get along with each other, each had different attitudes and lifestyles. This symbolizes the fire and ice customs, each opposite. The background of this Blades of Glory poster is a complex arena that Chazz and Jimmy perform at, which set one of the setting of the movie. All of the background is a light blue color, even the people in the stadium, which is just to center the focus on the two main characters on this poster. Also in the crowd of the arena there is a sign saying CHAZZ. This relates to Chazz’s attitude in the movie which is a crowd pleaser. There is a tagline above the title which says “Kick Some Ice.” This was a slogan of the movie which the two main characters use to motivate each other. This slogan is just a reminder of what they say in the movie which is a catchy phrase. Overall this poster is selling the movie. It is showing that it is a comedy with the two characters both ice skating together with their opposite customs.

http://www.allposters.com/View_HighZoomResPop.asp?apn=2299863&imgloc=19-1922-G6T9D00Z.jpg&imgwidth=635&imgheight=945

Movie Poster Analysis

2008-10-28T17:05:00.004-05:00

For my movie poster analysis, I chose the movie “The Breakfast Club”. As far as how the title relates to the picture shown, there is really no relation. One might think that the movie really is about a breakfast club that involve teenagers. Without seeing the movie or knowing what the movie is about, understanding how the title and image relates is unknown. The people on the poster are the main characters in the movie and somebody looking at the poster would know this because the five people on the poster are really the only thing on the poster besides the title and a few other words. The writing on the poster describes each other the character's social standings in high school. Without the text at the top of the poster, I think it would be unclear to a person who saw this poster. The text gives a person an slight insight to what the movie is actually about and that it really does not involve breakfast. Each character is dressed in a typical outfit that that specific stereo type person would be expected to wear. One will, a lot of the time, see a jock wearing some sort of sporty clothing. A stereo typical thought could include a very smart person or the brain, as this movie would refer that type of person, be kind of plain looking. I am sure that it would not be too difficult to pick out who was the beauty and the rebel from the remaining characters on the poster. The poster has a very cool colored background which makes the characters, who are dressed in darker colors, stand out. The background is also very plain which I think helps with a person focusing on just the people in the picture. I think that the overall message of the poster is that a group of people learn a lesson that helped the become different people than they were before. Again I think that that message would be unclear without the words that are on this poster. The wording, “they only met once, but it changed their lives forever” lets a person understand more about what the movie is actually about. As far as the picture, I do not think it is very strong. Just looking at the picture, the message about the movie is unclear to somebody who knows nothing about the movie.

http://www.moviegoods.com/movie_poster/breakfast_club_the_1985.htm

Poster Analysis

2008-10-28T17:03:00.001-05:00

http://www.allposters.com/gallery.asp?startat=/getposter.asp&APNum=3798505&CID=62A1BA1710FF4A3CB8F5E4BDFF3E629A&search=&f=P&FindID=0&P=&PP=&sortby=&cname=&SearchID=

The poster I decided to analyze is for the 2008 movie The Dark Knight. In the poster it shows a picture of Batman, but it is not a solid picture. The different parts of his face and upper body are pieced together by joker cards. There is also the villain The Joker’s signature red clown make-up across Batman’s mouth. Across his head is written “It’s all a part of the plan.” The title of the movie relates to the image shown in that Batman is also known as the dark knight, also the images in the poster are dark and ominous. The title is written in a bold font across Batman’s chest. It is written in white set against Batman’s black costume. The main colors in the poster are red and black. These two colors suggest evil or dark times ahead for the hero. These types of colors also suggest the trials and tribulations Batman will have to endure. Batman is the only figure in the poster. He seems angry, but that’s almost always Batman’s expression. He is almost being mocked by The Joker because of the paint smeared across his face to mirror The Joker’s own face. Also he is completely surrounded by joker cards, the image is even made up of joker cards. It is almost like The Joker is laughing at Batman, and telling him that Batman is nothing without The Joker. The background is very crowded. You cannot see past the joker cards. This would suggest The Joker himself is one of the main focuses of the movie. The cards however are a lighter color which make Batman himself stand out against the smaller images of the joker cards. There are many little things written all over Batman, such as the one I listed above, also “why so serious?” “let’s put a smile on that face,” and “it’s simple, kill the Batman,” which are all quotes from The Joker. All which help to show the importance of The Joker’s character to the plot of the movie. These quotes help with the mocking of Batman. The Joker wants more focus on him that our hero. The overall message of the poster is that at this point in his life and career as Batman, he will be overwhelmed with problems from his villain The Joker. The Joker is trying to take over his life. He is trying to prove he is an unstoppable force against Batman. All the images in the poster come together to show one main thing, Batman. He is the focus of the movie as the title The Dark Knight suggests.

Poster Blog

2008-10-28T17:00:00.003-05:00

I am analyzing the movie poster for the movie Hitman. The title of the movie relates to the image shown because the image shows a man with a bald head, in a suit, holding a gun, and this kind of portrays the images of the typical hitman. The font used for the title looks very close to Times New Roman. This shows the they are trying to portay a more serious theme to the movie. Most of the time that sort of font is used in an action movie. The colors shown in this poster are red, grey, black and white. By using these colors it adds more to the seriousness of the movie. The colors are deep, so they the new or fresh feel to the movie. This is unlike if they were to use dull colors it would have shown age in stead of a new feel. There is a man and a women on the poster. The women is placed more in the shadow of the man. She is dressed in a backless red dress, and is portrayed as being suductive. The man is wearing a suit and tie. He also has on glovess that show the skill of his character. He is also holding a gun which leads me to believe he is the hitman. I noticed he is wearing a red tie to match the clothing of the women in the background. this leads me to belive that in the movie at one point they are going to cross paths with one another. The women has a suductive face, while the mans face is more serious and focused. Their presence draws you into the film because they kind of portray love and war, which in most movies is always a good combination. the background of the poster shows the city at night. This background kind of gives the setting and sets a town for the movie. The city at night kind of shows the someone is trying to hide, and does not want to be seen. The overall message i get from the poster is that in this film there will be love because of the image of a man and women dressed alike. Also it shows how they want to be hidden by the city an night. The colors add more of a night or dark picture to the poster. The poster does not tell it all but it leaves you looking for more.

