1.The bad idea mentioned in this text is that there is a genius author and that one should compare their writing to that set example. Basically believing that all good writers were born to be good writers. This occurs because most writing we see is by someone who has already made it in the writing world, so we hold ourselves to that standard. As a writer, it can be hard to even know where to start when you think this is what the audience wants to see, so people get caught up in trying to make a masterpiece that they burn out. In school, this model writing was created by students who were privileged enough to can the extra training to be able to write at a college level in high school.
2. The author says it’s a bad idea because this discourages the person from writing something good and creative. Teachers also don’t make it better because they criticize and talk badly about a student’s paper when comparing it to a published piece. Students also don’t benefit from writing essays they know that only the teacher will read because they will come out to be a text that’s only for a classroom not for the public. The author admits that there are some people who do have the talent to write that comes naturally to them. The author also reveals that writing can be learned with practice, a good audience, and feedback. The author compares learning how to be a good writer with training for a marathon. If you aren’t the best at something, you practice and make it better.
3. What caught my attention in reading this piece was the title “Only Geniuses can be Writers”. This made me think about how I see writing, I feel like for some people writing comes naturally. Others aren’t into writing but are forced by the school system to learn how to write, well at least for a teacher setting. Sometimes this actually helps students discover that they do like writing, well others hate the thought of writing another essay. I think the only way to contradict this bad idea is more practice and a bigger audience.

“Besides feeling like I haven’t had an actual routine since March 2020, there have been some positive outcomes since this pandemic quarantine started. I believe the months of being indoors has allowed me to bring out my creative side. Prior to the outbreak, I really felt like I had no creativity. I felt this especially when it was time to write college essays. College essays usually ask you to talk about great achievements and things you have done that are out of the ordinary. I did no extracurricular activities long enough to be able to mention them in my essays. Most kids were able to talk about the sports they were in, the songs they made, and what dance they performed in. Although my school was a performing arts school, I was not as creative as one should be in an art school. My school did make freshmen try out all the majors before they made a decision. I chose art out of music, dance, and drama because art was the only major that did not need to perform. It wasn’t that I wasn’t interested in the other majors, it was the fear of not bringing the same creativity to the table, as the other kids did. I always limited myself to what I could explore and that is the reason I didn’t join the softball team like I wanted to, or join the school play, or I could have picked to be a music major, which is what I actually wanted. I also had no clue of what I wanted to do in myself and had no hobbies. Looking back and knowing that my high school experience was cut short, I wished I realized how much creativity I actually had. A year later and I now know I have found out a lot about myself that I might have not found if I wasn’t trapped in my room for months.
One way my creativity branched out is throughout high school as an art major we would have to submit a weekly sketchbook of three random objects we picked at the beginning of the year. I hated this assignment because for all three years I was never able to draw realistic still-life drawings which was the assignment. Also with the amount of school work I had, I usually rushed the drawings. Having this extra time and wanting to step out of the three objects sketch, I decided to paint something that I wanted instead of following what the assignment was. I already had a great connection with the teacher. I believed that she would rather enjoy seeing me finally showing my artistic creativity than the same boring drawings I would give her for years. Knowing this I had little fear that my teacher would be upset that I didn’t continue following the assignment. So I submitted it to my teacher and she actually enjoyed that I stepped out of what she asked because she was able to see the effort and creativity that I put in rather than how I used to submit work. After getting that encouragement from my teacher I started looking forward to the weekly assignment and tried out different techniques. I tried pixel art, following a Tik Tok video on a moonlit ocean, making a realistic-looking bubble, recycled art, and drawing on an iPad. I enjoyed it so much that I ended up buying art supplies, something I didn’t do the whole time I was an art major. This was a great way I spent my time to take my mind off the fear I had about hearing all the people who had passed for COVID.”

1. In my early schooling, I was told never to use Wikipedia because the information there was written by anyone and there could be information that was incorrect. I was taught to always find news articles and .org pages instead because those were more reliable and were written by people whose job it was to find out information. I remember students in my class getting caught for using Wikipedia because they would copy word for word what was on the website. This was a bad use of the website because clearly the student was being lazy. Although I was told this I would always use Wikipedia because it was a good way to start learning about the topic I had to do research for a paper. So after reading this text by Purdy, I only feel more comforted that it is actually a smart idea to start research by using Wikipedia to get a summary about it.

2. One way that Purdy explains Wikipedia can be a useful tool is using it for ideas on the project. Since Wikipedia articles are written to be neutral, seeing all the sides of the story allows you to figure out which one you want. It this great to see all sides in one place without having to find each side in an article. Another way is to use it to get links to actual reliable sources. At the bottom of the page have a tab with all the references that they used and it saves time on looking for them. This is a method I use because sometimes it is hard to find websites about the topic you are looking for and that makes it so much easier.

