Ashley Full Review

ASUTrackASH

First in reading your intro, I can tell you are very intelligent and must be knowledgeable about a lot of our topics just based on your majors. I noticed right off the bat that you like to include your opinion and apply it to the reading, but you do so very well. That must come from the Political Science side of you. You really integrate it well in posts like “End of Humans: World of Humans” and many of the other earlier blogs. I especially like how in this piece you use a comparison to get the readers attention. I like how you take the time to introduce your idea and then support it with fine detail. You also avoid vague wording and it keeps your posts direct, informative and entertaining.

The post “Leave Marriage Alone” brings up some interesting ideas that I haven’t found in some other work. I like your paragraph including Darwin and how you address evolution in right and wrong in humans. This blog is full of interesting and well-written opinions supported by facts. Also a great candidate for elaboration could be “Breast Milk Just for Babies, Not Anymore”. This blog includes aspects of culture, technology, and human sexuality that could be added to in your final paper, not to mention it is very intriguing. I think your style in this piece and the interesting topic keeps the reader locked in.

Another favorite of mine was “Don’t Compare Yourself to Others, Even Animals” I think you point out many fallacies in the argument that humans are like animals by bringing our conscious and conscience into the picture. Moving on to more recent work, in “How Much Would You Pay For My Name on Your Chest” raises some interesting questions about American values and priorities. I think that materialism will continue to grow as long as business profit. I think this goes along well with your posts on “The Secret Control of the Japanese on American Music Industry”. It all comes down to money. I think you could combine some of these posts into one larger essay for your final project and use American Culture and money as a topic.

In regards to your work as a whole, you are already a very talented writer. I think as long as you pic a topic you are invested in and can find information on, you could use just about any of these as grounds for another paper, good luck!

Jess Full Review

These Words They Are My Own

First off, I love your festive background! I am also majoring in SHS and love how you have so many other interests like human development or Dance, your well roundedness shows in your blogs too. Even from the beginning I noticed you are a storyteller! From “Self” to “Yes We Can” I can sense this style or writing, which really helps the reader get to know your voice.

I like the ideas your proposed in “So…Can They” I think you made a great argument and supported it with the text. I think everyone’s “Consciousness” articles are great because we all have different definitions and opinions about it. Your post about “The Men of Glee” was also affective. They really explore gender roles and clichés in this series and your explained it perfectly. I think you could apply your ideas about gender roles and stereotypes seen in TV to an essay if you haven’t already explored this for a paper. This also links to “Heterosexual Idealism” and the influence of Media on the homosexual community. I know American media has changed drastically. You may want to look at if media fallows the expansion of homosexuals or if more homosexuals come out because of the acceptance in the media, could make an interesting paper topic as well.

“Evolution of Relationships” was also interesting. I can tell it is something that interests you just by how you explain things. I think the points you bring up in your final paragraph are interesting and new ideas other people might not have thought about before. You can also link your idea of choosing a partner with the same goals as you have to your “My Chemical Romance” blog. You have great support to your ideas. More recently “Two Views, One Country” was very interesting and detailed. I think over the past few months you have really developed your tone and direction in your blogs, good luck on your final!

Diedre Full Review

Balls Broadcasting and Between

I loved reading your into, you have a lot going on between tennis and double majoring. I am surprised you had time for this class; I know it took more effort than I had expected! You have a great life goal and I was excited to read your blogs.

All of your early blogs are great but I really saw you shine when I reached “Is he Wright”. You incorporated your research and opinion well and you brought some great ideas to the table. I love how you brought religion into this because it brings up the whole idea of a soul. If you wanted to elaborate more on this idea of robots and eternity in one of my cultural geography classes my teacher presented Blade Runner, a movie about robots who think they are humans and want eternal life and other qualities, there is a lot of information on the theories presented in this movie that would help you evolve this blog into an essay.

"Nuclear Family Split" was also worthy of note. I liked how you brought social influence up and used it in this essay. Sometimes it is interesting to look at changes in American culture and how those changes have affected subcultures. “What is Natural” was so interesting to me. It is very smart to bring new ideas not introduced in the text to a blog. You introduce some interesting questions that could be addressed in an essay. Should what natural for animals be natural for humans; aren’t we more “evolved”.

I think a big highlight was “Relationships: Largely Dependent on Belief”. Your writing style was aggressive and direct and made the reader understand what your points were. I also thought, “Want a fun day? Simply pay 4.75 via E-Z pass” was very comical and showed your personality and creativity. A more recent hit was “Yes or No to Gov’t control;” I think this would make a great essay if you didn’t use it already. I think you could easily explore the bounds of Government control in a well-crafted essay and express your ideas about limiting and empowering the government.

All in all I think you really developed and if you chose to reinvent one of your older posts you could put a lot more into it now. I would point out that in your blogs you could use a more developed intro and conclusion but in recent posts you have been really incorporating organization into your blogs. I also enjoy all of yoru witty titles, good work!

Week 12 Blog Reviews, a little late is better than never at all!

Didn't realize we had blog reviews due on the same day as Essay 3's rough draft, these probably wouldn't have helped with the paper but maybe in your final essay!

