Honors 110 Film Post

As we discussed in class, documentary films have a thesis that drives them. In Monica & David, we get a picture of an almost ideal situation for a married couple with Down's Syndrome. They are comfortable and taken care of. For this post, think about what you know about the social services available to intellectually disabled citizens. Education, housing, healthcare, and life skills programs like we see in the film are all facets of these services. What do you think is available and what do you think should be available to people with disabilities?

Blog post #5: Paper 2 Reflection

After submitting your second paper and getting feedback on your first essay, you should feel somewhat differently than you did in your last reflective blog post. How was writing the second essay compared to the first? Did you see any change in the way you approached the topic, the assignment, or the writing process?

Please write a new reflection describing how you wrote your essay for this blog post.

Writing 100: The Glass Castle

So far in the book, we have read about the narrator's unconventional childhood. Her parents are both neglectful of her well-being and caring about her growth and development. The life lessons they choose to teach her are often difficult ones, but she seems educated and capable as a very young child.

In American culture, parenting is depicted on TV and in movies as one thing: parents caring for children, teaching them life lessons, while facing stress to provide for them. Can you think of what looks like a typical parenting scenario on American culture? Does that depiction line up with how your own family functions? Or do you have more in common with the Walls family?

Write your blog post comparing these situations to your own.

Honors 110: Now You See it...

In the novel, the theme of leaving home and escape from the small town are strong throughout. Each of the stories deals with how the characters either leave or stay. We have many stories like this in our American culture. There are also stories about returning home.

How does your concept of home compare to the characters in the book? Did you seek to escape and remake your identity in choosing a college? Did you stay close to home? Do you dream of moving to a city, like LA? Use the text to formulate your comparison. Find evidence from the text to explain which character you sympathize with.

Southside Bethlehem and Steel Stacks from Catholic Cemetery

Spring 2015 Blog post #3: Paper 1 reflection

Writing is a deeply personal task that is usually linked with a writer's emotions. It is also a mechanical task that takes several steps or a skill you learn over time.

When I entered grad school in 2012 after almost 10 years out of school, I felt that writing my first paper for class was a major step. I was nervous about the outcome of the project. I wanted my professor to respect me for what I could do. I wrote about it in this blog post: http://cccwritingcenter.blogspot.com/2012/09/back-to-school-and-writing-again.html

For your blog post, please write a reflection on writing your first Writing 100 paper. What steps did you take to write it? What kinds of negative thoughts hindered your progress? What kinds of inner strength and motivation did you use to complete the task? Get detailed in your post, from the mechanical steps you took to your feelings along the way.

I wrote many papers in school and graduated!

Spring 2015 Blog Post #2: Your Education

Thinking about what you know about education from our readings, compare your own educational experiences so far. What portrayal best represents your own education and why? Include photos of your past schools if possible to illustrate what kind of schools they were. Did class matter in the school you went to? What were you taught? How did it affect your career choices later in life? Please write about your own experience in the context of what we have been learning so far this semester.


Spring 2015 Blog post 1

Blog assignment #1:

Interviews

You will be interviewing a classmate for your first blog post. A good interview reveals something about the interviewee that we would not normally know. Make your questions in a way that will get your interviewee talking about something important to her.

The blog post will be well written in paragraph form, so you will be taking your answers and making them into a complete picture with your writing skills.

The blog post will also include photographs that your interviewee provides you. These photos should be a central part of your question and answers.

You will have time during the next week to work on perfecting your blog post before it is officially due. Please use your time wisely and proofread your work. Make it as professional and presentable as possible.