Activity 3 P. 94

I have probably written hundreds of papers through out my schooling on several topics. Almost all of them have taught one thing or another about myself and my writing ability. Each one helps to demonstrate how I have adapted and grown as a writer over time. The paper that I believe most closely relates to this course is one I wrote for my technical writing class last spring. This class was taught by the same professor and ironically was structured similar. I completed a technical description project which included a paper explaining a product. I chose to dissect a top of the line golf club. This assignment forced me to incorporate multiple aspects of writing. I had to both introduce this club to my audience while at the same time attempt to persuade them to use it. We are currently learning how to analyze several different people and how they go about writing in their everyday lives. The writers we are analyzing have been for the most part teachers or mentors of some kind who were conveying their craft to a group. When working on the technical description I needed to put myself in the mindset of my audience and begin to ponder what they would want to hear. It was essential to write with the audience in mind because I was trying to impress them with my product and explain why it is the best driver on the market today. I also used golf lingo at times which is similar to how the graffiti artist spoke in terms that only his students would understand. Every project from the technical writing class has help to provide a leg up when diving into the assignments for this course. They each introduced new skills as well as overlapped different forms of writing. Following my experiences to date in these type of classes I have been able to realize my natural talents and strengths when it comes to writing.

Reflections of Observations

When observing my group I made sure to be accurate and attempt to understand their writing process. I remembered how they observed my partner and I while we were working on the assignment so I wanted to incorporate similar tactics now that it was my turn. I took notes and wrote down anything that I felt was important that they said while discussing the questions. I immediately noticed that they were taking a different approach then we had taken. This was not a wrong way of going about it just different. They decided to focus on the potential courses available in the Professional writing and editing program. My partner and I chose to use this as a form of persuading people to major or minor in PWE. We focused more on the future and how this program would help you with possible career choices. The group I observed acted as if striving for a high grade based on writing abilities was the most important reason to be apart of the program. I also noticed that even with an extra person this group took a little longer to complete the task. They spent time going back and forth between the questions and there document. One of the members continuously would attempt to gain clarification and re ask questions trying to determine if they were going in the proper direction. After looking back on this activity I realized it will provide me with a glimpse of what I may be doing in my research. I am planning on observing my subject while he is at work and recording what he does and most notably what he writes. That is basically a much larger version of what our group did in class the other day.

Statis Theory Questions - DA Register to Vote

Topic: Voting/Political Participation

Question: Should young adults participate in the political process?

Theoretical: Can, Abstract ideas

Should youth participate in politics?
Does the voting process act as a good way to decide direction for the community?

Practical: Should, Action/specific

Conjecture: Does credibility exist in the voting process?

A. "Purity" of the Democratic process
B. Lack of political participation

What is the reason for lack of participation? What are its effects? How can it be changed? Why do political parties target young voters? What kind of ways are youth participating? What are they doing?

Definition: How can it be defined? What makes it up?

What kind of thing is voting? Is voting a luxury or it a duty or it's right or it a priovilege or a responsibility or a responsibility or obligation?

What is "Political participation"? What are its parts?

Quality: Simple, Comparative

Is it right to vote not knowing the issues and candidates v.s. not voting at all? Is it more base to pay attention to the political process when there's so much negativity or is it more base to "tune off"? Is it honorable to vote? Is it better for the youth to participate in the process or should the "experienced" make the decisions?

Policy: Should action be taken?

Class Update 3

At this point in the course I feel comfortable with most aspects of our project. I feel that after reviewing the job application package as well as studies y other writers I am ready to conduct my research. I have a person that will be my subject and have a good idea if the type of questions I might ask him. The goals of the project are clear to me as I am trying to discover how my subject uses writing in his career. I then am supposed to uncover more about how his job relates to my career goals and how writing is incorporated into both. It is important to remember the type of audience I am writing to but I am still unclear as to how that relates to this since it seems obvious.

Class Update 2

I feel that out of everything we have covered so far in this class I understood our recent discussions about the job application package the most. This was a project I had previously completed during my time in the technical writing course. That gave me a leg up on knowing what went in to the project and how I personally completed each aspect of it. I found it easy to apply it to our current assignment. There were similarities based on knowing who your audience is and what parts to focus in on more then others. Both projects also incorporate research of a job and force you to focus on narrowing down the career that would most suit your abilities. However I was not as clear on what a discourse community is. I am unsure of how it is different if at all from just doing an audience analysis. If it is similar why is understanding a discourse community important?

