25 Using google+ during this class

Google+ was another thing that I had never used before this class. It was pretty easy to use. I liked how it had drive and blogger on the same site because it made it pretty easy to knock out all of our assignments in the beginning of the class. I didn't use the social media aspect of it too much but it is good to know that if you had a question, its really easy to get a hold of other people in your class. It was a really convenient way to talk to Mr. Hamon too cause if I had to miss cause I was sick, I knew that I could still get on the chat and ask him what it was we had to do that day. It turned out being a lot easier to use than I had expected, which was good because at the beginning of this course, I was not looking forward to having to use a computer every day for assignments.

24 using Google Drive in the class

Google Drive is a program that I had zero experience with before this class and after using it for this class I can honestly say I plan to use this in the future as well. It worked out really effectively for the group paper that we had to write, and not that I'll have to do a lot of those in the future hopefully, but if I do at least I know I can use this. To me it's just really helpful because this way if you start working on your paper at one place, you don't have to save it on a USB drive to bring it somewhere else. Just make sure to share it with yourself on drive and then you can access the paper tha you're working on anywhere. I remember at one point in this sememester I was literally looking over my rough draft on my phone in line for chipotle. Pretty handy.

23 personal learning networks in college

Whenever i first went away to college I remember thinking that it was a waste of time to try to form study groups or anything like that because in high school I never had to do any of that. Long story short, after coming back to college after taking a few years off of school I can say that the personal networks I have set up have helped me dramatically. I took A&P 1 at PBSC last semester and me and a few people from class established a study group early on and I can say hands down that it made that class one of the easiest I've ever taken. Especially since I'm one who finds it hard to study on my own. Even here, I talk to a lot of people who have the same classes as me and it helps us all stay up to date on what homework we have or tests coming up in class.

22 statistics that mislead

Statistics can be extremely useful to give you quick facts about useful information. The problem nowadays is that anything can be made up and statistics are no exception. It's very important to make sure that if you choose to quote some statistics in a scholarly paper that you're writing, that you make sure that the statistics are also from a noteworthy source. The other trouble with statistics is when they are used to push a particular agenda. Statistics are wonderful tools to use for those who want to persuade someone to feel a certain way, because seldom do they actually tell the whole story. Often, these stats will be used ton only represent a very specific set of data, but are then used in a very broad fashion to work towards the persuader's agenda. For example, using the issue of police violence from our doc 1, statistics can be gathered in a way that is biased towards the speaker's agenda. Taking a poll of people and asking them "Don't you think that the police are going too far?" will end up in far more "yes" answers than stating the question, "Do you believe that police are adequately handling themselves in confrontations?" It's important to realize where your statistics are coming from and how they were gathered before you choose to believe them.

21 Impact of Big Data on my life

The idea of Big Data, or that we are surrounded by a lot of correct and incorrct information, is something that impacts our lives probably more than we think. All day between tv and other social media people are having information constantly shown to them that may or may not be true. Think of all of the articles that people post to thier walla on facebook. You want to believe most of the articles that you read but how do you know if any of them are actually true. In this way, sometimes the massive amount of data that we can access is bad because with so much information on a single topic, it could be hard to distinguish between whats true and what is not. For this paper alone it was inportant to look at the sources that author's of the articles that I used, pulled from. Some people on the internet could have articles that sound scholarly, but maybe they havn't done their research yet. Anyone can post on the internet.

20 problem/solution argument

In a problem/solution argument, you present your reader with a problem and how to solve it. You start by describing the problem, convincing the reader that the problem needs solving, and then giving ways of how to best fix it. A perfect example of this would be the doc one paper that I wrote about police violence in America. In this paper I took the stand and said that there was too much violence against people by the police, which was the problem that needed solving. I used some examples of times where excessive force was used unnecessarily to show the reader that it is a problem that needed solving. The rest of my paper was spent giving many examples on how police currently train, and ways in which they could improve their training process to cut down on excessive violence.

19 Difficulties with APA

Obviously, as we all have no doubt run into problems formatting our papers, APA format can be very hard and confusing at times. I know I've spent a lot of time changing my references. One time I think that I have it right but end up finding from another source that what I initially thought was right was wrong. The Perdue Owl source that Prof. Hamon gave us was really helpful in allowing me to fix my references and get them in the right format. Unfortunately, for the in-text citation portion I was still having trouble finding exactly what to do. This is where the handbook that we had to buy for this class really came in handy. There's a lot of useful information in there on how to cite sources depending on how you introduce your source in the paper. I found that instead of just putting a quote in there and the author's name and date after each one, it's good to change up how you present them, such as introducing the author or institution that you are citing from before you mention your data. This way it makes your paper a little more interesting to read and can even help the flow of your paper overall if used correctly.

