Our Final Portfolios

So over break I was working on my final portfolio and thinking about what I want to put into it and what I need to change/add for it. Thinking about the project kind of got me excited for it, because it is an opportunity to really clean everything up (all of the different assignments which I want to include at least) and make sure that they are even better and that I listened to Grete's feedback in each case and changed the assignments with the new information which I've learned and such. I also thought that it was interesting looking back through this blog of mine and picking which posts to include. Doing this almost helped me to put the entire semester of english into perspective a little because we wrote on many of the different things we learned and the different topics discussed in class. Overall, I have enjoyed working on the portfolio so far and I'm sure that I will continue to until it's due.

My Genre

My genre is basically creative writing with advertising.

When researching the two genres, I found out that they are very broad and that can lead to a profession doing a multitude of different things.

Creative writers can do anything from becoming authors to designing enticing stuff which will draw someone's attention, which is what I hope to do in my project.

Advertisers can do anything from work on magazine, tv, or newspaper adds to the more financial and business side of advertising. In my project I am going to be mocking an advertiser in the artistic sense again, since I am trying to appeal to the Jewish students on Virginia Tech's campus and I need to grab their attention.

The Concept of Audience

I enjoyed the reading more than I thought that I would because it made a lot of sense. However, when I thought that I knew everything that they were going to be able to say about audiences, they kind of switch it up. The specific part I'm talking about is where they start explaining how you can have a specific audience and without even realizing it that audience switches to a much more general audience, and it is as if you are no longer arguing with/writing/speaking to that one person but rather trying to convince a whole group.

Also, I liked the part in the beginning where they explain that you do not need to know the exact techniques or arguing in order to be able to argue well, and that there is a good chance that knowing them would not even help you. This is the part where they compared everything to professional football players and also olympic swimmers - if you are good at something naturally then you don't need to think about what you are doing, you just do it.

My Proposal

For my problem, I chose to address the fact that there are still Jewish kids on Virginia Tech's campus who are unaware of Hillel or even the fact that there is a Jewish organization associated with the school. So, in order to get the word out I decided to follow the protocol of what I see many other organizations do. It is basically going to be a multi-step advertising kids in all of the locations/ways which students look.

1. I am going to design the little cards which advertise organizations and events in all of the dining halls on campus (they are always where the salt/pepper and napkins are on the table).
2. I want to put up posters in all of the dorms. In every dorm I have been in there is a specific area for posters for current evcnts, general information, and also organizations.
3. In Squires, there are some bulletin board displays throughout the building which people decorate and use to advertise their organizations. I want to make one for Hillel, and even though it will only be up for maybe a month (I have no idea the actual time length) it is still a chance for kids to read about the organization. Ideally this would be done towards the beginning of the year.
4. In the beginning of the year there are always fairs for the new students, and I guess the returning ones also, in order for them to get involved with the multiple groups and organizations on campus. I could be wrong, but I do not remember Hillel specifically having a booth at any of these fairs. So, I want to make them have a booth for next year.
5. Finally, I want Hillel to get onto 'The Roomer' which is a poster which lists major events happening on campus and also interviews some people who work at the school and such. I don't know all of the places which the posters are, all I know is that they are on the back of the bathroom doors in my dorm as well as in the halls, so I am sure that they are at least in the halls of other residential halls.

These are my ideas for getting the word of Hillel out to campus more. And, I can not wait to produce some of them for class.

Let me know what you think and if you have any other ideas/suggestions!

My Examples of Assignment Three

For my examples of the assignment, I chose two seperate topics. The first one was getting people out there to vote. I originally was looking for stuff specifically encouraging minorities to vote, but what I found was posters which encouraged everyone to vote instead. I liked this because it is a problem that everyone in our country does not vote when we have the opportunities to.

This is the first poster, where it is basically just letting people know where to register so that they will be able to vote in the election.My second poster shows how much humans have evolved and it carries that thought to the point where humans are so evolved that we need to vote now because that is what the current generation/era does.

So, that was my first idea for a representation of the assignment. For my second example, I thought more of the medical world and how it is trying to get people to become healthier and get newly-created immunities for multiple diseases. The specific example I chose was Gardasil, the relatively new shot for girls which is supposed to prevent HPV. My example was Gardasil's actual website, http://www.gardasil.com/, however they also have multiple posters and commercials on TV which I could have chose from. I liked this campaign because not only does it call out to the younger girls who are actually getting the shots, it also calls out to the mothers of the girls, encouraging them to have their daughters get the shots.

But anyway, these were the two things which I came up with for examples. Let me know what you think of them or if you thought of anything similar.

Editing My Essay

I like the suggestions which Rebecca made about my essay. I think that they make sense and I can see why she thought that they needed changed. It is important that my audience and purpose are clear from the beginning of the paper and not only after they are clarified half way through. So, now I have a clear idea of what major ideas to change for the paper.

What is Needed in an Essay?

