Tyler's Blog

Final Slideshow

tylerkus — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 01:22:48 +0000

Blog #5- Plans for the break.

tylerkus — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:32:32 +0000

My first and initial plans for the break is to relax. I am not going to lie this first semester was a little bit surprising and stressful. I was never used to doing this much work in high school that’s for sure, so right away I felt overloaded. So I think a little break will be really nice to relax and hang out. Right now my funds are slightly low, so my first duty is to work. I am planning on working at Scheels during my break. I asked if they needed any help during the break and they think they’ll need some. So that will help to be working and making some money to help college tuition and housing not quite so scary. My plans are pretty average for Christmas. I do not have any trips and anything special planned out but I am assuming for Christmas we’ll just have the whole family come down and we’ll have a meal at my Grandparents. For New Years I do not have anything exceptional planned either. My best guess is that I will just end up hanging out somewhere. I am not exactly doing anything exciting during the break, but in February my family is going down to Orlando, Florida. The plans are to go to Disney World and the beach. Yep, i might be a little big for Disney World but with it being over 80 degrees out I do not think I will have a problem at all, and the beach of course will be relaxing, and amazing.

Blog #4-How I will use writing in the future.

tylerkus — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:16:58 +0000

My plans for the future will end up using a lot of writing and English skills. My goal is to be a Pathologist, so right now I am currently a pre-med student here at NDSU. I am not quite sure if I need another writing class after English 120 but I imagine I will have to. First I was planning on graduating with a degree in Allied Science going for Clinical Laboratory Sciences, now i decided to try and go further with my education and go to med school. Getting a Clinical Laboratory Science takes another English class. It is a class that involves writing in the medical field. I am not really sure though. If i continue with the my goals and eventually get the job, I will end up using a lot of writing skills. Instead of informal or mid level though it would be more formal, and the audience would be the hospital and patients. Even though I know as a Pathologist you have a medical transcriptionist who does most of the writing, you will still use your writing skills in reports and other miscellaneous work. During school these writing techniques and skill will be used a lot. Every class (except maybe math) has assignments that will deal with writing and I can use many of the things we learned in this class like rhetorical analysis, argumentative tactics, and it will especially help learning the proper way to site all my sources. Overall English 120 has helped my writing abilities and will be helpful for my future.

Rough Draft

tylerkus — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 20:53:34 +0000

Blog #3

tylerkus — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:50:57 +0000

As I was doing my portfolio letter it came to my attention how much my writing process has changed so far. I am very surprised how much i have learned and accomplished in a semester. Right away when I came into NDSU i was not a very good writer. I had one way of doing my homework in high school and it was being a one drafter. I would get home and either write the paper the day i got it or the day before it was due. When I start something i always want to finish it right away. So i used the same thinking for writing. This semester since the papers are some of the largest I have ever done. Then I came into this year thinking the same thing and that did not quite work out. Most of my papers looked like a rough draft and all of my teachers let me know about it. So it really helped when we had the class discussion about the writing styles because it made me realize my bad habits and how I should change them. Now in recent projects I have been spacing the workload out. It has helped me to keep a clear mind while I am writing and it helps me to convey my thoughts more clearly. Now what I am working on is revising my work before I turn it in. I used to write my essay and then I would be done with it forever, now I am try to revise my work before and I would say it has been helping me out already.

Blog #2

tylerkus — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:24:30 +0000

Well I went to class last Tuesday and not only did I learn about using the “Slide” program but also a history lesson also. During the middle of class I had to go to the bathroom and was shocked that they did not have one on that level. Since I did not really believe they just would not have a bathroom I checked almost the whole floor. I kept walking back and forth trying to find one and I was also walking faster the longer it took, since the fact I really had to go to the bathroom. After extensively checking that floor I decided to find one on the other floor thinking that maybe it was on the other side of the building and… I had to go. So I quickly scanned the area and I just could not find any men’s bathroom. Mind you that there was a women’s bathroom on both of those floors but I could not find a men’s anywhere near them. Right then, I started getting desperate. I went to the first office I found and asked where I could find a men’s bathroom. They told me it was located on the first floor. I was curious, but there was no way I was going to stick around and asked why. So I finally went to the bathroom and found out there since the EML was predominantly where women worked they did not have men’s bathrooms. I also found out at the engineering buildings they used to not have women’s bathrooms. I found it very interesting though that the EML did not have one men’s bathroom. These days you would never see that around and it is interesting how times have changed…