Poster Blog

2008-10-28T14:38:00.000-05:00

Chris MIller

First off the movie poster I chose was The Dark Knight, the latest batman movie. It was one of the best movies of the year and clearly deserved to get the attention it got. The title itself fits perfectly with picture shown on the poster. It shows the picture of the Joker, the villain in the movie. Since the movie is called The Dark Knight and the Joker is one of the darkest villains in batman, it made perfect sense to include him in the poster. Since the overtone of the movie sets Gotham City in darker times the poster is a clear representation of the movie. The font used in the poster is actually really small and at the bottom of the poster. I think that this means they tried to sell the movie through the image. The image sells itself and sets itself up for the movie. Which means pictures can sell just as much as the words itself. The colors I think depict the movie in exactly the way the movie was intended to be viewed as. The colors they used were all dark colors surrounding the Joker himself. I think this gives the people a clue about the tone of the movie. Well as I explained earlier the Joker is the only person on the poster. He definitely represents the evil and the darkness shown in the movie. Not to mention he takes up the whole poster. I think they wanted to put emphasis that he was going to be the main villain in the movie. It only makes sense that he will be the focus on the poster. The background is actually pretty cool in this poster. It shows Gotham City and you get the feeling that something evil or corrupt will happen to it. The sky is dark and cloudy which is always a sign of something misfortunate is going to happen. You also get to see specs of fire and debris in the air all around the Joker. It paints a picture of destruction and disaster to come in the movie. It almost feels as if they take away the hope from the poster and fill you with despair. The only one to save you is batman, which they do include his symbol near the bottom. I think that the overall meaning is that darkness is coming following destruction and fear. They need a hero to save the city from the oncoming threats.

blog post assignment

2008-10-28T10:37:00.002-05:00

The title is The Lord of The Rings The Two towers and in their movie poster it shows two opposing towers one close up and the other far away. There are also several characters shown on the front of the cover which could imply that one of them is the lord of the ring. The writing of the title of the movie looks like an older type in rock type lettering , almost like letter deteriorating. This could show that this movie could be placed before our time way in the past. The rock type lettering could also show that the movie is non-fiction. The colors used in this poster are mostly faded gloomy colors like black, browns, grays, and darker yellows. These colors could show us that the movies tone is gloomy and sad. Also showing us that there is death or maybe a ominous journey ahead. There are several characters on the poster, showing us that they will probably play an important role when it comes to the movie. It could show us that they are all there for the same reason but for different purposes. As it show each character looking at something but all the eyes looking in a different direction. Some are dressed up like warriors other in mystical types of clothing for example one looks likes he is dressed in a wizard’s costume. Most of them look angry or as if they have their eyes set on something that they want or need. Their presence shows that there is possibly a battle ahead of them telling us it is going to be an action flick. The background of my poster is of two towers one close and the other one far away. There seems to be a mist between the two towers and there is also a giant moon in the background. This background could possibly show us what they are after in the movie or even one of the main settings in the movie. It brings the poster together placing the characters in between the towers. The tagline says “The Journey Continues”. It could be possibly telling us that the journey may be from one of the towers to the other. This adds to the meaning that the point of the movie is to finish the journey they have started from traveling from one tower to the next. The overall message of the poster is that the characters are about to far along journey where lives may be taken. That this journey will be long and lonesome, as each of the characters has their eyes set on something different that may lead to their downfall.

http://www.moviegoods.com/movie_item.asp?path=/Assets/product_images/1020/&file=189679.1020.A.jpg

Poster Analysis

2008-10-28T10:33:00.013-05:00

The poster I chose to analyze is from Spider-Man 3. In the center of the poster, spider man is sitting on a tall building at a raining sunset, while the wall behind him reflects his another "form" -- the dark spider man wearing the black suit. Even if you are not a fun of spider man, you might want to know what is happened to him.

Maybe it is because the character of spider man is so famous, they only put a single "3" as a title alongside with the picture of spider man to show that it is a poster for Spider-Man 3. The number "3" itself is in silver, which has the meaning of "mystery," while the whole poster is represented in dark colors, which illustrates something bad will happen. The line which says "the battle within" is right above spider man and his "reflection", indicates that the real battle is not those we were fighting with others, but those we were fighting against the dark side of ourselves. The rain is not happen to be there, it perfectly shows the struggles in spider man's heart -- there is a storm inside spider man's heart, he don't know whether he should face it or escape from it. In the poster the sun is falling, which is to say the darkness will come soon. Yet the sunshine is not disappeared completely, so we can still hope that our hero spider man will come back with the regular suit, with the regular heart. All of these attracts us to watch the movie in order to know what is happened to spider man and how will he get over it.

This poster can easily hold our attention because we all have the same problem sometime during our life. When we were up on the top of a high building, gained a better view of what was going on, but others didn't see what we have seen, so no one understood us. We try to do the right thing, but others don't agree with us. In other words, we were in a position just like spider man was in the poster. That makes us desire to see how did spider man go through that problem -- we need a role model to show us what to do.

If you cannot see the picture, go to http://www.impawards.com/2007/spider_man_three_ver5.html

