1. To have a great idea, you must be knowledgeable about your topic.

2. What I know about learning is it is constantly happening, we learn from life experiences, we learn from our mistakes, we learn from people around us, and learning happens inside and outside of school.

3. What degree are you completing currently?

4. *Bonus: Add a picture

I sit on my bed, lost in a new painting, and my mom begins bellowing from upstairs.

“The cat is gone!”

I jump up and race up the stairs; all I hear is waves crashing against the sides of my skull.

“Which one?” Fear begins to coil in my stomach.

“Owen, the back door was left open. My eyes shift to the window, and the sight of snow fills my body like concrete being poured into a pothole.

I fling the back door open and begin to scream, “Owen, Owen, Owen, come home, buddy!” I felt as if I couldn’t breathe. A cat could not survive very long in the snow, especially not at night. I turn on the flashlight on my phone. Looking over the fence my toes began to ache. I was just barely tall enough to see over by balancing on the very tips of my toes like an anxious ballerina.

After waiting for a few moments with no sign of Owen, I rushed back inside, threw on a coat, and ran out of the front door like a marathon runner nearing the finish line. I keep calling out for my cat as I run, and my neighbors start coming out of their houses, disturbed by my panicked shouts.

“My cat, he’s missing, he’s orange.” I manage to gasp out a quick explanation for my behavior as I run to the street next to mine. My brain is barely working as I try to stay calm, he has to be in the backyard behind mine. I get to the house that backs up to mine and I bang on the door.

No one ever answers.

I decided quickly that I cared more about the cat than potential jail time and decided to sneak like a thief into their backyard.

I begin scanning the yard, “Owen!” I whisper shout. I couldn’t find him. I continue looking in the backyards near me and can’t see him. I go home, completely devastated. All night, I continue to go into my backyard and shout for my baby to come home.

My mom found him underneath a patio in my neighbor’s yard the next day. I had to army crawl underneath of it to yank him out.

Once in the car, my cat begins moving. I spend the rest of the day thawing my cat like a Thanksgiving turkey.

How does one stay calm in moments of panic? Historically, I have not gained this skill. One day, I hope to discover how to keep a level head while something goes wrong in my life.

Chained to the passenger’s seat of my dad’s Ford Flex, I watched the seemingly endless stream of dead grass and cornfields fly by. We had just gotten to the Colorado/Nebraskan border and I already wanted to go home.

Still having 6 hours left in the trip I tried to stay entertained by listening to the radio play Prince and Michael Jackson and my dad telling me all the history behind every song.

There is nothing for an 8-mile stretch of highway in the middle of the state. So naturally, if something were to go wrong with the car, of course, it was going to be here. A piece of the lining of my dad’s door flung loose. Not off of the car, though, just enough so that it was very annoyingly slapping the side of the vehicle.

Not one word was said. Not for what felt like ten minutes. My dad just sighed. It was as if he was about to give the broken piece a talk about how he’s not mad; he’s just disappointed.

He just rolled down the window and tried to grab a hold of the flap. The piece just kept flying out of his hand like a wet noodle. He then attempted to roll the window up to pin the piece, which didn’t work either.

"I'm really very glad that the car decided to provide some entertainment. I was getting really bored." My dad said.

Eventually, we got to a gas station between Timbuktu and the end of the earth. My dad was able to buy heavy-duty Duct Tape that fixed the piece. The rest of the drive was spent with my Dad imitating the flap with his hand.

How can we change our mindset to see the humor in inconvenient situations? When the piece of the car broke, it would have been very easy to get angry. Instead, my dad turned it into a joke that he still makes even to this day.

My boyfriend was walking up the hill in front of me. He told me that we were going to take pictures at our favorite spot. The Rocky Mountain Arsenal has a small hill called Rattlesnake Hill. At the top, there are two benches and two viewfinders. When we first started dating, he took me there, and life seemed so calm and peaceful from on top of our mini mountain.

Miguel had told my sister that he planned to propose that day. My entire body felt like it was vibrating with either nerves or excitement. We get to the top and prop up my phone, making sure that its recording. We begin posing and holding them for a few seconds. We were going to go through and screenshot pieces of the videos to get the photos. He looks at me.