Exploratory Essay

When working on the exploratory essay I had to go through several steps. First I began to think for possible careers related to professional writers to cover. This was easy because I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do in life and what type of jobs are available. I also have experience in my field of broadcasting so I already had first hand knowledge to go off of. After deciding on the type of job to study I then started to reflect on possible interview research subjects. Once I thought of the people who have helped me and who are my superiors at the radio station I work for I immediately knew who would be perfect. From then on my essay was simple. I just mapped out a path for completing my research and why I would be doing certain things. I provided the activities and responsibilities my subject takes part in on a daily basis. This was to show him in a credible light and why he is a legitimate person to cover for the project. It also allowed the reader to understand how his position connects to the work of a professional writer and editor. The rest of my paper goes over the process I will incorporate when studying my subjects job and everything that includes. I state how I will be able to use this research as a tool to reflect on during my career. My subject may give me a glimpse of what activities I may be doing in the future. Questions I will ask and possible answers to them are added to the essay. The answers are only predictions of what I think may be reasons for what the subject needs to do and why. I will later be able to look back on my exploratory essay at the beginning of my research in order to determine just how much I actually do know about my subjects job. I will have a chance to see if I truly understand how people in broadcasting and media write.

Discourse Community

I am a member of the West Virginia University radio station. There I am involved in the broadcasting aspect of the station. I write and perform sports and news casts. This is updating the public on the sports and basic news of the day. In order to communicate with the other broadcasters we use e-mail as well as calling each other. The communication is something that takes place daily. We update each other on breaking stories and what events we need to cover. After games or events in the area i conduct interviews of the players and important figures. There I ask questions on their opinions of what happened and why things took place the way they did. Our communication also involves weekly meetings where we get together and discuss any suggestions for change or to update everyone on how each persons role may impact the station as a whole. Without some form of routine communication the radio station would not be able to function at all.

Rhetorical Activities 1 & 4

1.) I reviewed the articles in two famous sports related magazines. Sports Illustrated and ESPN Magazine both contain articles covering numerous issues in the world of sports. These issues can range from predicting which team will win to the environment in China during the Olympics. This assignment allowed me to look at these two publications in a way I had not to this point. Instead of just reading or quickly scanning through to compare my predictions with professional sports writers or to review a particular writer depicts the struggle of certain a athlete I dissected the articles to see how each writer reported the story.

One major topics in the recent additions of both magazines was the Olympics. This years Olympics was filled with great triumph like Michael Phelps winning 8 gold medals to break Mark Spitz's record and great controversy like the Chinese women's gymnastics teams age scandal. Both ESPN and Sports Illustrated covered these issues multiple times. I noticed that ESPN gave a more in depth look at the whole picture and how it truly affected everyone involved. By this I mean they did not hesitate as much to focus in on the negative. The ESPN writers offered their opinions and never went off path when trying to uncover the story. They wanted to find the truth discover what the age of the gymnasts were and how that scandal affected the other athletes and the rest of the games. ESPN also included interviews and opinions from both the American and Chinese sides. In contrast Sports Illustrated focused almost entirely on the positives. They spent multiple issues on Phelps and his achievements as well as the return of the men's basketball teams gold medal win. SI wanted its readers to learn about the Phelps family and what went on behind the scenes. They told of his loving relationship with his mother and the intense training he has gone through to get to this point. Mark Spitz's opinion of his record being broken and a comparison of the two Olympians was added. There only was a small blurb in one edition about the gymnastic age scandal. This blurb also was done in a humorous way. It seemed that ESPN was more willing to go head first at the tough stories while SI aimed to please and wanted to depict a more sunshine and rainbows type environment of these Olympics when clearly not everything that went on was all positive.

4.) I decided to focus on a story about the life and recent death of NFL Players Representative Gene Upshaw. This is an important article for any NFL fan to read as he truly was one of the most influential figures in the sports history. This also seemed important since I am an avid sports fan trying to make a career out of covering the world of sports. The NFL is the most popular sport and its fans need to be aware of its important figures. Upshaw is probably known by all football fans as the long time hard nose Players Rep. Most fans may know him from several stories telling of the battles he would have with the commissioner on issues regarding the league. However, he was not just a jerk who wanted to make the players more money. Gene Upshaw truly cared about his job. He worked to establish a union in the NFL and worked to make it one of the strongest in the country. During his time in office Upshaw fought for the players rights. Even though he is not noted for this Upshaw even was able to actually increase the players pension plan and give long time retired men the money that had been owed to them for decades. This was all not only done because it was his job but because he first was a player himself. Upshaw was also not your average player he was a Hall of Fame guard for many years. He spent his entire career with the Raiders organization. While with the Raiders Upshaw powered a line that was one of the most feared in NFL history. Gene Upshaw won 2 Super Bowl championships, made it to 7 Pro Bowls, and was an 11 time All-Pro selection through out his career. The Raiders even retired his jersey number of 63 after his retirement. For his achievements on the field Upshaw was named as a both a member of the NFL's All-Decade Team for the 1970's as well as being placed on the leagues 75th Anniversary All-Time Team. His hard working attitude and power were attributes that many current guards incorporate in their careers. The numbers on the field earned him enshrinement into the Professional Football Hall of Fame in 1987 but his tenure as Player Rep. will do nothing but increase his legacy. Gene Upshaw may now be gone but certainly should never be forgotten by any fan of the National Football League.

Gene Upshaw 1945-2008 R.I.P.