Movie Poster Analysis

2008-10-28T00:36:00.001-05:00

http://www.toxicshock.tv/news/wp-content/uploads/the_strangers_poster3.jpg
I chose to analyze the poster from the movie The Strangers. The title of the movie is extremely applicable to the plot. In the image, one of the killers is lurking in the background while one of the main characters is oblivious to his presence in the room. The image used for this poster is perfect in describing the mood that is set in the movie as well as a good portrayal of the events that take place in the movie. The font of the title has an eerie characteristic to it. It is a very unique font and further distinguishes the scary movie genre the movie falls into. The colors used in the poster are all rather dark because the enemy is hiding in the darkness. The movie is mostly set in a darker color and the poster accurately portrays that. The darker colors used in the poster also make the movie seem frightening. There are two people on the poster. One person is the main character who is being stalked and followed by the other person in the picture, the man in the mask. The man in the mask is wearing a mask over his head and black clothing. He looks intimidating and evil. The girl in the poster is wearing normal clothing but has a very frightened look to her face. The combination of the man in the mask’s deceit and the terror on the girl’s face sells the film by establishing a sense of fear for the movie goers. The setting of the poster is the living room of the house used in the movie. The background is extremely dark which adds an additional sense of fear. If the background image was not as eerie and dark, the poster would not be as effective in accurately portraying the movie. The tagline for this movie is, “We tell each other there is nothing to fear, but sometimes we’re wrong”. This is a very applicable statement to add to the poster because it directly correlates with the message already established just by the picture. Another phrase on the poster is “Inspired by True Events”. This phrase also adds a sense of fear to the watchers because it adds a sense of realism to the movie when most scary movies are entirely false. Overall, the poster accurately portrays the eerie and scary tone the movie projects. All of the characteristics of it including the darker tones of color, the appearances of the characters on the poster, the font, and the taglines set up the scary genre the movie falls into. They all combine and compliment each other beneficially to accurately depict the movie’s theme.

movie poster

2008-10-26T20:36:00.000-05:00

The poster I choose to analyze was the blades of glory poster. The title is in direct relation to what is seen on the poster. Blades of glory is referring to figure skating, and Will Ferrell and Jon Heder reinforce that idea because they are both wearing ice skates. The movie is obviously a comedy, and the title backs that up. I find that blades of glory is a very sarcastic title poking fun at the seriousness of figure skating. Most Americans don’t find figure skating very interesting, and so having a title that is sarcastic to the sport would be something that most audiences would be interested in. The font has a very sharp clean cut feeling. It is the color, dark and light grey, that gives you the feeling that it looks similar to the blade of a skate. They overall color of the poster gives you the feeling of ice. Most of the poster is blue. This gives you the feeling of ice, and gives it a cool feeling, temperature wise that is. Most of your attention is drawn to the two people in front, Will Ferrell and Jon Heder. I have not seen the movie, but it is obvious that these are the two main characters. Both of them are in very flamboyant positions, and are posing as if they are in a figure skating competition. They are both wearing extremely flashy clothing so you don’t take them seriously, and you can’t help but smile. The clothing is skin tight, bright colored red for one and blue for the other, and both suits cover most of their skin and they are also glittery. Overall, they outfits that they are wearing are over the top, and poke fun at the clothing that is worn in figure skating. The background is of an indoor stadium that has an ice rink. It would be a complex background because it has a large crowd, but the distraction is taken away because they are tinted by blue. The background reinforces the assumption that the movie is going to be about figure skating. The poster also has a comical tagline. The tagline is “kick some ice,” which is meant to make you laugh. It’s comical because ice replaced the word “ass,” that would typically follow “kick some.” The overall message of the poster is to get you to laugh and want to see the movie. Since both the main characters are male, that plays a role in why you laugh. Most people don’t find figure skating to be the most masculine sport, so putting two men in figure skating outfits makes you laugh.

Presidential Debate

2008-10-22T22:22:00.002-05:00

The main goal that many American citizens expected to be accomplished in the final presidential debate was the clarification of accusations made by their running mates. Many facts were let out during the debate; however there were more than the facts that made one of the candidates the particular favor. To be considered the winner of this debate, a candidate must show complete and total knowledge of their actions in the past and support with correct facts while disclaiming their counter arguments.

Barrack Obama clearly stepped up to the plate this debate. Obama definitely answered the questions and responded to McCain‘s accusations strongly and respectfully. McCain stated: “He voted twice for a budget resolution that increases the taxes on individuals making $42,000 a year.” Obama responded with: “Now with respect to a couple of things Senator McCain said, the notion that I voted for a tax increase for people making $42,000 a year has been disputed by everybody who has looked at this claim that Senator McCain keeps on making.” Obama left McCain in a dead stop because this was a topic in the media that many people have talked about already and the fact of the matter is that what McCain is trying to accuse Obama is incorrect and the media already made this conclusion. If McCain continues to try and bring up topics that his running mate can easily disprove, there is a slim chance that McCain would gain more votes from the public.

Not only is the factual evidence the candidates presented a strong part of their effort to win the debate, their behavior and ability to produce an answer to the given question is a strong force as well. McCain seemed to struggle to stay on topic especially when Schieffer asked what programs would be eliminated to decrease the deficit. McCain first responded by mentioning home ownership and his tangent was completely off to the relevance of the question. Schieffer had to remind McCain to answer the question correctly and when Schieffer reminded him, McCain gave a very general answer that he can eliminate certain programs, but Schieffer had to remind McCain which specific programs he would have to postpone or eliminate. Barrack Obama clearly said that he would go line by line and eliminate certain programs that are overfunded or unnecessary.

Both candidates came to this debate with one goal in mind, to secure their position as president. However the main focus on this debate for the American people revolved around the facts and claims of each candidate. McCain certainly let out a lot out of information, however he attempted more to win the hearts of the American people by ethos, and emotionally affect the viewers. Barrack Obama was able to clarify much of what was in the media and what was seen in a lot of senator McCain’s T.V. ads. Obama logically approached the American people and gave them the numbers and facts that the viewers wanted to hear. With a great economic problem ahead of this country, people want to hear how we are going to get out of this tough situation instead of who was hurt more.

Because Obama met the requirements and expectations of this debate I believe in terms of the American people and current issues in the media, Obama led the debate to a safe victory over McCain.

2008-09-30T09:51:00.000-05:00

After I got my final draft I realized that I needed a lot of revision to do. I didn’t do much editing from the rough draft to the final draft because I forgot it was do and only spent less than an hour on it. I didn’t know exactly where to start so I called the writing center at Stevenson and tried scheduling an appointment as soon as possible. They were able to schedule me in this Monday, which was later that I wanted it to be. During the time between when I received my paper and that Monday meeting with the writing center I started revising with no help. I started by changing the introduction and worked on revising my thesis statement. I knew that I had a major revision to do so I wrote down some ideas and waited for my assistance at the writing center. Once I got there and read through the whole essay we decided that it needed to be more focused on one topic of the community. I was told to scratch out the paragraph about the football games and was directed to choose just done aspect of the community. I then decided that I would be able to write more and show better examples if I changed my thesis statement and directed that to participating in the community and gaining the actions of caring and helping. I did that by writing about the topics of The Nations Honors Society and Big Brothers Big Sisters. With my thesis changed I combined my first body paragraph with my introduction. Which I thought was a good attention getting first sentence. From there I changed and added more too each body paragraph making sure I was showing and not telling. After showing my experiences in example of shaping my identity I moved on to my conclusion. I summed up my paper and made sure that I ended with the newspaper attention getter that I started with.