“Un beso?” (A kiss?) He asked, and I kissed him in reply. “Turn around.” He tells me. I take a deep breath in, and every thought in my brain goes completely blank.

I turn to face the mountains, and I feel like I’m going to explode with anticipation.

“Look at me.” He tells me, and I take a deep breath in and count to three in my head.

I turn around and he is on one knee. He proclaims his love for me like the protagonist in a romance movie.

“Marry me?” He looked so anxious and nervous and I knew we both felt the same in that moment. The world stood still in the few moments it took me to come up with an answer.

“Of course!” I put my hand out immediately waiting for my ring. He laughed and stuck it on my hand, embracing me. I could feel the tension dissipate from the air around us.

How soon is too soon for marriage? I only met Miguel in April of 2023, however he is my best friend. I wonder what other cultures and societies think about being married so quickly. As I lean into wedding planning, I have also been wondering about traditions within wedding ceremonies worldwide.

Another way to use quotations is as "scare quotes". This means putting quotation marks around something considered jargon or sarcastically altering the word's meaning. For example, telling someone I "love" you can imply the exact opposite.

Quotations are also used for dialogue. For example, Miguel said, “I’m going to go to the store."

Apostrophes can also be used to show ownership. For example, The cat's milk.

Apostrophes are not used in personal pronouns. For example, "This milk is not yours."

Before this week's lesson, I needed to learn what schema meant, never mind knowing about activating schema. After the lesson, however, I discovered the benefits of gathering background knowledge for the topic. I can better understand the author's perspective by finding out essential details about the author.

Which particular Activating Schema technique would you say works best for you so far? Why do you think it works well?

The technique that works the best for me is looking up the author. This technique works well for me because it allows me to understand the speaker's perspective and why they are reputable. This technique also allows me to predict what the talk will be about based on the author's background and the piece's title.

Arther also appealed to emotion within her talk. She describes how she was honored to "usher" her brother-in-law to the end of his life. This verb is especially powerful because it demonstrates how personal and intimate it is to be with a person in the final moments of their life. She also shares that this experience changed her and made her more compassionate.

Before telling the first person, I jotted down a list of the power verbs I identified, the author, the title, and the topic so I didn't miss anything. I wrote about how Arthur had a client who needed some perspective on their life, so she had them zoom out and see the bigger picture. This way, her client could see what she placed meaning in throughout her life. This enabled her to do what she loved in the months leading up to her death.

How did repeating the summary solidify your understanding of the Talk?

Repeating the summary allowed me to find what I took from the TED talk. What resonated with me is that death can be scary if you let it rule your life; however, if you use it to gain perspective, death can allow you to live in the moment and appreciate every moment you have. Life is finite; I need to appreciate it before it's gone.

The three documentation styles are the Modern Language Association (MLA), the American Psychological Association (APA), and the Chicago Manual of Style (CMS).

2. What analogy is given to explain the document styles? MLA is like ____?

MLA is like Walmart.

3. What three things would a professor expect you to know how to do if they ask you to "follow a documentation style"?

They would expect you to format your paper a certain way, document sources inside the paper a certain way (following the standards of the format), and make a work cited page formatted a certain way.

https://cccs-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/r/personal/cpelshaw_student_cccs_edu/Documents/MLA%20Formatting%20Practice.docx?d=wa367d0da540445f6847fd7d4ffaf2bcb&csf=1&web=1&e=v5Fq16

Alua Arthur gives the TED Talk, “Why Thinking About Death Helps You Live a Better Life,” and discusses how to use the thought of death to improve your life. Arthur works as a Death Doula. First, Arthur explains death creates a context for our lives. Everything done during a person’s life leads up to one moment: death. For instance, Arthur describes one of her clients who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. This patient spent her whole life looking ahead, planning, studying, and doing. Then, when her life was ending, Arthur helped her to realize where she placed value: gardening, building a fire, and eating. Her client spent her whole life dieting; Arthur helped her regain her life in the end that woman lived more in her last eight months than in the last sixty years. Finally, Arthur’s main point is that we are all dying. For instance, she says Eat the cake! Have fun! Because one day, time will stop, and according to Arthur, no one looks back on their lives at the end and wishes they had worked more. They wish they ate the dessert, went out more, and spent more time living.

