These hardships have without a doubt taught me and plays a part in the person I am today. I have learned to never think that something can’t happen to you. Anything is capable of happening to everyone. You can’t predict what happens and you can’t change what has happened. I have always been pretty independent on my own. I constantly remind myself from time to time that I can do anything if I put my mind and heart into it. Being this independent has really taught me to have faith in myself. I’m pretty content with myself but I would be lying if I said I didn’t want anyone else around me. I love my own company the same way I love other people’s company. Despite all that has happened, there was never a moment that I did not have faith that everything was going to be okay. This past year has also taught me to cherish every moment and day like it is my last. Something so little could change your life in an instant. Instead of fighting to bring moments back or trying to force things to happen the way you want them to, I’ve learned to just accept and live in the now. The past is nothing but photographs and memories. The future is not even here yet. In a way, the only thing that exists is now. You can only control your own perspective. I was once told, “Sometimes in life, temporary struggles are necessary in order to push yourself to continually strive.” In other words, nothing is permanent and what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. A bad day is after all just a day.

1. In Nicholas Carr’s article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, he says having access to infinite knowledge is making us stupid. I believe Carr is implying that our easy access to the internet has lead us to rely on it for enlightenment. Instead of having to read through books for knowledge, it is now as easy as using the google search bar or even asking Siri/Alexa. Carr feels that over the past few years his brain has been “remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory.” He feels that reading a lengthy article is not as easy as it used to be. The easy access to “infinite knowledge” is making us stupid.
2. I believe that immediate access to knowledge can bring problems but it can definitely be very beneficial to us. I have never had to go to the library and find a physical book to conduct research. I have always turned to the internet for information. Problems that could arise would be that people stop absorbing knowledge and people’s memory start to weaken.
3. I agree with Clay Shirkey when he argues that constantly having access to the internet, we are able to experiment with new areas of knowledge in a much easier/accessible way. One of the pros to having easy access to the internet is that we save a lot of time when it comes to researching or learning about something new. Instead of having to read books, look through textbooks and newspapers, we can use the internet for information. A con to having this easy access could be that people start over relying on the technology
4. I think that the internet is giving us new knowledge more than melting our brains away. The internet has allowed many people to educate themselves from home and to do quick research. Many has learned self taught themselves new hobbies or new cooking recipes. The internet has also allowed us to learn from our homes during this pandemic. Without the internet we wouldn’t have had this opportunity to continue our studies during a time like this. Despite believing that the internet is giving us new knowledge, I can see how it can also be “melting our brains away.” Our brains are slowly becoming reliant on the easy access we have to the internet. This may lead some to have shorter attention spans or even possibly becoming more lazy. With the right amount of self discipline, we can control and limit the amount of technology usage. This can help keep us from becoming fully reliant on technology. Less problems may occur if we balance the usage of relying on the internet for new knowledge and using the traditional way of read and looking through books to soaking up new knowledge.

1. I agree with Carr when he addresses how as time progresses, our reliance on technology becomes stronger and stronger. In Carr’s article, he mentions, “A National Transportation Safety Board investigation concluded that the cause of the accident was pilot error. The captain’s response to the stall warning, the investigators reported, “should have been automatic, but this improper flight control inputs were inconsistent with his training”…pilots seemed to lack “situational awareness” as the emergency unfolded.” These tragic incidents of plane crashes may have been avoidable if pilots were taught better in a way that they didn’t fully depend on today’s technology. We can fix this by not only bring more awareness to the situation but implying it in the classes that pilot’s are required to take.
2. I believe that it is a matter of improving the skills of the workers. Technology has shown to do amazing things for us but it isn’t 100% reliable. When we improve as workers, we can also improve technology. It always good to have a back up plan.
3. I believe that this can relate to the concern of technology taking jobs. There is a big controversy about this situation. In my opinion, technology is definitely capable of taking people’s jobs. Many fast food chains has installed kiosks for people to order food. This is minimizing the need for cashiers. Technology will not take away all jobs but it is capable of taking away many.
4. One alternative approach that I can think of for technology being a part of our lives without completely taking over is not fully depending on it. Humans should take control over technology instead of technology taking control of humans. We can utilize  technology in a way that would benefit us instead of harm us.

Bonus: I am pretty reliant on technology as I use it everyday. I interact with technology from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to bed. There will be days that I spend less time on technology compared to other days. I find technology to be both useful and harmful to me. There are pros and cons to it depending on how it is being used. It can be useful in terms of using it to get work done, contacting people, and having easy access to the internet but it can also be harmful in terms of spending hours at a time lost in your phone or computer doing nothing productive.