Reflection on Essay 1

2008-09-23T14:50:00.000-05:00

Some prewriting strategies that I used for this essay was talking, free writing and outlining. I did these strategies mostly in my floor lounge. I also went to the library for free writing and outlining to concentrate more on the subject. My frustration was getting something down on the paper because I did not understand the prompt that well. I started drafting right after I finished the readings on remix which was two days after I got the essay assignment. I did the drafting in my room where it was a little quiet. The frustration of this point of the drafting was picking a subject to write about. I also had trouble understanding the essay prompt so I had to go around and ask people what they thought about it. The environment of the drafting was quiet because I did most of it in the library. I went to the library because my floor was always noisy at night so I could not complete it there. The thing or things that I like about my essay would be the subject. The subject I wrote is something I really enjoy doing and it relates to me a lot. I also like the fact that I started my essay on 11 size font on accident. It actually helped me out because I realized that I had written more than what I needed. I also liked the fact that I actually tried to tell a story out of the subject. The thing that I did not like about this essay was the fact that it was supposed to be three pages. I like writing paper that do not have a limit or a minimum because three pages felt like an eternity. I feel this way because I felt pressure on getting to the three pages and finishing. Most of the things that I added were last minute to make the three pages. My peer response helped me get most of the “you” out of the essay. I did not realize how many times I used “you” until he pointed it out. He also helped me organize the essay into the three main points. Another thing that he pointed out was the fact that I did not have a clear thesis. He also gave me a good response that made me feel more confident about the essay. I doubted that the subject I wrote about was not that good. As I revise this essay I will have more people read it and tell them to give me their opinion. I will also set up an appointment at the writing center so I can have a better opinion on what I need to fix. Another part that I will consider is the notes or comments that my teacher will write on it because it’s more likely that I will have a lot to fix. I will also try to start as soon as I can so I won’t be pressured by time. This process of reflection and revision helps me think about the mistakes I made. I’ll try not to do them again and will try to improve on my writing habits.

Refletion on Essay 1

2008-09-23T14:46:00.002-05:00

I first started off by brainstorming main ideas that I wanted to discuss in my essay. Then I did a cluster map of those main ideas so they were a little more organized and so connections between ideas were more noticeable. This prewriting took place at my desk. After half an hour I decided to stop because when the subject was about me, I should already know the key ideas. I became very frustrated because I know the importance of prewriting and how helpful it is when the writing actually takes place, but I couldn’t get myself to do it.

I started writing my first draft two weeks before it was due. This writing process took place at my personal computer. The introduction and the first few body paragraphs were very easy to complete but then it became difficult to determine what to write about next. If I had done the prewriting and constructed an outline of my draft, it would have made it a lot easier. Being in my own room and at my own computer seemed to cause my mind to drift and it became very hard to concentrate on writing.

After reviewing the final product of the draft, I really liked how the transition between one idea and the next were clear. Also, I didn’t realize the full effect that music had on my life until writing this paper. Almost every aspect of my life could somehow be related or linked back to music. But not everything in my paper was well done. There were some ideas that proved very difficult to “show” to the reader. I knew I was telling rather than showing but trying to incorporate the showing aspect seemed impossible without maintaining the topic of the paragraph.

Having the peer review made me realize that somehow I need to make the showing part work for all my ideas. It also helped to see how others think and what they look for while reading a paper. When writing Essay 2, I will try to critique it with an audience point of view instead of a writers point of view.

How do I write?

2008-09-23T12:00:00.002-05:00

When I am given a prompt for an essay I begin to write the paper in my head at that moment. This is because when I am given the prompt this is when an inspirational wind goes through my head. This helps because it doesn’t take very long for a creative idea to spark the paper I am writing. While I am inspired it is not that I immediately grab a piece of paper and pen and begin writing. My mind will wonder into the story and write inside of my head. I usually will not begin the actual writing process until about three days before the assignment is due.
I do however do a lot of free writing and clustering way before the assignment is due. I do this because I will have random burst of ideas concerning the essay. This could be a concept for the paper, a specific sentence that would be perfect for the essay or it could be a random word with a meaning that I know would work into a paragraph or even start the paper. I carry around a notebook and I constantly write in it. This notebook will be my reference for papers because I will write down everything that was or is running through my mind and when I know what I was feeling it will help me to remember my tone and thoughts about something. This notebook will also have the random words, concept, free writing words and sentences that I thought of for the assignment.
The physical environment of where I am writing usually will not make an impact for my writing because when I am writing it is as if I have an out of body experience; meaning nothing around me affects me because I am in what I call the “zone.” I don’t hear anything I don’t really think if anything(except the paper)and sometimes depending on how focus I am I won’t see certain things or if I am looking at something I am not really thinking about what I am looking at. For this specific essay I was in the lobby of my dorm because my roommate was sleeping because she was sick. The lobby in my dorm always has someone in it. When it is night time there is never less than 10 people that are in the lobby being loud because when a person lives in a fine arts dorm there is bound to be a few musicians. There are also art students doing projects for hours so having your headphones in is not an option. This environment however didn’t affect me in any way except that it was easier to focus on my paper.
This was possible because the paper was about my identity and what part of culture affected so actually being around my community helped. Although my topic was much more specific it helped having people around to bring inspiration to my writing. In my actual paper I open with my surrounding of when I first starting writing the hard copy because I have found that the easiest way to show something is to describe as if you are narrating every move or reaction.
I believe that I am fairly descent at showing instead of telling. When I am revising I look very deep into the wording and phrasing so this help to make sure I am not just telling in a story. I’m very meticulous about my papers because it is such a personal way of expression you are in a sense showing your mind. This deeply affects my writing and I am thankful I think it makes me much more cautious of every little detail and how someone would interpret my writing.