A run-on sentence is a sentence with two or more clauses without proper punctuation or any punctuation. You can add a comma to join the two clauses to fix a run-on sentence. Another way to fix a run-on sentence is to add a semicolon. You can also divide the two clauses and add a period. An example of a run-on sentence is when you have two clauses and don't add any punctuation.

A comma splice combines two independent clauses with just a comma. Add a semicolon to join the two sentences to fix a comma splice. You can also divide the two thoughts into two sets of sentences. You can also use a comma with a conjunction word like 'and.' An example of a comma splice is, "I want to go to the store for ice cream, I really like chocolate ice cream."

In the top right corner, there are page numbers with the author's last nmae.

What is the name of the page called?

The name of the page is "works cited."

What order do you list your sources?

You order your sources in alphabetical order.

This means putting the author's last name first, and then the first name.

Do you include the full title? Should you capitalize all-important letters in a title?

You include the full title and you should capitalize all important letters in the title.

How do you know when to italicize the title vs. put it in quotation marks?

You put italics when the source is self-contained, like a movie or website. You put the title in quotation marks when it is a part of a larger whole, like the chapter of a book.

What does she mean by a "container"? Should you italicize a container title?

A container is the whole of the source you are referencing like the book is the container if you are only referencing a chapter. You should italicize a container title.

What are three other things you learned in this video?

1. If referencing an article, journal, or specific TV show episode, put the number of the source you are referring to. This means if you are citing the third episode of the first season of a show, include those numbers in the citation.

2. If a source doesn't have a publication date, include the date you accessed the source.

3. If writing a book chapter, include the specific pages that are being referenced.

Word count: 191

This source contains brief information about wedding traditions around the world. It discusses some of the more well-known wedding traditions; it includes the origins of the typical white wedding dress in Europe from the nineteenth century. The source also tells about Japanese resist-dyed covers for bedding used for weddings. These bedding coverings were designed to bring food, fortune, and happiness to the recently married couple. This source is an introduction to the history of garments for wedding ceremonies.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/marriage/Marriage-rituals

According to this source, marriage for love wasn’t common until after the 20^th century. Often times marriage was for financial gain. One of the most common rituals involved in a wedding is the exchange of garments, rings, or the holding of hands. The exchange of these tokens symbolizes a sacred union.

https://www.brides.com/mexican-wedding-traditions-4801186

The third source that I found details about specifically Mexican weddings. One of the traditions it discusses is Los Padrinos y Madrinas. This is when the couple picks another couple who is usually the godparents. They can read from the bible, buy the couple a bible, host the bridal party, or many other options. According to the source, los padrinos y marinas can be involved in any number of wedding activities.

Word Count: 203

The source's author is unknown, but it is titled Wedding Traditions Around the World. This infographic details the origins of various wedding traditions. Starting with the tradition of wedding rings. According to the graphic, wedding rings were used in Ancient Rome. The groom would send an iron ring to the bride; this would be seen as a symbol of their unbreakable bond. The Egyptians first used rings during their wedding ceremonies. The next tradition the graphic describes is the bridal bouquet. This tradition was first seen in North America. Traditionally, the bride would hand the bouquet to a friend, who would then be married themselves. This tradition was later altered, however, to avoid hurting feelings. The bride will turn away from the unmarried female guests and throw the bouquet behind her.

Response:

After reading this source, I can make several personal connections; when I first got engaged, my mom searched for traditions to include in my wedding. She had brought up an odd tradition that I didn’t fully understand. While reading the infographic, the author mentions a tradition that helps me understand what my mother was describing. The author describes a tradition in Sweden, “The bride puts a silver coin in her left shoe and a gold one in her right shoe. The coins were given to the bride by her parents.” This tradition is similar to the one my mother wanted me to use at my wedding. For instance, she wanted me to put a silver coin in my shoe, which supposedly gave the married couple good luck. After reading this source, however, it seems odd to me to adopt another culture’s tradition as my own. I want to learn more about wedding traditions within my or my future husband’s culture.

