Activity 34 Writing from a personal prespective

One memory of my childhood that holds importance to me was when I got the MVP at a basketball camp that I went to. It all started when I was about 12 years old and had gotten involved in a basketball camp at Penn State New Kensington. I remember I was so nervous cause I was around a whole group of kids that I have never met before. I was also nervous because we got placed in teams and I was placed with an all guys team; I remember feeling really intimidated. For the whole week they keep saying that one lucky player would get MVP and be allowed back at the camp the next year free of charge. Therefore, all week I tried my hardest on every from shooting to dribbling to playing on my all boys team. I remember thinking to myself there was no way that the coaches would ever pick me because their was so many amazing players that had much better skills than me. Finally, it was the last day of camp and my parents insisted on coming to reward day. I felt so embarrassed as I thought I would be the one person not to get an award infront of everyone. Then finally the coaches anounced that the MVP was Karissa; I remember just siting there for a minute or two cause I was so shocked. When I walked up and got the reard the coach anounced to the group that I was a real team player and a trooper for behaving well while being on an all boys team all week. He also explained to all of the players that it doesn't always matter if you can shoot and score the best what matters is playing as a good team member and having a team spirit. I remember being so happy that I recieved the biggest award that was given at camp.


I counted that "I" = 21 times. I feel that you can tell the the "I" seems to be shy and nervous. They seem to be focusing on getting through the camp in hopes to recieve an award. I feel that I did identify with the charcter in my childhood and how I felt back then. I also feel that you can tell that the piece is personal.

Research Process

My resarch experience started with me brainstorming and basically me listing ideas for my research that related to my major, health & physical education. When looking at what I had came up with one of the topics was anorexia. I finally decided that this was one of those topics that often times get pushed aside or somewhat overlooked. So I decided to look futher into it and see what other pieces of literecy said on the topic. What I found was that it was a disorder that mainly affect women and this brought about my research question out. I wanted to find why women were affect more then men. From there knowning that most anorexic sufferers keep their disorder hidden and a private matter I decided not to go with an interview. So I went with a 12 questionaire that I will had out to college students on the IUP campus; this will help me gain their insight and possible allow me to see anorexia in a different light. Overall my research has been fairly easy, but I have been having trouble coming up with good questions to ask in my questionaire.

Paraphrase Exercise

It is common for students to use a large amount of direct quotations when preparing to write their research paper. This can lead to problems as only 10% of a research paper should consist of direct quotations. To reduce this common problem students should condense the amount of direct quotation when taking notes for their research paper (Lester, 1976).

In class Blogging ending Points of Tipping Point

Overall I would like to bring awareness to how much effuses we put on acidemics on school age children and not so much of physical activity and health. Physical education classes are often being cut out of school cirriculumes to make time for more acidemics and so that students will be sure to pass standardized test. We can already see this having an effect on children ad obesity rates increase. I feel that to change this we need to lesson the effuses on standardized test and put more effuses on health and well being. Lets fact it if your body fails you in your childhood then what good will having extreme knowledge get you. I feel that we not only need to be more aware of the obesity problem, but also how much pressure is being placed on acidemic areas. I feel we are cutting children short of their capabilities (abstract thinking) when we cut out physical education time.

The chapter that I found most interesting was chapter four, which talked about the "broken window theroy". I found it interesting in that I could relate to the concept that when walking in a town and seeing a broken window or graffiti I do get the idea that this town has no control or no one cares about it. In addition to that I found it interesting in Gunn's study/ subway project that a simple consistent change can make a large difference. This shows me that all it takes is simple consistant changes to make a large change.

I will take alot from the Tipping Point manly that a single person cause a tipping point and therefore can cause change in today's society. I can apply this to my life as a up and coming teacher and a person in today's society in that I can create awarness to issues like health and as I said how physical eduction classes are somewhat getting cheated out. I can also cause a a ripply effect from steaching the students for then when they teach their children and so on.

Tipping Point Questions

Question 1) What is the story of Bernie Goetz? Is Bernie Goetz a cold-blooded murderer or a heroic vigilante? The story of Bernie Goetz is that on day he walked onto the back of a subway and shot 4 African Americans youths. His defense was that he thought they were going to hurt and mug him. The odd part about this was that it appeared that Goretz was a fairly normal guy who just one day snapped. This is were the question or power of context comes into play; questioning weather the subway setting had anything to do with his rampage. In addition people at the time were giving Goetz praise, saying that he was just cleaning up the subway by taking down the muggers. This praise and overall recognition is what people made him a hero, but I tend to disagree and see him as a cold-blooded murderer. In my mind there is no reason to kill an individual just based on appearance or assumptions. If this were true and we could justify are reason for killing someone on the assumption that they scared you; then we all would kill someone to feel safer. Basically, in my eyes he knew what he was doing because he had to plan it out to a point to have a gun on him. Therefore, I believe that Bernie has no other reason than to be classified as a cold- blooded murderer.

