Quizzes

Apr 17, 2018

19/20

1. How familiar were the words that came up in the quiz?

The words were pretty familiar to me, I use a lot of them quite frequently, save for abstract and arbitrary.

2. Have you seen these words in the material you have read for your essays?

Yes, words such as these come up a lot when I am sorting through the ambiguous articles and making an astute decision from that.

3. Do you use any of these words in your speaking or writing?

I may use some of these words in passing without my knowledge, I don't really keep track of such things, I would assume I don't in order to utilize enough context so that the person I am talking to would understand. I do know for a fact that I use some of them regularly such as undergo, and whereas.

How do you best learn the professional vocabulary you will need for your career?

I really best learn vocabulary through the things that I am already doing, I have a habit of reading high vocab content pieces given the nature of the rest of the website/community that I am sifting through. It works well for me as I don't have to feel as if I am studying vocab words, but instead ingesting some other form of knowledge for what I want to learn.

Mar 29, 2018

Here in college, if you need to get information on something in your class, what genre do you most often consult? Why is this your go-to genre? For a class, say I was researching something. I would form a query into something that would get me relevant results into google if the traditional check blackboard or the textbook yielded no results, I would then filter out results as needed. I might also consider emailing the prof as well.

In your personal life, if you need to get information on something, what genre do you consult? why is this your go-to genre?

I do much of the same from the top one, however I might be more inclined to trust less reliable sources in order to get a better outcome.

What if there were a huge power-outage, and there was no electricity for a week; how would that affect how you get information?

I actually have a loophole for this one. I have a way of powering my devices, and considering that internet is not reliant on power from the grid, I can still access all of my genres in the way that I normally do. Say my powerlines were destroyed for a week though, then I would resort to the textbook and outside information such as the physical library. I currently have a small solar generator to help supplement my power usage, if such a thing happens and I need to, I could create a wind generator to help supplement my power fully. I would only need to go out to the store to buy a few components such as capacitors, relays, transistors, and head to the hardware store to buy the outer casing and the blades themselves.

Mar 27, 2018

What guided your choices in composing this informal audience project?

A lot of the things that guided me towards a narrated power point, were other videos made by people who used the same format in their informational videos. What they had was content that was clearly and efficiently presented to the viewer who could absorb that information with helpful visuals.

How will you cite your sources in this informal context?

Sources that I will site, if not directly on an image, would be a footnote at the bottom, such as this image was pulled from x website.

As you work on this informal audience project, how do you think about this topic differently compared to how you thought about it while you were creating the formal research report?

Through this more informal setting, I am finding that I have to simplify things a lot more than I originally did when I was writing the research article. Since I am left with not as much time to display my information to the reader/viewer, that causes me to really cut down the information to make a simplified point to a general audience who might be viewing this at a later date looking for information.

Mar 20, 2018

What are the characteristics of a good video?

What I was thinking for my genre was either an animation displaying supporting images and movements to back up what I am saying through a voiceover, or a video in a power point style that provides the same info, but without as much movement.

The characteristics of a good video for the topic that I am trying to present to people would have lots of enthusiasm. It wouldn't really be a good learning opportunity for people if they arent engaged in the video. If I can spark their engagement and curiosity, it would go a lot better to get their overall understanding in the matter than if they were reading the text version or transcript of it. This also goes the same with the tone that I am using. A specific tone on a section can display a certain context without specifically saying what that context is. Sort of a more excited context when talking about how it would change the world and maybe a more somber one when talking about the problems with it.

What are the characteristics of a bad video?

The characteristics of a bad video would be the opposite of what I said above. Not displaying enough enthusiasm for the topic might show the viewer that you may not be as interested in the topic as you say that you are. Your tone would definately come off as disinterested, and that wouldn't be the best thing if you are trying to get someone to understand your point of view.

Some of the key points that I would cover in this format would be a lot of the basics, outline why people should be beginning to consider this alternative and then provide examples of different types of crypto that they can choose. Since a majority of the people are relatively uneducated about this topic, I think that simply explaining what is there would be a nice start, but they also need to be backed up by evidence and personal experiences. To end it, I would definately recommend a respected source that they can go to in order to learn more about it and expand their knowledge. They might not become an investor today, but they can definately learn about a technology that will shape the course of everyones lives to come.

Mar 8, 2018

What are the principle changes you will need to make to your information to make it accessible to a non-professional audience?