Updated Thinking:

After reading this source, I wonder what the implications would be if I did choose to pick a wedding tradition from another culture. I hadn’t thought much about the implications of using traditions from a different culture than my own. After reading through this source and a few others, I have decided that my wedding should showcase my future husband’s and my culture. I wonder what traditions I could include that my mother hasn’t brought up to me yet.

Questions:

How do you find reliable sources about weddings and traditions? What common traditions are used in Chihuahua, Mexico, where my partner is from? Have any of you heard of any exciting traditions used at weddings? If you have been to a wedding, what did you like that they did in the ceremony?

Citation:

"Wedding Traditions Around the World." Infographic Zone, www.infographicszone.com/wedding-infographics/top-10-wedding-infographics.

Alexia Listitza wrote the article, Unique Wedding Traditions from 30 Different Countries, which details various traditions worldwide. Listitza writes about a tradition in India. This tradition calls for Henna to be done on the bride’s hands and feet the night before the wedding. These designs are said to represent joy, beauty, and spiritual awakening. According to Listitza, the newlyweds would work together to see a tree in half in Germany. They would each take a side of the saw and cut the tree in half. This is to symbolize the couple’s first obstacle as a married couple. Their families cheer them on to encourage them through their first obstacle.

Response:

After reading this source, why are there so many different types of wedding traditions? For instance, in my family, the only tradition that is very important is that the dress the bride wears needs to be white. I have heard from my family that the white dress is supposed to symbolize purity. According to Listitza, the bride wears red at Chinese weddings, and all the decorations are traditionally red. I wonder where the symbolism for both of these traditions originate. After reading this source, I noticed how the author kept a neutrall perspective on the various traditions worldwide. I wonder which traditions may be controversial to some people. I also noticed that a lot of these traditions are centered around the bride. For instance, in Namibia, the bride is kidnapped and gifted lots of jewelry and given a makeover. One of the only traditions for the groom is in South Korea, which is called falaka. This is when the groom’s feet are beaten with either a cane or a fish. This is supposed to be used to test the strength of the groom.

Updated Thinking:

This source puts into perspective how important traditions can be to weddings. In the US, I feel that it is really easy to forget about traditions, and typically, it leads me to want to forget all traditions and do what I want at my wedding. After reading this article, I realize that traditions are important. Culture is what has been passed down through generations, and it is important to treasure these traditions.

Questions:

Do the bride and groom follow strict traditions for their wedding? How much importance do they place on following these traditions? What are some unique things that other couples from Colorado have done for their weddings? If you are married what traditions did you follow? Did you feel pressure from your family to follow traditions?

Citations:

Listitza, Alexia. "Unique Wedding Traditions from 30 Different Countries." TLC, www.tlc.com/weddings/unique-wedding-traditions-from-30-different-countries.

https://youtu.be/bGtzYNpi6fU?si=Y-Dltt2ji3aQwwLH

Response: I agree with the idea that women being forced to change their last names after marriage is sexist. According to Rosa Terlazzo, “Women experience social pressure to subsume this part of their identity to their husband’s in order to show their commitment, while very few men even consider making similar changes.” (Terlazzo, 2021) There is no pressure for men to change their names after marriage which hints at this tradition being both outdated and sexist. This is a tradition that I will not be adhering to personally. I agree that the societal pressure for women to change their last names can be overwhelming, as I have felt this pressure from my family. My last name is a meaningful piece to who I am and I refuse to lose that part of myself. I also would never expect my fiancé to give that up either. My fiancé and I are hyphenating our last names, our children will have both our names.

Connections: This source gave me a better idea on how prominent the tradition of changing the woman’s last name after marriage still is. I would think that more people would be open to hyphenating or taking the woman’s last name, however that is clearly not the case in the US.

Questions: How many younger people will adhere to this tradition? Will you take your future partner’s last name?

