Cover Letter

Dear_____,

     If you are reading this I have completed my English115 Approaches to University Writing class and this is my cover letter. I will have you know, prior to my coming to college, I did not like english courses very much. In high school the readings were dry, the essays were pointless, and the assignments were tedious; I never looked forward to an english class. Taking English115 Approaches to University Writing changed my negative outlook on english classes and writing. 

Throughout the semester we had multiple assignments that taught various skills that would help increase the quality of our writing. One of the first assignments we received was to read a few short stories then do a brainstorming exercise. We had to then choose two methods of brainstorming and use them to brainstorm about our upcoming paper. At first I expected the readings to be boring, but to my surprise, I found them to be quite entertaining. For the first time, I did not dread doing my english homework and actually looked forward to having class. From this assignment onward I loved the class. I loved how we would discuss and write about interesting topics such as: technology, the college transition, and movies. All of the corse work was fun and not a pain to do, mostly because of our great professor, Professor Rowley. Professor Rowley is one of the main reasons I now love english class. Her fun and passionate attitude toward the subject made it an enjoyable class. She demonstrated a great knowledge of the subject and taught it in a way that we could easily understand it. 

In the time I was in this class I greatly improved my writing. When Professor Rowley introduced the Sheridan Baker Thesis Machine a huge weight was lifted from my shoulders. It gave me steps to follow to more easily create a thesis. For me, beginning the essay is the hardest part so this really helped me. We wrote three essays this semester and I did not mind writing any of them. 

This letter is now coming to a close and as the end draws near I can reflect on what I have learned and how much I have grown. In one semester I've gone from having no interest in the subject, to looking forward to english class, from writing only five paragraph essays, to writing multiple page, interesting, argumentative essays. 

Sincerely,

  Benjamin S Reed

Opportunities Technology Gives Us

Benjamin Reed

Eng.115

Prof. Rowley

3 December 2012

Opportunities Technology Gives Us

by: Benjamin Reed

     Technology gives us the ability to do things more precisely, quickly, and even to do jobs that we could not do at all. With technology we are making the impossible possible; prosthetic limbs and hearing aids bring people close to regaining what they have lost. We are even sending drones to different planets to further our knowledge of space. Some say that with the evolution of technology, humans are having to use less energy, do less physically, and are becoming more lazy as a result. While it is true that some technology can reduce the need to physically do some things, it is equally, if not more, true that technology gives us the time and tools to be more productive. 

     Technology can be split into two groups, how it affects us mentally, and how it affects us physically. Mentally, technology helps us so that we can use our time more effectively. With technology we can do more things at once, and faster, which relieves some mental stress and lets us think about more important things. However, by using technology we reduce the need to do most things that are physical. We have created machines and such that do certain jobs for us, for instance, the automobile. With the invention of the car, walking became an exercise and a chore; taking a car would get you to your destination much faster and with much less physical effort. If productivity is measured by quantity or quality of output per time spent, then taking a car is being more productive, although you lose the physical benefits from walking, you have saved time and can do more. With the advances in medical technology, we are even close to giving people back full functioning limbs that almost look and feel like the real thing. 

     We take for granted all of the little functions we are capable of doing, like with our hands for instance. Writing, griping, feeling, and all of the little things we use them for on a daily basis; living life without hands another limb would be much harder. "When someone loses a limb due to injury or disease, the rich functionality once offered by that limb is lost as well"(Isaac Clements). In 2008 a Scottish company, Touch Bionics, created the worlds first prosthetic hand that could move each finger individually, giving people without hands the ability to grip, point, and even type. This technology is returning to people, the normality of their lives. Someone who would not be able to do something because of a missing hand, now has the opportunity to gain most of their normal hand functions back and do more than what they were able to do without one. An upper extremity amputation can result in the the loss of the ability to perform job skills or normal activities of daily living. A lower extremity amputation can mean the loss of the ability to walk or run; the importance of prosthetic limbs is great and to have access to such productive technology is even greater.

     A runner named Oscar Pistorius who has double below-knee amputations qualified for the 2012 London Olympic games. He uses his prosthetic limb to be more productive by running; he is the perfect example of someone made more productive by technology, because without it, he would not even be able to walk. Another form of technology that is helping people to lead more productive lives than they would normally be able to is hearing aids. Hearing aids help return hearing to those who have partially or severely lost the ability to hear by amplifying soft sounds and softening louder sounds to deliver the perfect amount of sound to an ear allowing the person to hear almost normally. 