18 Rogerian style argument to college students for the affordable care act

The basic idea of a Rogerian-style argument is to try to find common group with whoever you are arguing with, instead of arguing an idea which polorizes the two sides being presented. The Affordable care act is something that many people are already polarized about so it is important to try to find that common ground. If I was trying to argue for it, especially to college students, since I know my audience it will be easier to find common ground. Most college students are at the age where they may now, under Obamacare, be able to still be covered under thier parents insurance which is a bonus. Also, most people in college don't have a lot of money to afford very expensive healthcare plans. Even those against this act can all agree that having to pay less for their helathcare is beneficial seeing as how they have a lack of capital. Even people with pre-existing conditions thath they've had from birth will now be able to be covered which will help to find common ground with even more people. There will always be those who are set in their ways, but with this style of argument you can bring more people to your cause by finding this common ground with members of your audience.

17 using kairos in doc 2

To me the idea of using kairos in a paper is a foreign one. It's not something that I've ever had to do before but after thinking about it I think that on some level, I do try to say certain things in my paper at the right time. Obviously it's important to make sure that your paper follows in chronological order but you can also use the endings of paragraphs to set up the next one. A good example of this is in my paper, I have a big long paragraph that talks about how long it can usually take to treat an injury if you use the traditional approach of going to see a doctor first. After citing a bunch of examples of how long this would take, I capitalize on the reader's feeling of how long that approach would take, by saying that if they were able to just go see a physical therapist in the first place it would be cheaper. It may not be an "aha" moment but I still think it's important to use proper timing in your writing to try to sway your reader into thinking a certain way.

16 using pathos in doc 2

To use pathos in my doc 2 I have to try to evoke emotion in my reader to persuade them of my point. Since I'm mostly using statistics to make my case it will be somewhat difficult to use pathos in my paper. However, I do have a section in there that is the closest to pathos that I have in my paper. In this portion i talk about why direct access is good for the patient because it ends up taking them less time to receive their treatment and it costs less money. This doesn't necessarily make my audience feel pity but it is easy to relate to because everyone likes saving time and money. I also included in my paper facts that show that using direct access physical therapy versus physician referral physical therapy results in people getting back to work quicker. This is good too because anyone who has had to go through physical therapy will know how bad it is to have to be paying for this expensive service, while being away from work for a long period of time due to your injury.

15 Using ethos in doc 2

In a persuasive argument ethos, or credibility, is extremely important. After all you're not apt to believe something from someone you don't trust. Building this trust is crucial for persuasion so you have to show your reader that you know what you're talking about. For my paper im talking about physical therapy. It would be really helpful if I was already a physical therapist because that would really boost my credibility, however since I'm not I have to find other ways to build it. To do this I used sources from very credible websites, such as the American Physical Therapy Association. Using strong sources like this boosts my credibility and thus the credibility of my entire paper. Likewise, I have to make sure that all of my sources are legitimate because if not, one bad source with improper information can destroy my credibility completely. I made sure to use a lot of these and other sources that have clear backing, such as Physical Therapists who have posted articles on APTA and other scholarly websites.

13 Doc2 voice and purpose

For my doc 2 I'm going to be writing about how direct access should be allowed at the federal level instead of just the state level. Most states already allow you to do this, but only for a certain amount of days before you will need a referral from an MD. The purpose of my speech is to show that the federal government should allow patients to just see a physical therapist without needing a referral from a doctor for as long as they need to. My voice in this will be helped from testimonies from various physical therapists in the field who have been asking for this for years. They say that it is in both parties' best interest to allow patients to choose for themselves whether or not to go to a doctor first to receive a referral. Using these testimonies will increase my credibility and further the overall goal of my paper. To make sure that my own voice stands out however, I will mention how I have had to go through physical therapy, and how much extra it cost having to see a doctor, only to be then told to see a physical therapist, which I knew was inevitable anyways. This personal experience will help show my reasons for wanting this to be changed.

12 Doc 2 basic argument

My argument has to do with a large issue that is currently undergoing a decison in the physical therapy world called direct access. Direct access is the ability for a patient to be able to go directly to a physical therapist for a consulatation instead of having to get a script from a doctor first. Proponents of direct access, such as the majority of the physical therapy community, say that is a win-win situation for them and their patients. Direct access is allowed at the state government level but is still having problems receiving national backing. In states that it is allowed, physical therapists say it is a benefit because it allows them to see a wider rnage of patients, who are now not restricted to getting a refferal from a doctor, which is an added expense that is unnecessary. A liscensed physical therapist should be mkore than capable to assess a person's level of care they need. In some instances nothing more than physical therapy is needed and this is where it is helpful to the patient to not have to spend extra money. In the event that the physical therapist sees that apatient will need more than the care they provide, they can then refer them to a doctor, so it still ensures that patients are getting the best treatment that they can.