Citation: Terlazzo, Rosa. “Weddings and Counter-Stereotypic Couples.” Social Theory & Practice, vol. 47, no. 4, Oct. 2021, pp. 789–807. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.ccco.idm.oclc.org/10.5840/soctheorpract2021923142.

Response: I'm afraid I have to disagree with the motion that vows are impractical. Liberman questions these vows, “How can wedding vows or promises that are subject to such uncertainty be morally or rationally permissible to make in the first place?” I believe that marriage vows are not made in order to be taken as law. I believe they are the things to work toward within a marriage. For example, if a couple promises to work as a team within their vows, they should strive to work together to solve life’s problems every day. Some days this vow may be harder to adhere to than others but the point is to try. I agree however that some of the more common vows are understated in the media. When you stand before everyone in your life, you should mean what you are promising. In summary, I believe that as long as you are constantly trying to fulfil your vows they are alright to make.

Connections: This source highlighted the worries behind making vows. I definitely agree that it is essential to only promise things that you know you will be able to follow through on.

Questions: What vows are practical to make? What will you promise to your partner when you get married?

Citations:

Liberman, Alida. “For Better or for Worse: When Are Uncertain Wedding Vows Permissible?” Social Theory & Practice, vol. 47, no. 4, Oct. 2021, pp. 765–88. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.ccco.idm.oclc.org/10.5840/soctheorpract2021923141.

I have one gatekeeper that I just resubmitted. I needed to correct errors in formatting and in point of view within my academic summary. So I am caught up on my gatekeeper assignments.

I am caught up on comments for my teammates.

• I have completed a backup of my Padlet. 

• I have summarized any *feedback from Mrs. Lewandowski on my research journey

• I am passing all of the gatekeepers: Origin Stories, Academic Summary, and Database Screencast/Slideshow.

• I am caught up with commenting on Padlets for my Research Team. 

Review: Say you're at a party, and someone asks, "You're taking English in college. I took English once. We worked on reading poetry. What are you learning?" What are five things that would top your conversation?  

The first thing I would bring up is learning about comma rules. I personally struggle a lot with the use of commas and appreciated the reminder. The second thing would be the origin stories. I greatly enjoyed this assignment because it allowed me to to explore things in my life that make me curious. The third thing would be the unique way assignments are graded and assigned. I enjoy that the assignments are graded to meet the criteria, and the opportunity is given to correct mistakes. The fourth thing I would bring up is how we are posting most assignments to a public forum for feedback. Lastly, I would bring up that we got to pick a TED talk to write our academic summaries on. I truly enjoyed writing about the topic I chose.

1. Highlight the top five takeaways/lessons you took from this lesson use quotes, catchphrases, and examples in your list.

a. "All information is produced by someone." An example of this given by the video is a Twitter bot that did not come up with information on its own. Someone programed the bot to provide the information.

b. "The lines between these motivators are not always clear." An example of this is advertisements seem informative; however, their main motivation is to get the viewer to buy their products.

c. Reading vertically allows you to only see what the creators want you to see. Reading vertically means looking at the title and then scrolling down. By reading laterally you read one piece and then do further research, allowing you to get more than one perspective on the idea.

d. All news acrticles have their own viewpoint and can choose how to present the information. In the video, he says that some of these companies are more liberal which means the information that they present will most likely stay in line with that viewpoint.

e. Fact checking webiste can be very useful in finding the most accurate non-biased infromation you can. Two great fact checking website mentioned in the video are Snopes and Politifact.

2. Then, take one of the lessons from the video and apply it to the research you've done thus far.  For instance, the speaker says one of the questions we should ask is, "Who made this and why?"  Then, use that question and try to answer it about one of the sources you've found so far. 

I'm going to discuss the lesson of asking who wrote this and why. Using the article, "Weddings and Counter-Stereotypic Couples", by Rosa Terlazzo, their main point was that the traditions of the women taking the husband's last name and the tradition of expensive weddings are outdated and no longer makes sense. The author is Roa Terlazzo, she is a Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Rochester. Her focus is in autonomy and non-ideal theory.

