blog #18 Public Speaking

Public speaking is a major fear in the United States. I do not have any apprehensions about presenting. This is because I am taking a public speaking class which helps. In the class we give speeches and have to do presentations almost every week. Two ways to get over the fear are to be relaxed and talk to the audience like they are friends. These make the speech more relaxing for a speaker and then it flows better. 

Blog #17 Cartoon

Who has never been confused when they walk into a bookstore? I know I have been lost and end up wandering around the aisles looking for someone to point me in the right direction. It is so confusing! It’s like walking in New York City and being utterly lost. Bookstores should be broken down into better groupings. The picture on page 374 of Successful College Writing shows a man looking at a book case that says Attention Span on top and is broken down into short, medium, and long books. I find this funny, yet surprisingly accurate for today’s society. I think it is a good way for today’s reader to use a bookstore. Most people don’t want a long book; therefore breaking it down to short, medium and long is helpful. So the perfect bookstore would be walking in a guide (similar to the mall directories) right in the front then each genre of books would be separated by length and then in alphabetical order. I feel this would be the best way to have a bookstore organized. Now people won’t wander around aimlessly trying to find the right book.

blog #16 Tipping Point

The Tipping Point explains the phenomenon of epidemics. The author delves into the research and different aspects of epidemics. Although the book was researched very well and explained in detail, it concerned me that the author kept using example after example and jumped around a lot. It was very confusing and annoying as a reader to jump from illnesses to children’s shows to crime to fashion. It lost me with so many examples. Also there was too much research for my liking. It was similar to reading a research paper, not very entertaining. I was impressed with the authors enthusiasm for the subject. Obviously he had to be interested with epidemics and what he was writing about. I could almost sense his excitement when reading about his findings. I wish in my writing I could have the reader feel my excitement. The Tipping Point was a confusing book with to much information, but was written with an excitement and passion of its’ subject. 

Blog #15 Two Goals

Writing papers is not an easy task. Now that I am starting my second, I have set some goals to work on so I can improve my writing skills and get a better grade. My two goals are to write a paper with concrete evidence that backs up my main idea and with descriptive details that really entice the reader to keep reading. To achieve my first goal, I will make sure my evidence backs up my thesis and makes sense with the rest of my paper. By proofreading my paper and reading my sources more than a couple times, I will be able to have the best evidence possible. To achieve my second goal, I will use the saying “show me, don’t tell me.” By having different people proofread my essay, I should be able to make it as descriptive as possible. This is how I plan to do better on my second multi-draft paper and make it better with these two goals I set for myself.