10 post about how we illogically think about different groups of people, with a concrete example about how you have illogically thought about different groups of people.

Many times we tend to think illogically about an entire group of people. Usually this train of thought comes from either ignorance or fear of the unknown. This also tends to happen when people see one person act a certain way and then genralize that because THIS person do something then ALL people like him/her must act like that. I know that I have been guilty of generalizing before because of fear of the unknown. When my band first started playing at local shows we had never really seen what these shows were like. I remember when we first pulled up to this venue called The Pit, we saw a lot of people with tattoos and piercings all over and it was a little intimidating. Usually I would associate people with a lot of tattoos to people like gang memebrs or anyone who commits violent crimes. What I learned though was that you can't generalize people just based on how they look. As I found out throughout the night, most of these people were all really nice and cool. A lot of them were just like me and here for the same reason, because they really liked music. It's not fair to anyone to judge them by how they look because it doesn't mean anything about who they may be underneath.

09 A logical fallacy in popular media

One logical fallacy that comes up very often in the media is that of "post hoc ergo propter hoc". This loosely translates to because of "this", "this other thing" happened. The most recent example of this I can think of, and one that I care about, is parents choosing whether or not to vaccinate their kids. A few years back Jenny McCarthy spearheaded this movement for parents not to vaccinate their kids and unfortunately, it seems to have caught on more than i would like. She had a very unfortunate event happen to her when she took he child to recieve a vaccination, and not long after it was determind that her child was autistic. She immediately assumed that the vaccine gave her child autism because there were a few other cases of this correlation being seen. However, after years of research there is still no link between vaccinations and autism. She fell victim to this idea that correlation is causation. Because one thing happened after another, it was the first one that caused the second. It happens very frequently unfortunately and is proof that you can't always look for the easiest answer to your problem. There are so many variables that go into each situation, especially something so delicate as a child showing symptoms of a disease. The media chose to blow this up at the time and are now having to report on the recent measles outbreak, due to parents not vaccinating their kids. Whenever you run into a situation where you hear the media talking about something causing something else, make sure you do the research yourself and look deeper. Chances are these days, that they haven't.

08 Use of deductive reasoning in Doc 1

For this document, since it is meant to be in many ways a persuasive speech, it is important to try to use deductive reasoning to your advantage. You're attempting to make your reader feel a specific way, by guiding their deduction towards your predetermined thesis statement. The way you do this is by showing a lot of facts to try to steer their way of thinking in your direction. You can also accomplish this by playing on their emotions to make them feel a certain way that is beneficial to the point you are trying to get across to them. In this same manner, it is important to think about this as you are writing your paper. Make sure that the way in which you present your information, is one in which the reader would be able to deduce the logical conclusion that you are striving for them to make. So when thinking about what to add into your paper, make sure that it is compelling but also easy to follow.

07 Peer Evaluation Process

The most important point of the peer evaluation process is to make sure that the person who's paper you are going to be looking over, get's their paper back with important changes that will be beneficial to their final draft. The first things that I look for whenever I peer review documents are spelling, grammar, and punctuation. These are the easiest things to accidentally mess up and usually the easiest to spot as well. While looking for these mistakes it's also important to try to look at each paragraph as its own mini document. See if everything that they are presenting in the paragraph makes sense, and belongs where it is. Sometimes, a peice of information might be better served in a different section of the paper, or perhaps a particular sentence could be stated in a better way. For papers like this with a lot of sources being used, it's also important to make sure that they have properly used APA format when putting in citations. As I've found from writing this paper, this can sometimes be very difficult depending on what kind of source you are drawing from. For instance, there were many different methods to citing internet sources that I never knew about, depending on where on the site the information you're citing is.

06 How you find the thesis in documents you read

Whenever I read a document or article it can be hard to find the thesis. A good place to look is always the introduction because the writer usually gives a brief summary of what he's going to write about and why in the intro. A lot of the time writers will tend to put their thesis statement at the end of the introduction. But, its not always that easy. It usually helps to read over the entire document first, and while you're doing so think about why the author wrote this piece in the first place. What were his goals, what kind of message is he trying to get across to his readers? I find that when I read things, sometimes the author will be constantly talking about a particular thing or idea. Be careful! Just because someone is talking a lot about something throughout a document doesn't mean that this is the thesis. They could just be using a thought or idea to convey what their purpose of the paper actually is. Once you read through the document fully think back again to why the author wrote this in the first place. By this point you should be able to figure out what their thesis is.