Blog #1

tylerkus — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:23:41 +0000

I was told by many teachers to have a “Happy Thanksgiving,” and I think I did. It was very relaxing and had a lot of down time. It started with a trip to Minneapolis. My brother and I left Wednesday night. We were planning to leave with the whole family, but that did not happen; so my brother and I just went. The reason why we went there is because we have family located in Minneapolis. We ended up staying with my sister and just relaxing on Thanksgiving. I even ended up cooking a turkey, and cooking is not my strong point that is for sure. I even almost left one of the bags in the turkey until someone told me at the last second. The next morning some of my family saw some really good deals in the paper and wanted to go to a couple of stores for Black Friday, and they even ended up dragging me. I’m guessing it was just to carry everything because they know I do not like shopping at all… unless it is car shopping. I spent the rest of the day sleeping mostly. Another great thing about Thanksgiving weekend is the football. NFL games almost all day on Thanksgiving and also more games on Sunday, and college games on Saturday, will give any football fan a football high. Then on Saturday I got dragged to a parade. It’s called a Hollidazzle, and it was interesting. Parades are not really my cup of tea, but we ate good food at the rainforest cafe so it was all good then, and that’s my Thanksgiving weekend.

Disney World

tylerkus — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:03:43 +0000

The author of ” The Black Magic of Disney World:Analyzing the Effect of Visual Rhetoric on its Visitors” clearly is not a big fan of the Disney Corporation. He starts off by giving a brief overview of Disney and then talks about what you might experience as you first walk in to Disney World. He then goes on and on about the effects Disney has on its visitors, like the unrealistic portrayal that Disney land gives off. Even the map has visual rhetoric pointing towards the unrealistic side. The map entails the least amount of “real” features in it. It involves the EPCOT, the castle, and other Disney features but only has two real reference points; a road and an airport. Then the author talks about more unrealistic parts of Disney. About the Glorification of history, history through the eyes of corporations, how it romanticizes countries, it involves gender representation, employees at, and policing the image. The author goes on to talk about how Disney is portraying an unrealistic world and while you are at Disney World they want you to feel at ease. Like their are no worries just like the unrealistic world that Disney signifies. He also talks about the other ways Disney makes it seem unrealistic. They have all their worker stations in hiding spots so none of the visitors will see them, and all they will see is everything almost “running themselves”. Overall the author thinks that parents should realize how Disney is distorting reality and not let their kids get sucked into it.

Chapter 3

tylerkus — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:26:24 +0000

Chapter three was pretty interesting and was all about composing arguments. They took you step by step through the five “canons of rhetoric.” There is the invention, arrangement, style, memory, and finally delivery. Then the show you a couple of pictures and they had two different authors. They then compare and contrast the two and show you different ways of invention. Then it talks about the arrangement of your paper. There are six different styles they had; Chronological, cause-effect, Problem-solution, block structure, thematic structure, and deferred thesis. All have their advantages and disadvantages. Style depends on the writer. Style is the manner in how the author talks whether formal, mid level, or informal. Depending on what style you use you might create a persona that can help persuade the audience . The other two Canons are memory and delivery. Memory is where you access materials you have already learned and put them in your paper. The next is delivery. This is how you present you ideas which can be a big part of any argumentative paper. These are essential for anyone writing an argumentative paper, and should be reviewed and used. The chapter then goes on about rhetorical stance. There are always two different sides to a story so when your writing about it, you should always try to get the facts right. You can also choose what type of position your paper is going to have also. You can either take one side of an argument or you can show both sides and then give your final conclusion. Overall the chapter is a good reference on how to write a argumentative paper.

Journal #3

tylerkus — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:06:28 +0000

I think Georgia did a good job on his essay. I really like how she started it with the two quotes; it makes people become attentive right away and also conveys what she is trying to explain. The structure is good I think. She does the MLA format how she should. She has the information about the project on the left hand corner, the page numbers in the top right, and the way she plots out his essay is also correct. Her thesis statement is very well thought out, and very descriptive. You can tell what she is attempting to argue after reading it. It is also quite lengthy. Usually when I have a thesis statement it is a short couple of sentences that explains what the main topic of my paper is, but I do not get into very much details. Her thesis statement talks a lot about what the tobacco companies and the different ways they use to get women to try their product. She refers to their advertisements and how the users’ looks like the happiest and most confident people alive. So Georgia makes a lot of observations about the products and shares them in his thesis. Overall I think she had a well plotted thesis statement that conveyed what her essay was going to be about. It also kept my attention throughout the thesis and I thought the quote was a great idea also. So in my thesis I am going to try and throw in some quotes, make it interesting, and also convey my observations and ideas more.