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Zeb O’Bryan

English 1010

9/17/2018

Final Reflection

So, over the course of this quarter I was challenged to think about things I never thought I would. Challenging my own thoughts on challenging issues and understanding that there is always more than one side of the story and the true of “the single story.”. I think one of my biggest takeaway or “win” from the class is to be able to look at others with a different opinion and see their opinion as valid as mine. This class caused me also to push my limits in terms of being a writer and reader in the sense of making me more analytical in my reading and making me be more concise in my writing, being able to state my points as clearly as I could and as effectively as possible. As a thinker it given me more room to expand room for thought on certain issues, gun regulation, poverty, the death penalty and other things like that. As a student this class also taught me organization and punctuality are key not only as a student but also outside of the realm of school and academics but also as an employee at the workplace, realizing that you are called to hold yourself accountable for your actions and words.

Overall in terms of the texts we read in the book I felt were kind of boring but I felt that they served their purpose for the class well, I will say some of the articles and journals we read in the textbook did help me kind of understand what kind of tact to use with my own writing which helped in the long run. I honestly enjoyed listening to others in the class talking about different social issues and begin to practice civil discourse. Most of us in the class are young and admittedly at times we allow our emotions to override our logical thinking and we begin to get at each other’s throats, but I feel we as a class have grown since the beginning of the quarter. I also think as a class we utilized class time well, we were able to achieve our class objectives that were set before us on the CID and we were able to take something from what we learned in class and utilize it for our out of class assignments.

One of the things I thoroughly enjoyed in the class was getting to work with my peers. Honestly for the most part I had three people that I always went to when it came to peer review time. Through that time that the four of us spent together working on each other’s papers I can honestly say the three them did become very good friends of mine of the course of these ten weeks. The assignments were straight forward and at times honestly, I didn’t really have any issue doing them and I found them relatively easy to do. I thought that Amy’s teaching style for the class played a part in that as well, her overall teaching method was straight forward and simple to understand which helped make assignments and projects easy to complete. Peer review in the class at times was frustrating because a lot of the times it was like herding cats to get some more in-depth answers rather than surface level, but it was a great lesson in patience when dealing with other with different learning styles and different ways of doing things, which admittedly I had an issue with at the beginning of class.

Lastly, in terms of meeting with Amy for conferences I never really met up with her for help because I honestly felt everything we talked about in class and the assignments she gave us were straightforward and to the point so honestly I never really felt lost at any point in the class so I never felt the need to meet up with her and ask questions outside of class. For me personally I felt I utilized my time in class well. I completed the in-class assignments efficiently as well outside of class. Overall I enjoyed the class and with all honesty this class made me think more critically about certain issues and look at both sides of the issue rather than just looking at my own view point and view it as “the right way of thinking” or the be all end all in terms of figuring a remedy to any given situation. To quote the video from the beginning of the quarter. “It is always best to look beyond your own views to avoid the single story.” And I feel that with that being said, this translates well not only for our schoolwork but also for us as citizens of this world, and we should keep this in mind in our lives as we continue to move on and live.

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So, in my Persuasive paper I wrote about my points on combatting terrorism and gave specific examples in terms of how other have or have not made steps to combat the threat more thoroughly. For example, I mentioned how back in 2014 when Boko Haram just came on to the scene and established themselves as a threat to the international community how Nigeria president at the time, Goodluck Jonathan was completely “toothless in the fight.” Seemingly unwilling to combat the threat. And how because of this Boko Haram was able to gain such a foothold in the country. My examples I think really helped my paper in terms of boosting my side of the argument, they were relevant

So, this is kind of my strong part of my writing but also in a sense it’s also the part I would like to improve for future use, that being my sources. Like I said, I feel that my sources and articles that I used were very helpful in boosting my side of the issue and presenting the other side of issue as well to avoid complete bias. But I feel that I could’ve possibly have done more. Like dive deeper into the articles and provide even more information, but with time being sort of a constraint for me personally I had work with what I was able to find, not to say what I found was bad, I just feel it could have been refined.

Overall, my purpose for this paper was to inform/persuade. To inform others that this issue isn’t exclusive to the US, but also to persuade people to look at this issue from an broader scope than they originally intended.

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Zeb O’Bryan

Amy Doty

ENGLISH 1010

8/19/2018

So for this assignment I was to write an antithesis to my original position paper on my social issue, that being terrorism. This writing process initially was honestly very intimidating, firstly it was an issue that I just wasn’t sure what kind of tact in terms of writing I would use. But after I was able to find someone to interview the process became much more simpler. Through the interview I was able to get not only another’s opinion on my subject, but also some different thoughts for me to consider.

For this paper I used the same writing process that I used in my previous paper. I structured, wrote, and used the same narrative devices previously used. The only thing I changed in this paper was the perspective, I used my interviewees perspective throughout the majority of the paper, using my own input rarely and only when necessary.

I think honestly my most effective aspect of my writing is my ability to use narrative to convey my message. In my first paper I used a hypothetical situation as part of my narrative then with this paper I used examples from history to convey a narrative. I personally believe that because of this ability it adds depth to my work and allows me to use at least some to creative to a certain extent in my works.

One thing that honestly has gotten better through this process is my mechanics in terms of my writing. While saying that I also believe that mechanics are the weakest part of my writing. While I understand that nothing is perfect as goes for writing I feel like this aspect could be worked on and become much better than it currently is.