Reflection Essay 1

2008-09-23T10:48:00.000-05:00

When writing my paper some prewriting strategies I did was reflecting each topic and seeing which one I could elaborate the most of from my personal life. Also I had to choose which topic could be easily portrayed in a narrative essay. The only frustrating aspect I encountered was length and how can I make my narrative the right length without becoming repetitive or lose the reader.
I began thinking about what I would write about as soon as the assignment was given out, and started drafting soon after that. Because of work from other classes I put this essay hold for about two days, and resumed about two days before the due date. With the beginning paragraphs already written, finishing the story wasn’t hard at all. Literally I just closed my eyes and typed the thoughts as they came to my mind, stopping only to add more dramatic vocabulary. I stayed up until about one in the morning the day before the due date finishing up the essay, and then the next morning I spent time revising it.
The best part of my essay to me was the intro paragraph and the overall flow of the story. Throughout the essay I clearly express what happened on a daily basis, instead of telling. Although I didn’t go into great detail due to negative aspects of my neighborhood, if you read closely I have inserted details from my neighborhood that the average person wouldn’t understand.
What I didn’t like about my essay was the restriction in description I put on myself when writing it. It’s still early in the semester and I’m sure I will have ample time to inform readers on what I have experienced growing up on the south side of Chicago. Also a thing I didn’t like was at some points it seems as if I may lose the reader, due to tangents taken from the main subject.
My peer comments were good for the most part, except for the fact that I never told where I was from. Inserting this fact in a way that would flow with the essay was the hardest part by far. It took me almost an hour, and about twenty failed sentences to finally come up with the perfect sentence to tell where I am from.
As I revise my essay for the final draft I may add a few more descriptive sentences just to make sure the reader isn’t confused when reading my essay. This will also help those reading to grasp the influential aspects of my neighborhood and clearly see how it has shaped my life.
In essay number two I will be sure to follow the same methods that helped me complete this essay. I will try and continue to use colorful language and stay on topic throughout the essay, and not limit myself of details.

Hardcore Essay Review

2008-09-23T01:18:00.000-05:00

I did not utilize any prewriting strategies other than brainstorming my topic. I considered using clustering or outlining, but I started drafting in the last minute. I usually just sit down in front of the computer and start writing away. The biggest frustration I faced during my writing was a path to follow and pull ideas from. This is mainly because I did not have an outline I could start off from. If I did have an outline I probably would have saved myself around 30 to 45 minutes of thought process.

I began drafting my essay about 4 days before the due date of the first draft. I was off to a great start and over a little frustration I finally got my thesis statement together and finished about half of the paper. I finished the first portion in the computer lab at around 2 a.m. and left as soon as I finished my third paragraph. The night before the first draft was due I finished the essay at around 3 pages but I lacked the confidence and patience I began with. Once again I was in the computer lab at around 2 a.m. As soon as we had a peer edit, I went back on the computer and reviewed the second half of the essay first to make sure it was up to quality of the first half. I then linked my paragraphs correctly and reworked my thesis statement a little.

The biggest part of my essay I liked was my intro and narration of my Dragonfly story. Since the story was still vivid in my memory I could go ahead and correctly show versus tell. I then linked many ideas in my essay to this narration and tried to create an argument off of my experience.

What I did not like about my essay was the word choice and the strength of my vocabulary. I should have used a thesaurus or at least searched the simple words I could have replaced. Another part of my essay I did not like as much is staying on topic. Since my narration is kind of long, I spent more time telling the story and less time relation the story to my argument.

My peer comments mainly changed my transitions and use of examples. We had a similar idea of what was wrong in the original draft so I took my peers advice into consideration. Since we had a similar point of view on the essay, it showed that I may have had a very good argument and it showed my point correctly.

As I revise I might change my word choice, and the biggest part of my revision would be based on relation my narration to my argument. Although I did relate the narration, I should edit some sentences to help relate to the topic.

In essay number 2, I will spend more time staying on track and using an outline that I can save time with. I will demonstrate a better flow of ideas and focus on proving my thesis statement throughout the entire essay.

Reflection on Essay 1

2008-09-22T20:10:00.000-05:00

I did not do any prewriting strategies. That is not because I did not need them, but mainly because I do not know how to do that. I tried brain-storm before, but it was a painful memory. After that, I never do prewriting activities when I need to write something. Anyway, it is not required, and I do think they are useless for me.

I began drafting on Saturday, Sept. 6. I am not a person who leaves all the things to the last minute. I like to give myself some time of grace. Working under pressure maybe is more efficient, but it is definitely not suitable to me. When doing complex things that dues soon, I can never focus me attention into that work. So I start pretty early. But it does not mean that I usually finish the work earlier, because I am a kind of person who like to keep working a little bit everyday until the due time. If there is one day more, I will never finish my work now.

All drafting was done in my dorm. I do not like write in a public place such as library or computer lab. That makes me uncomfortable. I prefer a more casual environment to write, better with some light music, cause it ease my nerves and that can bring me more inspiration. I do prefer writing on paper, but I do not repulse writing on computer. It has its own advantages, such as easy to edit, auto spell-checking, and auto word-counting. So lots of time I just draft on paper first and then type that in computer to modify.

One thing I do not like in the first essay is the limit of length. Because of that limitation, I wrote something that should not appear in that essay -- something is not that relative to the topic. I think length limitation is stupid. If I can express myself clearly in 300 words, why do I need 200 more words to fill in my passage? That will only confuse readers and can serve nothing to the essay.

I never good at beginning an essay. My peer responder's comments gave me some idea of improving my intro part, but I still think I did not do well in that part. Maybe I will do more work on my intro as I revise the essay, but I am not sure if I really can do that. It seems to be a hard job for me to even write the first paragraph more than three lines long.

For Essay 2, I have no idea how I am going to write. There is no certain writing-pattens in my writing process. I usually will produce two essay in totally different styles even when the topic is similar to each other. In other words, my writing style is kind of "random" -- even I do not know what style I am going to use in my next essay until I finished it. But I do think next time I will offer an better beginning.

