At a young age, I would always be to myself. In order to make friends and defeat this loneliness, I pursued a false persona, where I was trying to be accepted and please everyone around me. This false persona seemed impressive to everyone, but for me, it was uncomfortable. I caused a war between my true self and my falsified character. I didn’t know what was best for me, and I was suffering because of it. Throughout my first year in college, this was ongoing, but eventually, I found a way to find my true self and be proud of who I am through surrounding myself with really supportive friends.

I haven’t revealed my true self up ‘till last year. Until then, I was buying name-brand clothing to show off my status and present myself differently to fit in. It wasn’t until I encountered a classmate, Ralph, where I finally made the decision to just be confident in myself no matter what people thought. He saw through my false persona and guided me towards the right path. He taught me to be confident in who I am and to just focus on my future goals. He would tell me, “Don’t let nobody make you feel as if you need to change to fit in. Just focus on your future and grind hard. Put yourself and your family first.” His words lit a spark in me, and I looked up to him as a big brother. He is a strong-willed person that is confident in himself and strives to succeed. Surrounding yourself with people who strive to be great is beneficial and inspiring. It is what I needed to get confident in my true self and become who I was meant to be, a motivating man aiming to live life fully and gain success, despite what people think.

Furthermore,  Ralph became a great friend of mine; he brought me around a group of friends that helped me to more. The group consists of strong-willed people just like Ralph, aiming to support each other’s endeavors. Whenever anyone has a problem with their schoolwork or a situation at home, we support them and advise them like brothers. It is like a second home. Being a part of this group helped me stay on the right path to growing into a confident, strong-willed man and developing a mature mindset. 

In addition, with everyone’s input, we were able to create a music studio, called Benzo Music Studio, using our saved money. The Benzo Music studio supports upcoming singers and rappers by providing producing services at a low cost. I may not be a rapper myself, but I found a way to support them as a music engineer. Through this experience, I was able to find my identity as creative and make lifelong relationships with some friends. 

In my early years, my teachers told me that Wikipedia shouldn’t be used because anyone can edit the information on the website. After reading “Wikipedia is good for you” by James P. Purdy I realized he was incorrect about Wikipedia. In the essay, it states “Usually teachers do not like two primary aspects of Wikipedia. The first is its open participation: anyone, regardless of background, qualifications, or expertise, can write Wikipedia articles. As a result, articles can display incorrect information. There are many examples of such incorrect information on Wikipedia. Perhaps the most infamous involves the Wikipedia article on John Seigenthaler (former journalist, political advisor, and father of the reporter of the same name on NBC news). Brian Chase changed the article to indicate that Seigenthaler played a role in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert. This untrue contribution lasted for 132 days (Page, “Wikipedia Biography”).” Wikipedia can help you find many sources of information but people avoid based on the fact of its credibility. As a student, most of my college courses require me to write a research paper. The process of writing a research paper is difficult because you need credible sources but using unreliable sources like Wikipedia your paper would get a failing grade.

Wikipedia as a tool can reinforce approaches to research-based writing. in the text, it states “Wikipedia, that is, can help to illustrate (1) recursive revision based on idea development, (2) textual production based on participation in a conversation rather than isolated thinking, and (3) research based on production rather than only critique (Purdy). The process of successfully contributing to a Wikipedia article, in other words, parallels the process of successfully creating a piece of research-based writing.” The processes are similar and could be used as practice for research-based writing. It can also be used as a reference for sources. After reading the essay, I would consider it a community platform because multiple people are editing articles. Until now I wasn’t aware of the fact multiple people were having a conversation over the article edit, and when I did it came as a shock to me.

 

 

I agree with Nicholas Carr’s All Can Be Lost: The Risk of Putting Our Knowledge in the Hands of Machines. Our reliance on technology is steadily increasing and people are getting out of touch with the physical world. In the text, it states “The Q400 was well into its approach to the Buffalo airport, its landing gear down, its wing flaps out, when the pilot’s control yoke began to shudder noisily, a signal that the plane was losing lift and risked going into an aerodynamic stall. The autopilot disconnected, and the captain took over the controls. He reacted quickly, but he did precisely the wrong thing: he jerked back on the yoke, lifting the plane’s nose and reducing its airspeed, instead of pushing the yoke forward to gain velocity. Rather than preventing a stall, Renslow’s action caused one. The plane spun out of control, then plummeted.” Reliance on technology makes us more lazy and without it we wouldn’t do as much. Technology is supposed to be a tool not a digital pacifier to get you through life. Jobs that require more situational awareness should have no reliance on technology.

The incidents were a matter of improving the skills of the workers because putting our trust in technology won’t solve our problems. Technology could fail at any point but people have a greater chance of performing under pressure. This relates to the conterversy of technology taking over our jobs because people trust machines over other people. Important jobs shouldn’t be in control of machines since they can malfunction at any moment, even though humans make mistakes they learn from them and grow but machines can’t. Society needs to maintain a balance between technology and people.

An alternative approach is to have technology and people have certain jobs based on the skills it requires.