• Changes in logos
• Changes in ethos
• Changes in pathos

What I will need to do to transfer my style of writing over to a more informal setting to have the more everyday person read my article is to dial back the logos a bit more. What I mean by that is to start to simplify the complex terminology that I go over as the reader won't be interested in reading a full 10 page paper, they might be interested in reading over 1-2 pages of it, but they certainly won't stick around for the whole thing. To do this, I would also need to incorporate a more emotional side of things to help cover up the blanks that this will cause. Since I wouldn't be talking about concepts at a large scale, it can be replaced with metaphors to help the reader better wrap their head around what is happening. For the ethos side of things, I would probably need to establish my position on the matter. Where I stand and how this exactly affects me in the short and long run of things. I need to inform the potential readers of the guaranteed bias that I have towards this subject and what I stand to gain or loose should this be adopted or dismissed.

Mar 1, 2018

The principles of a good peer review are: Giving constructive criticism about detailed portions of their topic with suggestions about how they may be able to improve that section. Another part is not being too overly negative as to not discourage the writer, while also not being too overly positive to give the impression that everything is fine. Even if the writing is perfect, give some suggestions on how they may be able to expand on their writing to encompass a broader audience, or to give more understanding to their current one.

These principles can be applied not only to english courses, but to all of the prospective courses that one may take throughout their educational career. Peer review is something that is done by everyone, not just the language classes. It's therefore important to learn how to develop good strategies to best help out those peers that have asked you to review their paper.

Feb 15, 2018

Why should we as money users/spenders continue to use the traditional banking system where there is a new thing that can do it much better?

A lot of the underlying problems of the traditional baking system is that it is completely centralized. One bank or credit card company can control all of one's wealth that they hold with them instead of lots of people checking and verifying to add additional security. Some can argue that there is also too much government regulation that is hindering the ability of regular physical monetary currency to be as effective as it could be. Another cause of this can be that people want more transparency from the place that holds their wealth or "funds". Under the current widely accepted system, people can't really see too much into this. One more thing that people may not be thinking that much of is, third-world countries don't really have the best banks or governments. Lots of them are corrupt and this causes people to be extremely skeptical of where they are placing their funds, or that they don't trust them at all and keep a pile of money under their mattress. Crytocurrency is here to shake things up a bit and give the people more of what they want, a completely open banking system with no outside body having an affect on the system.

The effects that these problems can cause are very wide ranging in both number and number of people affected by them. The major thing that people feel is a sense of distrust towards these financial institutions or government. They think that with the past problems that these institutions have faced, they cannot go on while also maintaining a good level of security. Government regulation is also a large hinderance for the traditional monetary system. Some of the effects that regulations causes, is an increased level of verification if you wish to buy things on credit, or if you are looking to receive a loan. Understandably so, however, there are much better solutions to solve some of the symptoms that too much government is causing.

Feb 13, 2018

What have you learned, from your past experience, as the most effective way to present an argument in writing?

Identify a strength of this approach

Identify a weakness of this appoach

The most effective way that I can think of demonstrating an effective argument for or against something is to firmly your stance on the matter, and then back it up with supporting details. These details could be articles, quotes, something credible that supports your argument. Then what you do is you get into the mindset of having the opposite opinion about the paper that you are writing and then write about that. This provides the other side of the argument and gives your paper more credibility as it shows that one has firmly evaluated both sides of the argument and has made an educated choice about which side to support.

One strength of this approach is that it displays the relevant information to the reader in an effective way so that they can make their own decision about whether you are right about this or wrong about this given the information. It allows the reader the freedom to make up their own mind and to think if that would be something for them.

One weakness of this is just the opposite, if the reader can make up their own mind about which side to choose in an argument, then they can choose the site that you are going against. In most cases, this makes your article/viewpoint seem less credible as they have clearly studied the information that you have given to them, as well as any past relevant information, and they have come to a conclusion. If that conclusion doesn't align with yours, then your paper doesn't really contain an effective argument for the specific topic that you are writing about.

Feb 6, 2018 (feb 9?)