     Prosthetics give people the ability to regain their life and do things that they would otherwise not be able to, due to what they have lost. People who have lost a leg, or a part of it, and would not normally be able to walk, can now run. We can almost return full hearing back to those who are severely hearing impaired. Technology gives us so many resources to be more productive. 

New Beginnings: College

Assignment 

Personal Narrative

Focus:
Much of our work for this assignment has involved prewriting. We have completed exercises such as
the Letter to Author, the Letter to Family Member and the Summary. We have also discussed various
brainstorming techniques, such as the 5W’s, outlining and freewriting. In addition, we have talked
about writing process and the techniques of writing such as thesis, introduction, body paragraphs and
conclusions. We have also discussed different techniques for coming up with a thesis such as the
Sheridan Baker Thesis Machine.

Task:
To what extent do you believe college offers students a chance for personal
growth and change? Use a personal example from your own life to illustrate your answer to this
question. Think about why you wanted to make a change when you came to college and what you
hope this new identity will do for you. Also, think about the differences between a high school and
college setting and why the latter might be more conducive to a change in identity.

New Beginnings: College

by: Benjamin Reed

     Cal State University Northridge, a place where the student population is somewhere over thirty-thousand, a place where few people know you upon entry, a place where no one knows your past and anything is possible, a place where you can explore who you want to be. Walking on the CSUN campus for the first time as a college freshman was a nerve-racking experience, it was like the first day of high school, but on a much bigger scale. When beginning high school I felt the need to be a part of a group or clique; here I instantly knew none of that mattered. Students often feel that they carry the burdens from high school with them and that they will never get over the bad moments. This is false. Personally, I had a hard time with high school academics and I knew people who felt that they didn't belong, or felt that they were confined to their high school identity, but they had a chance to change when they came to college. The transition to college presents a perfect time to change because students are going to a new place where not many people know them or their past. For me, college offers the opportunity to excel and succeed academically and I plan to seize the opportunity. 

     Coming to high school I was a skinny, short, black haired, shy, clueless freshman named Ben who was shy and somewhat timid to meet new people. I would keep to myself and in most occasions, avoid social interaction with my peers. I turned down a lot of opportunities my first couple of years in high school, for instance, my freshman year I didn't go to any of my schools football games. I would just stay home and do nothing most of the time, or go to the mall to do nothing with a few friends. Anyway, I would find things to do other than being social and meeting more people from my school. I was also a master procrastinator and strong believer of not studying. I would wait till the last minute to do all my assignments and it was working because I received okay grades for the work I was turning in; now that I look back I wish i could have taken it more seriously. I had a teacher named Ms. Adewole for my freshman english classes both semesters and I would never do work in her class. She would even tell me that I have missing assignments and sometimes I would do them and turn them in late, but I did not take the class seriously at all. Not until it was two days before the final and I had a D in her class. I was hit by reality right then and was scared I would have to go to summer school. Ms. Adewole was understanding and she let me turn in all the work I had not before and gave me full credit so that I could pass the class the first semester. This really helped me for the second semester because I learned that I need to be on top of my work. High school, for me, was a time where I was working at improving different skills like studying, being social, managing my time, and not being stressed about everything so it could prepare me for college. Unfortunately, I focused too much on the social aspect of it and not much anything else. Coming to college I found out that the social aspect of high school didn't really matter because you start all over in college anyway. 

     College offers students a blank canvas, a new, fresh start that they can choose to take or not to take. It gives students a chance to change from how they were in high school. It gives them this chance because the student is going to a new place where little to no people know of this person or of their past. I was overwhelmed when I saw the size of CSUN and how many students attended it, but big size is better when your looking to change something about you. For me, academics were a problem in high school, so I decided that I would try to do better academically in college and apply myself more. I wanted not only to get good grades, but to acquire a ton of knowledge from all my classes. Coming to college gives me the space to make this change because I am around a bunch of new people, whereas, in high school it would have been harder because I knew more people, more distractions, and had more things to do. I plan to do this by managing my free time better and making studying and doing homework a priority. So far its been hard but I like getting all my work done and doing well in my classes. I learned that if you work hard, then it's even more rewarding when you get some time to do something you want to do. 

