shitty first draft

When lamott uses the word "shitty" in this essay she is trying to get the point across that she just sits down and writes. Whatever comes to her she just puts it down. She talks about by doing this you may have 5 pages of complete nonsense but there may be something somewhere in there that is important to what you want to write in your next draft. I think this is what you try and get us to do when you tell us to just write, not to over think what we are doing.

I am guessing by not being a good writing without even trying to make it my "shitty" draft it probably turns out that way. I usually have a hard time beginning my writing but once I have I just continue to write. I usually take my first draft and re-read it and I usually find stuff that doesn't need to be in it or think of stuff to add to it.

To improve my drafts I will basically take the feedback that I have received throughout this course to improve my original draft.

data analysis

For gathering data I wanted to talk to people who have been exposed to the issue of illegal steroid use in sports. Obviously for this I wanted to discuss the issue with athletes, thinking that they would have input about the issue that other people would not have. The majority of steroid use is with athletes and this would give me the opportunity to ask the question why?

Jake, a lifelong athlete and collegiate baseball star in Western Pennsylvania, granted me my first interview. Jake has never used steroids or even been exposed to them but being an athlete has obviously heard of them. Being an athlete for practically all of his life he has been educated in the risks involved with taking steroids and has a very strong opinion on people who take them. I asked him how he would feel if a teammate of his was using illegal steroids. I asked him if his feeling would change about the individual and if he would feel that that athlete has not only cheated himself but the rest of his team. Jake answered
" Yes I would feel different about him because at some point he will get tested throughout the season and that he would think that he has cheated because he has used an illegal substance to give him and edge over the other players rather than using his natural ability."

This is an issue that I don't think is addressed enough when collegiate and professional athletes are caught using illegal substances. It does take a toll on the rest of the team, the staff, organization and possibly even the town or city. The individual who uses steroids is not only cheating himself but also the rest of his team.

An issue that is talked about more often than others is how schools and organizations are not cracking down hard enough with their drug testing policies. It seems to me that when a high school and institution decides to implement a drug testing policy it is such big news that it will make headlines in newspapers and on television. I went on to ask Jake if he felt that his Univeristy needs to changed their current drug testing policy and he answered
"No, I feel that the drug policy here is legit."

apa

1. The National Institute for environmental sciences claimed saccharin was a potential cancer causing agent
2. Adams, M. J. (2000). U.S. report adds to list of carcinogens

i search

Being that my entire academic life is based on sports I picked the topic of illegal steroid use in sports. I have seen a rapid growth in the use of illegal steroids starting at the professional level all the way down to the high school level and possible even to Jr. high levels. My research paper is based on trying to figure out why athletes and especially young athlete would decide to take illegal steroids when they are aware of the dangers that are associated with them. Every article based on illegal steroids is basically the same. It is either some professor discussing the dangers on steroids, trying to convince high schools and institutions to place more emphasis on drug testing or a former professional player talking about why he used steroids during their career. I will interview both athletes and non athletes, some who have used steroids and others who have seen people use steroids in an attempt to figure out the question of why?

I have seen athletes who have used steroids at a very young age in an attempt to get a leg up on the competition and it worked, for a little. They were that star high school athlete and seemed to be on their way to playing at the college level. However with this drug you have to continue to use it or the gains that you received will quickly diminish. The individuals who continued to use ran in to many problems that quickly put their college dreams to a halt. The ones that quit using lost that edge that they had. This issue of steroid use has always been of interest to me because I never knew why they would decide to "cheat" their way to being a star athlete.

paraphrase

When writing research papers, students often tend to "overuse direct quotations".(p.46-47) Instead of the majority of the research paper being direct quotations, only about 10% should be.

in class blogging

If i could i would like to totally abolish all illegal steroid use from sports. This has been a growing problem in all areas of sports and no one can seem to find a way to fix this problem. I hope that people in positions of power will find it necessary to make changes in order to fix this issue.

I liked the chapter about the law of the few. I think that this chapter has been looked at in a negative way of how a few people can make something that is bad or wrong but i think it should be looked at in a way to help fix problems. In my instance with steroid use a few star athletes who people look up to need to get together and find a way to fix this issue in an attempt to stop younger athletes from beginning steroid use.

I think the third question goes back to my answer on the second. A few people need to find a way to get rid of this steroid issue. It may take some athletes that people, especially young athletes look up to to convince them of the dangers involved.

tipping point

My group did our presentation on that chapter about suicide. i really enjoyed how Gladwell did this chapter. There were some chapters in the book that were not as interesting but I did enjoy this one. He first discusses the suicide rates on the island of Micronesia. For some time there was never reported cases of suicide until a famous man killed himself. After that you began to see a steady rise in the suicide rates and the death of the first man is linked to them all. For some people seeing a famous person die can give other people the sense that it is alright to do that type of thing. Gladwell also used the example of famous people in the USA like Marilyn Monroe. When she killed herself you say a rise in the states of suicide rates. Gladwell used the power of the media to influence this rise. if it wasnt for the media portraying her death as they did the suicide rates may not have risen. He did a very good job on this chapter and made it very easy for us to do our presentation on this.

english undergrad conference 2

The second conference was based on creative writing. They had three students who prepared their own creative writing paper and presented them to use. I have a hard time understanding what authors of papers are attempting to say but that is what I think creative writing is all about. They put what they feel into a paper and everyone who reads it may have a different thought about it. I enjoyed listening to them and seeing how much passion those three students had about their papers. I could tell how much work they had to put in to them and they seemed very proud of their papers.