Kayla

"The New Science of Finance"

I think you did a very good job in summarizing the history and development of finance. I agree most everyone would define it as "money" and money affects everything in our society today, as evidence by other articles we have read. I think you could elaborate on this a lot for a final essay by adding a lot of your own opinions on how money is important and how therefor finance is even more so important. your opinions on the government were very interesting and you used great support from the text. Sorry about being late hope this helps you in your final essay. You are great keep up the good work.

Victoria

I love how how made "finance" an opinion piece, you did a great job is including new ideas and using ideas from the text. I think either of these could be used in your final if you wanted to find sources and support. Your article on cryptography is also very interesting and you could easily go into the consequences of loosening laws regarding it. I like your personal touches and think no matter which way you go you will do fine! Sorry for being late good luck!

Financial Development

Finance is defined as “the study of money and how it is invested”, but in reality finance is so much more complex (Change and Peterson 447). The creation of this discipline arose like any other academic field, because there was a need within society to understand and develop a practice for investing money. There is a pattern in the dates that major financial discoveries were made. Many of these discoveries happened during a period of economic turmoil or shortly after massive events in the U.S. Advances in technology also aided the “compilers” of finance in communication and publication of their work.

The 1980s, when Alfred Marshall discovered that money in the bank grows much faster with compound interest, were known for economic depression (Change and Peterson 448, Wikipedia). I feel that these hard times inspired Marshall as well as other pioneers of Finance to develop these methods to help the economy. The 1930s marked the beginning of the Great Depression (Wikipedia). During this time John Burr Williams applied these ideas to stock in 1930 (Change and Peterson 448). During this decade, new technologies such as intercontinental aviation and radio were also invented (Wikipedia). The combination of these events supports the idea that economic hard times inspire people to change the current circumstances.

In1959 after the Korean War and during the Cold War, Myron Gordon further developed notions of interest to the idea to dividends as well (Change and Peterson 448, Wikipedia). The late 1950s also marked the beginning steps and development of space exploration in the United States (Wikipedia). Another clue that technological growth and hard times lead to great discoveries. Another version of this idea is in 1976 right after the Vietnam War when the financial view of Brownian movement was developed. This occurred shortly after World War II as well by physicist (Change and Peterson 450).

In the face of tragedy and tough times, technology can aid and inspire change. It is my belief that all the disciplines involved in forming Finance may never have converged without having to face obstacles. Although struggles in the United States were hard for the people, great things arrived from their suffering.

Liberal Republican or Conservative Liberal: What's the difference?

This weeks reading was very interesting to me. I usually don’t like reading articles on different financial companies and ideas, but these pieces were more feature writing. To me feature writing is much more enjoyable to read than straight reporting. This Freewrite definitely peaked my interest.

Our society loves to group people. We love to put people into preexisting schemas and when they don’t fit, we place them in a miscellaneous schema. On a spectrum from no government to full government jurisdiction, like most everyone in the world, I fall somewhere in between. To explain, I will have to apply some ideology dimension information that I learned in Political Science. I think people get caught up in trying to categorize people into political parties, either the Democratic (or so called Liberals) vs. Republican (or so called conservatives). The issue is that Liberalism vs. Conservatism has more than two dimensions. Peoples political composition is much more developed. The truth is the only way to gauge political views is by looking at the many other factors. Right Wing vs. Left Wing just doesn’t fully comprehend each individual, and never has. There are other aspects and opinions to look at, like free market capitalism vs. state interventionist business. Also there are varying outlooks on personal rights vs. state rights. People, even politicians, have varying opinions of these subjects and they do not necessarily align with the two dominant political parties in the US.

I myself believe that every American has equal rights and opportunities, but some people struggle in our culture. I believe in the success of the free-market without government control. I think the government tends to limit business, and when they bail large companies out of debt, they are not doing our society any favors. I understand our economy is fragile, but if these businesses are in terminal situations it is their responsibility to get out of them. I am not saying that the government hasn’t helped the employees but to me it is a personal obligation to help others, not a government commitment. I think it is important for the government to have social programs that help adolescents start their life off right with all the available resources. I am more likely to support tuition grants that social security, but that is just my opinion. I too wouldn’t fit into a Right Wing vs. Left Wing schema because my views of capitalism would be considered conservative but I have liberal opinions about human rights and government founding. I am just one example of the millions of people who do not feel represented in our political system. I am forced to pick a party vs. a individual.

To summarize, the two-party system does not effectively reflect the views of Americans. However for now the two will have to work together and fight polarization so everyone is represented. Internally American needs to focus on changing any and all aspects that prolong the two-party system so that we can hear all the little voices over the loud isolationist tendencies that the two major parties have created.

Week 11 Blog Reviews

Victoria Presley-

Very interesting piece on immigration- I loved how you made this personal by adding information from your grandma. You’re writing style is great my only concern is with your citations. I know for your primary source, your grandma, you didn’t site her like the Hult book explains. Also, your second paragraph seems a little barrowed and could use some in-text citations. I liked how you wrapped up with a personal view though, it really supported your claims. The flow of your writing and organization is good, just work on your citations! Your materialism piece was well thought out and planned. You also brought up great points about credit and materialism as it relates to happiness. Both blogs were very interesting as always!