I am reliant on technology because it makes certain things easier especially during a pandemic. My college classes and assignments are all online. Sometimes I need to know the weather or write down some notes. It helps me keep in touch with my friends and family. My daily routine revolves around technology but I can live without it.

 

Toby Litt describes the relationship between literature, writing, and technology as being ever-changing. In Modern times Technology is changing the ways that literature is consumed. For example, he says “The internet connection offers all of us the constant temptation of snippets, of trivia. We don’t live, as other writers did in the past, without these particular temptations… I think writers will continue to occur but technology and its trivia will cause us to lose something, just as we lost something when we lost the classical education. We write worse because we cannot write classical prose.” As technology advances the more we lose touch with the real world and write worse. Another instance he provides is that “Readers more accustomed to screens – web pages, iPhone displays – will scan a page of text for its contents, rather than experience it in a gradual linear top-left to bottom-right way. This will make for increased speed and decreased specificity. These readers will be half-distracted even as they read; their visual field will include other things than just the text, because they won’t feel happy unless those things are there.” Technology is ruining writing but in some ways, it is improving it. For instance, writing on a computer is much easier than in the past with typewriters.

Technology has not affected my perceptions of classical literature, it made it easier for me to read. The underlying issues of modern stories are that the people novels have conventionally been written about are gradually ceasing to exist. As technology advances the stories will revolve around those changes to keep up with society. Stories that are set in past times won’t relate to the audience as much.

Technology is disrupting the stories of today or the future because we are only focused on our phones. People are more focused on entertainment than books. The increase in entertainment makes writing obsolete. Books cannot compete with these various forms of entertainment. They just aren’t as interesting especially to the younger generations.

Reading on a screen or through these various interfaces does not affect my learning at all. My perception is that it makes it easier for me to access various forms of information online. I can retain the information I learned and go back to it easily if I want to refresh my memory. Reading books online feels more comfortable to me and I feel like I can understand it more. And there are various features that make annotating, highlighting, and writing notes easier.

 

 

Colson Whitehead says in his article that each individual experience of New York City is unique. Everyone has their own experiences. His attitude toward New York City is more sentimental, recalling a past era. “But look past the windows of the travel agency that has taken the place of your pizza parlor.” This line indicates that Whitehead looking back to a time where his favorite pizza parlor. Whitehead goes on to say that you don’t know New York until you see it for yourself, rather than hearing what others think. While John Lewis’s article explains the change in the community is the growth from the hardship of African Americans endures from the past to present. In the article, Lewis says, “Though I was surrounded by two loving parents, plenty of brothers, sisters, and cousins, their love could not protect me from the unholy oppression waiting just outside that family circle. Unchecked, unrestrained violence and government-sanctioned terror had the power to turn a simple stroll to the store for some Skittles or an innocent morning jog down a lonesome country road into a nightmare.” Lewis used an assertive tone to express his feelings about change. He wanted society to change for the better. Racism and discrimination are deeply rooted in this society. Lewis learned through firsthand experience how oppressive society was, coming to a realization at the age of 15. Both writers feel strongly about change especially within a community and outside of it. Both pieces’ themes overlapped in that they both explored horrific days that our culture would one day look back on as being in the past.

I feel closer to John Lewis’s article because as a black African American male there is always a target on our backs. African Americans don’t have good opportunities because our skin is constantly seen as a weapon. The system is designed to keep us down and because of that very few make it out. Society doesn’t accept us and no matter how loud we scream they will never hear us.

 

The quote indicates that in order for a student to be educated they must become the person they want to be not society’s version. It discusses the school’s contradictory intent for being built. Childhood is an important part of ensuring a healthy future. The teacher has a significant impact on the growth of a child. The present-day education system is failing. The broken education system is negatively affecting the outcomes of students in their future by enforcing their values. Students aren’t given the right tools to be properly educated and prepared for the real world. Creativity and out-of-the-box intelligence are not promoted and students are disciplined to follow society’s standards to live life. Schools teach students to obey authority. They hinder their maturity and send incompetent students to face the real world with enough knowledge to become the country’s labor force. Schools need to step up and try to change the education system to benefit the students even if society’s way of life is challenged.

Historically, black children were not given a proper education, which caused them to be confused. They were unable to properly investigate their identities due to societal norms and only believed what society imposed on them. Schools strip them of the knowledge of their ancestry to keep the populace manageable. Black people are constantly fighting stereotypes that are harshly imposed on them. The children don’t know who they are because society confuses them so they grow up to be uneducated individuals. Society treats them like they aren’t citizens and because of that, not many become successful. Regardless of race, everyone should be treated equally since we are all humans.

Through ethos, pathos, and logos, Baldwin employs a wide range of rhetorical situations. One example of pathos is on page 2 paragraph 4 “A black child, on the other hand, seeing the world around him and not knowing what to make of it, realizes that there is a reason why his mother works so hard and why his father is always on edge. He is conscious that whenever he sits in the front of the bus, his father or mother slaps him and drags him to the back of the bus for whatever reason. He is well aware that he is bearing a huge responsibility.” Another example is on page 1 paragraph 3 “On the one hand he is born in the shadow of the stars and stripes and he is assured it represents a nation which has never lost a war.”