Essay 1 Reflection

2008-09-22T20:04:00.000-05:00

As I was writing this essay I realized two things, how easily I could remember small details and how difficult it was to bring back a part of my past that I have tried so hard to shut out. I like this essay because it was the first time I actually sat down and thought about the person that I am. I think I realized things about myself that either I did not know or things that I just did not put too much thought into. The thing that I did not like about writing this essay is that it brought back memories that I do not care for too much. I have spent the last three years trying to erase or at least blur these feelings and thoughts. This essay was also a very personal essay that talked about the most emotional part of my life and past. It was difficult but I guess it also made me realize how far I have come over those three years. To write an essay or paper, being comfortable is key. Wearing comfortable clothing such as sweats or pajamas, is how I get comfortable. My strategy to writing is that I really do not have a strategy, therefore, I did not really have a drafting or prewriting plan that I went through. Especially in this case, I think my just writing what I thought was a good way to approach an essay with this specific topic. Once I wrote, I went back through and organized the best way that I could. I'm not sure if this essay will affect the way that I write my others because this essay was like writing a personal story that only I could have told. It is different than just reading a book or and article and writing about your comprehension of it, however I'm not sure of the other essays that we will write in this class, maybe it could be about the same. As I revise this essay, I would focus mostly on my paragraphs and how I organized them. While writing this essay I feel that I organized pretty well but maybe some of the paragraphs could have been split up or added together. I could have possibly used different words to make my vocabulary less redundant. Through the peer review, I realized that I needed to show more than tell my story. I know that while writing the essay, I thought about how I would show instead of tell, but that was not really my main focus. When it was time for me to revise my essay according to the peer responses that I got, I paid more attention to my wording and centered my attention more on showing the audience my experience. The peer response also made me feel better about my topic that I chose. I was not really sure if I did a good job on picking a good subject to write about, but the person who peer reviewed my essay seemed to like it and that made me feel better. It also helped because I was so self-conscious about having such a personal topic, but after having somebody else read it, I felt a lot better.

First Post

2008-09-22T19:16:00.000-05:00

The process I used was to just sit around and think until I came up with something, anything even a small idea and then I would start writing about it. After that I would keep writing and if I felt as if I was running out of ideas or just putting down a bunch of nonsense I would stop and start thinking of something else. After I finally found an idea I was going to write about I typed out the entire thing. After that I gave it to my cousin to edit it and to make sure that there weren’t any mechanical errors in the paper. I never actually made more than one draft I just kind of fixed up the first one but that was more for mechanical errors than anything else. The main thing I liked about this essay is that I had to think critically about what has shaped me as a person. I didn’t like this essay because it was an essay. I’m not very good at writing so anytime I have to write anything I don’t really like it very much. My peer responder helped me because I didn’t realize that I was telling and not showing. I tried to fix them but it really didn’t work out very well for me. To revise my paper I would defiantly show more and tell less. For essay number two I am going to plan better and not just jump into the essay. I am going to plan ahead and maybe actually outline my essay before I go to write it out. Also, after the peer reviews I will set more time aside to think hard about what they said I should change. Overall this project wasn’t too bad. I think it really helped me look at what has shaped my life up until this point. I had never thought music had shaped my life until I explored the other topics more.

Reflection Essay 1

2008-09-22T17:30:00.000-05:00

For essay 1, I thought a lot about what I was going to write about. I didn’t really brainstorm via writing; I just brainstormed in my head. I thought about it in my dorm when I would be doing other homework, especially reading for English I thought about how I could apply my possible subjects to what the book wanted. It was really frustrating picking a topic that I knew I would have to share with anyone or everyone. A lot of the time in my high school classes, we wouldn’t share our papers with anyone, so we wrote freely as if it were confidential. My satisfaction was when I had chosen what I wanted to write about, and already had a good structure for the paper. I began drafting after I picked my topic, probably a week before the rough draft was due. I worked on typing my rough draft in my dorm room because it’s the only place I really do my homework. Once I started drafting, I kept going until I had 5 pages. I don’t go back and forth from typing to writing, once I get to typing, I don’t stop. I was satisfied at this point with the structure of my paper and how I put it in order, as well as the idea and theme of my paper. I was frustrated with having to use good connectives and catch the readers attention, I always have trouble doing that. One thing that I was frustrated with and that I usually don’t have a problem with was having to put my thesis somewhere appropriate because it was such a long paper, 5 pages is a lot for me. The writing environment didn’t affect my process at all. When I start writing, I’m on a roll. But no matter where I am I always have trouble starting my paper and getting focused on what I have to do. I really liked the way my essay was structured, I usually have a huge problem with the way I structure and put my essays together, but I had no problem with this one. I liked how I had each paragraph connecting perfectly with the introduction and the thesis. In my essay, I wasn’t too fond of my connectives and use of words. Sometimes I feel I can use better words in my essay, but I can’t find the words that I want to use. I don’t like that because it’s a stressful feeling to know your essay can be beter, you just don’t know how to exactly change it. That’s why I really liked peer responding. My peer responder was able to show me where I needed better connectives and use of words. She helped the way I looked at my essay and showed me where I needed to change things up. I changed nearly everything she told me to because in my head I knew there were things wrong with my essay, I just couldn’t put my finger on it. I really do like the way my essay was structured so I don’t think I’m going to change anything relating to the structure, the only thing I could think about changing would be the word use. After this revision and thinking process, I’m going to try to learn from my mistakes. For example, if I use the word “you” too much, I’m going to watch myself in the next essay. For essay 2 I’m going to try to not have as many similar and frequent mistakes as I did in essay 1.