PART 2

1. Which strategies align with the tips from the first video. List at least two.

a. The strategy of jumping from tab to tab to find the most reliable source algins with what the first video said about fact cheking information. By looking for the same information on different sites you can discover discrepancies.

b. Another strategy that algins with both videos is looking for who wrote the information and the resoning bethind it.

2. Take one of your "friendly" sources from our early stops in the research journey, and conduct a quick lateral read, using two steps from either of the videos. Describe what you find. 

My friendly source is, "52 Wedding Traditions and Superstitions You Need to Know", by Kim Forrest. this article contains a bullet point list of 52 different wedding traditions. The first one is if you tuck a sugar cube in your glove it means good luck.

I decided to investigate the author. Kim Forrest is a writer for the site called The Knot. According to her About Me page, she is a senior editor. She specializes in planning advice. This means she has no background in the history of weddings or traditions, likely she did research online and really doesn't know too much about the specific traditions.

Reflection: While completing this activity for lateral reading, I learned that reading a source vertically can allow you to be misled by the information it contains. Often, sources will have logos and layouts that look official but can be misleading. By reading laterally it allows you to gather lots of information and decide if the information aligns across multiple sources.  

-       Aristotle defined rhetoric as “an ability, in each particular case, to see the available means of persuasion.”

-       Over the years, rhetoric has been simplified to mean “persuasion,” which leads individuals to think of manipulation and politicians.

-       The definition of rhetoric has been expanded to also mean communication

• What does it mean to "think rhetorically"?

-       A rhetorical analysis asks you to “examine the interactions between a text, an author, and an audience.”

-       Before being able to think rhetorically you have to analyze the historical context; who wrote the piece, when was it written, why was it written?

• What does a "rhetorical situation" mean?

-       rhetorical situation as the context or set of circumstances out of which a text arises (the context of the work)

• What would you do if you were conducting a rhetorical analysis?

-       I would first figure out the rhetorical situation and figure out the context of the writing. Then I would get background information on the author. This way, I know who and when the person wrote the piece. Then, while reading, I would look for examples of ethos, logos, and pathos to find their arguments or what they are attempting to persuade the audience to do.

• What is Logos? Pathos? Ethos? And how might you appeal to each? 

-       Logos: an appeal to logic. To appeal to logos, you may use information that can be fact-checked and have evidence to support your claims. (cause and effect, comparison)

-       Pathos: appeal to emotions. To appeal to pathos you might use emotions to connect with the target audience. (Vivid imagery, personal stories)

-       Ethos: an appeal to values or trust. To appeal to ethos you might tap into the ideologies of the audience, like patriotism or justice. (referring to experience in the field, speaking like the people who hold the belief. For example if appealing to a religious group referencing their bible in order to gain their trust)

• Include a summary of 100-150 words 

This source details various funeral rites and traditions from around the world. Two of the most important events in a person’s life are their wedding and funeral. One of the traditions explained is that in South Korea, those who have died are cremated. Their cremated remains are turned into beads or other decorative pieces. Another tradition that is explained in this source is the Nordic tradition of sending the body to the sea. In one of these traditions, the deceased is laid on a small ship and sent out to sea. The idea is to send them back to ‘the gods’.

Include a response + quote + in-text citation 100-150 words

The tradition of death beads can be compared to exchanging rings during a wedding ceremony. In both traditions, there is a token to remember a person. It also could be possible to include the beads made from the cremated remains of a loved one in a wedding. This way, a loved one who has passed can be involved in the couple’s special day. The Nordic tradition could also be altered to apply to a wedding. In India the bride and groom’s hands are washed in water in order to cleanse them of misfortune and evil. However, according to the source, “Many cultures, especially in Nordic countries, have embraced water in their rituals of choice for the dead.” (Newcomb)

• Include your Updated Thinking 75-100 words

After reading various sources that detail funeral traditions around the world, I think many of them can be altered slightly to be included in a wedding. It also could be interesting to use funeral tokens or objects and involve them in a wedding to remember loved ones that are unable to attend the wedding. Specifically, the death beads would be a really great way to incorporate a loved one in a wedding when they are unable to attend.