I agreed with both of the articles which we read for homework in a lot of ways and liked what they were saying. 'Essayists on the Essay' was interesting because it showed how different authors viewed the essay themselves. Even essayists are not truly able to define what an essay is. I liked 'Encountering the Essay' even more because it kept my interest more. The paper was written with longer sections so I could read more about the different topics than when reading 'Essayists on the Essay' which was just short excerpts from longer writings. I liked how 'Encountering the Essay' gave a lot of background information and then compared how people used to write to how people write today. I agree that many authors feel important when they write memoirs and believe that it means that they are something special, when in todays world that is not the case at all because everyone writes them now.

As far as what I think is necessary in an essay, here are a couple of things:

1. It must be pretty clearly written, it should not be too confusing to read. That does not mean that the subject should not make you think or anything, but just that the writing itself should be easy to understand and follow.
2. There should be a strong central idea.
3. The author should know what they are writing about and what they are trying to convey to the reader.
4. It should be at least a little interesting to read most of the time, especially if it is a narative type essay.

Many of my ideas are similar to the ones which I already wrote about, and if I think of any other/different ones, then I will post them on here also.

Have a good day everyone!!

Audience and Purpose

For my essay, I think that I am going to write about transitioning from an all Jewish high school to a large, public, secular university. Before I state the reason for writing this, I want to give my audience. The essay is going to be intended for Jewish students who are still in high school and who are worried about the transition which they are going to make in the upcoming years. I have not decided if I only want to write to the students from my old school or not. The reason which I may decide only to write to them is because the school was special in the sense that it was a boarding school, and so I will be able to angle the paper a little differently.

The purpose of my paper is to basically give the students who will be reading it a sense of security that the transition to college will not be as hard as they think it will with regards to being surrounded by only people of the same faith as them. Although it is true that in college you will have to work a little harder to find other Jewish people, once you try to get involved with various groups on campus then it gets much easier. It is possible for anyone to find a group of friends in college, and if the kids coming from Jewish high schools need or want to make their group of friends primarily Jewish then that is alright. At this point I can mention Hillel and the goals of the organization.

So, although this is a very rough idea of what I plan to write for the essay and what I want it to be about, I think that it is going to work well. I will write an update when I figure out how I want to change this if at all.

My Thoughts About Essays

In my opinion, the most important part of an essay is the thesis. If you were to have asked me if I believed this before high school then I would probably have said that I did not even know what a thesis was. However, throughout high school all of my english teachers (particularly one teacher which I happened to have for three years) always said that the thesis was the central part of any essay. But along with the thesis you must also write to support your belief.

With all of that being said, I understand that there are many different types of essays, some of which do not necessarily depend on a one-sentence or few-sentence thesis. In my opinion though, some of these other types of essays, such as satires or narratives, can be more like a form of art than an essay itself. Although I know that they are essays, in my opinion essays are typically more academic or opinionated than some of these alternative types are.

Regardless of the type of essay which someone is writing, I believe that they all are supposed to serve a few main points - and that is to let people know about either something which the author believes in or to convince the reader of a different position in all types of situations.

Although it is not a rule, I believe that essays should be well-written and easy to follow. The reader should not get lost or confused in the middle of reading the essay, although often times if an author does not support their thesis well then this can happen because it can seem as if they are switching views/sides in the middle of the essay, which is never a good thing.

These are just some of my thoughts about essays. If I think of any other major things then I will add them later. I hope that you agree with some of my points!

Response to Comments

I agree with many of the comments which Grete made on my research proposal.

For example, there was on paragraph which she said did not make sense where it was and she did not see the connection, and although I later connected it better to the proposal, I need to make it clearer where it initially is or move it all together. The person reading the proposal should not be confused about something until it is later mentioned.

Also, near the end of the paper there is a paragraph so vague that she could not understand what I was trying to say. This is an issue which I need to fix and I think that it may be possible that because it was the end of the paper I was sort of running everything together and just trying to put words in as a way to get to the end of the paper.

And, with the conclusion, she recommended that I tie it back to the paper even more than I already do. I agree with this because the conclusion is another part to reinforce what you want to do and in reality it is probably one of the things which people will most likely remember because it is what they read last.

I am going to work out all of the issues with the research proposal but overall I feel as if I had a good grasp on it, which is a good thing.

My LIterature Review

Sorry this wasn't up earlier, I tend to forget to actually post my stuff on the blog itself.

