Chapter 2* (pg. 116-124, plus Life According to TV)

I have to say that this was the first reading that I was truly into! It's so much better and easier when reading about something you find interesting :) I never realized how much TV really does to us. When I think about it, it is true though that we are in a sense "told when and how to laugh" at things. TV definetly has more of a strong hold over us and our beliefs then many people realize. When I think about how much the text says reading and television differ in so many aspects, I never really realized how true that is. It now makes sense when you think about which television series are more popular and have been on the air longer, and why other ones have not.

It is so true...we have Comcast, and when I think about how much we would not have to spend if we didn't have it..it would cut downt the costs a lot. But I guess I never noticed it before.

Visual media definetly takes an important part in the shows. I know that it's even true for me when I watch a show, just by how they portray someone or something I feel like I know exactly what they are like. It's wierd to think about how all of that is so obvious, but a theme is not the most important thing when it comes to a tv show.


Life According to TV

This article was written by Harry F. Waters about George Gerbner exploring with different people who watch television and seeing what kinf od affect it has on them in their real life. He took people from all different sex, age, race, health, and crime. It was shown that is affected all of these different types of people in one way or another. Gerbner came to a basic conclusion that all of these people who watch TV have their lives influenced in one way or another!

Have a good weekend! :)

pages 26-72

The reading first started out talking about different approaches and lenses when you are writing. It describes lenses as putting on a certain point of view for a certain topic that you are writing about. It discussed different examples from the Simpsons, Lost, and Office Space and how they are all different lenses to look through for your reading. The explained how two people may be writing about the same topic, but if they have different backgrounds then they may have wrote two different papers. The is because of different experiences that people go through in life, and you can see in their writing how it affects their thoughts and opinions on things.

The next section went into talking about your writing process that everyone goes through. As we discussed in two classes ago, you first have to understand what you are writing about. Second, are freewriting and brainstorming, then outline, and then constructing a good thesis. A good thesis is a complete short sentence that is stating your opinion/argument. You then have to write an introduction, bodies, and conclusion. After you draft and edit and revise your paper you just have to wrap all the pieces together.

Next the book discussed pathos, logos, and ethos. I always had a hard time understanding these definition, but because of how well you and the text explained them I fully understand. Logos is the reason you are writing something, pathos is like your "passion" for writing, and ethos is the credibility.

Basically, this reading taught us how to look into our writing and make it better. It wanted to teach us ways to write and that it's normal if your paper may be completley different from someone elses even if they are on the same topic. I feel much better going into writing my final draft for our narrative paper!

:]

The World is a Text (pages 1-21)

In the introduction of these pages, it talked about how many people do not look into what the text is really saying, but rather just read to get it over with. I will be the first one to admit that when it comes to reading I hope to get it down fast. And I also wander off into some world when I'm reading and before I know it I am finished reading but have not really analyzed what the text was saying. So hopefully I will learn to become a better reader and really process what the words are saying.

After reading the section, Systems of Reading: Making Sense of Cultural Texts, it made me think more into the many different meanings there are to just one word. Like in the example in the book, it said what do you think of when you hear the word pan. Since I think of something you use when you cook, I just assumed that's most common and everyone would think of that, but after reading this I saw how Spanish people may think bread. It's interesting to think that all words have different meanings behind them when talking about different cultures.

When talking about Rhetoric's, I honestly was confused in what exactly how they were explaining it and what they were all trying to say. I did like the quote from Kenneth Burke, "use of language as a symbolic means of inducing cooperations in beings that by nature respond to symbols." I like how he worded that to get across his definition when it comes to Rhetorics.

All and all, my favorite favorite favorite part of these pages were the font pages. First of all, I love allllll different kinds of fonts and and more into that then what is actually written, which is not a good thing obviously, lol. But it was interesting to me to see what is it all saying and how they went through some different fonts and when talking about Beverlys. That was by far my favorite part because I love designing things and making them look cool.

Steph :)

Why My Name is Stephanie

Even though both of my parents chose my name and my older brother and sister's name, my mom had more of a say on their names and my dad did on mine. My mom wanted my name to be Marion, which was my grandmother's name (my dad's mom's name), but my dad didn't want that to be my name. My mom didn't like the name Stephanie, and to this day she still doesn't but she has grown to like it more. Since my mom and dad did not agree on what to name me they found a compromise. My dad chose my name to be Stephanie, and my mom chose my middle name to be Marion.