Blogs are DONE!!

This is my last blog for this class, and while I don't enjoy doing them all the time and can see why we did do them. They enabled our class to get to know each other outside of our class. Because worked so much with each other in our class it was important to know one another on a more personal level. These blogs allowed us to do just that, seeing each other outside of the white walls. I have enjoyed this class, it has taught me a lot about writing and I will take the tools that I have learned and apply them to my future writings. I have enjoyed getting to know everyone in the class too although I don't know everyone quite as well as I would have liked it was nice to get to know everybody a little bit. 

THE END IS NEAR!!!

It's crazy to think that a whole year of school has gone by already. The end is now here. In a few short days my parents will be coming down and moving me out and back home. It'll be weird getting into the groove of things back home, but it'll be a nice change after being here all year. I only have 3 exams this week then it's homeward bound for me! I hope everybody had a wonderful semester and I hope everybody does well on all of there exams. I wish everybody a wonderful and fun summer and I will see some of you when we return next fall to start a whole new semester!!

ESA :)

So some of you may not know but i am a part of esa, which is the community service sorority. Let me just say it was one of the best decisions that i have made all year to join. It has been a wonderful time with all of my sisters and i wouldn't of had it any other way. It has brought me so many opportunities and i am truly thankful for all that it has done for me. The typical sorority stereotype isn't really good and i was nervous going into a sorority, but this decision that i have made to join is probably one of the best that i will make here at Ball State. 

Course Objectives

1. Develop the ability to work well with others on composing tasks.

I feel that we have done this extensively in our English class. From the beginning on our fist paper we got into our peer review groups. I was nervous at first about these because I didn't know anyone and I also am really self- conscious of my writing. Through the peer reviews I have become more comfortable with others critiquing my writing. Getting critiques from the intensive reviews has also been a tremendous help to composing and revising my writings. Going into the intensive reviews I was very anxious as to what my peers had to say, but in the end I feel that this was the best thing that we did with our peers in this class. It was nice to hear all of the suggestions and positive feedback. The blogs have also been away for us to work with others in collaborating ideas for our writings. Overall I feel that this class has really accomplished this objective of working with others on composing tasks. 

2. Develop strategies for becoming more critical and careful readers of both your own and others’ texts. 

Through the peer reviews and intensive reviews I have been able to critique other's writings. It has given me a chance to think about the writing and offer any suggestions that I may have to improve the paper. When I was being intensively reviewed or peer reviewed I enjoyed hearing what others had to say, because it was getting feedback from your audience, and since we write for our audience it was a good way to see how we could revise our papers to make it more appealing to our audience. Also having Mr. McArdle look over our papers and giving feedback has helped me. Since he is more experienced in this field it his critiques of my writings allowed me to improve. Overall I feel that this class has accomplished the goal of becoming more critical and careful readers of both my own and others' texts. 

3. Reflect (orally and textually) on the rhetorical choices and decisions they are required to make as authors to shape a text for a specific audience and purpose.  

I don't really understand what this objective is asking. I don't think that we really did any reflecting in this class over the decisions that we made, at least not publicly. I know in my head and if Mr. McArdle commented on my paper I thought about it, but I don't think we completely and fully did this objective at least orally or textually. 

4. Work with others to solve life’s common problems. 

In this class we worked with others, but I don't think that we really solved life's common problems. I don't really know what common problems through life that we would be able to solve in this English class. 

2 1/2 weeks left SERIOUSLY!?!?!

I can't believe that there's only 2 and 1/2 weeks left of school!!!! I'm sooo excited to be able to go home, but it'll be sad leaving all of the wonderful friends that I've made here at Ball State. As I was watching some people take some of their stuff home this weekend it hit me that we really are so close to finishing a whole year of college. This year has gone by so fast and i can't believe it's already coming to an end. It feels like i just moved in as the clueless freshman, knowing no one here, knowing nothing, here. I've already started making plans with my parents to move me out and I've got tons of boxes to pack up all of my stuff. I'm excited too because I get to move out the Wednesday of finals weeks!!! Yay i can't believe we're so close! :)

465 is a Maze

After driving to my sorority's formal last night i've come to the conclusion that 465 is super super confusing. I was on my way to formal driving down 69 and the exit for 465 kind of crept up on me when i finally realized that i needed to exit i quickly went of 3 lanes of traffic.....and instead of going West which is what i was suppose to do i went South. Now I have never really driven on 465 because i'm from Crown Point which is in Northwest Indiana. So after going on 465 South I had no idea where i was going. I was going South on the East side of Indy when i needed to go South on the West side. So at this point I was kinda freaking out because it felt like there were interstates coming out of every which way as i drove down the expressway like a blind person cause i had no idea where i was going. I finally exited and turned around and finally figured it out but for a little bit there i was clueless lol. So 465 isn't my favorite expressway to drive on but i'll have to figure it out sometime. 

New Life Forms!

Scientists using a remote control submarine discovered one of the deepest known volcanic vents and the superheated waters inside could contain undiscovered marine species and even could provide clues to the origin of life on earth. The vents waters can reach a temperature of 750 degrees Fahrenheit. Exploring the vents scientists have found exotic animals such as hairy worms, blind shrimp, and giant white crabs. Some scientists believe that these vents may have played a part in the creation of life on earth. The vent is found in an area of the Caribbean known as the Cayman Trough, 3 miles below the surface. Interestingly enough the canyon served as the setting for James Cameron's underwater thriller, "The Abyss". One scientist stated "We know more about the surface of the Moon and Mars than we do about our own planet because two-thirds of our planet is covered by ocean making it very hard to explore." The new discovery that scientists have made could be the answer that many people have been searching for: the discovery of life. If they are finding new species under these vents maybe they'll find a life species on Mars, or any other planet. I think it's neat that even though our planet is so old we're still finding things out about our own planet.