Blog Review: Cougars

Benjamin Weakland
Blog Review

       The EngCougar blog has a very interesting name. If they're referring to the animal, then the posts have my full attention.
        I may not have looked hard enough, but there was one group member who didn't have any posts. That person could have just wrote out all of their assignments so far, like I currently have for this class. That is my only constructive criticism, making sure that all group members post on the blog.
        This blog has quality. I wasn't expecting the organization to be the quality that it was. There is an archive of the member's blog posts that will take me there with a simple click. The posts are frequent and not too frequent. It's not like there needs to be a post every day, but the time span is where it should be. Each blogger has a different and unique voice. I didn't feel like I was reading the same thing over and over again. Some of the posts were pretty feisty, but I suppose that is good, since cougars typically are feisty. It is hard to determine how much passion is in each blog post, but the blog posts that I read seemed legit and didn't bore me. Each writing style is also unique. Every person has a differen't feeling in the writing that isn't identical to the others. The writing on the blogs was interesting. Some of the posts might have seemed generic, but when I read them, there was more soul in the writing than what I expected.
        This blog is definitely user friendly. I'm sure both males and females will read this blog, due to the title. I Googled "cougar" and learned that they live in North America. I also live in North America. Because this blog relates to an interesting wild animal predator, there's no reason to not read this blog.
        I found the blog user-friendly. The layout was fine, because it had the right amount of detail. There wasn't too much detail and there was enough to keep my focus on the blog posts. Originality is a key component. The posts were from the blogger and not another source from the internet.
        Overall, this blog is better than the average blog. I have come across a couple of uninteresting blogs. This one has quality and thankfully wasn't boring. Good job to you, Cougar Team!





















http://alloveralbany.com/images/cabelas_cougar_killing_deer.jpg

Student Blog Battle!

Blog vs. Blog: Battle One!

Today's in-class assignment was one of choice, review, and criticism(constructive). I was task with choosing a blog from another one of my professors classes. Then I was told to take it apart, sentence by sentence, word by word, and even die-sect their layout and originality. 

Like a Sith apprentice I disemboweled my fellow students' blog and came up with this review of WordExplosions.blogspot.com.

RATING SCALE: Not Awesome(NA) /"So-So"Awesome(SS)/ Awesome(A)/ Way Awesome(WA)/Totally Awesome(TA).

 

1. Frequency of postings: The blog has been active for 20 days now with several postings but only on three different dates, each about one week apart. The infrequency of posts would lower their awesome score but each member of the blog post on these dates. FREQUENCY: SS

2. Voice: Each member of the blog has a different writing style although many of the blogs are about the same subject/topic. VOICE: A

3. Passion/Expertise: The Blog has a feeling of passion as the writers appear to be unafraid to write boldly and at length about the subjects in creative and personal details. PASSION: WA

4. Good Writing: Well cited, descriptive, and accurate. WRITING: A

5. Aesthetics:The Blog allows for the users choice in layout which is convenient but the graphics and illustrations could be more interesting. AESTHETICS: SS

6. User-Friendly: The users choice in layout makes the blog easily navigable and easy to read. USER:A   

 

Written By: Ahnun Brainerd

    

           

Quality Criteria: AKA121

Photo by Dinuraj K

Out of the list of blogs given, I picked AKA121. The title of the blog doesn't particularly stand out. The following is my quality criteria.

• Voice: 7
•   The authors of this blog each have a voice of their own, but not many of them are very engaging or exciting.
• Passion/Expertise: 7
• Though the authors have an idea of what they are talking about, they are not very passionate to write a blog for an English class.
• Clarity/Organization: 10
•  The blog itself is very simple and organized. The blog posts vary in structure only slightly depending on the subject and the included picture is always at the end.
• Aesthetically Pleasing: 7
•  The blog isn't displeasing to look at but it could definitely look nicer. The authors could try to learn the software a bit better and use text links instead of copying and pasting links into the blog so crudely.
• User Friendly: 10
•  The blog layout isn't very complicated and the stark, simple black text on a white background is easy to read.
• Interesting/Original: 7
•  It's hard to be interesting and original with a topic that the authors don't find particularly interesting but the pictures used in the blog definitely help draw interest to the blog. In fact, my favorite part of this blog happens to be the pictures.
• Relevance: 10
•  The posts seem to follow the class and are completely relevant to what I am experiencing in the same class on a different day.
• Frequency: 6
•  The authors are not posting every day, they only seem to post weekly at most. Though it seems to yet again exactly follow the schedule of my class.
• Good Writing: 8
• The writing on this blog is fairly simple and straight forward. It's somewhat bland in most posts but there are some posts where the writing is more thought out, careful, and fluent.

AKA121 isn't a bad blog but considering the content and the visual of it, I personally would not follow it.