3. After reading about how Wikipedia works, I would consider it a community platform because it is a place where multiple people share information about one source. Since the article can be changed every day by anyone it is a community platform. I was not aware of the conservation taking place over every article edit but I think that it’s good they have a system. It helps clear up mistakes and justify information.

1. I agree that technology has made humans unlearn and rely on technology a lot. Jobs are more about learning how to use a machine than how to do it yourself. Although technology helps do things faster and easier, society is forgetting to remember to teach themselves how to do it manually and how to remember things without needing the internet. The tragic incidents could have been avoided if the pilots did not trust the auto-pilot so much and if the pilot knew what to do in an emergency. This could have been fixed if the pilot was alert the whole time believing that the best person to fly the plane is him, not the autopilot. Another way of fixing this is making sure that each pilot knows how to actually fly the plane on its own and how to land the plane safely when the engine is not working.
2. I think that it is a matter of improving the skills of the workers because I believe that we can not trust technology to perform perfectly every time. After all, technology was created by humans and we should be able to understand how to reprogram and how to manually do the task that it is assigned. I also believe that depending on technology too much will cause humans to become what the movie WALL-E was showcasing. The movie showed that Earth was too polluted and humans couldn’t even walk on their own and spent the whole day being taken care of by technology. I think we should stop advancing on technology before we get to this state because although it makes life easier, it intern makes humans dumber.
3. I think that the creation of autopilot and other technologies is taking away jobs. For example, self-driving taxis are already in creation which can take the job away from taxi drivers, bus workers, delivery drivers, etc. I hope that this isn’t the case because I do not trust putting my life into technology that can malfunction, discharge or need a random update. I believe that technology can help the human driver but I do not think that this world should become a technology-only place. I think that society won’t adapt to the idea of trusting technology alone.
4. An alternative approach to technology advancing is to make sure that technology always depends on humans and that the human is the one needed to operate it, not the other way around. I also believe that unnecessary technology should not be made so that there’s a need for things and for people.

Litt describes the relationship between literature, writing, and technology to be connected all together, one goes hand and hand with another. Technology is dependent on literature because the world needs new things and discoveries in order to be able to continue to write. Although technology did help writers at first be able to have new things to talk about, it is also the reason for the downfall in stories. The internet has become a great distraction and made things much easier than before. Things are able to be seen in a blink of an eye. Videos are created making people want to watch more than reading. The author believes that the future of writing is coming to an end unless more interesting things start happening.
Litt discusses that classical tales aren’t able to exist to be written in this lifetime because there is no long journey with no communication. Long-distance relationships are able to exist and people are able to travel within a few hours not months like in the old age. My perception of classical literature is that there are no more new ones and it’s only from the olden times when husbands went away on long journeys and wrote letters back to their wives. The types of issues are the stories of today driven by things like sci-fi such as aliens and technology that hasn’t been created. It also focuses more on teen relationships like cheating and sneaking out.
I see technology disrupting the stories of today or the future because we are not doing much but being on our phones and laptops and TVs. We can hang out with our friends without even leaving our houses with facetime. People stay inside a lot more now and this pandemic has definitely increased this. I believe that with technology advancing people are going to be able to teleport which would cut all stories about traveling to a designation.
I agree with the point of this author that literature has changed vastly, and that things will never be able to go back like before. Reading on a screen allows me to be able to have the computer read to me which helps me focus better and not lose focus. Reading on a paper book feels more realistic but can make me lose focus fast if the book is hard to understand. Reading on a tablet is in the midground for me it gives me the ability to be able to hear the story read to me and get the feeling that I am actually reading.

1. The new article, “The Way We Live Now: 11-11-01; Lost and Found”, talks about New York and what makes you a New Yorker. It shares the topic of how gentrification and new buildings keep emerging and replacing old places from New York. It mentions that to be a true New Yorker is to be able to see the new building and know what was there before that building took over. The attitude of the article is positive because one should appreciate that you are able to know what was there before. The author doesn’t see it as a bad thing to have the city consisting of changing and replacing things. The new article, “Together You Can Redeem The Soul of Our Nation”, talks about how the narrator went to Washington to protest to fight for what he believes in although it seems he ended up in the hospital for it. As he searches that his friend had been killed at the hands of police. Also mentions that they are proud that they have been able to get this far in the movement and hopes that in time this is fixed. The attitude of this article is hopeful because as the writer is dying he feels that the change is very close to happening.