The overall purpose of this paper was to inform and show others a differing opinion than mine on the subject of combatting terrorism.

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Zeb O’Bryan

Writing Reflection

In this paper I went over how to combat terrorism preemptively, and the methods included increased vetting, monitoring of social media activity, and cracking down on gang involvement in the US and borders. Through these methods I firmly believe that we as a country and as a people will be able to prevent heinous acts of terrorism.

Through this initial process it has caused me to think more critically about how the world views my topic, that topic being terrorism. I’ve come to realize through this paper that everyone has ideas on how to handle this situation and each person should be heard. This is how true progress can begin. In this process I initially had the mentality of write without stopping, whatever makes sense best. In the end a lot what I wrote didn’t really make sense, I got editing tips from Isacc and I was able to make at least in my opinion far better paper.

I think in my paper one of my better aspects of my writing was my ability to use good and relevant examples. I think that my examples are effective because those events have a considerable amount of weight to what I’m writing about, they add more gravity to the writing.

I do believe that something in my writing that could be improved is my overall thought processs in my writing and points. Adding more specific examples and diving more into what I’m writing I feel this would make the process more in depth and add meat to the bones of this process. All in all through this writing process its taught me to a few things. One be patient, the process doesn’t come easy for anyone at any point no matter how experienced they are. Second, be persistent if you fail once it doesn’t mean that you’re out of the race, with writing you have to be willing to pick your self up, wipe the dirt off and keep pressing on, that’s how you learn in the end after all. Finally, just have fun with it, writing doesn’t have to always be this process of “I have to do this” I feel that if you look at your writing in a different light I feel it be much more enjoyable.

The purpose of this essay was to inform people about how we could combat terrorism more effectively and preemptively and how as a result of this we could create a safer world as a result.

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Zeb O’Bryan

S/R “Our Blindspot About Guns”

7/21/18

In the article “Our Blindspot about Guns.” New York Times Writer Nicholas Kristof writes about how he believes that if we as a people in the US moved for more complete and thorough gun control and reform. In his report he argues that if we regulated guns as much as we regulated motor vehicles, that the general populace of the United States would benefit greatly. One point that Kristoff notes in his essay is the multiple iniatives taken by the government to regulate and help make driving on the roads safer for example, air bags, seat belts, and increasing the drinking age, and so on.

Though I understand Kristoff’s point of view and sentiments I genuinely do not believe gun regulations can be simply one size fits all. Plain and simple, there should more regulations on certain types of firearms and ammunition, An AR-15 for example, though caliber-wise it’s much smaller than most other rifles that the US military uses on the field, it is still a semi-automatic rifle and if it is in the wrong hands it can be used for the wrong purposes. This is where the idea of setting certain requirements to attain a weapon such as this should be in place i:e, military service, complete background and mental checkup, and so on.

It is necessary for a US citizen to protect his or her home by any means necessary, and they have the inherent right to protect their homes and families with a firearm, though I do believe there are regulations that should be set in place for certain firearms, the issue of gun regulations I feel is not simply a one size fits all issue, we should take into account all aspects of this and find common ground amongst ourselves as a government and people on this issue to effectively create a safe and healthy environment for our fellow citizens.

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Zeb O’Bryan

Literacy Narrative

I’d have to say my initial exposure to literature and writing came around the time I was about four years old. My dad would always read me biographies about some of the greatest players in baseball history, Roberto Clemente, Ken Griffey Jr, Sammy Sosa, and so on. Eventually after reading about and being read some of these stories made me start writing small biographies of my own on established people of not only sports history but also general history. From US presidents to infamous criminals I began to document each person’s life in as vivid detail as could with the information I had at my hands.

I remember as a little kid, I’d come home from school and go to my room and start writing in a notebook about the book that I had either read or started reading in school. Documenting everything that had happened in the book, making note of everything from the setting to the minor characters in the story.

As I grew up my love for history, and documenting and writing about it grew. I began to study history from all perspectives and aspects. In order so that my writings wouldn’t seem, for lack of a better term ignorant. There came a time in my Junior year of high school where I was given an assignment to write on a certain social justice issue. I wrote the paper met all of my instructors requirements for the paper and handed it in.

Later that semester, when my parents came to the school for parent-teachers conferences the same instructor told my parents that my writing was “too blunt”. So when my parents told me that my English teacher thought that my paper was “too blunt” I was honestly just confused. I had studied this issue inside and out looked on both sides of the argument for and against it, as she had asked us to do.

After that, I began to wonder about my overall writing style, was I too blunt? Did what I say seemed one sided or ignorant? I wasn’t really sure, and when I would go in her office to ask her what in my paper seemed too blunt, she would simply say “Look at your paper.”. So that’s what I did, I looked through the essay I had written earlier that year. The more and more I read through the paper, I began to realize, I was blunt for one, but the one glaring thing I noticed in my writing was that even though I had looked at multiple sources and looked at both sides of the argument I still had a very closed minded view on the issue and it showed in my writing.

So after I had looked at this I began to rethink the way I saw things, not only in my writing, but also as a person. I realized that you can look at all the sources and look at a issue from all sides all you want. But if you don’t give them their due, you’re still closed minded for not including every aspect into not only your writing but your thought process.