Step 1...

After today's in class project, I became much more aware of the importance of thorough, detailed instructions. I found trying creating these step by step instructions from a universal perspective was far more difficult than actually constructing our animal or trying to build an animal using another's directions. It's always funny seeing other people's interpretations of another's directions and how people read into things differently. Overall, it was a fun way to demonstrate the importance of creating good, detailed but simple directions.

"Mother Tongue"

Tan was attempting to provide outsiders (specifically English speaking people) with an insider’s perspective on non-English speaking people. Throughout her story, she takes a close look at how those who may speak broken English or no English are constantly falling into inaccurate stereotypes. From an insider’s perspective, the reader is able to see the effects of these labels first hand, such as the way Tan was treated in school by her teachers and peers. The title Mother Tongue is very fitting for this story. Mother Tongue refers to two things that play an important role in Tan’s life. The first being the importance of her mother and how her mother could not speak English fluently. The second meaning could be in reference to her first language (her natural “tongue”) and how her ethnicity places a role in her life. The story looks more at the culture Tan was raised in and how it has affected her current day life.

There are no limits to an imaginative mind

One of my fondest memories was when my sister and I were young, we would play for hours in the woods in my backyard. We would come up with the most elaborate stories and characters. The possibilities for who we could become or where we could be were limitless. The backyard was our own personal world and we were the storytellers in this universe.

How digital storytelling will ‘revolutionize’ the narrative experience.

Digital story telling has the potential to change the way we tell stories. It effortlessly combines what is heard, seen, and felt to really create a fuller narrative. The story becomes more like a movie through utilizing the senses. Within this digital age, it is a great way to combine the traditional ways of story telling with a modern twist. Stories are meant to be told, and digital story telling provides the author with limitless options when deciding how to tell the story. It really allows the viewer to get a true glimpse of the narrator and it allows the author to spread their message in a new, dynamic way. As their reading pointed out, it provides the narrator with a way to creatively tell "their story" and their personal insight in a very direct, simple way. It still encompasses the traditional methods of story telling but it is not done in such a way that it is more accessible. The narrative experience will now become revolutionized and modernized so that the story telling process becomes an even grander journey.

America's Youth and the Future

        I agree with the points Todd Buchholz made in his article “The Go-Nowhere Generation”. The American youth have become lazy in their efforts to try and improve not only their lives but their future as well. Perhaps the problem lies in their desire to have success handed to them, rather than seeking it out. Maybe the problem is that home life has become too perfectly comfortable. Everything they need is right there; they don’t have to work for it. They were raised in a time when futures went from limitless to very limited. As a college student, I do worry about not finding a good job in this economy. Before attending college almost guaranteed you a stable job but now students go in debt in the hopes that they might earn a good job. Nothing can be expected anymore and it is this uncertainty that scares many from venturing away from the comfort of their homes. There is no war to threaten us, there is not a fear of persecution to motivate us, there is no instability within our own lives which would act as reason enough to make any drastic change. It seems as if Americans just want to coast in the same direct through life without trying to change the path they are on. In order for the future to change, as a nation we need to want to excel and improve. We cannot accept the status quo. We define the future and currently it seems like we just don’t want to take responsibility for it.

A Creative Approach to Looking at Writing: Metaphors

This article took a unique way of looking at different writing styles, no matter the skill level of the writers.  Everyone has a personal and creative way to express their thoughts, and in order to elaborate on that creative perspective, the author used metaphors to criticize and explain each style.  The way the author organized the essay was through the different types of metaphors, each new section has a heading which is a precursor to metaphor used to personify the student. There is a thesis for this article and it analyzes the use of the metaphor to the student’s writing and the way the students perceives themselves as a writer. Through the use of actual student papers and an in-depth analysis of each, the author was able to create a very interesting perspective paper, with the purpose to neither argue or pursued the reader but to merely expose. Throughout the paper, the author looked at the way “skilled” writer view themselves and how it correlates to their level of work and the same was done with the “less-skilled” writers. Overall, it was concluded that the “skilled” students are more confident and precise writers than the “less-skilled”. By looking at the students’ skill level in comparison to their “writing metaphor”, the author was able to better explain why their writing style or skill developed in the way it did. This article took a creative approach to analyzing students writing and it perhaps found a solution to why there is the division between the “skilled” and “less-skilled” writers.

Food for Thought: Wikipedia. Reliable or Unreliable?

I believe Middlebury’s college policy on Wikipedia is fair and very understandable. Although Wikipedia is a source which contains information on practically every topic and the validity of this information is consistently checked, the concept of a source which is open to the public to freely alter can be a little skeptical at times. This is probably the reason behind the discouragement and forbidding of students from using Wikipedia as a reliable source.

                 Personally, I see no reason to complete disregard Wikipedia as a solid source for information. Wikipedia is a brilliant site which makes finding the information you need quickly and efficiently. There is no “fluff” which you would normally need to sift through on many other sites. The site is completely open to the public, meaning you do not need any form of member ship to peruse the vast collection of knowledge. The information is presented in a very organized and direct fashion.

                 As for using it as your only source of information for academic purposes, I agree more with the views of Middlebury’s policy. If you use Wikipedia, you do run the slight risk of getting false information but that does not make the site useless. I believe that if you check your information with a source that is considered to be “reliable” and it matches, then Wikipedia is also reliable enough. I use Wikipedia to quickly look up small facts, like the date of an even in history for instance. I do not however use it as a source to be sited for school reports. Wikipedia is like any other source in the internet. It is a handy way to get information quickly. Although it has certain aspects which put it under question, it is still an extensive source of knowledge. Wikipedia should not be considered a reliable source, unless the information can be validated by a noted reliable source. However it is still a useful tool which should not be so easily cast aside.