Some of the qualities that a helpful peer review have include constructive criticism. If the person that is reviewing your work cannot provide much more than just, "Good Job" at the end, or something of the sort, then they are not really doing you many favors where it comes to the reviewing part of your work. In addition, peer reviewing can help to provide useful feedback to your writing where you may have not found it yourself. If someone can give you a different perspective on your writing, then that is a good thing. Say that they can give you the perspective of a reader that is interested in your work, if your reviewer wants to put it down after the first couple of sentences, then chances are, that your reader will also want to do the same. It can be helpful to know these things ahead of time so you can adapt your work to suit the needs of your audience.

An unhelpful peer review would be one that doesn't provide much helpfulness at all. For example and as i've said above, just a simple statement with no actual criticism to back up their saying is really just stroking the authors ego in one of the least efficient ways possible. If an author is actually looking for some ways to help improve their writing, then peer reviewing is supposed to be a way that they can help find other's perspectives, not blank stares. In addition to this, someone being overly critical of your work can also be a bad thing as well. If someone cannot distinguish between constructive criticism and ranting, then they really have no place giving you feedback on your writing.

Feb 1, 2018

One of the problems of using too many quotations inside of an essay is that it generally detracts from the main focus of the point that you are trying to get across to the reader. The reader came to hear your words and not the words of someone else. They could just go to the source's website and get the same information from there instead. Therefore, while quotations can be helpful in many circumstances, using too many of them can also be a bad thing as well.

Not having enough quotations in your work can make you seem less credible than you might really be on the subject matter. For example, if I am writing a paper on literal rocket science, there are going to be some sources that I have to research on the topic. So if I am not a distinguished rocket engineer, chances are that the reader will think that I don't have enough credibility to speak on the topic without an expert backing my words up.

A good middle ground for a number of quotations is generally in my opinion, 1 per paragraph at the most. Usually 1 every couple of paragraphs is fine. Doing the numbering this way gives room for your own words and further research while also having that reliable source.

Jan 30, 2018

Creating an annotated bibliography is essential to the drafting of an essay. By doing this, you are creating research for yourself, and research that you can source back to in the final document to help solidify your credibility on the topic.

A bibliography also helps in the fact that it requires you to look more in depth to make sure that the sources are good enough for the style of writing that you are doing. If the source is missing something crucial, such as an author, that might be something that you could glaze over on the first glance, but you would have to have that if you were actually citing the source.

Another thing that a bibliography helps is that it gets your brain in the right mindset. What I mean by this is that it's a lot easier to write and reflect back if you have organized all of your sources into an easy-to-access document. The process of organization can also help potential readers if they are quickly trying to locate a source.

Finally, a bibliography can also help in creating your own mindset on the matter. By establishing to yourself and to the reader the direction that you are wanting to take the essay in, you can help them realize what exactly it is that you are trying to show them.

Jan 16, 2018

When I am looking for a source, I always try to look for the information that is relevant first and then filter out all of the unreliable things later. This way, I find that I can get a large sample size for what the rest of my topic might have and help to guide me to asking the right questions if maybe I need to reword them to get more information about the topic. When I do eventually end up with sources, news outlets are usually pretty good ones for sources. That, and, blogs by respected writers in their fields and government organizations are good ones to pick from.

A good source can be the Federal Reserve releasing a statement that states their predictions for the upcoming fiscal year and a report on market data from the past year. The FED employs people to make these reports that are extremely unbiased in doing so, therefore these are good sources to pick from.

A bad source is some unverified user on reddit saying that, for example, North Korea is attacking the US. While that may or may not be true, (hopefully not) the user is stating their opinion or is spitting out a rumor that they heard. Very rarely will this actually be true.

Jan 11, 2018

One of the topics that I am interested in researching for this semester is more information about all of the different types of Cryptocurrencies out there and their applications for different specific tasks. I want to learn these things because I am quite invested both financially and emotionally in certain types of currencies and I am excited to learn about all the different things that different currencies have to offer in terms of what they can do for the user base. In particular, I do something called mining with these currencies.

What mining is, is pretty much processing transactions for the network in a nutshell. It's of course more complicated than this, but this gives you a general idea of what I do. Currently I mine something called Ethereum. It's like Bitcoin in a lot of ways, but different in many others. For example, Ethereum can process transactions a lot faster than Bitcoin can, it brings transaction times down from a potential few hours, to just a few minutes.

The large reason I want to learn more about these, is that I don't see these ever going away. In fact, I actually see these being more and more incorporated into our everyday lives. Maybe not the currency side of things, but the technology side, as these companies are using technology that is much more advanced than what most people would have.