English Undergrad Conference 1

The first conference that I went to was broken down into three parts, stories, research and literature. It was taught that by stories you can actually teach. You can learn from stories and teach others what you have learned from them. The research part had a lot to do with what we have been doing in class. It was about our research writing class and they actually gave examples of projects that past students have done in the class. The last part about literature was basically all about how important reading is. It can open peoples up and makes them think outside of the box. i actually enjoyed the entire conference. The panel did a very good job in being very enthusiastic and it kept me and everyone else interested.

chpt 2

I really like how Gladwell started off talking about Paul Revere. It was a successful way of describing the word of mouth phenomenon. He showed an example that everyone is fairly familiar with and turned it into what he was going to be talking about. The ways that he also described connectors, mavens and salesmen was helpful. They all are pretty similar but he was able to put it in a way to see the differences. He used actors to describe the connectors. He used Rod Steiger and said he is the best connected actor in history because he has moved all over the different subcultures that acting has to offer.

working with your reading

Differences between reading a magazine and reading Gladwell's book would be that with most people when they read magazines they will flip through the book until they find something of interest to them. When you read Gladwell's book you will read everything. It doesn't have titles over every page to let you flip through and find something of interest. It doesn't have pictures through it like magazines do to catch your attention. A magazine will have many different authors writing about different pieces when Gladwell's book is just one authors opinions. There may be one certain author that writes for a magazine and that is the only reason that you even picked it up. Most people read a magazine because they already have an interest in it or of something in it but most of us probably didn't have that same interest when we began to read Gladwell's.

Introduction Chapter 1 summary

The introduction tells you that The Tipping Point is a biography of an idea. It shows the best way to understand why fashion trends, the flow of crime or almost anything emerge. There are three characteristics of this, contagiousness, the fact that little things can have big effects and that change can happen at one dramatic moment. The first chapter talks about the emergence of the STD syphilis. The first reason Malcolm gives is because of the problem with crack cocaine. Because this drug causes risky behavior is sexual behavior it can lead to the spread of STDs. He then begins to talk about social epidemics and says that those are driven by the efforts of only a handful of people. He also then goes on to talk about the "tipping point". Epidemics tip because of the efforts of a few carriers. This is seen in epidemics such as the flu. He finishes up with the three rules of the Tipping Point, the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor and the Power of Context. These three rules give us a way to make sense of epidemics.

activity 3

I am going to research steroid use in sports. Steroid use is all over all levels of sports from the high school level all the way up to the professional levels. You hear about high profile professional athletes getting caught using illegal steroids to boost their performances but it is also being used at lower levels to get bigger, stronger and faster more quickly. Every athlete wants that edge over the opponent but not to many want to work to get there. Steroid use gives them that edge without having to put forth the work that is required. Not only are steroids illegal but they are dangerous to the health of the individual using. You see the once popular star athlete fall from that stardom because they once used steroids. I will go about researching this topic by interviewing athletes and adults who are close to athletics. I will see how people think about the use of illegal steroids and get their opinion of why athletes use. I will use the adults who have been around sports for much longer than I have and get their opinion on the growth of steroid use over time.

activity 3

activity one

Writing before attending college was never a part of my life. I attended a technical school and we never had to do any writing or reading assignments. The biggest obstacle I come across now being in writing intensive courses are the little things that come with writing. I am not very familiar with different formats that are required by different professors. My first writing intensive course I took at IUP was college writing. I did well in it and received an A. I have never kept a journal or wrote in a diary. I've never done blogs or any of that type of writing that is done on the internet. I have recently began sending emails because it is the easiest way to communicate with potential employers around the world. I don't text and the only letters I have ever written are the occasional thank you letters. In high school I took two years of Spanish but as I said earlier high school was not that intensive and really all I know how to do is count to ten. When I write I sometimes find myself rambling on if I am not necessarily interested in what I am writing about. I find myself getting off of topic in an attempt to change it into something that is of interest to me. When I do find myself interested in what I have to write about it becomes a fairly easy task.

What I see being different and possibly difficult is the research that is needed is how credible and accurate the places or people are that you receive your information. To me, credibility is the biggest obstacle in research writing. When doing research writing, you may be researching something that may not be of interest to someone else. An obstacle now is there to make the audience interested enough to read your research. Research writing seems to be that you are attempting to tell or educate someone about a topic. In your writing you would be telling and explaining things to people that they have never heard previously.

about myself

I am a sport management major. I am interested in almost anything that has to do with the growing world of sports as well as the economic advances that it has made.