PB's, WP's, & Thlogs (Writing)

   In this course, I have been working on the PB's and WP's, and I have found that they really do help me understand writing. The PB's help me to discover different topics and analyze them in many different ways. It also helps me to take a look at different textual genres from a variety of perspectives and that has helped me a lot. Doing the PB's also help me with the WP's which are a bit more challenging.

     The WP's, however, I do find myself having a hard time trying to stay on track in my essays. Trying to tie our course readings, with different perspectives from different people, while still trying to make my argument can be a bit overwhelming. Though, the PB's have been helping me with that, they are like guides for me on the WP's. PB's have been really helpfully to me during this course.

     Writing thlogs also help me to get things off my chest, like talking about what I don't understand, or talk about certain things that I have a hard time with in this class. It also gives me a chance to talk about things that I do understand and what I'm getting better at. I think thlogs are probably the most helpful thing in this course and I'm glad to be able to use them as a resource.

Septa Strike!! (PB2B)

   The Septa strike was a very serious situation. Traffic was crazy, people who needed public transportation were having a hard time getting around, and caused a lot of commotion in Philadelphia. It was very sudden and very unexpected, and a lot of people were effected, some more than others. However, the ones that were hit the most by this strike are what is called, the "players", and I will be focusing on them.

     There are many possible players that were effected. College students, the disabled, those who can only travel by public transportation, the septa drivers, and even those who drive for Uber and Lyft. All of these players play a role in this situation: 

• College students that travel using Septa will have a hard time getting to class if they can even get to class. Classes being canceled or students missing classes are things that happened while Septa was down. 

• People who are disabled will have a hard time getting places like work or to go run errands. Just like regular people, those who are disabled also have things to go do and take care of. If they can't go and do certain things or go where they need to go, it can have pretty bad effects on their lives.

• The septa drivers were effected because, well, they were on strike because their benefits were getting taken away. Also during their strike, they probably were not getting paid or getting less pay because they were not working during this time period.

• People who only travel using public transportation were definitely effected because people have jobs and, or businesses to run. Certain appointments that people have made they probably did not make it.

1. Also certain businesses were effected during the strike. Losing customers and losing money was a factor in all of this.

• Uber and Lyft drivers were effected because since septa was down, they got more business and made a lot more money because so many more people were using both Uber and Lyft during this time period.

1. Other than the drivers, the people using Uber and Lyft were also effected because the prices did rise by ten dollars during the strike.

     These were all of the players that were effected during the septa strike.

Skimming & Scanning (Reading)

  Sometimes, I get lazy when it comes to reading. Reading word for word. Paragraph to paragraph. Sentence to sentence. When reading a long article, text, or even a blog, it can be a bit much to handle, well unless of course I'm reading something that a really like, than it is not really a problem. However, when I find myself reading a long article that I, am not a fan of, I skim or scan through the article in order to find the main point in the text.

     Skimming a text means to read a text quickly to get a general idea of the text. I use this strategy when I'm reading a text of some sort and I just want to find the the main point of the text without having to read it word for word. Next, scanning a text means to read a text quickly in order to find specific information and data, to avoid the stress of reading the whole text. I use this strategy for when I need to find important information within a text.

     Skimming and scanning are two strategies I use when I need to gain knowledge of a text quickly. This has helped me get through course readings faster than usual. It also helps me write my papers a lot quicker as well, this is something that will help me in other classes and I can take with me after this course.

Spotting And Evaluating..."Moves" (PB2A)

 In this project builder, I will be spotting and evaluating the moves of Will Greenwald in his article Brookstone Axent Wear Cat Ear Headphones.In his article, before he starts, he has a picture of the actual headphones at the beginning of his article. I call this the "Eye Candy Move". In some articles, people do not use pictures, but perhaps Greenwald uses this move to grab the attention of the readers and make his article look good. Next, under the picture, he has three columns titled "Pros", "Cons", and "Bottom Line" with details according to each title. I call this the "Pre-Review Move".

 He basically gives a short summary before the article even starts. He might be using this move for those who do not feel like reading and would rather not have to look through a bunch of details about the headphones. The last move that I would like to point out, is when he mentions that even when the base of a song is set to maximum and the volume is also set to maximum volume, the headphone speakers did blow out during the song. I call this the "Impressive Credibility Move". He uses this move to show what this item can do and why it is worth buying. Even though he did mention the good things about the headphones, overall, his article was more of a critical review, he mentions a lot of cons and negatives about the headphones.

     There are some details he gives about the headphones. He talks about how the sound quality is not that great and that the speakers on the ears are not very useful. This is the "Establishing Why Your Claims Matter Move". In his article, he is basically giving a critical review on the headphones and was making claims that the sound quality is not great and the speakers in the ears were not to useful multiple times, but yet he does mention that the headphones do work well at high volume.

Reading Like A Writer (Reading)

     In this thlog, I would like to talk about how my reading has developed so far in this course. In this course, I am learning how to read like a writer. With this strategy, I can look at certain things from a writers perspective. This is something that I can take with me after this course and it will help me in other classes. This strategy has also helped me to get a better understanding on the articles that we have been been reading in class. I'm finding it to be a lot more effective compared to how I used to read.

     Reading like a writer has also helped me to spot certain "moves" that writers make in there writing. This helps me because this can help me with my own writing so I can make my own "moves" and use them effectively. When I read some of the articles that was given to me in class, I find myself being able to pin-point certain conventions a lot more quickly than I used to. Plus it's kind of fun to be able to find them and compare different ones together to see which the best out of them.

     Finally, reading like a writer has helped me with the course readings in class. When I first started this course, I was having a hard time in class, but after taking a look at some of the conventions we go over in class, I was no longer stuck and I was able to move forward in the class.