• Raise and ask questions

Do any cultures include funeral traditions in weddings?

Would including funeral traditions make the wedding too negative?

Would including funeral traditions in weddings be a nice way to remember those who have passed?

• Cite the source in MLA

Newcomb, Tim. "7 Unique Burial Rituals Across the World." Britannica, www.britannica.com/list/7-unique-burial-rituals-across-the-world.

I started my research journey by telling the story of my engagement. After writing my inital origin story I decided to research wedding traditions around the world. I was wanting to see specifically traditions in Mexico or Poland because that is where my Fiance and I are from.

2. Give two examples of information or findings that shifted your thinking along the way.

While researching traditions I realized that there are hundreds of traditions to choose from. I began asking family members about traditions they had heard of or even had in their own wedding. I also realized that at the end of the day the specific traditons don't matter as much as I thought. As long as my Fiance and I love each other how we deicde to have our ceremony is up to us.

3. What are some questions you still need to answer?

I need to look into traditions that align with my religous beliefs as well as my partners. I wonder if there is a way to combine the two.

4. If you had to put your big idea into words right now (but we know it can still change), how would you complete this sentence? I want to get others to think about what kind of traditions they would want in their wedding because its a big decision, most people only get married once.

5. If someone were to ask, "So, what did you learn about research in college?" how would you respond?

I would show them my research padlet posts. Each stop has taught me a different technique. Specifically, I would tell them about reading deeply, and how chunking the text allows for it to be broken down and better understood.

Professor Lewandowski

ENG 121

31 March 2024

An Argument, Description, and a Question

Weddings are a time of joy, where families celebrate the happy couple with beautiful decor, delicious food, and laughter. However, cultural differences can cause intense stress during the planning process. By simply researching both cultures, there often is a way to blend the cultures in a way both families approve of. A blend of foods from both cultures is a way to include both in the wedding reception. (Zammit-McMann) If a white family is blended with a Hispanic one, having both Horchata and champagne might be a way to include aspects of both cultures. For example, at my upcoming wedding, my fiancé is a Mexican man from a very traditional family. We will incorporate Mexican desserts and various types of tacos as the food for the reception. In order to represent my own family, we will be having the ceremony in a Christian church. Throughout wedding planning, having a ceremony that honors both of our religious traditions is very important to us. How is this possible without disrespecting any of our family members? By having an open dialogue with our families, we have incorporated aspects important to everyone while respecting both cultures. (Johnson) Wedding planning with contrasting cultures can be stress-free by practicing open, honest, and respectful communication.

Throughline is the connecting theme that ties together each narrative element. According to Anderson, every talk should have one. (Anderson, page 1).

2.   What is one of the steps to finding your Throughline?

One of the steps is to attempt to summarize your throughline in fifteen words or less. These fifteen words need to deliver rich content. The goal or takeaway should be specific.

3.   What elements must a Throughline contain?

A throughline must be 15 words or less; it must

4.   List two quotes or examples that stick out to you. 

“the biggest obstacle in identifying a throughline is expressed in every speaker’s primal scream: I have far too much to say and not enough time to say it!”

“the throughline traces the path that the journey takes.”

5.   According to Anderson, what should a Throughline be?

A throughline should be properly developed and be used to cover a single connected thread.

6.   How is a Throughline different than a "topic"?

A topic is a clear statement; a throughline is something worth thinking about.

7.   Take what you know and have heard about thesis statements and compare the two. Is a throughline the same as a thesis? How is different?

A thesis statement is basically an academic topic. Whereas a throughline makes the listener/reader wonder about the information that is going to be given.

8.   What are the components of the "right way" to write a TED Talk?

A TED talk written correctly will have one solid connected thread throughout (throughline). Another component is making every element in the talk have to relate directly back to the throughline or your idea.

9.   What is the difference between an issue and an idea?

An issue reveals a problem, whereas an idea proposes a solution.

10.                  What comes after you have your Throughline?

After you have your throughline you can begin to build upon your ideas and begin to give your ideas structure.

Anderson, Chris. TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking.  First Mariner, 2017.