Now that I am making this change I realize that it would have been much easier to do if I had practiced better study skills in high school, instead of socializing so much. Time management is something that I should have worked on a well. I am working on these things now, but it's like trying to reprogram my priorities and it'll take a while before i get used to studying so much. The change is certainly worth it though, it has taught me so much responsibility because there is no one to nag me to learn or do my homework, my education is up to me now. That means it's up to me to mange my free time better than I did in high school. 

     In college there is much more free time, and that is another reason the transition from high school to college is a perfect time to change. I often find myself sitting in my dorm with to much free time and nothing to do. Free time and the freeness of being on your own allows for students to do what they want to do when they want to do it, and they might find that they like to do different things now than they did in the past. That is what happened to me; in high school I never read a book for english class or any other class, but in college i actually enjoy the reading and don't mind it, and since I have so much free time I can take my time and actually enjoy the reading. People can also take up a new skill or play a sport with all their free time, and maybe they weren't the athletic type in high school but now they want to try. Or some freshman join fraternities and sororities and change to fit their new greek lifestyle. These are all factors that allow change to happen so easily during the transition from high school to college. 

     Going away to college, in America, has always been a sort of milestone that says a child is no longer a child and they have to go out into the world and learn to navigate it themselves. It is when we become adults and begin the journey of finding out who you are. The transition to college is a time of great personal growth due to all the free time students have to find themselves. And the freedoms, there is no one telling me what to do anymore and I feel so free. Now i can do what I want to do. It allows me to find the things I like to do and the people I like to be around. 

     What this says about our culture is that we, as Americans, accept change and in face encourage it. If they didn't want people to change from high school to college they would just have it all in one building. This time in life is important because it opens up a lot of doors for students to change, and the ways they change can affect their future. That is why it it important that students change for the right reasons when coming to college. I have had a ton of friends who have told me they can not wait to party in college, of a students change is they party more instead of studying, thats not a good change. A change like mine, for instance, is a change for the better because I am trying to better myself and in the long run increase my value. 

     In conclusion, change is encouraged during the transition from high school to college because students are brought to a whole new place with all new people that don't know who anyone is. It gives students a change to forget their past and start over without anyone judging them or even knowing that they've changed. The college setting welcomes change more than the high school setting because, in high school popularity and reputation stop you from doing a lot of things, but in college none of that matters. If there was ever a great time to forget something in your past and start over, the transition from high school to college would be that time. 

Manly Jobs?

Assignment

Film Analysis/Cultural Critique

Focus:

Much of our work for this assignment has involved visual rhetoric. We have discussed how to read 

images such as photographs, advertisements and movie posters for purpose and content. We have 

also talked about the elements of visual images, including shape, arrangement, space, color and size. 

In addition, we have read essays about interpreting signs, metaphors and archetypes in American 

films, as well as how to apply issues of race, class, gender and violence to film storytelling. Lastly, 

we have read about how to construct an argumentative thesis and essay.

Task:

Turn the central idea you’ve been examining in Exercises 1-3 into a thesis for a 4-5 page 

rhetorical analysis/cultural critique of your movie. Your thesis/essay should be argumentative. 

For evidence, use the poster(s), the scene (or scenes) from the movie, two sources from the 

readings above and your observation. For example, you might discuss how the movie marketing 

for the film (including but not limited to the poster) reinforces the movie’s theme. You might use 

one scene or several scenes from the movie to show how the film itself reinforces your thesis. 

Finally, you might use your observation to show how the film’s theme rings true in real-life 

settings, making it a universal statement about humanity. These are just suggestions, however. 

You may find other ways to make your point more efficiently.

Manly Jobs? 

by: Benjamin Reed

     In our society we have some job titles labeled as "manly." Jobs that require the most handiwork or that are the hardest are sometimes given a reputation that only a man can do this job. In the movie North Country, a woman named Josey Aimes was ridiculed and harassed for working at a factory in the 1980's. Even though it is a fictional account of what actually happened the movie portrays accurately how some woman were mistreated in the work place. Why do we see women as less capable for some jobs in our society? What makes a man more fit for these jobs? Why must we put women down for just doing their job? The movie North Country shows a woman and her struggle to gain women rights in the work place. 

