Lesson 7 Journal

In my essay, I am directing it towards those who are against unions.

My thesis is, "Unions are a relevant and integral part of the U.S.'s economy, and although some think they are outdated, they are not." Yes, my essay includes a claim and three supporting reasons to make it a strong thesis.

Yes, I believe my audience can be swayed by my claim and reasons because in my opinion, my supporting details provide enough evidence to show the benefits of unions.

Yes, my sources have value. I believe this because got them from trustworthy websites (not blogs and other websites of that nature). My audience will trust my sources because they are from reliable websites.

I read Meredith Hazen's blog. I did not make any comments because I felt as if she answered all of the questions correctly for this journal entry.

Lesson 6 Journal

The cartoon on page 227 is clearly attempting to show the dangers that children and teenagers face while being on Internet chat rooms. In the cartoon, a small girl is standing in front of an open door. On the actual door, there is text saying "Internet Chat Rooms." Beyond the door there are an abundance of eyes staring down on the little girl. The eyes ask her, "Knock knock" and she replies, "Who's there?" One thesis statement could be: There are many problems in today’s world concerning internet chat room predators and children/teenagers, and it is imperative that we protect our kids from these predators. For me, the cartoon was incredibly easy to understand. Even though there were very few words involved, it was very easy to see that the eyes represented the chat room predators, and the girl represented the children that are so vulnerable to these predators.

This cartoon is attempting to show the problem that most republicans have with their children "coming out of the closet". It is also trying to show how the typical American family today still frowns upon their children being gay. This cartoon was also very easy to figure out. The elephant obviously represents a Republican, the newspaper and the look on his face tell us how society feels about gays, and the "tap tap's" coming from the closet are the gays feeling as if they cannot come out of the closet due to them not being accepted by society. A possible thesis statement could be: Due to a majority of today's society frowning upon the lifestyle of gays, the gays feel that if they come out of the closet, they will not be accepted.

Lesson 5 Journal

Do any other students seem to have a hard time just getting started on the Essays or Assignments? Because honestly, that is the hardest part for me. I'm not talking about finding the motivation to do the assignments or essays, i'm talking about completing the first paragraph or getting the thesis or topic sentence started.

The free write has been the most helpful tool for generating ideas for my essays because normally I sit there and question everything I am thinking, and in the free write I don't question anything I write, I just write. During lesson 3 I used the free write method to help me remember the main points of the two stories we were told to read.

I have learned that there is a lot of work that goes into writing a good paper. I previously did not know this. I also learned that I need to use the pre-writing strategies more.

I have learned that you (the instructor, Romina Kline) expect me to not only become a good writer, but a disciplined writer. You expect us to not make any mistakes as far as punctuation and grammar goes, along with other things.

Lesson 4 Journal

I used my old high school hockey coach Shawn Lundgren and my friend/ex-teammate Phillip Clifton as my two sources. Lundgren was the main person who helped me realize that I was a lead by example type guy, and not a vocal leader. Phil helped me realize that I needed to start believing in my talents. Lundgren saw me every day, and heard my attempts at being a vocal leader. He quickly realized that it was not my forte, and needed to realize that just leading by example was enough. Phil was with me the throughout the whole tournament. He wasn't technically there, but I talked to him every day and he helped me realize that I needed to start believing in my talents.

I found the blind free write and pro-con list the most useful. Each of these strategies helped me come up with new and improved ideas for my essay.

I would most likely write an argument dealing with blogs and postings to chat rooms and electronic bulletin boards. This is because it is the place where I would most likely be able to argue with my peers, which I would like to do. Another reason is because I would feel more comfortable writing this kind of argument due to my experience on the web.

I asked my father to make recommendations about my revising process because at his job, he deals with writing and revising documents every day.

An argument is a process when two or more parties seek the best answer to a question or problem. An argument is a product when we look at each persons contribution to the conversation.

The goal of an argument is to show that a proposition is true.