Reflection on Essay 1

2008-09-22T17:20:00.001-05:00

When preparing my essays I enjoy lots of brain storming and prewriting. I usually come up with a few main ideas and try to branch off of them. Most of the time the idea that I feel I can build the most off of is the one I will use on the essay. Once I find my topic I begin to pre write and then I will begin to reread what I have written to make sure everything makes sense and then build off of what I have. I performed most of my free writing in my dorm and the rest in the computer lab. Usually most of my frustrations come at the beginning of the paper where I usually struggle on the getting started part. I am satisfied being that I chose a topic that I knew I could build off of so I could easily add on and expand my essay. I usually begin drafting as soon as possible wanting to get the paper out of the way and having plenty of time for revision. I was on my lab top in my room for nearly the entire essay and finished it in the computer lab of Lincoln hall. After I was done drafting my essay I returned right on with my paper. While working in my room it gave me a perfect environment where it is nice and quiet, allowing me to focus on my paper. Any kind of distraction even the easiest thing could set me off course of completing my paper. This allowed me to write my essay in an orderly fashion, expressing all of my thoughts completely. What I liked about my essay is that we were given a set of choices to choose instead of having only one option which allowed us to broaden our horizon to a topic we understood better. This allowed me to pick a topic that I knew well enough and was able to write about. I also enjoyed how my essay flowed and was organized. Usually in my paper I wonder around and sometimes get off subject but in this essay I did the opposite. What I did not like overall in my essay was how I tend to use many of the same words over and over again in my essay almost making it sound repetitive. When one of my peers graded my essay it allowed me to see many things you would not notice yourself which would allow me to fix these mistakes easily. For example like I stated before I sometimes use the same words over and over again which made the essay not sound so good. She also pointed out spots in the essay where she felt I needed to elaborate more and take out information that was not needed. I will change many of the words used throughout the essay and also expand on some of my thoughts. This writing process will help me decide what I felt worked for the essay overall and what did not. It will help me plan better for future essays and be aware of simply mistakes that can be corrected.

Essay 1 Writing Response

2008-09-22T17:20:00.000-05:00

The process by which I wrote my essay started out with a list of topics I thought I could develop into an essay to fit the prompt. I tried to further elaborate on these ideas to see what I could be the most vocal about. After process of elimination, I chose my topic and started to write the main focal points for my body paragraphs. The process of developing your essay prior to writing it is the hardest part of writing for me. Once I have my topic chosen and thought out, it is much easier for me to write any paper. I hit sort of a writer’s block at this point because I wasn’t sure if I could write enough for the page limit with this topic. After making a final decision on this topic, I began drafting the weekend before the due date of the paper. I initially began to draft my paper on paper first, which is my normal procedure when doing any writing. Eventually, I switched over to typing it on my laptop as I watched football. Watching the games were fairly distracting and was not the best environment to compose a paper. I often found myself watching the game more than writing and also only working during commercials. This unfocused atmosphere made my paper take a lot longer than it should have because I was not centrally focused on it as much as I should have been. I liked my paper because it was about emotional times in my life. It was almost a relief to write about them in my paper. I also liked how I used two coordinating examples to support my theory of how nature has affected me the most. I also connected nature to affecting other forms of cultural factors. On the other hand, I feel as though my essay was not as much of a “showing” essay as it should have been. I tried to portray this the best I could but it ended up being a harder task than I had previously thought it would be. I have known the person who peer reviewed my paper since kindergarten, so he understood the topic of my paper well. He pointed out areas where I could “show” instead of “tell” and other points where I needed to strengthen the essay. As I revise my essay, I will first try to find points where my narrative is weak. Also it will be very important to take the comments that Ms. Kleinmaier has about my essay and fix what she thinks needs to be changed. I also tend to write in too casual of a tone so I may have to fix that. After writing this reflection on Essay 1, I realized that there are a lot of elements I should change in my writing process. First, I need to have clear choice in topic. I also need to write it in an environment that is not as distracting as watching the football game was. Doing this will help my paper be more clear as well as make the writing process easier and possibly faster.

2008-09-22T15:23:00.000-05:00

For my paper I had a rough time thinking of a topic to write about. I couldn’t find an area from which my life was impacted on. I finally thought of the one thing that gets under my skin. Technology or mainly computers were the main focus on my paper. For as long as can remember computers and I have never seen eye to eye. It was the perfect topic to write about and I had a lot to say about it. When I was trying to figure out how I would write this, I just thought about what my thesis statement was going to be. I knew most of my paper was based on computers, but I also included phones to expand the paper. I choose not to write it on paper and decided to run with my ideas. I think it might have taken longer to write but in the end the result was still satisfying. The most frustrating part of the paper was trying to keep a smooth feel to it. I thought it was hard to keep my ideas from coming to the paper. As I suspected writing in my dorm room was not the best idea. There was a ton of distractions that prevented me from writing an even better paper. The best part of my paper was mi intro. I thought that I nailed my target on the spot. I even started my intro with a very nice quote to capture the reader. It was defiantly the strongest part of my paper. I thought that was very important because you need to catch the reader and make them want to read the paper. He one part of my paper that I disliked was my paragraph about the cell phone. I thought that it wasn’t my strongest paragraph and just went on and on. I tried to use a variety of technology in my paper, which is why I added in the cell phone story in. With a world dominated by technology I tried to expand my paper. I just look at the paragraph as a page filler rather than a contribution to the topic. My peer review went better than I thought. There were of course some grammatical errors but the one that I think saved my paper was when I was told to separate my paragraphs. It gave the paper an all around better flow. I think that one simple correction really helped the paper out. My one revision that I would make would be my paragraph about my cell phone. Like I said earlier it just doesn’t feel like I incorporated it well into my paper. I also jumped around in the paragraph, which might have made it a bit confusing. For might next paper will not right in my dorm. It was too hard to focus and get my ideas down. Also I wrote the paper in one day, which restricted me with time. I couldn’t go back and fix anything cause it was due the next day.

