My Thoughts on Comments

The article "U. California students remove offensive American flag from 'inclusive' space", which I addressed in the My Controversy post, comes from a blog called Campus Reform, which is owned by a non-profit conservative party organization called the Leadership Institute. This particular article currently has 809 comments, and was posted on March 6, 2015. The majority of the commenters are outraged by the students actions at the college. It was very difficult to find credible comments.

Credible







 1. This commenter is expressing fear of the implications of a group of students who believe that the American flag is offensive because it is not inclusive enough. The commenter attempts to interpret what sort of upbringing and academic environment would have led them to come to that conclusion.

2. It is clear by his assumption that the students voted for Obama and his condemnation of them that this commenter is a conservative citizen who believes that the flag's presence is justified.

3a. Although the commenter makes numerous assumptions about the students based on their political views, the train of thought that led to the assumptions is traceable. Threaded into the assumptions are several astute points including the importance of free speech and tolerance. Surrounded by a sea of simplistic, hateful, and vulgar comments, this comment seems almost scholarly, as it is at least somewhat coherent and organized.



 1. This commenter is expressing anxiety about the ignorance of students who fail to understand the value of free speech, and have ironically excluded the American flag and all national flags, because they were attempting to be more 'inclusive'.

2. This commenter is simply a supporter of the ideals that our nation stands for, and the symbol of those ideals, the American flag. She states her views in a straightforward manner.

3a. This comment includes competent analysis of the situation, and points out flaws in the students' reasoning. The commenter presents her opinion in a logical way, without being overbearing, or spreading blame. The fact that this article only represents a small number of students at the University of California is something seldom brought up by other commenters who seem to be blinded by rage.

Lacking Credibility

 1. This commenter is expressing fear of people studying in America who seem to oppose American ideals. They instinctively retaliate in the form of a comment.

2. This commenter is an anti-communist who is certainly intolerant of people with opposing views.

3b. This is a classic vulgar attack comment. Rather than presenting a valid view or analysis of the situation, the commenter presented an argumentum ad hominem, attacking the students and their ideologies, and making an assumption-based argument.

1. This commenter is expressing his wish that education be separated from what he calls the 'war mongering imperialist tit of the US government. To accept this as a possibility, one must buy into the idea that modern America is an imperialist nation, as well as the idea that the American educational system would survive without federal support.

2. This commenter holds the belief that America is an imperialist country and that all colleges could function privately.

3b. Grammatical errors immediately hurt the credibility of this comment. Additionally, the commenter's radical views alienate him from most readers.

I read Morgan and Jessicas' posts on comments. I noticed that all of the comments that are not credible lack cognitive analysis of the controversy. They typically make baseless accusations or assumptions. Unlike the credible comments that I chose, the comments that Morgan and Jessica chose were short, proving that you do not have to be long-winded to be relevant and credible.

My Controversy

http://campusreform.org/?ID=6335

This article details the student legislation that banned the American flag (or any other national flag) from a common area on the University of California, Irvine campus. Some students reportedly found the presence of the American flag in the common area to be offensive, or non-inclusive of all of the University's students. The article comes from a website called campusreform.org, which is dedicated to examining newsworthy events on college campuses.
The headline of the article is intended to catch the reader's attention and invoke anger, by referring to the American flag as offensive and calling the use of the term 'inclusive' into question. The image of a cracking flag creates an image of desecration. The article itself incorporated many direct quotes from the bill (R50-70), presenting the bill as condemning and senseless.
It is worth noting that higher ranking administration has since vetoed the bill (see link above). The article is of personal interest to me, because as an American citizen attending a University, I believe that the American flag should be present on American Universities. Students are free to interpret flags as symbols of different things, and are free to take offense to them as they please. However, public universities are American institutions.

Calendar Reflection

Like most college students, I have a very tight schedule this semester. I am taking 19 units, so I will have to distribute my time effectively among my classes. Each day I have breaks from classes at different times. Mondays and Wednesdays I have class most of the day, so I do not have much time to do homework. I expect to have about two hours of math homework everyday, in addition to weekly homework for my chemistry, engineering, and general education courses.

To complete my English homework before the deadline each week, I will work on the module a little bit each day after finishing any homework for other classes that is due the next day. I will plan for six hours of English homework each week. I may have to cut down on time spent with friends, or watching television, in order to get all of my work done and maintain an average of at least seven hours of sleep each night.

I read Alyssa and Brians' Calendar Reflection posts, which gave me new perspectives on time management and types of schedules. Both Alyssa and Brian have uniquely demanding schedules which they will have to plan for to succeed in classes.

My Writing Process

Altmann, Gerd "Chaos Regulation Shield Board Directory Sign Note" 8/29/2014 via Pixabay Public Domain Dedication License

 

Gears turn in the minds of 20 English students as they mechanically plan, write, and revise their assignments. The methodology of each student has been ingrained into his work since grade school. This methodology is called the writing process, and it is different for everyone. In A Student's Guide to First-Year Writing Section 3.2, four types of writers are described. It is important for us to examine and understand our writing processes, in order to improve the quality of our work.

1. Overall, I consider myself to be a sequential composer, but many portions of the other types of writers apply to me as well. While my approach to writing has always been free form, I spend roughly an equal amount of time planning, composing, and revising my work. I tend to bounce around, planning, writing, and revising in no particular order, until I finally arrive at a complete composition ready for final revision.

2. Elements of all four types of writers are visible in my process. My planning generally consists of drawn out contemplation of the prompt and consideration of what ideas I would like to develop. Like a heavy planner, I tend to "think about my writing in all sorts of places" however, my planning process is not nearly as concrete as that of a heavy planner. I also tend to write a large part of my text all at once, causing me to revise and rewrite parts of it, like a heavy reviser. Procrastination sometimes forces me to alter my writing process as well.

3. My writing process has proven to be successful up to this point however, it does have several downfalls. My sporadic planning, writing, and revising sometimes disturbs the flow of my work. My tendency to do most of my writing at once may cause me to exclude ideas, or perspectives that I might have included if I had spread out the process of composition. The main reason I stick to this process is that it allows me to easily shift the location of ideas within my work. I often write a sentence in a particular paragraph, and immediately realize that it would work better in another paragraph.

4. I am used to applying my method to process papers and analyses. The format of this English class is much different from other English classes I have taken. Due to the conventions of the genres that we will be working in, it may be beneficial for me to try to be more of a heavy planner. For example, by referring to Michael Hyatt's "Anatomy of an Effective Blog Post," I can create a template to make my blog posts more structured and readable.

I read the writing process posts on Nick's blog, and Mika's blog. Reading their posts made me realize that other students may use similar processes, but everyone has nuances in their processes that work for them. Everyone probably has room to grow as far as procrastination is concerned, but moving in the direction of heavy planning, and developing concrete planning methods may prevent procrastination.