Review of CAAS121 Blog

Photo Credit to AACRAO Consulting

Constructive Criticism: CAAS 121 is very detailed and organized in all of their blog posts. By being so organized, these bloggers make it easier for the reader to navigate the page and find what they really want to read. There was not a lot of color or objects, which hurt these bloggers because it made the blog appear a little boring as a whole. All together this blog was put together nicely and was updated frequently, showing that each blogger is actively posting.

Blog Quality Criteria (1-10):

Voice: 4 As a whole, this blog lacks luster when it comes to voice. They are very thorough and serious in their writing, but not very descriptive or enthusiastic which in return brought the voice score below the average 5.

Passion/ Expertise: 7 It was apparent that the bloggers in this group know what they are talking about, and understand the material that they have learned so far. Due to this, their expertise score was raised above a 5, but their writing didn't make it apparent that they were extreamly passionate about their topics, so I was unable to raise the score above a 7.

Clarity/ Organization: 10 Clarity and organization is what made this blog great. The blog as a whole was friendly to the eye and easy to navigate making my score here a perfect 10, there is not much more they could do to make their blog more organized or clear.

Aesthetically Pleasing: 4 By the looks alone of this blog many people will skip over it and move on to another one. There is not much visually to the blog except for a few pictures in a couple posts. If they added some more pictures and color to the blog my score would raise to above a 5, but because it was pretty bland I had to give a score below a 5.

User Friendly: 9 There are seperate links on this blog so that the reader can see the topics they have blogged about and then choose which one they want to read and easily find it by clicking on the link. Because it was easy to find each topic on this blog I gave this category a high score of a 9.



Photo Credit to Johns Hopkins University

Interesting/ Original: 5 They were pretty average when it came to originality and how interesting the blog is. There was nothing that made it super original, but also nothing that made it completely uninteresting, so I gave this components an overall score of a 5.

Relevence: 9 The blogger were very relevent in their writing. They alway wrote, and wrote in depth, about each topic we have been discussing in class which increased their relevance score to a 9.

Frequency: 9 It is apparent that each blogger has been doing their assigned posts and doing them in a timely manner. They have posted about each topic we hvae done so far as well as discussed each topic thoroughly. Due to this I gave them a frequency score of 9.

Good Writing: 7 Finally, the writing was all pretty much grammatically correct and punctuations looked fantastic which increased this groups score above a 5. On the other hand, because there was hardly any voice in their posts I did decrease the score to only a 7.


By: Sydney Evans

Bloggin' Hard or Hardly Bloggin4ENG121

Most immediately striking about Bloggin4ENG121 is it's minimalist aesthetic. With a blank background, basic text coloring and a healthy amount of negative space in between images, bloggin4eng121 sets an unprecedented, dare i say inspirational, standard for not trying hard. But if this most apparent level of blunt-force minimalism isn't enough to prove that it's creators aren't way too cool for school, the total absence of uniformity in font should be enough to tip any proverbial scales.

In terms of actual content, i'm finding myself digging deeply through Bloggin4ENG121's comprehensive and complete archives, mostly in the interest of finding posts that are not also blog reviews. The writing I've found therein is clean as it is accurate to the subject matter it focuses on. Though as proficient as the writing may be, abrupt breaks in front mid-post can be somewhat disruptive to the flow of the actual writing.

Seamless incorporation of images into every post is another hallmark of Bloggin4ENG121. Fancy text wrapping and total displacement with the images ensure that the actual writing goes uninterrupted by required visuals. Beneath each lies a proper citation, ensuring full points with minimal obstruction of the actual writing.

http://www.quickmeme.com/img/8f/8fc1ca3c719455b43670ca7dd37387a25605baf19b094da17b305685cd0f02ca.jpg

Lifosuction Questions

Cullen Murphy's thesis seems to portray the idea that we're used to people adding fake information to their resumes to heighten the image of themselves. People also detract information from their resume to appear more humble. It's not always a bad idea to detract information in order to appear more relatable.
There seem to be approximately 19 examples in this essay.

Reading Closely and Thinking Critically: 

1. People engage in lifosuction to appear as or closer to the average Joe and appear more relatable.
2. It's easier to completely omit information than to explain it to public. He believes that it is commonplace in society today to use lifosuction but he believes maybe people should expose even less about themselves. He states, "Rather than discourage lifosuction, perhaps we should encourage people to subtract even more about themselves from the public view than they currently do" (253).
3. Yes they do. Some of the omitted truth can cause greater harm even though it may have been unintentional.
4. Most public officials delete information to appear more relatable to the public majority.
5. Even though his degree was only a 2 year degree, he still chose to omit that information to relate to his constituents, resulting in his 3rd return to office by reelection.