Reflection on Essay 1

2008-09-22T14:15:00.000-05:00

Two prewriting strategies I employed was brainstorming and freewriting. I did my freewriting in class and brainstorming as I was writing the essay itself. I performed these strategies in class, in other classes or in the computer lab. I was frustrated at the length of my essay, but I was satisfied with the content. I was afraid that if I added anymore it would not be relevant to the topic of my essay and would just be put in to take up space. Overall, however, I was happy with how it turned out in the end. I began drafting 2 or 3 days before the rough draft was due. I started handwriting it in the laundry room of my dorm while I watched my clothes spin around and around. Afterwards I went to the computer lab to begin typing my rough draft. Word choice always frustrates me as I write any sort of paper. I write and re-write multiple times before I find just the right sentence in just the right spot. It has to be perfect before I can move on. Also the length of my paper was still frustrating me. I couldn’t think of what else to put that would make my topic more understandable and relatable. The computer lab is a really good environment for writing an essay. I could have written it in my dorm but besides not having a printer to use, I wanted someplace quiet to think and write. If I had written it in my dorm room I think I would have been distracted by the television or other people on my floor. Choosing to type my paper in the computer lab was the better decision for me. It may not be the most comfortable place in the world, but at least I know I can get work done there. I liked my topic a lot. I thought it was very original and creative. I want beyond an entire community and narrowed it down to one specific person who shaped my identity. I thought it was very personal and revealed a lot about my personality as well. What I didn’t like about it was again some of the word choice. Even after any essay I write is complete I still have criticisms about it. Also I think I could have done more showing instead of telling. Sometimes I try too hard to explain something, instead of just creating an image for the reader. As I revise I would like to add more to my essay to make it more visual. It would help with both the showing and not telling problem and the length. I think revising this essay will help in writing my second essay because as I write the second one I will have the revision process fresh in my mind and not make the same mistakes twice. Thinking back on my first essay, and re-reading it will also give me ideas for my second essay. I would want to write something equally as personal the second time around.

2008-09-21T20:49:00.001-05:00

Before I start writing a paper, I try to go to an area that is quiet. I did most of my paper in my dorm room, but I tried to do some in the library. It helps to write outside of the dorm room, because I can be easily distracted and end up wasting a lot of time. Then there are always a few things that I do to brainstorm. First I try to write down at least three main ideas for the body paragraphs, and then off of those main ideas I will branch off ideas that relate to them. As I type I always think of more ideas to add to the paper, so I will keep a scratch piece of paper handy so I don’t forget them. I begin drafting as soon as possible, because it usually takes me longer than most people to write a paper, most because I have a hard time meeting the page requirement. I liked that we had a lot of options to choose from to write our paper. It makes it easier to write about, because you can choose a topic that is more personal. This helps my writing flow better, and I don’t get stuck as often when I write about something personal. What I didn’t like about my essay was that there are some parts that should probably be taken out, because they don’t add to answering the prompt. What was frustrating for me was that I struggled to meet the minimum three page requirement. This has always been a problem of mine, and it leads to me adding in ideas that seem irrelevant just so I can meet the page requirement. The peer comments really helped me because she pointed out mistakes, and potential structure changes that could really help me in the future. The peer response also pointed out weak points that I was aware of like, how my conclusion doesn’t sum up what happened. I would revise my structure, because I think that my first body paragraph could be split into two separate paragraphs. If I change the structure, that would help me get away from the basic intro, three body, conclusion format that I’m used to. Doing this would lead to better writing habits when I start my second essay.

How I Wrote My Essay

2008-09-18T15:50:00.000-05:00

To write this paper I really didn’t do anything out of the ordinary. Basically I chugged a couple of energy drinks cause I was drained from finishing classes 2 hours ago. I was sitting in my dorm room and got about as comfortable as a combination of chairs and couches and pillows would allow. And then I began writing. About thirty five minutes into my caffeine fueled typing the dorms underwent a fire alarm drill. I ran outside, took the opportunity for a study break, smoked a few cigarettes with friends and let my brain refresh. I then went back inside and finished writing the paper. I looked over it but knew it was the rough draft so I didn’t have to be so intense. Prior to writing the paper I wrote down a couple of ideas but the only one I ended up using involved the introduction. To me this was just another paper I had to write, and the environment had no influence on me. As soon as I finished writing this paper, I was drained, but still had to polish a final draft of a philosophy paper that was due the next day. In the end, my favorite part of my paper was definitely the introduction. Introductions and titles often take me a long time to write, but once I get a good title and a solid introduction I just let the rest of the paper write itself. This generally results in some very solid ideas and paragraphs and some ridiculously confusing paragraphs. In general I write more than I will use and then I scrap about half a page if not more. I always have difficulty in writing a conclusion, the main reason for this is that I find it very difficult to sum up my paper without being repetitive. On top of that there is the ever so prominent problem of focusing hard enough to finish writing the essay in a strong way. Generally speaking I don’t find writing papers that frustrating, especially when I get to write about what I wanted to write about. However, after doing three hours of homework, sitting down and forcing myself to write can really wear me out. After writing this paper I just turned on some music, and let myself relax. The next day I turn my paper in and we do the whole peer review thing. The entire peer review process is very helpful because it allows me to get a completely fresh perspective of my paper and some suggestions I would have never thought of. For instance my peer reviewer noticed that my thesis was not directly answering the prompt. Thanks to that I was able to refocus my thesis and then follow through by refocusing my entire paper. There was also a bunch of other suggestions, specifically toward helping me with my conclusion, and showing me where I could word things better. When I do my final revision I foresee changing around a couple of words and making sure that the structure of the paper complements the papers thesis and makes it very clear. I will continue to use the same standard process.

Wecome!

2008-08-19T16:39:00.000-05:00

Welcome to our class blog. This space, in combination with our class WebBoard (address on our syllabus), will serve as an extension of our physical classroom. Here we will interact in writing, share ideas, discuss readings, and connect with the larger discourse community. As we blog this semester try to incorporate outside materials, links, and ideas in your posts. It is by considering the thoughts and views of others that we strengthen our writing and expand our views.

We will also use this space to explore the ever-growing aspect of digital communication and the benefits and consequences of online, public discourse.

Blogs are excellent vehicles for conversation--just remember these basic rules:

1. If you are starting a new topic or idea, create a new post. If you are responding to someone else's topic or idea, create a comment within their post.

2. Remember this is a public space and once posted your post will be read. Do not put something in writing that you do not wish to always be in writing.

3. This is an extension of our classroom, and as such, you should follow basic rules of grammar and punctuation and always respect your classmates and other posters.