The finale

Reviewing my ePortfolio and remembering the time I put into it, the progression of my digital writing ability seemed very clear. From the first round of blogs to this reflection, I went from not understanding the boundaries the defined a blog post, to being comfortable in expressing my ideas and thoughts in the first person format, which I am not used to since we do not typically write in that fashion.

In terms of my portfolio's contents, I am only missing one of the assigned posts (which I forgot about during in the midst of the second common exam period), so for that I feel that I deserve a B grade on my portfolio. However, the progression of my research paper is very clear, thanks to the help of Professor Kein making the objectives easy to see, so I believe I have earned an A grade for that category. 

In terms of both the personal and reading reflections, I feel I have earned an A grade in those categories as well. Looking through my blog posts, I know that I put my honest opinions and thoughts into the posts, and I can see that as well stepping out of my own shoes and looking at it as an outsider. The same goes for my personal reflection on my research process, because I did not mince words with myself and tried to criticize myself by picking out my weakest points during the research process.

Though during the semester, through the workload of every class I did not think so, the experience in HUM102 improved my abilities as student, writer, and a researcher. The sheer amount of reading assignments and reflections taught me how to churn out work of the highest quality I could produce as efficiently as possible, which is an invaluable skill both in the English classroom, and in any. Annotated bibliographies and thorough research for this project in conjunction with the showcase taught me how to really utilize databases and sources that I find are applicable to my thesis statements.

Though I complained about it during the course of the semester, looking back now, all of the times I spent grinding through work for not in vain, as they helped turn me into a student that a younger version of myself didn't know he could become.

Showcase and Improv Program Reflections

As Freshman year winds down, and the Showcase and Improv programs have been completed, I have a better understanding of what those two were trying to accomplish, and with that, can offer an insightful reflection.

Though the Showcase was useful and quite fun for presenting to an audience outside our usual classmates, specifically for Chemical Engineers, I believe the showcase was nothing more than an empty assignment. It is difficult for freshman students who have just started their college career in a major as broad as chemical engineering to come up with methods within the discipline to better the planet, especially when 90% of our courses are general university requirements, and no seriously applicable ChE courses taken yet.

Improv was a lot of fun. It offered a way to decompress during stressful times of the week, and provided an alternative way to exercise the mind so we could handle the rest of our day with heightened focus.

Economic Mobility and Happiness

After reading Arthur C. Brooks' "The Left's 'Inequality' Obsession", I am only further convinced that the amount of money a person has does not affect his or her way of life nearly as much as his or her quality of life. In the article, Brooks uses reported results of surveys of people claiming how happy they were in given circumstances.

Reading this article also strengthened Charles Murray's argument in his piece "What's so Bad about Being Poor?", where he compares the happiness of poor people in America to those living in huts in the ricelands of Thailand. Those in Thailand had a higher quality of life, so despite having much less money than the poor people of America, they were almost all much happier than those living in poverty here. And in the surveys conducted, a majority of the participants said they were much happier knowing that their families had a chance to move up economic ranks in this country. So with that information, the most positive and useful piece of help I can leave everyone with is:

Serving in Florida

The fact that poverty is a problem in America is common knowledge. However, simply just talking about it doesn't help, which is why Barbara Ehrenreich's social experiment where she spends a month living from check to check in her piece, "Nickled and Dimed". She documents all of her experiences within the month, from looking for living quarters with the cheapest rent, to working two jobs and eventually cracking under pressure.

Through just her writing alone, the stresses and pressures of being a low-wage worker in America are incredibly clear. She begins by writing about the ideas behind her decision to perform this experiment, to frantically describing all of the work she does in a short work-shift, to closing out by briefly describing the state of her coworkers as she ended the experiment. To see a change like that is truly disheartening, but one thing that stuck out to me was Barbara's and her coworkers' ability to help each other and the customers out whenever they could, whether it meant giving them extra food, or taking money out of their own tips to pay for a meal. Despite poor living standards, they seem to be able to be selfless regardless of that fact. Perhaps the awareness of all of their situations produces a sense of humility that people who are used to higher salaries take for granted.

Reverse Outline

I annotated this through the eyes of another reader. 

Conclusion

     As we continue to advance as a species, we will continue to create great things that require our whole focus, thereby forgetting about the footprint we leave behind. Trash may not be a delightful thought, but its derivatives are even less so. Understanding the different types of waste and what they can do to us should drive us to consider our footprint a little more heavily, and do the world and everyone in it a favor by treating trash a little more seriously than just trash.

-       Must fix the first-person speech

-       Wraps up thesis of the essay?

Body paragraphs + ideas

-       Body Paragraph 1

o   Waste exists because we create it.

§  Breaks down different types of waste

-       Body Paragraph 2

o   The extent of the waste process that the normal American sees usually does not go far beyond putting the trash bin on the curb, and knowing the a garbage truck will pick it up to dump it in a landfill somewhere

§  Mentions what it would take to improve air quality

§  Does not go very deep into the current quality of air or how badly waste affects us now

-       Body Paragraphs 3 and 4

o   Rather than dispose of waste more efficiently, people have tried using excessive amounts of waste as a resource instead.

§  Introduces two successful methods that have been used to manage/utilize trash

o   These two methods are successful examples of what efficiency in waste treatment can achieve

§  Breaks down the ideas introduced in the previous paragraph, and author shares his own ideas

Thesis

Trash is very harmful to our environment, therefore it is in our best interest to understand the types of waste we produce, how it affects us, and explore methods to treat solid waste as efficiently as possible.

Peer Review I Received

Dear Mr. Akdemir, 

Overall this paper was great. I really liked how you stayed on topic on each paragraph. However, I noticed that you didn't really explain why this should receive more attention or what we can do to help reduce the problem of solid wastes. Furthermore, everything else is good and i really liked how you started your introduction.

Sincerely, 

Review to Gianni from Me

Gianni,

I just finished reading your paper. Aside from mechanical errors (speaking in 1st person, in text citations which you mentioned, and other minor things), the main thing that I saw that needs fixing was expanding on your own ideas, rather than just listing studies that agree with you. If you just further expand on your thoughts and fix the grammatical errors, this can be a great paper.

Best of luck,

Steven