Kayla Smith-

As far as the Twitchell response, I like how you really took on a pro vs. con approach to this blog. I think in both paragraphs you brought up great points and applied the texts to your opinions. I think you did a great job shaping your argument here. In the Immigration Blog, you did a good job in summarizing some key issues with Native Americans and then adding your opinion. Although the summary was pretty condensed, you still hit on major areas. I think the only thing that would have improved your facts here would be to support them with quotes and information from a primary or secondary source. Always great to read your blogs!

The Luck of the Irish

The United States of America is known as a “melting pot” a place where people from every culture can blend and become one uniform group. This idea of assimilation is not a positive subject for all immigrants. For the Irish, their immigration into the United States is distinct from other groups mostly because assimilation was not their main concern. First off, their migration started long before the famine, and unlike other cultures, men and women migrated in equal numbers and few left the US once they arrived (Guinnane). Because so many individuals stayed, the Irish traditions also found their way into American life.

Their strong ties to Ireland made the cultural transition easier for Irish immigrants. Religion was a main ingredient in the Irish culture that was maintained and incorporated into the American way of life. The Irish Americans brought Catholic churches and schools with them to the United State (Guinnane). Around 50 percent of the United States Catholic population was Irish By 1900 (Guinnane).

Not only the religious aspects of the Irish were preserved. Even after the Irish had become integrated into the main aspects of American urban life and somewhat assimilated, the Irish continued to create their own neighborhoods as well. Most social interactions continued in Irish neighborhoods (Guinnane). Another reason that the Irish culture found a home within America was that the immigrants still married within their ethnicity. Among those Irishwomen who married in America, 70% married Irish-born men or the sons of Irish-born immigrants (Guinnane).

America is now looked at as a “salad” with a heterogeneous build instead of a fully assimilated melting pot. Some immigrants may have lost many aspects of their culture in the move to America. Clearly the Irish traditions and ideas immigrated to the United States with them and therefore maintained the key aspects of their way of life.

Works Cited

Guinnane, Timothy W., Carolyn M. Moehling, and Cormac Ó Gráda "The fertility of the Irish in the United States in 1910." Explorations in Economic History 43.3 (2006): 465-485. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 5 Nov. 2009.

Consumption of Consumption: Eat this.

Twitchell shines a light on the benefits of materialism in our world, especially in our country. As Americans we top the list of consumers. This way of life defines us. But would we be the powerhouse we are without the spending habits we “enjoy”? If this spending creates happiness, will our happiness spread around the world as well, or just our debt?

Could the spread of these habits increase the dept of other countries as well? As Twitchell points out, European countries frown upon our spending habits. In reality these habits allow us to have four times the amount of belongings than people in these countries (Twitchell 389). We have become so accustom to purchasing that we define ourselves by our possessions. The purchasing of “goods” has even found our ay into our social classes. Twitchell points out that “ the poor are after[…] association, affiliation, inclusion, [and]magical purpose,” all of which can be purchased in America(Twitchell 393). It is almost sad that our society is defined by money, but it is also exciting that our social classes do not limit people by race or parents occupation. With capitalism everyone has an equal shot at success.

We define people by lifestyle; good or bad, this trend is taking off (Twitchell 396). The idea of consumerism is growing as rapidly as capitalism has. Russia and China are both “playing catch up” with our expenditure (Twitchell389). It is not secret that the average American is in dept at an early age. It is not just spending habits that get us there; it is the combination of these habits and the availability of easy credit (Twitchell 392). I guess the two are both products of capitalism. Hopefully the negative side of consumerism does not consume the world as quickly as capitalistic ideals have, at least not before we can find a happy balance.

Week 10 blog reviews

Victoria:

Your piece The Smiths was super dark but I loved it. I definitely didn’t see that ending coming. You did a really good job developing each character and explaining your story. Your tone was interesting and kept me engaged. It was an interesting read, good job.

In We Have a Choice you raise some interesting questions about who decides what we listen to and ultimately I agree it is up to us, the listener. Everyone has the right to express him or herself no matter the content. I completely agree, anyone can change the radio station, or bypass a CD with parental advisory stickers. Critics are not responsible for what we purchase, we are. I think companies do their best to notify listeners and parents of explicit content and that is really all they owe us because lets face it, sex sells.

Kayla:

Your blog The Blow Out really tells a very funny and unexpected story. It’s funny how things like this happen. Thankfully it all turned out okay, but it is ironic how things like this happen. I like your story telling style in this piece and it was a fun read. I liked this prompt because it really let us be more creative.

In Oct 29^th Blog about music, lyrics, and sexuality you bring up some great points. It is like music has a whole other set of standards. Some of the most popular songs are speaking badly about women, but girls love them too. I know I am guilty of singing along, but when you think about what is being said, it is a little upsetting. I definitely agree our culture makes these songs acceptable and even popular.