I have always felt the school system was broken. Every teacher I had taught meaningless subjects that won’t be used in real life. In school, we waste so much time on useless subjects when we could learn useful skills that will benefit us in society. The school system needs to be fixed so that every child can find a path to success.

 

Reflective writing or metacognitive writing allows the writer to focus on the audience and finding potential issues with your writing process. It’s critical how the motives of the writer towards the audience are, and how we need to focus on our work to ensure that we express the message that we want to tell. By using this approach writers will improve their writing by remembering their mistakes and thinking about how they can improve in the future. This will help writers to gain more insight and control over the revision process.

Reflective writing has opened my eyes to my strengths and weaknesses. In high school, I wasn’t taught this skill and because of that I didn’t structure my writing pieces correctly. I didn’t understand what I was doing and I wasn’t meeting the criteria the teacher required. My writing process used to be just making one draft and improving the grammar. I was focusing on the body paragraphs and ignoring the introduction and conclusion. This made my the focus of my writing piece confusing to others. I was focused too much on the body instead I should have focused on it as a whole. During my first semester in college, I was taught this skill and it stuck with me as I progressed throughout college. My last English teacher taught me have to structure my writing correctly and he helped me fix my drafts. This skill has helped me perfect my writing and organize my thoughts correctly. My paper doesn’t have to be perfect during the first draft but I should do my best to work my way up to that level.

Before I start writing, I brainstorm ideas and then organize them in according to essay format. I put together the reasons and the details I am going to use. Then I start the introduction with a question to pull the readers attention and then I put the introduce the topic. I put the body together with details matching the reasons. Afterwards, I summarize the entire piece in the conclusion. Finally, I reread the draft to see what needs to be improved and what needs to be deleted.

 

The discourse community I will be targeting is African Americans. The phrase I will be using is culture. I want to discuss how other people are constantly trying to steal our culture in a society that doesn’t accept us. This community made me realize there is beauty in being black.

A single-story is a story told from one perspective. Single-story produces stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is that they are false, and you can’t base your opinions on one perspective. By listening to one perspective you risk misunderstanding a certain topic. A metaphor is a comparison between two things without using the words like or as.

The types of stories I read growing up were fairytales and fictional books like Percy Jackson’s “The Lightning Thief.” I enjoyed reading the Percy Jackson series because the fictional world was uniquely designed. Percy Jackson’s life was unraveled when he realized he was the son of the Greek god Poseidon. At the training ground for the children of the gods, Percy learns to harness his divine powers and prepare for the adventure of life: to prevent a feud between the Olympians from erupting into a destructive war on Earth and to save his mother from the clutches of Hades, the god of the underworld. The trope for this book is that it involves magical powers that do not exist. The author portrayed this story from one perspective which makes it a single-story. The story was told from Percy’s perspective but they could have made the story more interesting if they switched to other perspectives. The other demi-gods were just as interesting and if they focused on a cast instead of a single person the series could have been on par with books like Harry Potter. Regardless of that, I enjoyed reading the Percy Jackson series.

Modern Technology does contribute to single-stories. For example, the media supports one side instead of presents both sides of a news story. They influence the public to pick sides such as the Democratic party or the Republican party. People are biased towards because it is the only side of information they know. Multimedia platforms make getting information easier but it also makes the public lazy. Most people will base their opinions on one perspective and won’t look at other perspectives. These two articles talk about overlapping problems of identity since it’s about the identity crisis and how they feel insecure in their skin.

 

Some unique takeaways I gathered from reading the “Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholarly Sources,” by Karen Rosenberg and “How to Read Like a Writer,” by Mike Bunn is to question every word and sentence the author chooses. I tend to read through articles to get it over with but to improve as a writer I need to change that. Another tip I acquired from Rosenberg was to build a solid introduction. The introduction is the foundation of the writing piece and without it the reader would confused on what the main idea would be. In many of my essays, the introductions tend to be rushed and the body is what I focus on. Rosenberg has also taught me to focus on what important information I should reveal to my audience, by keeping that in mind I can filter the kind of information I allow into my writing. Reading like a writer will help you improve your skills as a writer.

Rosenberg writes in several places about reading academic texts as entering a conversation. The author means that you need to be engaged with text inorder to fully understand it. In a conversation, you cannot fully comprehend if you don’t to listen to the person. You can have a conversation with the text by trying to find the meaning of each word, sentence, and paragraph. To speak to the text one must understand the reasoning behind everything. Some of the different ways you can learn about the meaning of a text is by looking at who the intended audience is and the intent of the author.

Mike Bunn’s voice in the reading was formal while Karen Rosenberg was informal. Rosenberg’s informal is simplified in a way everyone can fully understand. Although Bunn’s text was formal it wasn’t as interesting as Rosenberg’s.