With an estimated 1300 to 1500 Jews at Virginia Tech, it is not hard to comprehend how active the religious community is in many different ways. In recent years especially, the Jewish community at Tech has become much more involved and outgoing than was previously the case. Many of the already existing Jewish organizations on campus have grown since the turn of the 21st century, and some new organizations have been created. However, even with all of the growth and success on campus, there are still many different areas which need help with regards to the Jewish life on Virginia Tech’s campus.
Although there is a definite Jewish presence on campus, there is not a major religious presence. Until the opening of the Chabad house, which is named after Liviu Librescu, an Israeli professor killed during the April 16th attack, Tech was not a real option for any Orthodox or religious Jew. The Jewish presence on campus was primarily “geared toward the social and cultural life” opposed to the religious aspect. There are three main streams of Judaism, Reform, Conservative, and Orthodoxy, and they move from liberal to conservative in the order listed. Majority of the Jewish students who participate in Hillel believe themselves to be either Reform or Conservative if they even choose to identify their Judaism. For Orthodox Jews, however, a much more religious setting is needed. The opening of the Chabad house is the beginning of a community for Orthodox Jews at Virginia Tech, for it gives them a place to stay for Shabbat, when they are not allowed to use electricity from Friday night to Saturday night.
Even with the opening of the Chabad house, it will take a large amount of work and promotion to help get a more religious community to come to Tech. Schools get reputations for their Jewish communities, and although Tech’s is growing in a social sense, as far as religious life it is not necessarily looked upon strongly. For now, the house will just need to complete its first successful year until it can continue to outreach to large groups of people outside of the community. Overall, the flourishing of the Jewish community at Tech is impressive and the community will most likely continue to prosper as it has in the recent years.

Site Visit

For my site visit, I attended a Shabbat dinner and services with Hillel on Friday evening. For Jewish people, our Sabbath is from Friday night to Saturday night opposed to on Sunday.

The visit was interesting. Students, both new and older ones, as well as adults attended the dinner and services. Everyone was really friendly and I never saw anyone being left out - people were good at including everyone.

The dinner was baked potatoes with various toppings and salad. After we all ate the dinner, we went upstairs to the sanctuary for the services. For this week only the services were actually led by the Jewish sorority so each girl led a different prayer/reading. Although not everyone in the sanctuary could participate in the hebrew part of the service, there were some english parts also so that everyone could be involved.

The service was nice. It was more reform, which in Judaism means that it was very liberal as opposed to Conservative or Orthodox services which are more structured.

After the services were over, everyone remained for a little while longer just to conversate and meet more people that they hadn't previously met. Quickly after, however, the building emptied and people went on living their lives.

I spoke with the director of Hillel and she said that I could interview her. So, not I just need to set up a time to meet with her one day this week and then I will have the interview completed.

Goals for the Class

My goals for the class are pretty simple. The first thing I want to be able to learn is how to effectively write a research paper. However, I also want to learn how to analyze groups of people and learn how to recognize the needs of a community (which is what we have to do). If I can see what affects different communities when this is done then it will be an interesting way to evaluate different groups when I come upon them in life.

I think that my goals are easily achievable and that by the end of the semester I will be able to effectively do both.

Assignment #2

NARRATION
When I was a Junior in high school, I attended a Quixtar meeting with my brother and his friends. Quixtar is a company in which people decide to be a part of and basically become entrepreneurs. Three or four of my brother’s friends were already members of Quixtar and they were trying to convince him to join the company also.
At the meeting, there were multiple presenters as well as a PowerPoint about how much money you can make through Quixtar and how easy the whole process can be to become a millionaire. After the meeting people stuck around for a while to talk about the company and try to convince those not yet a part of it to join. I was not old enough at the time (only 16 or so) but my brother and I had decided to just tell everyone that I was over 18. Multiple people came up to my brother and I and told us about how much money they are making through Quixtar and how easy the whole process is in hopes that we too will pay the couple hundred dollar fee to join.
Soon enough the meeting came to an end and we left to return home. I thought that the whole Quixtar idea was a terrible one and that no one in their right mind would sign up for it. My brother, however, decided to give it a try and was a member of it for a year. After the first year however, he got his head back and realized that the amount of work required to make any type of money with the company is not worth it unless it is your only job. His friends, though, are still a part of the Quixtar company to this day.



QUESTIONS
1. How did you personally find out about Quixtar? (I would ask this to the various people in the meeting).
2. Do you really believe that Quixtar will actually help you financially?
3. Is the initial money required for Quixtar greater than the financial outcome?
4. Why do you believe everything which the company tells you?

Hello There Class,

So I decided for my project that I am going to do the Jewish Community at Virginia Tech. I am going to research Hillel and possibly the Jewish Fraternity and Sorority.

If you have any ideas about specific things that I should find out then let me know!

Potential Communities

For my project I was thinking of choosing the following communities:

1. Jewish Community at Virginia Tech - it is represented through groups such as Hillel as well as the Jewish sorority and fraternity.
2. Construction Workers on campus - they are constantly working either on the new dorm or just on general maintenance.

I have many other ideas also but these two seemed to interest me for different reasons. The first one interests me because I am Jewish, and the second community interests me because I am considering construction engineering.

Come One Come All

Dear English Class,

Welcome to my blog! I hope that you all enjoy reading what's inside (once there is more stuff here) and that you all have luck with your blogs also.