I picked the section “Some People Are Just Born Good Writers” from “Bad Ideas About Who Good Writers Are.”

The bad idea is that some people are just born good writers. Every good writer was not just born a good writer. There are writers that practiced and learned to become better writers. Just like with sports, not every athlete was always so good when they first started. Just like how athletes took time to practice in sports, writers can practice to improve and become better.

One of the many reasons that the author says believing some people are just born good writers is a bad idea is because “If a person thinks their writing ability is stuck in place, improvement is incredibly difficult…” If you are constantly telling yourself that you can’t do something, the chances of you actually achieving it is very low. I agree with the author when he says that good writers are not born, they are learned.

The title of the section is what brought me to choosing this piece. One way you can counter this bad idea that “some people are just born good writers” is that anyone including yourself can be a good writer with the right amount of practice. I believe that it is possible have something come to you naturally just like it is possible to become good at something. Anybody can become a good writer if they practiced and took the time to learn.

My topic choice is the challenges of entering a discourse community. In a way this is a continuation of my topic from Unit 1 because I am not switching discourse communities. I decided not to switch topics because the fitness community is something I feel familiarized to. I feel like the designated problem in my discourse community is important because entering and joining a discourse community can be difficult for some. Some people may feel lost or as if they don’t belong.

The discourse community that I am going to write about is about fitness. The word I chose to use is “Gains.” Since the pandemic, I haven’t been able to go to the gym as much as I would like to. I decided to write about the fitness community because I enjoy working out.

1. In my opinion, a “single story” is a story that is being told based off a group of people with a similar background or perspective. A single story is written by one perspective so not everyone will be able to relate to it. Stereotypes and many false perceptions are created with single stories. A single story is a metaphor for the stereotypes that are being created about different groups and countries that people come from.
2. Many of the stories that I read growing up were fictional and revolved around animals. Animals portrayed as animals and animals portrayed like people. When I did read stories with people and characters, many different races were included. I don’t remember reading any single-stories like Adichie described.
3. Modern technology can definitely contribute to these single-stories. With today’s technology, people can share their opinions online about these single-stories. Since single-stories create false perceptions and stereotypes, people from all around the world can help clear up it up with their own experience and background.
4. I feel that the issues that were spoken about in these two pieces are overlapping issues of identity. Adichie speaks about how growing up she has always read “single-stories”, stories that were based off of one perspective of a larger group. She never related to the stories she read that many others may have. With Mohamed, his school teacher corrected and taught him the “correct” way of saying his own name. Both of Adichie and Mohamed experienced cultural ignorance. Adichie read books with all the characters “white and blue-eyed” and did things she never did like speak about the weather or playing in snow. Mohamed should have been able to say his own name the way his parents do without having other people correct him on something that doesn’t need to be corrected.

Both “Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholarly Sources,” by Karen Rosenberg and “How to Read Like a Writer,” by Mike Bunn enlightened me to some tips that I could benefit from. Karen Rosenberg mentions “…the introduction will not only summarize the whole piece, present the main idea, and tell us why we should care, but it will also often offer a road map for the rest of the article.” (Rosenberg 216) Like Rosenberg, I tend to “breeze through” the introduction which usually leads to me being confused with what the main idea of the article is. Reading the introduction builds a foundation for the rest of the article. Mike Bunn says “Reading like a writer can help you understand how the process of writing is a series of making choices, and in doing so, can help you recognize important decisions you might face and techniques you might want to use when working on your own writing.” (Bunn 75) The benefit of reading like a writer can help you improve your skills as a writer. One other tip that I picked up from Bunn’s article is that asking yourself the questions “What is the author’s purpose for this piece of writing?” (Bunn 76) and “Who is the intended audience?” (Bunn 76) can help you obtain the bigger picture of an article.

When Rosenberg writes about reading academic texts as entering a conversation, to me this means that academic texts allow you to converse with your professor and peers about the article. Academic texts are not based off inspiration of the writer but by issues and problems that people relate to similarly. You can have a conversation with a text by replying to the article with your own thoughts and opinions.

Bunn talks about different ways that you can learn about the context of a text before you begin to read. Finding out who is the intended audience and author’s purpose, asking questions, and knowing the genre of the text can help gain information about an article before you begin to read.

I felt like both of the writer’s voices were laid back and informal. I liked this because it felt more personal.