Examining Structure and Strategy:

1. Public figures use omission to establish increased perceived credibility. Paragraph 2 best displays this thesis.
2. The tone is moderately serious but mockingly rhetorical and it stays pretty consistent throughout the piece.
3. The idea of resume-padding helps to give an issue to contrast the main point of lifosuction to the traditional method of adding false information to someone's biography.
4. In all paragraphs but the first and second, Murphy uses topic sentences to introduce the supporting subject of each.
5. He used subject, verb, object in his examples.

Considering Language and Style:

1. It's clever for the essay because the removal of facts from one's life is to the removal of fat from one's body.
2. Word definitions:

• Tribune: a person who upholds or defends the rights of the people
• Dint: mark (a surface) with impressions or hollows
• Cadre: a small group of people specially trained for a particular purpose or profession
• Pugilist: a boxer, especially a professional one
• Proletariat: workers or working-class people, regarded collectively (often used with reference to Marxism)

By:
Sierra Baumann (Sometimes a lie is better than the truth)
Sydney Evans ( Purchasing something pretty will make you pretty as well.)
Ahnun Brainerd (life is better with a dog)

Exemplification

            Chapter 7 proved to me that organizing details in an exemplification essay is actually very important, even if it is just a small aspect of writing an essay. From this I learned that there are multiple orders of organization, progressive order, chronological order, and spatial order. I was also interested in examining visuals, which was exemplification in a cartoon. This proved to me that exemplification and generalization can be formed anywhere, not just in essays, such as in a cartoon.

Photo Credit to COMNERD.ORG

            Throughout this chapter, I believe that students are supposed to learn and understand exemplification, and how to clarify, support, or explain a generalization they might make. By supporting generalizations writers will be able to better inform and persuade their readers. Also, this chapter aims to show how exemplification can be used in many ways, and not just forms of writing, like an essay. Finally, details and visualization are key concepts to help explain exemplification, and students need to know what kinds of details and visuals to use, when to use them, and how to organize them. By providing many examples, this chapter helps paint an image in a student’s mind of what exemplification looks like, so they can better understand how to use it.

By: Sydney Evans

Works Cited: 
COMNERD.ORG. Digital image. PR Examples. N.p., 28 

          Sept. 2013. Web. 18 Sept. 2014

A brief view o' chapter VI

Chapter VI: A narrative in narration.

In chapter 6, the book breaks down what it is to create a narrative essay. The text state that a narrative essay should recount an event which should change the readers personal opinion about someone or something. These events can include dialog of individuals or personal memories and events, but must answer the "who, what, where, when, and why?" The chapter continues with the importance of past/present tense and transition worlds, in conjunction with organizational methods and critical analysis techniques, to create a more effective essay.

The text book stresses the use of personal experiences, both humorous and tragic, to help establish entertainment value to the reader, as well as, project the writers feelings through strong descriptive details. Including these experiences in an essay also creates a "cause and effect" to further perpetuate the writers narrative.(Sally got gun in her hair so she had to got a hair cut).    

  All essays need supporting details so a narrative is no different. The chapter explains that the supporting details in a narrative essay are the "who, what, where, when, and why", all of which should come from a personal event or experience. The use of dialog between subjects can enhance a readers immersion but be aware of tense shifts (go, going, gone).

The chapter goes on to articulate the subtle importance of  organization and how critically thinking about one's essay can improve its reading value. Analyzing the essay for fiction or consistency, determining the writers intent, and if the essay is even entertaining are all critical questions a writer should ask themselves.

Overall, chapter 6 was not only successful in relaying the importance of a narrative essay but also explained the methods to create a truly entertaining and informative story.

How the Elements of Art are Used

Oil Painting of the Venice Canal

Although this painting isn't a line painting, the use of line is prominent in the foreground. Line is visible in the water and to create highlights on the people and objects cast by the explosion. Shape is more commonly used to describe the subject matter. It emphasizes the stature of the characters as well as the instability of the situation with the curve in the poles.

The painting is comprised of mostly warm colors to express the visual aspects of the explosion, though it is laced with cool colors to describe the time placement of the explosion and smoke.The texture is very organic, displaying the rough texture of the wooden boats and the smoothness of the water. There is a vary large contrast between the lights and shadows of the piece, making the scene more dramatic.

This piece is an impressionist oil painting and is very well balanced. It has visual ques, imaginary arrows pointing in from the left and right sides, towards the center of the piece.

Overall, with the use of the elements of arts, our focus is drawn to the excitement of the middle of the painting,filling us with emotions of danger and urgency towards the explosion.

By: Sierra Baumann, Sydney Evans, Ahnun Brainerd, Ben Weakland

Can Fools Really See?

Logical Fallacies.

Photo Courtesy of Banksy (Probably)

They're annoying and misleading unless you know how to catch them.

The "as any fool can see" approach may be the most irritating of all the fallacies. This approach assumes that everyone will agree with the idea and those who don't are uninformed or unintelligent. In writing, the best approach to avoid this fallacy is to assume that the reader does not know anything about the topic and may not agree with you. In reading, the most logical way to not be persuaded  by this fallacy is to question every "fact" which might actually be the authors opinion.