Question 3) The Broken Window Theory argues that crime is the inevitable result of disorder. It suggest that crime is contagious. Do you agree or do you think this risks excusing a criminal's culpability? I believe that the broken window theory is only true for minor crimes and even then it still depends on the individual. Another words I feel that when a person sees a broken window or graffiti, yes it does affect their feel for the overall safeness and cleanliness of that environment. However, I feel that this does not suddenly make a "normal" individual want to kill or commit a larger crime that could get them the death sentence. It may spark their interest in possible less sever crimes such as graffiti, but even then I feel it still depends on the individual and his/her decision to due such an act. I believe that the individual is in control of their actions and the environment can not simply make them commit crime. If this were true the story of Bernie Goetz would be justified, which I believe is not a true justification for his outrage. Therefore, although the broken window may hold some truth I feel that a criminal is dependent on the individual, not the environment.

English Undergraduate Conference

Session 2- Panel 6 "Putting your Best Face Forward: The Identity Matrix of Social Networking"

The first session I attended was panel 6 were Caroline Lehman and Michaela O' Toole presented on the who idea of identity and social networking. They mainly looked at the social network facebook as it is the most popular among college and high-school students. First, they talked about how there is many different types of statures. A few they gave were the emo (depressed), TMI (to much information), and serial statuser (post every 15 minutes). What made the presentation more interesting was that they gave actually examples off of people's facebook of the different types of statuers. In addition, they had us do a quick activity of our own were we got a sheet of paper and had to describe something about ourselves, list some interest, and draw a picture of ourselves. This was meant to mimic what we might actually put on our facebook. When then traded with a partner and seen if he/she gave a lot or very little information about themselves. Basically, to see if we were conscious of what we actually place on are facebooks and how it can give others an impression of us. They had also pointed out what we as college students should and should not post on our facebooks and the different settings that we should have on or off. One key point they said was that once the information (pictures or post) has been released we are no longer in control of what can happen to them. Towards the end of the session they had a very helpful question and answer time. The big question that most of my peers asked was do you think is is appropriate to keep your facebook once you get a job, mainly looking at a teaching job? Their answer to that was that it is ok to keep it if you are cautious on what people post and how you have it set up. They said it is a good idea when even starting student teaching to change your name to a nickname, take off or un-tag yourself in any questionable photos, and as always be aware of your settings. They concluded that you would not want your facebook to hold you back from your career. All in all I really enjoyed this session because it relates directly to me as I have a facebook and hope to teach once I finish college.

Session 3- Keynote Panel

The second session I had attend was the keynote panel were Dr. Alvine, Dr. Park, and Dr. Watson had all presented. Dr. Alvine was our first presenter and she had talked on how telling our stories helps us to make sense of our lives. In addition she gave us a 5 quote handout that all related to identity and the stories that help shape it. The next speaker was Dr. Park who mainly talked on how she sets up her research writing course. Surprisingly, she to lets her students pick their own research topics. She says not only does it allow the student to have an interest in their paper, but she can see their personalities emerge in their writing. The last speaker was Dr. Watson and to be honest she posed a lot of good points and was able to truly make me look at how my writing and reading helps shape my identity. One point she was that in literature is a safe place were you can get a feel for other cultures and countries. A key thought she pointed out was that literature allows us to walk in other peoples shoes. She then gave examples in her life how reading and trying different restaurants that took her out of her comfort zone and made her understand her friends on a deeper level. She concluded by saying that to her living is a process and that she reads to become. Over all I have to say that I had enjoyed the conference more then I had expected.

Chapter 2 "The Tipping Point"

In chapter two Gladwell is trying to get at how connectors, mavens, and salesman play a role in how ideas travel. I feel that the most interesting part that he talked on was the connectors particularly on Roger Horchow. Rodger was someone who had scored really high on the 250 name test, which proved that he knew a lot of people. Gladwell stated, "Roger Horchow has an instinctive and natural gift for making social connections." However, what was even more interesting was that he stated that people like Rodger don't really fully know all the people, but are rather just acquaintances. Gladwell says the reason of just keeping people as acquaintances is so that their is no obligation there (pg 45). This is probably the reason why people like Rodger make such good connectors; meaning they know just enough about people. Overall Gladwell used surveys such as the 250 name test and one on one interviews to gather his information. This is what I found most important and interesting in chapter two of "The Tipping Point".