05 creating authority

For this upcoming paper on police violence, I personally do not have much authority on the matter. I can speak for how an average person feels on the matter, and have the authority to do so. However, when it comes to talking about the police officers and statistics of acts of excessive force, I need to show proof from elsewhere. I've been looking up a lot of information on different government and police websites. All of this information is coming straight from the source so is much more reliable than say, an opinion piece on police violence from the huffington post. By using these direct sources, I am actually able to turn myself into an authority on this matter, because of the information that I am using that is coming straight from the horses mouth. It's not enough to simply have the facts though. By putting together all that I've found on the subject in a nice, neat, coherent manner, I'm able to actually create authority of my own. Maybe I'm not a police officer but if I can show that I am capable enough as a writer, then the people reading my paper will be more likely to believe and trust what I say. I think that over time, anyone can create authority for themselves by repeatedly proving that they are able to talk about a specific subject, and that what they're saying is true.

04 Police Violence

For our paper we've decided to talk about excessive use of force by police officers. It's understandable that police officers are going to be worried about what happens to themselves first and foremost, it's the human condition. But, it seems that their methods of self-preservation are going too far. I believe that this stems from poor training, or rather improper focus on training. For instance, while looking for sources for our paper, I found a website that breaks down the training of police officers by hours spent on each topic. It showed that all academies spend 60 hours on firearm training. However, only 83% of academies spend time on Conflict management, and the ones that do only spend a total of 8 hours talking about it! It's no wonder that officers seem quicker to pull out their guns than try to talk a suspect down without the threat of violence. The point that I'm attempting to make is that if we opt for smarter training of police officers, then there might be less police-related deaths in the future.

03 Police Violence

When it comes to police violence I definitely stand somewhere in the middle. It's easy to stand there and say that police have the right to defend themselves, even kill an assailant if necessary, if you aren't the parents of a child who has been wrongfully murdered by police. On the other side of the same coin though, not many of us have to worry about whether or not we will be able to come home to our loved ones everyday we go to work, like police officers do. The recent slew of coverage on a lot of these police brutality stories have started to divide us as a nation. In my mind there is no question that the media has greatly exacerbated this issue. It's certainly important to talk about these issues and realize that there is a problem going on here that needs to be fixed. However, the fact that for a few months straight, the only stories that you would see on the news would be ones about police using excessive force is troubling. Certainly there were a lot of other things going on at that same time that could have made it seem like there was more going on in the world. This over-saturation of police brutality stories only serves to make the average american feel unsafe and even angry towards police officers. As a result these police officers begin to get more on-edge and maybe see threats where none exist. The real enemy here for both sides is fear.

02 Recent argument I had

I had an argument with my friend recently about pre-requisites in college, and how I feel that you shouldn't have to take them. In high school they make you take a myriad of different courses to make you a more well-rounded individual, but also to give you a view of different subjects so you can find which one you like. Why is it then that in college, if you have already chosen to be, say, an English major, that you must take science and math courses as well. My friend was arguing that they still make you take pre-reqs in college for the same reason as high school, to make you an overall smarter individual. I think, however, that this is just another tool colleges use to make more money from students. If this is the case, and schools aren't willing to just part with two full years of tuition from students, then I propose a new plan to allow both schools and students to win. If you have already chosen a major, instead of pre-requisites, they should just make you take more classes that deal with whatever your major will be. What do you think class?

01 Introduction

Hello composition class, this is my introductory blog and also my first blog ever so please bear with the  uninteresting nature of this post.  My name is Casey Patterson and I was born and raised right here in West Palm Beach. I started playing soccer when I was 5 years old and have been playing ever since.  My parents made me take piano lessons when I was a kid and I hated them but as I grew older I began to love music. I played the saxophone in middle school for band class and enjoyed that so much that I talked to my two best friends, ironically they also decided to pick the saxophone, and said that we should each pick an instrument to learn so that in high school we could start a rock band. I picked the drums much to my parents dismay and have been playing ever since. We ended up forming a band in high school and played a lot of local shows around Florida , our biggest venue being Revolution in Ft. Lauderdale. When it came time for everyone to go away to college we had to split up unfortunately. In the past year I've been making my old guitarist Andrew give me lessons  and am loving playing guitar and singing. Him and I hope to start playing acoustic shows around here whenever we feel we're ready. Thanks for listening to my story.