2. The overlapping theme of both texts is that the feeling stays alive with you. In “The Way We Live Now: 11-11-01; Lost and Found”, this theme is talking about how New Yorkers can keep the New York that they know alive if they remember it whenever they see the new buildings. It knows that when you see a Target you remember it uses to be a family-owned restaurant you used to love. In “Together You Can Redeem The Soul of Our Nation”, it talks about that it is up to the new generation and ones who believe in the rightful change to make sure that the dream of equality is achieved. The message that I took away from both is that you hold the power of letting something be forgotten or remembered.

3. The piece I identified feeling close with was “The Way We Live Now: 11-11-01; Lost and Found” because this actually touches on what I am writing about for my Unit 2 essay. This did make me see what I was complaining about from a different perspective and made me feel better about the changes that have already happened. This spoke to me more than the other piece because this is something that is directly affecting me on an everyday basis, seeing how my old New York is changing every day. In “Together You Can Redeem The Soul of Our Nation”, the author shares about having a direct connection to police brutality with one of their friends. I have been fortunate enough to have not had my loved ones killed in the hand of an officer. So although I agree and believe in the black lives matter movement, I connect to the gentrification one more.

The text I picked was “You Can Learn to Write in General” by Elizabeth Wardle, the bad idea mentioned was that one can write in general. What is meant by this is that there a way someone can write that doesn’t go towards an audience or purpose. Also meaning that there is a format that can be applied to every essay, report paper, and journal.
The author says this is a bad idea because this makes writers and students underestimate how hard writing actually is. This is also a bad idea because like the text mention writing a paper for each subject is different because the context in which the teacher wants it is different. The text also used examples as a person writes in a personal journal differently than when writing a report paper for work. It is different because language might be more formal than another and the audience in which you are writing is very different.
The reason why I picked this piece was that I thought I would learn a good basic tip that I could use for all the writing do. I quickly learned that the piece was explaining why it is not possible and why it can be harmful to think that there is. Tips that the text gave that can help combat this are to be open to learning new writing techniques and understand that not all writing is the same. Another tip the piece gave way to get examples of what you are going to write before writing, to be able to see the difference than in other writing. This is something that I always like to do that I didn’t realize was apart of making on how to write for specific things. When the teacher or professor would assign me a new writing assignment format that I have never done before, I would always ask for examples to be clear on how the writing should be. A good idea that would counteract this idea would be to make sure to think and the purpose and audience for the writing and compare to your different writing assignments.

The topic I will be writing about for the Unit 2 essay is gentrification, but specifically in my neighborhood. My neighborhood is the Lower East Side, I have lived here my whole life and although I already know gentrification was happening in this neighborhood, over the past few years it has gotten worse. I think this topic is a continuation of gentrification because in my Unit 1 essay I talked about how Bodegas have become gentrified and now I want to speak on how my neighborhood has become gentrified. Although the broad topic didn’t switch my discourse community changed from just Dominicans to everyone who lives in the Lower East Side. This is an important problem to my discourse community because it is becoming harder to live on the Lower East Side and we are being forced to leave due to rent.

I think that the article talked about, or took an approach that I was not expecting. I chose this article in the first place based on the title. Out of all the titles from the list, Kanye’s name stood out the most to me, I’m not a big fan but I know who he is. I also figured that it would be about pop culture and that it would talk about things I would understand. The title was interesting as the author was identifying as Kanye instead of black, considering the reputation that Mr. West has created for himself in the past, I was curious to know what the author meant by that. I believed that the article might have been from the perspective of Kanye West only because of the title, but the website looked pleasant after visiting. I also believed the article would seem like the person was having a conservation with their friend rather than so much formality. It did live up to my expectation that the article was not like a long textbook passage and was more like a conversation. I wasn’t really expecting that the author would mention Michael Jackson. Or that he would compare Kanye and Michael to a god. I also discovered that it wasn’t entirely about Kanya West and was about the author in general. I learned that popular black artists can be seen by other black people. I learned that the way those artists dress and surround themselves with certain people can play a lot into their image and message. This author used research by giving dates and facts about the artists, or the people he talking about and tied it into his overall point. They also used personal experience when talking about a Michael Jackson concert just days before September 11th. I think I continued to read because it goes for the type of reading that I like to read which is like having a conservation with the reader, I don’t know the genre name for that. After reading the article about genres, I understand it but I can’t pinpoint want the genre is because there wasn’t a list to help classify if it already exists or doesn’t. For me, it seems like it could fall into a genre similar to the way “The Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao”. Those type of genres interest me about I like to feel like I am talking to the writer, gives a better connection.