By: Sierra Baumann; Sydney Evans:, Ahnun Brainerd, Ben Weakland, Connor Hicks

NerdsinBabeland Blog Review

Image courtesy of NerdsinBabeland

Comic books have been popular in the nerd culture for decades, spawning many fanatics to write blogs with their opinions. NerdsinBabeland is a blog dedicated to reviewing comics (both mainstream and obscure) as well as popular TV series. Is this blog worth looking at?

What makes this blog interesting is that it's relatable to both younger and older generations of the science fiction fan-base. It reviews comics and shows like Star Trek, Star Wars, and even Sailor Moon in addition to other various titles. In one post it even goes as far as to give advice in "How to Date a Non-Nerd". Despite how ridiculous "How to Date a Non-Nerd" sounds, the majority of the blog posts are serious, critically reviewing and aptly informed.

Our Quality Critique:

• Voice: 6

The voice was informative and straightforward but lacks color.

• Passion/Expertise: 9

The contributors are very educated on the subject of their choosing, showing their underlying passion for it.

• Clarity/Organization: 7

The blog is average but straightforward for a typical blog.

• Aesthetically Pleasing: 5

The layout of the blog is simple, almost boring.

• User Friendly: 9

It's easy to access and to navigate for a new blog user.

• Interesting/Original: 6

The content is interesting but not all that original in comparison to other nerd review blogs.

• Relevance: 8

The contents of this blog is high for the target demographic.

• Frequency: 4

For the amount of contributors of the blog, the frequency of posts were low, posting weekly to bi-weekly.

• Good Writing: 7

The writing was well though out and informative, but lacked entertainment value, color.

By: Sierra Baumann, Sydney Evans, Ahnun Brainerd, Benjain Weakland

Detailed and Relatable Writing (Chapter 5)

            Chapter 5 was extremely descriptive and had a step by step format which made it easier to understand and think of how I could apply it to my own writing. The section titled Examining Visuals was very intriguing for my personally because I am more of a visual and hands on learner, so, I was able to relate to this section more than others. Because this section was more relatable, it was also more exciting to read about and see how I could use visuals in my own writing. This chapter also provided many examples with the writing pieces it provided which also made it more interesting to read as compared to previous chapters. Finally, another section that stood out to me was how to avoid clichés. I hadn’t really thought about how a writer could go to clichés to fill in or back-up what they are writing about, even when they are trying to avoid them. So, this section was interesting to read about in how to avoid them and the websites one can go to specifically for that purpose.

                Because this chapter was very engaging and detailed, a student will be able to relate better on how the author explains to be descriptive in witting. With that, students will more likely be able to organize their essays better as well as find the purpose of their writing with more ease. This chapter also provided websites specifically for students to go to in order to better their writing and closely look at the details of their writing. Therefore, overall chapter 5 aimed to help students take a closer look at each aspect of their writing and gave examples of what well-written pieces look like and what steps to take in order for students to get their writing looking like the examples in the chapter.

Works Cited: Morning Rituals of Successful People. Digital image. Gerilyn Hayes. N.p., 16

 Feb. 2014. Web.

By: Sydney Evans

Descriptions: What do They DO for Us?

Descriptions. Those important little bits of writing that bring our five senses to life. They paint images in and induce feelings in a way the author intends. For a writer, descriptions are like paint to an artist or chisels to a sculptor. Without them, reading would be like looking at a grayscale world.

Image Courtesy of ninjatic (Deviant Art)

A writer who uses interesting descriptive words can paint scenes like ninjatic's Man o War (pictured above) through our mind's eye, using descriptions like, "the waves lapped at the shore, beating against the tired man as he shoved the tiny boat further ashore, into the coarse sand."  It's astonishing how words can bring images to life.

Chapter 5 of "Patterns for a Purpose" gives me a closer idea in how to utilize words in a way I was unaware of until today. The chapter described satisfactory ways to use descriptions. Personally, I found the section on specific words intriguing and enlightening. Never before had I really understood the differences between words like 'show' and 'flaunt.' The word 'flaunt' is definitely more interesting than 'show' because 'flaunt' is specific in how it describes the given situation, where as 'show' gives a broader sense of the same scene and doesn't engage the reader's mind. The chapter also points out different sites to help spice up your writing, but one in particular caught my attention. OneLook Reverse Dictionary is a place to find words or phrases when you have the definition. Quite often when I'm writing, I get stuck in the middle of a sentence, knowing what I want to say, but not the words to convey it with. It will be a great help in order to avoid using words that just don't quite fit.

I will never look at descriptive words the same way. Through the enlightenment chapter 5 has given me, words have become a new medium to represent infinite wonder and intrigue.

By Sierra Baumann