     The movie opens up with Josey in court telling a lawyer how tough it is to work at the factory under the conditions she was in. Josey describes a life of pleasure and leisure and then adds, "…and you think you're tough. Wear my shoes; tell me tough…". Josey is trying to show that she wasn't able to live that life of leisure because she had to be tough and endure all of the hardships her job presented in order to keep it. While this scene is playing it is alternating between another scene where we see Josey, her son, and her daughter; this is the reason she needs to keep her job, to have enough income to support her family, seeing that there is no man in the picture as of yet. Josey has to be tough in order to support her family and that is what she is trying to get across to the lawyer and the jury. Josey's job was working at the local mine, which had always been a "man's job" until recently when they started accepting more women, however, the men still outnumbered the women thirty to one. The men at the factory were less than happy about this decision and did not like the idea of having women do the job that men have been doing for so long. This mind set that men had during the late 1900's was to protect the status quo and for so long men were the ones who worked and women took care of the house and family. Now that times were changing and women were becoming more equal in society, men took that as a threat and started to subjugate women and treat them like they were lesser human beings. There is a scene in North Country where Josey is washing dishes with her mother and her mother says something along the lines of, if you work at the mine it will shame your father. This scene shows that even Josey's mother has this mind set that women have a certain place and should not take the place of a man, but why must men have the upper hand and not women?

     Men have always had the upper hand in American culture up until recently when men and women started to become more equal in society. Prior to the present, however, men have always been the ones to provide for their family and do all of the hard work. Earlier in history this was the way and it was necessary for survival, but with the progress of our nation and advances in technology throughout time we have eliminated the exclusivity and need of jobs that only men could do. The men in North Country saw this as a threat and feared that the women workers would take their jobs. There is a scene where Josey goes to see her boss about a harassment issue and he says, " Your taking jobs where there aren't any to take. These boys aren't your friends; I'm not your friend. You got no business being here and you damn well know it"(North Country). Him saying this proves the point I made above, and gives reason to why the women are being mistreated, competition. Out of competition the men mistreat the women who work at the factory by harassing them in hopes that they will leave their jobs and the status quo will return. What the men did not take into account is how far they were going and to what extent they were harassing these women. 

     Sexual harassment, in any case, whether it be major or minor, is wrong and should not be used as a means to get what you want out of someone, but the men in North Country failed to see this. They used sexual harassment as a way to put the women down and establish a superiority over them. They take advantage of these women who are just trying to do their jobs and make money just like everyone else who works at the factory. There is a scene where one of the woman, Sherry, is cleaning one of the mining rooms with Josey and two men walk up and start verbally harassing them lightly. Then one of the men asks Sherry for a cigarette. She reaches in her shirt pocket and he stops her and says, i got it. He then proceeds to reach inside of her shirt pocket and starts to grope her chest. He does not stop when Josey says to leave Sherry alone, he only stops when one of the men come by and say get back to work. These are the sorts of things the men would do to make the women feel uncomfortable around the work place. Another example is when the men write derogatory words toward women on the women's locker room walls in feces. These things they do are to make the women hate working there and feel less capable of doing their job. If you feel uncomfortable in your work setting you can not perform your best, and this is what the men were going for. 

     These women were more than capable of doing their job and did not deserve to be harassed at work. In the text "The Hollywood Sign: The Culture of American Film", Maasik and Solomon say, "…products have successfully distracted their audiences from the inequalities of modern life…"(Maasik and Solomon 365), and this is referring to the so called "Hollywood-Centered 'culture industry' "(Sonia Maasik and Jack Solomon 365). Although in this text it says that movies have distracted us from modern life, I think North Country opens up our eyes to what was really going on. It tells of the first class action sexual harassment case and how sexual harassment laws were put in place to protect all women. 

     Now in society we see women working with men, together as equals like it should have been the whole time. North Country really shows how far society has come and how much we have changed. This movie won awards and is liked by many people not only because the story line is engaging and somewhat suspensful, but also because of the message it sends. The message it gives viewers is that you should always stand up for what you believe is right and justice will be served. Movies like this show that society likes a strong female character and a story where the odds of the protagonist success are low, but they win anyway.